PRX - Pieces for Tone: Engaging

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NL 24-07: Suite History: Jazz Composers and the African-American Odyssey, 2/12/2024
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
From the 1940s to the 1990s, several jazz composers undertook several large-scale orchestral compositions that portrayed the journey of black peopl...

  • Added: Feb 08, 2024
  • Length: 59:03
It's Time! Max Roach In The 1960s
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz: Specials
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A centennial tribute to Max Roach, who set the pace for modern jazz drumming and became an outspoken activist for civil rights.

Bought by WSKG, Red River Radio Network (E. Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Mississippi), WWNO, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KUAT and more


  • Added: Jan 09, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 6
NL 24-01: From Spirituals To Swing, 1/1/2024
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
A look at the historic 1938 Carnegie Hall concert and its 1939 follow up, featuring performances by Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and others.

  • Added: Dec 20, 2023
  • Length: 59:02
Florence Price
From: WGTE Public Media
Series: Conversations in African American Music
Caption: Florence Price, Credit: Public Domain
Dr. Louise Toppin examines the life and music of trailblazing composer Florence Price.

  • Added: Aug 28, 2023
  • Length: 59:00
NL 23-29: Paris Noir: Black American Jazz Musicians In France, 7/10/2023
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
In the years following World War II, Black American jazz musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Kenny Clarke, and Bud Powell took up residence in France,...

  • Added: Jul 06, 2023
  • Length: 59:01
NL 23-25: On A Turquoise Cloud: Duke Ellington After The War, 1945-47, 6/12/2023
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
Ellington kept his orchestra together in a changing economic landscape, continuing to create memorable music and expanding his compositional horizons.

  • Added: Jun 08, 2023
  • Length: 59:01
NL 23-08: Here Comes The Sun: Nina Simone On RCA, 2/13/2023
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
In late 1966 the fiercely individualistic singer and pianist Nina Simone signed with RCA Records and continued her genre-bending explorations of ja...

  • Added: Feb 09, 2023
  • Length: 59:02
NL 23-06: Black Composers In Hollywood: Duke Ellington and John Lewis, 1959, 1/30/2023
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
The first in a recurring series of shows explores Duke Ellington’s music for the 1959 film Anatomy Of A Murder and John Lewis’ score for Odds Again...

  • Added: Jan 20, 2023
  • Length: 59:02
Black Composers in Hollywood: Duke Ellington and John Lewis
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz: Specials
Piece image
This hour explores Duke Ellington’s music for the 1959 film Anatomy Of A Murder and John Lewis’ score for Odds Against Tomorrow, released the same ...

Bought by KRCU Public Radio and KAZU Seaside, Calif.


  • Added: Jan 20, 2023
  • Length: 59:02
  • Purchases: 2
NL 23-03: Dear Martin, P.S.: More Jazz Tributes To Martin Luther King Jr., 1/9/2023
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
Jazz recordings in honor of the civil-rights leader made by James Spaulding, Billy Taylor, Herbie Hancock, and others.

  • Added: Jan 05, 2023
  • Length: 59:00
Black, Brown and Beige - Duke Ellington’s Historic Jazz Symphony
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz: Specials
Piece image
In 1943, Duke Ellington debuted a landmark 43-minute musical portrayal of the African-American experience at Carnegie Hall. We'll hear music from i...

Bought by Troy Public Radio, WNMU-FM, KMUW, WVIA, Radio Catskill and more


  • Added: Aug 25, 2022
  • Length: 59:03
  • Purchases: 20
NL 22-36: Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige, 8/29/2022
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
In January 1943, bandleader and composer Duke Ellington took his orchestra into Carnegie Hall for the first time and chose to make his debut with a...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2022
  • Length: 59:03
NL 22-09: Swing It Loud: Duke Ellington's Early Black Pride Music, 2/21/2022
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, there was the music of Duke Ellington . Born and raised in Washington, D.C. at the t...

