Maggie LePique speaks with Jann Wenner, whose memoir "Like a Rolling Stone" chronicles his life as the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine.
Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a "touchingly honest" and "wonderfully deep" memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen).

Jann Wenner has been called by his peers “the greatest editor of his generation.”

His deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics, and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. The age of rock and roll in an era of consequence, what will be considered one of the great watersheds in modern history. Wenner writes with the clarity of a journalist and an essayist. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He was instrumental in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and Annie Leibovitz. His journey took him to the Oval Office with his legendary interviews with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, leaders to whom Rolling Stone gave its historic, full-throated backing. From Jerry Garcia to the Dalai Lama, Aretha Franklin to Greta Thunberg, the people Wenner chose to be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone tried to change American culture, values, and morality.

Like a Rolling Stone is a beautifully written portrait of one man’s life, and the life of his generation.Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a "touchingly honest" and "wonderfully deep" memoir from the beating heart of classic rock and roll (Bruce Springsteen).

Jann Wenner has been called by his peers “the greatest editor of his generation.”

Source:
https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/jann-s-wenner/like-a-rolling-stone/9780316415392/

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique's Producer Jerry Ough speaks  with master double bassist Chuck Berghofer about his incredible music legacy. As a member of the Wrecking Crew, Chuck Berghofer helped change the sound of popular music. His big, warm bass sound has laid the foundation for artists from A to Z with recordings by Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Christina Aguilera, Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, and more. It has also set the mood on over 400 movies like Rocky, True Crime, Bird, and The Majestic and TV shows like The Carol Burnett Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Star Trek. There’s no doubt that you’ve heard his bass playing.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Berghofer


This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

TAKE ME TO THE RIVER NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans Music: One of the World’s Most Unique and Important Cultural Jewels

Take Me to the River New Orleans,” the second film, celebrates the rich musical history, the heritage, legacy, and influence of New Orleans and Louisiana. A true collaboration and melting pot of influences from around the World, that came together and formed one of the world’s most unique cultural jewels. Our adventure shows the resiliency of surviving disaster to a formidable rebirth. Pairing legacy musicians with stars of today.

There is nothing like the music of New Orleans. It is a wholly unique, worldwide collaboration that has resulted in an exceptional musical genre never before heard. This film will give the viewer an insightful historical perspective of how global influences shaped, and continue to shape, a musical quilt that formed the music of this extraordinary city. Influences came from many places: Cuba, South America, Africa, Europe, Canada, America. All contributed to the blending and shaping of a musical genre that is rich in culture and heritage. We, as Americans, are the conservators of this unique cultural phenomenon.

The film will highlight 20 to 25 new songs, combining multiple generations of New Orleans musicians. Legacy musicians will collaborate with stars of today and students from the Tipitina’s foundation, under the guidance and tutelage of Donald Harrison.

This film shows that New Orleans music has always been a collaboration of intergenerational, interracial, intercontinental and genderless effort.

New Orleans music includes the creation and influences of American jazz and jazz musicians and the introduction of unique instruments, story songs and life’s hardships from around the world.

Award winning filmmaker/director/producer/musician Martin Shore started his career as a musician. Mr. Shore has toured with Bo Diddley, Albert Collins, Bluesman Willie, and many others. He has produced soundtracks and has acted as music supervisor for a number of feature films, including Saw, Saw II, Rize, and Rock School, among others. He has been a music producer for a variety of artists, including Snoop Dogg, G-Eazy, Yo Gotti, Mavis Staples, Booker T. Jones, North Mississippi Allstars, and many others.

Source: https://takemetotheriver.org
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Take-Me-River-Orleans-Various/dp/B09QXMGVQJ

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique speaks with the marvelous and brilliant jazz pianist Mike Garson and they discuss the Live at Glastonbury 2000 recording. The Legendary Full Performance Released For The First Time (In 2018) Including Many Of Bowie's Greatest Hits And Never Before Seen Footage. This release documents Bowie's legendary Sunday night headline performance on June 25 2000 at the most famous festival on earth. -The box set  includes the full 21 song greatest hits set and for the first time, a DVD of the entire show (only 30 minutes of which has ever been broadcast on TV) including the Glastonbury performance of "'Heroes'," a highlight of the record breaking "David Bowie Is..." exhibition and the only track that has been previously released. Maggie & Mike also discuss the newly released book: The Life And Tome Of Ziggy Stardust
In 2002, David Bowie and Mick Rock created Moonage Daydream, the defining document of the life and times of Ziggy Stardust. Twenty years later, it remains the closest readers will get to understanding Bowie through his own words.

