Dale Huffman: Jazz up your Mondays at Gilly’s

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Dr. John C. “Turk” Logan Jr., who is among nine Dayton broadcasters who will be inducted into the Dayton Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame on Saturday, Sept. 12, is being honored for a lifetime of contributions to local radio.

But he is not sitting back and resting on his laurels.

Starting tonight, Aug. 17, at 6 p.m., Logan is introducing something new in the local broadcasting scene and in the world of jazz, blues and rock ’n’ roll.

Logan is the general manager of WCSU FM (88.9) radio at Central State University and formerly starred on WDAO-FM.

Using his experience, and his contacts in the world of music, Logan will produce a weekly Monday night event to be held at Gilly’s Night Club, a legendary jazz performance place at 132 E. Jefferson St.

Logan said, “We are calling this event ‘Jammin’ with the Legends’ and if it is as successful as we hope it will be, we have the go-ahead from Jerry Gilotti, owner of the club, to do it every Monday night.”

According to Logan, the program will be hosted by WCSU on-air personality Christopher “D” Chris Slaton who will broadcast live from Gilly’s for some segments of the show.

“On our premiere edition of the program we will feature bassist Marshall Jones of the original Ohio Players, a Dayton band which claimed national attention,” Logan said. “Jones will mix it up with a currently hot guitar player and singer, Quinton Rubin.”

He added that Rubin’s CD “Poor Little Rich Boy” is getting significant airplay.

Logan said he feels there is an audience for “classic jazz and for those who remember and love the Dayton sound.”

“Music known as the sound of Dayton funk was heard around the nation,” Logan said. “Marshall Jones and I were sitting on his back porch in Jamestown a few weeks ago. He was playing bass and we were talking about those glory days. I decided to bring back the glory, and also to offer a stage to the younger and up-and-coming artists coming into the scene.”

Over the years, Logan has supported — in addition to the Ohio Players — a number of other groups including Lakeside, Platypus, Slave, Sun, Faze-O and Heatwave.

Logan said the ‘Jammin’ with the Legends’ events will benefit the Red Cross in Dayton and the Friends of WCSU-FM, an organization that provides scholarships to students of Central State University. He said organizers will ask for an admission charge of $5 to support those charities at the door.

“We will see how it goes,” Logan said. “But we hope to turn slow Monday nights into the hottest night of the week on the music scene in Dayton.”