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PODCAST

Jazz Focus

Exploring the highways and byways of Classic Recorded Jazz - from the Ragtime era to the day before yesterday!

music music history

All Episodes

65:26

Bunk Johnson Deccas and Victors 1945-46

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/28

Bunk Johnson's New Orleans Jazz Band as they were performing at the Stuyvesant Casino in November 1945-January 1946 . . Johnson on trumpet, Jim Robinson on trombone, George Lewis on clarinet, Alton Purnell on piano, Lawrence Marrero on banjo, Slow Drag Pavageau on bass and Baby Dodd on drums recording for Decca, Victor and AFRS.

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56:45

Show - Budd Johnson 1960's and 70's

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/28

Great if largely unheralded sax player and arranger whose career stretched from Louis Armstrong through Quincy Jones is here featured on tenor, baritone and soprano on several sessions, including under his own name (with his brother Keg Johnson on trombone), pianist Claude Hopkins (with Bobby Johnson on trumpet and Vic Dickenson on trombone), Jimmy Rushing (with pianist Dave Frishberg and tenor sax Al Cohn), and Milt Hinton (with Jon Faddis on trumpet, Frank Wess on tenor and John Bunch on

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68:55

Cab Calloway Live - 1940, 44, 45

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/20

Live broadcasts of the roaring Calloway band from the Meadowbrook in 1940 (featuring Chu Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, Tyree Glenn, Cozy Cole and Jerry Blake) and the Club Zanzibar in 1944 and 45 (with Jonah Jones, Shad Collins, Tyree Glenn, Hilton Jefferson, Ike Quebeck and J.C. Heard). Several vocals by the leader, but the focus is definitely on the instrumentals, some of which have extended solos!

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67:51

Bunny Berigan live 1937-42

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/20

Airshots from radio broadcasts and remotes featuring Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra in several different incarnations - with Bob Jenney (tbn), Joe Dixon and Andy Fitzgerald (clt), Georgie Auld, Larry Walsh and Johnny Castaldi (ts), Joe Lippman and Buddy Koss (p), Gail Reese and Danny Richards (v), but the focus is rightly on the leader's majestic trumpet

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59:52

Solo Piano at the Hangover . . Don Ewell, Meade Lux...

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/13

The Hangover was a popular jazz club in San Francisco in the middle 1950's, specializing in Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz . . the weekly broadcast from the club featured resident bands as well as a solo (intermission) pianist . . here is a selection of the best! Fats Pichon, Meade Lux Lewis, Lil Armstrong, Don Ewell and Joe Sullivan accompanied by Smokey Stover (drums) and Truck Parham on bass

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58:44

Show - Saturday Night Swing Club 1936-39

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/13

The Saturday Night Swing Club was a regular radio show from the middle of 1936 through 1939 and featured a shifting cast of great musicians - the house band which included players like Mannie Klein, Bunny Berigan, Will Bradley, Pete Pumiglio, Dave Harris, Claude Thornhill, Lou Shoobe and Johnny Williams. Also featured here are Red Allen, Roy Eldridge, Chick Webb, Adrian Rollini, Billy Kyle, Dick McDonough, Carl Kress, Raymond Scott, Casper Reardon, and the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra with Willie

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69:21

Sidney Bechet and Wild Bill Davison 1949-50

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/07

Great sides for Blue Note and Commodore made in NYC when Bechet was visiting from France - with Jimmy Archey, Ray Diehl and Wilbur DeParis (tbn), Joe Sullivan, Art Hodes and Ralph Sutton (p), Pops Foster, Walter Page and Jack Lesberg (sb), Slick Jones and George Wettling (d)

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56:42

Show - Dave Brubeck Trio 1949/50

Jazz Focus ·

2025/10/07

Some of the first recordings by the well-known pianist, here in trio form with Ron Crotty on bass and Carl Tjader on drums/vibes/percussion. Mostly standards, these tunes feature highly sophisticated arrangements using humor and extensive classical techniques!

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66:43

Ivy Anderson with Duke Ellington - 1933-38

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/29

Ivy Anderson was one of the most overlooked singers of the era - great with jazz, novelty, blues and ballads and was one of Ellington's prime tone colors during her decade-long tenure with his band. Here she sings a mix of Ellington tunes as well as older standards and songs composed for various Cotton Club reviews during the middle 1930's - with the expected excellence from Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, Lawrence Brown, Joe Nanton, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and the rest . . .

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59:29

Show - Zoot Sims 1950/53 Europe and the US

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/29

Great band sides led by the great tenor player early in his career - some while on tour in Europe, some in New York. With Conte Candoli, Frank Rossolino, Lars Gullin, Lee Konitz, Al Cohn, Art Blakey, Dick Hyman, Jimmy Gourly, Henri Renaud and many others.

