23 episodes
| Series | Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 01 | Kenny Clarke | 20020205 | He discusses his namesake drummer Kenny Clarke, and talks to Nat Peck, a member of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland band. | |
| 01 | 02 | Billie Holiday | 20020212 | Today, Billie Holiday, whose life equipped her perhaps better than any other to sing the blues. He talks to her biographer John Chilton. | |
| 01 | 03 LAST | John Coltrane | 20020219 | Today, John Coltrane, who did everything - work, drugs, religion - to excess. | |
| 02 | 01 | Ella Fitzgerald | 20030401 | 20030801, 20030921 | In the first of four programmes, he talks to Britain's Queen of Jazz, Dame Cleo Laine about the First Lady of Song - Ella Fitzgerald. When Dame Cleo won her first Grammy in 1985, Ella sent two dozen roses and a note reading, 'Congratulations, gal and about time, too. Love Ella.' The admiration was mutual. " |
| 02 | 02 | Miles Davis | 20030408 | 20030808, 20031005 | This edition features Miles Davis, who lit the path followed by a succession of hopeful imitators. He talks to top trumpeter, Guy Barker about the man who changed everything - then changed it again and again and again. As the two men wallow in their admiration, they both agree that the man, Miles Davis, was incomparable. |
| 02 | 03 | Charles Mingus | 20030415 | 20030815, 20031012 | was a virtuoso bass player, a legendary band leader and prolific composer. His genius however came with its own price tag. Emotionally he swung from the extremes of love to violence, once even knocking out the tooth of his trombone player Jimmie Knepper in a fight. Ken Clarke explores the music and life of this extraordinary figure with his widow, Sue Mingus. |
| 02 | 04 LAST | Count Basie | 20030422 | 20030822, 20031019 | William 'Count' Basie was the most influential band leader of the swing era. Not only did he maintain a strong jazz influence in what was essentially dance music, but the musicians he hired were the finest of their generation, and generations to follow. Ken Clarke talks to sax player Dave Gelly about this monumental figure in the history of jazz. |
| 03 | 01 | Duke Ellington | 20040113 | 20040329 | This week ""Duke"" Ellington is the focus of his attention. Arguably the most significant figure in the early big band era, he took a simple dance orchestra formula and transformed the 1920s world of jazz. One of his innovations was to get his musicians - instrumentalist and singers - to explore unconventional sounds with their instruments. One such growling effect led to the expression ""Jungle Sound"" which became a byword for the Ellington sound. Ken is joined by band leader, trumpeter and Ellington aficionado Humphrey Lyttelton to share their enthusiasm for the ""Duke"". |
| 03 | 02 | Dexter Gordon | 20040120 | 20040405 | The huge talent of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was matched only by his physical appearance - Long Tall Dexter was a giant in all respects. He however failed to fulfil his rightful place in jazz history, falling into decline in the 1950s. Critics argue that it was the new West Coast jazz that left him on the sidelines, but nearly a decade in and out of prison for drugs offences can't have helped either! Ken Clarke talks to Norway's leading jazz singer Karin Krog who performed and recorded with Dexter Gordon after his release from jail. |
| 03 | 03 | Bessie Smith | 20040127 | 20040412 | She was born in abject poverty. Singing on street corners before her tenth birthday and tragically killed just thirty-two years later, she had nevertheless crammed a lot of hard living into that relatively short life. Ken Clarke talks to George Melly about the woman who brought together the blues and ragtime traditions to forge a new sound in jazz. |
| 03 | 04 LAST | Stan Getz | 20040203 | 20040419 | The name of tenor saxophonist Stan Getz may forever be associated with the Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto in their 1963 hit, The Girl From Ipanema. Arguably the enormous acclaim by a huge popular market attributed to just one recording belittles Getz' contribution to jazz history. Stan Getz was after all, a great player and inspiration to all who came in contact with him including John Coltrane. Having served his apprenticeship with the likes of Jack Teagarden, Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and finally Woody Herman, he formed a classic quintet. Ken Clarke talks to his bass player Bill Crow about working with Stan Getz during that period. |
| 04 | 01 | Dizzy Gillespie | 20050524 | 20050528 | Jazz devotee Ken Clarke shares his enthusiasm for the musicians who made growing up such fun. He focuses on the founder of the bebop movement, the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Ken is joined by, in his opinion, Britain's best jazz trumpeter, Guy Barker, who was taken under the wing of Gillespie as a young boy. The two met when the teenager asked his hero to autograph Barker's own hand-written transcriptions of Gillespie's solos. The older man, suitably impressed not only with the boy's interest but with the sheer volume of solos he'd actually played, later invited him on stage to play with him. |
