PRX - Pieces for Tone: Engaging

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Caption: Dr. Zella Palmer, Credit: Courtesy of Dillard University
“Where there’s flavor, there’s history:” Educator, Author, and Filmmaker Dr. Zella Palmer discusses her work in preserving the legacy of African-Am...

  • Added: Nov 19, 2023
  • Length: 28:40
Caption: Perry Bradford
When the aging jazz artist was hospitalized, his doctors thought they should get some background information on his life, and he told them that he ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 10, 2023
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Lovie Austin
When the New Orleans community of Storyville was shuttered in 1917, musicians began traveling north to find work. No one could have been prepared f...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: May 26, 2023
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Armstrong & Ellington
They could not have been more opposite in their approach to jazz. Yet, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington had identical goals. Provide the best mus...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: May 04, 2023
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: WRK
The group went by quite a number of different names, but the one they were best know for was The Washboard Rhythm Kings. They were, by far, the mos...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Oct 06, 2022
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Louis Armstrong & Luis Russell
Two of the finest New Orleans musicians … Armstrong and Russell … brought the birthplace of jazz into the “Big Apple” in the 1920s, and heavily inf...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Aug 18, 2022
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Bessie Smith
Although she wasn’t the first blues artist to record, she was most certainly an influential trailblazer. Frequently, her recordings were enhanced w...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Aug 04, 2022
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: 1920s Chicago, Credit: Getty
In the 1920s, Chicago became the jazz capital of the world. During that time, there were More than 70 nightclubs, ballrooms, and theatre halls part...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 10, 2022
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Congo Square
Although the origin of the blues cannot be precisely known, it’s generally understood to have evolved in the Mississippi delta, just north of New O...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jul 02, 2021
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Louis Armstrong
Knowledge, creativity, charisma, and endless energy are just a few qualities that make a good musical leader. If the leader can also arrange and co...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 23, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Bubber Miley, left
They’re best remembered for their mastery of the muted trumpet. Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams were standout musicians who performed with the Duk...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Jan 24, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Noble Sissle
Lyricist, composer, vocalist and bandleader Noble Sissle had a very successful 60-year career in jazz and musical theater. He’s best know as the mu...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Dec 05, 2019
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Clarence Williams
instrument was the jug. Clarence Williams was a professional, yet he thoroughly enjoyed a relaxed performing style. Add in a little hokum, and the ...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Nov 27, 2019
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Both Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong entered the professional music scene in the early 1920s. Both favored traditional jazz with its roots in New O...

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Apr 18, 2019
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: J.C. Higginbotham
Pianist and bandleader Luis Russell happened to have one of the best bands in the Big Apple by the latter 1920s.

Bought by KCBX


  • Added: Feb 06, 2019
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Thomas "Fats" Waller
One of the most flamboyant, enigmatic, larger than life personalities in early jazz is Thomas “Fats” Waller: a primary exponent of Stride piano.

Bought by KMUW and KCBX


  • Added: Jan 22, 2019
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 2
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January 1953 was a busy month for recording in Chicago, involving sessions, this week, with Little Walter, “Honeyboy” Edwards, Muddy Waters, and J....

  • Added: Jul 14, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time we profile Ruth Brown, one of the biggest R&B singers of the 1950s, who first hit the top of the Billboard charts, this week in 1950.

  • Added: Apr 23, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time we profile The Howlin’ Wolf, who made his debut on the Billboard R&B charts in 1951.

  • Added: Apr 17, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time we profile Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who first recorded with an electric guitar, this week in 1941.

  • Added: Apr 15, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time we profile Professor Longhair, who first recorded a beloved Mardi Gras classic, this week in 1949.

  • Added: Apr 14, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time, we profile Henry Thomas, whose two dozen recordings for Vocalion, made in the late 1920s, hark back to a time before the blues.

  • Added: Apr 10, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time, we profile harmonica ace Junior Wells — who was in the studio laying down some classic tracks for Delmark Records, this week in 1965.

  • Added: Apr 08, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time, we profile Little Richard and Specialty Records owner Art Rupe, who, at first anyway, wasn’t too impressed by Little Richard.

  • Added: Apr 06, 2018
  • Length: 03:29
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This time, we profile blues piano mystery man, Black Bob — who was in the studio this week with Memphis Minnie, in 1935.

  • Added: Apr 02, 2018
  • Length: 03:29