WKCR 89.9FM NY

Tune in to Afternoon New Music at 3 pm on Monday, May 1st for an exclusive in-studio interview with Michael Gordon composer and co-founder of Bang on a Can. The program will discuss the 30th Anniversary Bang on a Can Marathon concert, which will be presented at Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, May 6 from 2-10 pm in the Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court.

Tune in to Live Constructions tonight, April 23, from 10:00-11:00 PM EST for a set and interview with the Brooklyn-based dynamic free jazz duo Aquiles Navarro (trumpet & vocoder) Tcheser Holmes (drum kit & drum machine). Having met in jazz conservatory, Navarro and Holmes bring together sounds from old swing to modern DJ and hip hop beats, merging traditional acoustics with new-tech instrumentation.

Tune in to Studio A on Sunday, April 23 from 9:00-10:00 PM EST for a live reading and interview with poet Cynthia Manick. Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). A Pushcart Prize nominated poet with a MFA in Creative Writing from the New School; she has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Fine Arts Work Center, the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, Hedgebrook, Poets House, and the Vermont Studio Center.

Join WKCR Tuesday, April 25, 2017 for our first ever 24-hour Ella Fitzgerald birthday broadcast, in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday. On of the most influential jazz vocalists of the last century, Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Join WKCR from midnight onwards on Saturday, April 29, 2017 as we celebrate the 118th anniversary of the birth of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, one of the most significant figures in the history of jazz. Ellington’s innovations in orchestration and composition have informed much of the development of the music. Originally from Washington DC, he moved to New York City where, in 1927, he began his tenure at the Cotton Club. It was there that he rose to international stardom.

On Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 12:00 AM, WKCR will celebrate the birth of one of the great innovators of American music, bassist and composer Charles Mingus. He was able to accomplish what so many of today's musicians strive for: his music was always original, transcending genre boundaries yet always remaining deeply rooted in the jazz tradition. Early in his career, he performed with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and Lionel Hampton.

Tune in to Raag Aur Taal tonight, April 16, from 7:00-9:00 PM EST for a live set with musician Subhi. Subhi is a singer, songwriter, and composer based in Chicago. Subhi's compositions highlight her experiences with the people, cities and the cultures that she embraced as a young kid and as an artist. Subhi began her career working as a music assistant on Monsoon Wedding Broadway show in New York. She went on to work as a composer, songwriter, lyricist, and vocalist for acclaimed short and independent feature films in US.

Tune in to Studio A, tomorrow, April 16 from 9:00-10:00 PM EST to hear an in-studio reading and interview with writer Darrel Alejandro Holnes. Holnes is a poet and a playwright from Panama and a professor at NYU and Medgar Evers College. His poems can be found at American Poetry Review, Poetry Magazine, Callaloo, Best American Experimental Writing, and elsewhere in print and online.