Supermoon Playlist
In honor of the nearest Supermoon in 68 years here are 10 songbook songs to fill your moon watching experience: 1. "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" A song written in 1934 London by Harry M. Woods, but...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, January 21Eva Cassidy - American Tune - American TuneElla Fitzgerald - Reach For Tomorrow - The Intimate EllaRosemary Clooney - Better Luck Next Time - The Music Of Irving BerlinPeggy Lee -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend List
Saturday, January 28Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth - RetrospectiveLin-Manuel Miranda - Alexander Hamilton - HamiltonPaul Weston - Esplanade At Sunset - Crescent CityJackie Allen - You're...
View ArticleThe 47th Annual Salute to Baseball Playlist
For the past 47 years, Jonathan Schwartz has used his Super Bowl Sunday program to salute what he commonly refers to as "the greatest sport ever invented" - BASEBALL.Below is Jonathan's weekend...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, February 11Albert Brooks - Another Kooky Krazy Kall I - Comedy Minus OneLee Michaels - Heighty Hi - The CollectionBill Charlap - Not A Care In The World - Notes From New YorkRebecca Kilgore -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, February 18thOtis Redding - Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay - The Dock Of The BayPeggy Lee - Going To Chicago Blues - Blues Cross CountryQuincy Jones - Walkin' - Digital Big Band BashFrank...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, February 25thAlexis Cole - You And The Night And The Music - Close Your EyesJimmy Rushing/Dave Brubeck - Am I Blue - Brubeck & RushingAnnette Sanders/Mike Renzi - Then I'll Be Tired Of...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, March 4thBuffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth - RetrospectiveDanny Kaye - Let's Not Talk About Love - From This Moment OnCaetano Veloso - So In Love - A Foreign SoundFrank Sinatra - All...
View ArticleJonathan's Top 5 Female Songwriters
In honor of International Women's Day, we're demonstrating that The Great American Songbook is not a "boys only" club. Here are just five of many of Jonathan's favorite female songwriters. Learn more...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, March 11thCount Basie - One O'Clock Jump - Jazz Masters 2Sheila Jordan - If You Could See Me Now - Portrait Of SheilaLouis Armstrong - Just One Of Those Things - Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, March 18thLena Horne - My Buddy - We'll Be Together AgainBill Charlap - Only The Lonely - 'S WonderfulRebecca Kilgore - I'm Shooting High - This And ThatNicki Parrott - Everything I've Got -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, March 25thLin-Manuel Miranda - Alexander Hamilton - HamiltonBing Crosby - Shadows On The Window - The CroonerHank Jones - Gone With The Wind - HankMaureen McGovern - Make The Man Love Me -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, April 1stRebecca Luker - April Fooled Me - I Got LoveNat King Cole - Lost April - The Classic SinglesJo Stafford - When April Comes Again - The Portrait EditionBill Charlap - I'm Old...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, April 8Amanda McBroom - Errol Flynn - A Waiting HeartFrank Sinatra - If I Loved You - The Columbia Years: 1943-1952Frank Sinatra/Shirley Jones - If I Loved You - Classic DuetsVeronica Swift -...
View ArticleBill Murray Teams with Cellist Jan Vogler for Classical Summer Adventure
He’s surprised fans by hanging with Wu-Tang at SXSW and tending bar in Brooklyn. Now, Bill Murray is back at it with a classical kick. Don’t believe us? Watch that trailer.The actor is teaming up with...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, April 29thBuffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth - RetrospectiveJon Hendricks - Music In The Air - The Royal Bopsters ProjectDiana Krall - Sway - Turn Up The QuietTony Bennett - Tenderly -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, May 6thCourtenay Day - I'm Becoming My Mother - State Of Bliss Tommy Cecil/Bill Mays - Our Time - Our TimeJim Walton/Lonny Price - Our Time - Merrily We Roll AlongMaria Friedman - Broadway...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, May 13thRebecca Luker - Every Time We Say Goodbye - Anything GoesMandy Patinkin - Liaisons - Mandy Patinkin Sings SondheimBill Charlap - The Last Time I Saw Paris - WNYC RecordingAnn Sothern...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, May 20thMelissa Errico - And So It Goes - Blue Like ThatJohn Pizzarelli - Better Luck Next Time - I Like Jersey BestEva Cassidy - At Last - Time After TimeKate McGarry - Autumn Nocturne -...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, May 27thBuffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth - RetrospectiveHoward Da Silva - Little Tin Box - FiorelloPaula Cole - Lonelytown - CourageAbbey Lincoln - Throw It Away - A Turtle's...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Playlist
Saturday, June 3 , 2017Chet Baker - Do It The Hard Way - It Could Happen To YouChet Baker/Bill Evans - Alone Together - ChetBeverly Kenney - Almost Like Being In Love - Beverly Kenney Sings For Johnny...
View ArticleJonathan's Weekend Mix
Saturday, June 10thDick Hyman - Virtuoso Rag - SoloJessica Molaskey - Waitin' For the Train To Come In - PentimentoThe Rooftop Singers - Walk Right In - The Best Of The Rooftop SingersMark Murphy - The...
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Songbook Legends in their Youth
You know their songs and you know their voices, but do you know what some of your favorite songbook songwriters and performers looked like when they were young? Scroll down to see pictures and a...
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Can't Get Enough Darren Criss
If you are a certain age, you know that Darren Criss made his name on the hit show Glee. Or you may also know that he recently starred in American Crime Story, and the Broadway revival of Hedwig and...
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Songbook Canines
We're celebrating the dog lovers of The Great American Songbook and their canine pals: Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, backstage dressing room June 1946(William P. Gottlieb collection at the Library...
