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MUSIC EXTRA - HUGH MASEKELA: WORDS AND MUSIC (96kbs-m4a/35mb/49mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 27th January 2018
The BBC’s Audrey Brown pays tribute to one of the best known trumpeters in the world - Hugh Masekela. Known affectionately as Bra Hugh, Masekela was a man whose personality was as big as the sound he blew through his trumpet.
Masekela’s love affair with music started very early in life. He picked up his first trumpet at the age of 14, a gift by the British anti-apartheid activist Trevor Huddleston. In 1956, Huddleston arranged for another trumpet to be given to the young Masekela. It was from another musical giant Louis Armstrong – and, as Masekela said, that small gesture changed his life and helped launch a career that spanned over 50 years and took him all over the world. But life was struggle. He spent three decades in exile – unable even to return to apartheid South Africa to bury his mother. And his music became one of the sounds of the struggle to overthrow apartheid. We look back at his life – the struggles, the sorrows, the passions and the joys – through his own words and music.
Producer: Penny Dale
(Photo: Hugh Masekela (centre) Marcus Miller and Guillaume Perret perform at the International Jazz Day 2015, Paris. Credit: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)
MUSIC EXTRA - CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 13th July 2019
From her home in LA, singer-songwriter Michelle Phillips tells the story of the group that made her famous, the Mamas and the Papas. It is 50 years since the quartet known for its cheery sound finally split up but their songs still endure to this day. In this programme, Michelle takes us back to the folk origins of the group which included Michelle and John Phillips, Denny Doherty and of course Cass Elliot (Mama Cass).
Combined with sharp songwriting and arrangements from John Phillips and musical contributions from some of Los Angeles' finest session musicians—especially drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Joe Osborne and keyboardist Larry Knechtel - the Mamas and the Papas created some of the most unforgettable songs of the '60s. California Dreamin', endures as an anthem of those heady times while they also had hits with, among others Monday, Monday and I Saw Her Again.
Michelle talks about their rise to fame, the inspiration for the songs, how they were written and how the group's close personal relationships with each other often influenced their song writing and lyrics. We also hear how the Mamas and the Papas were often seen as a defining force in the music scene of the counter culture of the '60s.
With contributions from Mama Cass's sister Leah Kunkel, founder of The Lovin Spoonful John Sebastian, singer Judy Collins and fellow 60s group The Association.
(Photo: From left to right, Denny Doherty, Mama Cass Elliott, Michelle Phillips and John Phillips. Credit: RB/Redferns/Getty Images)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 9. THE FUTURE OF MUSIC TECHNOLOGY (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 22nd June 2019
In this final episode of A History of Music and Technology, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason discovers how rapid digital innovation is shaping the way we make, listen and interact with music.
He reveals how artificial intelligence is taking human input out of musical composition and how virtual reality is reshaping the recording studios of tomorrow.
But in an age where everyone can have access to music-making technology, how do you stand out? And has the internet made it too easy to copy what has come before us, rather than create something which is completely brand-new?
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
CONTRIBUTORS
Professor Ge Wang, Stanford University and author of 'Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime'
Professor Justin Patterson, University of West London and co-creator of Variplay
Imogen Heap, musician and creator of the MiMu glove
Adam Stark, MiMu
Guillaume Devigne, Crypton Future Media
Drew Silverstein, CEO and co-founder of Amper Music
Simon Reynolds, journalist and author of 'Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past'
Hannah Peel, musician and creator of Rebox
Produced by Craig Smith
(Photo: An artistic soundwave Credit: Getty Images)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 8. THE STUDIO: THE BEATLES AND BEYOND (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 15th June 2019
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason continues the story of the recording studio, exploring how bands such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys brought avant-garde production techniques into the mainstream during the 1960s.
The programme also charts the role jazz and dub reggae played in advancing studio production, and how increasingly sophisticated studio technology slowed down the recording process.
But the advent of portable tape recorders – and then digital technology - saw the studio begin to shrink in size, while at the same time expanding access to the recording process.
With it came a boom in in alternative music which was previously ignored by the major record labels, and bedroom producers making music on home computers kick-started an explosion in electronic dance music.
Today, digital studio technology has become so sophisticated that it can help even the shakiest of singers deliver the perfect performance.
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
Contributors:
Ken Scott, sound engineer and producer who worked with The Beatles and David Bowie
Prof Simon Zagorski-Thomas, The London College of Music at the University of West London
Brian Kehew, producer and historian, co-author of Recording the Beatles
Dr Sean Williams, The Open University
Arthur Baker, producer and remixer
Chris Lord-Alge, mix engineer
Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo
Prof Susan Rogers, Berklee College of Music and former sound engineer for Prince
Roni Size
Andy Hildebrand, inventor of Autotune
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 7. THE STUDIO: FROM ACOUSTIC TO ELECTRIC (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 8th June 2019
The recording studio has changed dramatically since the advent of sound recording - as has our understanding of the ‘perfect take’.
