Spotlight On

Today, the Spotlight shines On music impresario Jonathan Shank, the CEO and Founder of Terrapin Station Entertainment.

Jonathan is known for his instincts and successes in sniffing out unique opportunities in under-served spaces in the live entertainment industry, creating business successes in categories and markets often overlooked by the large corporations that dominate so much of the entertainment sector today.

Jonathan has developed projects for names as disparate as the Bob Marley Estate, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, and multiple family entertainment properties: Disney Junior Dance Party On Tour, Peppa Pig Live!, and The Fresh Beat Band Live - all while generating more than $80 million in gross box office sales.

Jonathan earned a Grammy Award in 2009 for his role in creating the groundbreaking album Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart and in 2020, he received the T.J. Martell Trailblazer Award for his work producing such charity events as The Homeward Bound Concert and A Tribute to the Music of Linda Ronstadt.

Jonathan has had a fascinating run so far, and by the end of this talk, you will see that he’s just getting started.

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Dig Deeper

• Be sure to check out Terrapin Station Entertainment at terrapinent.com
• Follow Terrapin Station Entertainment on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
• Q’s With Jonathan Shank: On Terrapin Station’s Legacy Of Intelligence
• How Jam Bands inspired Terrapin Station Entertainment's Jonathan Shank
• Bob Marley One Love Experience at the Saatchi Gallery
• The Future Of Immersive Entertainment Is Now – The Sphere Experience Has Begun
• Be sure to peruse this episode's extensive show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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Today, the Spotlight shines On composer, improviser, and master percussionist Adam Rudolph.

A global performer - and global citizen - Adam has been called "a pioneer in world music" by the New York Times. With dozens of recordings to his credit, he joined us upon the release of Timeless from his percussion group, Hu: Vibrational, on his own Meta Records.

Adam has worked with artists including Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, and many others but had a particularly extensive collaboration with Yusef Lateef over many years, releases, and ensemble configurations.

Adam and I connected immediately and had a terrific conversation, which I am ever-so-pleased to share with you. Enjoy.

(all musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from Hu: Vibrational's latest album, Timeless)

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Dig Deeper

• Check out Hu: Vibrational's Timeless on Bandcamp or your streaming platform of choice
• Find out more about Adam Rudolph on his homepage, Discogs, and YouTube
• Visit Adam's label, Meta Records, on Bandcamp, Facebook, or metarecords.com
• Order Adam Rudolph's book Sonic Elements: Matrices, Cosmograms, and Ostinatos of Circularity from Bandcamp
• For Adam Rudolph, Collaboration is Communication
• Be sure to peruse this episode's extensive show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

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Today, the Spotlight shines On Grammy-winning pianist and composer Kris Davis.

Kris joined us in the wake of the September 2023 release of her album Live at the Village Vanguard, out on her own Pyroclastic Records label.

Live at the Village Vanguard is the second release from her band Diatom Ribbons, an adventurous quintet featuring drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, turntablist and electronic musician Val Jeanty, bassist Trevor Dunn – and new addition guitarist Julian Lage.

In addition to talking about that band and album, Kris guides us through her musical path and development while hipping us to her important work at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.

(all musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from Live at the Village Vanguard by Kris Davis and Diatom Ribbons)

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Dig Deeper

• Listen to Live at the Village Vanguard by Kris Davis and Diatom Ribbons on Bandcamp or your streaming platform of choice
• Visit Kris Davis at krisdavis.net
• Visit Pyroclastic Records at pyroclasticrecords.com
• Follow Kris Davis on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X) and Pyroclastic Records on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X).
• Kris Davis Is A Powerhouse and A Polymath
• Kris Davis, a Pianist Fighting for Fringe Music
• Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
• Be sure to peruse this episode's extensive show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, the Spotlight shines On the innovative pedal steel guitar player Susan Alcorn.

While Susan got her start playing in country & western bands in Texas, she has taken the pedal steel into new and uncharted territories, exploring 20th-century classical music, improvisational jazz, and various world musics.

On her latest project, CANTO, Susan explored Chilean folk music and nueva canción, which translates as “new song” and refers to an intertwined musical and leftist social movement so important to the pro-Democracy organizations throughout Latin America over the last 50 years or more.

Released back in November 2023 on Relative Pitch Records, CANTO features Alcorn’s Septeto del Sur, a new ensemble featuring a cross-generational group of musicians versed in folk and improvisational traditions.

(all musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from the album CANTO by Susan Alcorn and Septeto del Sur)

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Dig Deeper

• Listen to CANTO by Susan Alcorn and Septeto del Sur on Bandcamp or your streaming platform of choice
• Visit Susan Alcorn at susanalcorn.net and on Instagram and Bandcamp
• Mourning and Hope: A Conversation with Susan Alcorn
• A Brief History of the Nueva Canción Movement
• La Nueva Canción: The New Song Movement in South America
• Susan Alcorn Live at The Orange Show Monument - April 23, 2022
• Be sure to peruse this episode's extensive show notes at spotlightonpodcast.com

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• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate Spotlight On ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of Spotlight On in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit spotlightonpodcast.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Spotlight On email newsletter. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've put the "Gone Fishing" sign up here at Spot Lyte On... as we wrap up Season 6 and get things ready for next one. But that doesn't mean we want you to miss out on your weekly dose of LP’s conversations with his fascinating guests. So we'll be featuring a few "best of" Spot Lyte On... episodes over the next few weeks.

This week's episode comes from Season 5 and features Dr. Richard Brent Turner, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the African American Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Jazz Religion, The Second Line, and Black New Orleans, New Edition, and Islam in the African-American Experience.

Turner is a 2020 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow.Dr. Turner joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2001 and holds appointments in Department of Religious Studies, African American Studies Program, and International Programs.

His research program focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary African-American religious history and African diaspora religions in the Black Atlantic world. He is especially interested in the following areas: Islam in the United States; religion and music in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina; Vodou in the United States and Haiti; interactions between African-American religion and popular music — jazz, soul, and hip hop; black nationalism and religion; African-American religion and human rights; ethnography; urban religious experience; and globalization and transnationalism.

Dr. Turner is currently working on a book project on African-American religion and music in the 1960s. He is a member of American Academy of Religion, American Anthropological Association, Association for Africanist Anthropology, and is on the board of directors of KOSANBA, an international scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou.

Learn more about Lyte.

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