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Jazz Legend Randy Weston: The Complete Democracy Now! Interview

Our full 78-minute interview with pianist and composer Randy Weston. Includes extended performances of many of Weston’s most famous songs: "Hi-Fly," "Blue Moses," "African Cookbook," "In Memory Of," "The Healers," "African Lady," "Kucheza Blues," and "Blues for Langston Hughes." For the past six decades, Weston has been a pioneering jazz musician, incorporating...
Feb 24, 2012 | Web Exclusive
Black History Special: Jazz Legend Randy Weston on His Life and Celebration of "African Rhythms"

In a Black History Month special, today we spend the hour with the legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston. For the past six decades, Weston has been a pioneering jazz musician incorporating the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa. His most famous compositions include "Little Niles," "Blue Moses" and "Hi-Fly," and his 1960 album, "Uhuru Afrika," was a landmark recording that celebrated the independence...
Feb 20, 2012 | Story
"All There Is": Love Stories from the StoryCorps Oral History Project with Founder Dave Isay

On this Valentine’s Day, we turn now to the voices of ordinary Americans talking about love. They are collected in a new book from the award-winning national social history project, StoryCorps. The book, "All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps," showcases the most memorable narratives from nearly 40,000 recorded interviews where love is the central theme interweaving two lives together. "I think one of the messages of...
Feb 14, 2012 | Story
Whitney Houston Remembered for Unprecedented Crossover Success

The music world continues to pay tribute to pop superstar Whitney Houston following her death on Saturday at the age of 48. She was honored at last night’s Grammy Awards by host LL Cool J and Jennifer Hudson. "She is part of a generation of what I called 'black pop crossover artists,' that would include Eddie Murphy, the late Michael Jackson, and even basketball player Michael Jordan, in that they had unprecedented amount of...
Feb 13, 2012 | Story
Black Power on TV: How "Soul Train" Host Don Cornelius (1936-2012) Reshaped Independent Black Media

Whitney Houston is just the latest cultural icon to pass away during this year’s Black History Month. On February 1, "Soul Train" host Don Cornelius was found dead at his home in Los Angeles, in what appeared to be a suicide. Cornelius brought black music and culture into America’s living rooms through his dance show, "Soul Train," one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history, and played a critical...
Feb 13, 2012 | Story
Latin Jazz Musicians Lead Protest Against Grammy's for Cutting 31 Musical Categories from Awards Show

Dozens of musicians demonstrated outside the Grammy Awards on Sunday protesting the Recording Academy’s decision to eliminate dozens of ethnic music award categories, including Hawaiian, Haitian, Cajun, Latin jazz, contemporary blues and regional Mexican. Some protesters see racial bias in the revisions, others see them as harmful to low-budget indie labels. Last August, four Latin jazz artists filed a lawsuit with the New York Supreme Court...
Feb 13, 2012 | Story
Apple, Accustomed to Profits and Praise, Faces Outcry for Labor Practices at Chinese Factories

Protesters visited a half-dozen Apple stores around the world to deliver petitions calling for reforms in the working conditions at factories run by Apple’s suppliers in China. The protests come on the heels of recent revelations of harsh conditions and onerous work environments at Apple’s controversial Chinese supplier Foxconn, where more than a dozen employees have committed suicide. We’re joined by New York Times reporter...
Feb 10, 2012 | Story
Ousted Maldives Pres. Mohamed Nasheed a Leading Voice for Island States Threatened by Global Warming

For years, Mohamed Nasheed was the most vocal world leader on the threat climate change poses to residents of small island states. After becoming the first democratically elected president in Maldives, he pledged to make the nation the first carbon neutral country and once held a cabinet meeting underwater. We discuss Nasheed’s ouster and his outspoken campaigning on global warming with environmental activist Bill McKibben, whose group 350.org...
Feb 09, 2012 | Story
"The House I Live In": New Documentary Exposes Economic, Moral Failure of U.S. War on Drugs

This weekend the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival went to "The House I Live In," which questions why the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on drug arrests in the past 40 years, and yet drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. The film examines the economic, as well as the moral and practical, failures of the so-called "war on drugs" and calls on the United States to approach...
Jan 31, 2012 | Story
Robert Redford on How Truth Telling, Challenging Power Fuels His Passion for Independent Film

Robert Redford is well known as an actor, a director, a producer and an activist. Since 1980, through the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute, Robert Redford has helped independent voices develop their craft—in film, in theater and in music—to reach larger and newer audiences. We speak with Redford about how independent cinema became his passion. "To me, stories that were worth telling were stories about what’s the...
Jan 24, 2012 | Story