Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pianist and composer Noah Franche-Nolan.

Noah's latest album, Rose-Anna, is named after his Acadian great-grandmother, a church organist from Grand Falls, New Brunswick. The Acadians are French-speaking people with deep roots in Canada's Maritime provinces. The Acadians were expelled from their land by the British in the late 1700s and many of them migrated south to Louisiana where they became known by their more famous name, the Cajuns. Noah’s family connection runs deep through the record and he even plays organ on two tracks, honoring the woman who sparked his musical heritage.

The album pairs him with bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Nicholas Bracewell in a trio that displays deftness with groove-driven chops, tender hymns and free exploration. The music conjures thoughts of home, family, and what gets passed down through generations.

Noah's also one half of Arid Landscapes, an ambient electroacoustic project with guitarist Dan Pitt, that takes a totally different approach—live looping, processing, and soundscapes that feel vast and open. My November 2024 talk with Dan for The Tonearm is linked in the show notes.

Noah and I talk about both projects, his work as a church music director in Vancouver, and what it means to make music that honors the past while pushing into new territory.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Noah Franche-Nolan's album Rose-Anna)

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Dig Deeper

• Artist and Albums:

• Visit Noah Franche-Nolan at noahfranche-nolanmusic.com and follow him on Instagram
• Purchase Noah Franche-Nolan's Rose-Anna from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Noah Franche-Nolan on All About Jazz
• Vancouver Guardian profile

• Arid Landscapes (duo with Dan Pitt):

• Arid Landscapes released September 2025, available on Bandcamp
• Dan Pitt — official site
• Dan Pitt on Bandcamp
• Between the Lines of Dan Pitt's 'Horizontal Depths' (The Tonearm)

• Collaborators and Ensembles:

• Jodi Proznick — bassist, Noah Franche-Nolan Trio
• Nicholas Bracewell — drummer, Noah Franche-Nolan Trio
• Raagaverse — JUNO-nominated Indo-jazz fusion quartet led by Shruti Ramani
• Shruti Ramani — vocalist and bandleader, Raagaverse
• Jaya (Raagaverse debut album) on Bandcamp
• Nick Fraser — Toronto drummer and University of Toronto faculty; Noah's former teacher

• Recording Labels:

• Cellar Music Group — Vancouver label founded by Cory Weeds; 2023 Grammy Award winner
• Cory Weeds — Cellar Music Group founder and artistic director
• Frankie's Jazz Club — Vancouver jazz venue run by Cory Weeds (Rose-Anna release show venue)

• Film Scoring:

• Häxan (1922) — Swedish-Danish silent horror essay film directed by Benjamin Christensen
• The Cinematheque — Vancouver independent film institute that commissioned Noah's live score for Häxan

• Educational Institutions:

• Vancouver Community College (VCC) — where Noah teaches jazz piano
• VSO School of Music — Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's school; Noah teaches in Jazz and Classical Theory/Composition
• University of Toronto, Faculty of Music — where Noah and Dan Pitt studied jazz

• Venues and Spaces:

• The Tranzac — Toronto's not-for-profit community arts venue; central to the city's improvised music scene
• Brentwood Presbyterian Church — Burnaby; where Noah serves as coordinator of musicking and where Arid Landscapes was partly recorded

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on author and behavioral scientist Michael Hallsworth.

Michel has spent the last two decades applying behavioral science to real-world problems at the Behavioural Insights Team. He's held positions at Princeton, Columbia, Imperial College London, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael's new book, The Hypocrisy Trap, takes on something we all recognize instantly but rarely understand: why we're so quick to spot hypocrisy in others yet are blind to it in ourselves. He shows how our hunt for inconsistency has become a weapon in politics and daily life, one that actually breeds more of what it tries to eliminate. The book reveals why some hypocrisy might be unavoidable in functioning democracies, and how our relentless attacks on it can backfire in dangerous ways.

We talk about double standards, the psychology behind moral accusations, and why the most authentic-seeming politicians might be the most deceptive. Michael explains how we can tell the difference between hypocrisy that harms society and the everyday compromises that allow us to function together.

