Harlem: Week Of 9/17/07 - Alan Freed - Live '56

For the FIRST TIME in 50 Years!

ALAN FREED: Live 1956

HARLEM presents LIVE vintage performances by the top rhythm and blues acts of 1956 as performed on Alan Freed's Rock N' Roll Dance Party Radio show.

Alan Freed was the most important and influential DJ of the 1950s by exposing a mass white audience to the as-yet undiscovered sounds of rhythm and blues. In 1956, Freed hosted a summer replacement series over CBS Radio called The Rock and Roll Dance Party. Each week, he'd feature the top R&B groups, backed by Count Basie's orchestra and Sam "The Man" Taylor. Joe Williams even sang with the band on some of the shows. For the first time in 49 years, these performances will air on national radio as HARLEM dedicates a solid hour to these wonderful, forgotten live gems. Live recordings are very rare from the 1950s, so this week's HARLEM is quite a milestone.

HARLEM airs on the 50s on 5:
Monday @ 1pm over NYC
Tuesday @ midnight over Boston (where a 1957 rock n' roll show put on by Freed caused a riot) Friday @ 6pm over Philly
Sunday @ 11am over Atlanta