May 08, 2009
Ben Greenman's new book Please Step Back looks like a biography of a 1970s soul and funk legend named Rock Foxx. Except Foxx is imaginary. Greenman wanted to release one of his fictional hero's songs, so he teamed up with a real-life legend -- Swamp Dogg. Greenman and Swamp Dogg met in the studio for the first time to tell Kurt about their unlikely collaboration.
"The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" finishes up its season on HBO this weekend. It's based on the mystery novel series by Alexander McCall Smith. Botswana music producer Solo B. tells Studio 360's Rob Weisberg about the musicians on the soundtrack. He says "No. 1 Ladies" is a big opportunity for Botswana artists to break out of the shadow of South Africa.
Back in the 1930s, as part of the Federal Art Project, the government paid artists to make thousands of paintings, from famous murals to little landscapes. It wasn't possible to keep track of it all, and some ended up in private hands. Once in a while, a canvas turns up, and when it does, the Feds sometimes take an interest. Produced by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler.
Jasper Rees was having a midlife crisis. Instead of buying a motorcycle, he confronted the French horn -- the notoriously difficult brass that terrorized him in childhood. Kurt talks with Rees about his memoir, A Devil to Play: One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra's Most Difficult Instrument.
A couple of years ago, a group of Canadian indie-rockers (some play in Arcade Fire) decided to write and play their own chamber music. Their new album As Seen Through Windows has the epic sweep of a film score. Kurt talks with violinist Sarah Neufeld and bassist Richard Reed-Parry, and they perform live in the studio.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
