AMERICAN ROUTES
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté May 18th, 2022 (Hour 1)
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté

It’s Blueswomen, Jazzmen, African roots and branches. Chicago blues singer Shemekia Copeland‘s father, the late blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, brought her into his music as a child. As an adult, she found new ways to use blues to express her perspective. We’ll hear from some of Shemekia’s heroes including Etta James, Ruth Brown, Alberta Hunter and Big Mama Thornton. Then a conversation and performance by Boston-based Mandinka balafon player Balla Kouyaté and music inspired by and from the continent of Africa from Randy Weston, Miriam Makeba and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Shemekia Copeland photo by Mike White

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HOW TO IMPROVISE: BELA FLECK & JASON MARSALIS

May 6th, 2015

This week we meet with two practitioners of the art of improvisation. Bela Fleck joins us for a conversation about banjo traditions and experimentation in bluegrass, jazz and classical music. Then we’ll head to the studio for a jazz breakdown by New Orleans master percussionist Jason Marsalis.

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Prickly Pear Bela Fleck
    Rocket Science, E One
  • Eh, La Bas Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Don Vappie
    Shake That Thing, Preservation Hall
  • Just Because Jorma Kaukonen with Bela Fleck
    Blue Country Heart, Columbia
  • Whitewater Bela Fleck
    Drive, Rounder
  • John Henry Joe and Odell Thompson
    Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Blue Tail Fly Adner Jay
    Blues Routes: Heroes & Tricksters, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Polly Wolly Doodle Leon Redbone
    On the Track, Warner Bros.
  • Instrumental: Funky Banjo Don Vappie
    Banjo a la Creole, Vappielle
  • Glendale Train New Riders of the Purple Sage
    New Riders of the Purple Sage, Columbia
  • CLIP: Jerry Garcia
  • Foggy Mountain Breakdown Flatt and Scruggs
    Complete Mercury Sessions, Mercury
  • CLIP: Earl Scruggs
  • SEGMENT: Bela Fleck

    Listen
  • Instrumental: Sugar Baby Bill Frisell
    The Willies, Nonesuch
  • Cluck Old Hen Noam Pikelny & Steve Martin
    Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail, Compass
  • No One Knows My Name Gillian Welch
    Soul Journey, Acony
  • 21st Century Chicken Shack Back Blues Andy Statman
    Old Brooklyn, Shefa
  • Soul of a Man Carter Brothers
    The Road to Roosky, Compass
  • End Bed: Waterbound Dirk Powell
    Time Again, Rounder Select

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Guess Who's Back? Jason Marsalis
    Music Update, Elm
  • Rhythm is Our Business Jimmie Lunceford
    Swingsation, Universal
  • Bourbon Street Parade The Young Tuxedo Brass Band
    The Atlantic New Orleans Sessions, Mosaic
  • I Got Rhythm Felix Mendelssohn & the Hawaiian Serenaders
    Blue Hawaii, Living Era
  • Till Tom Special Charlie Christian with Benny Goodman Sextet
    The Genius of the Electric Guitar, Columbia
  • It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing) The Modern Jazz Quartet
    Les Incontournables, Warner Jazz/ Rhino
  • Blues for the 29%ers (down to 19) Jason Marsalis
    Music Update, Elm
  • Instrumental: Mamblues Cal Tjader
    Cal Tjader's Greatest Hits, Fantasy
  • SEGMENT: Jason Marsalis

    Listen
  • Instrumental: Rhythm-A-Ning Thelonious Monk
    This is Jazz 5: Thelonious Monk, Columbia
  • Laughing in Rhythm Slim Gaillard
    Laughing in Rhythm: The Best of the Verve Years, Verve
  • My Feet Can't Fail Me Now The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
    Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album 2005, Nonesuch
  • Doin' the New Low Down Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson
    Stars of the Apollo, Columbia
  • Get Rhythm Johnny Cash
    The Essential Johnny Cash, Columbia
  • Gotta Lot of Rhythm in My Soul Patsy Cline
    The Essential Patsy Cline, RCA
  • You Are My Sunshine Smiley Lewis
    Shame, Shame, Shame, Bear Family
  • End Bed: Will the Circle Be Unbroken Dr. Michael White with Jason Marsalis
    Blue Crescent, Basin Street

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • May 18th, 2022

    BLUES AND JAZZ, AFRICAN ROOTS AND BRANCHES WITH SHEMEKIA COPELAND & BALLA KOUYATé

    Listen
  • May 11th, 2022

    BREAKING OUT: BRITISH BLUES TO NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE

    Listen
  • May 4th, 2022

    KINGPINS OF THE GULF COAST: RODNEY CROWELL & DR. JOHN

    Listen
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