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August 2004

Civil Rites

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Maybe the Republican National Convention should come to town every week, because there hasn't been this much arts activity in New York in a long time. WNYC cultural reporter Alicia Zuckerman gives us the scoop on the more than 125 arts offerings presented under the umbrella of The Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, as well as the Thalia Follies and numerous other events taking place around town. Also on the show: Music can be used to foster confidence, cooperation, and other good things for children. But can it also be fun? Adam Jacobs, executive director of Kids Creative, a new nonprofit organization that presents after-school programs and workshops in the New York area, stops by to discuss his unique approach to arts education.


Keeping it Real

Monday, August 30, 2004

Today on Soundcheck: music that eludes easy classification. The Clogs is a New England-based, four-piece ensemble that uses classical instruments to play songs that blend classical, folk, rock, and world music influences. Critics say the band’s stylish arrangements and dynamic style brings to mind everything from klezmer music to Erik Satie and the Tin Hat Trio. The band has just released its third album and joins us with a preview. Also on the show is Olabelle, a New York-based sextet that has just wrapped up a summer tour as opening act for singer Diana Krall. The group’s sound draws on nearly every genre of American music and has been associated with the new folk revival movement known as "neo-primitivism" – enhancing the raw, authentic flavor of traditional music with the latest musical innovations and ideas.


Blazing Banjo

Friday, August 27, 2004

Official banjoist for the New York Yankees and pianist-vocalist with Woody Allen's New Orleans Jazz Band, Cynthia Sayer has no shortage of good stories to tell, and we get a few today when she joins guest host Chris Bannon for a conversation and performance. Sayer is often considered to be among the top jazz banjo players in the world, performing the early jazz of the 1920s, '30s and '40s. An anomaly of sorts, being a female in a male-dominated profession, she’s sought to bring a new awareness and respect to the banjo.

Also on the program, the organizers of a series of performances called ‘The Republic in Ruins” featuring a group of acclaimed musicians, and speakers brought together to examine the state of civic dialogue in the country. Part of the Imagine Fetsival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, the “Republic in Ruins” takes its inspiration from novelist Gunther Grass, who wrote that “The job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.” Pianist Vijay Iyer and singer and actress Haleh Abghari will be join Chris Bannon on the program.


Mo’ than Mozart

Thursday, August 26, 2004

What could be the connection between Mozart’s "Requiem" and Indian and Persian improvisations? Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival hopes to find out tomorrow night when it presents the string duo Ghazal alongside Mozart’s final masterpiece. That the festival has been known for much of its 38-year-history as a mainstay of Western classical music makes this concert all the more daring. Today, members of Ghazal joins guest host Chris Bannon with a live performance. Speaking of Mozart’s Requiem, Marion Lignana Rosenberg, a regular contributor to Newsday and Time Out New York, joins us to review a new CD of the work, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.


“Cashing” In

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

On the show today, we’ll be talking about whether you can separate an artist’s political views from their music. Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone magazine will be by to talk about the spate of artists proclaiming their politics.

Johnny Cash, country music's Man in Black, died nearly a year ago, just months after the death of his wife, June Carter. The family’s musical legacy lives on with several projects, however, including new books, a film biography, and a tribute recording titled "The Unbroken Circle – The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family." Today, the album’s producer, John Carter Cash—who is the son of June Carter and Johnny Cash—joins guest host Chris Bannon to shed some light on the disc, which features performances by artists from Sheryl Crow to Kris Kristofferson.


And Who Says Late August is Dull?

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Broadway may be anticipating a slow couple of weeks at the box office, with the Republican National Convention in town and the traditionally slow Labor Day weekend. This may be all the more reason to seize the opportunity to see Avenue Q. The Tony-winning musical, of course, became a left-field hit last year by sending up popular children's television shows such as "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company." Today, guest host Chris Bannon talks with cast member Ann Harada about how success is treating the musical, and about her critically lauded portrayal of the character Christmas Eve. Chris also visits with the singer/songwriter Mary Mulliken, whose music possesses a kind of free-spirited eclecticism that harkens back to the 1920s and 30s, and evokes the spirit of Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline.


Rapper's Delight

Monday, August 23, 2004

Rapper and actor Mos Def has taken on Broadway with his performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Topdog/Underdog" and has appeared in films such as "Monster's Ball" and "Showtime." He adds another credit to his wide-ranging career this week when he presides over the debut of the Mos Def Big Band. Featuring some of New York’s top jazz musicians and featuring material by Miles Davis, Gil-Scott Heron, Beyonce, plus his original compositions, Mos Def says the band will explore the boundaries between jazz, soul and hip-hop. He joins us with a preview. Also on the show, New Orleans pianist Henry Butler. He’s just as comfortable performing jazz, R&B and blues, as he is French art songs, opera arias, and traditional Indian music. He’s also spent much of his time away from the piano pursuing a rather unusual hobby: photography—this, despite the fact that he’s been blind since infancy. He joins us with a live performance.


