New Orleans R&B musician James Booker was a musical genius on the level of Beethoven.

On the fifth anniversary of Smith’s death, making sense of a Past Gone Mad. Smith evinced a cultural bitterness that seemed to prefigure the working- and middle-class discontent we see today.

White European classical music dominates music education in the U.S. at all levels. Achieving racial justice in the field means diversifying personnel, curricula, and repertoires. Only then will students be able to enjoy and create the rich array of music created by the world’s people.

By appreciating just how good the Purple One was, we see what music can be and ought to be.

>We need a fitting tribute to a great American sage.

And how a democratic workplace might have improved it…