Back in December I mentioned the WGBH radio program The Jazz Decades, hosted by Ray Smith. This Sunday’s show featured some noteworthy restored 1920’s recordings that are of particular interest to Smith — King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, with Louis Armstrong.
Smith rhapsodizes at length during the twenty five minutes of the program that are on the audio player, recorded off of my computer’s FM tuner. I fiddled with the dipole antenna for a few moments at the beginning, as will be obvious if you listen.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/JazzDecadesApr1-07.mp3]Not being a musician myself, I appreciate these acoustic (non-electrical) recordings more for their historical and technical significance, but Smith’s infectious enthusiasm for the virtuosity of the performances is fun to hear. Note: At one point Smith refers to 1933 when he meant to say 1923.
I’m sure Smith’s regular listeners appreciate the audio adjustment advice he gives. It’s fairly straight-forward. He doesn’t sound like a young man, either! He’s obviously kept up to date on the latest technologies out there!