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• Visit Michael Hallsworth at michaelhallsworth.com
• Purchase Michael Hallsworth's The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives from MIT Press, Penguin Random House, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon
• Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman's Behavioral Insights from MIT Press
• Connect with Michael Hallsworth on LinkedIn
• Behavioral Scientist column by Michael Hallsworth

• The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) - World-leading organization applying behavioral science in support of social purpose goals
• Dr. Michael Hallsworth at BIT
• Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program at University of Pennsylvania
• Imperial College London
• Columbia University
• Princeton University

• Behavioral economics and public policy - Michael Hallsworth's Google Scholar profile
• Nature Human Behaviour - Journal featuring Hallsworth's research
• Journal of Public Economics
• The Lancet

• Hannah Arendt's On Revolution - Analysis of the French and American Revolutions
• Hannah Arendt on hypocrisy and the Reign of Terror - "Robespierre's war upon hypocrisy transformed the 'despotism of liberty' into the Reign of Terror"
• The French Revolution Reign of Terror - Historical context
• Maximilien Robespierre - Key figure in the French Revolution

• Boris Johnson's COVID-19 party scandal - The "Partygate" scandal discussed in the episode
• Brexit and UK politics

• "Our Hypocrisy Blind Spot" by Michael Hallsworth - Essay in Behavioral Scientist
• "The Future of Behavioral Insights Demands Human-Centered Design" - Hallsworth and Kirkman on behavioral science
• Hannah Arendt quotes on hypocrisy - "What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one"

-

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're putting The Tonearm's needle on John Mlynczak, President and CEO of the National Association of Music Merchants.

NAMM is the trade association for the music, sound, and event industries. Basically, NAMM represents the companies that make the tools your favorite music artists use to create their work.

John has spent years at Hal Leonard and PreSonus Audio, where music education meets technology. He built curricula, managed platforms, and taught teachers how to use tech in their classrooms.

Now he runs an organization that's rethinking what a trade show means when the music industry has gone digital. NAMM just celebrated its 125th anniversary, but John isn't interested in nostalgia. He's asking harder questions about how people discover instruments, how they learn to play them, and why gathering in person still matters when you can order anything online. The NAMM Show draws tens of thousands of people to Anaheim every January (this January 20 - 24, to be exact), and the numbers behind those crowds tell a story about content, influence, and how musicians connect with gear today.

We talk about John’s shift from teaching in Louisiana to shaping industry strategy, why music advocacy needs to be offensive rather than defensive, and what happens when trade shows have to prove their value in real time.

–

• Visit NAMM at namm.org and follow on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• John Mlynczak's NAMM Profile
• The NAMM Show 2026 - January 23-25, Anaheim, California
• NAMM Show Registration and App Information

• Virginia Commonwealth University - Bachelor of Music Education
• Louisiana State University - Master's degrees in Music Performance and Education Leadership
• Hal Leonard - Music publishing and education
• PreSonus Audio - Audio technology and recording equipment
• Noteflight - Online music notation software

• Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME)
• Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA)
• NAMM Foundation
• SupportMusic Coalition
• NAfME (National Association for Music Education)

• GarageBand - Apple's music creation software
• Cubase - Digital audio workstation
• Essential Elements Interactive - Music education platform

• She Rocks Awards - Celebrating women in music
• Parnelli Awards - Honoring live event professionals
• NAMM U - Educational programming and resources

• MetWinds - John's current performance ensemble

• Alexander Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto - The piece John performed as a cocky freshman

• NAMM Industry Insights - Music products industry data
• Trade Show Executive - Conference John mentioned attending

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Patricia Brennan, a vibraphonist and composer who grew up in Veracruz, Mexico, playing salsa with her dad while listening to Hendrix and Zeppelin with her mom. She studied classical percussion at the Curtis Institute, performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Philadelphia Orchestra, then found her voice and career in jazz and improvisation.

Patricia’s latest album, Of The Near And Far, takes constellations from the summer sky and turns them into music. She superimposes the circle of fifths over star patterns to generate pitches, then turns them into compositions that reflect a voice as unique as the compositional approach. 

Patricia’s ten-piece ensemble features a jazz quintet, a string quartet, and an electronic musician, all conducted by Eli Greenhoe. 

