Jazz Focus

Herschel Evans . .Basie's "other" tenor sax player doing sideman sessions with Harry James, Lionel Hampton and Mildred Bailey.  Hear Chris Griffin, Vernon Brown, Benny Carter, Dave Matthews, Charlie Shavers, Teddy Wilson and Jess Stacy among others!  Studio recordings and a jam session from the Bill Savory collection.

1920's recordings featuring some of the clarinetists active on the scene with just rhythm section accompaniment.  Jimmy Lytell, Wilton Crawley, Boyd Senter, George McClennon, Buster Bailey, Bob Fuller and Tony Parenti in recordings from the 1920's featuring just clarinet and rhythm section (including Louis Hooper, Elmer Snowden, Eddie Lang, Frank Signorelli, Eddie Heywood Sr. and Harry Reser)

Got No Time - Jane Green . . largely forgotten and unheralded at the time, Jane Green was an accomplished Broadway and Vaudeville singer who made about thirty recordings and a few film appearances during the 1920's.  She incorporated some of the newer blues-styled approaches to singing pop music and was tremendously energetic and fiery in her interpretations of tunes by Donaldson, Gershwin, Isham Jones and others.  Backed by the Virginians (led by Ross Gorman), Nat Shilkret's band and the Victor Recording Orchestra.

Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald - Live in 1939 and 1940!  One of the most exciting of the Swing Era bands - Chick Webb's group is captured in real life form on two broadcasts in 1939 and one (after Chick's death1940.  Featuring Taft Jordan, Bobby Stark, Sandy Williams, Garvin Bushell, Eddie Barefield, Teddy McRae, Tommy Fulford, Ram Ramirez, John Truehart, Beverly Peer, Webb and Bill Beason with Ella singing.

Jazz from Australia - Lazy Ade Monsbourgh and his recordings during the 1950's - featuring members of the Southern Jazz Group, the Graeme Bell band and Humphrey Lyttleton's band in England . .great and highly original traditional jazz featuring the dean of Australian jazz musicians playing clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and recorder . . .apologies in advance for some strange electric feedback during a couple of my narrations, but the music is unaffected!

Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt with the seven and eight piece bands they led c. 1950 - bop, rhythm and blues and pop songs featuring Junior Mance, Benny Green and Art Blakey among others.

Boston Bari - the Boston recordings of Serge Chaloff in 1949 and 1954/5.  These groups were mostly working units in the Boston area and presented a great mix of Bebop, Swing, Cool and blues in sophisticated arrangements with great solo work - Chaloff, Herb Pomeroy, Boots Mussullli, Charlie Mariano, Ralph Burns, Dick Twardzik and Ray Santisi are featured.

Hot Chicago Clarinets . . .several clarinet players active in Chicago in the 1920's (Johnny Dodds, Jimmy O'Bryant, Junie Cobb, Albert Nicholas, Vance Dixon and Benny Goodman) recording in trio format - no other horns, just rhythm and clarinet!

WETF show - Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra live from the Spotlite in NY, May 1946.  Great big band Bebop featuring Dave Burns, James Moody, Ray Abrams, Howard Johnson, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke and a rare (maybe unique) appearance by Thelonious Monk as a band pianist

WETF show - Frankie Newton and Pete Brown - a great tandem of trumpet and alto sax who appeared together on numerous sessions in the 1930's . . Newton's Uptown Serenaders, Midge Williams, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Buster Bailey, Jimmy Noone and Jimmie Gordon.  In addition to Newton, Brown, Noone, Bailey and Smith, hear Sammy Price, Edmund Hall, Cecil Scott, Don Frye, O'Neil Spencer and Teddy Bunn . ..some of my favorite small group sides of the Swing Era.