| Show Name: | Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts |
| Format: | Dixieland/jazz music |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Home Station: | WJZ |
| Presenter: | Eddie Condon |
| Director: | Jack Bland Addison Amore |
| Producer: | Ernest Anderson |
Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts is an American old-time radio program featuring Dixieland and jazz music. It was broadcast on the Blue Network from May 20, 1944, to April 7, 1945.[1]
In 1942, musician Eddie Condon began staging concerts in New York City, with Carnegie Hall and Town Hall as venues. By 1944, the performances were sold out.[2] In 1944, the Blue Network began broadcasting the concerts, which The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series described as "Jazz music of a high standard".[3] The broadcasts began "about eight performances into the series".[4]
The program typically began with a jazz song, after which Condon commented on the song and introduced the band's members. The network described the programs as "the only unrehearsed, free-wheeling, completely barefoot music on the air."[4]
Condon was the program's host, with broadcasts featuring what the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings called "many of the era's greatest musicians".[5] Among them was singer Lee Wiley, described in the encyclopedia as "a near-regular" on the show.[5] The broadcasts found Condon "surrounded by the greatest names in jazz—Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Bob Haggart."[6]
Jack Bland and Addison Amore were the directors, and Ernest Anderson was the producer.[4]
The broadcasts of Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts have been made available commercially by Jazzology, creating "jazz's time capsule [that] lives on through the Golden Age of Radio".[4]
. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio . John Dunning (detective fiction author) . 1998 . Oxford University Press . New York, NY . 978-0-19-507678-3 . 225. Revised . 2019-09-04.