Podcast appearances and mentions of stanley crouch

Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz by Stanley Crouch ---00:00 Welcome and Introduction - Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz by Stanley Crouch01:00 Jazz, Music, and Chaos as Leadership06:40 Leontyne Price: Breaking Musical Barriers07:56 Stanley Crouch: Jazz Critic Remembered11:05 Stanley Crouch on Louis Armstrong18:24 Louis Armstrong: Jazz's Moses22:05 Miles Davis: From Jazz Icon to Controversy24:09 Miles Davis, Leadership & The Art of Selling Out27:27 "Jazz: Selling Out or Staying True?"34:14 Jazz: Resilience and Future Building36:13 Staying on the Path - Jazz: Path to a New American Golden Age---Opening and closing themes composed by Brian Sanyshyn of Brian Sanyshyn Music.---Pick up your copy of 12 Rules for Leaders: The Foundation of Intentional Leadership NOW on AMAZON!Check out the 2022 Leadership Lessons From the Great Books podcast reading list!--- ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ Subscribe to the Leadership Lessons From The Great Books Podcast: https://bit.ly/LLFTGBSubscribeCheck out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/.Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members.---Leadership ToolBox website: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/.Leadership ToolBox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ldrshptlbx/.Leadership ToolBox YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leadershiptoolbox/videosLeadership ToolBox Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldrshptlbx.Leadership ToolBox IG: https://www.instagram.com/leadershiptoolboxus/.Leadership ToolBox FB: https://www.facebook.com/LdrshpTl

Jews have been a major presence in America's jazz, as musicians and as jazz facilitators, and in Kosher Jammers, Gerber tells that story with a rigour worthy of academia but with a feature writer's creative flair. Besides drawing on a plethora of second-hand sources, Kosher Jammers is absolutely packed with first-hand material, from interviews, phone calls and emails with jazz figures, Jewish and otherwise -- including possibly the last ever interview with swing era icon Artie Shaw. Among the many other interviewees are black jazz figures such as saxophonist Buddy Collette and the critic Stanley Crouch, as a key theme running through the book is the relationship between Jews and African Americans in jazz. The impact on jazz of tunes written by Jewish "Great American Songbook" composers such as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen and Johnny Green is also covered, And the book features an extensive study of the Jewish-jazz phenomenon, whereby musicians from Ziggy Ellman in the 1930s to contemporary artists, notably John Zorn, have sought to create jazz that draws on Jewish music influences and themes. Gerber drives home the point that, even had there never been a single Jewish jazz musician, Jews will still have contributed massively to the development of jazz in the United States, as managers, impresarios, venue owners, label founders and writers.

In the early 1980s, when saxophonist Eric Person was coming up, one big question that was being addressed was how to combine the free-swinging improv of the Loft scene with the beauty and power of a large ensemble.  Many fascinating strategies would arrive (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, we're looking at you!).  One of the first and most thrilling came from saxophonist David Murray.  Murray was the emerging heavyweight champ of the tenor sax and he packed his Octet with Big Thinkers, Heavy Honkers, and Late-Night Prowlers.  "Men," in the words of Stanley Crouch, "of great magnitude."   And the David Murray Octet always played standing up.     This Monday (1/6) on Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman invites Eric Person into the WKCR archives for an exploration of this explosive and still underappreciated ensemble, from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.     Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #/EricPerson #DavidMurray #DavidMurrayOctet #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman  

In the early 1980s, when saxophonist Eric Person was coming up, one big question that was being addressed was how to combine the free-swinging improv of the Loft scene with the beauty and power of a large ensemble.  Many fascinating strategies would arrive (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, we're looking at you!).  One of the first and most thrilling came from saxophonist David Murray.  Murray was the emerging heavyweight champ of the tenor sax and he packed his Octet with Big Thinkers, Heavy Honkers, and Late-Night Prowlers.  "Men," in the words of Stanley Crouch, "of great magnitude."   And the David Murray Octet always played standing up.     This Monday (1/6) on Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman invites Eric Person into the WKCR archives for an exploration of this explosive and still underappreciated ensemble, from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.     Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #/EricPerson #DavidMurray #DavidMurrayOctet #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman  

In the early 1980s, when saxophonist Eric Person was coming up, one big question that was being addressed was how to combine the free-swinging improv of the Loft scene with the beauty and power of a large ensemble.  Many fascinating strategies would arrive (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, we're looking at you!).  One of the first and most thrilling came from saxophonist David Murray.  Murray was the emerging heavyweight champ of the tenor sax and he packed his Octet with Big Thinkers, Heavy Honkers, and Late-Night Prowlers.  "Men," in the words of Stanley Crouch, "of great magnitude."   And the David Murray Octet always played standing up.     This Monday (1/6) on Deep Focus, Mitch Goldman invites Eric Person into the WKCR archives for an exploration of this explosive and still underappreciated ensemble, from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.     Or join us next week when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.     Photo credit: no publishing information available.   #WKCR #DeepFocus #/EricPerson #DavidMurray #DavidMurrayOctet #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

