the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy

Series produced by Guy Rathbun

Caption: Joe "King" Oliver
Joe "King" Oliver 

A weekly program of Music and Stories for "The Jazz Age."

Across the spectrum of pop and jazz from the late teens to the early 1930s, this weekly series from the Club McKenzie invites you the share in the talents and tales of the musicians and performers that created an unforgettable era.


623 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Don Redman
By the time jazz had been around for a decade, musicians began a line of experimentation. It pulled them further and further away from their roots:...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 06, 2017
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Sam Morgan's Band
New Orleans trumpet artist Sam Morgan is a curiosity.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 30, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Benny Carter, Credit: Jazz Classics jacket cover
If it wasn't for jazz and blues enthusiast John Hammond, Brunswick Records may never have released the music they did in the early 1930s.

Bought by KMUN and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 21, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Duke Ellington
1933 was a pivotal year for jazz. As far as musicians were concerned, the depression closed a lot of doors for lucrative employment, but it also op...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 13, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: John Held, Jr.
In the 1920s, the answer to that question was an important factor in the success of a song. Every few weeks a new dance was introduced, and fans lo...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 08, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Mardi Gras parade
What better way to celebrate Mardi Gras than with New Orleans musicians performing the music of the Festivities.

Bought by KMUW and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 02, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Kansas City was a hotbed of jazz in the 1920s. Their inventive style is heard in works the of Walter Page's Blue Devils, Andy Kirk & his 12 Clouds ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 23, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Louis Armstrong
Many jazz historians look at the development of jazz in the 1920s, and highlight 1927 and ’28 as the pinnacle.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 16, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council (TFPC)
This program features the music of the 1920s and ‘30s that have been used in films and TV in recent years.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 08, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Reginald Foresythe
Reginald Foresythe was an inventive composer and pianist whose originality can still be heard today.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 01, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Rosa Henderson
It took years for the jazz vocal to develop. Prior to vocalists like Eva Taylor and Louis Armstrong, pop music and vaudeville styles dominated the ...

Bought by WJSU and KCBX


  • Added: Jan 24, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Fletcher Henderson
So why are the terms “Swing Era” and Big Band Era are identified with the 1930s? Jazz big band had been around for over 16-years, and all of the mu...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 18, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Fats & Satchmo
Thomas 'Fats' Waller and Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong. In many ways, they were polar opposites.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 10, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
February 26, 1917 marks the date of the first recording of jazz. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band had the honor to be the first, but even that was ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 05, 2017
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: 1927 New Year, Credit: Morton Poster
1927 - What a Year! The world was shrinking faster than anyone predicted.

Bought by RadioStPete Florida and KCBX


  • Added: Dec 28, 2016
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: The Whoopee Makers
They were best known as The Whoopee Makers, but they had the habit of adopting new names at the drop of a hat. The Lumberjacks, Louisville Rhythm K...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 21, 2016
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Ben Pollack
By the time Ben Pollack appeared as himself in the 1956 film The Benny Goodman Story, he was all but forgotten. Fans of early jazz remember him as ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 14, 2016
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jimmy Blythe
This program features five pianists who were recognized for their talents, but seldom had the chance to shine on their own (at least in jazz). They...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 07, 2016
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
The Harmonizing vocals of The Boswell Sisters and The Mills Brothers were inspired by the turn of the century barbershop quartets.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 01, 2016
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Sidney Bechet
Selected clarinetists and saxophonists who furthered the art of jazz improvisation in the 1920s.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Nov 23, 2016
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1