For the FIRST TIME in 50 Years!

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 50 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 11/20 @ 1pm over NYC
Tuesday 11/21 @ 9pm over LA – Midnight over Newark
Friday 11/24 @ 6pm over Boston (where a 1957 rock n’ roll show put on by Freed caused a riot)
Sunday 11/26 @ 11am over Atlanta