OnAir July 2023

WKCR 89.9 FM

Station Manager

Ale Díaz-Pizarro stationmanager@wkcr.org

Program Director Maria Shaughnessy programming@wkcr.org

Director of Operations

Zachary Vanderslice operations@wkcr.org

Student Life Director Ted Schmiedeler studentlife@wkcr.org

Publicity Director Georgia Dillane publicity@wkcr.org

Jazz Heads

Tanvi Krishnamurthy & Satch Peterson jazz@wkcr.org

New Music Head Razvan Matei newmusic@wkcr.org

Classical Head

Melisa Nehrozoglu classical@wkcr.org

American Head McKenna Roberts american@wkcr.org

In All Languages Head Ann Vettikkal ial@wkcr.org

Latin Head Leni Bryan latin@wkcr.org

News & Arts Head

Josh Kazali news@wkcr.org

Sports Head August Phillips sports@wkcr.org

Dear Listeners,

I am always excited to bring you a new issue of OnAir, but this month especially so. For starters, this month we have our first of two traditional Louis Armstrong birthday broadcasts, which are always station favorites. But July also brings a slew of new broadcasts and other celebrations, and this issue of OnAir has articles to match for almost all of them—articles clearly born of deep research and their authors' passion for the music they're about, which make this issue a truly exceptional one for our melophiles (or trivia enthusiasts) out there.

We open with Matthew "Fat Cat" Rivera's homage to Louis Armstrong's artistry, and take detours through the Blues of Willie Dixon and the canción of Mercedes Sosa to end up at the question of how the Wu-Tang Clan has managed to stay a collective after 30 years of recording together, explored by Ted Schmiedeler—whose second article about Wu-Tang this is, which might put him on track to become a veritable Wu-Tang scholar in residence at 'KCR.

All of this to say, the broadcasts that bookend this month's programming really pay testament to the musical range that 'KCR boasts, and we hope that you tune in for something that you maybe hadn't heard before and didn't know you'd enjoy. And of course, in between specials, we hope you'll continue tuning in for the usual shows. We might be a little short-staffed for summer with school out of session, but the music isn't going anywhere.

Happy Listening!

Alejandra Díaz-Pizarro Station Manager

Cover photo taken by William P. Gottlieb.

Listenin' Louie

by Matthew "Fat Cat" Rivera

In Chicago on April 24, 1933, Louis Armstrong—“floating” on reefer as the tenor player Budd Johnson recalled it—made “Laughin’ Louie,” one of five sides he cut for Victor that day.1 His band sets off with a hurdygurdy beat and shouts a unison “yeah!” before Armstrong announces he’s about to practice the trumpet. Then all swing breaks loose with Keg Johnson roaring on the trombone, his brother Budd chasing him on tenor, and Armstrong sets off on an “old fashioned good one:” a single note inspires an uproar of laughter, twice, then with no accompaniment, Armstrong plays a beautiful melody. He swings it, but he doesn’t quell the hecklers. And then, magic. “Now here’s the beautiful part. Listen.” It’s the notes, it’s the way he makes them and places them, carefully, like a surgeon of the soul, following that beat, taking his time to hear a phrase just before he plays it, finally building to a herculean high concert F. It’s the notes and the audible silences around them, the big room tone of 1143 Merchandise Mart, the sound of anticipation, the sound of listening. No more heckling. Finis. This is the stuff that brims over the heart— the lyrical Armstrong, the identity, the humor, the spirit. It is also the stuff of Louis the

listener, consuming the sounds and sights around him with avid observance, Louis the archivist, preserving his life on record, and Louis the artist, crafting it all into a flood tide of expression, a complete worldview. Vince Giordano has identified the old fashioned melody on “Laughin’ Louie” as Minnie T. Wright’s “Love Song” from 1920, which Armstrong probably played accompanying silent movies with Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra around 1926, and of course “Laughin’ Louie” pays homage to a huge hit of 1923, “The OKeh Laughing Record,” a gag recording of a struggling trumpet player who elicits laughter. Ricky Riccardi, Armstrong’s head archivist and curator, notes, “Louis loved ‘The OKeh Laughing Record’ and owned a copy of it, transferring it to reelto-reel tape many times and even joining in with the laughter one time when dubbing it with some friends.”2 Another dimension of Laughin’ Louie, then: memory. I can see Armstrong there in the recording studio, eyes closed, hearing the OKeh laughing record, hearing the Erskine Tate band, and then, Joe Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Rena, the ancestors, as he sculpts each phrase. Finally he opens his

1 Satchmo: The Louis Armstrong Encyclopedia, p. 180.

2 Ricky Riccardi, “Six Minutes with Satch: Laughing’ Louie / Tomorrow Night” https://dippermouth.blogspot.com/2020/04/six-minutes-with-satchlaughin-louie.html

Courtesy of Matthew Rivera.

eyes, looks up at the ceiling, and reaches that high concert F—and now, Louis Armstrong.