So how can The Dude and The Boss save America? According to the cultural critic, David Masciotra, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski and Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen, represent the antithesis of Donald Trumps's illiberal authoritarianism. Masciotra's thesis of Lebowski and Springsteen as twin paragons of American liberalism is compelling. Both men have a childish faith in the goodness of others. Both offer liberal solace in an America which, I fear, is about to become as darkly surreal as The Big Lebowski. Transcript:“[Springsteen] represents, as cultural icon, a certain expression of liberalism, a big-hearted, humanistic liberalism that exercises creativity to represent diverse constituencies in our society, that believes in art as a tool of democratic engagement, and that seeks to lead with an abounding, an abiding sense of compassion and empathy. That is the kind of liberalism, both with the small and capital L, that I believe in, and that I have spent my career documenting and attempting to advance.” -David MasciotraAK: Hello, everybody. We're still processing November the 5th. I was in the countryside of Northern Virginia a few days ago, I saw a sign, for people just listening, Trump/Vance 2024 sign with "winner" underneath. Some people are happy. Most, I guess, of our listeners probably aren't, certainly a lot of our guests aren't, my old friend John Rauch was on the show yesterday talking about what he called the "catastrophic ordinariness" of the election and of contemporary America. He authored two responses to the election. Firstly, he described it in UnPopulist as a moral catastrophe. But wearing his Brookings hat, he's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, described it as an ordinary election. I think a lot of people are scratching their head, trying to make sense of it. Another old friend of the show, David Masciotra, cultural writer, political writer. An interesting piece in the Washington Monthly entitled "How Francis Fukuyama and The Big Lebowski Explain Trump's Victory." A very creative piece. And he is joining us from Highland Indiana, not too far from Chicago. David. The Big Lebowski and Francis Fukuyama. Those two don't normally go together, certainly in a title. Let's talk first about Fukuyama. How does Fukuyama explain November the 5th? DAVID MASCIOTRA: In his. Well, first, thanks for having me. And I should say I watched your conversation with Jonathan Rauch, and it was quite riveting and quite sobering. And you talked about Fukuyama in that discussion as well. And you referenced his book, The End of History and the Last Man, a very often misinterpreted book, but nonetheless, toward its conclusion, Fukuyama warns that without an external enemy, liberal democracies may indeed turn against themselves, and we may witness an implosion rather than an explosion. And Fukuyama said that this won't happen so much for ideological reasons, but it will happen for deeply psychological ones, namely, without a just cause for which to struggle, people will turn against the just cause itself, which in this case is liberal democracy, and out of a sense of boredom and alienation, they'll grow increasingly tired of their society and cultivate something of a death wish in which they enjoy imagining their society's downfall, or at least the downfall of some of the institutions that are central to their society. And now I would argue that after the election results, we've witnessed the transformation of imagining to inviting. So, there is a certain death wish and a sense of...alienation and detachment from that which made the United States of America a uniquely prosperous and stable country with the ability to self-correct the myriad injustices we know are part of its history. Well now, people--because they aren't aware of the institutions or norms that created this robust engine of commerce and liberty--they've turned against it, and they no longer invest in that which is necessary to preserve it.AK: That's interesting, David. The more progressives I talk to about this, the more it--there's an odd thing going on--you're all sounding very conservative. The subtitle of the piece in the Washington Monthly was "looking at constituencies or issues misses the big point. On Tuesday, nihilism was on display, even a death wish in a society wrought by cynicism." Words like nihilism and cynicism, David, historically have always been used by people like Allan Blum, whose book, of course, The Closing of the American Mind, became very powerful amongst American conservatives now 40 or 50 years ago. Would you accept that using language like nihilism and cynicism isn't always associated--I mean, you're a proud progressive. You're a man of the left. You've never disguised that. It's rather odd to imagine that the guys like you--and in his own way, John Rauch too, who talks about the moral catastrophe of the election couple of weeks ago. You're all speaking about the loss of morality of the voter, or of America. Is there any truth to that? Making some sense?DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's a that's a fair observation. And Jonathan Rauch, during your conversation and in his own writing, identifies a center right. I would say I'm center left.AK: And he's--but what's interesting, what ties you together, is that you both use the L-word, liberal, to define yourselves. He's perhaps a liberal on the right. You're a liberal on the left.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. And I think that the Trump era, if we can trace that back to 2015, has made thoughtful liberals more conservative in thought and articulation, because it forces a confrontation and interrogation of a certain naivete. George Will writes in his book, The Conservative Sensibility, that the progressive imagines that which is the best possible outcome and strives to make it real, whereas the conservative imagines the worst possible outcome and does everything he can to guard against it. And now it feels like we've experienced, at least electorally, the worst possible outcome. So there a certain revisitation of that which made America great, to appropriate a phrase, and look for where we went wrong in failing to preserve it. So that kind of thinking inevitably leads one to use more conservative language and deal in more conservative thought.AK: Yeah. So for you, what made America great, to use the term you just introduced, was what? Its morality? The intrinsic morality of people living in it and in the country? Is that, for you, what liberalism is?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Liberalism is a system in and the culture that emanates out of that system. So it's a constitutional order that creates or that places a premium on individual rights and allows for a flourishing free market. Now, where my conception of liberalism would enter the picture and, perhaps Jonathan Rauch and I would have some disagreements, certainly George Will and I, is that a bit of governmental regulation is necessary along with the social welfare state, to civilize the free market. But the culture that one expects to flow from that societal order and arrangement is one of aspiration, one in which citizens fully accept that they are contributing agents to this experiment in self-governance and therefore need to spend time in--to use a Walt Whitman phrase--freedom's gymnasium. Sharpening the intellect, sharpening one's sense of moral duty and obligation to the commons, to the public good. And as our society has become more individualistic and narcissistic in nature, those commitments have vanished. And as our society has become more anti-intellectual in nature, we are seeing a lack of understanding of why those commitments are even necessary. So that's why you get a result like we witnessed on Tuesday, and that I argue in my piece that you were kind enough to have me on to discuss, is a form of nihilism, and The Big Lebowski reference, of course--AK: And of course, I want to get to Lebowski, because the Fukuyama stuff is interesting, but everyone's writing about Fukuyama and the end of history and why history never really ended, of course. It's been going on for years now, but it's a particularly interesting moment. We've had Fukuyama on the show. I've never heard anyone, though, compare the success of Trump and Trumpism with The Big Lebowski. So, one of the great movies, of course, American movies. What's the connection, David, between November 5th and The Big Lebowski? DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite films. I've written about it, and I even appeared at one of the The Big Lebowski festivals that takes place in United States a number of years ago. But my mind went to the scene when The Dude is in his bathtub and these three menacing figures break into his apartment. They drop a gerbil in the bathtub. And The Dude, who was enjoying a joint by candlelight, is, of course, startled and frightened. And these three men tell him that if he does not pay the money they believe he owes them, they will come back and, in their words, "cut off your Johnson." And The Dude gives them a quizzical, bemused look. And one of them says, "You think we are kidding? We are nihilists. We believe in nothing." And then one of them screams, "We'll cut off your Johnson." Well, I thought, you know, we're looking at an electorate that increasingly, or at least a portion of the electorate, increasingly believes in nothing. So we've lost faith.AK: It's the nihilists again. And of course, another Johnson in America, there was once a president called Johnson who enjoyed waving his Johnson, I think, around in public. And now there's the head of the house is another Johnson, I think he's a little shyer than presidents LBJ. But David, coming back to this idea of nihilism. It often seems to be a word used by people who don't like what other people think and therefore just write it off as nihilism. Are you suggesting that the Trump crowd have no beliefs? Is that what nihilism for you is? I mean, he was very clear about what he believes in. You may not like it, but it doesn't seem to be nihilistic.DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's another fair point. What I'm referring to is not too long ago, we lived in a country that had a shared set of values. Those values have vanished. And those values involve adherence to our democratic norms. It's very difficult to imagine had George H. W. Bush attempted to steal the election in which Bill Clinton won, that George H. W. Bush could have run again and won. So we've lost faith in something essential to our electoral system. We've lost faith in the standards of decency that used to, albeit imperfectly, regulate our national politics. So the man to whom I just refered, Bill Clinton, was nearly run out of office for having an extramarital affair, a misdeed that cannot compare to the myriad infractions of Donald Trump. And yet, Trump's misdeeds almost give him a cultural cachet among his supporters. It almost makes him, for lack of a better word, cool. And now we see, even with Trump's appointments, I mean, of course, it remains to be seen how it plays out, that we're losing faith in credentials and experience--AK: Well they're certainly a band of outlaws and very proud to be outlaws. It could almost be a Hollywood script. But I wonder, David, whether there's a more serious critique here. You, like so many other people, both on the left and the right, are nostalgic for an age in which everyone supposedly agreed on things, a most civil and civilized age. And you go back to the Bushes, back to Clinton. But the second Bush, who now seems to have appeared as this icon, at least moral icon, many critics of Trump, was also someone who unleashed a terrible war, killing tens of thousands of people, creating enormous suffering for millions of others. And I think that would be the Trump response, that he's simply more honest, that in the old days, the Bushes of the world can speak politely and talk about consensus, and then unleash terrible suffering overseas--and at home in their neoliberal policies of globalization--Trump's simply more honest. He tells it as it is. And that isn't nihilistic, is it?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, you are gesturing towards an important factor in our society. Trump, of course, we know, is a dishonest man, a profoundly dishonest--AK: Well, in some ways. But in other ways, he isn't. I mean, in some ways he just tells the truth as it is. It's a truth we're uncomfortable with. But it's certainly very truthful about the impact of foreign wars on America, for example, or even the impact of globalization. DAVID MASCIOTRA: What you're describing is an authenticity. That that Trump is authentic. And authenticity has become chief among the modern virtues, which I would argue is a colossal error. Stanley Crouch, a great writer, spent decades analyzing the way in which we consider authenticity and how it inevitably leads to, to borrow his phrase, cast impurity onto the bottom. So anything that which requires effort, refinement, self-restraint, self-control, plays to the crowd as inauthentic, as artificial--AK: Those are all aristocratic values that may have once worked but don't anymore. Should we be nostalgic for the aristocratic way of the Bushes?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I think in a certain respect, we should. We shouldn't be nostalgic for George W. Bush's policies. I agree with you, the war in Iraq was catastrophic, arguably worse than anything Trump did while he was president. His notoriously poor response to Hurricane Katrina--I mean, we can go on and on cataloging the various disasters of the Bush administration. However, George W. Bush as president and the people around him did have a certain belief in the liberal order of the United States and the liberal order of the world. Institutions like NATO and the EU, and those institutions, and that order, has given the United States, and the world more broadly, an unrivaled period of peace and prosperity.AK: Well it wasn't peace, David. And the wars, the post-9/11 wars, were catastrophic. And again, they seem to be just facades--DAVID MASCIOTRA: We also had the Vietnam War, the Korean War. When I say peace, I mean we didn't have a world war break out as we did in the First World War, in the Second World War. And that's largely due to the creation and maintenance of institutions following the Second World War that were aimed at the preservation of order and, at least, amicable relations between countries that might otherwise collide.AK: You're also the author, David, of a book we've always wanted to talk about. Now we're figuring out a way to integrate it into the show. You wrote a book, an interesting book, about Bruce Springsteen. Working on a Dream: the Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen has made himself very clear. He turned out for Harris. Showed up with his old friend, Barack Obama. Clearly didn't have the kind of impact he wanted. You wrote an interesting piece for UnHerd a few weeks ago with the title, "Bruce Springsteen is the Last American Liberal: he's still proud to be born in the USA." Is he the model of a liberal response to the MAGA movement, Springsteen? DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, of course, I wouldn't go so far as to say the last liberal. As most readers just probably know, writers don't compose their own headlines--AK: But he's certainly, if not the last American liberal, the quintessential American liberal.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. He represents, as cultural icon, a certain expression of liberalism, a big-hearted, humanistic liberalism that exercises creativity to represent diverse constituencies in our society, that believes in art as a tool of democratic engagement, and that seeks to lead with an abounding, an abiding sense of compassion and empathy. That is the kind of liberalism, both with the small and capital L, that I believe in, and that I have spent my career documenting and attempting to advance. And those are, of course, the forms of liberalism that now feel as if they are under threat. Now, to that point, you know, this could have just come down to inflation and some egregious campaign errors of Kamala Harris. But it does feel as if when you have 70 some odd million people vote for the likes of Donald Trump, that the values one can observe in the music of Bruce Springsteen or in the rhetoric of Barack Obama, for that matter, are no longer as powerful and pervasive as they were in their respective glory days. No pun intended.AK: Yeah. And of course, Springsteen is famous for singing "Glory Days." I wonder, though, where Springsteen himself is is a little bit more complex and we might be a little bit more ambivalent about him, there was a piece recently about him becoming a billionaire. So it's all very well him being proud to be born in the USA. He's part--for better or worse, I mean, it's not a criticism, but it's a reality--he's part of the super rich. He showed out for Harris, but it didn't seem to make any impact. You talked about the diversity of Springsteen. I went to one of his concerts in San Francisco earlier this year, and I have to admit, I was struck by the fact that everyone, practically everyone at the concert, was white, everyone was wealthy, everyone paid several hundred dollars to watch a 70 year old man prance around on stage and behave as if he's still 20 or 30 years old. I wonder whether Springsteen himself is also emblematic of a kind of cultural, or political, or even moral crisis of our old cultural elites. Or am I being unfair to Springsteen?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, I remember once attending a Springsteen show in which the only black person I saw who wasn't an employee of the arena was Clarence Clemons.AK: Right. And then Bruce, of course, always made a big deal. And there was an interesting conversation when Springsteen and Obama did a podcast together. Obama, in his own unique way, lectured Bruce a little bit about Clarence Clemons in terms of his race. But sorry. Go on.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. And Springsteen has written and discussed how he had wished he had a more diverse audience. When I referred to diversity in his music, I meant the stories he aimed to tell in song certainly represented a wide range of the American experience. But when you talk about Springsteen, perhaps himself representing a moral crisis--AK: I wouldn't say a crisis, but he represents the, shall we say, the redundancy of that liberal worldview of the late 20th century. I mean, he clearly wears his heart on his sleeve. He means well. He's not a bad guy. But he doesn't reach a diverse audience. His work is built around the American working class. None of them can afford to show up to what he puts on. I mean, Chris Christie is a much more typical fan than the white working class. Does it speak of the fact that there's a...I don't know if you call it a crisis, it's just...Springsteen isn't relevant anymore in the America of the 2020s, or at least when he sang and wrote about no longer exists.