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When John Coltrane finished high school in 1943, the 17 year old moved from North Carolina to Philadelphia, joining his mother, Alice, who worked as a…

Cherice Harrison-Nelson grew up in a high-minded family of readers. Her mother Herreast ran nursery schools. Her father Donald Harrison was a veteran and…

Max Baca grew up in New Mexico, playing in his dad’s band from age eight. After mastering bass and accordion, he picked up the bajo sexto, a Mexican…

This is American Routes, our program devoted to Sam Cooke. Sam’s ambitions in music were matched by his quest for knowledge. Longtime friend LeRoy Crume,…

Our afternoon with David Egan at KRVS in Lafayette is one of my favorite afternoons, ever. Having listened to nearly all of what he’d written or recorded,…

Carlos Santana began playing mariachi on violin in the streets of Tijuana, but he was soon drawn to blues musicians: BB King, Jimmy Reed, and John Lee Hooker. At age 8, he switched to guitar and began developing his own sound, incorporating blues, rock, jazz, with Latin and African percussion. His father José Santana, a mariachi violinist, was not pleased, but allowed Carlos to follow his passions.

Shemekia Copeland's dad, Texas guitarist Johnny Copeland, moved his family to Harlem, where Shemekia was born and grew up surrounded by hip-hop, but dedicated to the blues. She's been in the blues scene since she was a little girl singing at her dad's shows. All grown up she's recorded nine albums and won numerous awards for her music. We began back in those early days, on stage, with her father.

Shaka Zulu is a drummer, Black masking Indian, and stilt dancer from New Orleans. He grew up in his father's performing arts company, Free Spirit, where he learned stilt dancing, as well as African drumming. He began masking in 1999 under Big Chief Darryl Montana, son of Chief Allison "Tootie" Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas Tribe. Later, in 2018, Shaka Zulu started his own tribe, the Golden Feather Hunters. He's passed Black masking and stilt dancing traditions on to his daughter, ensuring that future generations will carry on as well.

This is American Routes from New Orleans, a city of music and songs, many of which have been written about it, often by outsiders. “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"–music by John Turner Layton and lyrics from Henry Creamer–was published in 1922. “Way Down Yonder” was advertised as "A Southern Song, without A Mammy, A Mule, Or A Moon.” That was a rightful dig at some of the Tin Pan Alley clichés of the day. “Way Down Yonder in”–I say–“New Orleans" has been performed by many: Benny Goodman, the Andrews Sisters, Freddy Cannon, Jan and Dean, and Dean Martin. And now let’s go “Way Down Yonder” and beyond, starting with a fresh version of the old song from New Orleans Jazz Vipers on American Routes.

The restaurant landscape in America is rapidly changing. The pandemic gave a lot of people time to rethink, retool, and redo the way the industry works. On this week's show, we speak with young chefs and restaurateurs who are changing the rules and reshaping culinary culture. We learn how chefs Mason Hereford and Serigne Mbaye run their restaurants and meet the trio behind the award-winning Saint Germain in New Orleans.