When nobody's around, and you're just by yourself, that's when the best jazz happens.

While W. Eugene Smith lived in a rundown loft in Manhattan’s Flower District, he recorded audio tape compulsively. More than two decades after his death, those tapes finally resurfaced.

Before W. Eugene Smith lived in the thick of New York’s jazz scene, he was a famous photographer for LIFE magazine. What compelled him to leave that life behind?

In this episode, hear samples of the spontaneous bursts of musical collaboration that were preserved, and kept in remarkable quality, on Smith's tape recordings.

By day, Hall Overton was an instructor of classical music at Juilliard. By night, he was living, teaching, and playing jazz piano at the Jazz Loft.

Like many of New York City's most influential artists, most of the prominent jazz musicians of the 1950s came from someplace else. This is the story of how the Jazz Loft came to be.

Ron Free was the the Jazz Loft’s "house drummer" from 1958 to 1960, before his struggles with addiction forced him out. His musical legacy, though, remains intact on Smith's tapes.

As each all-night jam session at the loft came to a close, musicians stumbled out into the fragrant air of the surrounding flower shops.

In early 1959, a genuine stir was created in the loft -- even among the more seasoned jazz players -- when Thelonious Monk turned up to rehearse.