Rockland — WRFR radio is 93.5 in Rockland and 99.3 in Camden. The low-power station is an eclectic mix of radio broadcast that is personality- and sponsor-driven. Ronald Van Heeswijk, a Camden resident, has been hosting a jazz program on WRFR for a little more than five years. I sat in on one of those shows and chatted with Ronald as he played bebop for his listeners.

How long have you been hosting Jazz?

This is program number 280. Divide that by 52 weeks in a year and you get 5.3 years. I also used to guest on WERU in Blue Hill with Byron Greatorex and Holbrook Williams, but it’s such a long drive to Blue Hill and I finally said ah nuts, this is crazy. Now 20 minutes and I’m here and I’m not stuck behind a Winnebago going 20 mph.”

What makes the music bebop?

“Bebop came about when people like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie got so fed up with big bands and one prescribed routine. Everything was written down and you played the same thing over and over again. Charlie Parker at one point realized that he could connect chords with different chords and rhythms into harmonic structure and melody. You had to have a good theoretical background to even understand what was going on with the diminished chords and flattened fifths and such. It was very difficult music to play. It later evolved into what most people know as modern jazz.

You play what’s called studio cuts. It’s not cleaned up music. All the mistakes are there and they might do the same song over and over.

Everything was recorded. Everything. And they would say hold it, hold it, hold it, you screwed this up. Let’s do it again and when you get to this part you don’t do this anymore, you do this. Take 1900, let’s try to get it right boys. Charlie! Will you put that joint down?

John Lewis did the arrangements. Charlie Parker, or Bird, as he was called, couldn’t really do that. If Bird would have noted, it would have taken him hours. And if he did get it right, it would have been luck. All Bird had to do was sing it to John Lewis and he had it down perfectly. John Lewis was a classically trained musician.

A lot of musicians of the time, and Dizzy Gillespie is the only one who comes to mind, migrated to the bop style of music.

Miles Davis came out of that style. What Charlie Mingus said at one point was that if Charlie Parker was a gunslinger, there’d be a lot of dead copycats. [Edward] Sonny Stitt started to play like Charlie Parker, Frank Morgan, as well. You name any alto player from that period was like all of a sudden saying oh my God, what is he doing. And if you played piano, you could say OK, he using this chord and then he’s using the higher octave and riffing off of that. Classical musicians were saying no way you can play that fast with the 64th beats and 32nd notes and then all of a sudden you have this white boy who’s playing as good as a black man, I hate to say that because there is no white or black in jazz, but in the 1940s it held true.

Tell me about WRFR, do you like it here?

I do like it here, this is a pretty mellow station. They don’t fundraise, but there are sponsors, very loyal sponsors that come back year after year. Like for my two hours, I have Boynton McKay and Owls Head Transportation Museum.  Before I came on there was Sister Mary Dale Abernathy playing reggae. And after me will be another genre all together. This is the music that I really, really like and it gives me a chance to just sit and enjoy it for the next two hours.

WRFR is located at 20 Gay St. in Rockland and is licensed to Penobscot School, a nonprofit center for language learning and international exchange, also in Rockland. Penobscot School appoints the station manager and has established WRFR as an independent community radio station with a mission to serve and be open to everyone in its listening area. WRFR is non-commercial and is operated entirely by volunteers, broadcasting at 93.3 FM in Rockland and rebroadcast at 99.3 FM in Camden. The station has been broadcasting 24/7 since Valentine’s Day 2002.

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To reach Chris Wolf email news@penbaypilot.com.