Vernon Reid
2025.09.29 Vernon Reid on James Blood Ulmer
What is the great lesson of a James Blood Ulmer for fellow guitarist/composer/bandleader Vernon Reid? Find out this Monday (9/29) when Vernon Reid and [...]
2025.09.01 Ben Tyree on Spectrum Road
Who came up with the idea that the middle of the road is the right place to be? Regular listeners to Mitch Goldman's Deep Focus know that it's those [...]
2024.06.10 Vernon Reid on Gil Scott-Heron
We don't hear enough about Gil Scott-Heron these days. And when we do, we often get the same few crumbs: his invention of a sort of proto-hiphop, some [...]
2022.11.28 Vernon Reid on Carlos Santana
In 1972, as Miles Davis was rewriting the genetic code of musical possibilities in NYC, Carlos Santana, his labelmate, was doing the exact same [...]
2011.09.12 Vernon Reid on Weather Report
Rebroadcast on December 14, 2020.
From the outside, Big Ideas seem to emerge in one complete piece. But If you find yourself inside them, either because [...]
2011.04.25 Vernon Reid on “Before It Had A Name”
Rebroadcast June 15, 2020
The moment after a new art form emerges, it becomes codified; original ideas quickly devolve to cliches; bold discoverers [...]
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Dark day. Just got word that Ronald Shannon Jackson passed this morning. I was 19 when I first heard his music. No one had ever told me that music could do [...]