Few people in history had as much access to the great midcentury jazz musicians as W. Eugene Smith - born 100 years ago this week, on December 30, 1918. The famous LIFE magazine photographer left his home and family in a New York suburb and moved to a rundown loft building on 6th Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan’s Flower District. As Smith printed in his darkroom there, the likes of Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, and Sonny Rollins came by to jam and hang out - and Smith captured nearly of all it, his quarter-inch tape recorders running nearly nonstop for about eight years. (Produced in 2009)

The Jazz Loft Anthology, a four-part series of hour-long episodes, airs this Tuesday, January 1 at 10 AM on WNYC.

More information about the film The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith is available here.

Thanks to the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, our original partner in the production of The Jazz Loft Radio Series. 

The Jazz Loft Radio Series was supported in part by a grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities; and by an award from The National Endowment for the Arts.