Music City on Chestnut Street was the spot for aspiring jazz musicians in the 1950s. Famous players like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Stan Getz would often take time out from gigging in town to give impromptu performances and technical sessions to young instrumentalists at the popular music store. Philadelphia music historian Jack McCarthy lights up another smoking chapter from the city’s robust jazz era

Long before One Liberty Place leveled the area with sky-high apartments and upscale shopping, Ranstead Street used to belong to Billy Krechmer. His little jazz club burned with Swing and Dixieland brass for over 28 years. Music historian and archivist Jack McCarthy has the skinny on this long-lost gem

Quaker influence kept the volume turned way down on early Philadelphia’s musical output. The consecration of Old Swedes’ Church in July 1700 changed that, and as Jack McCarthy writes, that first documented musical performance included an unlikely participant: Kelpius and his Mystics of the Wissahickon

A show at the Society Hill Playhouse and a series of weekly happy hours at the Gershwin Y bring Dizzy Gillespie back into the spotlight. Jack McCarthy profiles Dizzy’s years in Philadelphia and the Downbeat club that laid the foundations for his stardom

Fifty years ago, Philadelphia was at the heart of the American pop music scene. And then, almost overnight, it wasn’t. Local music historian Jack McCarthy brings us the story

Dranoff Properties’ plans for a hotel-condo tower mean the former home of the “Philadelphia Sound” and Cameo-Parkway Records will likely be torn down. Jack McCarthy turns up the volume on not just one, but two major record labels who’ve passed through the doors at 301-309 South Broad Street

The Pennepack Baptist Church traces its roots to the days of William Penn and Thomas Holme. Jack McCarthy takes a look at its history as the church celebrates its 325th anniversary

Eighty years ago, Leopold Stokowski and pioneering sound engineers turned the Academy of Music into a multi-media hub for broadcast music. Jack McCarthy has the story of Bell Labs, Disney, and the first stereo broadcast performances