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.
637 Pieces
The music that became known as jazz swept across America in the teens and early 1920s. To the older population, it appeared to be all elbow and kne...
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It’s rumored to be the oldest continuously running jazz club in the country. While the outside may be dark and unassuming, stepping inside is somet...
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In the early 1920s, a small collection of musicians was referred to as a combination rather than an orchestra. In America, though, there’s frequent...
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Summer. Those three months are loaded with ups and downs. Along with rising temperatures, there’s a remarkable increase in travel – not to mention ...
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Jazz originated in the African American communities of New Orleans thanks in part to Congo Square near the French Quarter. That’s where the slaves ...
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When mob boss Al Capone took control of the Sunset Café in Chicago in the mid 1920s, it was already considered to be one of the best performance sh...
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Rivers throughout America were critical for commerce from the 17th through the early 20th century. Think of the iconic steamboat. Bales of hay and ...
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Imagine what traveling would be like if everyone followed different rules of the road. Total chaos. Well, that’s just about the story of the record...
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Ed Smalls, an African American, had the longest running nightclub north of New York City. 1917 to the 1960s. The club Ed opened reached its zenith ...
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Almost as quickly as they arrived, they disappeared from lack of use. Slang from the 1920s and early ‘30s. During their heyday, they were flying ar...
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No one truly knows when the term came into common use. The original intent was for it to be derogatory. Insult the band and the music by calling it...
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It’s not that one brought about the other. Rather, it was a melding of many factors, and during that time, jazz became incredibly popular, as did s...
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Besides having the moniker of “The Roaring Twenties”, not everyone was partying. Creative minds were at a peak coming up with new inventions. Who n...
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The nightlife that blossomed in Chicago and New York in the teens and ‘20s are the thread that laced together audience and music. In earlier years,...
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“It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire,” Those words come from F. Scott Fitzgerald ...
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It was a lengthy journey from obscurity to international popularity. No one will say it was easy. But, with steadfast perseverance and endless cre...
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As traditional jazz evolved through the 1920s, audiences in Europe began gravitating toward larger dance bands. Live performances at dance halls an...
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Between 1917 and the early ’30s there is a transformative era for jazz in Europe. While the music gets a foothold in America, it quickly spreads ac...
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Jazz had to deal with a number of hurdles, in the 1920s, before it was eventually accepted by the American public. Even then, it was very limited a...
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In the decade of the1920s, jazz evolves into the heartbeat of America. The music is the catapult into a new era around the world. Looking back, it ...
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