KBCS

Songs not on the ayatollahs' playlist would be an apt subtitle to this program, which pays homage to Salman Rushdie—the ultimate cancel culture survivor—with a survey of settings of his words by Bono, U2 and Charles Wuorinen, and features dark ambient music from Unexplained Sounds' new anthology of underground Iranian music. We'll also pay our respects to the late Abdul Wadud (1947–2022), the first cellist to leave a permanent mark on the trajectory of jazz history, and we'll examine the legacy of another jazz innovator, Miles Davis, on contemporary avant-fusion as represented by the Brandon Seabrook trio. A different kind of fusion, drawing from folk instrumental traditions, informs new albums from Derek Bermel and The Vex Collection, while a pair of new postminimalist-informed tracks by Misha Penton and Mary Finsterer round out the playlist.