Gerry Bryant is a brilliant classically-trained pianist, composer, and arranger. He came from a poor inner-city Cleveland neighbourhood, and was givin an opportunity to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy, then Harvard university. He went on to get an MBA and a law degree, all the while continuing the expansion of his knowledge of different styles of music, and forming his jazz group Pocketwatch. This episode partly focuses on his Composers album, with music of Florence Price and Thomas Wiggins who was known as Blind Tom to his slave masters. Gerry reflects on how access to a musical education changed his life, and how wonderful it has been to discover and champion Black composers. One of the musicians that Gerry has collaborated with many times is the wonderful and versatile violinist Mark Cargill, whose playing is also featured in this episode. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript.

Elizabeth Pallett is a wonderful British lute player. Her love of Renaissance music and history is infectious and she has generously provided this episode with several of her beautifully produced YouTube videos; her channel Luteweb is linked in the description, as well as her duo Amarylli with soprano Hannah Grove. We talk about the history of the evolution of plucked instruments in Europe, and many fascinating historical figures including Dowland and Shakespeare.