In this clip from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington traces the title of 'Trip the Night Fantastic' to a John Milton poem from the 1600s and how she flipped "light" to "night" to name the darkness the band is trying to trip…
The NEA Jazz Master and four-time Grammy winner joins us to discuss 'Trip the Night Fantastic,' the second album from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science, which sets deportation, prison abolition, and climate collapse to music built for the dance floor. ------------------ This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on…
In this clip from the latest episode of The Tonearm Podcast, Chris Molanphy argues that the real outrage in chart manipulation is what's legal, not 'money and cocaine slipped under the table,' and describes the horse trading that passes for radio payola now. Don't miss the conversation: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/chris-molanphy-one-chart-to-rule-them-all-slate-hit-parade/ #Shorts #ChrisMolanphy…
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, Chris Molanphy points to "Tiny Dancer," which peaked at number 41 and was never counted down by Casey Kasem, as the case against treating a song's peak position as its stamp for all time. Don't miss this full episode: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/chris-molanphy-one-chart-to-rule-them-all-slate-hit-parade/ #Shorts #ChrisMolanphy #HitParade…
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, Chris Molanphy talks about how he chooses who to feature on his Hit Parade podcast and admits his episode on Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker was mostly an excuse — their chart history is scant, but he…
The pop-chart analyst and 'Hit Parade' host joins us to discuss what better data revealed about hit songs, the slow end of the monoculture, and the cultural rules that keep outsiders off country radio. ------------------ This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pop-chart analyst Chris Molanphy. For almost a…
In this excerpt from The Tonearm Podcast, Danalogue (The Comet Is Coming) borrows a Charles Bukowski habit — locking work in a drawer for months — and describes returning to his recordings as if someone else made them. Don't miss the full conversation in the latest episode of The Tonearm…
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, Danalogue explains why he sets up every session like a professional recording date so a loose jam "sounds like a record" — an approach that worked for The Comet Is Coming and Soccer96 before he carried it into his solo work. Listen to…
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, Danalogue (The Comet Is Coming, Soccer96) reflects on the benefit of a home crowd at an album-launch show: an audience willing to follow the more winding, gradual climb of the set rather than a straight hit of nighttime energy.…
On his debut solo album, 'Teleportations,' the synthesist, producer, and founding member of The Comet Is Coming turns grief and upheaval into a science-fictional voyage built entirely from analog machines. ------------------ This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on synthesist and producer Danalogue. Danalogue is a founding member of The…
In this excerpt from The Tonearm Podcast, Suzanne Ciani links her embrace of quadraphonic sound to nature itself—"we don't compress nature into two pinpoints in front of us"—and calls that immersive field her real starting point. Hear more on the latest episode of our podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/suzanne-ciani-the-buchlas-orchestral-homecoming/ #Shorts #SuzanneCiani #Buchla #ModularSynth…
In this excerpt from The Tonearm Podcast, Suzanne Ciani describes taking a backseat inside a fifty-piece orchestra as "one more instrument," and how the sheer decibel level of acoustic sound onstage struck her as transformative. Hear the full conversation on the latest episode of The Tonearm Podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/suzanne-ciani-the-buchlas-orchestral-homecoming/ #Shorts #SuzanneCiani…
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani explains why she spent decades playing to audiences who "didn't have a listening for it," and how a younger generation drawn to live analog modular has finally changed that. Tune in to the full…
The electronic music pioneer joins the podcast to discuss 'CIANI/ORKEST,' her live album pairing the Buchla synthesizer with the 50-piece Metropole Orkest, and why she has always heard the instrument as orchestral. ------------------ This week, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on five-time Grammy-nominated composer Suzanne Ciani. Suzanne has spent decades…
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, trumpeter Steven Bernstein takes apart the idea that complex music is "difficult" and the blues is "simple," arguing that all music is difficult until you learn how to play it. Be sure not to miss this latest episode: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/steven-bernstein-the-trumpets-blank-slate-sexmob/ #Shorts #StevenBernstein #Sexmob #Trumpet…
In this excerpt from The Tonearm Podcast, trumpeter Steven Bernstein explains how he spent his Berkeley youth so deep in jazz that he assumed Jerry Garcia was just a local Mexican blues guitarist who "played Monday nights." Hear more on the latest episode of The Tonearm Podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/steven-bernstein-the-trumpets-blank-slate-sexmob/ #Shorts #StevenBernstein…
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, trumpeter Steven Bernstein remembers the run of Keystone Korner concerts — Eddie Harris, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Sam Rivers, the Art Ensemble — that opened his ears to a new type of music. Listen to the full conversation: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/steven-bernstein-the-trumpets-blank-slate-sexmob/ #Shorts…
The veteran trumpeter and arranger joins the podcast to discuss the twin albums 'ResoNation Trio' and 'Ultra Resonance,' Laurie Anderson's lesson that you never need permission to make art, and why this music dies if it stays in a museum. ------------------ This week we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter,…
In this excerpt from The Tonearm Podcast, Alden Hellmuth credits Deerhoof's 'Breakup Song', the Japanese punk band Otoboke Beaver, and a gig at LA's Non Plus Ultra for shaping the sound of 'Tether'. Don't miss the latest episode of The Tonearm Podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/alden-hellmuth-saxophone-tethered-to-a-galaxy-of-bass-tether/ #Shorts #AldenHellmuth #JazzSaxophone #Saxophone #FreeJazz #TetherAlbum #DoubleBassJazz…
In this excerpt from the latest episode of The Tonearm Podcast, jazz saxophonist Alden Hellmuth reflects on two years at the Herbie Hancock Institute, studying composition with Billy Childs and Ambrose Akinmusire and naming Akinmusire's mentorship as one of her greatest takeaways. Listen to the full episode: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/alden-hellmuth-saxophone-tethered-to-a-galaxy-of-bass-tether/ #Shorts #AldenHellmuth…
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, saxophonist Alden Hellmuth explains the concept behind 'Tether' — not a leash but a shared language that binds her band even in fully improvised passages. Tune in to the full conversation: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/alden-hellmuth-saxophone-tethered-to-a-galaxy-of-bass-tether/ #Shorts #AldenHellmuth #JazzSaxophone #Saxophone #FreeJazz #TetherAlbum #DoubleBassJazz…
Trained in the Jackie McLean tradition and later mentored by Herbie Hancock, Hellmuth explains how 'Tether' turns trust between bandmates into the record's actual structure. ------------------ This week, we’re putting The Tonearm's needle on saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth. Alden grew up in Hartford, studying in the Jackie McLean tradition,…
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, Dave Douglas distinguishes between a composer who repeats a system and one who deepens a voice, using Steve Reich as an example of a musician whose syntax stays recognizable across decades of genuine development — and explaining why that distinction matters for how…
In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, trumpeter Dave Douglas reflects on turning 63, running Greenleaf Music for over 20 years, and what it means to be "comfortable with the uncertainty of not knowing where we're going" Listen to the full conversation: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/dave-douglas-transcend-is-not-the-end-greenleaf-trumpet/ #Shorts #DaveDouglas #Transcend #JazzTrumpet #CreativeProcess #JackWhitten #DukeEllington…