First published as a signed limited edition, Moonage Daydream sold out in a matter of months and became lore among David Bowie fans. Now, on the 50th anniversary of Bowie's acclaimed album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the book is available once more as an Anniversary Edition for bookstores worldwide. Exclusively for Genesis subscribers, for a limited time a short run of books are being presented as Publisher's Copies.

Source: https://www.rhino.com/product/glastonbury-2000
Source: https://store.davidbowie.com/product/X3CDDB051/david-bowie-glastonbury-2000-2-cd-dvd-set
Source: https://www.genesis-publications.com/book/9781905662722/moonage-daydream.

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique sits down with Dan Guerrero, an award-winning producer/director of diverse programming for network and cable television and of live arts and culture concert events at prestigious venues including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the LA Opera and multiple events at the Kennedy Center in DC. The eclectic artist also tours with his autobiographical solo play ¡Gaytino! Made in America that was recently filmed and is screening at U.S. Film Festivals. Guerrero is also an influential activist for both the Latinx and LGBTQ communities and is a popular figure on the speaking circuit. But he is most proud of his work as an educator teaching the course ¡Gaytino! Performance and the Power of One at UCLA. That led to his appointment as a UC Regents lecturer jointly in the UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Chicano/a Studies and LGBTQ Departments. Dan and I discuss Linda Ronstadt's new Memoir Feels Like Home: A Song For The Sonoran Borderlands as well as the companion CD from Putumayo Records: Feels Like Home: Songs from the Sonoran Borderlands—Linda Ronstadt’s Musical Odyssey. 

In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the Sonoran borderlands, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour of the place where she came of age, built around meals and memories. Following her best-selling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt’s recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States.

The granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, Ronstadt celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of the border in this road trip through the high desert. Written in collaboration with Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with stunning photographs by Bill Steen, Feels Like Home features 20 recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt’s admirers, including never-before-seen family photos. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing the old canciones, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.

Putumayo has released Feels Like Home: Songs from the Sonoran Borderlands—Linda Ronstadt’s Musical Odyssey, a musical accompaniment to the acclaimed singer’s new book, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, published by Heyday Books. The musical collection was co-curated by Ronstadt and Putumayo founder Dan Storper and includes influential songs from her childhood and career, as well as several of her own interpretations of classic Mexican songs. Participating artists include legends and musical explorers Lalo Guerrero, Ry Cooder, Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young, Taj Mahal and David Hidalgo. 

Source: https://lindaronstadt.com/book/feels-like-home/
Source: https://www.putumayo.com/feels-like-home
Source: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/feels-like-home/?utm_source=carousel&utm_id=flik
Source: http://www.danguerrero.com

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990

Maggie and Robby sit down and revisit his 2021 Memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With The Doors Now Available In Paperback and play a few clips from the audiobook.
In his tell-all, legendary Doors guitarist, Robby Krieger, one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," opens up about his band's meteoric career, his own darkest moments, and the most famous black eye in rock 'n' roll.

​Few bands are as shrouded in the murky haze of rock mythology as The Doors, and parsing fact from fiction has been a virtually impossible task. But now, after fifty years, The Doors' notoriously quiet guitarist is finally breaking his silence to set the record straight. 

Through a series of vignettes, Robby Krieger takes readers back to where it all happened: the pawn shop where he bought his first guitar; the jail cell he was tossed into after a teenage drug bust; his parents' living room where his first songwriting sessions with Jim Morrison took place; the empty bars and backyard parties where The Doors played their first awkward gigs; the studios where their iconic songs were recorded; and the many concert venues that erupted into historic riots. Set the Night on Fire is packed with never-before-told stories from The Doors' most vital years, and offers a fresh perspective on the most infamous moments of the band's career. 

Krieger also goes into heartbreaking detail about his life's most difficult struggles, ranging from drug addiction to cancer, but he balances out the sorrow with humorous anecdotes about run-ins with unstable fans, famous musicians, and one really angry monk.  Set the Night on Fire is at once an insightful time capsule of the '60s counterculture, a moving reflection on what it means to find oneself as a musician, and a touching tale of a life lived non-traditionally. It's not only a must-read for Doors fans, but an essential volume of American pop culture history.

