PRX - Pieces for Tone: Engaging

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Caption: Mississippi Steamboat
In the latter days of the Golden Age of steamboats, many musicians plied their trade with the orchestras traveling the Mississippi. Memphis and St....

Bought by KCBX, Radio New Zealand, and KCBX


  • Added: Jul 28, 2014
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey
Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey were two very important factors in the formation of jazz in the 1920s. They performed together with the California Ramblers ...

Bought by KMUW and KCBX


  • Added: Jul 22, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Washboard Rhythm Kings
Spasm bands, or skiffle bands, (created out of found objects not usually found in musical groups) originated in the streets of New Orleans around 1...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: May 12, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Thomas 'Fats' Waller
Although Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller was one of the most prolific recording artists in the 1920s and 1930s, very little of his earlier music is heard.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: George Brunies
Half a dozen brothers and sisters, mother, father, and a cousin made up the core of the Brunies family. They were all good musicians. Many of them ...

Bought by Troy Public Radio and KCBX


  • Added: Apr 03, 2014
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Vaughn De Leath
She was known as “The First Lady of Radio.” Vaughn De Leath’s recording career began in 1921, which lead to hundreds of titles over the next decade...

Bought by Radio New Zealand and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 25, 2014
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: 1920s Jazz Group
If jazz can be tied to any season, metaphorically speaking, it would be spring.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Mar 19, 2014
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Eddie Condon
Eddie Condon is one of the liked musicians during the early years of jazz. A Chicago style guitarist, is probably best remembered for his wit, humo...

Bought by WDCB and KCBX


  • Added: Mar 03, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Jelly Roll Morton
Fredinand Joseph LaMothe Morton was there when it all began. Although it may be a dubious title to say he created jazz, it is true that he was one ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 24, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Three Jazz Wizards
Here is a sampling of some of the bands of the 1920s; most didn’t make it beyond their geographical boarders. By no means does that lesson their ta...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 15, 2014
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Reinhardt & Grappelli
You could not find two more opposite musicians forming a partnership: Stephane Grappelli and Django Rienhardt. In the early ‘30s they created the h...

Bought by KMUW and KCBX


  • Added: Feb 07, 2014
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Fletcher Henderson
The Dixie Stompers were formed for one purpose: to record for a less expensive label for those who couldn’t afford to buy the 75-cent discs.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 31, 2014
  • Length: 58:56
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Gennett Records label
The Starr Piano Company opened the doors to their new recording studio in Richmond, Indiana in 1916. The first few years they waxed the standard fa...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 16, 2014
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang, more than any other jazz guitarist, brought the rhythm guitar into the limelight as a solo instrument. Granted, he couldn't have comple...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 20, 2013
  • Length: 58:58
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Duke Ellington
In the 1920s, Ellington performed in nightclubs as the bandleader of a sextet, a group that in time grew to a 10-piece ensemble. The nucleus of thi...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 12, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Fred Elizalde
When the Original Dixieland Jazz Band visited Great Britain in 1919, the invasion was on. America’s music infiltrated the hearts and minds of young...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jul 22, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Frankie Trumbauer
Reed artist Frankie Trumbauer contributions to early jazz have been overshadowed by the role he played in Bix Beiderbecke's career.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jul 09, 2013
  • Length: 58:57
  • Purchases: 1
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
Piece image
Music from before David Bowie, Lou Reed, Harry Nillson, Vanilla Fudge and others found their commercial sound. Guess what? It sounded like what w...

Bought by Prairie Public


  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 03:02:24
  • 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
Piece image
A long game of "before they were..." A game for tracking a musician's output from before they found their sound (or were branded with a sound). O...

  • Added: Jan 06, 2013
  • Length: 03:10:23
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: 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