In the first of two programmes about the history of the studio, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason explores the limitations of the acoustic era, and how the switch to electrical recording ushered in the age of more intimate recording, giving rise to the superstar crooner.
We look at the how, after World War 2, a boom in independent recording studios run by army-trained communications engineers helped to drive the birth of rock n roll, and how technology developed during the war made it possible for musicians to start recording music that was physically impossible to play, using techniques pioneered by a man better known for his guitars – Les Paul.
CONTRIBUTORS
Prof Mark Katz, University of North Carolina
Prof Simon Zagorski-Thomas, The London College of Music at the University of West London
Prof Albin Zak, The State University of New York at Albany
Prof Allison McCracken, DePaul University
Greg Milner, author of Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music
Brian Kehew, producer and music historian
Clem Cattini, The Tornados
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
(Photo: A woman sings in front of an acoustic recording horn Credit: Getty)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 6. SAMPLERS AND DRUM MACHINES (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 1st June 2019
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason explores how samplers and drum machines created new musical genres.
During the 1980s, samplers and drum machines fuelled a new wave of music from hip hop to house to techno.
In this programme we hear from the inventors behind this landmark technology and reveal how it first found traction with millionaire rock stars, rather than hip young DJs, due to its huge expense.
We learn how cheaper Japanese products – first deemed a commercial flop - were then re-discovered, re-used and abused by dance floor innovators who created new musical genres which could never have existed without this technology.
Contributors:
Peter Vogel, inventor of the Fairlight CMI
Trevor Horn
Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran
Roger Linn, inventor of the LM-1 drum machine
Prof Susan Rogers, Berklee College of Music and sound engineer
Arthur Baker
Kurtis Mantronik
Richard Katz, Roland Instruments
Hank Shocklee, Public Enemy
Jesse Saunders
Derrick May
Roni Size
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
(Photo: Afrika Bambaataa plays The Venue in London in November 1983 Credit: Getty)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 5. THE SYNTHESIZER (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 25th May 2019
The first synthesizer was so big, it filled an entire room, but during the 1960s inventors built downsized machines which would go on to revolutionise pop music.
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason charts the work of synth pioneers Bob Moog, Don Buchla and Dave Smith in the story of the most influential electronic instrument of all time.
We learn how the synth came to sing with multiple voices, and how Japanese giants came to dominate the market - but arguably at a cost to creativity.
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Kehew, producer and music historian
Tom Rhea, electronic music historian
Herb Deutsch, musician and collaborator with Bob Moog
Morton Subotnick
Suzanne Ciani
Peter Zinovieff, EMS and inventors of the VCS3 synthesizer
Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo
Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran
Rick Wakeman
Dave Smith, Sequential Circuits and inventor of the Prophet 5
DJ Jazzy Jeff
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 4. THE HAMMOND ORGAN (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 18th May 2019
Pink Floyd's Nick Mason tells the story of Laurens Hammond and the musical legacy of the instrument which bears his name.
The Hammond Organ is arguably the first mass-market electronic instrument and in this episode we head to the heart of the Hammond Organ story: Chicago.
One of the most familiar and versatile instruments to emerge in the 20th Century, the Hammond Organ’s reach ranges from the gospel of African-American churches, to jazz and reggae, to the swirling sound of progressive rock.
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
Producer: Craig Smith
(Photo: Close-up image of Hammond B3 Organ Keyboard Credit: Alamy)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 3. THE ELECTRIC GUITAR (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 11th May 2019
The electric guitar is the instrument which defined 20th Century pop culture.
In this programme, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason tells the story of the electric guitar, revealing how a frying pan, a railroad track and the paradise island of Hawaii all played a role in its evolution.
In turn, the programme charts how the desire to get louder fundamentally altered the instrument’s sound - and while it has a reputation for turning men into semi-mythical figures, the programme reveals how women are now playing the lead when it comes to the electric guitar today.
