Research Note: Jazz, Radio, and Modernism

"Radio programming, in many ways, defined the parameters of discourse about modern America by shaping the way the public perceived events. [...] To a great degree, radio shaped what people knew about their society at large, but it did not present a modern or unified message. While radio technology symbolized the modernity of the nation, program content reinforced traditional notions of society, especially about race. Radio, like almost everything else in 1927, expressed the ambiguities Americans experienced in their search for modern America."

Charles J. Shindo. 1927 and the Rise of Modern America, page 184.

Click here to listen to an interview with Charles Shindo.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, and Modernism

"The first [radio] show produced by and announced by African Americans did not debut until 1928 with WSBC's The Negro Hour, produced by Jack L. Cooper of the Chicago Defender. This foray into broadcasting coincided with the decline of independent stations and the loss of local control over much radio programming due to the Radio Act of 1927. As a result, both the network expansion of radio to national markets and the nationalization of the industry under the auspices of the Federal Radio Commission solidified the marginal and stereotypical portrayal of African Americans on the radio. In this sense, radio as a modernizing force did not bring new ideas about race to the public but, rather, made traditional prejudices and stereotypes available to more people. It was a modern invention used for traditional ends."

Charles J. Shindo. 1927 and the Rise of Modern America, page 184.

Click here to listen to an interview with Charles Shindo.

Playlist: December 16, 2010

"Bitches Brew" by Steven Keene

9:00 to 11:30 a.m. on 90.3 FM KWUR.com.

Miles Davis * * * Bitches Brew Radio Special * * * Sony-Legacy

Dave Brubeck * * * Legacy of a Legend Radio Special * * * Sony-Legacy

Phil Napoleon & His Orchestra * * * Clarinet Marmalade * * * Dixieland Jazz * * * n/a

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson * * * Doin' the New Low-Down * * * Happy Feet * * * Quality Audio

Eddie Lang and Texas Alexander * * * St. Louis Fair Blues * * * The New York Sessions 1926-1935 * * * JSP

Jack Teagarden * * * Shake Your Hips * * * 1930 - 1934 * * * Classics Jazz

Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti * * * Runnin' Ragged * * * New York Sessions 1926 - 1935 * * * JSP Jazz

Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders * * * Black Bottom * * * Happy Feet * * * Quality Audio

Original Memphis Five * * * Who's Sorry Now? * * * Dixieland Jazz Jazz

Clarence Williams and His Novelty Four * * * In the Bottle Blues * * * New York Sessions 1926 - 1935 * * * JSP

Nat King Cole Trio * * * Gone With the Draft * * * Trio Recordings Vol. 5 * * * Laser Light


"Dave Brubeck" by T. Renner

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, and Modernism

"The increased exposure to jazz by white listeners and dancers coincided with the emergence of radio broadcasting. Unlike the more regionally based companies operating out of Chicago, New York City hosted national music publishing and recording industries as well as the most powerful radio corporations. By the early 1930s, jazz had emerged as the predominant popular music of the United States, and the jazz scene in New York City during the 1920s generated much of this success."

Court Carney. Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear, pages 78-79.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, and Modernism

"Jazz music and the idea of a jazz culture (modern, yet primitive; technologically driven, but emotionally based) spoke to the ambiguities Americans felt about modern life and became the symbol of the age. However, a better, more pervasive symbol for the times is radio, since radio brought the events and trends of the era to individual Americans."

Charles J. Shindo. 1927 and the Rise of Modern America, pp. 137-138.

Click here to listen to an interview with Charles Shindo.

Research Note: Modernism

"The greatest uncertainty of the Modernist legacy is here: how can any historical sense remain relevant to a culture that has no respect for its own past? The physical restlessness of Chicago and New York, and the disappearance of so much that would be preserved in England, is a metaphor in some sense for the destruction of a whole series of past cultures. Modernism remains a radical movement because it urges what, in terms of American society, is little less than utopian."

Eric Homberger. "Chicago and New York: Two Versions of American Modernism," Modernism 1890 - 1930, Pelican guides to European literature,. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, & Modernism

"A black jazz fan, however, faced certain racial and financial obstacles that limited the available music. By the late 1920s, the popularity of radio helped erase some of these racial constraints on the city's jazz scene, and, though not completely colorblind. The broadcasting medium provided new opportunities (and a certain degree of anonymity) for black jazz bands. As audiences increased and diversified, jazz music challenged and changed American culture, and New York City stood at the center of this transformation."

Court Carney, Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear, page 86.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, & Modernism

"Much of the motivation for the Harlem Renaissance derived from [the] desire to be respected as artists. Likewise, the developing radio industry touted its potential to enlighten and educate the masses by bringing informative and culturally sophisticated entertainment to American's living rooms."

Charles J. Shindo. 1927 and the Rise of Modern America, pp. 137-138.

