Composer, bandleader, birder, and unapologetic alarm-sounder, Maria Schneider brings 'American Crow' to The Tonearm for a conversation about listening as both artistic practice and civic obligation.
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Today, The Tonearm’s needle lands on composer and avid birdwatcher Maria Schneider.
Few composers working today have Maria Schneider's range. She holds seven Grammy Awards, was named an NEA Jazz Master, and this year took home the Rolf Schock Prize in Musical Arts, one of the most prestigious honors in the field.
Maria Schneider joins the podcast to talk about American Crow, her recent EP that uses jazz to make a case for something we've mostly lost: the ability to actually listen to each other. The music moves from distressed Americana into something quiet and more human, a sound Schneider connects to her Midwestern childhood, when disagreement didn't have to mean war.
Maria's here to talk about the record, what jazz improvisation has to teach a fractured society, and more.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Maria Schneider’s American Crow)
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0:00 Introduction
1:13 The Maria Schneider Orchestra: three decades of deep listening
7:21 American Crow: introducing the new EP
8:11 Listening versus receiving: obligation, intention, and jazz
11:08 Jazz as democracy: crows, community, and the preformed agenda
16:26 Minnesota memories: was it ever really different?
18:08 Curated rage: algorithms, data lords, and Goebbels' radio
20:26 Writing political music without words
21:25 Robert Henri's The Art Spirit and the transmission of experience
24:21 Performing American Crow and audience reactions
26:13 Writing for soloists: Mike Rodriguez and Jeff Miles
30:28 From constrained to open: the evolution of improvisation
34:39 Birding, binoculars, and the Merlin app
38:27 Collaborating with David Bowie
44:57 The 2026 Rolf Schock Prize
47:32 Streaming economics and music advocacy
50:16 Teaching: what can't be learned in a classroom
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Visit Maria Schneider at https://www.mariaschneider.com
and follow her on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mariaschneiderorch
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/mariaschneiderjazz
and YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/MariaSchneiderOrch
Purchase Maria Schneider’s 'American Crow' EP from ArtistShare → https://www.artistshare.com/Projects/Experience/1/539/1/Maria-Schneider-American-Crow-A-Narrative-in-Notes-and-Frames
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