Source: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/robby-krieger/set-the-night-on-fire/9780316243445/

Source: https://store.thedoors.com/products/robby-krieger-set-the-night-on-fire-living-dying-and-playing-guitar-with-the-doors-soft-cover-book

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Came the Lightening: Twenty Poems for George By Olivia Harrison
Maggie goes in-depth about Olivia's reason for celebrating her husband, George Harrison, 20 years after his passing with a book of poems for him. Olivia also reads from her timeless and beautiful tribute to George. 

'Here on the shore, twenty years later, my message in a bottle has reached dry land. Words about our life, his death but mostly love and our journey to the end.' – Olivia Harrison

Olivia Harrison presents Came the Lightening, a book of twenty poems dedicated to George, marking the twentieth year since his passing.
The poetry is accompanied by a selection of photographs and mementos curated by Olivia.

Martin Scorsese, a long-time friend, and director of the 2011 documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, writes:

“Olivia evokes the most fleeting gestures and instants, plucked from the flow of time and memory and felt through her choice of words and the overall rhythm.

“She might have done an oral history or a memoir. Instead, she composed a work of poetic autobiography.”

Source: https://www.genesis-publications.com/book/9781905662814/came-the-lightening

Source: https://www.oliviaharrison.com

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie Speaks With Drummer, Producer Gregg Field About Ella At The Hollywood Bowl: The Irving Berlin Songbook - Eight-time Grammy and 2018 Emmy winner (including Latin Grammy “Producer of the Year”) Gregg Field is one of the most musically diverse and highly sought-after producers, musicians and educators in music.

World class musicians and singers — a veritable who’s who of music, including Michael Buble, Placido Domingo, Pharrell Williams, Josh Groban, Garth Brooks, Alejandro Sanz, Stevie Wonder, Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones — are among his many musical collaborators.

Starting at age 19, Field toured with, among others, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, and he can be heard on Sinatra’s historic, multi-platinum Duets and Duets II recordings.

Ella Fitzgerald's "Songbook" records - with her peerless renditions of the best songs from iconic composers from Irving Berlin to Rogers & Hart to Cole Porter to George & Ira Gershwin - are the cornerstone of the Verve catalog and the standard for jazz vocal recordings. Ella never released a live version of these Songbooks. This record, discovered in the private collection of Norman Granz, will make the first time a live Songbook has been released from the First Lady of Song.

Source: https://music.usc.edu/gregg-field/
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/ella-fitzgerald-hollywood-bowl-album-out-now/

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

An undisputed expert in the fine art of making hit music, JIM MESSINA’s legacy of musical genius spans five decades, three super groups, a vibrant solo career and scores of producing and engineering credits.

While acting as producer/audio engineer for Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Buffalo Springfield, Messina ultimately joined the band as its bass player.  When “the Springfield” disbanded in 1968, Jim and fellow bandmate Richie Furay formed Poco.  With Jim on lead guitar, Poco defined a new musical genre, Country Rock. 

After three successful albums, Jim was ready for a change and left to return to his passion for producing music.  He signed as an independent producer with Columbia Records.

In November 1970, Columbia asked Jim to work with an unknown Kenny Loggins.  While helping Kenny get ready for a record and touring, the two discovered that they worked well together and Jim agreed to sit in on Kenny’s first album.  Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin’ Inwas released in November of 1971 and an accidental duo was formed.

Over the next seven years, Loggins & Messina released eight hit albums, had scores of hit songs and sold over 16 million albums.  They had become one of rock’s most successful recording duos ever, but it was time for the duo to go their separate ways.

After a series of celebrated solo acoustic tours, Jim formed a band made of acclaimed musicians who have played with him at various points in his career.  His latest release, In the Groove, includes selected hits from all three of Jim’s previous bands, as well as several of his solo works.

Touring the country and playing sold-out shows, Jim says that he’s enjoying discovering who he is, where he’s been and, most significantly, where he’s going.

Source: https://www.jimmessina.com/about-jim

It was 50 years ago when Loggins & Messina played the Hollywood Bowl supporting their debut album Sittin' In. Now, the duo reunites (July 15 & 16 2022)  for a special weekend celebrating the golden sound of the ‘70s with songs like "Danny's Song" and "House at Pooh Corner.” Kenny Loggins closes the show with his greatest hits, such as “Footloose” and “Danger Zone.” A historic night under the stars!

Source: https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/1715/2022-07-15/kenny-loggins-with-jim-messina-sittin-in


This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique speaks with Sinatra Archivist, Charlie Pignone about the re-release of Watertown, a 1970 concept album, newly mixed and remastered from the original Sessions tapes.
Upon Watertown’s release, fans and critics alike simply weren’t prepared for such a radical stylistic departure from Sinatra. But the album has shown resilience: Despite the initial lukewarm response, in the decades since the album has had a re-evaluation and, in 2007, The Guardian declared Watertown “one of [Sinatra’s] greatest masterpieces” and in 2015, The Observer noted that “it made some sense that Sinatra would attempt a story-driven concept album, considering he had helped pioneer the thematic concept LP in the 1950s. But on Watertown, Sinatra did something truly risky: he told an entire album-length story from the point of view of [a] character that is most definitely not Frank Sinatra.” Gaudio’s essay explains that Sinatra, with a level of empathy only he could achieve, was “reaching down into a man’s soul and feeling his pain and still finding hopeThe legacy of Frank Sinatra – one of the world’s most enduring singers – includes a studio album no one anticipated:

Watertown. Recorded in 1969 and released in 1970, the concept of Watertown unfolds as a personal tragedy about a working man with children whose wife suddenly leaves him. Sinatra’s performance elicits sadness, defeat and forlornness. Ultimately, as Sinatra so wonderfully expresses, it’s also a story about one man’s resilience.

On June 3, Frank Sinatra Enterprises and UMe present Watertown, newly mixed and remastered from the original Reprise session tapes resulting in superior sound quality. The original album sequence will be available on vinyl, while the CD and digital editions will feature eight bonus tracks, including alternate takes from the recording sessions, two radio ads and “Lady Day,” which was not part of the Watertown concept. Charles Pignone produced the updated edition from the new mixes created by longtime Sinatra engineer Larry Walsh – the team behind recent FSE/UMe releases Sings for Only the Lonely and Nice ‘N’ Easy. 

Now appreciated as a masterpiece of drama and heartbreak, Watertown will also feature, in addition to a recreation of the original packaging, new liner notes, a track-by-track breakdown from songwriter and album producer Bob Gaudio, quotes from Sinatra, plus essays by Frankie Valli, co-writer Jake Holmes, among others who were involved in the original project. 

Source: http://www.sinatra.com/frank-sinatra-concept-album-watertown-newly-mixed-and-remastered-from-original-session-tapes-set-for-release-on-june-3/

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/frank-sinatra-concept-album-watertown-newly-mixed-and-remastered-301519544.html

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique speaks with celebrating author, and educator Ashley Khan about the enduring legacy of George Harrison,  a British guitarist, singer, songwriter and film producer. As a member of the Beatles, he achieved international fame and renown. During his career, he developed as a songwriter in his own right and wrote many best selling songs. In addition to music, Harrison was interested in Hindu spirituality and was a devotee of the Hare Krishna movement. George also founded the Material World Charitable Foundation, or MWF, on 26 April 1973, close to two years after he had organised the Concert for Bangladesh in New York as a benefit for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War. MWF is still active and Olivia Harrison (George's widow) is Director of the Charitable Organization.

My guest Ashley Kahn,  is a Grammy-winning author, educator, music journalist, and concert producer. His books include A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album and Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music.​

Ashley also edited the book: George Harrison on George Harrison is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of Harrison’s most revealing and illuminating interviews, personal correspondence, and writings, spanning the years 1962 to 2001. Though known as the “Quiet Beatle,” Harrison was arguably the most thoughtful and certainly the most outspoken of the famous four. This compendium of his words and ideas proves that point repeatedly, revealing his passion for music, his focus on spirituality, and his responsibility as a  celebrity, as well as a sense of deep commitment and humor.



Source: https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/clive-davis-institute/1417614318

Source: https://www.materialworldfoundation.com

Source: https://www.amazon.com/George-Harrison-Interviews-Encounters-Musicians/dp/1641600519


This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie LePique and special co-host Alan Minsky, former PD of KPFK Radio and currently the Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, discuss the crisis in Ukraine with President and CEO of Operation USA, Richard Walden. 

Operation USA is a Los Angeles-based international disaster relief and development agency helping communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease, violence and endemic poverty.

42 years–101 countries.
Since 1979, Operation USA has worked in 101 countries—delivering over $450 million in aid for relief and development projects around the world.

