This week, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas.

Douglas’s latest album, Transcend, came out in April. It's the second record from GIFTS, his band with Rafiq Bhatia, James Brandon Lewis, Tomeka Reid, and Ian Chang. His last several records were openly political. This one turns toward the sacred, though we explore where that either/or framing falls short.

We also talk about painter and sculptor Jack Whitten, why Dave stayed with this band instead of moving on (his usual m.o,), and whether, at 63, he's summing anything up.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Dave Douglas's Transcend )

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Dig Deeper

Artist and Album:

Visit Dave Douglas and explore his catalog at Greenleaf Music
Follow Dave Douglas on Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook
Purchase Transcend from Greenleaf Music, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice
Check out the debut GIFTS album on Bandcamp
Dave Douglas's podcast, A Noise From the Deep

The Band — GIFTS:

Rafiq Bhatia — guitarist, composer, producer; member of Son Lux
James Brandon Lewis — tenor saxophonist and composer
Tomeka Reid — cellist, composer, 2022 MacArthur Fellow
Ian Chang — drummer, composer; member of Son Lux

Referenced Works and Artists:

Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts — three landmark works premiered between 1965 and 1973
Jack Whitten: The Messenger — the retrospective at MoMA (March–August 2025) that shaped Transcend
Booker Little — the trumpeter whose 1960–61 records broke open Douglas's compositional thinking
Jaimie Branch — trumpeter and composer, 1983–2022
Steve Reich — composer, discussed in the context of minimalism and process

Books:

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver — the book on craft that Douglas cites as an analog to his compositional method

Teaching:

Dave Douglas at the New School — where he teaches Creating Music Workshop and Advanced Ear Training: Monk and Bach

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Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

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