This show features “Big Bands” of improvisers from across the boundaries of genre, time, and place; including the Taj Mahal Travelers, the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, Horace Tapscott and the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Sun Ra, AMM, and more.

Leaving aside tracing influence in composed music, which is its own can of worms, this episode is a meditation on influence in improvised music, with Cecil Taylor, John Oswald, Anthony Braxton, Naked City, Sun Ra, John Fahey, Bill Frisell,more.

A sampling of the influential cross-cultural current of avant-garde music in Japan in the early 70s, when it erupted, with tracks by Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi, Keiji Haino, Kaoru Abe, Yamataka Eye, and may others.

This show focuses on musicians who harness the energy of the world to use it for wild, ecstatic, electrifying improvisation-- both by themselves and with others. With tracks by John Fahey, John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Sun Ra, Yamashita Yosuke, others.