Halloween began long before candy or costumes — it was an Old-World harvest night brought to America by Irish and Scottish immigrants. In New Orleans, the cradle of jazz, those traditions found a natural home — a city steeped in ghosts, voodoo, and second-line magic, the perfect setting for a music that could raise the dead, or at least make ghosts dance.

Music: The Skeleton in the Closet - Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Dorsey Orch. (1936 ); Theme: Delta Serenade - Duke Ellington (1940); I'm a Jazz Vampire (1920) - Marion Harris; Dry Bones -Fats Waller and His Rhythm 1940; Skull Duggery - Hot Lips Page and His Band (1938); Boogaboo - Jelly Roll Morton (1928); A Ghost of a Chance - Mildred Bailey (1939); Mr. Ghost Is Goin’ to Town - Louis Prima (1936); The Ghost of Smokey Joe - Cab Calloway (1939); Abercrombie Had A Zombie - Fats Waller and His Rhythm (1940); Haunted House Blues - Bessie Smith (1924); Blue Spirit Blues - Bessie Smith (1929); Ghost of Yesterday - Billie Holiday (1940);

Music: "Wrappin' It Up" (1934); "Wha-Cha-Call ’em Blues" (1925); "D Natural Blues" (1928); "An American in Paris" (1928) (excerpt); “Radio Rhythm” (1931); “Tidal Wave” (1934); "Happy As The Day Is Long" (1934); "Hotter Than ’Ell" (1934); “Wrappin’ It Up” (1935); "Down South Camp Meeting” (1934, 1936); "King Porter Stomp" (1932, 1935); "Stealin' Apples" (1936, 1937); "Can You Take It" (1933); "The Stampede" (1937).

Composers/Arrangers: Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, Bill Challis, Horace Henderson, Benny Carter, Nat Leslie, Russ Morgan, Harold Arlen, Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton.

Put And Take (Adrian Rollini, bass sax, hot fountain pen, Joe Venuti's Blue Four, 1930); Delta Serenade - Theme (Duke Ellington, 1940); I'm Coming Virginia (Sidney Bechet, sop sax, & His New Orleans Feetwarmers, 1941); Wang Wang Blues (Rollini, "goofus", The Goofus Five, 1927); Knockin' on wood (Red Norvo, xylophone, 1933); Jazz Me Blues (Adrian Rollini Trio, vibes, chimes, 1950); Girls Like You Were Meant For Boys Like Me (Red McKenzie's Mound City Blue Blowers, comb, 1930); For No Reason at All in C (Frankie Trumbauer, C melody sax 1927); Wild Cat, (Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, 1927); Junk Man (Jack Teagarden, Caspar Reardon, harp, 1934); Sweet Sue (Dave Apollon, mandolin, 1933); Sugar (Alberta Hunter, Fats Waller pipe organ (1927); Summit Ridge Drive (Artie Shaw and His Gramercy Five, Johnny Guarnieri, harpsichord, 1940); Mr. J.B. Blues (Jimmie Blanton, bass, Duke Ellington, 1940).

A 60 min. version of the Jelly Roll Morton episode. More tunes! More details.

Music: (Original) Jelly Roll Blues (1910; rec. 1923); King Porter Stomp (1923); Alan Lomax Library of Congress Interviews (1938); Black Bottom Stomp” (1926); The Crave (1910; rec. 1938); The Pearls (1927); Maple Leaf Rag (1899; rec. 1938); Grandpa’s Spells (1926); Shreveport (Stomp) (1929; Freakish (1929); Hyena Stomp (1927) Sidewalk Blues (1926); Mamie’s Blues (1900; rec. 1938); Doctor Jazz (1926).

Performers: Jelly Roll Morton, The Red Hot Peppers.

Whether or not Jelly Roll Morton actually invented jazz, as he famously claimed, his remarkable journey from Storyville to the Library of Congress is worth reconsidering. Blends commentary, historic recordings, and interviews to reveal Morton’s genius, contradictions, and enduring role in shaping the sound and story of early jazz. Music: "Original Jelly Roll Blues" (1924), “King Porter Stomp” (1923), Alan Lomax interviews, Library of Congress (1938), “Black Bottom Stomp” (1926), “The Pearls” (1926), "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899), “Grandpa’s Spells" (1926), “Shreveport Stomp” (1929), “Freakish” (1929), "Mamie's Blues" (1900), “Doctor Jazz” (1926). Performers: Jelly Roll Morton, The Red Hot Peppers.

John Hammond was a visionary jazz producer and talent scout who discovered or championed Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, and Lester Young. A tireless advocate for integration, he helped break racial barriers in jazz, produced historic recordings, and brought Black artists to wider audiences through concerts and radio.

Music: Count Basie: "One O'Clock Jump" (1937), Bessie Smith: "Downhearted Blues" (1923); Garland Wilson: "St. James Infirmary/ When Your Lover Has Gone" (1931); Billie Holiday: “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” (1933); Billie Holiday: "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" (1935); Benny Goodman: "After You've Gone" (1935); From Spirituals to Swing, 1938.

Bassists: Pops Foster, Wellman Braud, Thelma Terry, Walter Page, June Rotenberg, Slam Stewart, Jimmy Blanton. Music: Mahogany Hall Stomp, Washington Wobble, Freeze and Melt, Starlight and Tulips, Pagin' The Devil, Blue Devil Blues, Hesitation Boogie, Play Fiddle, Play, Jack the Bear.

Bessie Smith (1894-1937), the Empress of the Blues. Featuring: Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, St. Louis Blues, Beale Street Mama, Cake Walkin' Babies From Home, Backwater Blues, After You've Gone, Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl, Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer).