In the nearly 14 years I've been working on Weekend Edition Sunday, as
music director it's gotta be one of the coolest jobs in the world!
Directing the live broadcast's always exhilharating and challenging,
producing music features with host Liane Hansen is rewarding, and since
1998 I've been presenting occasional music reviews on the air in my
"Director's Cuts" segment. I tend to
avoid literal references when I choose music for the program and focus
almost exclusively on mood, making sure the music matches stories in our
show emotionally and culturally. The "surf noir" of Big Lazy, for
example, has a dark, gritty & modern twang. The floating piano jazz of
Patrick Leonard is perfect for gentle, thoughtful stories. Keith
Jarrett playing Shostakovich often fits for thorny reports from Europe
or Russia.
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