05/21/2026
What? No Anniversary Albums??? I'm afraid that's the case for tonight's Jazz Masters. But worry not, we've got many other fine things in store for you nonetheless.
We'll continue our tenor sax battles feature from last Thursday as we send our sincere thanks to each and every one of you who pledged during WPFW's Spring Fund Drive. THANK YOU!!!
Thanks to you, we just barely made our goal for last Thursday, however, we still have to contend with that $1200 shortfall from the FIRST Thursday of the drive. If you can pledge now to help us make up for that shortfall, two $50 a month Sustainer pledges will do the trick, or one $100 a month Sustainer pledge will get it done! So will ten of you pledging $100 each, or $10 per month as Sustainers.
We'll also take some time tonight to begin our station-wide celebration of Miles Davis' 100th birth anniversary, which is coming up on May 26th, next Tuesday.
Of course, Memorial Day is coming before that, and so we'll once again spotlight V-Discs, short for Victory Discs, on tonight's Jazz Masters.
V-Disc was a record label formed in 1943 to provide records for U.S. military personnel during WWII. Many popular singers, big bands, and orchestras of the day recorded V-discs for Armed Forces Radio and the troops stationed overseas.
Some background: The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) union was involved in the 1942–44 musicians' strike in which there was a recording ban on four recording companies.
George Robert Vincent was a noted audio engineer at the time, and pioneer in the field of sound recording and archiving. During the Second World War, he had helped to establish the Armed Forces Radio Service.
In October 1943, Vincent intervened in the musicians' strike and convinced the AFM to allow its union's musicians to make records for the military, with a few conditions: 1) the discs could not be sold and 2) the masters were to be disposed of afterwards. Musicians who had contracts with different record labels were now able to record together for this nonprofit enterprise.
This is how V-Discs were born. Vincent was subsequently awarded the Legion of Merit for his contributions to troop morale, and - interesting sidebar - after the war, he served as a sound recording officer at the Nuremberg Trials.
An all-star group with Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Art Tatum recorded concerts that were released as V-Discs. The program was run by the Army's Special Services Division. Artists and repertoire responsibilities were handled by two execs from RCA Victor, one from Decca Records, and one from Columbia Records. The program started for the Army, but soon music was provided for the Navy and Marines.
Tonight, we'll spotlight some gems from the V-Disc recordings catalogue.
And, although we've been putting the kibosh on celebrating birthdays of late, we will make an exception tonight for one very special birth anniversary, that of Thomas "Fats" Waller, born in New York City on this date - May 21st - in the year 1904. We'll focus on Fats' September 1943 recordings for the V-Disc label, which were among his final recordings. He passed away at 39 just a few months later, in December 1943.
We begin this evening at 7pm ET on WPFW 89.3 FM and live streaming at WPFW.org.
Earlier in 1943, Fats Waller participated as part of the all-star cast in the filming of the great musical, Stormy Weather, where he performed this classic tune with Ada Brown. Stormy Weather was released in July 1943.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZFsm9msv4
Fats Waller & Ada Brown : That Ain't Right (Nat 'King' Cole & Irving Mills), with Lena Horne, dancer , Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, drummer Zutty Singleton, ba...
