Support for this podcast comes from the Newbower Family Foundation, supporting W

HYY's Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful

conversation. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. I hope you're enjoying this

Thanksgiving day. For the holiday, we're going to feature one of my favorite

recent Fresh Air episodes. In August, Jason Moran, a terrific musician and composer, joined us at the piano.

The first time I interviewed him in 2005, when Moran was 30, I quoted our jazz critic

Kevin Whitehead, who called Moran one of those rare up-and-comers

who makes you optimistic for the future of jazz. Moran is no longer an up-and-comer and he's certainly fulfilled his promise.

He's making exciting recordings that draw on the early roots of jazz as well as the avant-garde.

He's the Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz,

and he curated the permanent exhibition in the new

Louis Armstrong Center in Queens New York which is across the street from

Armstrong's preserved home. Moran also teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music.

He composes music and has put his own spin on the works of early jazz pianists and

composers, including Fats Waller and James P. Johnson. He has a recent album

that's a tribute to James Reese Europe, an important but little remembered figure

in jazz history. In the early 1900s, Europe led his own band and founded the Clef Club, which

functioned like a union for black musicians. He was the music director for the then famous

dance duo, Vernon and Irene Castle. In World War I

Europe joined the army and fought with the 369th Regiment of the infantry

known as the Harlem Hell Fighters. He also led a regiment band that combined

military music and syncopation, creating a new sound. Jason Moran's album, From the Dance Hall to the Battlefield features Moran's take on James Reese

...