 Small, agile and effective.
Operation USA is a hands-on agency with a small, dedicated staff overseeing our projects and disaster response work. Free of the bureaucracy and overhead of a larger organization, creative solutions allow us to respond to real needs in real time. As Founding Board member Julie Andrews says, “Operation USA is the little ship that gets in the harbor where the big ships cannot go.”

 Privately funded from day one.
100% privately-funded, Operation USA works without any government financial support—or the constraints that support may bring.

 Changing lives at home and abroad.
Disaster relief is most often associated with the developing world–but, since our earliest days, Operation USA has dedicated a portion of our efforts to projects here at home. And, as needs have increased, in some years as much as 50% of our work is done in the USA.

 In it for the long haul.
In most cases, the effects of disasters are not limited by time. Years after a disaster has abated, communities are still frequently in need of assistance. Committed to rebuilding, Operation USA stays in the field long after many others have left. Long-term projects help rebuild lives and livelihoods.

 Focusing on education and health.
Education may be the single most cost-effective kind of aid. It opens minds, builds futures and provides youths with the tools they need to succeed. Enhanced health care lengthens lives and transforms communities. At Operation USA, we support these life-changing programs so that children and families can recover, grow and thrive in the wake of disasters.

 Every donation—large or small—makes an impact.
When you donate to Operation USA, you immediately start to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most.

Source: https://www.opusa.org
Source: https://pdamerica.org/


This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Maggie and extraordinary pianist and arranger,  Alan Broadbent discuss the 30th Anniversary of Unforgettable… with Love, the legendary singer and songwriter Natalie Cole’s biggest album to date. Since its initial release in 1991, it has sold over seven million copies and also won Cole seven GRAMMY© Awards. The album features Cole singing several songs her father Nat King Cole recorded, nearly 20 years after she initially refused to cover her father’s songs during live concerts. Cole produced vocal arrangements for the songs, with piano accompaniment by her uncle Ike Cole and many other first rate pianists and arrangers. The album’s title track, an interactive duet with her father, would go on to be one of her most memorable recordings.

Alan Broadbent was born in Auckland, New Zealand and in 1966, at the age of 19, received a Downbeat Magazine scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1969 he was asked to join Woody Herman’s band as his pianist and arranger for 3 years. In 1972 he settled in Los Angeles, beginning a musical relationship with the legendary singer Irene Kral (no relation to Diana Krall). Soon he was also invited into the studio scene as a pianist for the great Nelson Riddle, David Rose and Johnny Mandel. In the early 90s he was asked to be a part of Natalie Cole’s famous “Unforgettable” cd, at which time he toured as her pianist and, a little while later, as her conductor. At this time he wrote an orchestral arrangement for her second video with her dad, “When I Fall In Love”, which won him his first Grammy Award for “best orchestral arrangement accompanying a vocal”.

Turning Points
Shortly after, he became a member of Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, touring the festivals of Europe, UK and the USA. It was while with this group that he won his second Grammy, an orchestral accompaniment written for Shirley Horn of Leonard Bernstein’s “Lonely Town”.

As a soloist and with his jazz trio, Broadbent has been nominated for Grammys twice for best instrumental performance, in the company of such artists as Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Keith Jarrett. In 2007 he was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit, an honor he holds in high regard.

The Now
Broadbent is Diana Krall’s conductor for her occasional orchestra concerts and is the conductor on her “Live in Paris” DVD. Recently he has been the arranger on Glenn Frey’s cd with strings, “After Hours”, and wrote six string arrangements for Sir Paul McCartney’s “Kisses On The Bottom” with the London Symphony. He has just returned from solo piano concerts in the UK, Poland and France.

It has been his lifelong goal, through his orchestral arrangements and jazz improvisations, to discover, in popular music and standard songs, deeper feelings of communication and love.

Source: https://craftrecordings.com/products/natalie-cole-unforgettable-with-love-30th-anniversary-edition-cd

Source: https://www.alanbroadbent.com

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

L.A. WOMAN: 50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION includes the original album newly remastered by The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, two bonus discs of unreleased studio outtakes, and the stereo mix of the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl. 

For this new collection, the original album has been expanded with more than two hours of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for L.A. Woman, allowing the listener to experience the progression of each song as it developed in the studio. An early demo for “Hyacinth House” recorded at Robby Krieger’s home studio in 1969 is also included.  

