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.
623 Pieces
An individual who possesses outstanding talent and rises above the crowd. You’ll hear all of the expected names … with one exception. He didn’t get...
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Flat tires and mechanical failures are expected. In order to make a living in the 1920s, musicians had to travel. Frequently, it was one-night stan...
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From its earliest beginnings, jazz was different. Ok, on the surface that may appear obvious. But the difference was not just the way the music was...
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It’s easy to overlook the skill that goes into the art of good phrasing in jazz. The challenge for the vocalist or instrumentalist is to have creat...
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More than a decade before the Big Band Era of 1936, there was big band jazz, and they brought swing to their music. Fletcher Henderson, Duke Elling...
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Improvisation is an inseparable part of jazz. The idea is that a musician takes the melody and embellishes the structure. It’s very much like compo...
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1920s Chicago South Side featured an abundance of talented musicians. Although mostly forgotten today, even among jazz buffs, is Cara Taylor. Her p...
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The program features musicians you may have never heard. Although very good, they were mostly territorial. That is, for whatever reason, they chose...
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Sometime before 1900, jazz began to adopt various partners in music from the harmonies of the barbershop quartets, ragtime, blues, and classical. F...
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I’ve heard comparisons between writing popular music and playing chess. There are the usual, recommended openings, but to stand out, writers need c...
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One of the most talented New Orleans musicians is Sidney Bechet. Yet the soprano saxophonists is also the most overlooked. Had he not chosen to spe...
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With the introduction of jazz to a broader audience of Americans in 1917, there was vast criticism and a trickle of acceptance. Not everyone was re...
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Vocalist Billy Banks and other male Vocalists join the program this week to highlight those 1920s singers who were not crooners. In the way Crooner...
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When guitarist Eddie Condon and saxophonist Bud Freeman were offered a chance to record traditional jazz in 1938, they jumped at the chance. This w...
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In the late teens and early 1920s, there was a mass exodus of musicians from New Orleans. Most of them were headed to Chicago, but the lure of St. ...
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Congo Square: it’s in the heart of old town New Orleans, and considered by many as the birthplace of jazz. Just north of the French Quarter, the ne...
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Although the origin of the blues cannot be precisely known, it’s generally understood to have evolved in the Mississippi delta, just north of New O...
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She began as a blues singer. Then turned to popular song with a jazz flavor. She was a movie star for her next recreation. And, finally, a gospel s...
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Although it’s not thought of as a mecca for early jazz, California had its day of musical inventiveness. Some of the more famous nightclubs sprung ...
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By the late 1920s the day of the sheet music was fading as fewer family members had the musical talent. Piano’s were replaced by the phonograph. Wh...
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