[Dixielandjazz] Re: Strange Blues and Ray Smith

[l.swain at comcast.net]

On 18 Mar 2005 at 17:02, "Craig I. Johnson" <civanj at adelphia.net> wrote:

> 
> Bill  stated that "Strange Blues" would make a great theme for
> a "late night" disk jockey. Well it turns out that if one is a 
> New England devotee of this music referred to  in this list as
> :"OKOM", then a great program on (I think) WHDH from Boston
> is Ray Smith's  "Jazz Decades" Ray uses (or used to use
> -- I haven't heard him for a while)  "Strange Blues" as one of 
his
> themes (normally, I believe to seque from the first half hour
> to the second.)
> 
> I heard this tune for years on that program without knowing ever 
i
> knowing its title until I found the music, liked the title, 
played
> from the sheet music and discovered it was this same old
> favorite of mine.
> 
> Ray, by the way is also a well known trad jazz drummer in
> the Boston area as well.

Ray Smith's "Jazz Decades" has been broadcast from Boston's PBS 
station WGBH-FM for 33 years. I've been a listener on Sunday 
evenings a 7 PM since the beginning.

He lives now in the Carolinas.

Here is some info on him from http://www.wgbh.org/:

    Ray Smith has been broadcasting jazz for more than 42 years. 
    He has been with WGBH 89.7 since 1972. His signature show, 
    Jazz Decades, has been in syndication for the past 28 years. 
    Jazz Decades delves into the roots of jazz, explaining a 
    different aspect of traditional jazz every week.

    In 1997, Jazz Decades won first prize from the Massachusetts 
    Broadcasters Association for Metropolitan Stations Musical 
    Programming. A charter member of the International 
    Association of Jazz Record Collectors, Smith culls Jazz 
    Decades programs from the more than 90,000 titles in his 
    collection. 

    Smith has also been a jazz musician and band leader for more 
    than 20 years and has recorded 22 LPs and CDs. He can be 
    reached at jazzdecades at aol.com. 

    Listen to Jazz Decades every Sunday at 7pm online and on air 
    at WGBH 89.7. 

I haved a dynamite 1994 CD by his band The Paramount Jazz Band of 
Boston, with Ray on drums.

Larry Swain

Laurence Swain
l.swain at comcast.net
617 (571) 7885