Hot on the heels of her 2024 release, Breaking Stretch, which won Album of the Year and Vibraphonist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll, Patricia's here to talk about finding symmetry between the cosmos and composition, why she carries a telescope wherever she goes, and how ancient myths and modern astronomy shape her work.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Patricia Brennan's album Of The Near And Far)

–

• Visit Patricia Brennan at patriciabrennanvibes.com and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Purchase Patricia Brennan's Of The Near And Far from Pyroclastic Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Patricia Brennan's acclaimed 2024 album Breaking Stretch on Pyroclastic Records

• Curtis Institute of Music – Philadelphia conservatory where Patricia studied classical percussion
• Youth Orchestra of the Americas – Continental ensemble Patricia joined at age seventeen

• Sylvie Courvoisier, pianist
• Miles Okazaki, guitarist
• Kim Cass, bassist
• John Hollenbeck, drummer and composer
• Kyle Armbrust, violist
• Arktureye (Noel Brennan) – Electronic musician and Patricia's duo partner in MOCH
• Eli Greenhoe, conductor

• Keiko Abe – Japanese marimbist who transformed the instrument
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Erik Satie – "Gnossienne No. 1"
• Glenn Gould performing Bach
• Philip Glass – String Quartets
• György Ligeti – Atmosphères
• Grachan Moncur III – Evolution featuring Bobby Hutcherson
• Kid Koala – Canadian turntablist
• Eighth Blackbird – Contemporary chamber music ensemble
• Fania All-Stars – Legendary salsa supergroup

• Tōru Takemitsu – Japanese composer
• Iannis Xenakis – Greek-French composer
• Karlheinz Stockhausen – German composer
• Edgard Varèse – French-American composer
• John Cage – American experimental composer
• Steve Reich – American minimalist composer
• David Lang – Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Bang on a Can co-founder

• Andromeda Galaxy (M31) – Nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way
• Circle of fifths – Music theory concept used in Patricia's compositional system
• Constellation guide – Reference for the star patterns inspiring the album
• NASA's Sounds of Space – Astronomical recordings translated into audio

–

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn. • Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on drummer Phil Haynes.

Since moving to New York from Oregon in 1983, Phil's played on scores of recordings with artists like Anthony Braxton and David Liebman. Phil has joined me once already, in March 2024, to discuss his memoir, Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modernist Drumming Artist.

Phil’s with me today to discuss his band Free Country, which takes American roots music and runs it through their particular jazz lens, using cello, guitar, bass, and drums to create something called "jazz-grass."

Their new album Liberty Now! did not set out to be political. Phil planned for the group to record original compositions, a departure from their previous work. But then the last US Presidential election happened. And then the band got word of the passing of their trumpeter, Herb Robertson, as they walked into the studio. The music and the plan changed. Phil paired the new recordings with songs from Free Country's catalog into a double album that runs from Revolutionary War tunes to "What a Wonderful World."

Phil's here to talk about grief, protest, making art when the ground shifts under you, and one of my favorite topics: the role of music in addressing contemporary political and social challenges.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Phil Haynes & Free Country's album Liberty Now! )

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Dig Deeper

• Artist and Album:

• Visit Phil Haynes at philhaynes.com and on Bandcamp
• Purchase Phil Haynes & Free Country's Liberty Now! from Corner Store Jazz or Bandcamp
• Phil Haynes' memoir: Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modern Drumming Artist
• Phil Haynes' March 2024 appearance on The Tonearm Podcast

• Free Country Band Members:

• Hank Roberts, cellist/vocalist
• Drew Gress, bassist
• Jim Yanda, guitarist

• Free Country Discography:

• Shenandoah (1997) - pre-1900 American music
• Way the West Was Won (2002) - early 20th century Americana
• '60/'69: My Favorite Things (2014) - music of the 1960s
• Something Beatles (2013) - live Beatles covers

• Herb Robertson:

• Herb Robertson tribute
• Phil Haynes & Herb Robertson: Ritual (2000)
• herbrobertson.com

• Influences and Mentors:

• Paul Smoker, trumpeter
• David Liebman, saxophonist
• Elvin Jones - Merry-Go-Round album

• Historical and Musical References:

• Max Roach - We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (1960)
• Max Roach Freedom Now Suite analysis
• John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (recorded December 9, 1964)
• Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer - The Goat Rodeo Sessions

–

Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on violinist and composer Bryan Senti.

