Chris Lydon's Meditation on Transcendentalists and Jazz Artists

Open Source host Christopher Lydon has a great riff on the connections between the 19th century transcendentalist philosophers and the 20th century jazz artists.

Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington were gods of their respective centuries, Lydon says, and "liberators of individual geniuses" around them.

Both Emerson and Ellington were "itinerant performers" traveling the country, and both were "inescapably American."

Lydon also likens Henry David Thoreau to jazz singer Billy Strayhorn.

Here is the full video.



Open Source is doing a series of radio broadcasts in celebration of the 200th anniversary birth of Henry David Thoreau.

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