OnAir February 2023

WKCR 89.9 FM

Station Manager

Schuyler Rabbin-Birnbaum stationmanager@wkcr.org

Program Director

Sam Seliger programming@wkcr.org

Director of Operations

Benjamin Magid

Student Life Director Ale Díaz-Pizarro studentlife@wkcr.org

Publicity Director Jacob Grayzel publicity@wkcr.org

Jazz Heads

Melody Lu & Zachary Vanderslice jazz@wkcr.org

New Music Head

Razvan Matei newmusic@wkcr.org

Classical Head

Maria Shaughnessy classical@wkcr.org

American Head

Izzy Szyfer american@wkcr.org

In All Languages Head

Ann Vettikkal ial@wkcr.org

Latin Head

Leni Bryan latin@wkcr.org

News & Arts Head

Dear Listeners,

We’ve reached a lovely point where the OnAir Guide is no longer novel. This is by no means a saddening fact - OnAir has been cemented in WKCR’s cornucopia of incredible projects of which we can nonchalantly say: “Oh yeah, we do that, too.” So I present to you, dear listeners, some of our recent endeavors and praise for the people who made them happen:

Due to our less-than-perfect documentation of… anything, really, the pandemic essentially erased any knowledge of how to engineer and host an in-studio live show (some of our technology has also mysteriously gone missing). WKCR’s chief engineer, Zachary Vanderslice, took it upon himself to start a year-long exploration of this unknown world and brought live music back to us. Now, we have a team of three incredible engineers who engineer and host these shows on a weekly basis: the above-mentioned Zachary Vanderslice, Leni Bryan, and Sarah Barlyn—who, by the way, are starting to have to turn away bands because we’re almost fully booked through Spring.

As I mentioned, WKCR has a slight theft problem. A few years ago, this problem reached its peak when our baby grand piano disappeared overnight. We’ve had a donated electric keyboard ever since. That is, until now. Thanks to our Director of Operations, Benny Magid, WKCR received a $9,000 grant that went towards, among other things, microphones, headphones, cables, a drum set, AND (drumroll please) a beautiful new upright piano. Don’t take this to mean we’re rich now–WKCR still needs your donations (see page 21). I have so much more to say, but I have a hard 350 word limit, so expect more bragging in the next issue’s dear listeners. For now, I’ll leave you with the highlights of this OnAir guide. In honor of February being Black History Month, we have an incredible article written by one of our most beloved alums, Matt “Fat Cat” Rivera, about the first black-owned major record label. In addition, we are excited and proud to announce that we are bringing back WKCR’s Country Music Festival (read all about that on page 7)! Lastly, read about the upcoming Dexter Gordon and Nina Simone birthday broadcasts on pages 18 and 19, respectively.

Happy Listening!

Classical Department Head

Josh Kazali news@wkcr.org

Sports Head

Address

Mailing CONTACT US

General

Songs for the Swan

by “The Fat Cat” (Matthew Rivera)

An ad reads: “Every time you buy a Black Swan record you buy the only record made by colored people.” It was true, and it worked, until it wasn’t true.

Black Swan was not the first Blackowned record label (that would be Broome Records, founded in 1919), but its scale and popularity far outsized that of any similar ventures. Black Swan was one of the most successful Black businesses of its day, record company or not (Davis and De Loo, 1), and W.E.B. DuBois was on its board of directors. The Black Swan story, then, is as much about changes in music as it is about changes in Black politics and culture during the vital period of its existence from 1921 to 1923. Musically, these were liminal years between the Blues Craze that Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” sparked in 1920 and the new-found musical depths of Bessie Smith’s “Down Hearted Blues” in 1923. They were also turbulent Post-War years, as DuBois’s Black sovereignty and Marcus Garvey’s Black Nationalism contrasted Booker T. Washington’s directives for assimilation. Harlem was becoming the epicenter of Black America, and it was there that Harry

Pace, former business partner of W.C. Handy, established the Pace Phonograph Company, issuing the recordings he made in his basement office at 257 West 138th Street on the Black Swan label.