Click here to listen to an interview with Charles Shindo.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, & Modernism

"The radio industry [...] served as the primary instrument in the creation of jazz as a national music, and the growing popularity of national broadcasts in 1926 coincided with the appearance of more jazz music on the air. By 1927, jazz had finally discovered a truly national audience, and radio surpassed earlier media as the primary transmitter of jazz music."

Court Carney, Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear, page 91.

Research Note: Jazz, Radio, & Modernism

"[The radio industry and the writers of the Harlem Renaissance] deepened the connection between jazz and modernism. As many Americans drifted away from 19th Century Victorianism, a new spirit of moral, cultural discontent framed intellectual debate. Writers directed much of this discourse, but jazz illustrated their prose assertions with its combination of folk tradition, African primitivism, and a musical potency detached from the previous century. As radio produced a larger national audience for a new music, and the writers of the Harlem Renaissance crafted a new language of Modernity, jazz came to define a decade, a generation, and a nation."

Court Carney, Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear, pages 86-87.

Bitches' Brew Radio Special

Coming up next week on 90.3 FM and KWUR.com!

Playlist: August 12, 2010

All vinyl except for the track by Theodore (who have vinyl records but I wanted to play a track recorded at the radio station). Wish I had seen the copy June 1, 1974 in the stacks before the end of the show. A live version of "Baby's on Fire" would have been the perfect conclusion. Oh, well, next time, kids.

Yung Wu * * * Big Day * * * Shore Leave * * * Coyote

Roxy Music * * * Amazona * * * Stranded * * * Atco

Brian Eno * * * King's Lead Hat * * * Before and After Science * * * Island

Japan * * * Gentlemen Take Polaroids * * * Gentlemen Take Polaroids * * * Virgin

David Sylvian & Robert Fripp * * * Jean the Birdman * * * The First Day * * * Virgin

David Bowie * * * Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?) * * * Aladdin Sane * * * RCA

The Lucy Show * * * Land and the Life * * * Mania * * * Big Time

Winter Hours * * * Waiting for the Thunder * * * Leaving Time * * * Link

Generation X * * * Ready, Steady, Go * * * Generation X * * * Chrysalis

Theodore * * * Abiline * * * KWUR Stack Session 10-24-09 * * * KWUR

Velvet Underground * * * After Hours * * * Live at Max's Kansas City * * * Atlantic

John Cale * * * Soul of Carmen Miranda * * * Words for the Dying * * * Opal

Playlist: August 12, 2010

Piotr Tomaszewski (Astor Piazzola) * * * Verano Porteno * * * Los Colores de la Guitarra * * * Accord

Eli Paperboy Reed * * * Young Girl * * * Come and Get It * * * Capitol

Mighty Diamonds * * * Why Me Black Brother Why * * * Right Time * * * Front Line

Orquesta Los Embajadores con Camilio Azuquita * * * Shingalin en Panama * * * Panama! 3 * * * Soundway

Hot Club of Detroit * * * Night Town * * * Django's Monkey * * * Mack Avenue

Sun Ra * * * The Perfect Man * * * The Singles * * * Evidence

Janelle Monae * * * Sir Greendown * * * Archandroid * * * Bad Boy/Atlantic

Cassandra Wilson * * * Dust My Broom * * * Loverly * * * Blue Note

Two Gospel Keys * * * You've Got to Move * * * Classic African American Gospel * * * Smithsonian-Folkways

Regina Carter * * * N'Teri * * * Reverse Thread * * * Entertainment

Anthony Braxton * * * Side Two, Cut Three * * * New York, 1974 * * * Arista

Food (Thomas Stronen, Iain Bellamy, Christian Fennesz) * * * Mictyris * * * Quiet Inlet * * * ECM

Playlist: August 5, 2010

Son House * * * John the Revelator * * * Step Right Up! * Mojo

Regina Carter * * * Full Time * * * Reverse Thread * * * Entertainment

Food (Thomas Stronen & Iain Ballamy) * * * Fathom * * * Quiet Inlet * * * ECM New Series

Max Roach and Anthony Braxton * * * Tropical Forest * * * Birth and Rebirth * * * Black Saint

Henri Dutilleux (Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang) * * * Resonances * * * D'ombre et de silence * * * ECM New Series

Marcus Roberts * * * Heart of the Blues * * * Blues for the New Millennium * * * Columbia

Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, and Charlie Haden * * * Cherokee * * * Alone Together * * * Blue Note

Eli Paperboy Reed * * * Pick Your Battles * * * Come and Get It * * * Capitol

Cassandra Wilson * * * Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most * * * Loverly * * * Blue Note

Playlist: July 22, 2010

Duke Ellington * * * Harlem Suite* * * The 1952 Seattle Concert* * * Bluebird

John Burnett Swing Orchestra* * * Struttin' With Some Barbeque* * * West of State Street/East of Harlem* * * Delmark

