The history of BBC jazz broadcasting

[Serial_Apologist]

Does anyone have any info on websites, or where I can get information on this subject?

I'm particularly interested in names of programme series, eg Sounds of Jazz, Jazz Club - the years when they were broadcast, and who the presenters were, eg Charles Fox, Peter Clayton. This is on behalf of someone I know (not me, truthfully!) who is writing up Kenny Wheeler's story. I've compiled lists of most years if not dates of Kenny's broadcasts, and who the presenters were, but in many instances not the programme names!

If anyone knows anything, I'd be most grateful.

[Pianorak]

Might there be any info on that in Asa Briggs's The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, 5 volumes (Oxford University Press)?

[french frank]

BBC genome? I just searched the Third Programme for 'jazz' and this may be a start:

Needs a bit more filtering, but I can see programmes going back to the 1950s.

Other stations cover the programmes you mention.

[Quarky]

NatBalance got me thinking of this issue a while ago, if this is of any help:

A good point, NatBalance.

As regards BBC programmes, a little research shows that BBC has published its schedules for the Third Programme and later the Music Programme, right from its inception in 1946 to 1965:

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/third/1946-09-29

All frighteningly intellectual! Radio 3 does not bear much resemblance!

Apparently Jazz featured in the Third Programme, although post-war, the first Jazz programme was Jazz Club, first broadcast in 1947 on the Light Programme. (JRR did not start until 1964 with Humphrey Lyttleton):

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...20jazz&f=false

Much discussion post -war about the division between pop and Jazz. I guess in the 30s and 40s , the Swing/ dance big bands were the pop music of the day, but pop and jazz developed separately in the late '40s.

The lumping together of Jazz and Classics strikes me as a typically British compromise . According to that erudite reference FAQ, Radio 3 Forum:
Does the music include jazz?
Yes. Jazz has had a regular slot on Radio 3 for forty-five years; over the decades the amount of jazz has increased from the original thirty-minute weekly programme to the current 5-6 hours per week. We find that jazz enthusiasts have much in common with classical music lovers and we support the presence of serious jazz programmes on Radio 3

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

The National Jazz Archive is on-line and searchable. I came up with this for Charles Fox...

"Description: The Charles Fox collection consists of scripts for the following BBC Radio 3 and World Service programmes: 'Jazz Session', 'The Jazz Scene', 'Jazz Today', 'Jazz Collector', 'Jazz in Perspective', 'Sunday Times Hour of Jazz', 'Three Faces of Jazz', 'Jazz Avant Garde', 'Jazz Till Now', 'Giants of Jazz', 'Ragtime and After' and 'Your Feet's Too Big'. There are also manuscripts of 'Jazz Scene', 'Anthologies of Jazz', record reviews and general jazz writings..."

I think the British Library also has a sound archive?

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks very much indeed, everybody. Plenty for me to start work on tomorrow. It's unfortunate I omitted to note down the date of original recordings and their broadcasts at the time of transmission, until much later, when I realised the importance of details of that kind for a proper record. The person writing this biography may have access to any private archives Kenny may have kept; the latter sometimes find their way to the National Jazz Archives (thanks for the prompt, Bluesnik), which is based in Loughton, the other side of Town: time for a visit!

[Alyn_Shipton]

Interesting to hear there's a KW book on the way - is it
A different project from this one? https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/song...kenny-wheeler/

[Alyn_Shipton]

PS also Prof Tim Wall at Birmingham City Uni is running a research project of the history of British jazz radio broadcasting and Nic Pillai in that dept has already done a lot of work on the TV element as well

[Serial_Apologist]

Interesting to hear there's a KW book on the way - is it
A different project from this one? https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/song...kenny-wheeler/

It is the same, Alyn. Previously I'd only been acquainted with Nick Smart through his very good trumpet playing, which imv stands him in good stead as a biographer for Kenny.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

It is the same, Alyn. Previously I'd only been acquainted with Nick Smart through his very good trumpet playing, which imv stands him in good stead as a biographer for Kenny.

Maybe offpoint for you but there's some interesting stuff on Kenny's association with Pepper Adams on the Pepper Adams blog. They worked together as a quintet in Scandinavia etc. Pepper always played KW's tunes with difficulty! Aka out of tune!

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Maybe offpoint for you but there's some interesting stuff on Kenny's association with Pepper Adams on the Pepper Adams blog. They worked together as a quintet in Scandinavia etc. Pepper always played KW's tunes with difficulty! Aka out of tune!

BN.

Thanks for that info, Bluesie - I didn't even realise they'd had an association! I'll mention it to Nick.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Thanks for that info, Bluesie - I didn't even realise they'd had an association! I'll mention it to Nick.

"Pepper was very strong musically in all respects but I think he needed to be within the confines of the type of jazz that he was brought up with. Kenny Wheeler brought out some ballads and things that he had written that are based on quite different chord progressions from what would be your normal bebop chord progressions and, to be honest about it, Pepper played some awful choruses—really wrong notes—on some of these things. The funny thing is that he played them with vigor and there was no hesitation or anything. It was just wrong. I was very surprised that Pepper couldn’t handle some of Kenny’s ballads. He really didn’t find out how to play them.
He had a new horn at the time. I don’t know what happened to his old one. Particularly in the upper register he would play as vigorously and strong as ever but incredibly out of tune. We never quite figured out the mechanics behind this because he was very wary of things like that under other circumstances. He would repeatedly play these high notes, and they would be so awfully out of tune but he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe he was trying out his new horn and wasn’t used to it but it wasn’t natural for him to do the easy solution or play soft just to try it out. He just went for it. "

- from the Dutch? pianist who played with them. Kenny and Pepper also recorded a rather good US album at Fat Thursdays in NYC. No problems on that.

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

"Pepper was very strong musically in all respects but I think he needed to be within the confines of the type of jazz that he was brought up with. Kenny Wheeler brought out some ballads and things that he had written that are based on quite different chord progressions from what would be your normal bebop chord progressions and, to be honest about it, Pepper played some awful choruses—really wrong notes—on some of these things. The funny thing is that he played them with vigor and there was no hesitation or anything. It was just wrong. I was very surprised that Pepper couldn’t handle some of Kenny’s ballads. He really didn’t find out how to play them.
He had a new horn at the time. I don’t know what happened to his old one. Particularly in the upper register he would play as vigorously and strong as ever but incredibly out of tune. We never quite figured out the mechanics behind this because he was very wary of things like that under other circumstances. He would repeatedly play these high notes, and they would be so awfully out of tune but he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe he was trying out his new horn and wasn’t used to it but it wasn’t natural for him to do the easy solution or play soft just to try it out. He just went for it. "

- from the Dutch? pianist who played with them. Kenny and Pepper also recorded a rather good US album at Fat Thursdays in NYC. No problems on that.

BN.

Hank Jones on the 1983 LP, including 2 Kenny tunes, for my later listening.