the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Series produced by Guy Rathbun

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.
578 Pieces
They were called "gaspipe" clarinetists. Their style was very popular in the 1920s. They emphasized peculiar sounds and startling effects, like, sc...
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Two of the finest New Orleans musicians … Armstrong and Russell … brought the birthplace of jazz into the “Big Apple” in the 1920s, and heavily inf...
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In 1927 Hoagy Carmichael was a law clerk. One day he happened to hear a sidewalk phonograph playing a recording of his song. He immediately decided...
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Although she wasn’t the first blues artist to record, she was most certainly an influential trailblazer. Frequently, her recordings were enhanced w...
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There were several vocal groups in the 1920s that specialized in three-part harmony, but it was The Boswell Sisters and The Mills Brothers set the ...
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As jazz made inroads into popular music, musical producers realized they had to incorporate the new styles into their lavish productions.
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As it is known today, Harlem opened its doors to jazz long before the music became popular. Not to say it was far ahead of the rest of the world; o...
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Fats Waller's playful, exuberant jazz performances created the moniker of the "clown prince" of jazz. He relished crowds with his playful stage ant...
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Pioneering trumpet artist of New Orleans jazz, mentor to Louis Armstrong, inspiration for the Harmon trumpet mute still used today, bandleader and ...
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Chicago became the hotbed of jazz in the early 1920s By the early 1930s, several major big bands took up residence in the popular clubs like the Gr...
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Frank Trumbauer is described as one of the most influential and important jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and '30s, including influencing the Lester...
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His nickname was ‘Bud’, but pianist Marian McPartland tagged him “The Gentleman of Jazz”. Tenor saxophonist Lawrence ‘Bud’ Freeman.
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He was a recognized master of his instrument. Weldon Leo 'Jack' Teagarden moved to New York City in 1927, and at the age of 25, began a quest that ...
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These recordings have be come known as the “Armstrong/Bechet” sessions between 1923 and 1925. In reality composer and pianist Clarence Williams put...
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Giuseppe Venuti and Salvatore Massaro, best known as Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang in jazz circles, started a trend that had a large impact on the 1920...
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With his talent, he could have written his own ticket. Instead, Roland “Bunny” Berigan had a very wayward life full of bad decisions and numerous m...
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Featuring those pioneering women of the 1920s who put voice to jazz, from Ma Rainey to Mae West.
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Two very different styles, but both learned their craft in New Orleans. Clarence Williams preferred the jug and washboard style, while Luis Russell...
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Six years separated their birthdays. Cabell was the youngest. He entered show business five years after his older sister Martha. Cabell and Martha....
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"The man for whom Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone." That is how Coleman Hawkins was introduced at the 1963 Newport Jazz Festival. This program i...
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