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
Contributors:
Brad Tolinski - Co-author of Play it Loud: A History of the Electric Guitar
Richard Hawley - Musician
Paul Reed Smith - Founder of PRS Guitars
David Hepworth, music historian
Jim Peterik - Guitarist and founder of the band Survivor
Robert Christgau - Essayist and music journalist
Anna Calvi - Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Steve Vai - Guitarist
Phil Wells - Marshall Amps
Lee Harris - Guitarist for Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets
Joey Santiago - Lead guitarist for the Pixies
Producer: Craig Smith
(Photo: A man plays an electric guitar Credit: Getty Images)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 2. ELECTRONIC MUSIC PIONEERS (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 4th May 2019
For centuries music was made by strumming strings, blowing horns and banging drums - but at the turn of the 20th Century, the harnessing of electricity meant artists and inventors could create all-new tones and timbres.
In this programme, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason tells the story of some of electronic music's pioneers - from the eerie sound of the Theremin, to German avant-garde experimentation and the automatic music-making machines of Raymond Scott.
While electronic music might be deemed to be a thoroughly modern genre, we remember its history goes back over a hundred years.
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
CONTRIBUTORS
Sean Williams, The Open University
Lydia Kavina, Theremin player
Tom Rhea, electronic music historian
Wally De Backer a.k.a Gotye, musician
Gottfried Michael Koenig, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Electronic Music Studio and The Institute of Sonology
Herb Deutsch, emeritus professor of electronic music and composition at Hofstra University
(Photo: Leon Theremin plays his musical invention, The Theremin Credit: Getty)
MUSIC EXTRA: A HISTORY OF MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY - 1. THE STORY OF SOUND RECORDING (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 27th April 2019
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason tells the story of how we first captured sound, giving birth to a global recording industry.
While music has advanced in its complexity over the millennia, the means of recording it remained the same: it had to be written down.
It took until the back-half of the 19th Century before credible attempts were made to bottle sound for the first time, and in 1877 Thomas Edison produced the Phonograph.
Over the next century, major advances were made in recording formats, recording duration, and sound quality, from the Gramophone record to the cassette tape to the compact disc.
But as this programme reveals, cost and convenience played a major role in this progress, rather than the quality of technology - sometimes the best inventions didn't win out.
The series is produced in association with the Open University.
CONTRIBUTORS
Prof Mark Katz, University of North Carolina
Richard Osborne, Middlesex University
Nick Morgan, writer on music history
Sophie Maisonneuve, Université Paris Descartes
Prof Andre Millard, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sean Williams, The Open University
Greg Milner, author of Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music
(Photo: A gramophone record player. Credit: Getty)
MUSIC EXTRA - NEW YORK CITY'S PIRATES OF THE AIR (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 13th April 2019
As the workday winds down across New York, you can tune in to a clandestine world of unlicensed radio stations; a cacophonous sonic wonder of the city. As listeners begin to arrive home, dozens of secret transmitters switch on from rooftops in immigrant enclaves. These stations are often called ‘pirates’ for their practice of commandeering an already licensed frequency.
These rogue stations evade detection and take to the air, blanketing their neighbourhoods with the sounds of ancestral lands blending into a new home. They broadcast music and messages to diverse communities – whether from Latin America or the Caribbean, to born-again Christians and Orthodox Jews.
Reporter David Goren has long followed these stations from his Brooklyn home. He paints an audio portrait of their world, drawn from the culture of the street. Vivid soundscapes emerge from tangled clouds of invisible signals, nurturing immigrant communities struggling for a foothold in the big city.
With thanks to KCRW and the Lost Notes Podcast episode Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD.
Producer/Presenter: David Goren
MUSIC EXTRA - GIORGIO MORODER: TOGETHER IN ELECTRIC DREAMS (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 6th April 2019
He’s a legend who’s recognised the world over and across the generations as the pioneer of electronic dance music. And here singer, songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder invites us into his home in the Italian Alps to talk to us about his amazing career, demonstrate his art on his home studio keyboard and remember decades at the top of groundbreaking music production.
Giorgio, who some people dub ‘the father of disco’ grew up in Italy in the 1950s. This year he turns 79 and is embarking on a world tour. His impact on popular music is huge and this programme attempts to work out what’s so special about his creations.
We hear about his musical roots and experimentation before examining what the Giorgio ‘magic’ brought to Donna Summer hits like Love to Love You Baby and I Feel Love. Her widower Bruce Sudano, who also worked with Georgio speaks about their relationship and the music.
Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Britney Spiers, Cher, Janet Jackson, Bonnie Tyler and Kylie Minogue are among the artistes who have worked with Giorgio. He’s produced many famous hits we all know - Together in Electric Dreams with Phil Oakley, Take My Breath Away with Berlin, Call Me by Debbie Harry - and for Flashdance - What a Feeling. And his talents are all over other film music too – most notably Midnight Express and Scarface.
Meanwhile a musical about the life of Donna Summer recently played Broadway. Kaleigh Cronin who took the role of Giorgio tells us what she drew from the music master’s personality in her bid to do him justice on stage.