Here on Armstrong’s 122nd birthday, we take our offerings to the monument by celebrating his statements, that is, by playing his records. The opening credenza of “West End Blues;” the stop time breaks on “Potato Head Blues;" the scat chorus on “Heebie Jeebies;” the first recorded solo on “Chimes Blues;” the “Oh Memory” take of “Stardust;” the triumph that is “Swing That Music;” “Back ‘O Town Blues;” “That’s for Me;” At the Crescendo; Ella and Louis; “Hello, Dolly;” “What a Wonderful World;” even “Laughin’ Louie.” Each is a piece of the whole and a world unto itself. But as powerfully as he made these statements, Armstrong, it seems to me, listened twice as powerfully. Twice he tells us to listen on “Laughin’ Louie,” and thanks to his self-archiving, we know that listening was an essential part of his craft. On hundreds of reel-to-reel tapes he made during the last two decades of his life, Armstrong acts as an avid DJ, re-recording records from his vast collection, often listening with an open mic, and occasionally playing along with them. Like the collages of clippings, photographs, and scotch tape he created outside his reelto-reel boxes, on the tapes themselves we hear Armstrong collecting sources, compiling inspirations, memories, ideas, heart. We hear him listening.

It’s all there on “Laughin’ Louie.” Like an aural collage, taped together with laughs and cries of “yeah man!” Armstrong calls the recording a practice session, a glimpse at the creative process behind all those statements we celebrate on July 4th, August 4th, and every other day of the year. As with the tape collages and the recordings, he sutures his public and private personas, his personal and impersonal histories, in order to speak for himself. The word collage, strictly speaking, comes from the French for sticking or gluing, but in a more colloquial sense, it also can mean “having an affair, or an unmarried couple ‘living in sin.’”3 Today it may be difficult to hear the radicalism

3 University of Chicago, School of Media Theory, “Collage.” https:// csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/collage.htm

of Armstrong’s combination of previously “unmarried” sources in both his collages and his music, but in “Laughin’ Louie,” it’s right at the fore: the humor of the first section of the record, a little ditty written by Clarence Gaskill, and then the heart wrenching “Love Song.” “Laughin’ Louie,” with its not-so-subtle association of getting high and high love, of a new pleasure madness and a decaying victorian sentimentality, of mass culture’s uncertain acceleration towards both liberation and Fascism, is in this sense a statement of the age.

Working in Armstrong’s archives over the past few months has added to my own densely layered collage portrait of Armstrong. A few details rise to the fore: a photograph of an old Armstrong wearing a pair of headphones that engulf his ears; a flattened pot leaf in one of Jack Bradley’s books; a letter to Armstrong’s once wife Lil filled with a slew of dirty jokes that FCC regulations would prevent us from reading over the air; a huge print of Armstrong eating spaghetti over the desk where I’ve been working at the scanner. Somewhere in the process of recently moving Armstrong’s massive collection from Queens College to the new Louis Armstrong Center, I overheard Alex, the main archives packer, comment on the numerous books about Hitler in Armstrong’s voluminous library. Ricky tells Alex, “Armstrong said you have to learn about your enemies before you can hate them.” And somewhere I hear that high concert F.

Courtesy of Matthew Rivera.

Willie Dixon: I Am the Blues

by Sam Seliger

During his life, Wilie Dixon released 13 albums (plus a box set) and 12 singles, none of which charted.

He also wrote over 500 recorded songs. In 1960 alone, Dixon gave Howlin’ Wolf a trio of classic hits: “Back Door Man,” “Spoonful,” and “Wang Dang Doodle,” and the next year gave him two more with “I Ain’t Superstitious” and “Little Red Rooster.” While that short span of compositions for a single artist alone would have made Dixon an indispensable contributor to the legacy of blues music, it is rivaled by numerous other accomplishments of similar importance.

In the 1950s and 60s, Willie Dixon was the bassist and de facto leader of the house band at Chess Records, that palace of postwar Chicago blues that codified and transformed the genre. He produced numerous recording sessions and worked as an administrator for Chess and its subsidiaries, as well as scouting for talent on their behalf (and that of some other small labels). With his playing, songwriting, and work behind the boards, he was the single largest contributor—save for the artist themselves— to the classic sound of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Otis Rush, and early Chuck Berry.

