Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts

Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts is an American old-time radio program featuring Dixieland and jazz music. It was broadcast on the Blue Network from May 20, 1944, to April 7, 1945.[1]

Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts

Eddie Condon circa 1946
Genre	Dixieland/jazz music
Running time	30 minutes
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	WJZ
Syndicates	Blue Network
Hosted by	Eddie Condon
Directed by	Jack Bland Addison Amore
Produced by	Ernest Anderson
Original release	May 20, 1944 (1944-05-20) – March 7, 1945 (1945-03-07)

Format

In 1942, musician Eddie Condon began staging concerts in New York City, with Carnegie Hall and Town Hall as venues. By 1944, the performances were sold out.[2] In 1944, the Blue Network began broadcasting the concerts, which The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series described as "Jazz music of a high standard".[3] The broadcasts began "about eight performances into the series".[4]

The program typically began with a jazz song, after which Condon commented on the song and introduced the band's members. The network described the programs as "the only unrehearsed, free-wheeling, completely barefoot music on the air."[4]

Personnel

Condon was the program's host, with broadcasts featuring what the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings called "many of the era's greatest musicians".[5] Among them was singer Lee Wiley, described in the encyclopedia as "a near-regular" on the show.[5] The broadcasts found Condon "surrounded by the greatest names in jazz—Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Bob Haggart."[6]

Jack Bland and Addison Amore were the directors, and Ernest Anderson was the producer.[4]

Recordings

Some episodes of broadcasts of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts have been made available commercially for later generations to hear, creating "jazz's time capsule [that] lives on through the Golden Age of Radio".[4]

References

1. Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
2. Lopes, Paul Douglas (2002). The Rise of a Jazz Art World. Cambridge University Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780521000390. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
3. Mackenzie, Harry (1999). The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 53. ISBN 9780313308123. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
4. "Eddie Condon's Jazz Concert". The Digital Deli Too. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
5. Sullivan, Steve (2017). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 191. ISBN 9781442254497. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
6. "Jammin' at Condon's: The Eddie Condon Story". Stanford University Libraries. Stanford University. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.

External links

Logs

• Log of episodes of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts from The Digital Deli Too
• Log of episodes of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts from Old Time Radio Researchers Group
• Log of episodes of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts from radioGOLDINdex

Streaming

• Episodes of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts from Old Time Radio Researchers Group Library