Rapp on Jazz
All Stations: Mon-Fri, throughout the day
Rapp on Jazz, co-produced by South Carolina Public Radio and the ColaJazz Foundation, highlights the Palmetto State's connection to the history of jazz music and the current jazz scene. Join Mark Rapp, executive director of the foundation and host of SC Public Radio’s ColaJazz Presents, for these 60-second segments covering everything from famous South Carolinians like Dizzy Gillespie and Eartha Kitt to the “Big Apple” dance craze of the 1930s to the best clubs to experience jazz in the state.
Latest Episodes
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In 1962, James Brown made the leap from rising star to musical icon with a single performance at midnight in the Apollo Theater. -
Before he became known as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown was a musically talented child growing up near the South Carolina-Georgia border.
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Tommy Benford, born in 1905, was a remarkable jazz drummer whose journey began—like his brother Bill’s—at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina.
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William “Bill” Benford, born in 1902, found his musical path through the legendary Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. As a child, he toured with the orphanage band’s musical revue as early as 1915, gaining early exposure to jazz on the move.
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In jazz, the rhythm section is more than just backup—it’s the engine, the compass, and the canvas for improvisation.
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If you’re learning jazz, or want to know the tunes musicians call at every jam session, there are 10 jazz standards everyone should know.
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Improvisation may sound spontaneous, but jazz musicians spend countless hours preparing for that freedom.
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Jazz musicians continue to expand the canon with modern tunes that have become new standards.
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Jazz standards are the songs every jazz musician knows — the shared language of the genre. But those standards didn’t all come from jazz.
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From the jump, jazz and dance have been inseparable—born in the same spaces of joy, resistance, and rhythm.