With over 200 songs released on double sided 78rpm records, Black Swan had the largest catalog of any Blackowned label until Vee-Jay in the ‘50s. It also had a remarkably diverse catalog, recording not only Jazz and Blues, but spirituals, Black classical musicians, and even some West Indian music. It launched the career of the pivotal pianist and bandleader Fletcher Henderson, who had come to Manhattan to study chemistry at Columbia but took a career turn when he became the label’s music director. Ethel Waters rose to fame through Black Swan, her “Down Home Blues” selling over 100,000 copies. Waters and Henderson both made history as the first African Americans to broadcast over radio during a national tour to promote Black Swan in 1922. It was on this same tour that Henderson heard a young New Orleans cornet player named Louis Armstrong some two years before Louis would join Henderson’s orchestra and take New York by storm.

Early 1922 was the peak of Black Swan’s pride and optimism: “We are so thoroughly established in the hearts of those who regularly buy Black Swan Records that we are bound to secure, with your cooperation, the fullest opportunity for our own music and musicians”

(Black Swan Ad, New York Age, January 21, 1922, 6).

But by the summer of 1923 Black Swan had essentially folded. The label’s early success put Pace in a bind: sales were outnumbering his manufacturing capacities, and the large record plants refused to take his orders. Perhaps a journalist at the New York Age had this difficulty in mind when they reported Black Swan surviving “keen, unscrupulous, underhanded, malicious and persistent opposition from several of the large white companies in the record industry” (January 28, 1922, 6). Pace resorted to pressing records in Wisconsin with the New York Recording Laboratory, a company that owned a small label called Paramount. Meanwhile, the big labels were hiring Black recording directors to begin their own segregated “Race” catalogs, and Pace made his most fateful decision: partnering with a white businessman named John Fletcher, who become the new president of the company in the spring of 1922. Fletcher owned the Olympic Disc Record Corporation and could guarantee an increase in manufacturing, but under his leadership Black Swan began to issue

pseudonymous recordings of white artists. Black Swan had officially foreclosed on its initial purpose of recording “our own music and musicians.”

Part triumph, part tragedy, part mystery, Black Swan’s own records tell the story best. The differences between Black Swan’s artists and artists on other contemporary “Race Record” catalogs is one illustration of what made the label unique. The twist is that Paramount—the small label owned by the very company Pace had initially used to press Black Swan—became the behemoth of the Race Record industry starting in late 1923. The tent-posts of its catalog—Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson—would never escape the Race label. Ethel Waters and Fletcher Henderson, however, would appear in both Race and the mainstream catalogs of the white companies (Waters on Columbia, Henderson on just about everything).

One of the stories Black Swan tells us then is about a music and people on the move. Moving where? Listen: “Woke up this morning / the day was dawning / I had nobody to tell my troubles to,” Ethel Waters sings on “Down Home Blues.” Maybe you’ve heard this before, but can you say where?

The voice is fierce in its solitude, confident in its strength, but where racism suggests Blackness has a place to be put, this music complicates the very idea of place itself.

The music lives in the ears that find it.

LISTENING GUIDE

Black Swan 2026: “Harlem Strut,” the first recorded piano solo by James P. Johnson. A virtuosic sprint, a get-down romper, and a very early document of “Stride” piano. Jimmy Johnson is the greatest!

Black Swan 2010: “Down Home Blues” by Ethel Waters. Ethel’s blues preaching was Black Swan’s biggest hit. It is also a rare chance to hear an obscure early Harlem jazz band led by violinist Cordy Williams.

Black Swan 14127: “My Man Rocks Me” by Trixie Smith. When Trixie Smith won a Blues Singers competition at the Manhattan Casino in 1922, the deep sound of the country blues found its way into the Black Swan catalog and onto record for the first time.

Black Swan 2022: “Fancies” by Fletcher Henderson’s Dance Orchestra. Before there were Big Bands there were Dance Bands. For a while they co-existed. Both were about dancing, but Henderson’s music added an elusive something else to synchronized ensemble playing.

Black Swan 2006: “Nobody Knows De Trouble

I’ve Seen” by C. Carroll Clark accompanied by Fletcher Henderson. Think about W.E.B. DuBois’s “sorrow songs” and however you define the word dignified.

