Jazz Focus

Latest Episodes:

First Duke - Ellington's first band recordings . . 1924-26 Mar 27, 2023

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The Washingtonians, as they played at the Kentucky Club in New York . . featuring Bubber Miley, Harry Cooper, Leroy Rutledge, Charlie Irvis, Joe Nanton, Otto Hardwick, Prince Robinson, Don Redman, Jimmy Harrison, Fred Guy, Bass Edwards, Mack Shaw and Sonny Greer . .all pre-Cotton Club!

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WETF Show - Ella Fitzgerald Live in Hollywood, 1961, 1962 Mar 27, 2023

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Live dates over two stays at the Crescendo Club by Ella Fitzgerald, one with Lou Levy, Herb Elllis, Wilfred Middlebrooks and Gus Johnson and the other with Paul Smith, Middlebrooks and Stan Levey . . great unfettered singing - some highly arranged, some spontaneous and great audience interaction!

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Sun Ra - Jazz from Saturn! 1956-82 Mar 20, 2023

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Sun Ra (born Herman Blount) was a talented pianist and composer who played and arranged for one of Fletcher Henderson's last bands. He began collecting a company of musicians around him in the 1950's including tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, baritone saxist Pat Patrick, altoist Marshall Allan and others. They created a music that began as hard bop, moved through soul and then became something quite extraordinary! Here are examples (issued as singles on Ra's label Saturn) from all those periods

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WETF Show - Albert Nicholas and His New Orleans Friends Mar 20, 2023

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Albert Nicholas was the only New Orleans musician here - a great clarinetist who had played with King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Luis Russell, he had relocated to Europe by the middle 1950's and here is presented with a band of French players recording for Vogue and Club Francais. Great trio sides (with Claude Bolling and Kansas Fields) and two bands including trumpeter Guy Lognon and trombonist Benny Vasseur.

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Leo Watson - Scat Singer extraordinaire . .with Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, Vic Dickenson and his own group Mar 12, 2023

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Leo Watson was a drummer, trombone and tipple player, although he was best known as a scat singer . . .here are his records with Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa, Vic Dickenson, Jack Teagarden and the John Kirby Sextet - well worth listening to! The Robin Williams of the scat singing world . . .

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WETF Show - Erskine Hawkins plays the arrangements of Sammy Lowe 1938-42 Mar 12, 2023

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Sammy Lowe was a trumpet player and arranger with the 'Bama State Collegians and Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Initially inspired by the Lunceford sound and Sy Oliver's arrangements, Lowe created a style that set off Hawkins' soloists, including Dud Bascomb on trumpet, baritone sax and clarinetist Haywood Henry, tenor saxophonists Julian Dash and Paul Bascomb, pianist Avery Parrish and the high trumpet notes of the leader.

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WETF Show - Art Tatum 1945 Mar 05, 2023

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Great solo piano recordings for ARA (listen to the story of that label - quite a surprise!) and V Disc all done in the second half of 1945 when Tatum was at his absolute peak of technique and invention.

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Count Basie Instrumentalists and Rhythm..1942, 47 Mar 05, 2023

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Basie small groups - for Columbia in 1942 with Buck Clayton and Don Byas and Victor in 1947 with Emmett Berry, George Matthews, C.Q. Price, Paul Gonsalves, Jack Washington and all with the classic Basie, Freddy Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones . . .

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The Jazz Solo - evolution from breaks to blues to real improvisation in the 1920's . .Louis Armstrong, ODJB, Johnny Dunn, Bix, etc Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

From solo breaks (James Reese Europe, Wilbur Sweatman, ODJB, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong) to solos on blues (ODJB, NORK, Johnny Dunn, King Oliver, Louis) to real jazz improv (Trumbauer, Bix, Hawkins, Louis) . . the evolution of the solo jazz player in the 1920's . . all leading to Louis Armstrong!

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WETF Show - The Harlem Hamfats . . great 1930's group from Chicago doing blues, jazz and dance music! Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

The Harlem Hamfats recorded for Decca from 1936-40 or so, making several hundred sides under their own name as well as backing up singers and other entertainers. Consisting of the New Orleans trumpeter Herb Morand, Chicago clarinetist Odell Rand, pianist Horace Malcolm, brothers Charlie and Joe McCoy on guitar and vocals (and Charlie on mandolin), John Lindsay on bass and Pearlis Williams on drums, the group combined swing, dixieland and blues in an energetic way that kept their records on jukeboxes for a decade after they stopped recording.

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