Episode 5: Before the Loft

Like many of New York City's most influential artists, a lot of the prominent jazz musicians of the 1950s came from someplace else. After World War II, returning soldiers flocked to New York, bouncing from clubs to studios to lofts in search of a place where jazz could flourish.

This is a slightly updated version of The Jazz Loft Radio Series, which first aired on WNYC in November in 2009, in conjunction with Sam Stephenson’s book “The Jazz Loft Project." We are re-distributing the entire series now on the occasion of the release of Sara Fishko's documentary, "The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith," which debuted at the New Orleans Film Festival in October of 2015.  

Thanks to the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, our original partner in the production of The Jazz Loft Radio Series. 

The Jazz Loft Radio Series was supported in part by a grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities; and by an award from The National Endowment for the Arts.