Dixon was part of a pivotal generation of African-American musicians. Born in Mississippi in 1915, he was five years younger than Howlin’ Wolf, four younger than Robert Johnson, and two younger than Muddy Waters. Like all of those men, he was exposed to a robust musical world in the deep south and eventually moved towards larger cities (and northward) as a part of the Great Migration.

Dixon’s musical background exemplifies the

changing musical world in which he came of age. As a young man, he sang in gospel groups, as well as working in small ensembles that specialized in the emerging styles of more urbane Black pop music. Though he was part of Chicago’s tremendous Blues scene, he was recording proto-rhythm-and-blues with the Big Three Trio late into the 1940s. The Blues was a form of popular music, and while it may not have sold quite as well as the Ink Spots, it was

Willie Dixon at the American Folk Blues Festival, Brussels, 1963.

within the musical vernacular of the day and held a niche in the landscape of Black popular music in the middle of the 20th century.

Dixon joined Chess Records in 1951, and his work there solidified that niche in its post-WWII manifestation. In his book Romancing the Folk, historian Benjamin Filene highlighted Blues’s popularity with Southern-born adults: it was a modern style of music built on the familiar pre-war tradition that Dixon’s generation had grown up with. With his songwriting, playing, bandleading and production, Dixon was as crucial to this formation of the blues as anybody: he took the themes, lyrical tropes, and songwriting structures of the early blues and formed them into a coherent and fully developed world. In it, the seedy drama of everyday life was played up, where compelling characters—heartbroken, libidinous, powerful, desperate, charismatic—were the center of the world for three to five minutes at a time. His songwriting was marked by its masterful concision, using the repetition of the blues form to maximum extent and giving his many

talented vocalists plenty of space to make it their own.

The blues that he played with the Chess band was sturdy and swinging, continuing the rhythmic evolution of the music from the first decades of the 20th century onward. The blues shuffle was never merely a product of the rhythm section (Dixon’s steady bass lines and the jazz-influenced swinging of the drums), but of a whole ensemble product; the defining blues rhythmic tendencies came just as much from the rhythm guitar and the left hand of the piano. While the British blues/rockers of subsequent generations would morph the blues into a guitar-slinger’s field, Dixon’s Chicago blues was still an ensemble-based music, and the bands that Dixon led for Chess Records were among the best.

It is a tragedy of these circumstances that Dixon’s catalog as a leader gave him so few opportunities to achieve stardom from the sound he developed. He recorded relatively little as a leader for Chess, and while the material he did make, such as the live duo album with Memphis Slim, are quite interesting and enjoyable, they weren’t exactly vehicles to superstardom. In 1970, he put out the aptlytitled I Am the Blues for Columbia, a personal favorite for its lived-in, ensemble-oriented sound, and while he eventually garnered success on the touring circuit, it was far less than the late-career renaissance of Muddy Waters or the eternal reverence of Chuck Berry. However, those attentive to the tremendous importance of his work have always known that there is none who can equal him.

WKCR will be inaugurating the month with a special broadcast to honor the life and work of Willie Dixon. The broadcast will run 2-6pm on Saturday, July 1st, pre-empting Something Inside of Me and Hobo's Lullaby.

Dixon at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981. Photo by Brian McMillen.

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Field Trip

Amazing Grace The Moonshine Show

The Tennessee Border Show

Monday Morningside

Out to Lunch

Cereal Music

Sunday Profiles

Afternoon New Music

Raag Aur Taal

SoundStage

Live Constructions

Back in the USSR

The Celtic Show

Coordinated Universal Time Phil Lives

PopTalk

Caribe Latino Honky Tonkin’

Tuesday’s Just as Bad Urbano Latinx

Transfigured Night Night Train

Nueva Canción Som do

Transfigured

Traditions

Notes From Underground Alternates every week.

Special Broadcasts

BIRTHDAY BROADCASTS

Willie Dixon

Saturday, July 1st, 2-6 pm

In the space that normally holds our Saturday folk and Blues programming, we will be celebrating Willie Dixon, house bassist, bandleader, producer, and principal songwriter for the great Chess Records in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. Dixon wrote countless blues classics, played on and produced hundreds of recordings, and had a lengthy career as a lead artist as well. Our broadcast will include highlights from his musical career, including deep cuts and live recordings, covers, and classics, both undersung and oversung.

