#248- original air-date, Oct. 8, 2016 -- I used a book as a roadmap for this show, one called Drummin’ Men, by Burt Korall, all about the great drummers of the Swing Era. These are the guys who grabbed the world and shook it, you might say. This is one of those Bottomless Pit shows that is sort of like a mini-documentary, where I put the music in context, describe all the amazing characters who made the music happen, etc.. -- MC

THE BOTTOMLESS PIT

I did a one-hour radio show on New York’s WFUV from 2011-18, every Saturday night (until it got switched to Sunday nights during late 2017). But the show originally started on WKZE in the Hudson Valley during 2005-6; then I brought it back at the station’s request during 2010. (RIP, station owner Will Stanley.)

I always loved doing the show and was proud of it. It was “a weekly roundup of items from my personal record collection”- a large percentage of the records that got played over the years were things that I had some kind of longstanding emotional connection with, but I also played lots of things that I happened to be discovering during the moment at hand. 

It’s nice to be able to say that nobody at either station ever said a negative word to me about what I was playing, or suggested what I should be playing, etc., so the show was pure self-expression for me. 

I eventually had to pull the plug on the whole thing for various reasons at the end of 2017, but thanks to a suggestion from webmaster Franklin Odel, I’ll be posting reruns of the show here on YouTube! Watch this space!..

MC