Watch The Closing Doors:A History of New York’s Musical Melting Pot

Watch The Closing Doors: A History of New York’s Musical Melting Pot is a new double CD and LP series, released today, and compiled by renowned journalist and author Kris Needs:

Needs’ frighteningly-ambitious project aims to capture the fast-vanishing magic of New York City, documenting major musical landmarks and developments. The first volume focuses on the 1940s and 50s, and is accompanied by a book containing the relevant musical and social history, artist biographies, illustrations and Needs own stories and recollections of the city that once never slept. It includes jazz giants such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and Thelonius Monk, while John Cage and Raymond Scott represent the avant garde. Among the other artists are Billie Holiday, Allen Ginsberg, Nina Simone, and Cab Calloway.

MOJO magazine: “An intoxicating aurel evocation of a lost world” 4-STARS

RECORD COLLECTOR: “One of the most fascinating compilations series we’ve ever encountered” 5-STARS

THE WIRE: “Essential”

VILLAGE VOICE: “A dream soundtrack of every book you ever read, or wanted to read, about postwar New York City”