PRX - Pieces for Tone: Upbeat

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Caption: Harlem dancers
A six square mile area of New York City became the hotspot for jazz in the late 1920s. Duke Ellington called it, “The world’s most glamorous atmos...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jul 02, 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: sheet music cover
As New Orleans musicians began to migrate north following the closure of Storyville (the red light district near the navy base), it was only natura...

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: Jun 04, 2013
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: James P. Johnson
Original stride pianist James P. Johnson began his professional recording career in 1916 with the Aeolian Company by recording several piano rolls....

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: May 29, 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
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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: Bandleader Billy Cotton
Despite the vast popularity of "That Rhythm Man," as Billy Cotton was known, his recognition did not reach the states like the bands lead by Ambros...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Cliff Edwards with Ukelele
The ukulele became as commonplace in the American parlor as the piano in the 1920s. Today we think of the tiny guitar as a Hawaiian instrument, whe...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 17, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: John Held Jr.
Laughter is the best medicine. But, it feels that today's musicians may be taking themselves too seriously. Here are selections from the 1920s to t...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 02, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Irving Caesar
This program features those wonderfully talented lyricists of the 1920s who created such memorial songs as "Margie," "You Took Advantage of Me," "T...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 21, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Fud Livingston
Joseph Anthony Livingston, nicknamed “Fud,” played accordion and piano in his youth. But, in his teens, he found the saxophone more to his liking. ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 04, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: George & Ira Gershwin
Tin Pan Alley, near Union Square in New York City, became the center for music publishing by 1915. The world of formulaic songwriting – songs with ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 27, 2013
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Young Eubie Blake
The music of american legend James Hubert "Eubie" Blake. Pianist, composer, vocalist, and a man who could reinvent himself as times demanded.

Bought by KMUW, WVIA, KCBX, and KCBX


  • Added: Feb 13, 2013
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 4
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: Cladys "Jabbo" Smith
Cladys "Jabbo" Smith is one of the finest exponents of early jazz trumpet, yet he is overshadowed by Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and many oth...

Bought by WNCU and KCBX


  • Added: Jan 18, 2013
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Blanche Calloway
Although Blanche Calloway began her show business career several years earlier than younger brother Cabell, she was at least in popularity surpasse...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 06, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Bix Beiderbecke
During Bix Beiderbecke’s years of recording, there were literally hundreds of sound-alike trumpeters and cornet players. They all wanted to sound l...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 06, 2012
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jack Pettis
Saxophonist Jack Pettis was a pioneer in the introduction of the C-Melody in the early 1920s. According to tenor Bud Freeman, he was the king, and ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Nov 21, 2012
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Miff Mole & Red Nichols
Trombonist Miff Mole and trumpeter Red Nichols, two highly talented jazz musicians, met in New York in the early 1920s. Together they prefected wh...

Bought by WNCU and KCBX


  • Added: Nov 09, 2012
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Cole Porter
American icon Cole Porter learned piano and violin at age six. He became very good at both, but he disliked the violin's harsh sound and so his ene...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Nov 02, 2012
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Art Hodes
Some of the earliest Blue Note recording sessions featured the trumpet of Sidney DeParis, clarinet of Edmund Hall, and piano of Art Hodes. They ca...

  • Added: Sep 14, 2012
  • Length: 58:52
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Homage to Astor Piazzolla featuring Catherine Wilson and Ensemble Vivant hosted by Keith Horner.

  • Added: Jul 30, 2012
  • Length: 58:45
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Give a listen to some of those very hot bands of the 1920s. You may not recognize many of the names, but that doesn't lessen their impact.

  • Added: Jul 17, 2012
  • Length: 58:58
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His friends called him "Hoochie Coo," and he was one of the great jazz pianists ... composer of hundreds of songs, but best known for writing the t...

  • Added: Nov 15, 2010
  • Length: 03:00