Regina Carter* * * Full Time* * * Reverse Thread* * * Entertainment

Casandra Wilson* * * Dust My Broom* * * Loverly* * * Blue Note

Eli "Paperboy" Reed* * * Young Girl* * * Come and Get It!* * * Capitol

Kali Z. Fasteau* * * Mongezi's Laughter* * * Animal Grace* * * Flying Note

Omar Sosa & NDR Bigband* * * Luz En El Cielo* * * Ceremony* * * Melodia

Miles Davis* * * Maids of Cadiz* * * Sketches of Spain* * * Sony-Legacy

Playlist: July 1, 2010

Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron * * *House Party Starting * * * Hot House * * * Novus

Joe Lovano and Gonzalo Rubalcaba * * * Ugly Beauty * * * Flying Colors * * * Blue Note

Kahil El'Zabar and David Murray * * * We Is * * * We Is: Live at the Bop Shop * * * Delmark

Casandra Wilson * * * Sleepin' Bee * * * Loverly * * * Blue Note

Spencer Katzman Threeo * * * 5 is the New 3 * * * 5 is the New Three * * * 6V6

Franz Jackson and the Salty Dogs * * * St. Louis Blues * * * Yellow Fever * * * Delmark

Charles Mingus * * * Jelly Roll * * * Mingus Ah Um * * * Columbia

Josh White * * * Jelly Jelly * * * Classic Blues, Vol. 2 * * * Smithsonian Folkways

Robert Johnson * * * Phonograph Blues * * * Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson * * * Columbia

Snooks Eaglin * * * Mean Old World * * * New Orleans Street Singer * * * Smithsonian Folkways

Playlist: June 24, 2010

Paul Schult, "Jazz at the Savoy," circa 1953, acrylic(?) on paper, 8" x 10".

Hoagy Charmichael * * * New Orleans * * * Hoagy Sings Charmichael * * * Pacific Jazz

Jack Teagarden * * * Shake Your Hips * * * 1930 - 1934 * * * Classics Records

Nat King Cole Trio * * * Swingin' the Blues * * * The Complete Capitol Transcription Sessions * * * Blue Note

Joe Venuti's Blue Four * * * Wild Cat * * * Eddie Lang & Joe Venuti: the New York Sessions 1926 - 1935 * * * JSP Records

Joe Morris & Matt Maneri * * * Transmitter * * * You & Me * * * Soul Note

Kurt Rosenwinkel * * * Minor Blues * * * The Next Step * * * Verve

Casandra Wilson * * * St. James Infirmary * * * Loverly * * * Blue Note

Los Silvertones * * * Carmen * * * Panama! 3: Calypso, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Tipica on the Isthmus 1960-75 * * * Sound Way

Hot Club of Detroit * * * Blues Up and Down * * * Night Town * * * Mack Avenue

Carolina Chocolate Drops * * * Sandy Boys * * * Genuine Negro Jig * * * Nonesuch

Snooks Eaglin * * * Driftin' Blues * * * New Orleans Street Singer * * * Smithsonian-Folkways

Dock Boggs * * * Coal Creek March * * * Appalachia: Music From Home * * * Lonesome Records

Playlist: June 17, 2010

T. Renner, "'X' for Bill Dixon," 2010, acrylic on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Bill Dixon 7-Tette * * * The 12th December * * * New Music: Second Wave * * * Savoy

Bill Dixon * * * Thoughts * * * Thoughts * * * Soul Note

Bill Dixon & Tony Oxley * * * The Statesman * * * Papyrus, Vol. 1 * * * Soul Note

Bill Dixon * * * Vade Mecum * * * Vade Mecum * * * Soul Note

Bill Dixon & Tony Oxley * * * Crawlspace * * * Papyrus, Vol. 2 * * * Soul Note

Bill Dixon * * * Incunabula * * * Vade Mecum, Vol. 2 * * * Soul Note

Playlist: April 29, 2010

Painting by Bill Schult

Just filling in for someone who couldn't make their show this week. Still debating whether I want to do a summer show.

New Orleans Owls * * * White Ghost Shivers * * * Dixieland Jazz * * * MCPS

Benny Goodman * * * When Buddah Smiles * * * Benny Goodman * * * Time Life Music

King Cole Trio * * * Go Bongo * * * King Cole Transcriptions * * * Blue Note

Gene Krupa * * * Knock Me A Kiss * * * Gene Krupa * * * Time Life Music

Charlie Barnet * * * Cuban Boogie Woogie * * * Charlie Barnet * * * Time Life Music

Jerry Gonzalez * * * Bye-Ya * * * Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta * * * Smithsonian-Folkways

Dick Hyman * * * Shreveport Stomp * * * Jelly and James * * * Sony Masterworks

Matt Maneri Quartet * * * Blue Decco * * * Blue Decco * * * Thirsty Ear

Dave Holland Quartet with Cassandra Wilson * * * Equality * * * Dream of the Elders * * * ECM

Duke Ellington * * * In A Sentimental Mood * * * Duke Ellington * * * Time Life Music

Julius Hemphill Sextet * * * Shorty * * * Five Card Stud * * * Black Saint

Charles Mingus * * * New Now, Know Now * * * Mingus Dynasty * * * Legacy