Bryan Senti won a BAFTA for scoring the BBC series Mood. He's composed for films since 2015 and worked with artists like Regina Spektor and Mark Ronson. But his new album La Marea tells a different story—his father's story.

La Marea takes Cuban migration and turns it into sound. His previous album, Manu, honored his Colombian mother through short violin pieces. This time, Bryan recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The result mixes classical precision with Latin American folk traditions and ambient textures. He recorded it specifically for Dolby Atmos. 800 tracks of strings, all acoustic, creating what he calls the feeling of being adrift at sea.

In this conversation, I talk with Bryan about rediscovering the violin as an adult, how techno influenced a string orchestra album, and what it means to honor family stories through music.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Bryan Senti's album La Marea)

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• Visit Bryan Senti at bryansenti.com
• Follow Bryan Senti on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube
• Purchase Bryan Senti's La Marea from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Bryan Senti's previous album Manu
• Dustin O'Halloran - composer and collaborator
• Francesco Donadello - mixer, Synecdoche Music Research
• Justin Moshkevich - co-producer, Igloo Music
• Spencer Zahn - bassist, 'Quiet in a World Full of Noise'
• Noah Hoffeld - cellist
• Rrose - techno artist
• Czech National Symphony Orchestra
• Andrea Franco - video director
• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our recent episode featuring Wilco and creative music guitarist Nels Cline has proven to be a listener-favorite. This holiday season, we thought it might be fun to give you even more of what we know you love. So … we are excited to bring you another conversation with Nels, this one from the Wilco Will Love You Podcast.

Wilco Will Love You is hosted by two fans who cover the music and influence of the Chicago band. The podcast is co-hosted by Mary MacLane Mellas and The Tonearm’s contributing writer Meredith Hobbs Coons.

If you’ve listened our episode with Nels, you know what a warm and generous interview subject he is. Listening to this conversation, I really enjoyed hearing how the different perspective the hosts brought highlighted the enthusiasm for making and talking about music Nels has. It was also clear how much the fans mean to him.

–

Dig Deeper

• Listen to The Tonearm Podcast with Nels Cline at thetonearm.com and wherever you get your podcasts
• Visit Nels Cline at nelscline.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook

• Get more episodes of Wilco Will Love You here and your podcast platform of choice
• Find Mary MacLane Mellas on Instagram and Meredith Hobbs Coons on her website

• Wilco - Nels Cline has been guitarist since 2004
• The Nels Cline Singers - long-running experimental project
• Nels Cline 4 - featuring Julian Lage, Scott Colley, and Tom Rainey
• Consentrik Quartet - with Ingrid Laubrock, Chris Lightcap, and Tom Rainey on Blue Note Records

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Graham St John, a cultural anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield in the UK.

Graham has spent decades studying transformational events, psychedelic culture, and electronic dance music scenes. He's written ten books, and his latest is Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna, published by MIT Press. McKenna was the 20th century's psychedelic renaissance man, a stand-up philosopher who became a sampled voice on rave tracks and a herald of consciousness expansion.

Graham spent years tracking down letters, interviewing over 80 people, and sifting through archives to capture McKenna's life, not to canonize or condemn him, but to understand how this rogue scholar became both hero and controversy in equal measure.

We talk about the challenge of writing a biography when your subject was known for embellishing stories, and why distinguishing fact from fiction in McKenna's "hallucinatory life" matters.

–

Dig Deeper

• Visit Graham St. John's website at Edgecentral
• Graham St. John - Senior Research Fellow at University of Huddersfield
• Purchase Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna from MIT Press or Bookshop
• Los Angeles Review of Books review of Strange Attractor
• Lucid News review - "Genius and Delusion in Terence McKenna's Life"
• McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy - Founded and led by Dennis McKenna
• Purdue University - Betsy Gordon Psychoactive Substances Research Collection - Contains McKenna archive materials donated by Dennis McKenna in 2013
• Klea McKenna's archival project at TerenceMcKenna.com
• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’re putting The Tonearm’s needle on guitarist Nels Cline.

