On Screen

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Pianist Gerald Clayton’s open-hearted dialogue across genres

Music was Gerald Clayton's first language. His dad, the revered bassist and musical multi-hyphenate John Clayton, remembers Gerald always singing as a child — duetting with the songs of birds, the jingle of the ice cream truck, responding to the music in everything. John took a hands-off approach to raising a gifted little musician, careful to let Gerald develop his own interests and ideas without the burden of familial expectations or assumptions.

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Chef Kwame Onwuachi wants everyone to have a seat at his table

It's pretty unusual for a 32-year-old chef to open his own restaurant in Manhattan. For The New York Times to choose it as the best restaurant in the city five months after it opens? Well, that's kind of crazy.

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Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard's unexpected path into the opera house

In September of 2021 at the Metropolitan Opera's gala opening night, the curtain rose not on Puccini or Verdi, but on an opera by the American jazz trumpeter and film score composer Terence Blanchard. Fire Shut Up in My Bones wove together jazz, blues, and symphonic sounds to tell the true story of a Black man confronting the traumas of his childhood. It was the first time in the Met's 138-year history that America's leading opera house presented an opera by a Black composer.

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Jessie Montgomery, composing from a place of self-honor

It was a typically foggy day in the Bay Area in December 2017 when I was squished into the backseat of a car next to violinist Jessie Montgomery and the other members of the Catalyst String Quartet. We were chatting about work stuff: I was putting out a new album and Jessie was writing music. She had just finished Coincident Dances, a love letter to the multicultural sounds of her native New York City. Driving between schools that day, we played for hundreds of kids sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floors of giant multipurpose rooms. It was hard work, but fun too.

NPR - Amplify with Lara Downes

Jazz singer Samara Joy embraces the past while making music for the future

All of a sudden, Samara Joy was everywhere. Everyone was talking about this girl with the voice like velvet, like silk, like chocolate, like cream — this overnight sensation, this legend in the making. So I looked her up. And sure enough, the voice is incredible. It's a sound from the past, echoing the great ladies of jazz: Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday. Here's a 23-year-old singing standards like "Misty" and "Someone to Watch Over Me" with all the nuance and depth of a seasoned diva.