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes, I agree with that. So first of all, the working class bit was always a bit overblown with Springsteen. Springsteen, of course, was never really part of the working class, except when he was a child. But by his own admission, he never had a 9 to 5 job. And Springsteen sang about working class life like William Shakespeare wrote about teenage love. He did so with a poetic grandeur that inspired some of his best work. And outside looking in, he actually managed to offer more insights than sometimes people on the inside can amount to themselves. But you're certainly correct. I mean, the Broadway show, for example, when the tickets were something like a thousand a piece and it was $25 to buy a beer. There is a certain--AK: Yeah and in that Broadway show, which I went to--I thought it was astonishing, actually, a million times better than the show in San Francisco.DAVID MASCIOTRA: It was one of the best things he ever did.AK: He acknowledges that he made everything up, that he wasn't part of the American working class, and that he'd never worked a day in his life, and yet his whole career is is built around representing a social class and a way of life that he was never part of.“Not too long ago, we lived in a country that had a shared set of values. Those values have vanished. And those values involve adherence to our democratic norms.” -DMDAVID MASCIOTRA: Right. And he has a lyric himself: "It's a sad, funny ending when you find yourself pretending a rich man in a poor man's shirt." So there always was this hypocrisy--hypocrisy might be a little too strong--inconsistency. And he adopted a playful attitude toward it in the 90s and in later years. But to your point of relevance, I think you're on to something there. One of the crises I would measure in our society is that we no longer live in a culture of ambition and aspiration. So you hear this when people say that they want a political leader who talks like the average person, or the common man. And you hear this when "college educated" is actually used as an insult against a certain base of Democratic voters. There were fewer college-educated voters when John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan ran for president, all of whom spoke with greater eloquence and a more expansive vocabulary and a greater sense of cultural sophistication than Donald Trump or Kamala Harris did. And yet there was no objection, because people understood that we should aspire to something more sophisticated. We should aspire to something more elevated beyond the everyday vernacular of the working class. And for that reason, Springsteen was able to become something of a working-class poet, despite never living among the working class beyond his childhood. Because his poetry put to music represented something idealistic about the working class.AK: But oddly enough, it was a dream--there's was a word that Springsteen uses a lot in his work--that was bought by the middle class. It wasn't something that was--although, I think in the early days, probably certainly in New Jersey, that he had a more working-class following.DAVID MASCIOTRA: We have to deal with the interesting and frustrating reality that the people about whom Springsteen sings in those early songs like "Darkness on the Edge of Town" or "The River" would probably be Trump supporters if they were real.AK: Yeah. And in your piece you refer to, not perhaps one of his most famous albums, The Rising, but you use it to compare Springsteen with another major figure now in America, much younger man to Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has a new book out, which is an important new book, The Message. You seem to be keener on Springsteen than Coates. Tell us about this comparison and what the comparison tells us about the America of the 2020s.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, Coates...the reason I make the comparison is that one of Springsteen's greatest artistic moments, in which he kind of resurrected his status as cultural icon, was the record he put out after the 9/11 attack on the United States, The Rising. And throughout that record he pays tribute, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly, to the first responders who ascended in the tower knowing they would perhaps die.AK: Yeah. You quote him "love and duty called you someplace higher." So he was idealizing those very brave firefighters, policemen who gave up their lives on 9/11.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Exactly. Representing the best of humanity. Whereas Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has become the literary superstar of the American left, wrote in his memoir that on 9/11, he felt nothing and did not see the first responders as human. Rather, they were part of the fire that could, in his words, crush his body.AK: Yeah, he wrote a piece, "What Is 9/11 to Descendants of Slaves?"DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. And my point in making that comparison, and this was before the election, was to say that the American left has its own crisis of...if we don't want to use the word nihilism, you objected to it earlier--AK: Well, I'm not objecting. I like the word. It's just curious to hear it come from somebody like yourself, a man, certainly a progressive, maybe not--you might define yourself as being on the left, but certainly more on the left and on the right.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes, I would agree with that characterization. But that the left has its own crisis of nihilism. If if you are celebrating a man who, despite his journalistic talents and intelligence, none of which I would deny, refused to see the humanity of the first responders on the 9/11 attack and, said that he felt nothing for the victims, presumably even those who were black and impoverished, then you have your own crisis of belief, and juxtaposing that with the big hearted, humanistic liberalism of Springsteen for me shows the left a better path forward. Now, that's a path that will increasingly close after the victory of Trump, because extremism typically begets extremism, and we're probably about to undergo four years of dueling cynicism and rage and unhappy times.AK: I mean, you might respond, David, and say, well, Coates is just telling the truth. Why should a people with a history of slavery care that much about a few white people killed on 9/11 when their own people lost millions through slavery? And you compare them to Springsteen, as you've acknowledged, a man who wasn't exactly telling the truth in his heart. I mean, he's a very good artist, but he writes about a working class, which even he acknowledges, he made most of it up. So isn't Coates like Trump in an odd kind of way, aren't they just telling an unvarnished truth that people don't want to hear, an impolite truth?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I'm not sure. I typically shy away from the expression "my truth" or "his truth" because it's too relativistic. But I'll make an exception in this case. I think Coates is telling HIS truth just as Trump is telling HIS truth, if that adds up to THE truth, is much more dubious. Yes, we could certainly say that, you know, because the United States enslaved, tortured, and otherwise oppressed millions of black people, it may be hard for some black observers to get teary eyed on 9/11, but the black leaders whom I most admire didn't have that reaction. I wrote a book about Jesse Jackson after spending six years interviewing with him and traveling with him. He certainly didn't react that way on 9/11. Congressman John Lewis didn't react that way on 9/11. So, the heroes of the civil rights movement, who helped to overcome those brutal systems of oppression--and I wouldn't argue that they're overcome entirely, but they helped to revolutionize the United States--they maintained a big-hearted sense of empathy and compassion, and they recognized that the unjust loss of life demands mourning and respect, whether it's within their own community or another. So I would say that, here again, we're back to the point of ambition, whether it's intellectual ambition or moral ambition. Ambition is what allows a society to grow. And it seems like ambition has fallen far out of fashion. And that is why the country--the slim majority of the electorate that did vote and the 40% of the electorate that did not vote, or voting-age public, I should say--settled for the likes of Donald Trump.AK: I wonder what The Dude would do, if he was around, at the victory of Trump, or even at 9/11. He'd probably continue to sit in the bath tub and enjoy...enjoy whatever he does in his bathtub. I mean, he's not a believer. Isn't he the ultimate nihilist? The Dude in Lebowski?DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's an interesting interpretation. I would say that...Is The Dude a nihilist? You have this juxtaposition... The Dude kind of occupies this middle ground between the nihilists who proudly declare they believe in nothing and his friend Walter Sobchak, who's, you know, almost this raving explosion of belief. Yeah, ex-Vietnam veteran who's always confronting people with his beliefs and screaming and demanding they all adhere to his rules. I don't know if The Dude's a nihilist as much as he has a Zen detachment.AK: Right, well, I think what makes The Big Lebowski such a wonderful film, and perhaps so relevant today, is Lebowski, unlike so many Americans is unjudgmental. He's not an angry man. He's incredibly tolerant. He accepts everyone, even when they're beating him up or ripping him off. And he's so, in that sense, different from the America of the 2020s, where everyone is angry and everyone blames someone else for whatever's wrong in their lives.DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's exactly right.AK: Is that liberal or just Zen? I don't know.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. It's perhaps even libertarian in a sense. But there's a very interesting and important book by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke called Why It's Okay to Mind Your Own Business. And in it they argue--they're both political scientists although the one may be a...they may be philosophers...but that aside--they present an argument for why Americans need to do just that. Mind their own business.AK: Which means, yeah, not living politics, which certainly Lebowski is. It's probably the least political movie, Lebowski, I mean, he doesn't have a political bone in his body. Finally, David, there there's so much to talk about here, it's all very interesting. You first came on the show, you had a book out, that came out either earlier this year or last year. Yeah, it was in April of this year, Exurbia Now: The Battleground of American Democracy. And you wrote about the outskirts of suburbia, which you call "exurbia." Jonathan Rauch, wearing his Brookings cap, described this as an ordinary election. I'm not sure how much digging you've done, but did the exurbian vote determine this election? I mean, the election was determined by a few hundred thousand voters in the Midwest. Were these voters mostly on the edge of the suburb? And I'm guessing most of them voted for Trump.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, Trump's numbers in exurbia...I've dug around and I've been able to find the exurbian returns for Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona. So three crucial swing states. If Kamala Harris had won those three states, she would be president. And Trump's support in exurbia was off the charts, as it was in 2020 and 2016, and as I predicted, it would be in 2024. I'm not sure that that would have been sufficient to deliver him the race and certainly not in the fashion that he won. Trump made gains with some groups that surprised people, other groups that didn't surprise people, but he did much better than expected. So unlike, say, in 2016, where we could have definitively and conclusively said Trump won because of a spike in turnout for him in rural America and in exurbia, here, the results are more mixed. But it remains the case that the base most committed to Trump and most fervently loyal to his agenda is rural and exurban.AK: So just outside the cities. And finally, I argued, maybe counterintuitively, that America remains split today as it was before November the 5th, so I'm not convinced that this election is the big deal that some people think it is. But you wrote an interesting piece in Salon back in 2020 arguing that Trump has poisoned American culture, but the toxin was here all along. Of course, there is more, if anything, of that toxin now. So even if Harris had won the election, that toxin was still here. And finally, David, how do we get rid of that toxin? Do we just go to put Bruce Springsteen on and go and watch Big Lebowski? I mean, how do we get beyond this toxin?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I would I would love it if that was the way to do it.AK: We'll sit in our bathtub and wait for the thugs to come along?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Right, exactly. No, what you're asking is, of course, the big question. We need to find a way to resurrect some sense of, I'll use another conservative phrase, civic virtue. And in doing--AK: And resurrection, of course, by definition, is conservative, because you're bringing something back.“Ambition is what allows a society to grow. And it seems like ambition has fallen far out of fashion.” -DMDAVID MASCIOTRA: Exactly. And we also have to resurrect, offer something more practical, we have to resurrect a sense of civics. One thing on which--I have immense respect and admiration for Jonathan Rauch--one minor quibble I would have with him from your conversation is when he said that the voters rejected the liberal intellectual class and their ideas. Some voters certainly rejected, but some voters were unaware. The lack of civic knowledge in the United States is detrimental to our institutions. I mean, a majority of Americans don't know how many justices are on the Supreme Court. They can't name more than one freedom enumerated in the Bill of Rights. So we need to find a way to make citizenship a vital part of our national identity again. And there are some practical means of doing that in the educational system. Certainly won't happen in the next four years. But to get to the less tangible matter of how to resurrect something like civic virtue and bring back ambition and aspiration in our sense of national identity, along with empathy, is much tougher. I mean, Robert Putnam says it thrives upon community and voluntary associations.AK: Putnam has been on the show, of course.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. So, I mean, this is a conversation that will develop. I wish I had the answer, and I wish it was just to listen to Born to Run in the bathtub with with a poster of The Dude hanging overhead. But as I said to you before we went on the air, I think that you have a significant insight to learn this conversation because, in many ways, your books were prescient. We certainly live with the cult of the amateur now, more so than when you wrote that book. So, I'd love to hear your ideas.AK: Well, that's very generous of you, David. And next time we appear, you're going to interview me about why the cult of the amateur is so important. So we will see you again soon. But we're going to swap seats. So, David will interview me about the relevance of Cult of the Amateur. Wonderful conversation, David. I've never thought about Lebowski or Francis Fukuyama, particularly Lebowski, in terms of what happened on November 5th. So, very insightful. Thank you, David, and we'll see you again in the not-too-distant future.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Thank you. I'm going to reread Cult of the Amateur to prepare. I may even do it in the bathtub. I look forward to our discussion.David Masciotra is an author, lecturer, and journalist. He is the author of I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters (I.B. Tauris, 2020), Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky), Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishers, 2017), and Metallica by Metallica, a 33 1/3 book from Bloomsbury Publishers, which has been translated into Chinese. In 2010, Continuum Books published his first book, Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen.His 2024 book, Exurbia Now: Notes from the Battleground of American Democracy, is published by Melville House Books. Masciotra writes regularly for the New Republic, Washington Monthly, Progressive, the Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, No Depression, and the Daily Ripple. He has also written for Salon, the Daily Beast, CNN, Atlantic, Washington Post, AlterNet, Indianapolis Star, and CounterPunch. Several of his political essays have been translated into Spanish for publication at Korazon de Perro. His poetry has appeared in Be About It Press, This Zine Will Change Your Life, and the Pangolin Review. Masciotra has a Master's Degree in English Studies and Communication from Valparaiso University. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of St. Francis. He is public lecturer, speaking on a wide variety of topics, from the history of protest music in the United States to the importance of bars in American culture. David Masciotra has spoken at the University of Wisconsin, University of South Carolina, Lewis University, Indiana University, the Chicago Public Library, the Lambeth Library (UK), and an additional range of colleges, libraries, arts centers, and bookstores. As a journalist, he has conducted interviews with political leaders, musicians, authors, and cultural figures, including Jesse Jackson, John Mellencamp, Noam Chomsky, all members of Metallica, David Mamet, James Lee Burke, Warren Haynes, Norah Jones, Joan Osborne, Martín Espada, Steve Earle, and Rita Dove. Masciotra lives in Indiana, and teaches literature and political science courses at the University of St. Francis and Indiana University Northwest. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

