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"Jazz Side Story: Jazz And Leonard Bernstein"


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  • 2 weeks later...

A nice show David, thanks. The show took me back in a couple of ways. 

I have mentioned a couple of times that I grew up overseas: in Latin America from the mid 50s until 1964 and Barcelona in the mid to late 60s. 

Listening to West Side Story reminded me of when I used to play my parents’ Broadway show records when we lived in São Paulo in Brasil. I must have worn out the grooves on West Side Story.

Later, when I was a teenager and lived in Barcelona, our connection to home, other than through the Herald Tribune and Time magazine, was through our shortwave radio where we’d listen to Armed Forces Radio (listened to many a baseball game while in bed) and the Voice Of America.   Hearing the A Train reminded of the lead into Willis Conover’s program on VOA. Good memories. 

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4 hours ago, Brad said:

A nice show David, thanks. The show took me back in a couple of ways. 

I have mentioned a couple of times that I grew up overseas: in Latin America from the mid 50s until 1964 and Barcelona in the mid to late 60s. 

Listening to West Side Story reminded me of when I used to play my parents’ Broadway show records when we lived in São Paulo in Brasil. I must have worn out the grooves on West Side Story.

Later, when I was a teenager and lived in Barcelona, our connection to home, other than through the Herald Tribune and Time magazine, was through our shortwave radio where we’d listen to Armed Forces Radio (listened to many a baseball game while in bed) and the Voice Of America.   Hearing the A Train reminded of the lead into Willis Conover’s program on VOA. Good memories. 

Hey Brad, so glad you enjoyed the show, and thanks for sharing those vivid memories as well.  The Night Lights show on Willis Conover starts with that A-Train introduction... "Time for jazz--Willis Conover with the Voice of America jazz hour":

Conover's Coming Over: Willis Conover and Jazz on the Voice of America

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27 minutes ago, Brad said:

David, didn’t know you did a show on the VOA. Will give it a listen!

Let me know what you think!  It's an older show (I did it about 10 years ago), but it was definitely a labor of love--the focus is on Conover.  I interviewed a biographer of his and got a couple of quotes from George Avakian as well... and there's some archived interviews with Conover himself, though done late in life after the operation that changed his voice.  Also some bits from his VOA broadcasts, and music and artists that he championed, plus a rare 45 that he released of a collaboration with guitarist Charlie Byrd.

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I just listened to it and enjoyed it tremendously since I knew little about his life.  Obviously, the parts that interested me the most was his impact on his overseas audience.  The shortwave radio was our best friend. Hearing the A Train and his intro literally took me back and literally gave me the shivers.

What I found dismaying was the criticism he received for the music he played. No one can understand what it was like to live overseas in the 50s and the 60s where you were always starved for news from the United States and living in a dictatorship and I was American! I can’t imagine what his show and the VOA meant for people living in the Iron Curtain. 

My compliments on the work you did to put this show together, and many thanks. 

I also want to add that I can never listen to Take the A Train without thinking of the VOA and Willis Conover. 

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