Phil Schaap's Jazz Room

A deep dive into the stories and music of jazz artists booked at the West End in New York City and interviewed on WKCR-FM by the legendary radio host/jazz historian/archivist Phil Schaap.

Franc Williams: Live From The West End

by Daniel Gould
October 14, 2026

Jazz will always be considered a soloist's music, and most fans know all the important names. But when the big bands ruled and swing was king, those groups leaned on personnel who could swing the band: Section leaders, particularly trumpeters, with the power and technique to move the music and the dancers. Francis (Franc) Williams was one such musician. From his early boyhood friendship with Art Tatum, to his seven years spent with the Duke Ellington Orchestra (1945-1951), through his time ...

Percy France: Live from the West End

by Daniel Gould
August 27, 2026

If you know Percy France, most likely you are a fan of “greasy" organ jazz, particularly on Blue Note Records during their classic era. He was an integral part of Jimmy Smith's Home Cookin' (1959) and Freddie Roach's Down to Earth (1962). Or perhaps you came to jazz through r&b acts like the Bill Doggett combo. The album Hot Doggett (King Records-1956) features France's driving, big-toned tenor saxophone. Or if you came to the West End Café from the 1970s through ...

Phil Schaap: A Life in Jazz

by Daniel Gould
July 28, 2026

Phil Schaap, a jazz historian, radio host, record producer, archivist, six-time Grammy Award winner, and 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, called himself “a Johnny Appleseed through the transmitter." Of course, the subject of his proselytizing was jazz, and few did it as long, or through so many different media--broadcasting, teaching, audio engineering, and sound preservation--as did Philip Van Noorden Schaap. Schaap was born April 8, 1951, and raised in the Hollis section of Queens, New ...