Listen to the Documentary

90.0 F.M. WBUR & 1290 A.M. WRNI, Providence, RI and 1230 A.M Westerly, RI. will broadcast the program the following days and time: Thursday, August 23, 8:00 p.m. EST, Saturday, August 25, 10:00 a.m. EST, Sunday, August 26, 7:00 a.m. EST. Also, both wbur.org and wrni.org will broadcast the documentary over the Web on those respective dates and times. The entire audio documentary will be archived on this website following the broadcasts.

Part I
The story of how Jewish and African American music came to be mingled is the story of how the soundtrack of the American Century came to be written. Before talking about the social history created when the Jews met the Blues, it's necessary to understand what made Jewish and African-American music distinct. | Click here to listen.

Part II
Tracing the African-American and Jewish musical roots of American pop music is fairly simple. Tracing the dynamic by which black and Jewish musicians invented that music is more complex. | Click here to listen (skip to 12:21).

Part III
The cultural amalgamation of African-American and Jewish musical sensibilities took hold quickly and successfully. By 1924 songwriter George Gershwin was self-consciously using this synthesis to write a distinctly American form of classical music, and his Rhapsody in Blue was premiered in 1924. In this section of the program, Goldfarb examines the political and social context in which this music was created and how, in a limited way, the music itself was able to effect social change. | Click here to listen (skip to 30:23).

Hear the entire documentary. | Click here to listen.