The Music Show

Composer, bass player and vocalist Esperanza Spalding has become one of the most important voices in 21st century jazz. She has also worked across almost every style of music with some legendary musicians (Wayne Shorter, Stevie Wonder, and Janelle Monáe to name a few). Her latest collaboration is an album with Brazilian singer songwriter Milton Nascimento and includes songs in Portuguese and English, as well as surprising covers of The Beatles and Michael Jackson.

Melbourne-based Affinity Quartet drop by The Music Show studio to perform live. This award-winning ensemble has found considerable success in performance competitions both here and overseas. There’s a lot of repertoire out there for string quartets, and they let us in on their process for selecting and performing the classics, as well as commissioning new pieces from Australian composers like Alice Chance.

In Wangkatjungka, near Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley, Walmajarri Elder Kankawa Nagarra plays her guitar and sings the blues. Her latest album, Wirlmarni, was recorded in the desert with her great grandchildren at her feet, insects buzzing and the sound of kangaroo tails being wrapped in alfoil for the fire.

Kankawa speaks to Andrew Ford about a life of music, from her earliest memories of traditional song and ceremony and then singing hymns in church after being removed from her family. Kankawa then discovered country and western and rock & roll on the radio while working on homesteads before finally hearing the blues, music that spoke to her soul. 

Kankawa got her first guitar in her 40s and taught herself to play the blues. Now in her late 70s, her songs speak of her life story, her community, and the fight to protect the land from threats like fracking.

Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe was last on The Music Show from his locked-down home in 2021. Since then he’s toured with orchestras and eclectic ensembles across the world, and he’s about to make his Australian debut with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He joins Andrew in studio with his guitar to talk about picking out his own path with the instrument.

And we remember the legendary Quincy Jones, who has died at the age of 91. 

Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni is out now via Flippin Yeah and Mississippi Records

Kankawa is performing shows in Lismore on the 14th November, Brisbane on the 15th and Gympie on 16th, and is then joining Darren Hanlon on some dates of his Christmas tour. More details here

Sean Shibe performs Scotland Unbound with the Australian Chamber Orchestra until 20 November

Sean gives the Australian premiere of Thomas Ades Forgotten Dances on 15 November in Sydney

Punjabi Australian singer songwriter Parvyn returns to The Music Show to perform songs from her brand new album Maujuda; a seamless fusion of soul, jazz, disco and Indian classical and folk traditions.

Elana Stone's new solo album Married To The Sound sees her songwriting tackling some of life's biggest moments. As one quarter of folk band All Our Exes Live In Texas and in-demand touring musician for the likes of Missy Higgins, John Butler and Kate Miller-Heidke, Elana also reflects on the highs and (sometimes) lows of a life married to music. 

We hear from this year’s four Boyer lecturers; pianist and writer Anna Goldsworthy​, violist and conductor Aaron Wyatt, composer, conductor and performer Iain Grandage, and Artistic Director of Gondwana Choirs Lyn Williams. They all reflect on the future of classical music in this country.

Master of the Afghan rabab Qais Essar performs traditional Afghan music live in the studio, but also shares how important it is for him to push the instrument into "uncharted territory" in a time where its music is being banned in Afghanistan. He's joined by tabla player Aman Pal.

Some of the most prominent folk singers of the twentieth century like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan were being surveilled and, in some cases, blacklisted by the FBI due to their political activism and ties to the U.S Communist Party.

Writer and historian Aaron J. Leonard has written several books on the subject and is in to reveal why the US Government was so fixated on musicians in the 1940s and 50s, and what he unearthed from the FBI files he gained access to. 

Aaron J. Leonard's books on this subject include The Folk Singers and the Bureau: The FBI, the Folk Artists and the Suppression of the Communist Party, USA-1939-1956 and Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression - 1955-1972, both published by Repeater Books. 

London-based tenor saxophonist, bandleader and composer Nubya Garcia is in Australia for Melbourne International Jazz Festival and to play shows in support of her new album Odyssey. Featuring vocalists like Esperanza Spalding and string players from Chineke!, Nubya revels in expanding her sonic palette and pushing jazz into the realms of dub, R&B, soul and beyond. 

And, experimental trio Black Aleph are in to perform music live from their debut album Apsides. With a cello, guitar and daf (Persian frame drum) their sound is as expansive as it is unique, drawing inspiration from varied sources like Middle Eastern modal music and doom metal. They speak to Andrew about the role of improvisation and dark concepts in their music, and the joy of exploring sonic textures together.

German countertenor Andreas Scholl returns to The Music Show whilst he’s in the country with the Australian World Orchestra. He talks to Andrew about the life of a countertenor: old repertoire, new repertoire, and looking after a voice when great demands are made of it.

American pianist Donna Coleman deep dives into the life and influence of American modernist composer Charles Ives, whose 150th anniversary is this year. There’s more to this composer than the experimental (and sometimes chaotic) sounds he is best-known for.

Julia Fredersdorff, Artistic Director of Van Diemen's Band, talks about music from perhaps the most turbulent time in England's history - its Civil War. And, violinist, composer and vocalist Véronique Serret collaborates with nature on her latest (and ARIA Award nominated) album Migrating Bird.

Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark were a kind of power couple of the 20th century: she a prolific composer; he a less successful conductor but an influential producer and administrator. Annika Forkert is the author of Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: the orchestration of progress in British twentieth-century music, and she tells Andy the story of their relationship and their work.

Electronic pioneer Ash Wednesday has had a “self-imposed hiatus” from music over the last decade as he was confronted by a diagnosis of progressive multiple sclerosis. He joins Andy to talk about his new album, AfterMATH, a work for electronics and the majestic Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ, composed and generated around Ash’s loss of movement in the right side of his body.

Percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and poet Raymond Antrobus are two of the UK’s most famous Deaf artists and their first collaboration is Another Noise, an album that captures first-takes of Raymond’s spoken word poems, accompanied by Evelyn’s percussion, completely improvised without her having prior knowledge of any poem performed. They join Andy at the start of what promises to be a beautiful friendship. 

Electronic artist Marcus Whale was last on The Music Show when he was in year 10, having composed a saxophone quartet entitled “The Whistler” as part of his high school’s composer scheme. Now he’s four solo albums and two critically acclaimed bands into his career, and he’s about to perform a live version of his album Ecstasy as part of the Liveworks festival in Sydney. He joins Andy to talk about the ritual and sensuality of both the church and the dancefloor, and to remember his friend and collaborator, the singer songwriter Jack Colwell, who has died at the age of 34. 

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