17. NEW IDEAS - NPR Jazz

"Maybe it was the economy or maybe it was a curatorial decision, but the 11th annual High Zero Festival in Baltimore, Md. didn't have the "star power" of previous years. There was no Tony Conrad or Joe McPhee, but in a city with a solid bed of new music practitioners -- organized by the keen ears of the High Zero organization -- you really couldn't ask for a more creative line-up.
As always, High Zero puts local Baltimore musicians, artists and dancers on the same stage as international veterans to completely improvise "new music," a rather loose term for sound with little connection to established forms. As a recent set of a CDs documenting the festival's 11 years reveals, High Zero Festival is the premier showcase for spontaneous sound.
The documentation here begins on Saturday (I missed both Thursday and Friday night's concerts) and is slightly out of order. Why? Because the fine folks at High Zero generously provided A Blog Supreme with a free download of my favorite set, which is right below." --Lars Gotrich

Download the concert here.

16. OPEN YOUR MOUTH - Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughn (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century". She had a contralro vocal range.

--"Nicknamed "Sassy" and "The Divine One" Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989."--

15. WADE IN THE WATER

Harriet Tubman sang this spiritual as a warning to runaway slaves. The song told them to abandon the path and move into the water. By travelling along the water's ege or across a body of water, the slaves would throw chasing dogs and their keepers off the scent.

The seemingly innocent spirituals, as the slave songs came to be known, were more than simple hymns of endurance and a belief in a better afterlife. As sung by slaves and their descendants, the spirituals allowed the slaves to communicate secret messages and information to each other about the Underground Railroad.

~from Owen Sound's Black History Website