  • Added: Feb 20, 2022
  • Length: 59:03
Mavis Staples' Soul: A Celebration (Single Hour Version)
From: Paul Ingles
Caption: Mavis Staples
A music and talk celebration of the indomitable spirit and talent that Mavis Staples has shown over a career that tacks from the late 1940’s, into ...

Bought by WJCT, KUHF, WABE, WVIA, KTAL-LP [Las Cruces Community Radio] and more


  • Added: Feb 02, 2022
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 25
Mavis Staples' Soul: A Celebration (Hour 2 of 2)
From: Paul Ingles
Caption: Mavis Staples, Credit: Michael Ochs Archives
Hour 2 of a music and talk celebration of the indomitable spirit and talent that Mavis Staples has shown over a career that tacks from the late 194...

Bought by KRVS, WDDE, WVIA, WPVM 103.7, WILL and more


  • Added: Feb 01, 2022
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 21
Swing It Loud: Duke Ellington’s Early Black-Pride Music
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz: Specials
Piece image
Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, Ellington was writing music that celebrated African-American culture, personalities,...

Bought by WJCT, KAZU Seaside, Calif., KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., Northeast Indiana Public Radio, KTXK and more


  • Added: Jan 31, 2022
  • Length: 59:02
  • Purchases: 6
NL 22-06: Portraits In Black: Jazz Tributes To African-American Heroes, 1/31/2022
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
Music tributes to African-American figures such as Paul Robeson and Joe Louis from Count Basie, Clifford Jordan, Charles Mingus and others.

  • Added: Jan 28, 2022
  • Length: 58:59
NL 22-04: Final Miles: Miles Davis On Warner Brothers, 1/17/2022
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
In 1986 Miles Davis began what would prove to be his final run of recordings, working with new collaborators and making some surprising sideman app...

  • Added: Jan 13, 2022
  • Length: 58:59
1963: A Man's Dream, A Nation's Nightmare
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights Classic Jazz: Specials
Caption: Andrew Hill's Black Fire LP
An hour-long jazz special: It was a year of raised hopes and devastating tragedy, and the world of jazz continued to reflect both the growing uneas...

Bought by KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WWNO, WRGY, Troy Public Radio, KAAD-LP and more


  • Added: Jan 02, 2022
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 24
The Forgotten Story of Clinton Melton
From: Radio Diaries
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On December 3, 1955, a 33-year-old Black gas station attendant named Clinton Melton was shot and killed in Glendora, Mississippi. Two witnesses — i...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Oct 18, 2021
  • Length: 11:44
  • Purchases: 2
Episode 158: "If it ever happens, run."
From: Criminal
Series: Criminal
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“What I recall most is the way that she grabbed my wrist and, shaking a bit, she said over and over again, ‘If it happens, run. Don’t let that happ...

  • Added: Apr 13, 2021
  • Length: 33:08
Emma Coger Makes a Scene
From: KWIT
Series: Small Wonders
Caption: Supreme Court of Iowa. Emma Coger v. North Western Union Packet Company
In 1872, a black school teacher traveled by steamboat from Quincy, IL, to Keokuk, IA, to visit her family. Along the way, she was forcibly removed ...

  • Added: Dec 01, 2020
  • Length: 05:20
Buffalo NY: Grappling with Gentrification in one of America’s Most Unequal Cities
From: Laura Flanders
Series: Laura Flanders & Friends
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Buffalo, New York, was once a booming industrial town fueled by cheap power from Niagara Falls, a center of commerce and trade, the first city in t...

Bought by KDNK and RadioFreePalmer


  • Added: Oct 21, 2020
  • Length: 28:00
  • Purchases: 2
NL 20-31: Electrifying: Charlie Christian, 7/27/2020
From: WFIU
Series: Night Lights
Piece image
Music from one of the 20th century's most influential guitarists, heard with Benny Goodman and others.

  • Added: Jul 23, 2020
  • Length: 58:58
Episode 142: Robert Smalls
From: Criminal
Series: Criminal
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On May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship and liberated himself and his family from enslavement. His great-great-grandson, ...

  • Added: Jun 24, 2020
  • Length: 29:27