The first hour of this week’s Blues Before Sunrise establishes a lively, jazz-centered opening through a succession of performers whose recordings bring together dance rhythm, vocal groups, piano, and individual singers. Tab Smith’s “Boogie Joogie” starts the program with a title that immediately suggests motion, then Cab Calloway takes over for four consecutive selections: “That Man Is Here Again,” “Copper Colored Gal,” “The Hi-De-Ho Miracle Man,” and “Good Sauce from the Gravey Bowl.” The Calloway sequence gives the hour an early focal point before the program moves into another extended pairing.

Slim & Slam follow with five selections: “Dopey Joe,” “Sweet Safronia,” “Buck Dance Rhythm,” “Ti-Pi-Tin,” and “Oh Lady Be Good.” Their run is the hour’s largest artist grouping and reinforces the opening’s interest in rhythm and vocal interplay. The titles should not be expanded into claims about arrangements or lyrical meaning, but their placement after the Calloway set gives the first hour a strong continuity. Rather than constantly changing direction, the program begins by allowing two major groupings to occupy substantial space.

Lena Horne changes the hour’s voice with “Baby Come Out of the Clouds,” “Where or When,” “Trembling of a Leaf,” and “You Got Looks.” Four consecutive Horne recordings make another clearly defined section. The sequence preserves the hour’s attention to singers while shifting away from the preceding Slim & Slam passage. Again, the show does not need an explanatory theme to make the arrangement work. The performer-centered blocks establish their own logic: a series of close looks, each with enough room for listeners to register the artist before the next change.

The Delta Rhythm Boys arrive with “One-Sided Love Affair,” followed by Meade Lux Lewis’s “Chicago Flyer.” Buck & Bubbles perform “Sweet Georgia Brown,” and Spirits of Rhythm appear with “Long Way from Tipperary.” These four selections create the final turn of the hour, moving among a vocal group, a pianist, a duo, and another rhythm-oriented ensemble. The programming is especially broad here, but it remains consistent with the hour’s opening interest in jazz, vocals, and swinging momentum.

Tab Smith returns at the end with “All My Life.” That return gives the hour a simple frame: Smith starts the show with “Boogie Joogie” and reappears after the intervening series of artists. The source supplies no note that labels the return as intentional, but in the playlist order it functions as a natural closing gesture. It also keeps the hour from ending on a completely new name after so many changes in personnel.

The hour is built less as a historical survey than as a sequence of well-defined listening spaces. Cab Calloway receives four songs. Slim & Slam receive five. Lena Horne receives four. Those artist runs are balanced by shorter appearances from the Delta Rhythm Boys, Meade Lux Lewis, Buck & Bubbles, and Spirits of Rhythm. The differences in length give the program its rhythm: extended visits, concise detours, and a return to the opening artist.

That structure makes Hour 1 an effective entry point for the five-hour show. It begins with a strong rhythmic impulse, keeps singers and vocal ensembles near the center, and leaves space for piano and smaller-group contrast. The selections do not require invented narrative links to feel connected. Their order, their recurring attention to particular artists, and their shared placement in a jazz-minded opening are enough. By the close, Tab Smith’s return provides a final familiar name before the show moves on to the blues, R&B, and gospel direction of Hour 2.

Hour 1 Playlist

Boogie Joogie — Tab Smith

That Man Is Here Again — Cab Calloway

Copper Colored Gal — Cab Calloway

The Hi-De-Ho Miracle Man — Cab Calloway

Good Sauce from the Gravey Bowl — Cab Calloway

Dopey Joe — Slim & Slam

Sweet Safronia — Slim & Slam

Buck Dance Rhythm — Slim & Slam

Ti-Pi-Tin — Slim & Slam

Oh Lady Be Good — Slim & Slam

Baby Come Out of the Clouds — Lena Horne

Where or When — Lena Horne

Trembling of a Leaf — Lena Horne

You Got Looks — Lena Horne

One-Sided Love Affair — Delta Rhythm Boys

Chicago Flyer — Meade Lux Lewis

Sweet Georgia Brown — Buck & Bubbles

Long Way from Tipperary — Spirits of Rhythm

All My Life — Tab Smith