Louis Armstrong

Tuesday, July 4th, all day

As we have done every year for around 50 years, we will celebrate Louis Armstrong on his observed birthday of July 4th (don’t worry, we’ll also be doing his legal birthday next month!). Our broadcast will include some of the classics, deep cuts, obscure live recordings, and of course, special archival deep dives from Phil Schaap.

Wu Tang Clan

Wednesday-Thursday, July 5th-6th, 10pm-6am

Two members of the legendary hip-hop group, RZA and Inspectah Deck, were born on back-to-back days in July, giving us a perfect opportunity to celebrate the group in their 30th year as commercial recording artists. We provided them some of their first ever airplay on the Stretch and Bobbito Show back in 1993, and we don’t plan on stopping any time soon. In order to present their music in its actual, uncensored form, we will be broadcasting during radio Dark Hours, from 10pm to 6 am.

Mercedes Sosa

Sunday, July 9th, 2-7 pm

In a special edition of Sunday Profiles, WKCR celebrates what would have been the famed Argentinian singer's 88th birthday. Of indigenous descent, Sosa was a leading voice in the nueva canción movement and an emblem of resistance against the Latin American dictatorships of the 60s and 70s.

Philly Joe Jones Centennial

Saturday, July 15th, all day

We are thrilled to present a 24-hour special broadcast celebrating the 100th birthday of the great drummer “Philly” Joe Jones. Best known for his membership in Miles Davis’s First Great Quintet, Jones was a leading player of the bebop era, working with countless legends including Tadd Dameron,, Bill Evans, and Sonny Rollins. Our special broadcast will include live and studio recordings from throughout his career, including work as both a sideman and a leader.

Brian Blade

Tuesday, July 25th, all day

The second drummer featured in a special broadcast in the second part of July this year is Brian Blade, a tremendous figure of the jazz and fusion worlds and far beyond for over three decades. In addition to working in Wayne Shorter’s band for most of the 21st century, Blade has been a regular collaborator for a diverse group of innovative musicians ranging from Ron Miles, Joshua Redman, and Chick Correa to Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. Our special broadcast will highlight iconic and obscure recordings throughout his prodigious and eclectic career thus far.

SUNDAY PROFILES

Sundays 2:00-7:00 PM

Labeled: JAPO

July 2nd, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Hosts: Steve Mandel & J Cohn

Mercedes Sosa

July 9th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Hosts: David Contreras, David Gonzalez, Maria Shaughnessy

Warp Records

July 16th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: David Contreras-Araya

TBA

July 23rd, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: Sid Gribetz

Michel Camilo

July 30th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: Benjamin Magid

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Saturdays 9:00 PM-12:30 AM

Nixon in China (Adams)

July 1st, 9:00pm-12:30am

Host: Alejandra Díaz-Pizarro

Tannhäuser (Wagner)

July 8th, 9:00pm-12:30am

Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro

La fille du régiment (Donizetti)

July 22nd, 9:00pm-12:30am

Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro

Œdipe (Enescu)

July 29th, 9:00pm-12:30am

Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro

Show Listings

JAZZ

Daybreak Express, weekdays 5-8:20am

Out to Lunch, weekdays 3-6pm

Jazz Alternatives, weekdays 6-9pm

These three programs comprise the core of our jazz offerings. Programming consists of everything from New Orleans jazz, jazz age, swing era, bebop, hard-bop, modal, free, and avant-garde. In short, you’ll encounter the entire range of recorded jazz on these programs. Hosts rotate from day-to-day, offering an exciting variety of approaches, some of which include thematic presentation, artist interviews, or artist profiles

Birdflight, Tues.-Fri. 8:20-9:30am

Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, one of the world’s leading jazz historians, who hosted this daily forum for the music of Charlie Parker for about 40 years.

Traditions in Swing, Sat. 6-9pm

Archival programs hosted by the late Phil Schaap, this award-winning Saturday night staple presents focused thematic programs dealing with jazz up until about World War II. Schaap presents the music, much of it incredibly rare, from the best sound source, which is often the original 78 issue.

Phil Lives*, Mon. 3-5am

This overnight show features archival broadcasts of longform programs from late NEA Jazz Master Phil Schaap.

CLASSICAL

Cereal Music, Mon.-Thurs. 9:30am-12pm

An entirely open-ended classical show to start your weekdays. Tune in to hear the most eclectic mix of classical music on the New York airwaves!

The Early Music Show, Fri. 9:30am-12pm

Dedicated primarily to European medieval, Renaissance, and baroque music, all from before 1800 (plus or minus 50 years).

Extended Technique*, Wed. & Thurs. 3-6pm

WKCR’s first interdepartmental show (in the New Music and Classical departments) dedicated to contemporary classical music. You’ll hear everything from 12-tone and minimalist compositions to film and video game scores, and all things in between.