The outtakes feature Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek working in the studio with two additional musicians. The first was rhythm guitarist Marc Benno, who worked with Leon Russell in The Asylum Choir. The other was bassist Jerry Scheff, who was a member of Elvis Presley’s TCB band.

Among the outtakes of album tracks, you can also hear the band joyously ripping through the kinds of classic blues songs that Morrison once described as “original blues.” There are great takes of Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train,” John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling King Snake,” Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go,” and “Get Out Of My Life Woman,” Lee Dorsey’s funky 1966 classic, written by his producer Allen Toussaint.

In the collection’s extensive liner notes, veteran rock journalist David Fricke explores the whirlwind making of the album, which would be the last with Morrison, who died in Paris a few months after its release. “Morrison may never have come back to The Doors,” he writes. “But with his death, L.A. Woman became rebirth, achievement, and finale, all at once. It’s the blues too – original blues, as Morrison promised. Fifty years later, there is still nothing like it.”

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Source: https://robbykrieger.com

Source: https://store.thedoors.com/products/l-a-woman-50th-anniversary-deluxe-edition-3-cd-1-lp

Su Oh

Senior Vice President, Education, Exhibitions and Community Engagement

As the Vice President of Education and Programs, Oh is responsible for increasing the Museum’s presence and influence in Southern California and developing new relationships with institutions and educational organizations in the region that engage the community in impactful lifelong learning relationships. At NHMLAC since 2007, most recently as Director of Education and Programs, Oh shaped and spearheaded educational and entertaining events during the Museum’s dynamic transformation into an indoor-outdoor museum. She oversaw the redesign of the award-winning Mobile Museum: An Ocean Experience, and transformed the performing arts, interpretation and training, volunteers, and school visits programs. In her new role, she will continue to oversee the Museum’s signature events, including sold-out First Fridays seasons, Summer Nights in the Garden, Dino Fest, L.A. Nature Fest, and Bug Fair—more than 100 programs a year.
Becoming Jane: The Evolution Of Dr. Jane Goodall explores a hands-on, transportive, multimedia exhibition celebrating the extraordinary life and work of world-renowned conservationist and ethologist Dr. Jane Goodall.

NOVEMBER 7, 2021 - APRIL 17, 2022 at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace, started as an intrepid young woman with a dream to learn about animals in Africa. Dr. Goodall traveled to what is now Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park and immersed herself by observing chimpanzees in their natural habitat. Her work studying the lives of chimpanzees in the wild captured the imagination of the world. Rather than seeing the animals as subjects, she came to know them as individuals with personalities and emotions—a notion once rejected by the scientific world, yet now considered revolutionary. Today, in her current role as an activist, mentor and advocate for creating a better world for all life on Earth, she inspires us all. Her story—one of fearless determination, curiosity, the pursuit of knowledge and a passionate love of the natural world—has resonated with generations of people around the globe.

Source: https://nhm.org/person/oh-su

Source: https://nhm.org


This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

Maggie speaks with Nick Gold (former head of World Circuit Records) about the genesis of the phenomenon of the Buena Vista Social and it's 25th Anniversary release. 
 ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ is both the name given to this extraordinary group of musicians and the album, recorded in just seven days in 1996 in Havana’s 1950s vintage EGREM studios. It was clear from the atmosphere of the recording sessions that something very special was taking place. However, no one could have predicted that Buena Vista Social Club would become a worldwide phenomenon – awarded a Grammy in 1997 and, at 8 million copies, outselling any other record in the same genre.

The acclaim of the original album has elevated the artists (including Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Rubén González & Omara Portuondo) to superstar status, inspired an award-winning film by Wim Wenders, and has contributed to popularising Cuba’s rich musical heritage. Produced by Ry Cooder for World Circuit, the timeless quality of the music and the sheer verve of the veteran performers have ensured that this will go down as one of the landmark recordings of the 20th century.

To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the album’s recording, producer Ry Cooder and World Circuit’s Nick Gold have gone back to the original tapes and into the archive to produce this Deluxe Remaster package, featuring previously unheard tracks from the original 1996 recording sessions, previously unseen photos, and new liner notes.

Source: https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/buena-vista-social-club-album-oral-history-9646459/

Source: https://www.buenavistasocialclub.com/albums/buena-vista-social-club-25th-anniversary-edition/
This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

Maggie LePique with special guest, guitarist Robby Krieger (The Doors) celebrate the life & incredible legacy of PHIL CHEN, SESSION BASSIST FOR ROD STEWART, JEFF BECK AND MANY MORE, HAS DIED AGED 75 Dec 14 2021.
Jamaican session bassist Phil Chen has died at the age of 75. The news was broken in a statement shared by his family on social media.