(Photo: Giorgio in front of his home in the Alps)
MUSIC EXTRA - MY MADONNA (96kbs-m4a/37mb/53mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 3rd November 2018
With contributions from people Madonna lived and worked with during her formative years, this programme highlights the drive and determination that took a struggling, ambitious young dancer from suburban Detroit, with grand visions of one day becoming a club dancer in New York City, on a journey that exceeded her wildest expectations as she evolved to become one of pop music’s most successful icons.
This is the inside story of Madonna’s early life, from her restrictive Catholic childhood in Detroit, where she said she felt like the 'quintessential Cinderella', to her escape to the bright lights of New York as a teenager, her transformation from dancer to rocker to pop singer and the recording and release of her eponymous debut album in 1983 — the LP that introduced the world to Madonna and set her on the road to pop stardom.
Convinced from an early age that she was going to become 'a star', Madonna diligently crafted her stage persona over a number of years, driven by a search for love and recognition and fuelled by a childhood diet of disparate influences, all of which fermented in her mind as she experimented with a variety of creative outlets including dance, poetry, rock, disco and pop, before finally settling on a distinctive style which she was determined to prove successful.
Never once doubting her ability to achieve her goal Madonna possessed incredible self belief and tenacity as she doggedly pursued her dreams of becoming a megastar.
(Photo: Madonna in her early years. Credit: Getty Images)
MUSIC EXTRA - ROCKING THE STASI (96kbs-m4a/35mb/49mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 2nd July 2017
Did music help bring down the Berlin Wall? If that sounds far –fetched you may think again once you’ve heard this programme. Yes, there was politics, of course, but this is the extraordinary and moving story of how music helped change history.
Since the former East German Police, The Stasi’s, archives in Germany have opened; they are yielding more and more secrets. And one of the most remarkable to emerge is how the East German regime – and its police – were obsessed with resisting and clamping down on Western music.
In 1969, just a rumour of a Rolling Stones concert in on a tower block next to the Wall sent the East German Government authorities into meltdown. In the 1970s and 80s a bizarre alliance between East German punks and local churches was seen by the regime as a pernicious challenge. When David Bowie played a gig in the West, across the fearsome Wall, and listened to by crowds assembling in the East caused the Stasi no end of angst. And when the East German Government finally relented and allowed Bruce Springsteen to play in East Berlin in 1988, he used the chance to pump out anti-regime messages, seen as a hugely important moment in hastening the collapse of Communism there.
Chris Bowlby uncovers this unheard part of Cold War history. For the first time, we hear recordings from the Stasi sound archives of secret meetings in which Stasi chief Erich Mielke discussed the threat of punk and heavy metal.
Against the backdrop of a stellar soundtrack we hear from those who organised secret and illegal concerts in the East and from a former member of the Stasi who tried to stop them.
It is a story of obsession, now scarcely believable, and about the role that music played in the Cold War and the people who lived this first hand.
Producer: Jim Frank
(Photo: Original East German military telecommunications equipment lies in the Bunkermuseum Frauenwald near Suhl, Germany. Credit: Getty Images)
DAVID BOWIE’S 'HEROES' 40TH ANNIVERSARY - MUSIC EXTRA 07.10.17 (96kbs-m4a/35mb/50mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 7th October 2017
Florence Welch, from the British band Florence + The Machine, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s seminal “Heroes” LP by exploring the personal and musical factors that influenced the album’s writing and recording in Berlin in 1977.
Florence will feature archive of the late David Bowie explaining why he chose to live and work in Berlin and the impact the city’s history had on the masterpiece he created. She’ll also meet the album’s producer Tony Visconti to get an insight to the unique recording techniques he employed to interpret Bowie’s creative vision and how the characteristics of the famous Hansa Studios, which are situated in a huge former chamber music concert hall, contributed to the album’s influential sounds. Iggy Pop, who was living with Bowie in Berlin during the recording of the album, recalls how a battle with drug addition, bankruptcy and a legal dispute with his ex wife for access to his son all provided inspiration for the album’s lyrics and Brian Eno, who collaborated with David throughout the LP’s recording, explains the unique musical structures he and David employed to compose the innovative songs.
Berlin’s radical cultural diversity had always fascinated Bowie and Florence will explain how the opportunity to live and work in the city during the turbulent political period prior to the fall of `the Wall’ provided the perfect austere environment for David and his collaborators to experiment with music inspired by several German techno bands of the 70’s, including Neu!, Kraftwerk and Can.
(Photo: British pop singer David Bowie in concert at Earl's Court, London during his 1978 world tour. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images)