Jazz Break at Noon - March 2026
KRTU’s weekly, mid-day program
March 2 - 6
The Joint is Jumpin': Vipers, Rent Parties, and the Jazz Underground of the 1920s & ‘30s.
This week on The Jazz Break at Noon, we are stepping out of the concert halls and into the speakeasies of the 1920s and 30s. We are exploring the vibrant, underground after-hours jazz world that forever changed the language, rhythm, and social fabric of American music. During the height of Prohibition and the Great Depression, jazz wasn't just entertainment. Jazz was a means of survival and celebration.
This week on The Jazz Break at Noon, we are stepping out of the concert halls and into the speakeasies of the 1920s and 30s. We are exploring the vibrant, underground after-hours jazz world that forever changed the language, rhythm, and social fabric of American music. During the height of Prohibition and the Great Depression, jazz wasn't just entertainment. Jazz was a means of survival and celebration.
Our jazz party begins in the living rooms of Harlem, where "Rent Parties" fueled "cutting contests" between stride piano giants like Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith and James P. Johnson.
We’ll explore the rhythms of the Boogie-Woogie dance craze, and the rhythmic slang of the "Hepcats," Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart.
We’ll close the week by exploring the "Vipers,” a tight-knit group of musicians who cultivated a parallel, underground culture around legal cannabis, or "the gage" as Louis Armstrong famously called it. This group of larger-than-life characters wrote incredibly catchy, thinly veiled anthems right under the noses of the authorities. Our listening session includes Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Georgia White, Mezz Mezzrow, and more. Join us for a historical, swinging trip into the joyful and rebellious jazz underground, this week on The Jazz Break at Noon.
This week's Jazz Break at Noon is sponsored by Mr. Farmacist, as part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations.
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