Lost and Found: Historic Jazz Recordings from the Swing Era

Click the play button to listen

Lost recordings of the early decades of jazz are particularly rare and greatly valued, as the great soloists of the swing era were constrained by the length of the 78rpm shellac disc.

Jazz fans and scholars were thrilled to learn about the Savory Collection, which was released in 2018. Bill Savory was a music lover who single handedly captured hundreds of hours of top-shelf music off the air in the six years preceding America's entry into World War II. Savory compiled a musical treasure chest, recording the jazz artists he loved off the radio. The live nightclub and ballroom performances he captured were longer and more creatively daring as the artists were freed from the constraints of the conventional studio. Packed away for decades and only rumored to exist, the Savory Collection was acquired by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem in 2010, the culmination of a 36-year quest by jazz historian Loren Schoenberg.

In this hour, you'll hear recent jazz discoveries that allow us to hear some of the greatest swing era soloists as never before. Coleman Hawkins stretching out on "Body and Soul." Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" in a nightclub, accompanied only by a pianist. Fats Waller at the New York City Yacht Club. The Count Basie Orchestra with fabulous solos by Herschel Evans and Lester Young.

Comments