PRX - Pieces for Format: Archival

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Caption: Champion Records label
Overlooked as a gathering place for hot jazz in the 1920s, the Southwest sported some excellent musicians. Many went on to successful careers in th...

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: May 07, 2014
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Blackbirds Sheet Music
The review, Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1928, opened at the Liberty Theatre on 42nd Street in May of that year.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 16, 2014
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Mamie Smith
She billed herself as “The Queen of the Blues.” But, technically, she wasn’t a blues singer.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 12, 2014
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Former WHAT disc jockey Sonny Hopson, Credit: Yowei Shaw
For a time in the late ’60s, no one’s microphone in Philadelphia blazed hotter than Sonny Hopson. He was dynamic, exciting and wildly unpredictable...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], KUCB, WFHB, WDSE, PRX Remix and more


  • Added: Jan 07, 2014
  • Length: 04:29
  • Purchases: 6
Piece image
In the late 50s and 60s, jazz musician Sam Reed was the house leader at the historic Uptown Theater in North Philadelphia. The Uptown was the Phill...

Bought by KTEP, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], WFHB, WDSE, and KUOW


  • Added: Jan 07, 2014
  • Length: 03:26
  • Purchases: 5
Piece image
Harvey Holiday was one of the few white disc jockeys who made it big on Black radio in Philadelphia in the 70s. His highly-rated Sunday night “Holi...

Bought by KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio], WFHB, and KUOW


  • Added: Jan 07, 2014
  • Length: 05:13
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
In Duke Ellington's Eulogy to Billy Strayhorn he wrote, "His greatest virtue, I think, was his honesty--not only to others, but to himself." As we ...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Oct 28, 2013
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Joe Robichaux
On the one had, you can say that pianist and arranger Joe Robichaux was a New Orleans musician, on the other, his unique sound set him apart from h...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 24, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Duke Ellington
In the 1920s, Ellington performed in nightclubs as the bandleader of a sextet, a group that in time grew to a 10-piece ensemble. The nucleus of thi...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 12, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, and described those who impressed him as "beyond category. "He is widely conside...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 07, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Sam Wooding Band
Once you hear the music of Sam Wooding and his Chocolate Dandies you, too, will be curious why his work is not as familiar to connoisseurs of early...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Sep 23, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Fats Waller
Thomas Wright ‘Fats’ Waller is one of the few who can be called a legend during his lifetime, even though it was all too short: 39 years. Here he ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Sep 08, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Johnny Dodds
Johnny Dodds was one of the greatest clarinetist of the 1920's. Although both Jimmy Noone and Sidney Bechet had better technique, Dodds had a very ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Aug 23, 2013
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Lonnie Johnson
Pioneering blues and jazz guitarist Lonnie Johnson began playing professionally in New Orleans in 1917. He toured Europe with Marion Cook’s Souther...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jul 26, 2013
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Washboard Rhythm Kings
When washboard was King. Well, that may be a stretch, but the popularity of that musical instrument, when it was used as such, reached a height in...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jun 24, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Scott Joplin
This program is devoted to those pioneers of jazz piano from Scott Joplin to Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jun 07, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Kid Ory
By 1911, tailgate trombonist Kid Ory was leading one of the best-known bands in New Orleans. Eight years later he formed a successful band in Los A...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
He is considered the first great tenor saxophonist in jazz. The first signs of Coleman Hawkins’ potential began to show when he was still a child.

Bought by KCBX, KMUW, and KCBX


  • Added: Apr 30, 2013
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: 1920s Race Record label
Singer, songwriter, pianist, singer and vaudeville and minstrel performer Perry Bradford, forever changed the sound of American popular music by co...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 05, 2013
  • Length: 58:54
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Banjo Ikey Robinson
Isaac L. “Banjo Ikey” Robinson was a multi instrumentalist jazz musician who specialized on banjo. Even when most musicians had stuffed their banjo...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 15, 2013
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Benny Moten
Benny Moten led the Kansas City Orchestra in the 1920s, arguably the most influential big bands of the era. His arrangements helped to create what...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 28, 2012
  • Length: 58:55
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The Apex Club
The Apex Club was raided by federal agents and closed for selling alcohol during Prohibition in 1930. Just before that fateful day, New Orleans nat...

Bought by WDCB and KCBX


  • Added: Oct 25, 2012
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Andy Kirk & his Clouds of Joy
Bandleader Andy Kirk gave up his post office carrier in 1925 to try his hand in music. He showed talent on the saxophone and tuba, but it evolved t...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 22, 2012
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Canal Street, New Orleans
The legend of musician Buddy Bolden has stretched well beyond the city limits of New Orleans. Whether or not half of the stories are true, really d...

Bought by WRGY and Troy Public Radio


  • Added: Oct 06, 2012
  • Length: 58:53
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968)
TWO HANDS, A GUITAR & GENIUS = WES MONTGOMERY is a one hour program that looks at the musical life of Jazz guitarist WES MONTGOMERY. The ten record...

Bought by Spokane Public Radio, Radio New Zealand, and KSRQ


  • Added: May 02, 2012
  • Length: 52:35
  • Purchases: 3