WNYC's Jazz Loft Radio Series, scheduled for late 2009/early 2010, will draw on remarkable discoveries contained in thousands of hours of tapes found in the W. Eugene Smith archive. In collaboration with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, WNYC will present a far-ranging series that combines several elements: interviews with surviving musicians who lived and played in the jazz loft; jam sessions; rehearsals; sounds of life in the loft; and commentary from some of the most esteemed scholars and experts in the field. The "field" in question is not only jazz, it's the culture of postwar America, and especially urban culture.

The Jazz Loft Radio Series will feature, among other subjects:

+ The photographer W. Eugene Smith, who moved into the loft at 821 Sixth Avenue, turned on his tape recorder in 1957 and, while the tapes were rolling, shot 40,000 photos of his life in the flower district loft.

+ The period "before the loft," when musicians who had served in World War II came to New York, discovered 52nd Street ("Street of Jazz"), found other players, and then gravitated to the loft to jam.

+ The Thelonious Monk/Hall Overton Town Hall concert sessions, recorded at the loft during the three-week rehearsal period just prior to the February 1959 concert (featuring Monk, Overton, and the Monk Tentet).

+ The changes in jazz, urban living, and culture taking place during this rich postwar period.


Listen to the Jazz Loft Radio Series preview


Personnel for the Jazz Loft Radio Series:
Sara Fishko, Senior Producer and Host
Dean Cappello, Executive Producer (Chief Creative Officer / Senior VP of Programming for WNYC)
Edward Haber, Technical Director
Julie Burstein, Editorial Consultant
Alexander Yellen, Assistant


Sara Fishko is a Senior Producer and Host at WNYC Radio in New York.  Her long-running series of features, Fishko Files, is a staple of WNYC's cultural programming. Her short and long programs on art, music, culture, and media have been heard widely on National Public Radio and have won her multiple major awards, such as the Armstrong, the Edward R. Murrow, the Front Page Award of the Newswomen's Club, and the New York Press Club Award, among many others. Fishko Files is now in its tenth year, running as part of Morning Edition. 


Listen to episodes of the Fishko Files
Moran on Monk (October 10, 2007)
John Levy, Jazz Master (January 13, 2006)
Jazz Companion (August 12, 2005)
Chick Corea (November 5, 2004)
Dave Brubeck (March 19, 2004)
Keith Jarrett (June 6, 2003)




The Jazz Loft Project at WNYC is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this audio clip do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.