Chen was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1946. He played in various bands throughout his youth, cutting his teeth on the Kingston Club Circuit before relocating to London in the late 1960s. He initially started Jimmy James’ band before moving to session work. His most notable credits began in the mid-1970s, with appearances on Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow and Donovan’s Cosmic Wheels. He also played on a number of notable Rod Stewart releases, including Hot Legs and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?.

Source: https://guitar.com/news/music-news/phil-chen-session-bassist-for-rod-stewart-jeff-beck-and-many-more-has-died-aged-80/

Source: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/phil-chen-bassist-dead/

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Chen

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

Maggie discusses The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World with author Dave Zirin.  Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how “taking a knee” triggered an awakening in sports, from the celebrated sportswriter.

“The Kaepernick Effect reveals that Colin Kaepernick’s story is bigger than one athlete. With profiles of courage that leap off the page, Zirin uncovers a whole national movement of citizen-athletes fighting for racial justice.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

In 2016, amid an epidemic of police shootings of African Americans, the celebrated NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a series of quiet protests on the field, refusing to stand during the U.S. national anthem. By “taking a knee,” Kaepernick bravely joined a long tradition of American athletes making powerful political statements. This time, however, Kaepernick’s simple act spread like wildfire throughout American society, becoming the preeminent symbol of resistance to America’s persistent racial inequality.

Critically acclaimed sports journalist and author of A People’s History of Sports in the United States, Dave Zirin chronicles “the Kaepernick effect” for the first time, through interviews with a broad cross-section of professional athletes across many different sports, college stars and high-powered athletic directors, and high school athletes and coaches. In each case, he uncovers the fascinating explanations and motivations behind a mass political movement in sports, through deeply personal and inspiring accounts of risk-taking, activism, and courage both on and off the field.

A book about the politics of sport, and the impact of sports on politics, The Kaepernick Effect is for anyone seeking to understand an essential dimension of the new movement for racial justice in America.

Source: https://thenewpress.com/books/kaepernick-effect

Source: https://www.thenation.com/authors/dave-zirin/

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

Maggie LePique and Ashley Khan discuss this newly discovered live-recording of a performance of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme suite which has been called a revelation. Recorded at The Penthouse in Seattle on October 2, 1965, this recording transports the listener to a prime seat for piece of musical history. While not studio-quality audio, the power of the performance shines through. This version is also of the full suite and features an expanded band that includes the same Classic Quartet and Pharoah Sanders in his first official gig as part of Coltrane's group.

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, journalist, producer, and professor. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, and has written books on two legendary recordings—Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane—as well as one book on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. He also co-authored the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone, and edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade. His latest book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters.

Source: https://www.johncoltrane.com

Source: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/10/07/coltranes-new-love-supreme/

Source: https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/ashley-kahn-meet-the-professor/

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994. 

Maggie & John discuss the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience masterpiece Electric Ladyland, Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment,  releasied the Deluxe Edition box set on November 9. Available as either a 3CD/1 Blu-ray set or a 6LP/1 Blu-ray set, both packages include the original double album, now newly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes. For the LP set, Grundman prepared an all analog direct to disc vinyl transfer of the album, preserving the authenticity. Also included is Electric Ladyland: The Early Takes, which presents demos and studio outtakes from this period in Hendrix’s career, plus a new 5.1 surround sound mix of the entire original album by Hendrix’s original engineer Eddie Kramer. This marks the first and only time this has been done with a Hendrix studio album, and gives listeners the original stereo mixes in uncompressed 24 bit/96 kz high resolution audio.
Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At the Hollywood Bowl 9/14/68, part of Experience Hendrix’s Dagger Records official bootleg series, is another exclusive component. The never before released recording captures the band and the mounting excitement that took place just weeks before the release of Electric Ladyland. The Blu-ray also includes the acclaimed, feature length documentary At Last… The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland.

Lastly, Electric Ladyland Deluxe Edition includes a full color, 48-page book containing Jimi’s handwritten lyrics, poem and instructions to his record label, as well as never before published photos from the recording sessions that were shot by Eddie Kramer himself.
Date first available: August 15, 2018

Source: https://www.jimihendrix.com/electric-ladyland-50/

This episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast. 

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.