Charlie Parker was born 100 years ago on August 29, 1920. Although he died at 34 years old in 1955, his legacy is so powerful that jazz would be a very different music if not for his contributions. In the intervening 65 years, Bird’s music has continued to influence and inspire, now, several generations of players and fans. In the past decade, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Joe Lovano and the alto trio of Vincent Herring, Gary Bartz and Bobby Watson have dedicated projects to his music. Moreover, countless players have continued to record and perform his music. The musical legacy of Charlie “Yardbird” Parker in this hour of Jazz at 100 Today!

Internet giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter aren’t just part of the disinformation problem — they are the problem, according to author Nina Jankowicz. Her new book, “How to Lose the Information War,” details Russia’s efforts to meddle in the affairs of other countries by turning the tools of free speech against democracy itself. In this interview with Will and Siva, Jankowicz makes clear the stakes are high, but the solutions — regulation and education — are within our grasp.

Charlotte Rene Woods updates us on an idea to create a mobile crisis unit to respond to 911 calls when there’s a mental health concern. And we talk to  Kaymin Hester, a Charlottesville High School student, whose essay about the twelve African-American students who integrated Charlottesville City Schools was awarded in the Jefferson School’s Liberation and Freedom Days essay contest.

This weeks episode is a recap for newcomers to the podcast. It follows Urza Planeswalker has he founds the Tolarian Academy, builds a time machine, blows up the time machine, founds a second academy, and does everything in his power to defeat the phyrexians.

Music by: Chad Crouch, Ketsa, and Kai Engel.

freemusicarchive.org/music/Chad_Crouch

freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa

freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel

Contact me: [email protected]

Leah Wright Rigueur calls America a failed state. As a polity, she says, the United States has failed black people, falling short of its promises of equality and justice. This summer’s protests are a dramatic diagnostic of that failure — the latest in a long history of wake-up calls. But this is also, perhaps, a transformative moment, a sign of hope. Rigueur, a Harvard historian and public policy expert, discusses the importance of heeding black protest, black politics, and black demands for reparations.

This week in 1865… The University of Virginia names Charles Venable chair of the mathematics department. But his concerns extended beyond mathematics... For three and a half decades, Venable played a central role in constructing the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

Since Sonny Rollins’ landmark recordings in 1957 and 1958 (Way Out West, A Night at the Village Vanguard, Freedom Suite), tenor sax plus bass and drums has been an attractive format for many tenor players. As Michael J. West wrote in Jazz Times “…when jazz artists … began experimenting with chordless ensembles in the 1950s, the sax trio became a daring extension of those experiments, and eventually a staple of small-group jazz. The lack of a piano or any other chordal instrument gives the band’s sound an openness, a devil-may-care freedom (even outside of free jazz) that suggests anything can happen at any moment.” Several current tenor players keep returning to this format as a preferred ensemble form. In this hour of Jazz at 100 Today!, tenor trios of JD Allen, Charles Owens and Mark Turner.

See his award winning painting and all the finalists in this virtual gallery.

Ngarralja Tommy May has been making art for over 30 years and this year his painting, Wirrkanja, won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Henry Skerritt introduces us to the artist and reminisces about his 2016 visit to the Kluge-Ruhe.

Nganampa Ngura, Our Country (2013) is a work of grand ambition and stunning color, it shows the ways in which these senior women see the world, connected by kin and country. From the tiny flowers of the bush plum to an epic painting on canvas, all actions are interrelated. In our globally connected world, these artworks remind us that every “little thing” is part of the grand tapestry of existence. The thirteen artists who made this work are: Wawiriya Burton, Ruby Williamson, Barbara Moore, Mary Katajuka Pan, Nyurpaya Kaika Burton, Naomi Kantjuriny, Iluwanti Ken, Mona Mitakiki Shepard, Tjungkara Ken, Sylvia Ken, Katanari Tjilya, Maringka Tunkin and Paniny Mick.

See the photograph on the Fralin's website.

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) is an award-winning artist who utilizes techniques learned in film, digital, fine art, and commercial photography to produce powerful visual imagery that serves both as social commentary and to bring focus on Indigenous female perspectives. She painstakingly constructs narrative scenes that use pop cultural references to visually critique common stereotypes of Native women and to tell contemporary stories of Native identity.  

Romero is represented in many museum collections and has been included in national and international exhibitions, including the recent Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists; When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California; and Desert X 2019. She was presented with the Institute of American Indian Arts Distinguished Alumni Award (2017), and has received the highest awards in Photography categories at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market every year since 2012.

Cara Romero

Chemehuevi, b. 1977

Kaa, 2017

Inkjet print on paper, edition 4/7

Museum purchase, 2019.7

© Cara Romero