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The Big Blind: A Jazz Radio Drama by Vocalist Kurt Elling (ENCORE). Step into the world of 1950s Chicago for a tale of love, suspense, and show business in Kurt Elling's jazz radio drama The Big Blind. Hear music and performances from the production’s world premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center as Elling guest hosts this special edition of Jazz Night in America. -
1943: The Lost Year, Part 1 (Originally Aired 04/14/2013). The reason why those who document Jazz call 1943, the lost year, was because that was the year that James Petrillo of the American Federation of Musicians Union decided to call a strike against the record companies. He was looking for more royalties for the musicians and it was a perfectly legitimate thing except that WWII was on and it made life more difficult for musicians because they could not get advances for recording gigs, and many were being drafted. Almost overnight it assisted in getting rid of the big bands. When the war ended it changed everything. But the real loss was an undocumented chunk of jazz history that includes the beginnings of Bebop and the emergence of prolific talents like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie as well as the revivalist movement with New Orleans great like Bunk Johnson and Kid Ory coming out of retirement. In this episode Richard Hadlock makes up for lost ground by sharing recordings, some legal and some illegal at the time, of 1943, The Lost Year. (Part One)
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This week is jumpin' with the honey jumper himself, Oscar McLollie. Born Oscar Lollie, this Louisiana boy went from serving in the military during World War II to servin' up jump blues in Los Angeles Clubs. Mercury Records hired him as one of their West Coast A&R scouts in the early '50s and he made his first single for the label. Record mogul Leon Rene and his son, Googie Rene wrote tunes for the newly christened McLollie and they scored a regional smash with "The Honey Jump." That record sold well enough for them to see dollar signs and they sold McLollie's contract to the Bihari Brothers at Modern Records, who quickly re-recorded "The Honey Jump" and had an even bigger hit with it. McLollie and the Renes continued to collaborate and several other regional hits followed with "All The Oil In Texas," "Lolly Pop," "Hey Lolly Lolly" and his biggest solo hit, "Convicted." By 1958, McLollie was back on the Rene's Class Label, scoring his only national hit record, "Hey Girl - Hey Boy," a duet with Jeanette Baker. Though he never saw mainstream success, McLollie recorded some great early Rock n' Roll and the ol' Rockola Jukebox is filled with his jumpin' tunes this week. -
NEA Jazz Master, Stanley Clarke (ENCORE). The low end gets some love with a profile on Stanley Clarke. We hear music from the 2022 NEA Jazz Master’s storied career as a leader, and as a founding member of Return to Forever. -
1943: The Lost Year, Part 2 (Originally Aired 04/21/2013). If you tuned in last week, you heard Part One of 1943 – The Lost Year, and how the ban established by James Petrillo of the American Federation of Musicians Union against the recording companies of the time impacted jazz music and its artists of the time. In this episode Richard Hadlock takes us to Europe and shows us how much jazz musicians lost because of WWII and the German Nazi occupation which prohibited swing music from being played and danced to. -
Vocalist Maud Hixson is a cool, swinging Minnesota gal whose clear sound and unencumbered delivery lets her virtuosity sneak up on you, in contrast to so many jazz singers today who make sure you hear their vocal chops at hello.Maud Hixson grew up listening to the Great American Standards of the 1930’s, ‘40s and ‘50s and only discovered the work of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett when he reached out to compliment her recording of one of his favorite songs. A friendship developed and now Maud celebrates this long association with her latest CD, Permanent Moonlight, Songs of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, which recently won a Bistro Award. -
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This week features the songs of one of R&B's greatest songwriters: Rudy Toombs. This underrated cat wrote some of the most fabulous drinking songs of all-time for Amos Milburn, The Clovers, The Five Keys and a young Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Beyond drinking songs, Toombs wrote some mega-hits for Ruth Brown, Varetta Dillard and Little Willie John, just to name a few. Matt The Cat gives you the story behind the story of one of early rock n' roll's greatest cleffers. -
Jazz (Fest) in America (NEW!) It’s summertime! Celebrate the season of sun and sounds with live music from some of our favorite festivals around the world. -
Send In The Clowns (Originally Aired 01/27/2013). Richard Hadlock presents a few jazz clowns in this episode of the Annals of Jazz tracing the history of humor and clowning in jazz to its minstrel and vaudeville roots. Settle in and enjoy some corny, funny, practical jokers, off the cuff jokes, weird songs, and geeky sounds. A fun show.
