Pianist Jason Moran talks jazz and plays selections from his latest recording, which borrows from the music of James Reese Europe, the composer and musician who led the all-Black Harlem Hellfighters regiment band during WWI. Moran's new album is called From the Dancehall to the Battlefield, and it features Moran's take on Europe's compositions and pop music of that time. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is fresh air.
I'm Terry Gross.
I hope you're enjoying this Thanksgiving day for the holiday.
We're going to feature one of my favorite recent fresh air episodes.
In August, Jason Moran, a terrific musician and composer, joined us at the piano the first time I interviewed him in 2005 when Moran was 30.
I quoted our jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, who called Moran one of those rare up and comers who makes you optimistic for the future of jazz.
Moran is no longer an up and comer, and he certainly fulfilled his promise.
He's making exciting recordings that draw on the early roots of jazz as well as the avant garde.
He's the Kennedy center artistic director for Jazz, and he curated the permanent exhibition in the new Lewis Armstrong center in Queens, New York, which is across the street from Armstrong's preserved home.
Moran also teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music.
He composes music and has put his own spin on the works of early jazz pianists and composers, including Fats Waller and James P.
Johnson.
He has a recent album that's a Tribute to James Reese Europe, an important but little remembered figure in jazz history.
In the early 19 hundreds, Europe led his own band and founded the Clef Club, which functioned like a union for black musicians.
He was the music director for the then famous dance duo Vernon and Irene Castle.