Special Episode: Jazz Loft Jam Sessions
In this episode, thanks to W. Eugene Smith's tape recorders, we get to experience something audiences rarely hear - the unrehearsed, imperfe...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsArts
The Jazz Loft Radio Series
W. Eugene Smith was a famous photo essayist for LIFE magazine and a suburban family man when he left it all in 1957 and moved to a rundown loft in Manhattan. The building had already become...
The Jazz Loft Radio Series Podcast Guide
Listen to The Jazz Loft Radio Series, a Arts podcast by The Jazz Loft Radio Series. Stream 11 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
Show Topic
Browse this show under Arts podcasts.
Episodes
11 episodes are available for this podcast.
Discover More
Explore Arts podcasts, United States podcasts and English podcasts.
Episodes
11 episodesEpisode 1: Introduction
Few people in history had as much access to the greatest jazz musicians of our time as W. Eugene Smith. The famous LIFE magazine photographe...
Episode 2: Enter W. Eugene Smith
Before photographer W. Eugene Smith lived in a rundown loft in the thick of New York’s jazz scene, he lived in another world. A native Kansa...
Episode 3: The Tapes
W. Eugene Smith recorded more than 4,000 hours in his Manhattan loft. Some 139 different personalities—musicians, writers and artists—make a...
Episode 4: Hall Overton
By day, Hall Overton was an instructor of classical music at Juilliard. By night, he was living, teaching, and playing jazz piano at the Jaz...
Episode 5: Before the Loft
Like many of New York City's most influential artists, most of the prominent jazz musicians of the 1950s came from someplace else. After Wor...
Episode 6: Drummer Ron Free
Ron Free, a prodigious drummer from Charleston, South Carolina, was the Jazz Loft’s "house drummer" from 1958 to 1960. Holing up in W. Eugen...
Episode 7: Flowers at 6 AM
In the early mornings, as each all-night jam session at the loft came to a close, musicians stumbled out into the fragrant air of the surrou...
Episode 8: Monk at Town Hall
In early 1959, a genuine stir was created in the loft -- even among the more seasoned jazz players -- when Thelonious Monk turned up to arra...
Episode 9: More Tapes
The commercial jazz world relied on by-the-hour club dates and recording sessions, but the after-hours loft scene gave musicians the luxury...
Episode 10: Times Change
It was hard not to notice that by the early 60s, things had changed dramatically for the Jazz Loft set. Folk and rock music had gained in po...