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Rachel Bloom & Julian Fleisher Ring In Year 5778
When Cole Porter first met Richard Rodgers during a slow point in his career, he confessed to the composer that he knew the key to his success on Broadway: just write "Jewish tunes."Why did WASP of...
View ArticleGreat Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums: Ella Fitzgerlad Live in Berlin
Will Friedwald, author of The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums, is exploring some of the finest recordings of the 20th century on The Jonathan Channel. This week he looks at the Mack the Knife: Ella in...
View ArticleThe Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums: Lambert, Hendricks and Ross Sing a Song...
Will Friedwald, author of The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums, is exploring some of the finest recordings of the 20th century on The Jonathan Channel. This week he deconstructs Sing a Song of Basie by...
View ArticleAmerican Songs, English Football
When Americans think about soccer, we usually imagine lean, quick athletes dashing across a lush green field shining in the Saturday afternoon sun. We may also imagine potbellied supporters bellowing...
View ArticleTop 10 Oscar Hammerstein Videos
Today is Oscar Hammerstein’s birthday! Celebrate some great interpretations of his songs. Leave us a comment and let us know which one is your favorite - or tell us if we missed a great one!To start...
View ArticleAn Ongoing Movement to Rename the Williamsburg Bridge
The 59th Street Bridge is called the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. The Triborough Bridge is now the RFK Bridge. What about naming a bridge for a New York cultural icon? That’s the goal of the Sonny...
View ArticleWatch Nellie McKay Live in Studio
Over the past ten years, one would be hard pressed to find a more active, devoted, and consistent agitator for the American Songbook than Nellie McKay. Beneath her chipper attitude, you'll hear a deep,...
View ArticleNellie McKay on Birdland and the Poconos
Singer-songwriter-activist and songbook interpreter Nellie McKay has a beautiful new album called Sister Orchid. She came to our studios recently to talk with host Paul Cavalconte about everything from...
View ArticleJazzmeia Horn makes A Social Call
This year, bandleader Jazzmeia Horn was the youngest Jazz Vocal Grammy Award nominee in two decades. After winning top prizes at the Sarah Vaughan and Thelonious Monk competitions, she recorded her...
View ArticleWQXR’s Best in Studio 2018: Leah Crocetto Sings from the Songbook
The holiday season is a time for gift-giving and nostalgia … and year-end best-of compilations! We’ve had some amazing artists visit WQXR in 2018, and now we’re looking back on some of our favorites....
View ArticleThe Jews Who Wrote Christmas
American Standards is counting down Christmas hits written by Jewish songwriters. These chosen people found a way to perfect and package the universal truths of the holiday season and in the process...
View ArticleA Chanukah Rhapsody
Perhaps you're one of those who don't consider the band Queen prime examples of American Songbook. That's understandable. The group started in the UK with a frontman who grew up in Zanzibar. And yet,...
View ArticleHoliday Standards 2018
Need something to get your holidays swinging? Holiday Standards is our gift to you! Let our cheery mix of classic and timeless holidays songs be the soundtrack for your party, whether you're...
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Top Shelf: Eydie Gorme
Edith Gormezano, better known as Eydie Gormé, sang on Broadway, television, and on the road as half of the husband-and-wife team Steve and Eydie. Gormé was born in the Bronx, and made her radio debut...
View ArticleRemembering Ethel Ennis and Stanley Donen
To most of us here, "The Great American Songbook" is scripture, a holy book, a bible, if you will. This monumental songbook might have been just a tiny pamphlet were it not for the pantheon of gods and...
View ArticleWalking To New Orleans with George Benson
In his nearly sixty year career, George Benson made his mark with R&B-inflected smooth jazz, taking side-trips into swing and straight-ahead combo jazz. On occasion, he would experiment with rock...
View ArticleNew Standards Juneteenth Special
Juneteenth is the holiday that celebrates Black Americans’ emancipation from slavery. More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect, U.S. troops arrived in Galveston, Texas —...
View ArticleHoliday Listening Party: Kat Edmonson's 'Holiday Swingin!'
Vocalist Kat Edmonson has proved herself to be a skillful interpreter of the Great American Songbook, as well as a writer of timeless and old-fashioned originals. But, surprisingly, she has never...
View ArticleAn Expanded '1619 Project,' BLM History for Young Readers, CRT in Schools, An...
The 1619 Project from The New York Times was first published in 2019, four hundred years after the first slave ship landed on the shores of the United States. The project aims to create a new framework...
View ArticleOut of the Dark-The Film Noir Project
If you’ve ever curled up with a Raymond Chandler novel on a rainy night, or gone bleary-eyed binge-watching TCM’s “Noir Alley,” then you’ll love this conversation Paul Cavalconte had with singer...
View ArticleJudy Collins Visits New Standards
Judy Collins visits New Standards while warming up for her performance at The Town Hall on February 25. Where she will be presenting her classic (and classically influenced) album Wildflowers,...
View ArticleSinger Laufey Honors Roots of Jazz In Modern Torch Songs
Icelandic singer and songwriter Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, known by the mononym Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay), is having a breakout year. Now based in L.A., the young singer with the timeless-sounding voice...
View ArticleCécile McLorin Salvant Finds “the Gems That Haven’t Been Sung and Sung”
When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in TheNew Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is...
View ArticleCécile McLorin Salvant Finds “the Gems That Haven’t Been Sung and Sung”
When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in The New Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is...
View ArticleCécile McLorin Salvant Finds “the Gems That Haven’t Been Sung and Sung”
When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in The New Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is...
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