LISTEN TO CHAMPAGNE SHARKS HERE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/champagne-sharks/id1242690393   Welcome to another episode of THIS IS REVOLUTION>podcast, where we explore the deeper political and social dynamics behind current events. Today, we're diving into the recent indictment of once-revered hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs on federal racketeering charges. Combs, once celebrated for his entrepreneurial prowess and impact on hip hop culture, is now facing serious accusations of running an elaborate criminal enterprise centered on human trafficking, abuse, and sexual exploitation.   The charges against Combs are shocking but reflect the darker realities lurking behind the glamor of the entertainment industry. As outlined by the justice.gov indictment, Combs is accused of forcing women into "Freak Offs"—elaborate sex performances orchestrated through coercion, violence, and manipulation. He allegedly used narcotics, financial dependency, and physical threats to control his victims, echoing the practices of global human trafficking networks. This brings to mind a broader and more disturbing reality: are we confronting this issue with the seriousness it demands, or are we only shocked when such allegations involve a high-profile celebrity?   While the focus is on Combs now, we must also recognize that these charges are not isolated to one individual. The exploitation of women and their commodification through violence, coercion, and control is a pervasive and deeply entrenched issue in capitalist society—one where power dynamics are exploited to maintain control and assert dominance. These behaviors are happening right now in some corners of the world and for years they've been glorified in the hip hop community. It's just pimping, and as the song says, it ain't easy.   Is hip hop having a “mask off” moment? With the Combs and Young Thug trials, do these legal proceedings have a negative effect on the genre or the way it's perceived? Rap music, once thought to embody “realness” in the case of Young Thug, is being challenged on its authenticity. It's never really been fantasy escapism, but “the unreported news” of the inner city told by the people that lived it. In the case of Young Thug, is this all a lie now? Is it what people like Gerald Horne and Stanley Crouch have viewed? A minstrel show of underclass troupes?   In the case of Combs, the pimp has been a glorified figure for some time in Black urban life. Isn't Puffy nothing more than a modern iteration of Max Julien in The Mack?     Today, we will discuss the nature of these crimes, the structural realities that enable them, and what this case reveals about our collective attitudes toward abuse, celebrity culture, and power. Are we finally waking up to the harsh realities of human trafficking, or do we still turn a blind eye until a famous name is attached to it?   Check out our new bi-weekly series, "The Crisis Papers" here: https://www.patreon.com/bitterlakepresents/shop   Thank you guys again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and everyone of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined,   BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents?   Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)   THANKS Y'ALL   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9WtLyoP9QU8sxuIfxk3eg Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets​ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/ Twitter: @TIRShowOakland Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland   Read Jason Myles in Sublation Magazine https://www.sublationmag.com/writers/jason-myles   Read Jason Myles in Damage Magazine https://damagemag.com/2023/11/07/the-man-who-sold-the-world/   Pascal Robert's Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/Pascal%20Robert

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Beloved, by Toni Morrison, while drinking Jura 12yo single malt.In this episode:The essay under discussion at the beginning is “Literary Conjure Woman,” by Stanley Crouch, which still doesn't seem to be online, but is maybe in one or more of his essay collections?Definitely see American Fiction if you're like, at all interested in the things on this podcastWhat are we if not self-deprecating?Is the meta-narrative of this podcast “doing criticism in a way that is fair and not stupid”?Listen, in the middle of this ep we say a lot of things about sex and trauma and whatnot that is all relevant, but not funny to make a bullet point aboutBamboozled, also very much worth watchingNext time Michael and Ethan will begin to discuss The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Donate to our Patreon!BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET! Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett) MUSIC & SFX: "Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission. "The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. "Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

This episode features a very special interview with jazz icon Wynton Marsalis by his old friend Christian McBride from The Jazz Cruise earlier this year.  The two have a long history going back to 1984 when Christian was a 14-year-old bassist in Philadelphia and Wynton took him under his wing. He even assured Christian's mother that we would watch over Christian when he moved to NYC a few years later.  Given their relationship and how they both became mentors to so many musicians across multiple generations, it should come as no surprise that the theme of their conversation here was about mentorship and inspiration. Wynton discussed his unique relationship with the late jazz writer and provocateur Stanley Crouch and with Betty Carter, as well as his connection to so many greats, not only in jazz, but in Black American culture, like Ralph Ellison, August Wilson and Albert Murray. Christian also gave Wynton a three-song Blindfold Test, featuring trumpeters.  You can guess how that went. The two also played a couple of duets.  But throughout their talk, it's the stories about their elders that resonated.

Diamanda Galás has spent a lot of her life representing the underrepresented. While working on music, she also created work dealing with AIDS, genocide, and mental disease, as well as compositions for voice and piano set to the works of exiled poets. On this episode of LaunchLeft, Diamanda and Rain have a great conversation about her work, artist collaborations, and how she uses music and art to tell the stories and experiences of forgotten people.   -----------------  LAUNCHLEFT OFFICIAL WEBSITEhttps://www.launchleft.com  LAUNCHLEFT PATREON https://www.patreon.com/LaunchLeft  TWITTER https://twitter.com/LaunchLeft  INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/launchleft/  FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/LaunchLeft  --------------------- LaunchLeft Podcast hosted by Rain Phoenix is an intentional space for Art and Activism where famed creatives launch new artists. LaunchLeft is an alliance of left-of-center artists, a curated ecosystem that includes a podcast, label and NFT gallery. --------------------- IN THIS EPISODE: [02:30] Groups of people Diamanda has felt drawn to represent through her art.  [06:00] Diamanda's work in her own terms- representing the underrepresented.  [12:00] Collaborating with artists and the new ideas it can inspire. KEY TAKEAWAYS:  Artists can draw inspiration from other artists' creative processes.  Sharing the hard parts can help others to relate and see the end result of working out these situations. BIO:  The San Diego-born Galás came up playing both classical and jazz music. She not only accompanied her Anatolian Greek father's gospel choir and joined his New Orleans-style band, but also performed as a piano soloist with the San Diego Symphony at the age of 14. She went on to play with various groups that included heavies of the new-jazz thing, such as a circa-'74 combo in Pomona, California, that included cornetist Bobby Bradford, sax man David Murray bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Stanley Crouch. She made her first public performance in 1979, collaborating on an opera with Vinko Globokar and Amnesty International about the arrest torture, and assasination of a Turkish woman for treason. In 1982 she released her debut album, The Litanies of Satan, which showcased her early forays into unorthodox vocal expression and multiphonics, and which included an 18-minute performance piece titled “Wild Women With Steak Knives.” She has created work dealing with AIDS (including the recently re-mastered The Divine Punishment), genocide and mental disease, as well as compositions for voice and piano set to the works of exiled poets. She also collaborated with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on the 1994 album The Sporting Life. RESOURCE LINKS Diamanda Galás Website Diamanda on IG Diamanda on Twitter  Diamanda on FacebookSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 min.     Maureen invites Pierre into conversation.  Discussion focuses on invitations and flows to pauses.  Pauses in breathing, pauses in music, and pause in life.  Pausing creates space to consider transitions, better appreciating and paying attention to the next experience.  Learning Conversation touches on the teaching of Alan Watts, Stanley Crouch, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis in considering the power of the pause.  We briefly consider the notion of things happening for you vs. to you, which we tee up for another podcast.   Show note links to referenced people and subjects: Alan Watts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts Stanley Crouch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Crouch Louis Armstrong:  Early Armstrong recordings from the 1920's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B06DwBVi9LA Miles Davis:  In A Silent Way... pauses... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlIyqiIJ98w  

