In 'Black Music', a collection of essays, liner notes and interviews from 1959 to 1967, Amiri Baraka captures the ferment, energy and excitement of the avant-garde jazz scene. Published while he still went by LeRoi Jones, it provides a composite picture of Baraka’s evolving thought, aesthetic values and literary experimentation. In this episode, Brent and Ad ... Show More
Aug 10
London Revisited: Pepys, Plague and Fire
The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought a flurry of changes to London life. Women were allowed to appear on stage for the first time, the Royal Society was founded and the West End, with its squares, parks and fashionable ‘season’, was born. But the social whirl stopped a ... Show More
25 m
Aug 3
Narrative Poems: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ by John Keats
According to legend, a young woman who observes certain rites on 20 January, the Eve of St Agnes, will see in her dreams the man she is going to marry. When John Keats found himself in Chichester on that day in 1819, he was inspired to write his own account. In this episode, Seam ... Show More
16m 53s
Aug 2
The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Middlemarch’ by George Eliot
In ‘Middlemarch’, Tom McCarthy argues, George Eliot uses her ‘study of provincial life’ as a Trojan Horse to smuggle the continental philosophy of Spinoza and Hegel into the vicarages of middle England. In this episode, McCarthy joins Thomas Jones to discuss Eliot’s radical maste ... Show More
35m 43s
Sep 2019
The Birth of American Music
Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America. On today’s episode: Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times.“1619” is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find mo ... Show More
34m 33s
Sep 2023
Jonathan Leal, "Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop" (Duke UP, 2023)
In Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop (Duke UP, 2023), Jonathan Leal examines how the musical revolution of bebop opened up new futures for racialized and minoritized communities. Blending lyrical nonfiction with transdisciplinary critique and moving beyond standa ... Show More
1h 19m
Jan 2022
The great Black music symposium with Angel Bat Dawid, Qur'an Shaheed, Dr Adam Zanolini and Ben LaMar Gay
Qur'an Shaheed, Dr Adam Zanolini and Ben LaMar Gay join composer, improviser, clarinetist, and pianist Angel Bat Dawid to discuss the importance of not conforming, the struggle to find money to do what you love doing, recognising what your gifts are, and the experience of being d ... Show More
31m 8s
Sep 2018
David García, “Listening for Africa: Freedom, Modernity, and the Logic of Black Music’s African Origins” (Duke UP, 2017)
In Listening for Africa: Freedom, Modernity, and the Logic of Black Music’s African Origins (Duke University Press, 2017), David García reminds us that how culture is understood and interpreted not only reflects the political and social discourses of the day, but also shapes thos ... Show More
47m 54s
Jan 2020
In 2019, Jazz Reckoned With Old Boundaries, and Marched Past Them
A conversation about the best jazz albums of the year, and what they tell us about the genre’s future. Guests: Martin Johnson and Giovanni Russonello. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app he ... Show More
56 m