Terry Teachout

In this episode, Soundcheck revisits a few recent favorite segments. 

First: Best-selling author Amy Tan talks about her first book in eight years, The Valley of Amazement, tells us what playing in a band with Stephen King is like, and, she plays a few favorite songs for Soundcheck's Pick Three series.

Then: Duke Ellington is one of the towering figures in American music, but there's more to his story than hits like "Take The A Train." Cultural critic and writer Terry Teachout discusses his new comprehensive biography about the iconic jazz composer and bandleader.

Plus: The jazz sax player and composer Matana Roberts continues her CoinCoin Project, which explores the history of "free people of color" in the early United States and her own family's long and widespread American tale.

In this episode: Duke Ellington is one of the towering figures in American music, but there's more to his story than hits like "Take The A Train." Cultural critic and writer Terry Teachout discusses his new comprehensive biography about the iconic jazz composer and bandleader.

Then, Bryce Dessner, one of the twin guitarists in The National, is also a classically trained composer, who has now written a number of string quartet pieces for the renowned Kronos Quartet. 

And the Northhampton, Mass. noise pop band Speedy Ortiz performs songs from its debut record Major Arcana, and a brand new, still untitled song in the Soundcheck studio.

Artists and audiences alike love to say they don’t pay attention to critics — but what newspaper would get rid of its movie reviews or its book page? Kurt Andersen and his guest, Washington Post critic Terry Teachout, talk about at the role of professional critics in the arts today. ...

Critics Kurt Andersen and the critic Terry Teachout explore the role criticism plays in the arts today, and how the internet is changing what it means to be a critic.