We continue our tour of America’s great jazz cities with the long-lost jazz and blues traditions of St. Louis, from the turn-of-the-century Mississippi River riverboat economy to St. Louis’ favorite son Miles Davis growing up in the Gateway City. We’ll talk with historian Kevin Belford about St. Louis’ rich blues heritage that got written out of the jazz history books, explore how Father of the Blues W.C. Handy’s hard luck time in St. Louis inspired one of the music’s all time classics, and hear how the blues spread from this city across the country.

Episode Transcript

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Kevin Belford, Phillip Dunlap, Ben Cawthra

Music

• Big Joe Williams “Baby Please Don't Go”
• Robert Nighthawk “Crying Won’t Help You”
• Jimmy Forrest “Night Train”
• George E. Lee “Won’t You Come Over To My House?”
• Scott Joplin “Pine Apple Rag”
• Fate Marable “Frankie and Johnny”
• Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra “Singin’ The Blues”
• Chas Creath “I Woke Up Cold In Hand”
• Miles Davis “If I Were a Bell”
• Dewey Jackson and His Peacock Orchestra “She's Crying for Me”
• Miles Davis “I Thought About You”
• Miles Davis “Old Folks”
• Peggy Lee “You Came a Long Way from St. Louis”
• Chet Atkins “Memphis Blues”
• Art Tatum “St. Louis Blues”
• Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues”
• Billy Eckstine “St. Louis Blues”
• Dizzy Gillespie “St. Louis Blues”
• Les Paul and Mary Ford “St. Louis Blues”
• Stump Johnson “Blues for Lindy”

To see some of the artwork in Kevin Belford’s book, Devil at the Confluence, go to the Devil at the Confluence blog.

Original Air Date: May 4, 2012

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Jeff Haas

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts by Erik Saras

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

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The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.

Blue Note Records is the label synonymous with the best in jazz since 1939, and from its unique mystique around its sound and up and down history, we’ll learn how Blue Note is still relevant to jazz and non-jazz fans today. We’ll talk with veteran Blue Note man Michael Cuscuna about the label’s humble beginnings in a New York apartment, the rise of the so-called Blue Note sound in the 1950s, how commercial success ironically led to Blue Note’s undoing in the 1960s, and explore how the photography of Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff shaped the Blue Note mystique.

Episode Transcript

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Michael Cuscuna, Ben Cawthra

Music

• Jackie McLean “Blue Condition”
• John Coltrane “Blue Train”
• Albert Ammons “Bass Goin’ Crazy”
• Ike Quebec “A Light Reprieve”
• Ike Quebec “Blue Monday”
• Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers “Nica’s Dream”
• Thelonious Monk “'Round Midnight”
• Horace Silver “Song For My Father”
• Horace Silver “Sanctimonious Sam”
• Milt Jackson “Lily”
• Wayne Shorter “Speak No Evil”
• Lee Morgan “The Sidewinder”
• Norah Jones “Chasing Pirates”
• Lionel Loueke “Ami O”
• Stanley Turrentine “Blues for Del”

Original Air Date: April 17, 2012

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Jeff Haas

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast produced by Sam Boase-Miller and Erik Saras

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts and show notes by Erik Saras

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

Visit our website and join us on Facebook

The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.

We celebrate Halloween by exploring jazz’s spooky side with plenty of the best scary music and mysterious legends surrounding some unlucky jazzers. We’ll talk with mystery writer Bill Moody about the real-life jazz mysteries that inspire his novels, visit the cemetery in the Bronx that’s become the final resting place for an A-list of bygone jazz legends, and hear the myth and truth behind bluesman Robert Johnson’s notorious deal with the devil.

Episode Transcript

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Bill Moody, Susan Olsen, Lou Blouin

Music

• Lambert, Hendricks & Ross “Halloween Spooks”
• Jelly Roll Morton “Dead Man’s Blues”
• Nellie McKay “Zombie”
• Robert Johnson “Me and the Devil Blues”
• Robert Johnson “If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day”
• Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues”
• Robert Johnson “Hellhound on My Trail”
• Louis Armstrong “Skeleton in the Closet”
• Nina Simone “I Put A Spell On You”
• Screamin Jay Hawkins “Whistling Past the Graveyard”
• Miles Davis “All Blues”
• Miles Davis “Solar”
• Duke Ellington “Black Beauty (Portrait of Flo Mills)”
• Lionel Hampton “Flying Home”
• Squirrel Nut Zippers “Ghost of Stephen Foster”
• Otis Redding “Trick Or Treat”
• Mel Tormé “The House Is Haunted (By the Echo of Your Last Goodbye)”
• Philly Joe Jones “Blues for Dracula”
• The Creed Taylor Orchestra “in Bedlam”
• Albert Ayler “Witches and Devils”
• Wayne Shorter “Dance Cadaverous”
• Hoyt Curtin “Battle of the Planets Sneak-up / Battle of the Planets Bad Guys Vs. Good Guys”
• Raymond Scott “New Years Eve In a Haunted House”
• Raymond Scott “Power House”
• Kay Starr “Headless Horseman”
• Chet Baker “Old Devil Moon”
• Chet Baker “Witchcraft”
• Bill Evans “Witchcraft”
• Chet Baker “Soft Winds”
• Thelonious Monk “Misterioso
• Duke Ellington “Night Creature (Second Movement): Stalking Monster”

Original Air Date: October 22, 2012

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Jeff Haas

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast produced by Sam Boase-Miller and Erik Saras

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts and show notes and show notes by Erik Saras

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

Visit our website and join us on Facebook

The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.