* Indicates show was created after January 2022

Afternoon Classical, Fri. 3-6pm.

Similar to cereal music, most of afternoon classical has no restrictions on what type of classical music to play. The last hour of the show, however, is dedicated fully to the music of JS Bach.

Saturday Night at the Opera, Sat. 9pm-12:30am.

One of NYC’s longest running opera shows, Saturday Night at the Opera is a 3.5 hour show that allows operas to be played in their entirety, with room for commentary, descriptions, and some history.

NEW MUSIC

Afternoon New Music, Mon. & Tues. 3-6pm

Our daytime new music program features a wide variety of music that challenges boundaries and subverts categorizations. Shows include everything from seminal new music compositions to the most challenging of obscure deep cuts and new releases.

Transfigured Night, Tues./Thurs./Sat. 1-5am

Our overnight explorations into the world of new music, Transfigured Night rewards our late night listeners with a wide range of sounds and experimental music.

Workaround*, Fri. 9-10pm

WKCR presents Live DJ sets from Columbia students and local artists.

Live Constructions, Sun. 10-11pm

This weekly program features a live in-studio performance or a performance pre-recorded specially for the show.

AMERICAN

Honky Tonkin’, Tues. 10-11pm

One of WKCR’s longest-running American music programs, Honky Tonkin’ lands in the harder side of Country music. Emphasizing the greatest voices in the genre, Honky Tonkin’ is a country music dance party every Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s Just as Bad, Tues. 11pm - Wed. 1am

Tuesday’s Just as bad explores the world of blues prior to World War II. Shows weave their way through the first decades of recorded music history and turn to the postwar years in the final half hour.

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS

Night Train, Wed. 1-5am

All aboard! One of our two overnight programs in the American department, Night Train rolls through the post-war R&B and soul tradition, from the genre’s emergence in the 1940’s and 50’s through the funk revolution in the 1970’s. Shows often feature extended live recordings and concerts.

Offbeat, Fri. 1-5am

Offbeat is committed to broadcasting undiscovered new hip hop music. Shows typically focus on exposing underplayed or up-and-coming new artists, including experimental instrumental artists not typically played on mainstream hip hop radio.

Across 110th Street, Sat. 12-2pm

Kicking off our Saturday afternoon American music run, Across 110th Street airs soul, funk, and dance music from the 1960’s through the 1980’s and 90’s.

Something Inside of Me, Sat. 2-4pm

Something Inside of Me is WKCR’s Saturday afternoon blues show, focusing mostly on the electric and post-war styles.

Hobo’s Lullaby, Sat. 4-6pm

Rooted in the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, Hobo’s Lullaby airs American folk and traditional music styles from the early 20th century through the present day. From old staples like Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotton, and Woody Guthrie to contemporary stalwarts like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and lesser known artists, domestic traditions are alive and well on Hobo’s Lullaby.

Notes from the Underground, Sun. 12:30-2am

Notes from the Underground showcases contemporary hip hop and rap music with an emphasis on emerging and experimental artists. The program also hosts local and visiting artists for interviews, freestyles, and guestcuration.

Amazing Grace, Sun. 8-10am

Greeting listeners on Sunday morning, Amazing Grace shares with listeners the world of the African-American gospel tradition.

The Moonshine Show, Sun. 10am-12pm

On the air for nearly 60 years, The Moonshine Show showcases the American Bluegrass tradition, from the earliest roots in vernacular string-band music, through

the genre’s pioneers in the 1940s and 50s and advancements in the 60s and 70s, through the leading innovators and stars of today.

The Tennessee Border Show, Sun. 12-2pm

One third of WKCR’s country music programming, along with Honky Tonkin’ and the Bluegrass Moonshine Show, Tennessee Border highlights the singer-songwriter tradition, from Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt to Lucinda Williams.

LATIN

Caribe Latino, Mon. 10pm-12am

Caribe Latino is a music program that features the diverse, upbeat music from numerous Latin communities in the Caribbean. Popular Latin rhythms such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata and Latin Jazz take center stage throughout the program.

Urbano Latinx, Tues. 12-1am

A weekly Latin show airing contemporary sounds from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diaspora, Urbano Latinx features mixes of salsa, merengue, Latin punk rock, and more.

Sin Fronteras*, Wed. 12-3pm

Falling in the space of Out to Lunch on Wednesday afternoons, Sin Fronteras explores the tremendous Latin Jazz tradition.

