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BBC Radio 4
Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe take us on a musical journey of discovery, exploring the web of connections between tracks across the breadth of all musical styles, from pop, rock, reggae and hip-hop to classical, jazz, folk and country.
Episodes
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Feb 24, 2023 • 42min
James Taylor of JTQ and Dinara Klinton celebrate the joys of the keyboard
James Taylor of the British jazz-funk outfit the James Taylor Quartet brings his C3 Hammond organ to the studio while Ukrainian-born pianist Dinara Klinton sets herself up at the grand piano as they join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the next five tracks to the playlist. The journey takes them from Cape Verde to The Gambia and Lebanon, with insights from Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate and French-Lebanese singer and composer Bachar Mar-Khalifé.Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey BoakyeThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Song for my Father by Horace Silver
Africano by Earth, Wind & Fire – Live
Bannaya by Sona Jobarteh
Concerto No. 3, 1st mov by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Kyrie Eleison by Bachar Mar-Khalifé Other music in this episode:Popcorn by Hot Butter
Gnossienne: No. 1 by Erik Satie
Theme from Starsky & Hutch by the James Taylor Quartet
Rikki Don't Lose That Number by Steely Dan
The Beat Goes On by Buddy Rich

Feb 17, 2023 • 42min
Gareth Malone, Gillian Moore and Dele Sosimi head from Benin to Havana
Gareth Malone, who brought choral singing into the mainstream with his TV series The Choir, is joined by The Southbank Centre's Gillian Moore as they take us on the rolling sea from Benin in West Africa to the streets of Havana. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye continue to compile the new playlist, with additional insights from Afrobeat musician Dele Sosimi.Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with additional music curation, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey BoakyeThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Yoruba by the Gangbé Brass Band
Rolling Sea by Eliza Carthy
Spring Rounds from The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
Havana by Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug
Gnossienne: No 1 by Erik Satie Other music in this episode:Levels by Avicii
Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder
Authority Stealing by Fela Kuti
The Passenger by The Cambodian Space Project
Barbarella by The Bob Crewe Generation Orchestra
Why by Carly Simon
Dance Me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen

Feb 10, 2023 • 42min
Anna Lapwood and Linton Stephens launch the new playlist
Organist Anna Lapwood and bassoon-player Linton Stephens join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the first five tracks to the new playlist, from a Yiddish anti-fascist song - with context provided by ethnomusicologist Dr Abigail Wood at the University of Haifa in Israel - to a celebrated homage to Duke Ellington.Produced by Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with additional music curation, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey BoakyeClassical Fix, presented by Linton Stephens, returns to BBC Radio 3 next Monday
Radio 3's Sunday Feature: Yiddish Glory available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001h56nThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Nitsokhn Lid (Victory Song) from Yiddish Glory
Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus by Olivier Messiaen
Vogue by Madonna
The Creation of Man from The Scarlet Pimpernel
Sir Duke by Stevie WonderOther music in this episode:Suite VII in G Minor HV432: Gigue by George Frideric Handel
Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Dancing Queen by ABBA
Crosstown Traffic by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Hallelujah from Messiah by George Frideric Handel
Fuir le bonheur de peur qu'il ne se sauve by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin

Dec 29, 2022 • 42min
From the Bald Mountain to Puerto Rico with Anne Dudley and Patrick Rimes
This week, Radio 4 is revisiting four episodes of the award-winning music series Add to Playlist, first broadcast in October. Today, Anne Dudley, composer and co-founder of The Art of Noise, and Welsh traditional musician Patrick Rimes join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks to the playlist, including a tender but rather unlikely love affair and a New Orleans classic.Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Hideaway by Jacob Collier
Un petit poisson, un petit oiseau by Juliette Gréco
When the Saints Go Marching In by Louis Armstrong
Ché Ché Colé by Héctor Lavoe and Willie ColónOther music in this episode:Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev
O, wie will ich triumphieren by Mozart
Night on Disco Mountain by David Shire
When All the Saints Come Marching In by Paramount Jubilee Singers

Dec 28, 2022 • 42min
Catrin Finch and Neil Brand on musical highs and lows
This week, Radio 4 is revisiting four episodes of the award-winning music series Add to Playlist, first broadcast in October. Today, Welsh harpist and composer Catrin Finch and composer and musician Neil Brand help Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye add the next five songs to the playlist. The adventure takes them from the highest of high notes to the deep bass of a Mozart opera.Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Pájaro Campana by Alfredo Gryciuk, Marcelo Rojas, Ariel Burgos and Martin Portillo
Quietly Yours by Birdy
Love and Affection by Joan Armatrading
Ain’t Got No Home by Clarence Henry
O, wie will ich triumphieren by MozartOther music in this episode:Overture from The Sound of Music by Rodgers & Hammerstein
Alfie by Cilla Black
Tuvan throat singing
Wand'rin' Star by Lee Marvin
You're the First, the Last, my Everything by Barry White