| 04 | 02 | Oscar Peterson | 20050531 | 20050604 | Jazz devotee Ken Clarke shares his enthusiasm for the musicians who made growing up such fun. He focuses on Oscar Peterson, one of the most enduring names in jazz. Through his long association with the impresario Norman Granz and the numerous Oscar Peterson Trios which he led, Peterson is a household name. Ken Clarke is joined by Peterson's biographer and autobiography editor, Richard Palmer, to share a mutual admiration for the Canadian pianist. |
| 04 | 03 | Thelonious Monk | 20050607 | 20050611 | Ken Clarke is joined by the young British saxophonist Tony Kofi to share their passion for one of the most misunderstood figures in jazz history, the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk. Monk, who started off on the holy-roller American Gospel circuit, went on to be one of the most advanced composers of his time, one of music's true pioneers and geniuses. |
| 04 | 04 LAST | Stephane Grappelli | 20050614 | 20050618 | The final programme in the series is devoted to someone Ken Clarke admits may have slipped through the net of his Bebop infatuated teenage years. Yet the name of violinist Stephane Grappelli became synonymous with PARISian elegance when he and the guitarist Django Reinhardt established their distinctly French swing group, Hot Club of FRANCE in the 1930s. Forty years later, Grappelli rekindled that old style and once again became a major musical force on the world scene. Ken catches up on a lost experience with one of the guitarists who stepped into Reinhardt's shoes to create Grappelli's second successful career, the British guitarist John Etheridge |
| 05 | 01 | Art Blakey | 20060328 | 20060401 | was a drummer of incredible power and originality. He was a showman, a leader and a visionary. His long running band, The Jazz Messengers, became something of an academy for the finest young talent who would make up the next generations of great jazz musicians. Along with people like the Marsalis brothers, saxophonist Jean Toussaint was one of those to be taken under Blakey's wing. He joins Ken to talk about his great mentor. |
| 05 | 02 | Louis Armstrong | 20060404 | 20060408 | Armstrong is remembered by the wider public as a popular entertainer and avuncular middle of the road singer who had the chart blockbusters, Mack the Knife, Hello Dolly, Wonderful World, and We Have All the Time in the World. Those popular successes obscure the fact that Armstrong was one of the first and greatest pioneers in the history of jazz, and one of the best trumpeters there has ever been. Ken is joined by band leader Chris Barber who spearheaded the 1960s Trad Jazz revival. |
| 05 | 03 | Coleman Hawkins | 20060411 | was the original tenor sax player, the man who raised it from the ranks of the American military band to the front line of jazz. Ken Clarke talks to Sir John Dankworth about 'Hawk' and his legacy. | |
| 05 | 04 LAST | Horace Silver | 20060418 | Silver's funky, blues-based piano playing, with its sharply defined right hand and grumbling left hand bass, are the elements that took bebop jazz into hard bop and soul jazz. Ken is joined by leading British sax player Alan Barnes - whose string of accolades include BBC Jazz Awards for best album and Instrumentalist of the Year. Barnes has played every kind of jazz from 1920s nostalgia to cutting edge modern jazz. Moreover, he has got right inside the musical mind of Silver by performing and recording an album of Silver's music. | |
| 06 | 01 | Jelly Roll Morton | 20080304 | He talks to pianist and bandleader Keith Nichols to explore the life and music of Jelly Roll Morton, one of the most colourful characters in jazz. | |
| 06 | 02 | Max Roach | 20080311 | 20080315 | He is joined by alto saxophonist Peter King to explore the life and music of drummer Max Roach. Roach was one of the pioneers who changed the face of jazz in the 1940s by redefining the drummer's role from simple time-keeping duties to that of a fully-fledged and equal member of the band. |
| 06 | 03 | Art Pepper | 20080318 | 20080322 | He is joined by jazz writer Steve Voce to explore the career of the West Coast alto saxophonist Art Pepper. A life-long drug addict, Pepper spent much of what should have been the peak of his career in prison. It is widely believed that the periods of freedom between incarcerations concentrated Pepper's creativity to the benefit of his music. |
| 06 | 04 LAST | Brian Priestley | 20080325 | 20080329 | He is joined by writer and pianist Brian Priestley to explore the career of bebop pianist Bud Powell, whose life was tragically dogged by mental illness following a savage racial beating. |