Most people know Nels Cline as Wilco's guitarist for the past two decades. But his range goes far beyond indie rock. He's spent forty-plus years moving between jazz clubs, punk venues, and studios where the rules get bent or thrown out entirely. Rolling Stone put him on their list of the top 100 guitarists of all time, but that tells you nothing about how he actually plays.

His current project, Trio of Bloom, pairs him with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Marcus Gilmore on Pyroclastic Records. The three had never played together before producer David Breskin brought them into the studio in November 2024. What came out sounds like a band that's been working together for years, full of ambient drift and barbed funk that explores the outer edges of dub.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Trio of Bloom's self-titled album)

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Nels Cline at nelscline.com and follow him on Instagram and Facebook
• Visit Craig Taborn at craigtaborn.com and follow him on Instagram
• Visit Marcus Gilmore at drummerslams.com and follow him on Instagram
• Purchase Trio of Bloom from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Trio of Bloom on Pyroclastic Records

• David Breskin - producer, poet, and creative catalyst
• Kris Davis - founder of Pyroclastic Records
• Pyroclastic Records - independent label supporting creative music

• Wilco - Nels Cline has been guitarist since 2004
• The Nels Cline Singers - long-running experimental project
• Nels Cline 4 - featuring Julian Lage, Scott Colley, and Tom Rainey
• Consentrik Quartet - with Ingrid Laubrock, Chris Lightcap, and Tom Rainey on Blue Note Records

• Terje Rypdal - What Comes After (ECM, 1974) - source of "Bend It"
• Wayne Shorter & Milton Nascimento - Native Dancer (Columbia, 1975) - source of "Diana"
• Ronald Shannon Jackson & Decoding Society - Eye On You (About Time, 1980) - source of "Nightwhistlers"

• Initiate by Nels Cline Singers (Cryptogramophone, 2010) - source of "Forge" and "King Queen" (which became "Queen King")
• Marcus Gilmore - "Breath"
• Craig Taborn - "Unreal Light" and "Why Canada"
• Nels Cline - "Eye Shadow Eye," "Gone Bust"
• Free improvisation - "Bloomers"

• Sharon Core - painter whose flower series adorns the album
• Irving Penn - photographer whose 1980 'Flowers' series inspired Core's paintings
• Yancey Richardson Gallery - representing Sharon Core

• Power Tools - Bill Frisell, Melvin Gibbs, Ronald Shannon Jackson trio produced by David Breskin (1987)
• John Zorn's Cobra - game piece and performance system
• The Knitting Factory (original NYC venue) - seminal downtown jazz and experimental music venue

• The Stone - John Zorn's performance space
• Roulette - experimental music venue in Brooklyn
• Village Vanguard - legendary jazz club
• Littlefield - Brooklyn venue (now closed)
• The Bellhouse - Brooklyn music venue
• iBeam Music Brooklyn - performance space

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pianist Marcus Roberts.

Roberts plays jazz piano like he's lived through its entire history. His style pulls from Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller as much as it does from bebop. He spent years in Wynton Marsalis's band, has performed piano concertos with Seiji Ozawa, and today leads The Modern Jazz Generation, a 12-piece ensemble encompassing three decades of musicians.

Roberts is here today to talk about something beyond performance. He's one of twenty artists awarded a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation's Performing Arts Technologies Lab. His project tackles a technical problem that's plagued remote music collaboration: latency. He's working to get the delay below 40 milliseconds so musicians in different cities can actually play together in real time.

Roberts has been blind since age five, and he's used technology his whole life to access music and create it. From Braille music notation to AI-powered tools, he shows us how tech can serve artists rather than replace them. And that’s just a hint of where this conversation goes.

(The first two musical excerpts heard in the interview are from a Marcus Roberts live performance, Jazz in Marciac 2024)

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Dig Deeper

• Visit Marcus Roberts at marcusroberts.com

• Check out Marcus Roberts' music on Qobuz

• Marcus Roberts on Wikipedia • Marcus Roberts - 60 Minutes Profile "The Virtuoso" (2014)

• Jason Marsalis - drummer in Marcus Roberts Trio and The Modern Jazz Generation

• Rodney Jordan - bassist in Marcus Roberts Trio

• The Modern Jazz Generation - Roberts' 12-piece ensemble founded in 2012

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

–

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.