Normally I would post one of my bi-weekly conversations with John McWhorter today, but John and I had too many scheduling conflicts to find time to talk this week (he’ll return in two weeks). So in his stead, I’m talking with Greg Thomas, co-founder of the Jazz Leadership Project and senior fellow at the Institute for Cultural Evolution.We begin by discussing Greg’s work with the Jazz Leadership Project, which uses the principles of jazz to train leaders within businesses and organizations. He’s got some big-league clients, so I was interested to know how Greg implements ideas and strategies from an originally African American art form within a corporate environment. Greg was a friend of the great critic, poet, and novelist Stanley Crouch, and I ask him about how they came to know each other. This leads us to discuss the intellectual lineage that runs from Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray through Crouch. These thinkers were deeply rooted in black art, culture, and politics, but they were also, to varying degrees, skeptical of race as a foundational concept. Is there anyone now continuing this tradition? Greg talks about his own efforts in that direction, but he also notes that the modern Enlightenment tradition, which sought a scientific foundation for knowledge and institutions, has been at least partially displaced by postmodern thought, which seeks to critique the Enlightenment. Greg argues that such a critique is fine, so long as we don’t abandon modernity’s gains. He then introduces some ideas from integral theory and from the philosopher Anthony Appiah that he believes can help reconcile the need both to preserve culturally specific traditions and to claim membership in a broader cosmopolitan community. And finally, Greg tells me about some of his daughter’s impressive accomplishments, including building the We Read Too app. I really enjoyed having Greg on as a guest, and I hope to have him back on for an episode with both John and I soon.This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 Greg’s work with the Jazz Leadership Project 12:35 How does a “black” art form operate within a corporate environment? 17:27 What’s left of the legacy of Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, and Stanley Crouch? 25:04 Black culture after the postmodern turn 32:45 Greg’s work with the Institute for Cultural Evolution 36:40 Greg’s critique of Black Lives Matter 40:48 Rooted cosmopolitanism and the “Faustian bargain” of whiteness 50:46 Greg’s very accomplished daughterLinks and ReadingsThe Jazz Leadership ProjectThe Institute for Cultural EvolutionGreg’s Substack post, “Why Race-Based Framings of Social Issues Hurt Us All” Stanley Crouch’s Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989 Video from Combating Racism and Antisemitism TogetherSteve McIntosh’s Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of ItselfCharles Love’s Race Crazy: BLM, 1619, and the Progressive Racism MovementKwame Anthony Appiah’s, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of StrangersDanielle Allen Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and BodiesKaya Thomas Wilson’s We Read Too app  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Margo Jefferson won the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 1995, and the 2015 National Book Critics Circle award in autobiography for her memoir, Negroland, about growing up in an upper-middle class black family in Chicago. During her years at the New York Times, she wrote brilliantly about literature, music, dance, and the way racial politics seeps into culture: what the late Stanley Crouch called the “all-American skin game.” In our conversation, Margo spoke about her childhood in Chicago, her early experiences in radical theater at Brandeis University, her relationship to the feminist and Black Power movements, her emergence as a writer, and her battles with melancholia.NegrolandOn Michael JacksonRipping Off Black Music - Harper's MagazineSome American Feminists

Llegada la década del 90 y mas adelante, NY cataliza un desarrollo multi-estilista donde co-existen el "folklore imaginario" o "world music", el colectivo M-base, el sampling, la vuelta a las (y los) cantantes swing y los jóvenes leones. Estos últimos son lanzados por CBS para capitalizar el éxito de Marsalis. Nacidos en la década del 60, muchos de New Orleans, traen el neoclasicismo a su plenitud. Definimos la gran tradición vs la pequeña tradición. Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton , Leroy Jones y Roy Hargrove en trompeta. Cecil Mc Bride (bajo) y Cyrus Chestnut (pn). Stanley Crouch y Albert Murray son los teóricos del ala neoconservadora. Las "guerras". 

This week on the podcast I discuss Stanley Crouch's 1995 collection of essays "The All-American Skin Game." Next week I'll be talking about Rachel Howzell Hall's "These Toxic Things." Stay safe, stay Black and keep reading! Crouch talking about 50 Cent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-st9gbEHDc

El libro "Kansas City Lightning" de Stanley Crouch nos sirve de base para escuchar un montón de clásicos que se oían en aquella época en la que Charlie Parker comenzaba a tocar el saxo alto en las orquestas en Kansas City y en Nueva York... como siempre versiones modernas de clásicos, aunque se cuela algún clásico también... cómo no.

This week on the podcast we discussed "Black Skin, White Masks" by Frantz Fanon, a book that needs no introduction. Probably talking Stanley Crouch next week.

This week on the podcast I read Richard Wright's posthumous novel "The Man Who Lived Underground." I'm not going to link to the novel because you can find Richard Wright's books anywhere. In 2 weeks, not sure what I'll be reading but it might be by Stanley Crouch, Albert Murray or someone else.

El Savoy Ballroom, esa sala de baile en Nueva York, donde cada noche dos bandas se retaban para ver cuál era la mejor... El que mejor describió el ambiente y la vida en la época fue Stanley Crouch. Nosotros lo rememoramos esta semana escuchando algunas buenas canciones...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/arts/music/phil-schaap-dead.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210909&instance_id=39958&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=13091549&segment_id=68457&user_id=ed9a06ca65538cc83bce8255ddb90265 Today's guest has won six Grammy awards and eight Grammy nominations including an award for , “Best Album Notes for Bird - The Complete Charlie Parker On Verve. Frank Foster has called him "a walking jazz history book". Early in his career he managed the Basie alumni band, The Countsmen and for 17 years ran the Jazz at The West End jazz room on Broadway at 114th St in New York City. He attended Columbia University and during his freshman year began broadcasting jazz on the Columbia University radio station, WKCR-FM, and he has been a radio broadcaster ever since.The jazz critic Stanley Crouch once wrote that, “There is no person in America more dedicated to any art form than today's guest is to jazz. He is the Mr. Memory of jazz, and, as with the Mister memory character in “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” the Hitchcock movie, there are those who think he ought to be shot. He can get on your nerves, but, then, you can get on his.” It is my honor to introduce today's guest, Phil Schaap. Welcome to the show Phil.

The show where we uncover the stories, processes, and worldviews behind NYC’s most artful and creative musicians. Purchase Charles McPherson's Jazz Dance Suites: https://charlesmcpherson1.bandcamp.com/album/charles-mcphersons-jazz-dance-suites Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-sound-podcast/id1537645722 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ByvBpLEwvf1FkyZr40d11 Today's Guest: Charles McPherson was born in Joplin, Missouri and moved to Detroit at age nine. After growing up in Detroit, he studied with the renowned pianist Barry Harris and started playing jazz professionally at age 19. He moved from Detroit to New York in 1959 and performed with Charles Mingus from 1960 to 1972. Mr. McPherson has performed at concerts and festivals with his own variety of groups, consisting of quartets, quintets to full orchestras. Charles was featured at Lincoln Center showcasing his original compositions 15 years ago, and once again joined Wynton Marsalis and J@LC Orchestra in April, 2019 honoring his 80th Birthday where they arranged and performed 7 of Charles’ iconic original compositions. Charles has toured the U.S., Europe, Japan, Africa and South America with his own group, as well as with jazz greats Barry Harris, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Nat Adderly, Jay McShann, Phil Woods, Wynton Marsalis, Tom Harrell, Randy Brecker, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. McPherson has recorded as guest artist with Charlie Mingus, Barry Harris, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. He has recorded as a leader on Prestige, Fantasy, Mainstream, Discovery, Xanadu, Arabesque, Capri and several smaller labels in Europe and Japan. Charles was the featured alto saxophonist in the Clint Eastwood film “Bird,” a biopic about Charlie Parker. Charles has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Don Redman Lifetime Achievement Award and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from California State University San Marcos. Charles performed this past April at the NEA Jazz Master’s 2019 performance during Stanley Crouch’s tribute. Widely recognized as a prolific composer, Charles is now Resident Composer for the San Diego Ballet, where he has written three original suites for chamber music and jazz combos. In the summer of 2019, Dr. Donnie Norton will compile the entire book of Charles’ compositions for publication. McPherson remains a strong, viable force on the jazz scene today. Throughout his six decades of being an integral performer of the music, Charles has not merely remained true to his Be Bop origins but has expanded on them. Stanley Crouch says in his New York Times article on Charles, “he is a singular voice who has never sacrificed the fluidity of his melody making and is held in high esteem by musicians both long seasoned and young.” Charles is a frequent guest at universities all over the world and also teaches privately. Many of his former students have gone on to have careers of their own in jazz, and have earned National Jazz Student Awards. Charles had the honor of being the subject of the Ph.D. candidate Dr. Donnie Norton’s Doctoral Dissertation: “The Jazz Saxophone Style of Charles McPherson: An Analysis through Biographical Examination and Solo Transcription.” Find him at https://charlesmcpherson.com/ Your hosts: Michael Shapira: michaelxshapira.com @michaelxshapira Austin Zhang: austinzhang.org @austindiscovers Learn more: https://bravesound.org/ Instagram: @bravesoundnyc