Bell de jour

Friday, August 20, 2004

Violinist Joshua Bell is arguably one of the most well-known young classical musicians of our time. He’s performing as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival this month and he’ll be in today to talk about the influence of some of the Golden Age violinists on his young, and bright, career. And Professor Simon Morrison has suffered for his art: scouring the archives in unheated St. Petersburg libraries, traveling through remote, former Soviet-bloc states, taking ballet lessons despite being a self-described klutz. Why does he persist? Because he loves the music. He’s be on Soundcheck today to explain the source of his passion fro Russian music, and to offer some deeper insight into one of the more talked about Russians of the day: Dmitri Shostakovich, who is being celebrated by the Bard Music Festival this weekend.


Compose Yourself!

Thursday, August 19, 2004

It’s not often that a concert pianist is described by critics as a “musician with smoke coming out of his ears.” Jed Distler has been feeding the fire of innovation at the Composers Collaborative, a group that aspires to bring new audiences to contemporary music by fostering collaborations with between composers, poets, and spoken word artists. Distler, along with the pianist and composer Beata Moon will be in to share some of the results of what they’ve been cooking up. Composer and regular Soundcheck commentator, Danny Felsenfeld joins us for a weekly CD review.


Rhapsodies in Red and Blue

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

China’s oldest orchestra was founded in 1879, two years before the Boston Symphony. Since then, classical music has woven its way into the lives of ordinary Chinese people. Millions of Chinese children take piano and violin lessons every week and many of today’s most important living composers have emerged from the country. Today on Soundcheck, Jingdong Cai and Sheila Melvin, co-authors of Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese join us to discuss the history of Western classical music in China. We also look at “Rhapsody in Blue,” the George Gershwin classic that is the subject of a fascinating new compendium called The George Gershwin Reader, edited by Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson. Wyatt joins us to share some historic recordings of the piece, as well as a recording of Gershwin’s own radio show from the 1930s.


The Generation Gap

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

The young Chiara String Quartet has been making a name for itself over the past decade, whether by performing in residence at the Juilliard School or in the rural community of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The quartet, which takes their name from an Italian term meaning “light, pure or clear,” performs the music of Shostakovich live in the WNYC studio. Also on the show, we visit with author, teacher, and radio personality David Dubal, who joins us to address a very pertinent question: are today’s classical pianists boring? Dubal is the author of The Art of the Piano and is moderating a film series at the Mostly Mozart Festival devoted to rare concert and rehearsal footage of keyboard giants like Maurizio Pollini and Rudolf Serkin. Dubal sheds some light on the Golden Age of the pianist (which lasted from roughly 1830 to 1960) and he looks at living pianists today who may fall under the same rubric.


A Power Trio and Dynamic Duo

Monday, August 16, 2004

Guest host Julie Burstein visits with members of the chamber jazz group Tin Hat Trio, who will perform music from their latest album Book of Silk, which features the violin, accordion, and guitar traipsing through gauzy soundscapes and textural ghost stories. The New York Press has said the Trio interweaves “Old World Europe with postmodern America, south-of-the-border sensuality with concert-hall propriety, and odd-metered syncopation with deeply soulful grooves.” Later we’ll speak with choreographer Sean Curran and music theater composer Ricky Ian Gordon, whose latest collaboration will be performed at Jacob’s Pillow, the Berkshires-based dance festival later this month.


With Guest Host Rick Karr

Friday, August 13, 2004

Today on Soundcheck, our guest host will be Rick Karr, who reports from New York on culture and technology for NPR News. Rick has also been a contributor to the PBS show NOW with Bill Moyers. He has written about pop music and culture for New Musical Express, Sounds, Stereo Review, and the late SonicNet Web site.


Caught in the Net

Thursday, August 12, 2004

There is no shortage of artists who have horror stories from working with record labels. Among them is Maria Schneider, a prize-winning composer and arranger in jazz, who made three discs for a label that sold a respectable 20,000 copies but of which she didn't make a dime from. So she turned to a company called ArtistShare. Rather than go through labels, distributors and retailers, ArtistShare sells discs over the Web and turns over all the proceeds (minus a small fee) to the artist. Guest host Rick Karr speaks with Schneider about her experiences making her first disc for the company. We’re also joined by Brian Camelio, a 38-year-old musician and computer programmer, who started ArtistShare after he heard stories from too many friends frustrating experiences with record labels.


The Tyranny of Copyright?

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

With the rise of file-sharing and MP3s, the music and entertainment industry has found itself faced with a sweeping range of issues concerning appropriation and intellectual property. Today we attempt to define some of the fault lines when guest host Rick Karr is joined by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and NYU professor of Media Studies and author of “Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity.” He discusses how “copyright” is not quite the seal and safeguard for consumers and producers of culture-ware that we’re often led to believe. Also on the show is pianist and composer Gao Ping, who very quietly has been taking Russian tunes from 20s and 30s and incorporating them into his compositions.


