Today, The Tonearm’s needle lands on composer and avid birdwatcher Maria Schneider.

Few composers working today have Maria Schneider's range. She holds seven Grammy Awards, was named an NEA Jazz Master, and this year took home the Rolf Schock Prize in Musical Arts, one of the most prestigious honors in the field.

Maria Schneider joins the podcast to talk about American Crow, her recent EP that uses jazz to make a case for something we've mostly lost, the ability to actually listen to each other. The music moves from distressed Americana into something quiet and more human, a sound Schneider connects to her Midwestern childhood, when disagreement didn't have to mean war.

Maria's here to talk about the record, what jazz improvisation has to teach a fractured society, and more.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Maria Schneider’s American Crow)

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Dig Deeper

Artist and EP

Visit Maria Schneider at mariaschneider.com and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Purchase Maria Schneider’s American Crow EP from ArtistShare
Watch American Crow: A Narrative in Notes and Frames — the full longform music video, free on YouTube

Selected Discography

Data Lords (ArtistShare, 2020) — Pulitzer Prize Finalist; two Grammy Awards; the double album that precedes and informs American Crow
Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007) — includes "Sky Blue," discussed at length in this episode
Evanescence (Enja, 1994) — Schneider's debut; features "Wyrgly" and "Dance You Monster to My Soft Song," both favored by David Bowie

Ensemble Members and Collaborators

Donny McCaslin — tenor saxophonist; featured throughout the conversation; also Bowie's Blackstar bandleader
Donny McCaslin on The Tonearm
Ben Monder — guitarist; featured soloist on Data Lords
Mike Rodriguez — trumpeter; featured soloist on American Crow
Jeff Miles — guitarist; featured on "A World Lost" on the American Crow EP
Gary Versace — pianist; longtime Schneider Orchestra member; on faculty at Eastman School of Music
Bob Brookmeyer (1929–2011) — valve trombonist and arranger; Schneider's mentor; his critique of "Green Piece" is discussed in this episode
Frank Kimbrough (1956–2021) — pianist; longtime Schneider Orchestra member; referenced in the discussion of "Thompson Fields"

Books Referenced

The Art Spirit by Robert Henri — the key artistic text Schneider returns to when discussing how music transmits lived experience to an audience
Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter by Michelle Mercer — Mercer reviewed a live performance of "American Crow" in Call and Response, quoted in this episode and in the press release

Birding

Merlin Bird ID app — the free sound- and photo-identification app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, enthusiastically endorsed by both Schneider and Lawrence
Cornell Lab of Ornithology — the institution behind Merlin and one of the world's leading centers for ornithological research and citizen science

The David Bowie Connection

Blackstar (Columbia, 2016) — Bowie's final studio album, featuring McCaslin's band and Schneider's arrangement of "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)," which won a Grammy
Donny McCaslin on the Blackstar collaboration — background on McCaslin's role in Bowie's final project

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

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