Add to Playlist

Rick Wakeman - keyboard player and former member of the rock group Yes - and Welsh jazz harpist and composer Amanda Whiting, join Jeffrey and Anna as they add the final five tracks to the playlist for the current series. Kicking off with a groundbreaking French hit from 2019 and rounding off with a world-famous singalong song with an equally famous accompanying dance move, the playlist also visits Finland, Canada and a celebrated British one-hit wonder.

Add to Playlist returns for a new series on 6 November

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Pookie by Aya Nakamura

Other music in this episode:

Trumpet Concerto in E Flat, III: Allegro by Joseph Haydn

Saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz and pianist and composer Arsha Kaviani are the studio guests of Jeffrey and Anna as they add five more tracks, taking them from a politically satirical song by George Michael to a classic pop track from the American girl group TLC via two mysterious buildings conjured up by The Animals and Modest Mussorgsky.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Shoot the Dog by George Michael

Other music in this episode:

Disco Inferno by The Trammps

Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley and musician, arranger and former lead singer with the folk group Bellowhead, Jon Boden, are Jeffrey and Anna's guests in front of a live audience at the Crossed Wires podcast festival in Sheffield. Kicking off with a huge Sheffield banger from 1982, the five-track journey takes them to Bob Marley, Eliza Carthy and finishing up with a legless cockroach!

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

The Look of Love by ABC

Other music in this episode:

Don't You Want Me by The Human League

RuthAnne - songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham - and composer Gavin Higgins join Jeffrey and Anna as they create a standalone five-track playlist for this one-off episode. Starting with a massive international hit by a leading Irish singer, they head to Fugees, Gershwin and some fine young cannibals.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Orinoco Flow by Enya

Other music in this episode:

Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and Tiësto

To mark this year's BBC Proms, Jeffrey and Anna are joined by three music specialists to create a playlist of five Proms-themed tracks. Celebrated James Bond film composer David Arnold, Mercury-Prize-nominated, South Tyneside-born, singer and songwriter Nadine Shah, and composer and saxophonist Charlotte Harding check out this year's festival, currently just past its halfway point, and look into the archive to choose their five tracks.

Every concert in this year's BBC Proms is - or will be - available via BBC Sounds, including Nadine Shah's performance in Gateshead and Charlotte Harding's Relaxed Prom in Bristol, with many also available on the iPlayer.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

James Bond Theme by John Barry

Other music in this episode:

Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland

The V&A East Museum in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London opened in April with its inaugural exhibition The Music Is Black: A British Story, focusing on 125 years of Black music-making in Britain. Spanning four continents, it is a story of excellence, struggle, resilience and joy.

To celebrate the exhibition, in a collaboration between the V&A and the BBC, Add to Playlist comes from the museum in front of a live audience with a host of significant figures on the Black British music scene.

Jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch, leading UK grime artist NoLay (accompanied by fellow grime artists Griminal and Roachee), classical pianist Keelan Carew and special guest Janet Kay - who hit the high notes with her 1979 smash hit Silly Games - join Anna and Jeffrey as they discuss the five tracks of Black British music that make up this episode's playlist.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Back to Life by Soul II Soul

Other music in this episode:

On My Radio by The Selecter

Wolf Hall composer Debbie Wiseman and boogie-woogie pianist and singer Tom Seals are Jeffrey and Anna's final guests of the current series as they add the final five tracks, taking them from a Prince classic via the First Lady of Song to Bob Geldof's ticking clock and a Punjabi bhangra megahit.

Add to Playlist will be back on air on 14 August.

For details of the Crossed Wires podcast festival in Sheffield and for free tickets for the recording of Add to Playlist and other Radio 4 shows, visit https://crossedwires.live/fringe

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

When Doves Cry by Prince

Other music in this episode:

West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth, we’re excited to share Episode 1 from The Miles Davis Story, the latest series of the Legend podcast.

Presented by acclaimed actor and longtime fan Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme, Da 5 Bloods), the 5-part series explores the life and legacy of a visionary artist whose relentless pursuit of the "new" often scorched his own life and the lives of those around him.

Across the series, Clarke charts Miles’s ever-evolving artform, starting with this first great transformation of a legend - when the young Miles chose to step into the unknown, seize control of his own creative destiny, and begin his journey as a leader.

This is episode one of the series, exploring how New York helped Davis discover a radical new sound. If you like what you hear, you can listen to every episode on BBC Sounds. Just search for ‘Legend’.

Miles Davis Interview: From Jazz Talking by Ben Sidran, 1986.

Featured tracks (in order of appearance)

Presenter: Clarke Peters

Flautist Claire Wickes and jazz pianist Ashley Henry join Jeffrey and Anna as they add the next five tracks, exploring the association between music and chocolate, and digging into the Harlem Renaissance with the poet Langston Hughes and Cuban Negrismo, before marking the official longest partnership in pop.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

5-4-3-2-1 by Manfred Mann

Other music in this episode:

Mississippi Goddam by Ashley Henry

Bass guitarist, composer and songwriter Guy Pratt and bassoonist Amy Harman are Jeffrey and Anna's studio guests as they add five more tracks. Starting with an early ska classic, they explore the art of 'hocketing' before heading to the beach with Einstein.

Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Miss Jamaica by Jimmy Cliff

Other music in this episode:

Ain't No Doubt by Jimmy Nail