meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Notes from America with Kai Wright

What Does Black Ambition Sound Like?

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James Reese Europe was already famous when he enlisted to fight in World War I. But the band he took to the frontlines — as part of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters — thurst him, and Black American music, onto the global stage. Moran sits down at the piano to show Kai how Europe’s band changed music, and how jazz carries the resilient sound of Black history and ambition in America. Companion listening for this episode: The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History (2/8/2021) Saidiya Hartman introduces Kai to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics, in the second installment of our Future of Black History series. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What do you think is America's number one musical contribution to the world?

0:06.0

Woodstock.

0:07.0

They changed completely the way you do music and it was free and they could perform whatever they wanted.

0:14.0

Beastie Boys, hip-hop, yeah, Beastie Boys.

0:17.0

I'm from Chile and I think you have talent all over the world

0:20.0

but America has like artists from here,

0:22.0

inspired artists from all over the world.

0:24.4

I would say,

0:25.6

we Samstrong.

0:26.5

Jungle train, a jazz saxophones.

0:28.9

I'd say jazz music.

0:30.9

In New York, he can hear it like on the street,

0:32.8

you hear the saxophone or hear the trumpet,

0:34.4

everyone enjoys it.

0:35.4

I love American music.

0:37.3

It's really disparate music mixed.

0:39.8

Complex structures from Europe, and then from Africa you had this incredible embodiment

0:45.1

and rhythm and it created this incredibly gorgeous thing and that's what the world has fallen

0:50.6

in love with. Happy holidays, everybody.

0:57.0

I hope you've been blessed with at least some time off from your grind to spin with the people you love.

1:04.8

That's what our team is doing this week, so I'll take the chance to reshare one of my favorite

1:10.2

episodes from earlier this year. It includes my own response to the question

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.