Black Swan 7101: “Caro Nome” (Verdi) by Antoinette Garnes, soprano. Black Swan was named after a 19th Century Black Opera Singer named Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield. Pace was a great fan of classical music and the recordings of Black classical musicians in its catalog are unique.

Black Swan 2055: “Caribbean Moon” by Marion Harrison with Lionel Belasco on piano. Lionel Belasco was an extraordinary pianist from Trinidad who spearheaded composing and presenting Calypso music inter-nationally. These recordings of West Indian music emphasize that Black Swan, like Harlem, was Pan-African.

Works Cited

Davis, David and Ivo De Loo. “Black Swan Records — 1921-1924: From a Swanky Swan to a Dead Duck.” Open Polytechnic of New Zealand Working Papers, 2000.

Thanks to Colin Hancock for sharing his research on Black Swan, his historic perspective, and a deep love of the music.

by Sam Seliger AMERICAN

King’s Crown JamboreeCountry

This month, WKCR will be reviving our country music festival, a staple of our annual programming for roughly 30 years. Performing a thorough archival search for all relevant information is probably impossible, and I certainly was not going to attempt it for an article of this scope. Even so, it is undeniable that Country music programming is one of WKCR’s longest-running traditions, dating back to at least the 1950s, according to our website.

Assuming that this is true, country music on KCR predates most other major country radio programming in the city. The dedicated country radio format as most know it—a hallmark of the era of radio ubiquity—was the product of a concerted effort by the country music industry to expand and solidify its markets in the mid-20th century. In response to the new affluence and suburbanization of their traditional white working class audience, as well as major changes in broadcast technology and standards, industry leaders effected a decades-long push to entrench their product in the suburban middle class. Along with rewriting the music’s perception as “backwards” and disreputable, leaders enacted a large-scale effort to create country-music-only radio stations in major

cities across the country. This effort culminated with New York City’s first-ever country station, which began broadcasting in 1964, one year after WKCR began its Bluegrass program, which still continues today.

By the time we began the country festival as an annual tradition (in the 1980s, it would seem), the country radio format was a staple of all American markets, although it was becoming a bit outdated. Country music had long occupied a relatively stable niche of the popular music economy, and although its crossover potential had largely evaporated with rock’s dominance in the 1960s, the country music world itself was relatively successful until it began to lose its audience near the end of the 1970s.

WKCR’s programming has generally taken a more traditionalist approach than commercial country radio. While that (rather hegemonic) format has tried to appease both popular audiences and the latest push of major record labels, our broadcasts, even then, generally favored country music of yore, such as Hank Williams Sr. and even the likes of Jimmy Rodgers. Listeners who preferred these more traditional sounds were rarely serviced by commercial country radio by the time it reached the Big Apple, as the focus on

One of our old posters (c. 2006) for a past installment of our (now-revived!) annual country festival.

“sounding modern” led stations to eschew the sounds of eras past and give traditionalists a smaller and smaller share of the airplay pie.

As the country radio format exploded once again in the 1990s, eventually accounting for a plurality of all music radio stations in the US, the music it broadcast became increasingly divisive for traditionalists; in fact, the moniker “new country” is still sometimes used to refer to the products of the Nashville machine from Garth Brooks onwards. WKCR, unsurprisingly, never particularly embraced this renaissance. Our priorities were never much tied to commercial developments, and particularly in the era of New Country, this was most frequently expressed as a complete aversion to the commercial scene. Even today, you are far more likely to hear contemporary outsiders and revivalists in the Americana movement on our airwaves than you are any stylized Nashville neo-traditionalists of the 1990s and beyond, like Alan Jackson or Dierks Bentley.

New York City listeners never had the same opportunity to immerse themselves in New Country over the airwaves as listeners did elsewhere in the country. Even after 1964, country radio in the city was never particularly stable and rarely constituted a significant share of the commercial market. By the mid-2000s, as radio began hemorrhaging profits in the digital age, the nation’s largest media market was without a country radio station.

WKCR has continued to serve the country traditionalists of New York City, particularly those whose tastes and technologies did not keep up with the switch to digital music. This project has in recent years become increasingly fulfilling, as more and more listeners have become dissatisfied with the increasingly intolerable schlock turned out by the soulless vestiges of Nashville’s domestic country music production. Yet listeners have had few places to turn. Several country stations have come and gone, with the most recent establishing itself in 2013 (the year after our last country music festival) and switching formats again in 2021. With the return of our country music festival, we hope to speak to the special power of non-commercial radio. We will be doing what no other station in New York does: play only country music, for an entire weekend, simulating life as a genre-exclusive station. But we will also be doing what commercial stations do not do: play music from across styles, eras, and traditions within the Country music umbrella. Although broken up into three-hour segments, we will be playing Nashville Sound George Jones, 78era banjo groups, Mexican-American music of the Rio Grande, and boundary-pushing contemporary bluegrass all on the same platform. It will be a vision of what country music can be and has been when it is merely about loving the sounds and not about turning a profit.

The cover of OnAir during the 1996 country festival.

In Conversation with Vielka

by Leni Bryan

Can you introduce yourself and what your involvement is at WKCR?

My name is Vielka and I’m a 4th year at Columbia College studying African American studies. I was the former Latin department head. I started in January 2021, so that was my sophomore year. A lot of my really good friends used to program at the Latin department, and they were doing a lot of cool shows, especially Urbano Latinx. They were always trying to immerse the Latine community within WKCR, and I loved it. When I was asked if I would get Involved with the Latin department, I was like, “Yeah of course!”

So you were around when the station was still less active from Covid?

Yeah. So I started WKCR remotely before being Latin department head. I would send in remote shows. I remember being in my dorm editing sound clips on GarageBand and doing the mic breaks, compiling shows that way. My first ever show was a 3 hour- long show for a Nina Simone broadcast. It was fun, but it was very

different. A lot of the people submitting shows were alumni, non-Columbia students, or E-board members. I never really got to participate in the in person KCR happening until Fall 2021. That’s when we started again in person and wearing masks.

You mention that there are a lot of alumni programmers, many of which are consistent hosts in the Latin Department. Can you talk about some of the legacy of some of these shows and how you work with alumni? So the Latin department is indeed very different from other WKCR shows because it is mainly run by alumni and non-CU affiliated individuals. I think some people might find issue with this, especially because WKCR is a student-run station, but over time, being part of the Latin department, I’ve grown to appreciate how the non-CU students contribute to the station. Especially given the fact that WKCR is a radio station that has a big reputation in New York. Something one of the alumni told me is that students are only here for four years, but a lot of

Drawing by Tanvi Krishnamurthy.

the alumni are from the city and grew up listening to the radio, be it WKCR or another station. You can really see that they are very passionate about the music they play and the shows that they host. Jassvan of Som Do Brazil is always inviting guests. He’s been programming that show for over a decade, and his co-host is a student. Sadys—who is the former host for Sonidos Colombianos— used to be a student at Columbia, and he started that show then, so it’s definitely a department with strong roots, and I think its long lasting impact is very different to some other departments.

I also wanted to ask you about the Workaround show! What is it and how did it get started?

I started Workaround because I noticed that, after the pandemic, there was a surge in people wanting to be DJ’s. Something that I noticed was that WKCR didn’t have contemporary or experimental music at its forefront. And when I say experimental I’m not talking about the New Music department, but I’m talking about people that genuinely enjoy mixing music and messing around with the DJ deck. And so I got the idea because I was talking to a programmer last year about how WKCR used to do live DJ sets. We had a mixer and all this stuff and it was super cool, but we stopped doing that, I don’t know why. I thought it would be so cool to bring that back. To introduce people to DJing and mixing their own music. I remember I did the first show and people liked it. The second show I did my computer wasn’t working, so I did a very experimental show. I played Motown and mixed it with ambient sounds. I basically pretended that our regular soundboard was the mixer. It’s the kind of stuff I wish WKCR did more, like giving students the opportunity to experiment within individual shows. It’s been a huge success! A lot of people have

reached out asking to DJ, including some DJs who compose their own music. Workaround then extends to late night, and Dylan (Design Director) does his own Workaround, but it’s Hip Hop-focused and it’s just really cool. My goal with Workaround was that I thought it would be really cool if people tuned into this at a college party, and have Workaround playing in the background.

Lastly, I would like to know what you’re most proud of at KCR.

I think something I’m really proud of would be the work I was doing last year in terms of developing an anti-harassment policy. Especially in spaces not dominated by nonmen, and white non-men, I think it can be very easy for people to feel like they are not respected or heard and feel like they are more vulnerable to harassment. A handful of us stepped up and tried to develop something to make sure that students and programmers were protected. It’s a tool of reassurance that shows that the station is now open to people that WKCR has historically excluded.

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Field Trip

Amazing Grace

The Moonshine Show

Monday Morningside

Cereal Music

The Tennessee Border Show

Sunday Profiles

Out to Lunch

Afternoon New Music

Raag Aur Taal

SoundStage

Live Constructions

Back in the USSR

Seachran: The Celtic Show

Coordinated Universal Time Phil Lives

PopTalk

Caribe Latino

Urbano Latinx

Honky Tonkin’

Tuesday’s Just as Bad

Transfigured Night Night Train

Traditions

Notes

Special Programming

THEMED SHOWS

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE OPERA

PHIL SCHAAP MEMORIAL

Thursday and Friday, all day February 2-3

Join us from February 2nd & 3rd as we celebrate the life and work of our beloved departed colleague Phil Schaap with a 48-hour memorial broadcast in his honor. In a now annual tradition, we mark the date of Phil’s broadcasting debut with a tribute of various archival broadcasts, providing a small sample of his large body of work. Archival programs that will be aired include shows not normally heard during the year, including interviews, episodes of Out to Lunch, festival shows, and much more.

NINA SIMONE BIRTHDAY

Tuesday, February 21, all day

WKCR is excited to present a broadcast for Nina Simone, who in addition to being an accomplished jazz vocalist was also a prominent American civil rights activist. Her talent inspired countless others at protests and benefit concerts, and her music continues to inspire to this day.

COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Saturday and Sunday, all day February 25-26

WKCR’s Country Music Festival is back! After a hiatus, the newly-rebranded King’s Crown Country Jamboree runs this year during the weekend of February 25th-26th, pre-empting all regular weekend programming for those 48 hours to explore all the different facets of country music. With themed shows for every 3-hour slot throughout the weekend, listeners will get to explore everything from Old Time and Honky Tonk to Gospel Country and Country en Español. See y’all at the Jamboree!

DEXTER GORDON CENTENNIAL

Monday, February 27, all day

One of the leading saxophonists of the 20th century, Dexter Gordon was well-known for pioneering the translation of bebop to the tenor saxophone. Round out your February by tuning in to a full day’s worth of Gordon’s discography and greatest hits.

Saturdays 9:00 PM-12:30 AM

February 4: Renata Tebaldi Birthday Celebration

February 11: Valentine’s Day Special: Love Arias & Duets

February 18: Treemonisia (Joplin) + Black singers in opera

Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro

SUNDAY PROFILES

Jay Dee (J Dilla)

February 5, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: Ann Vettikkal

Labeled: Impulse! Records

February 12, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: Steve Mandel and J. Cohn

Buddy DeFranco

February 19, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

Host: Sid Gribetz

SPORTS

Women’s Basketball (vs. Princeton)

February 4, 4:00 PM

Anouncers: Ted Schmiedeler and Josh Kapilian

Women’s Basketball (vs. Yale)

February 11, 12:00 PM

Anouncers: August Phillips, Stephen Dames, Ale Díaz-Pizarro

Men’s Basketball (vs. Dartmouth)

February 18, 7:00 PM

Anouncers: Ted Schmiedeler

Live Shows

Live Constructions: Wince

Saturday February 5, 10:00-11:00pm

Live Constructions: Nory

Saturday February 12, 10:00-11:00pm

Live Constructions: Uh Neptune

Saturday February 19, 10:00-11:00pm

Afternoon New Music: Uh Neptune

Monday February 27, 3:00-6:00pm

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

Seachran: The Celtic Show, Mon. 12-1am

Seachran features 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.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

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.

In Concert

by Fenway Donegan

Recorded over three days at Carnegie Hall, Nina Simone In Concert displays Simone’s wit, talent, genius lyricism, and ability to guide an audience through a performance. I struggle to even describe the experience of listening to the record for the first time. At only seven songs and just under 36 minutes, it is a tight, guided journey through Simone’s evolution as an artist and activist.

Starting with two songs from her debut album (“I Love You Porgy” and “Plain Gold Rings”), Simone demonstrates exactly what had made her soulful, heart-wrenching melodies a success up till that point. After ‘playing the hits,’ she turns to the record’s third song, “Pirate Jenny.” The song is an opera piece that tells the story of a mistreated cleaner who takes revenge against those indifferent to her plight with the help of a pirate ship. Simone repurposes the piece, imbuing it with a conformational and direct message. Over the course of six minutes, the song builds and builds, with her voice becoming more powerful with each verse. At

the climax of the song, Simone’s character is faced with a choice of when to kill the captured men, who had remained apathetic to her suffering. The instruments go silent, and she pauses before whispering “right now.” Silence in the audience. Slow fade out. This message of Simone’s rendition is clear: when the day comes—and it will come—all those who stood by and did nothing to help justice prevail will not be spared.

“Pirate Jenny” marks a transition to Simone tackling more explicit civil rights issues within her music, which is further cemented with the next song, “Old Jim Crow.” Both songs serve as political statements in and of themselves, while simultaneously priming the audience for what is about to come.

After one final, beautiful rendition of a song from her debut album (“Don’t Smoke In Bed”), the album arrives at its destination: the gutpunch of “Go Limp” and “Mississippi Goddam.” “Go Limp,” a humorous song about a young woman who marches with (and subsequently

loses her virginity to) members of the NAACP, all the while being warned by her mother, loosens the audience up. Simone engages in banter with the audience, asking the audience if they “get the gist of the song yet?” and requesting them to sing along with the chorus. After forgetting a verse and having to jog her memory on stage, all the while making jokes and pausing for laughter, she continues to repeat the chorus until the audience joins in.

Finally, the audience becomes an active part in the record, their voices joining together with Simone’s. Simone plays into the comedy of the song, laughing along with the audience. She proves to be such an expressive performer, I can hear her smiling while singing. The song serves to humanize Simone, demonstrating her sense of humor and personality to the audience, who at this point have fully let their defenses down. At this point in the record, the audience is right where Simone wants them.

The final song, “Mississippi Goddam,” culminates in an explicit denunciation of lynching, segregation and the entirety of the Jim Crow south. It is, without a word of exaggeration, one of the most powerful songs ever written. At the beginning of the song, the

audience is clapping and active, even laughing at Simone’s statement that “this is a show tune, but the show hasn’t been written for it… yet,” but the longer it goes on, the more that the power of lyrics and Simone’s voice wash over the audience. The band’s chants of “do it slow!” while Simone sings about forced plantation labor, marching for civil rights, and calling for equality, confront the audience with the harsh truth that they might be the villains of the song, as well as the racists and bigots. The song denounces all who stand in the way of progress, or champion slow, piecemeal approaches to justice. “This whole country is full of lies / you all gonna die and die like flies.”

By the time Simone tells the audience “bet you thought I was kidding didn’t you,” nobody is left to respond. Total silence. By the time the song builds to her final chorus, she belts the final note with a ferocity that defies written explanation. Simone said it best when closing the album. “That’s it.”

100 Years of Dexter Gordon

by Zachary Vanderslice

This February 27th would have been saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s 100th birthday, the centennial of one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. At six-and-a-half feet tall, Gordon was called the “Sophisticated Giant” and “Long Tall Dexter,” but his music commanded an even more powerful presence.

