Martin Block usually just spun records on his WNEW show, but for a while he was hosting thirty minute jam sessions, several of which have been preserved . . here featuring Charlie Shavers, Charlie Teagarden and Bobby Hackett (trumpet and cornet), Jack Teagarden and Vernon Brown (trombone), Joe Marsala and Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Dave Matthews (alto sax), Herschel Evans, Kenneth Hollon and Bud Freeman (tenor), Ernie Caceres (baritone), Fats Waller, Howard Smith and Joe Bushkin (p), Eddie Condon, Teddy Bunn and Carmen Mastren (guitar), Sam Shoobe, Artie Shapiro and Milt Hinton (bass), Cozy Cole, George Wettling and Zutty Singleton (drums), and Lionel Hampton (vib) on long performances unencumbered by time limits!

Thomas led several sessions featuring great jazz contemporaries playing his compositions and arrangements (see previous show) but he also participated in several at the same time led by drummer Cozy Cole and featuring an array of talent - Don Byas, Coleman Hawkins, Hank D'Amico, Emmett Berry, Eddie Barefield, Clyde Hart, Billy Taylor, Budd Johnson and others.

Interesting band led by the great pianist Hines for the first eight or nine months of 1954 - including Gene Redd (trumpet and vibes), Dickie Wells (trombone), Morris Lane and Jerome Richardson (tenor sax), Leroy Harris (clarinet/alto/bari), Carl Pruitt and Paul Binnings (sb), Eddie Burns, Hank Milo (d). Studio sessions and live dates from the Club Hangover in San Francisco

Saxophonist Walter "Foots" Thomas was never known as a great jazz player (he recorded numerous solos in his early days) but by the 1940's was highly regarded as a composer and arranger. He also was associated with the publisher and entrepreneur Joe Davis, for whom he assembled recording bands. Here are four sessions by these Thomas-led groups including Emmett Berry, Doc Cheatham and Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Eddie Barefield, Budd Johnson and Ernie Caceres on clarinet, Hilton Jefferson and Milt Yaner on alto sax, Johnson, Coleman Hawkins and Teddy McRae on tenor sax, Billy Taylor and Clyde Hart on piano, Milt Hinton and Slam Stewart on bass and Cozy Cole and Specs Powell on drums.

Third Stream before it was called that - several students of Darius Milhaud including Brubeck, Dave Van Kriedt (ts), Dick Collins (tpt), Bill Smith (clarinet), and Jack Weeks contribute arrangements of originals and standards using counterpoint, fugue and other classical techniques. With Paul Desmond (as), Bob Cummings (bars), Ron Crotty (sb), Carl Tjader (d) and Bob Collins (tbn)

Recordings by the Frank Trumbauer Orchestra without Bix! Mostly members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra - Andy Secrest, Harry Goldfield, Charlie Margulies, Bill Rank, Charles Strickfadden, Izzy Friedman, Roy Bargy, Lennie Hayton, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, George Marsh, Min Leibrook . .also with Stan King, Fud Livingston, Snoozer Quinn and Smith Ballew

Great swing tenor at the beginning of his bandleading career, featured with both late swing and bebop musicians including John Lewis, Gerald Wiggins, Art Blakey, Curly Russell, Kenny Clarke, Don Lamond, Pierre Michelot, Clyde Lombardi and others.

Great pre-Blanton/Webster band, this Ellington Orchestra has Rex Stewart, Wallace Jones, Cootie Williams, Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown, Joe Nanton, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick, Harry Carney, Ellington, Fred Guy, Billy Taylor and Sonny Greer doing all Ellington compositions and arrangements (with one Strayhorn tune). Some retreads of 1920's hits but mostly new tunes and arrangements!