Jazz Focus

Latest Episodes:

Joe Turner - stride piano master! May 02, 2023

Show notes

Joe Turner (not blues singer Big Joe Turner) was an influential stride pianist of the 1930's who wasn't known to many outside of the piano fraternity. By the late 1940's he had relocated to Europe and made his living playing solo engagements all around the continent. These sides are studio and live tracks done in 1960 in Zurich.

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WETF show -Artie Shaw - the great 1938 band on the cusp of success! Live airshots May 02, 2023

Show notes

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra - live broadcasts in the fall of 1938, probably from the Lincoln Hotel in NYC . .featuring John Best, George Arus, Tony Pastor, Georgie Auld, Les Burness, Cliff Leeman and Helen Forrest . .but the focus is on the great clarinet playing!

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Hot Lips Page - trios and bands 1940-46 . . Chu Berry, Teddy Bunn, Joe Bushkin, J.C. Higginbotham, Pete Johnson Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

Hot Lips Page was a matchless blues singer and trumpet player from Texas who played with many southwestern groups before coming to New York inthe middle 1930's. Here are recordings with Chu Berry (and Clyde Hart, Al Lucas and Jack Parker), Pete Johnson (Albert Nicholas, JC Higginbotham, Ben Webster), Joe Bushkin and Al Morgan and his own trio with Teddy Bunn, Leonard Feather and Bass Hill

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WETF Show - Count Basie small groups for Clef, 1952 . .Paul Quinichette, Joe Newman, Oscar Peterson Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

Basie's "New Testament" band of the early 1950's was a classic group that recorded for Clef. At the same time he did several Nonet, Sextet and Quintet sides featuring some of his prime soloists (Joe Newman, Paul Quinichette, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis) and guests (Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich). Great mainstream jazz!

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Johnny Dunn - first cornet king in New York, 1921-23 Apr 17, 2023

Show notes

Johnny Dunn was the first great jazz star in the African American community in New York and was the primary cornet influence on the music before Louis Armstrong appeared in the fall of 1924. These records were made in 1921, 22, and 23 with a cast of early jazz players including Herschel Brassfield, Ernest Elliott, Herb Flemming, Earl Granstaff, John Mitchell, Sam Speed, Harry Hull and Jesse Baltimore who were all part of Johnny Dunn's Original Jazz Hounds.

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WETF Show - Vido Musso . .swing tenor sax with Jess Stacy, Willie Smith and others 1946-58 Apr 17, 2023

Show notes

After several years with Benny Goodman in the 1930's, Vido Musso later went with Gene Krupa, Harry James and Stan Kenton and began his own bandleading career. These sessions come from Savoy in 1946 (with Sanford Gold, Marty Napoleon, Kai Winding, Gene Roland, Boots Mussulli, Lem Davis and Eddie Safranski), Sunset (with Willie Smith, Andre Previn and Howard McGhee), Atlantic (Jess Stacy, Murray McEachern, Ziggy Elman) and Modern - his own band with Kenton alumni!

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Artie Shaw and His Orchestra - 1937 for Thesaurus Transcriptions Apr 10, 2023

Show notes

Called The Thesaurus Rhythm Makers (as were all the dance bands recording for that company), this group is unmistakably Shaw's, doing tunes they recorded commercially for Brunswick and some they never did again - all featuring either Max Kaminsky or John Best on trumpet, George Arus on trombone, Tony Pastor on tenor sax and vocals, Les Burness on piano and Cliff Leeman on drums!

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WETF Show - Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington and others, 1937 and 1946 Apr 10, 2023

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Great singer -the best Ellington ever had - heard here fronting her own group (mostly Ellington's band), the Gotham Stompers (a combination of Ellington's and Chick Webb's bands) and two all stars sessions for Black and White on the West Coast. Featuring Johnny Hodges, Willie Smith, Harry Carney, Cootie Williams, Karl George, Lucky Thompson, Irving Ashby, Charles Mingus, Chick Webb, Joe Nanton, Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard, Buddy Collette and others!

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First Notes - bands following the example of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band - Earl Fuller, Louisiana Five 1918-1920 Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Early followers of the first jazz band - Earl Fuller's band with Ted Lewis and the Louisiana Five with New Orleans natives Alcide "Yellow" Nunez and Anton Lada along with Charlie Panelli. Very vigorous and hot jazz of the pre 1920's!

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WETF Show - Claude Luter . . first French Trad Jazz! 1947-49 Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Great band in the style of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band led by clarinetist Claude Luter . . before he became a Bechet fanatic he was a Johnny Dodds stylist and his band brings out the early New Orleans sounds very well in a program of mostly standard tunes but with a few originals thrown in . .Christian Azzi, Pierre Merlin, Moustache Galipedes .. .

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