No doubt the biggest thrill about producing The Major Scale is in interacting with living legends and heroes of the music world, which we’ve been blessed to do on a number of occasions. This episode we proudly welcome Abdullah Ibrahim, the man, the maestro, an artist with no need for an introduction. For decades he’s dazzled music lovers and critics alike, from his native South Africa to the world at large. He’s prolific with a gift for inventive composition. His unique way with the piano leaves the soul in warm delight and the eardrums in awe. We talk with him about The Balance, Jedi knights, love, and other matters of the spiritual heart.
Jazz is America’s native art form, but its heartland is in Africa. Abdullah Ibrahim reinforced this fact in our chat and it got us thinking about the cycle of influence that the two continents have had on one another. We came up with a playlist that hails from Cape Town, South Africa to Accra, Ghana, the Sahara regions of Mali and Mauritania to the Congo. The music grooves marvelously with a bluesy grit that reminds us that it all began in Africa.
Featuring Hugh Masekela, Noura Mint Seymali, Osibisa, the Rail Band, Chris MacGregor, and more!Continue Reading …
The Major Scale welcomes back one of our favorite contemporary talents: the incomparable Grace Kelly! A musical maverick who delights and entices with performances that range from flash mob parody, appearing on 
The wee hours have brought the creative inspiration for eons and this episode takes that setting to heart. 
It’s birds of feather in this episode–Gary Peacock joins us to talk about a live date from 1999 featuring his long-time colleagues, the late great Paul Bley and Paul Motian. But first is Brandee Younger, one of the bright lights in today’s music vanguard, and the hippest harpist since Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.