“In Your Ear”represents nearly 40 years of in-depth exclusive interviews by Art Sato with innovative practitioners of jazz and Latin music. Art is a leading authority on contemporary jazz and new music and has hosted “In Your Ear,” a unique weekly radio series on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California from 1981 to the present. His extended interviews of great artists demonstrate a profound and rare trust these masters have bestowed upon him.

The interviews in this collection, with many of the leading innovators and creative artists who have shaped the direction of jazz in the last half of the 20th century, are one-of-a-kind primary sources documenting this cultural development. The interviews contain insights and analyses of jazz music and culture not found in other references on the subject. They trace the development of each of the artists, probing deeply into influences, inspirations, challenges, the development of groups with whom they’ve worked, and the historical, social, and political climate that shaped many of them as conscious agents of cultural and social change.

Musicians interviewed include: Sun Ra, Billy Harper, Randy Weston, Jackie McLean, Bobby Hutcherson, Andy and Jerry Gonzalez, