Part of the series “Swing, Swing, Swing” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Connaitre Miller of Howard University.  There’s a question every good jazz musician can answer just by listening to a song: “Does it Swing?” In this episode, we introduce several kinds of vintage and modern swing music: Swing Jazz, Western Swing, Gypsy Swing, and New Jack Swing and learn what music needs to have in order to “Swing.”

Listen Here

Part of the series “Swing, Swing, Swing” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Connaitre Miller of Howard University.  “Swing” took over the jazz world in the 1930s and became the music your great-grandparents danced to during World War II. In this episode, modern day Swing performers explain and demonstrate where Swing Jazz came from, why it was so popular, and where you can find it today.

Listen Here

Part of the series “Swing, Swing, Swing” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Connaitre Miller of Howard University.  In n the 1930s, two types of American music, the rural Country/Western and the urban Swing Jazz, were combined to create Western Swing, a popular type of music that crossed racial boundaries. In this episode we’ll learn about the roots of Western Swing, and hear the music of its most famous performer, Bob Wills.

Listen Here

Part of the series “Swing, Swing, Swing” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Connaitre Miller of Howard University.  Jazz is a purely American form of music. With one exception. In the 1930s, Hungarian guitarist Django Reinhardt created a unique form of jazz – Gypsy Swing – that mixed traditional Eastern European music with an American beat. In this episode, Gypsy Jazz violinist Tony Ballog introduces us to the music of Django Reinhardt and Gypsy Swing.

Listen Here

Broadcast Fall 2011

WAMU-FM went on the air in October, 1961.  This program looks back at 50 years, exploring how the station moved from a 7-hour-a-day obscurity to an institution vital to our civic life.  We look at the station’s legacy, its prominent personalities and how it has interacted with the Washington, DC community.

Listen Here

Ranked at #4 of all iTunes K-12 Education audio podcasts and #2 for the combined iTunes audio and video catalogue in 2011.

Part of the series “maximum India” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Hari Sreenivasan, from the PBS NewsHour.  Do you know which drum can speak? Or what instrument is made from a pumpkin? In this segment, we’ll learn about the many instruments that define the sounds of Indian music, and how they are played: the tabla, sitar, tanpura, sarangi, mizhavu, naal, dhol, pung… and the double-flute sitara, who’s players can perform without stopping to breathe.

Listen here

Ranked at #4 of all iTunes K-12 Education audio podcasts and #2 for the combined iTunes audio and video catalogue in 2011.

Part of the series “maximum India” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Hari Sreenivasan, from the PBS NewsHour.  The geographic, language, and cultural diversity of India contributes to a broad range of musical styles within Indian music. Certain folk styles and traditions of music important to one region may be virtually unknown in others. In this segment, we’ll learn about many common elements of Indian music—ragas, drones, improvisation, and the celebrity of being a Bollywood playback singer.

Listen here

Ranked at #4 of all iTunes K-12 Education audio podcasts and #2 for the combined iTunes audio and video catalogue in 2011.

Part of the series “maximum India” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Hari Sreenivasan, from the PBS NewsHour.  Indian music typically contains no harmony, can be completely improvised, and is rarely written down. So how do Indian musicians manage to play together? In this segment, we’ll learn about rhythmic patterns called taal, music unique to certain communities and even times of the year, and if deep-rooted musical traditions can continue as India undergoes fast-paced growth and modernization.

Listen here

Part of the series “Art In Camelot” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.  Today we consider big-name celebrity concerts broadcast from the White House to be routine.  It all started during the Kennedy Administration.  More concerts, ballets and operas were staged inside the White House for President and Mrs. Kennedy than ever had been before or ever have been since.

Listen here

Part of the series “Art In Camelot” produced for ArtsEdge at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.  We always look for clues on Inauguration Day about what the new Administration will bring.  At his swearing-in, President Kennedy gave an unusual signal, letting America know that – whatever else it did – the Kennedy Administration was going to spend time and attention promoting The Arts in America.  The president followed through on the promise of that inauguration.  This story explains how.

Listen here