What happens
This Is Jazz presents an improvised session with an all-star group of New Orleans and Chicago jazz musicians, introduced by narrator Rudy Blesh. Melody players Muggsy Spanier, George Brunies and Albert Nicholas join rhythm players Baby Dodds, Danny Barker, Joe Sullivan and Cyrus St. Clair in the studio. The program moves between live tunes, including Bugle Call Rag, with brief histories of the vaudeville circuit and the cafes where jazz was played. Vaudeville performers Grant and Wilson appear as guests, performing a comic routine, and the band later plays Royal Garden Blues and Eccentric Rag. The broadcast is aired on Mutual on February 15, 1947.
A New York radio studio in 1947, with brief excursions in the narration to New Orleans, Chicago and the vaudeville circuit.
Characters: Rudy Blesh, Muggsy Spanier, George Brunies, Albert Nicholas, Baby Dodds, Danny Barker, Joe Sullivan, Cyrus St. Clair
Listen for: The live ensemble performances of Bugle Call Rag, Royal Garden Blues and Eccentric Rag, and the Grant and Wilson vaudeville routine.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.