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78:20

Make Believe Ballroom Jam Sessions (1938-39)

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/22

Martin Block usually just spun records on his WNEW show, but for a while he was hosting thirty minute jam sessions, several of which have been preserved . . here featuring Charlie Shavers, Charlie Teagarden and Bobby Hackett (trumpet and cornet), Jack Teagarden and Vernon Brown (trombone), Joe Marsala and Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Dave Matthews (alto sax), Herschel Evans, Kenneth Hollon and Bud Freeman (tenor), Ernie Caceres (baritone), Fats Waller, Howard Smith and Joe Bushkin (p), Eddie Condon,

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55:33

Show - Cozy Cole and Walter "Foots" Thomas 1944

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/22

Thomas led several sessions featuring great jazz contemporaries playing his compositions and arrangements (see previous show) but he also participated in several at the same time led by drummer Cozy Cole and featuring an array of talent - Don Byas, Coleman Hawkins, Hank D'Amico, Emmett Berry, Eddie Barefield, Clyde Hart, Billy Taylor, Budd Johnson and others.

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67:06

Earl Hines 1954

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/15

Interesting band led by the great pianist Hines for the first eight or nine months of 1954 - including Gene Redd (trumpet and vibes), Dickie Wells (trombone), Morris Lane and Jerome Richardson (tenor sax), Leroy Harris (clarinet/alto/bari), Carl Pruitt and Paul Binnings (sb), Eddie Burns, Hank Milo (d). Studio sessions and live dates from the Club Hangover in San Francisco

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59:28

Show - Walter "Foots" Thomas and his Orchestra 1944-45

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/15

Saxophonist Walter "Foots" Thomas was never known as a great jazz player (he recorded numerous solos in his early days) but by the 1940's was highly regarded as a composer and arranger. He also was associated with the publisher and entrepreneur Joe Davis, for whom he assembled recording bands. Here are four sessions by these Thomas-led groups including Emmett Berry, Doc Cheatham and Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Eddie Barefield, Budd Johnson and Ernie Caceres on clarinet, Hilton Jefferson and Milt

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61:42

Dave Brubeck Octet - 1948/9/50

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/08

Third Stream before it was called that - several students of Darius Milhaud including Brubeck, Dave Van Kriedt (ts), Dick Collins (tpt), Bill Smith (clarinet), and Jack Weeks contribute arrangements of originals and standards using counterpoint, fugue and other classical techniques. With Paul Desmond (as), Bob Cummings (bars), Ron Crotty (sb), Carl Tjader (d) and Bob Collins (tbn)

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59:16

Show - Frank Trumbauer 1929-30

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/08

Recordings by the Frank Trumbauer Orchestra without Bix! Mostly members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra - Andy Secrest, Harry Goldfield, Charlie Margulies, Bill Rank, Charles Strickfadden, Izzy Friedman, Roy Bargy, Lennie Hayton, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, George Marsh, Min Leibrook . .also with Stan King, Fud Livingston, Snoozer Quinn and Smith Ballew

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63:38

Zoot Sims Quartets - 1950/51

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/02

Great swing tenor at the beginning of his bandleading career, featured with both late swing and bebop musicians including John Lewis, Gerald Wiggins, Art Blakey, Curly Russell, Kenny Clarke, Don Lamond, Pierre Michelot, Clyde Lombardi and others.

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58:24

Show - Duke Ellington 1939

Jazz Focus ·

2025/09/02

Great pre-Blanton/Webster band, this Ellington Orchestra has Rex Stewart, Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams, Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown, Joe Nanton, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney, Ellington, Fred Guy, Billy Taylor and Sonny Greer doing all Ellington compositions and arrangements (with one Strayhorn tune). Some retreads of 1920's hits but mostly new tunes and arrangements!

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74:27

Smith Ballew and His Orchestra 1928-1932

Jazz Focus ·

2025/08/26

Great performances of well known and unknown tunes of the period with (almost) all featuring Smith Ballew singing. The personnel is very murky, but various tracks feature J.D. Wade and Jack Purvis on trumpet, Glenn Miller on trombone, Pete Pumiglio and Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet, Babe Russin on tenor sax, Bobby Van Eps on piano, George Van Eps on guitar, Bruce Yantis on violin and many others!

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58:40

Show - Conte Candoli and West Coast Jazz

Jazz Focus ·

2025/08/26

Three different groups all featuring the trumpet player Candoli recording between August 15 and 22 of 1955 . . a primer of West Coast Jazz, the West Coast Wailers feature him with Bill Holman on tenor, Lou Levy on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Lawrence Marable on drums. The Herb Geller sextet has the leader on alto with Candoli, Ziggy Vines on tenor, Lorraine Geller on piano, Red Mitchell or Vinnegar on bass and Buzz Freeman on drums. One track by the Stan Getz Quintet has Getz, Candoli, Levy,

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156 results

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