Nueva Canción, Wed. 10-11pm

Nueva Canción is an exploration of protest music created throughout Latin America during the 60s and 70s and its numerous other manifestations throughout other countries and time periods.

Som do Brasil, Wed. 11pm - Thurs. 1am

From samba and bossa nova to MPB, hear the numerous and enchanting sounds and rhythms of Brazil.

Sonidos Colombianos, Fri. 10-11pm

Sonidos Colombianos presents music from one of the most culturally diverse countries of Latin America: Colombia! Our bilingual musical tour is guaranteed to include not only cumbia, but also the guitar-based bambuco from the Andean region, the harp llanero music from the Eastern Plains, the marimba-infused currulao from the Pacific Region, and the accordiondriven vallenato of the North Atlantic Coast.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS

The Mambo Machine, Fri. 11pm - Sat. 2am

The Mambo Machine is the longest running salsa show in New York City. The program presently plays a wide spectrum of Afro-Latin rhythms, combining new and old into an exciting, danceable mix.

El Sonido de la Calle*, Sun. 2-4am

A companion show to Saturday night’s American Notes from Underground, El Sonido de la Calle highlights the diverse world of contemporary Spanish-language hiphop and dance music.

IN ALL LANGUAGES

The Celtic Show, Mon. 12-1am

Music from across the island of Ireland throughout the era of recorded music, particularly focusing on traditional folk and vernacular music forms.

Coordinated Universal Time, Mon. 1-3am

Coordinated Universal Time brings our listeners the latest cut of music from anywhere in the world, especially highlighting music that does not get attention in America. Our programming tries to bring the hottest and the most recent tunes to WKCR’s airwaves.

The African Show, Thurs. 10pm-12am

The longest running African music radio show in the United States, the African Show brings you a variety of music from the entire continent of Africa.

Middle Eastern Influences, Fri. 12-1am

During the hour-long show, Middle Eastern Influences features a wide range of beautiful tracks from regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and even, at times, South Asia.

Sounds of Asia, Sat. 6-8am

Rechristened from Sounds of China, Sounds of Asia explores the recorded musical traditions and innovations of Asia and the Pacific islands.

Eastern Standard Time, Sat. 8am-12pm

One of New York’s most popular Reggae programs, Eastern Standard Time takes listeners through Saturday morning from 8 am to noon with the hypnotic sounds of Reggae and Jamaican dance music.

Field Trip, Sun. 6-8am

Field Trip focuses on the music and practice of field recordings: music recorded outside of a studio. Tune in and you may catch field recordings that were recorded fifty years ago, others that were experimented with by your favorite Afternoon New Music artist, or even those documented in New York City by WKCR itself.

Raag Aur Taal, Sun. 7-9pm

Raag Aur Taal explores the sounds and rich cultural heritage of South Asia. The term “Raag Aur Taal” roughly translates to “melody and rhythm,” indicating the classical nature of this program.

Back in the USSR, Sun. 11pm-12am

Back in the USSR features music from across the former Soviet Union and soviet states across Eastern Europe and East and Central Asia, from the mid-20th century through the present.

NEWS & ARTS

Monday Morningside*, Mon. 8:30-9:30am

Monday Morningside is WKCR’s morning news broadcast to kick off the week, featuring news segments on events around Morningside Heights and upper Manhattan. If you’re not an early bird, all episodes are available as podcasts on Spotify!

PopTalk*, Mon. 9-10pm

PopTalk examines current developments in pop music and the latest top-flight releases.

SoundStage*, Sun. 9-10pm

SoundStage features audio dramas and radio plays from the WKCR archives as well as new compositions by students and contemporary writers. Some shows also feature interviews with dramatists and directors.

SUNDAY PROFILES

Sunday Profile, Sun. 2-7pm*

With the return of the five-hour profiles slot, programmers will showcase longform profiles as they have done for decades. While the primary focus remains on jazz music, we also feature other styles and traditions from across WKCR’s different programming departments.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

On Mercedes Sosa

by David Contreras-Araya

Adense voice emerges from the faint strumming of a guitar. Reuniting with the Bombo, almost in solidarity, is the lyricism of pastoral nostalgia and later—a proud rendering of Argentine nationality. As Mercedes Sosa promises in the opening piece for her sophomore album: “When I have the land / those who fight will have it / the teachers, the woodcutters, the workers.”

