Podcasts by 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 a popular hangout and jamming space for jazz players both prominent and obscure, and Smith spent the next decade documenting the music, conversations and personalities that passed through. This program, produced and hosted by Sara Fishko and originally heard as a 10-part radio series in 2009, pulls from the 4,000 hours of audio Smith recorded.
Further podcasts by WNYC Studios
Podcast on the topic Darstellende Kunst
All episodes
Special Episode: Jazz Loft Jam Sessions from 2017-03-07T00:00
In this episode, thanks to W. Eugene Smith's tape recorders, we get to experience something audiences rarely hear - the unrehearsed, imperfect, open-ended, overlong, rough-around-the-edges music...
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Episode 1: Introduction from 2015-10-30T12:00
Few people in history had as much access to the greatest jazz musicians of our time as W. Eugene Smith. The famousLIFEmagazine photographer moved in 1957 to a rundown, bohemian lo...
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Episode 2: Enter W. Eugene Smith from 2015-10-29T00:00
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 Kansan who earned a scholarship to Notre Dame, Smith was a ...
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Episode 3: The Tapes from 2015-10-28T00:00
W. Eugene Smith recorded more than 4,000 hours in his Manhattan loft. Some 139 different personalities—musicians, writers and artists—make appearances. The conversations are one thing, but the i...
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Episode 4: Hall Overton from 2015-10-27T00:00
By day, Hall Overton was an instructor of classical music at Juilliard. By night, he was living, teaching, and playing jazz piano at the Jazz Loft. In this episode, some of the musicians w...
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Episode 5: Before the Loft from 2015-10-26T00:00
Like many of New York City's most influential artists, a lot of the prominent jazz musicians of the 1950s came from someplace else. After World War II, returning soldiers flocked to New Yo...
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Episode 6: Drummer Ron Free from 2015-10-25T00:00
Ron Free, a prodigious drummer from Charleston, South Carolina, was the Jazz Loft’s "house drummer" from 1958 to 1960. Holing up in W. Eugene Smith’s apartment for weeks at a time, he jammed wit...
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Episode 7: Flowers at 6 AM from 2015-10-24T00:00
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 surrounding flower shops. For W. Eugene Smith, the Flo...
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Episode 8: Monk at Town Hall from 2015-10-23T00:00
In early 1959, a genuine stir was created in the loft -- even among the more seasoned jazz players -- when Thelonious Monk turned up to arrange his music and rehearse with the help of drum...
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Episode 9: More Tapes from 2015-10-22T00:00
The commercial jazz world relied on by-the-hour club dates and recording sessions, but the after-hours loft scene gave musicians the luxury of forgetting time, as they played through long, unint...
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Episode 10: Times Change from 2015-10-21T00:00
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 popularity. Life in New York was becoming more exp...
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