This episode of Deep Focus has been decades in the making. Deep Focus host Mitch Goldman started DJing Monday nights at WKCR in 1985. At that time, he alternated Mondays with fellow WKCR programmer Ethan Singer. Mitch and Ethan soon discovered that they both loved a lot of the same music and both loved the live music experience. They merged forces and started producing a show with live sessions called “Monday Live” (a format and name first created by Andy Caploe several years earlier). Together, Mitch and Ethan produced dozens and dozens of live sets that still populate the WKCR archives.
All was well until the early 2000s, when real life interceded, and Ethan relocated to the West Coast. Monday Live was no more. After a brief but intense existential crisis, Mitch created Deep Focus, but the great memories of working with Ethan never faded for him. At long last, this Monday, Mitch welcomes Ethan Singer to the WKCR studios as co-host of Deep Focus.
And what an episode this one will be. Last May, bandleader Eric Person joined Mitch for a Deep Focus on fellow saxophonist Eddie Harris. This Deep Focus was a revelation. Not only was he an inventive instrumentalist, but a technologist, a singular bandleader, a sonic explorer. Who knew that Eddie Harris was such a fount of creativity? Eric Person, that’s who!
Fortunately, the WKCR archives yielded more rare, live Eddie Harris recordings than Mitch and Eric were able to play on that 3-hour show, so this Monday will be part 2. Mitch and Eric assure the listeners that they have saved the best for last.
Tune in this Monday (3/2) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.
Or join us 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, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial. We won’t even ask for your contact info.
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Photo credit: courtesy of eddieharris.com.
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