All Episodes

Nick and Simon discuss the biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. Author Robin D. Kelley grew up in Harlem in a house...

The Fillmore district of San Francisco was known as " The Harlem of the West" in the 1940s and there were many clubs that flourished there f...

Nick and Simon discuss the well known book of jazz interviews 'Hear Me Talkin' to Ya The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It.'

Red Garland was one of the big beasts of the 1950s New York jazz scene recording many albums as leader with his trio, he was also part of the first ...

Simon and Nick discuss the book Blue Notes in Black and White a book about the relationship between jazz image and jazz music. Below is the blurb fro...

The rent party was a phenomenon that occurred from 1920-1950's particularly in areas like Harlem, to raise the money needed to meet the cost of accomm...

What is quartal harmony? Who brought it into jazz and when?Nick and Simon discuss these questions.

Here are 2 examples of quartal harmony to support the previous podcast

When is a dominant chord not a dominant chord?When it's a tritone substitution!We try to demystify this term and talk about its use in jazz harmony.

The Flamingo ClubThe Flamingo Club (not to be confused with Club Flamingo of Police Squad!)was a London nightclub active from 1952-1969. It was initi...

Book ReviewTed Gioia has written 11 books on music, many of them on jazz. Simon wrongly said that the first book of Ted's he read was West Coast Jazz ...

Archer StreetWe discuss the role of a single Soho street in the lives of musicians looking for work in London from the 1920s until the 1960s Watch the...