Born in Los Angeles in 1923 to a well-to-do family (his father had attended Howard University Medical School), Gordon began playing clarinet at 13 under the instruction of New Orleanian John Sturdevant. Before he joined the school band, he played with the neighborhood kids, who accompanied his professionallymade instrument with washtubs and pie pans. Gordon attended Thomas Jefferson High School, which produced an astounding quantity of jazz talent: Lionel Hampton and Count Basie sideman Marshall Royal was there the decade prior, and after graduation Gordon’s chair would be filled by the likes of Sonny Criss and Big Jay McNeely. At Jefferson, Gordon began jamming with classmates Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette, both of whom went on to have impressive careers of their own.

During this time, Gordon switched from clarinet to alto sax, but slid down to tenor, the instrument with which he would make his name soon after. He joined Royal in Lionel Hampton’s band in 1940, along with Illinois Jacquet, and worked as a sideman with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Tadd Dameron, and Billy Eckstine, among others. He went to New York in 1945, recording as a leader for Savoy and continuing sideman work before going back west. Of special note from this time are his recordings with fellow saxophonist Wardell Gray,

which captured the two tenor-men’s incandescent duels around Los Angeles.

Gordon’s second decade as a professional musician was less fruitful than the first. He continued to record, but at a lesser pace, struggling with heroin addiction and being incarcerated several times. Clean by the early 1960s, he returned to New York and resumed his career with Blue Note. However, after only a short stint in the Big Apple he moved to Europe, a common decision for jazz musicians of his generation at this time, such as Bud Powell, with whom he recorded upon arrival.

In Copenhagen and Paris, he found partial refuge from American racism, as well a musical culture less driven by commercial motivations. It was in this period that he recorded a personal favorite of the author’s, Gettin’ Around, a strong example of his marvelous tone and improvisational technique. The album was one of six he recorded with the great pianist Barry Harris. He returned to New York after fourteen years abroad and recorded Biting the Apple in 1976 and the live album Homecoming in 1977.

Gordon continued to record significantly as the years continued, but as a life’s worth of smoking began to take its toll, his musical output decreased. In 1986 he starred in Bertrand Travernier’s jazz film Round Midnight as an American jazz musician living in Paris; which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Later that year, he was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master title. Gordon passed in 1990 at the age of 67. His music, however, stays with us, and it is with great reverence and admiration that KCR presents the music of the “Sophisticated Giant”.

SUPPORT WKCR

TOP 5 REASONS TO DONATE TO WKCR

1. You’d be helping a student-run, listener-funded, and volunteer-based radio station continue to bring you the absolute best in what radio has to offer. Music, arts, news, and sports— we’ve got the works!

2. You wouldn’t be a free-rider anymore.

3. WKCR donations are tax-deductible (so make sure you donate before tax season). For more info on that, or anything else business-related, email business@wkcr.org

4. Being “the Original FM,” our equipment is getting a bit old. For example, Buzz, the hamster that runs the wheel that powers the station, is getting a little worn-out and arthritic. We need a new hamster. Sorry, Buzz, but it’s gotta be done!

5. Isn’t OnAir cool? Without proper funding, projects like this can’t come to fruition and, if they do, don’t make it very long. Donate to allow the little OnAir minions to stay in the job (we are all OnAir minions).

HOW TO DONATE TO WKCR IN 4 STEPS

BY MAIL

Step 1: Locate your nearest checkbook

Step 2: Indicate “WKCR” as payee and fill out as usual

Step 3: Mail cheque to CU Gift Systems, 622 West 113th Street, MC 4524, New York, NY 10025

Step 4: ...and VOILÀ! Just like that, you have become a WKCR supporter!

WKCR also accepts cheques to our direct address. Just Follow the same steps listed above but mail the cheque to:

2920 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

ONLINE

Step 1: head to www.wkcr.org

Step 2: Click the yellow “DONATE TO WKCR” banner at the top of the page

Step 3: Fill out the form in the giving portal and enter your information...

Step 4: ...and VOILÀ! Just like that, you have become a WKCR supporter!

Did you know you can make recurring donations to WKCR when you donate online?

Just indicate your frequency preferences on the giving portal when prompted!

Special thanks to Ale Díaz-Pizarro, Fenway Donegan, Leni Bryan, Maria Shaughnessy, Matt Rivera, Sam Seliger, Sarah Barlyn, Vielka Ebadan, & Zachary Vanderslice.