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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

68:36

Louis Armstrong in Chicago, 1933

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/17

Louis' regular band in Chicago recorded several dates in January and April of 1933 for Victor with tunes he had popularized as well as come new pop material. In addition to his singing and playing (definitely at a peak, despite reputed chops trouble), we hear Keg Johnson on trombone, Scoville Brown on alto, Budd Johnson on tenor, Teddy Wilson and Charlie Beal on piano, Mike McKendrick on guitar and Yank Porter, Sid Catlett and Harry Dial on drums

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58:48

Show - early Modern Jazz Quartet 1951-53

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/17

Some sides for Hi-Lo and Dee Gee by the Milt Jackson Quartet at the beginning of the career of the Modern Jazz Quartet followed by the actual group in one of its first recording sessions for Prestige - with Milt Jackson on vibes, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath and Ray Brown on bass, and Kenny Clarke and Al Jones on drums, standards an originals!

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80:00

Jabbo Smith's Rhythm Aces 1929

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/10

Great series of recordings featuring the legendary trumpet player (also on trombone and vocals) with a seasoned bunch of Southside Chicago jazz players - Omer Simeon, George James, Cassino Simpson, Earl Frazier, Banjo Ikey Robinson, Hayes Alvis and Lawson Buford. All tunes by Jabbo Smith!

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55:02

Show - Lou Donaldson 1952-54

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/10

Great and largely forgotten alto player in his first recordings under his own name (for Blue Note) with Horace Silver, Blue Mitchell, Gene Ramey and Art Taylor and live at the Birdland with the Art Blakey Quintet, with Clifford Brown, Silver, Curley Russell and Blakey creating some of the best late period bebop.

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66:40

Hal Kemp and His Orchestra 1927-29

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/03

Hal Kemp led an excellent student band at the University of North Carolina in the early 1920's that stayed together after graduation, travelling to England in 1925 and making their first recordings. By late 1927 the band was a professional unit in New York, highly regarded for its precision ensemble work and hot dance stylings - while there were no significant soloists (although trumpeter Bob Mayhew, reed players Joe Gillespie and Saxie Dowell and pianist John Scott Trotter were effective), the

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55:03

Show - Wild Bill Davison and Tony Parenti 1949 and 1955

Jazz Focus ·

2025/11/03

Two early sessions for the Jazzology/Circle label - the 1949 session was in fact the first for that label, featuring Tony Parenti's New Orleanians, with the New Orleans clarinetist leading Davison on cornet, Jimmy Archey on trombone, Art Hodes on piano, Pops Foster on bass and Art Trappier on drums. The 1955 session has Davison in charge with Parenti and Foster and joined by Lou McGarity on trombone, Hank Duncan on piano and Zutty Singleton on drums

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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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