I was livestreaming a DJ mix and played 3 John Coltrane flips back to back and began to ponder doing a mix featuring Jazz/Hip Hop hybrids. I decided to challenge myself and only include tracks I've received in 2020. The result is FlyJazzSounds, the 30 minute mix you hear once you press play. Although, inspired by Jazz, the mix is primarily Hip Hop, unlike my Some Jazz series. Sadly, while completing the mix, Jazz critic Stanley Crouch passed away. I admired Crouch for his beautiful writing and intelligence, but largely disagreed with his thoughts on Jazz and especially Hip Hop. He had a really interesting idea that Davey Crockett was the first embodiment of Hip Hop. I'll share the link if I can find it again. RIP Bro Crouch. I'm still livestreaming, and can be found at www.twitch.tv/djrahdu. Please sign up so you can enjoy the mixes every Sunday at 1 30 PM CST. Illustration by #RahduDidIt --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bamalovesoul-radio/support

Another fun episode of #TheHustleSeason, laidback and chillin, like Trump when he first heard about coronavirus. NBD!! Topics including football, the Batman logo, who found music for The Sopranos, Good Times reboot, Netflix's controversial "Cuties" plus mad big ups to Stanley Crouch & local dive Mojo's. Find us on Facebook, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Bandcamp: @thehustleseason

In our news wrap Wednesday, dozens of wildfires are still burning across the Pacific Northwest and California. President Trump declared a federal disaster in Oregon, where several small towns have been razed. But improved weather is helping fire crews, some of whom stopped a blaze just 500 feet from the famed Mt. Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles. Also, jazz expert Stanley Crouch died at age 74. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

For decades, Stanley Crouch has cut a singular path through American culture. Once an aspiring jazz musician and later a noted cultural critic, he was friends with Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray, and later an intellectual mentor to Wynton Marsalis. For all of his intellectual virtuosity, we were still surprised to discover the book that Crouch wanted to recommend: Alejo Carpentier’s “Reasons of State.” —This author recommends— Reasons of State —More from this author— Interview: Stanley Crouch on 'The Artificial White Man: Essays on Authenticity'

What a delight to welcome back onto the show for the 2nd time, the great jazz saxophonist and composer, Dr. Charles McPherson! An incredibly prolific artist with a career spanning decades, McPherson has performed on over 70 recordings, both as a leader and sideman with practically all the greatest names in jazz. Most recently McPherson was honored for his 80th birthday and played at a special double concert: "McCoy Tyner and Charles McPherson at 80” at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis on April 5 and 6 of this year. He also appeared at the Kennedy Center honoring his lifelong friend, Stanley Crouch at the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. The resident composer for the San Diego Ballet, McPherson premiered his new ballet “Song of Songs” for this season. ------ 1:27 - How did the tunes at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Concert get chosen? 2:32 - What was your tune selection process? 3:21 - Did you know Sonny Stitt? 5:52 - Sonny Stitt's competitive nature 9:29 - Can you share any anecdotes of competitive cutting contests? 10:38 - How does your thought process change in a cutting contest? 11:48 - Bebop and Classical improvisational duels 12:30 - Studying with classical technique with a classical saxophonist 13:13 - Are you a good sight reader? 13:30 - Are you more of an ear-player? 13:55 - How did you develop the ability to sing anything you play, and how do you do that while playing at the same time? 17:03 - Talking about the Jazz Trumpet Player Lonnie Hilyer 18:20 - How did Lonnie Hilyer build his harmonic concept? 18:38 - Did Lonnie Hilyer play the piano? 19:32 - Who were Lonnie Hilyer's trumpet heroes? 20:12 - Joining Charles Mingus at the same time 21:08 - Were you nervous joining Mingus? 21:27 - Being aware of Mingus' reputation 21:44 - Story of Mingus ripping apart piano strings with his bare hands 22:13 - On feeling the pressure of playing with Mingus 23:12 - When did you feel really confident about your abilities? 23:51 - Did working with Mingus supercharge your development? 24:21 - Did Mingus give you suggestions on how to play? 25:54 - Did you know the lineage of the saxophone players older than Charlie Parker? 27:17 - Which of the older generation of saxophone players should people check out 29:05 - What are the downsides of modern Jazz education? 30:08 - The individuality of older saxophone players 30:54 - Did Charlie Parker think in terms of modes? 31:39 - Is it important how we name the knowledge? 33:31 - Did Jazz get watered down post-bebop? 37:40 - Did you listen to all the music of the ballet literature? 38:05 - Was dancing the most important element while writing the music? 38:56 - How did you conceive of the orchestration? 41:35 - Do you have to revise much of the music with the choreographer? 42:58 - How long would it take to write each song? 44:36 - How did it feel performing it? 45:08 - What do the dancers do when you are improvising? 46:42 - What's your relationship with Stanley Crouch? 47:27 - Stanley Crouch praising McPherson in the New York Times 48:37 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Trumpet Players 49:04 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Bass Players 49:12 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Drummers 49:21 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Tenor Saxophone Players 49:36 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Alto Saxophone Players 49:46 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Blues Tunes 50:38 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Rhythm Changes Tunes 50:49 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Pianists 51:45 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Ballads 52:15 - HOT SEAT: Top 3 Medium tempo tunes 52:55 - Meeting Bud Powell 53:14 - The difficulty of talking to Bud 53:20 - What did Mingus think of Bud? 53:57 - What's the hardest tune you've ever written? 54:10 - The tune that was most difficult to write? 54:43 - What was the easiest tune that you wrote? 55:06 - What 3 albums of yours would you recommend a fan check out? 55:35 - If you could hang out with Charlie Parker, what would you ask? 56:26 - Wrapping Up and Goodbyes

Stanley Crouch, “Blues for Black America”

In this episode, Paul is all jazzed up about a phenomenal night that he spent at The Kennedy Center with this year’s NEA Jazz Masters. He’s joined in studio by Jillian Upshaw, a young woman that recently won the Capital Stars Talent Competition and is taking steps to pursue a career as a jazz drummer! Paul share memories from his early days in NYC and meeting Stanley Crouch, a 2019 NEA Jazz Master Honoree. Personal insights are shared from Stanley and South African composer Abdullah Ibrahim. It’s a jazzy kind of episode that you wont want to miss!