Mercedes Sosa was, if anything, an effective icon of a pan-Latin American indigeneity. Yet her music betrays a modernist synthesis of formal constructions in Eurocentric music. As historian Matthew B. Karush observes in his critical analysis of Argentine music, her frequent collaborators and final compositions did embrace the indigenous zamba rhythms—but nonetheless made eager use of alternative jazz guitar chords, among other cosmopolitan airs, which had permeated tango in the 60s. This is notable in Allá Lejos Y Hace Tiempo, in which two distinctly jazz hands, one on contrabass and another on classical guitar, accompany Sosa’s lonely voice as it reverberates within your conscience. Yet other cases are more musically subtle, given the somewhat minimal arpeggiation and galloping strumming that mask its Euro-

centric cosmopolitanism, seeking to elevate the Bombo, which alongside the Quena and Charango comprise Sosa’s exploits into Andean instrumentation. In occasional leaps, as in "Terceto Autóctono," Sosa’s opus flirts with dazzling interpolations that pin a Quena against an ensemble of orchestral strings.

Similarly, her lyricism maintains a similar theme despite its profound yearning for social decency and ethno-racial unity. In line with later musical and literary figures of popular Argentine music, namely Luis Alberto Spinetta, Sosa regarded herself, in practice, as an aesthete. Nostalgia, fervor, melancholia, and passion were the central figures of Sosa’s music, rather than the tormented native, common laborer, or figures of legendary epic poems. This served two reasons.

First, as Karush emphasizes, Sosa sought to mobilize folklore in the hopes of establishing a vast and respectable “panLatinist” sensibility. Instead of reinforcing the canonized homogenization of mestizos, Sosa maintained herself within an “essentialist” form of indigeneity that demanded Argentina’s existence to be of indigenous essence. Throughout the seventies, as an extension of the New Songbook’s manifesto,

Sosa posing with her bombo. Photo by Annemarie Heinrich.

Sosa later collaborated with and curated musical traditions from other nations. Most notably was the adoption of Violeta Parra’s foundational Chilean-centric work, and so was her frequent live appearances with the intrepid Milton Nascimento. This was an emphatic shift from the substance of her lyricism and music to the performers. Sosa’s long black hair, the trademark poncho, and stoicism were sensationalized and lauded by European and Argentine audiences alike. Despite Sosa’s palatable entrance into European sensibilities, her exoticized appearances inevitably bolstered her allure to the mainstream with an assurance that her performed indigeneity assured authenticity.

Secondly—and more practically—Sosa was the ambivalent subject of disjointed political regimes across the 20th century. Her lyrics were thereby reluctant to engage with audiences in explicitly political terms. As a member of the Communist Party, around the early 60s Sosa’s intellectual and artistic circles were

frequent targets of harassment under Arturo Frondizi’s presidency. Admittedly, Sosa was also somewhat of a snob, but is easily forgiven in contradistinction with the unapologetically Westernized pop music of the burgeoning Nueva Ola movement (see Sandro, Cecilia).

The point was, therefore, to mobilize a vaguely “indigenista” persona to carve out a unique identity, which refused to be subsumed within Western colonization.

As listeners sift through Mercedes Sosa’s oeuvre, in her dedicated birthday broadcast, I encourage everyone to maintain a keen ear to the distinct dialogue that she maintains with our culture. Rather than a mere import, Sosa’s work serves as interlocution in mediating historically hostile identities into a harmonious synthesis of indigenous and European roots. As alluded to in this essay, there is much to misunderstand from the singular Mercedes Sosa—but there is also much to interrogate and contend with, and especially engage with in reflexive contemplation.

Sosa playing the bombo, 1967. Photo by Ron Kroon.

Wu-Tang Forever: Not Just a Slogan

by Ted Schmiedeler

When discussing hip hop collectives, the conversation almost always starts with the legendary New York based Wu-Tang Clan. The group (consisting of members RZA, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, U-God, and Masta Killa) became worldfamous for their unique flows, innovative use of sampling in production, and masterful lyrical abilities showcased throughout the last thirty years. The group has inspired generations of rappers with their music, but how they achieved such success is, arguably, equally as extraordinary.

The most impressive part about the Clan outside of their music is the persistence of group unity in a world that values individualism. The group is touring in 2023 as a collective and members remain steadfast in their commitment to one of their most popular slogans: “Wu-Tang forever.” They remained tight-knit for about the first decade of their existence and still collaborated in the following two decades when solo projects became priorities. Many popular rap collectives fall apart within a few years due to members having differing creative visions or believing the group is holding them back.

BROCKHAMPTON, a collective headed by Kevin

Abstract and popular for their SATURATION trilogy, split last year after 12 years. The Migos, before the tragic and untimely death of Takeoff, split after 11 years. N.W.A—the most famous and successful West Coast collective to come out of the late 1980s—only lasted 4 years before they fell apart. Wu-Tang Clan formed in 1992 and still play shows and make music together after more than 30 years. So why have these groups fallen apart and why has WuTang persisted?