Blues Women

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Tune into Soundcheck today when the guest host will be playwright, musician and author Carl Hancock Rux. Rux began his career in the arts as a spoken-word poet, performing at the famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the East Village. He has since matured into an actor, musician, playwright, and novelist. He won a prestigious Obie Award in 2002 for his play "Talk," and his latest novel, "Asphalt," is thick with meditations on a post-apocalyptic New York. Today’s guests include Imani Uzuri whose collaborations include co-writing and recording with jazz legend Herbie Hancock, hiphop artist Talib Kweli, drum n bass pioneers 4Hero, and producer/dj King Britt. Also joining us is Tish Benson, author of Wild Like That; Good Stuff Smellin' Strong, a collection of poetry and short stories, exploring her ex-southern black belle journey from the spirited fool to "spirit-mental" bohemian folk conjurer.


Uncovering the Records of History

Monday, August 09, 2004

Guest host Carl Hancock Rux speaks with Tim Brooks, of Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1890-1919. Released this year, the book is the first in-depth history of the involvement of African-Americans in the early recording industry, tracing the first three decades of sound recording in the United States, and charting the vigorous and varied roles black artists played in the period leading up to the Jazz Age. For a different perspective on African-Americans in the recording business, we’re joined by Village Voice columnist Greg Tate.


Latin-American Lyricists

Friday, August 06, 2004

Broadly speaking, South American music is best known for its lively rhythms and exuberant melodies. But not to be overlooked is a deep literary-philosophical strain. Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza has set the lyrics of Pablo Neruda for her album "Neruda," a tribute to the late Nobel Prize winner, Pablo Neruda, and featuring ten of his poems, translated into English and orchestrated for piano, voice, and percussion. Similarly, composer Osvaldo Golijov has emerged as one of the leading contemporary composers from South America, combining the prayers and folk songs of his Jewish heritage with the Latin and classical traditions of his Argentine homeland. He joins us today to discuss how he has set the poems of Neruda and Emily Dickinson, among others.


Paganini Variations

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Jazz violinist Regina Carter recently performed on the famous Guarneri violin once owned by 19th-century virtuoso, Nicolò Paganini. No jazz musician had ever laid hand on the violin, nor had any African-American. The idea of jazz being played on the precious instrument unleashed heated controversy in Genoa, Italy, Paganini’s birthplace and owner of the instrument. But when Carter held a press conference and charmed the Italian press, public opinion immediately changed. She joins us today to discuss this remarkable experience. Also joining us is piano veteran Randy Weston, whose 50-year career has explored the link between Africa and the blues. He plays live in the WNYC performance studio.


A Requiem for Classical Music?

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Does Mozart really all sound the same? Are Wagner's operas much better with cuts? Could Schumann never orchestrate his way out of a paper bag? David Hurwitz, executive editor of ClassicsToday.com makes these and other claims in a recent column which argues that the problem with classical music is that people too often feel that it's a "take it or leave it" proposition. In fact, he says, not all great composers achieved greatness all the time, despite what critics and those in the music business will lead you to believe. Hurwitz joins us to share some examples. Also on the show, Norman Lebrecht, British critic and author of Who Killed Classical Music?: Maestros, Managers and Corporate Politics. He recently argued in a column that "the year 2004 will be the last for the classical record industry” and joins us today to discuss whether the industry is really in its death throes.


Rock Me Amadeus

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

In Louis Langrée’s second season as music director, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival is expanding in every direction. That includes Persian and Indian improvisation sharing a program with the Mozart Requiem; modern dance with Mark Morris and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker; and period-instrument ensembles performing Baroque masters. In advance of tonight’s opener concert at Avery Fisher Hall (broadcast live on WNYC) Langrée joins us today with a preview of the season. Also on the show, pianist Jonathan Biss returns to the Soundcheck studio for a live performance. A former student of Leon Fleisher, he was a recipient of a 1999 Avery Fisher Career Grant and has since been racking up an impressive list of performance credits.


Renee Fleming and Illinois Jacquet Perform Jazz Standards

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Illinois Jacquet, known throughout the jazz world for his roof-raising style on the tenor saxophone, died of a heart attack last month at the age of 81. In tribute, Soundcheck features an encore broadcast of his December 2003 performance in the WNYC studio with soprano Renee Fleming and pianist Larry Ham. This was the first and only time that these major American artists performed together although it was not their first meeting. While attending the State University of New York at Potsdam, Fleming and Ham performed a regular weekend gig with a jazz trio in a local, off-campus pub. When Jacquet was invited to conduct an on-campus master class, he was won over by Fleming’s performance. While there were long-gestated plans for a commercial recording project, this broadcast documents a one-of-a-kind collaboration.