Sharif Abdus-Salaam

Sharif Abdus-Salaam is the host of Jazz in the Valley, a weekly musician and culture appreciation program focused on the phenomenal American musical expression style known as Jazz.

Sharif Abdus-Salaam has been hosting jazz radio shows for more than 40 years. Since 1970 Sharif has been programming and hosting for the Jazz Alternative show at world famous “alternative” student radio station WKCR 89.9 FM, part of Columbia University. Sharif has interviewed many of the greatest players in the New York City jazz scene including, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins, and Herbie Hancock to name just a few. As Sharif will tell you, his love of jazz is just as much a love of people. “The players are the music. Their love of the music is what we hear. We hear love. What more could you want on the radio?”

“Please join me every Wednesday night from 7-9PM on Radio Kingston and together we will fall in love with an exceptional, American art form and the people who practice it. They call it jazz but it’s love, plain and simple. I’m going to share some of the greatest jazz the world has ever known so that we can breathe it in through our ears and talk about who made it and how it feels.”