Collectives or groups allowed rappers to move from the underground to the mainstream, especially from the 1980s to early 2000s. Before the popularity of the Internet, the music industry had gatekeepers, such as label executives and radio DJs, that determined who would rise out to mainstream success. Back then, the mainstream looked like selling records at a CD shop and getting radio play. The underground looked like selling CDs out of a trunk and rapping on the side of the road or at local freestyle events. During this era, many rappers relied on a group to sell out venues and boost CD sales because fanbases of one rapper would be exposed to the work of everyone else in the group all in one album or performance. However, once in the mainstream many

Wu-Tang Clan performing at Glastonbury in 2019.

Photo by Simon Crompton Reid.

individuals felt they no longer needed the group and moved on in their career. They had already passed through the gates of the mainstream and had access to the resources necessary to keep their career going. Group longevity was not necessarily a priority for many during this era.

Furthermore, in recent years, with the removal of many of these gatekeeping mechanisms due to the Internet, rappers can elevate themselves from the underground to the mainstream much quicker and with fewer resources. A song can blow up as a result of the Spotify or TikTok algorithm and drive hundreds of fans to a rapper’s page, circumventing the label executives and radio DJs of the past that played a role in determining who would move on to that next level. Hip hop groups now are less necessary and therefore less popular. So, the survival, let alone thriving, of as large of a group as the Wu-Tang Clan through the era when groups were prone to fall apart into the era when they are not as necessary is an anomaly to be admired. So how did they do it?

Wu-Tang’s model was somewhat unique and created their continued group success. RZA was the primary producer and de facto leader of the group, and he organized a system to allow for individual and group success. The group released their debut group project Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993 to great commercial success. However, instead of immediately working on their next project, RZA started producing four member’s individual projects. Method Man released his debut solo album Tical in 1994. GZA’s Liquid Swords, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version were all released in 1995. All of these records were produced by RZA and had features from other Wu-Tang Clan members. The genius in this system is that it allows for members to pursue their creative vision alongside group projects, while maintaining a somewhat cohesive sound. Because RZA was the producer for these records, they share in the similar core elements, such as masterful use of both musical and non-musical samples

in the beats to create a cinematic listening experience. Although other groups had differing members do features on each other’s solo projects, the level of involvement down to the production was rare among groups at the time. It created an atmosphere that would feel similar across all Wu-Tang works that grew the fanbase and developed them a cult following. Each album felt like a new installment of a movie franchise, with solo projects being captivating spin-offs that were almost as good as the main series movies and built for fanfare among the diehards.

Additionally, each member of Wu-Tang bought into the system and did not let their ego get too big. Each member understood that individual success was tied to group success and strived to push the group, not just themselves, forward. The result of this system is that the individual sales of each member’s solo records get boosted by their inclusion in the group, as some fans will buy anything Wu-Tang related, and their inclusion of other members of the group on their individual projects means some fans of individual Wu-Tang members will be driven to the record to hear that rapper do a feature. Furthermore, nobody feels limited because they are encouraged to do their own work from time to time.

Although most members have chosen to focus on their solo careers for the last two decades, this emphasis on unity and cohesion defined the group’s success in their first decade of existence and allows for the continued success of the group as hip hop icons to this day. Due to their unity, they have the ability to pursue their own projects while still being able to reunite for a tour or a record after years with no problem.

WKCR will celebrate the group with a birthday broadcast running from July 5 at 10pm (RZA’s birthday) to July 6 at 6am (Inspectah Deck’s birthday).

WKCR merch is back! Every month this summer, we will be releasing two different T-shirts designs. One will be a re-release of an old design, featuring one of our WKCR logos; the other will be an original or entirely new design created by WKCR members, which will be available exclusively during the summer drop. All proceeds from merch will go toward general station expenses. You can purchase this month's designs on our website throughout the entirety of July. If you like a design, you should get it while you can, as designs will go offline at the end of the month! After the July merch drop, there will be two more—one in August and one in September, each featuring two different sets of designs. Support WKCR in style!

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HOW TO DONATE TO WKCR IN 4 STEPS

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Step 1: Locate your nearest checkbook

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Special thanks to Ale Díaz-Pizarro, David Contreras-Araya, Georgia Dillane, Maria Shaughnessy, Matthew "Fat Cat" Rivera, Ricky Riccardi, Sam Seliger, & Ted Schmiedeler.