“Out of the gospel of the middle passage, the blues of slavery, the jazz of big city ghetto nights,” the Nobel Prize winning Toni Morrison whose generative depth and sounding of interiority produces a lyricism that is radiant in its generosity and in my mind can only be described as song. Morrison rivets because she has an ear tuned to the complexities of the American saga in all of its beauty and travesties. Her dives into her characters’ inner lives read like ballads, like rhapsodies, like adagios— it’s all music.
Musical Selection for this Podcast
- Paris, Texas by Rye Cooder
- After the Rain by John Coltrane
- Gardermoen by Julia Kent
- Blue in Green by Miles Davis featuring John Coltrane and Bill Evans
- Lilac Wine by Nina Simone
- Blues for Clarinet by Jimmy Hamilton and The Duke’s Men
- Poor Wayfaring Stranger by Narrow Way
- Moonlight Serenade by Leonardo Vallicelli
- I’ll be Seeing You by Billie Holiday
