Jazz Americana - S02E13

Our salute to jazz Americana with jazz’s history on the Broadway stage, explore the role jazz musicians played in shaping the glory years of the USO, and hear how musicians have strived to capture that distinctive “American” sound. We’ll talk with Irving Berlin biographer Laurence Bergreen about the rags to riches story of one of America’s greatest songwriters, a look at the American musical that helped revive jazzers interest in the American stage, and our producer Lou Blouin picks some of the best and strangest moments in jazzers’ struggle to define the American experience. 

Episode Transcript

Host: Jeff Haas

Guests: Laurence Bergreen, Lou Blouin

Music

• Kate Smith “God Bless America”
• Ella Fitzgerald “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
• Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings “This Land Is Your Land”
• Louis Armstrong “Alexander's Ragtime Band”
• Irving Berlin “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” 
• Ella Fitzgerald “Blue Skies”
• Benny Goodman Trio “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
• Billie Holiday “How Deep Is the Ocean”
• Bob Hope in Strictly G.I. 
• The Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”
• The Andrews Sisters “The Blonde Sailor”
• The Andrews Sisters “(I’m Gettin’) Corns For My Country”
• Ray Charles “America the Beautiful”
• Jimi Hendrix “The Star-Spangled Banner”
• Frank Sinatra in The House I Live In
• Frank Sinatra “The House I Live In”
• Charlie Haden “Song for Ché”
• Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra “Blue Anthem”
• Charlie Haden “Single Girl, Married Girl”
• Charlie Haden and Jack Black “Old Joe Clark”
• Bill Frisell “Struggle”
• Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong “The Beautiful American”
• Bill Frisell “Focus”
• Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny “Is This America?” 
• Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim “America” from West Side Story
• Sarah Vaughan “Maria” from West Side Story
• The Dave Brubeck Quartet “Tonight” from West Side Story
• Stan Kenton “Something's Coming” from West Side Story
• Oscar Peterson Trio “Jet Song” from West Side Story

Original Air Date: April 13, 2014

Radio broadcast produced by Lou Blouin and Jeff Haas

Radio broadcast audio engineering by Jack Conners and Brock Mormon

Podcast audio remastering by Sam Boase-Miller

Transcripts by Erik Saras

Theme Song: Jeff Haas Trio & Friends “Giving In”

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The New Jazz Archive radio broadcasts originally sponsored by Chateau Chantal. The New Jazz Archive receives no revenue from podcast reissues of radio broadcasts.