Dec 27, 2022 • 42min
From Jamaica to Westminster Abbey with Nicky Spence and Laura Jurd
This week, Radio 4 is revisiting four episodes of the award-winning music series Add to Playlist, first broadcast in October. Today, Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by trumpet player Laura Jurd and operatic tenor Nicky Spence. Together, with the help of Dr Martin Neary - former Organist and Master of Choristers at Westminster Abbey - they add five more tracks to the playlist, taking them from Jamaica and an early sample in 1985 to a popular religious choral work via experimental indie rock from San Francisco. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Under Me Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith
À Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn, sung by Susan Graham
Whither the Invisible Birds? by Deerhoof
Miserere mei, Deus by Gregorio Allegri
Alfie by Cilla BlackOther music in this episode:Hey, Mrs. Jones by Ramsey Lewis
Afro Blue by Melanie De Biasio
Air on the G String (Suite No. 3, BWV 1068) by J. S. Bach

Dec 26, 2022 • 42min
Richard Stilgoe and Alina Bzhezhinska start a new playlist
This week, Radio 4 is revisiting four episodes of the most recent series of Add to Playlist, which has recently won two major awards: the Prix Italia for Best International Radio Music show, and the Prix Europa for the Best European one. The episodes were first broadcast in October, and today, songwriter, lyricist and musician Richard Stilgoe and Ukrainian-born harpist Alina Bzhezhinska join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye create the playlist of five tracks for the first episode.With each track being chosen for its musical connections to the previous one, this week re-working earlier material emerges as a theme as we head from the Wild West to a Gestapo prison cell.Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:The Good, The Bad and The Ugly by Ennio Morricone
Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley
Don't Tell Me by Madonna
First movement of Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki, sung by Dawn Upshaw with the London Sinfonietta
Afro Blue by Melanie De BiasioOther music in this episode:Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf
Pastures of Plenty by Woody Guthrie
Pastures of Plenty by Peter Tevis
Aura Lee by Slim Whitman
Stop by Joe Henry
Second movement of Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki
Afro Blue by Mongo Santamaria
Afro Blue by John Coltrane

Dec 2, 2022 • 42min
Isobel Waller-Bridge and Mikey J Asante round off the series
Composer Isobel Waller-Bridge and producer and composer Michael 'Mikey J' Asante take us from a club in Istanbul to a classic grime track via a cigarette factory in Seville, as they add the final five tracks to the current playlist. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye also hear from the Lebanese-born trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and Professor Alkis Raftis, a leading authority on Greek dance.Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Will Soon be a Woman (live at the Babylon Istanbul) by Ibrahim Maalouf
Dance Me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen
Carmen, Act I, Sc 4, Havanaise/Habanera by Georges Bizet
Eskimo by Wiley
Deck the Halls by Nat King ColeOther music in this episode:Trace by Isobel Waller-Bridge
Green Onions by Booker T. and the M.G.’s
Goldberg Variations BWV 988: Aria by JS Bach, played by Glenn Gould
Niandou by Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal
Zorba The Greek: Zorba's Dance by Mikis Theodorakis
Hasapiko performed by Christina Pluhar
Popcorn by Hot Butter

Nov 25, 2022 • 42min
Esther Abrami and Giacomo Smith enjoy the spirit of rebellion
French violinist Esther Abrami and American jazz clarinettist Giacomo Smith add five more tracks to the playlist, embracing the musical spirit of rebellion, as they travel from animated icy mountains to Jamaica with Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye.James Taylor of the British four-piece jazz funk band the James Taylor Quartet is on hand to help out, providing a personal tour of the musical beast that is the Hammond organ. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Let it Go by Idina Menzel
I Like the Sunrise from Duke Ellington’s Liberian Suite
Songs of Sunrise, No.3 The March of the Women by Ethel Smyth
Aux armes et caetera by Serge Gainsbourg
Green Onions by Booker T. and the M.G.’sOther music in this episode:Tijuana Taxi by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Lilac Wine by Ana Moura
Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las
Modern Love by David Bowie
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra
Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann
Theme from Starsky & Hutch - Funky People Mix - by the James Taylor Quartet

Nov 18, 2022 • 42min
From Belgian fields to a raging sea with Gavin Higgins and Gillian Moore
Gillian Moore, author and Artistic Associate of London's Southbank Centre, and Ivor Novello-winning composer Gavin Higgins join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks to the playlist in the penultimate show of this series.The journey takes them from the accordions of Texas to the mellow sounds of Portugal via the ploughed fields of Belgium and the raging seas of Suffolk, and they are joined on the line by the singer and composer Vashti Bunyan.Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome WeatheraldThe five tracks in this week's playlist:Ay te Dejo en San Antonio by Flaco Jiménez
Scherza Infida by George Frideric Handel
Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan
Storm Interlude from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten
Lilac Wine by Ana MouraOther music in this episode:Theme from Starsky & Hutch - Funky People Mix - by the James Taylor Quartet
Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra by Gavin Higgins
Do-Re-Mi by Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
Bluebell Polka by Jimmy Shand
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
Lilac Wine by Jeff Buckley
Fanfare and Love Songs: Brightly by Gavin Higgins