Deep Focus

On Deep Focus this Monday (7/6), a celebration of the life and music of James Blood Ulmer (February 8, 1940 – June 3, 2026), with guest Vernon Reid.  Our hearts are heavy, but spirits will be flying.  Please join us.

 

Tune in this Monday (7/6) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: James Blood Ulmer - photo by Nomo michael hoefner www.zwo5.de, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org.licenses.by-sa.3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #VernonReid #JamesBloodUlmer  #AdamuMustafaAbdulMussawir #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

On Deep Focus this Monday (7/6), a celebration of the life and music of James Blood Ulmer (February 8, 1940 – June 3, 2026), with guest Vernon Reid.  Our hearts are heavy, but spirits will be flying.  Please join us.

 

Tune in this Monday (7/6) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: James Blood Ulmer - photo by Nomo michael hoefner www.zwo5.de, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org.licenses.by-sa.3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #VernonReid #JamesBloodUlmer  #AdamuMustafaAbdulMussawir #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

This episode of Deep Focus does not have a spoken introduction. It starts immediately after the previous episode ends.  

 

The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep well of discovery.

 

Pianist Vijay Iyer has explored her music richly.  What has he found in it? What influence has it had on him?  On his music and his life?  Let's listen with him to rare, live recordings of her and find out how and why her work is so fascinating.  

 

Tune in this Monday (6/8) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, 1972.  No publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #AliceColtrane  # AliceColtraneTuriyasangitananda #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep well of discovery.

 

Pianist Vijay Iyer has explored her music richly.  What has he found in it? What influence has it had on him?  On his music and his life?  Let's listen with him to rare, live recordings of her and find out how and why her work is so fascinating.  

 

Tune in this Monday (6/8) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, 1972.  No publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #AliceColtrane  # AliceColtraneTuriyasangitananda #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

The moment you invoke the name of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, the widow of John Coltrane, you open a door into other ways of understanding.  She was part of her husband's last working band, but after his death, and for the next 40 years, her music became suffused with her spiritual practice and mystical experiences.  Her conviction was so thorough that some listeners found it alienating, but others were compelled by it.  Although she is no longer with us, her music remains a deep well of discovery.

 

Pianist Vijay Iyer has explored her music richly.  What has he found in it? What influence has it had on him?  On his music and his life?  Let's listen with him to rare, live recordings of her and find out how and why her work is so fascinating.  

 

Tune in this Monday (6/8) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, 1972.  No publishing information available.

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #VijayIyer #AliceColtrane  # AliceColtraneTuriyasangitananda #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman

When they go deep, we go deeper.  

 

We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?  

 

On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became hugely influential bandleaders in their own right.  If only the WKCR archives were overflowing with rare, live recordings of this group.  Wait, did anyone check that last shelf on the left?  

 

Tune in this Monday (5/25) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Miles Davis 1970 outside his home, West 77th St., NYC

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MichaelEVeal #MilesDavis #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #LostQuintet #WayneShorter #ChickCorea #DaveHolland #JackDeJohnette

When they go deep, we go deeper.  

 

We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?  

 

On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became hugely influential bandleaders in their own right.  If only the WKCR archives were overflowing with rare, live recordings of this group.  Wait, did anyone check that last shelf on the left?  

 

Tune in this Monday (5/25) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Miles Davis 1970 outside his home, West 77th St., NYC

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MichaelEVeal #MilesDavis #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #LostQuintet #WayneShorter #ChickCorea #DaveHolland #JackDeJohnette

When they go deep, we go deeper.  

 

We have been thinking about Miles Davis in anticipation of his centennial (May 26).  How about we explore a dark corner of his vast touring history, his so-called "Lost Quintet"?  We have so many questions about it, but who to ask?  How about the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject?  

 

On this week's Deep Focus, host Mitch Goldman welcomes musician/professor/author Michael E. Veal.  His book, Living Space: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Free Jazz, from Analog to Digital, opens a door to Miles' confounding and underdocumented 1969 group, whose members all became hugely influential bandleaders in their own right.  If only the WKCR archives were overflowing with rare, live recordings of this group.  Wait, did anyone check that last shelf on the left?  

 

Tune in this Monday (5/25) from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 450 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

Photo credit: Miles Davis 1970 outside his home, West 77th St., NYC

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MichaelEVeal #MilesDavis #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #LostQuintet #WayneShorter #ChickCorea #DaveHolland #JackDeJohnette

Fela Kuti has been the subject of at least half a dozen documentaries, a Broadway play, a shelf of books, and at least one richly lauded podcast series.  It's hard to imagine a time when Fela would have been considered an obscure musician from a largely unknown continent.  But that was very much the case in the seventies when bassist Melvin Gibbs heard his music blasting out of a record store on Nostrand Avenue in his native Brooklyn.  The number of  Americans who had even heard of Fela, already a superstar in his homeland, Nigeria, was vanishingly small.

 

But a penny dropped.  This experience launched Melvin Gibbs on a musical and cultural journey.  He has spent half a century exploring the topic of his new book, “How Black Music Took Over the World."

This Monday (4/27), Melvin Gibbs returns to the WKCR studios for a Deep Focus on Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti, with host Mitch Goldman.  Will Mitch find live, unreleased recordings of Fela in the WKCR archives?   Come on!  We all know the answer to that question.

 

Tune in this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 400 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

 

Photo credit: Fela Kuti on stage -  promotional photo 19 July 1986 - Source- Billboard Jul 19, 1986 p. N-3 - Distributed by Celluloid Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.  

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #HarrietTubman #FelaKuti #FelaAnikulapoKuti #AfroBeat #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman #HowBlackMusicTookOverTheWorld

Fela Kuti has been the subject of at least half a dozen documentaries, a Broadway play, a shelf of books, and at least one richly lauded podcast series.  It's hard to imagine a time when Fela would have been considered an obscure musician from a largely unknown continent.  But that was very much the case in the seventies when bassist Melvin Gibbs heard his music blasting out of a record store on Nostrand Avenue in his native Brooklyn.  The number of  Americans who had even heard of Fela, already a superstar in his homeland, Nigeria, was vanishingly small.

 

But a penny dropped.  This experience launched Melvin Gibbs on a musical and cultural journey.  He has spent half a century exploring the topic of his new book, “How Black Music Took Over the World."

This Monday (4/27), Melvin Gibbs returns to the WKCR studios for a Deep Focus on Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti, with host Mitch Goldman.  Will Mitch find live, unreleased recordings of Fela in the WKCR archives?   Come on!  We all know the answer to that question.

 

Tune in this Monday from 6pm to 9pm NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.  

 

Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  It will join over 400 promo-free episodes.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  It's ad-free, all free, sponsor-free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.  

Find out more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.  

 

Photo credit: Fela Kuti on stage -  promotional photo 19 July 1986 - Source- Billboard Jul 19, 1986 p. N-3 - Distributed by Celluloid Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.  

 

#WKCR #DeepFocus #MelvinGibbs #HarrietTubman #FelaKuti #FelaAnikulapoKuti #AfroBeat #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman