The pandemic has claimed its first major New York City jazz club. Jazz Standard, which opened in 1997, has shut its doors. Recordings of many artists were made there, among them the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and pianist Fred Hersch. Artistic director Seth Abramson says the reaction from the jazz community has been overwhelming. “The overarching sentiment is one of great loss and then one of great gratitude,” he said, “for having had the opportunity

The most recent edition of Ask Governor Murphy on WBGO covered a variety of topics and host Nancy Solomon and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy took a barrage of phone calls and social media questions. Ask Governor Murphy is a WBGO News production in collaboration with WNYC and WHYY. Click above to hear the entire show.

Two-time Emmy Award-winning director, writer and executive producer Eric Drath has done it again. His latest documentary airing Friday, December 4 at 9pm on Showtime is titled Macho: The Hector Camacho Story. See the trailer here . Drath, born and raised in New York City, is the latest guest on SportsJam with Doug Doyle where he talks about his inspiring but tragic in-depth look at one of boxing's all-time greatest fighters and showmen. After graduating from Columbia University, Drath worked for

Back in 1966 when the Vietnam War was raging, folk singer Arlo Guthrie started performing a song called Alice’s Restaurant Massacree . The 18-minute talking blues tune was about a Thanksgiving gathering in Western Massachusetts, after which Guthrie and a friend were arrested for dumping some garbage in the town of Stockbridge. The song was turned into a movie and despite its length became a Thanksgiving standard on rock radio. WBGO’s Jon Kalish tells us how a New York radio station helped launch

For many years Ester R. Fuchs’ office was right next to David Dinkins’ office at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Fuchs is Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science there. Dr. Fuchs also worked in the Michael Bloomberg administration from 2001 to 2005. The self-described Pragmatic Utopian spoke to WBGO News Director Doug Doyle via Zoom about her friendship and respect for New York's first and only black mayor. Professor Fuchs says when Dinkins taught at

The history of jazz in Greenwich Village is in danger of disappearing -- so many buildings important to jazz history have not gotten landmark status. Village Preservation is trying to safeguard jazz history. It’s launched the Virtual Village, an app that offers self-guided, interactive walking tours of sites significant in jazz. The neighborhood south of Union Square, which spans just six city blocks from 9th to 14th Streets between Third and Fifth Avenues, was once home to jazz great Randy

Jazz historian, pianist and retired Rutgers-Newark Professor of Music Dr. Lewis Porter plans to spend more time on his own music these days. With that goal in mind, Dr. Porter gave his final Deep Dive analysis for WBGO this week, an in-depth analysis of John Coltrane's riveting instrumental "Alabama," which was the saxophonist's reaction to the horrific 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham. Dr. Porter spent more than four decades in the educational sector but the administrative duties

Hillbilly Elegy came a callin’ on Netflix in time for Thanksgiving to remind us about how complicated the notion of family really is. Our film critic, Harlan Jacobson, takes us to Kentucky for more. HJ: JD Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy memoir arrived in 2016 as part of a flotilla of non-fiction books, including Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter With Kansas in 2004, and Arlie Hochshild’s Strangers in their Own Land in 2016, set in Bayou Louisiana, that addressed the reduced and diminished

You don’t have to go to the movies—or pull them up online—to get a sense of the generational discontent that drove the election this week. Our film critic, Harlan Jacobson, goes to the movies to read what’s been on the kid’s minds. HJ: After all that has been said about Mssrs. Biden and Trump and how they differ from soup to nuts, in that order, the one thing they shared as candidates and men was being old, part of a generation that is leaving the stage, gracefully or otherwise. And which is

Newark native and legendary sports writer Jerry Izenberg is already in 16 Halls of Fame but he had never written a novel, until now. In a Zoom chat from his Henderson, Nevada home, Izenberg spoke to SportsJam host Doug Doyle about his new novel After The Fire: Love and Hate in the Ashes of 1967 (Admission Press) and share some treasured stories about growing up in Newark, watching the Newark Bears play baseball at Ruppert Stadium and the day he surprised Don King during a dispute with the