Dr. Sheril Antonio is an Associate Arts Professor in the department of Art and Public Policy and the Associate Dean of the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television. From 2008/9, she served as the chair of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music and was that department'€™s inaugural chair in 2003/4. She also served as chair of the Graduate Film Program in 2001/2 and for two years from 2013/15 the interim chair of the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing. Her courses include Anatomy of Difference: The Other in Film, The World Through Art, and Language of Film. She received Curricular Development Challenge Grants for two courses: Issues in Contemporary African-American Cinema (taught 1992-1995) and The Summer Film & Video Program for High School Students (designed in collaboration in 1995). She is an advisor and frequent lecturer whose presentations include: a live online debate about the movie Precious with Stanley Crouch; The Double Down Film Show, Future Filmmakers Workshop; Advisory Board of Ghetto Film School, The Cinema High School; and the NAACP. She has been interviewed for television, radio, and print, including Studio 360: Girls on Film and WNYC 93.9FM, Orpheus: to Hell and Back. The Clive Davis Institute - is the first and only program of its kind to provide professional business and artistic training toward a BFA in Recorded Music. We aim to provide students with the necessary skills — business, creative, and intellectual — so that they might emerge as visionary creative entrepreneurs in the evolving music industry. Ghetto Film School - Article in the New York Times : Young Moviemakers Meet Old Masters at the Frick Dr. Antonio is the author of Contemporary African American Cinema, 2001. Her other works include: Do Hollywood Films Truly Reflect Life in America?; a feature essay for the inaugural issue of Black Camera: The Urban-Rural Binary in Black American Film and Culture, Indiana University Press 2009, New Black Cinema: When Self-Empowerment Becomes Assimilation, Bertz Verlang, 2006; and Matriarchs, Rebels, Adventurers, and Survivors: Renditions of Black Womanhood in Contemporary African American Cinema, Sight & Sound, Supplement, July 2005; as well as blogs for Huffington Post and Stackstreet. EDUCATION NEW YORK UNIVERSITY DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, CINEMA STUDIES MASTER OF FINE ARTS, LIBERAL STUDIES BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS, FILM & TELEVISION Thank You for checking out Hollywood Breakthrough Show This podcast main purpose is to serve up positive information. Join us at Hollywood Breakthrough Show, as we interview some of the most talented people in the business, which names you may, or may not know! But you have seen their work! Whether they're well- established veterans of the business, or current up and comers, these are the people who are making a living in Hollywood. Screenwriters, directors, producers and entertainment industry professionals share inside perspective on writing, filmmaking, breaking into Hollywood and navigating SHOW BUSINESS, along with stories of their journey to success!   HELP SPREAD THE WORD PLEASE! SCREENWRITERS, DIRECTORS, AUTHORS we would love to help spread the word about your Film, Book, Crowdfunding, etc., Contact us! (EMAIL: Info@hollywoodbreakthrough.com ) See Videos of all interviews at HollywoodBreakthrough.com Please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! Follow us on  Social Media Sites | Twitter @TheBreakThur|  Facebook: facebook.com/HollywoodBreakthroughPodcast Subscribe! Or, Please contact us for Interviews or Sponsorship of an episode!  Hollywood Breakthrough Show Website (EMAIL: Info@hollywoodbreakthrough.com )   View Apps Sponsor: Press and hold links to visit the page Hollywood Hero Agent Fenix Hill Pro Scottie The Baby Dino          

This week, our guest curator, Matt Fleeger got us thinking about the tensions between jazz's glorious history and its relentless drive toward the great new sounds.Tension is good, in a creative sense, right? But you can't help but notice how these dyad has driven some of the most ferocious conversations about the nature of jazz, and the rightful path for the American art form.Witness the fury over Stanley Crouch and James Mtume's epic head-to-head about Miles Davis' electric period, provided here (with added commentary from the always-excellent Ta-Nehisi Coates). Crouch basically suggests Davis was pressured by label execs to go for a broader audience. Mtume insists the decision to plug in was an artistic one, born of "technical exhaustion". It's a sample of a debate that consumes both fans and musicians. With Matt's help, we lined up three musicians who share very different views on the subject.

Sibling revelry abounds as Mike and Pat discuss the brothers and sisters of four well-known jazzers. The boys give Beevus and Buthead a run for their money as they meditate on the title of Alan Shorter's little known opus and start a beef with Stanley Crouch they are way too wimpy to carry out. Delfeayo Marsalis – PONTIUS PILATE'S DECISION; Christine Jensen -TREELINES; .Nat Adderley – LITTLE BIG HORN; Alan Shorter – ORGASM.

Music is the subject of The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Fine Minds, Wednesday, October 9, 3 pm ET when Halli is joined bytwice nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his writing talent, and author of the new much-talked about biography Kansas City Lightning, The Rise and Times of Charles Parker, Stanley Crouch and iconic portrait photographer Lynn Goldsmith with her new book, Rock and Roll Stories. Stanley Crouch has been writing about jazz music and the black experience for more than forty years. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, Downbeat, and the New York Times. He has served as artistic consultant for programming at Lincoln Center and is a regular columnist for the New York Daily News. Lynn Goldsmith is the iconic portrait photographer best known for her images of musicians. After coming of age in the Midwest in the tumultuous 1960s, she crashed the music scene in New York, emerging as one of its leading image-makers, chronicling Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and more.

The other white Evans in Miles Davis' life, Gil's solo career apart from the prince of darkness is a mixed bag, which Mike and Pat stick their hands into with the usual sticky results. Does the Bastard like Gil better than Stanley Crouch does? Tune in to find out. Gil Evans – GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS; NEW BOTTLES, OLD WINE; WHERE FLAMINGOS FLY; PLAYS THE MUSIC OF JIMI HENDRIX; Ryan Truesdell – CENTENNIAL- NEWLY DISCOVERED WORKS OF GIL EVANS

The old noir trope of putting a Chandler and a Wilder on a loveseat...RC-2013-110: The Film Noir Series — Double Indemnity (1944) Your browser does not support this audioWe continue down the noir path with a lively dissection of Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Right from the start I cop to being in love with nearly every aspect of the film, particularly its three leads. Although I lack the suave drollness of Walter Neff, I make up for it by telling a few charming tales about the film's production and the testy relations between Wilder and Chandler. You'll hear me explain why the boss of the insurance company, Mr. Norton, reminds me of Principal Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There is then some wondering out loud as to whether the film actually has something serious to say about the issue of nepotism-versus-meritocracy in WWII-era America. Though I giggle Walter's flurry of sexual innuendos, I don't try to come up with any myself.Show NotesA rundown of Barbara Stanwyck's pre-code naughtinessFred MacMurray's appearance on "What's My Line"Wilder speaks about the film and its alternate endingsMore lowdown on the gas chamber ending that was scrapped by WilderAn essay about film noir by Stanley CrouchThe definition of film noir, ctd.Listen to the mp3. Or go straight down the line to get it at iTunes.

Mastering the Past

I love those classic New York movies that have scenes where someone’s keeping their night going by heading to a friend’s afterparty and when they walk in, there’s a mini-jazz orchestra providing the grooves. This is happening in someone’s apartment! The bandleader with the baton bopping with a welcoming smile. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlpcJhNyDI&feature=related I’ve never had the pleasure but I recently read in Stanley Crouch collection of essays called Considering Genius that Wynton Marsalis gets down like that for real, presently. This is an I Love New York mix that I got commissioned to compile by a special events consultant extraordinaire (Bowen & Company) that was organizing an affair involving the unveiling of a new Trump Tower penthouse suite. A nice new place was on display and my job here was to give the room a classic and grand sound. I’ve got a real soft spot for singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra and for jazz in general so this was one of those ‘they pay me to do this(?)’ kind of assignments. http://www.bowenandco.com/ I didn’t get the chance to see the place so I just imagined being on the top of the Empire State building and looking around or re-imagined walking around great neighborhoods all over New York City. Watched some movies like Cotton Club, Harlem Nights, Breakfast At Tiffany's, and Manhattan and imagined what it might be like to be a jazz loving socialite way back when. This is a city that never ceases to astound and I wish I was around to see performances of all these sounds. Play these songs however, and I feel like I’m right there, then. So glad that I’m right here, now. I do love New York and I hope that this is a keepsake to us proper or former New Yorkers and maybe a delectable enticement to those who want to visit New York proper. Some titles appear more than once because all the versions are outstanding, yet, performed completely differently. That's Jazz. Enjoy New York City on the Jazz hand side. Billy Joel - New York State Of Mind Dinah Washington - Manhattan Sarah Vaughn - Autumn in New York Eric Satie - Gymnopepie No.3 Henry Mancini - Breakfast At Tiffany's Eric Reed - Englishman in New York Sarah Vaughn - Lullaby Of Broadway George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue (Piano Solo) Ella Fitzgerald - Manhattan Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra - Take The "A" Train Percy Faith & His Orchestra - On Broadway Lou Rawls - On Broadway Susan Barrett – Manhattan George Shearing – Lullaby of Birdland Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - New York, New York Helen O'Connell - Lullaby Of Broadway Frank Sinatra - Blue Skies Dakota Stanton - Broadway Woody Allen - Wild Man Blues Duke Ellington - Sidewalks Of New York Kings Sisters - Take the "A" Train Kate Smith - In Old New York / The Sidewalks Of New York Count Basie - All of Me Ella Fitzgerald - Blue Skies Jim Tyler - New York, New York Ella Fitzgerald - Take The "A" Train Buddy Rich - On Broadway Nancy Wilson - On Broadway Regina Carter - New York Attitude The Supremes - Manhattan Frank Sinatra - New York, New York https://www.facebook.com/QoolMarv