Articles by Big Band

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 13: Kudos And Coda

by Larry Slater
November 6, 2026

Artie Shaw was an enigma. A self-taught, brilliant clarinetist blessed with movie-star good looks, he became one of the defining musicians of the Big Band era. Yet at the height of his fame, he walked away from the music business, leaving behind a legacy as fascinating as it was influential. In the early 1990s, Ted Hallock--a passionate jazz scholar and former Oregon State Senator--spent a week with Shaw recording an extraordinary series of in-depth conversations about music, life ...

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 12: To be or not? That's the hassle

by Larry Slater
October 30, 2026

Radio & Podcasts

Aymee Nuviola, Rob Dehlinger & The Alpha Rhythm Kings, Ally Fiola, Christine Tobin, Birthday Shoutouts To Anita O'Day, Laura Nyro & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
October 26, 2026

This broadcast includes new music from Aymee Nuviola, Rob Dehlinger & The Alpha Rhythm Kings, Ally Fiola, Christine Tobin with birthday shoutouts to Nellie Lutcher (Hurry On Down), Victoria Spivey (Telephoning The Blues), Anita O'Day, Bobby Troup, Esperanza Spalding, Laura Nyro, Harry Allen, Amy London, Eve Sicular, Nancy Kelly and Freddy Cole, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world ...

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 11: The End Of The Beginning

by Larry Slater
October 23, 2026

Artie Shaw was an enigma. A self-taught, brilliant clarinetist blessed with movie-star good looks, he became one of the defining musicians of the Big Band era. Yet at the height of his fame, he walked away from the music business, leaving behind a legacy as fascinating as it was influential.In the early 1990s, Ted Hallock--a passionate jazz scholar and former Oregon State Senator--spent a week with Shaw recording an extraordinary series of in-depth conversations about music, life and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 10: That was the year Artie Shaw recorded Jingle bells

by Larry Slater
October 16, 2026

Artie Shaw was an enigma. A self-taught, brilliant clarinetist blessed with movie-star good looks, he became one of the defining musicians of the Big Band era. Yet at the height of his fame, he walked away from the music business, leaving behind a legacy as fascinating as it was influential.In the early 1990s, Ted Hallock--a passionate jazz scholar and former Oregon State Senator--spent a week with Shaw recording an extraordinary series of in-depth conversations about music, life and ...

Play This!

Jazzrausch Bigband: Sinfonie in Cis-Moll: III. Scherzo. Kräftig, Nicht Zu Schnell

by Geno Thackara
October 12, 2026

Gustav Mahler always lamented that nobody understood his fifth symphony, claiming it was cursed. Fair enough; even as this most epic musical form goes, it was a work arguably packed with more layers of emotion than most. Jazzrausch Bigband, however, figured out that those shades can come through just as much with a massive heap of techno beats--nowhere more so than the third movement, where “every note is charged with life" and one of the piece's recurring motifs gets cheerfully ...

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 9: The day Artie Shaw played Berezowksy at Bop City

by Larry Slater
October 9, 2026

Radio & Podcasts

Chapter 8: Bombed in Guadalcanal, but big in Auckland

by Larry Slater
October 2, 2026

Artie Shaw was an enigma. A self-taught, brilliant clarinetist blessed with movie-star good looks, he became one of the defining musicians of the Big Band era. Yet at the height of his fame, he walked away from the music business, leaving behind a legacy as fascinating as it was influential.In the early 1990s, Ted Hallock--a passionate jazz scholar and former Oregon State Senator--spent a week with Shaw recording an extraordinary series of in-depth conversations about music, life and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ekep Nkwelle, Janis Siegel, Rachel Spencer, Monika Ryan, Lizz Wright, Amy Winehouse & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
September 28, 2026

This broadcast celebrates women composers and lyricists, with new music from Ekep Nkwelle, Janis Siegel, Rachel Spencer, Monika Ryan, Lizz Wright plus a single from Amy Winehouse, with birthday shoutouts to Jazz foremother Lovie Austin, Vi Redd, Emily Remler, Amy Winehouse, Wesla Whitfield, Catherine Russell, Helen Sung, Leigh Pilzer, Kait Dunton and Honorable Men, Jon Hendricks, Bobby Short, Giacomo Gates, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue ...

Groove Orbit

A Time Capsule in Sound: Jim Pugh’s New American Symphonies

by Kyle Simpler
September 25, 2026

On the surface, Jim Pugh's New American Symphonies might seem like just another interesting new album release, but there is much more involved here. Behind the album cover lies a story of experimentation, loss, and rediscovery that adds a fascinating dimension to this well-crafted recording. To get the full picture, however, we have to go back several decades. By the late 1930s, swing bands dominated American popular music, and Tommy Dorsey had established himself as one ...