Culture
This Week On Radio Free Athens: Dec. 14, 2024
< < Back toRadio Free Athens (RFA) is broadcast Saturdays on WOUB 1340 AM and allows community volunteers and Ohio University students to present music and interview content through a format-free, host-driven program. Find the schedule and details about Saturday’s programs below. Listen to 1340 AM or click HERE to listen.
6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Excursions: Jazz Motifs with Dr. Art Cromwell
All the Way Live! Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society’s Concerts
The legendary Left Bank Jazz Society of Baltimore began producing Sunday concerts in 1964 at the Al-Ho and Madison Clubs with local area talent. Eventually needing a larger venue, the Left Bank Society found a dance hall on N. Charles St. with much greater capacity(800), the Famous Ballroom.
For the next twenty years the Left Bank brought a literal who’s-who of Jazz to “The Famous.” At times headliners appeared with their own groups. In other instances they either played with other NY artists, or local Jazz notables. The music was both familiar and well received, though often challenging, because the stretched out performances allowed a freedom of expression not heard on records. The concerts were held in a cabaret setting that included food and BYOB permitted.
Recordings of these concerts constitute one of the most voluminous private Jazz archives consisting of close to 800 taped performances. Most importantly, these tapes represent a period when major Jazz giants were alive and producing the unreproducible; a timeless living Art created within a working Jazz venue.
Dec. 14, from 6-9 pm EST Excursions will present a selective retrospective of Jazz recorded at Left Bank concerts. Excursions is heard on alternate Saturdays as part of Radio Free Athens on WOUB, Ohio University public radio.