Meanwhile. . .
Listening to Norah Jones perform "Don't Know Why" live on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on WBEZ. Because I am a flake, I hadn't realized who she was for most of the interview/performance. Heard the name, but didn't connect it with anything. I just wondered who the child was.
Everyone sounds like a child compared to Marian McPartland. She's like Studs Terkel that way.
And this is the first I'd heard of Studs' web site. Like I said, flake.
This is from the section/book Race:
For this book Terkel interviewed a cross-section of Americans about their views on race. Though many interviews center in Chicago, people discuss experiences growing up in various locations, their migration experiences from the southern United States, and how they understood racial changes at different points in their lives. Terkel chose to interview people who regularly cross racial lines through their work such as physicians, nurses, and social workers; and those who have to lead others in their thinking such as teachers and preachers. He questioned activists in both national civil rights movements and grass roots assistance organizations. He interviewed students in integrated schools, welfare recipients, and homeowners who watched their neighborhoods change. He frequently inquires if their experience is based on issues of class or issues of race.
Emphasis added, natch.
I'd mention how that last point is crucial in discussing Affirmative Action, but meh. Politics.
Check out the Piano Jazz listing at PublicRadioFan to find out when the show is on in your area, or to stream it from elsewhere. You know the drill.
Comments
Marian McPartland! She's played duets on her show with everybody from Cecil Taylor to Ray Charles. She'll have veterans even older than her, who'll call out the most ancient and obscure tin pan alley tunes, to which she'll calmly and humbly reply, "Sure! What key do you want to play it in?" Her interviews are always enlightening because of the mutual respect between her guests and her. I hope she keeps doing the show forever.
Nora Jones is a singer, right?
Posted by: David | January 19, 2003 3:26 PM
Damn, David, that's just cold. . .
I was going to make a joke about the average age (or, y'know, deadness) of most people on the Blue Note label, but figured it'd be in bad taste, even for me.
Marian is a national treasure, yes. And one of the few people in A Great Day in Harlem with only one date next to her name.
Why yes, I am feeling morbid today, thanks for asking.
Posted by: Aaron | January 19, 2003 3:42 PM
Didn't mean it to be sarcastic. I've never heard him or her. Check out Mary Stallings if you haven't, incidentally.
Posted by: David | January 19, 2003 5:31 PM
Marian Mc is one of the most charming and effervescent people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I hope and pray I am half so vital and downright fun when I am her age.
Posted by: hanne | January 20, 2003 10:52 AM
Studs Terkel, "Race" and ... David Schwimmer!
"What 'Friends' is For"
[...] And, although he loves the laughs, Schwimmer finds it a bit disturbing sometimes to inhabit the sitcom New York of "Friends," a Manhattan "where 9/11 never happened." Upcoming projects have a little more edge. He and a partner are submitting a pilot script to NBC for a situation comedy about an interracial couple. Schwimmer wants the show to revive the kind of topical satire pioneered by "All in the Family."
For Lookingglass, Schwimmer is co-writing with company member Joy Gregory an adaptation of Studs Terkel's 1992 book, "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession," opening in June. He met the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, now 90, about 12 years ago when Terkel showed up for the theater's production of "The Jungle," directed by Schwimmer. Terkel invited Schwimmer to talk about the play on Terkel's radio show. The incident launched a long-term friendship. [...]
Posted by: George | January 24, 2003 6:22 PM