the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy

Series produced by Guy Rathbun

Caption: Joe "King" Oliver
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

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
From Bessie to Billie
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Bessie Smith
The cornerstones for this program: Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday featuring several artists who benefited from the breakthrough recordings of Mami...

Bought by KMUW and KCBX


  • Added: Dec 03, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
The Tennessee Tooters
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: The Tennessee Tooters
They called themselves the Tennessee Tooters and the Hottentots … along with other monikers. There was Red Nichols, cornet - Miff Mole, Trombone -...

Bought by KMUN and KCBX


  • Added: Dec 08, 2014
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
On & Off Broadway
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Broadway
One of the best ways to get new music to the public in the 1920s and ‘30s, was to present it on stage first. Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Eddie C...

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: Dec 15, 2014
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 2
On the Road
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Broken down automobile
This is a look at the various forms of travel in the early part of the 20th century: horseless carriage, boats, rail, and afoot.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 19, 2014
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 1
Welcoming in the New Year
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: New Year's 1925
This program is devoted to those hearty souls who braved the cold to record their music in the New Year. Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, James P. John...

Bought by KGUA, KAAD-LP, KUFM - Montana Public Radio, and KCBX


  • Added: Dec 28, 2014
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 4
Nichols to Pennies
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Red Nichols
Loring Nichols, otherwise known as “Red”, began his professional career when he was a teenager. By the mid 1920s he was among the premier trumpeter...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 02, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Nichols to Pennies - part 2
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Red Nichols
This is a tribute to one of the most prolific recording artists of early jazz: Loring "Red" Nichols. Although his career spanned several decades, h...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 11, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Tiny's Triads
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Tiny Parham, Credit: Swaggie Records
Although mostly forgotten today, Hartzell "Tiny" Parham is known as one of the pioneers of Chicago style jazz of the 1920s

Bought by WDCB and KCBX


  • Added: Jan 19, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
Bunny's Bounce
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Roland "Bunny" Berigan
Bunny Berigan’s rise to stardom, and extreme fall has been compared to a hero from a Shakespeare tragedy. In a span of only a dozen years, he emerg...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 26, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Don's Harlem Debut
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Don Redman
Don Redman was a trendsetter, and inspiration for early jazz. His talents extended to trumpet, piano, alto saxophone, and oboe, but his primary inf...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 03, 2015
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
A 1929's Valentine
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Valentine
Love songs from the 1920s featuring Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Josephine Baker, and many more.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 09, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
South Side Serenaders
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: 1920s Chicago
It's the rough and tumble 1920s Chicago’s speakeasies. You had to have a password to gain entrance through a side door.

Bought by WDCB, Radio New Zealand, and KCBX


  • Added: Feb 17, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 3
Stride
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Willie "the Lion" Smith
Stride piano emerged in the 1920s on the East Coast, and very quickly became a favorite thanks to performers like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller.

Bought by KCBX, Radio New Zealand, and KCBX


  • Added: Feb 23, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 3
Break a Leg
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Broadway
Show Tunes in Jazz. This features those popular songs of the 1920s and early '30s that became jazz standards, and jazz that made its way to stage.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 03, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Minstrel Miller
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Vaudeville
This program is devoted to several vaudeville performers who were forced to ply their trade elsewhere when silent movies and Broadway reviews close...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 11, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Classic Blues
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: Blind Blake
The original blues recordings from the 1920s featuring artists from the Delta to the Father of Texas Blues.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 17, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
By George part 1
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: George Gershwin
Composer George Gershwin left behind a plethora of wonderful music during his brief career.

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 23, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
By George part 2
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: George Gershwin
The music of composer, pianist, and painter George Gershwin. This tribute features many of his songs from the 1920s and '30s, and comments of some ...

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 30, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
My Kind of Town
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Caption: The Jazz Wizards
Chicago was a muddy, windy town in the mid 1800s, but in 1893 (World's Fair) it had come of age. By 1920, if you couldn’t find the jazz you liked i...

Bought by WDCB, Radio New Zealand, and KCBX


  • Added: Apr 07, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 3
Wild Noodles
From: Guy Rathbun
Series: the Club McKenzie: Your 1920s Jazz Speakeasy
Piece image
Four talented clarinetists of the 1920s who came from the Vaudeville and musical stage. Ted Lewis, Fess Williams, Wilton Crawley and Boyd Senter.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 16, 2015
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1

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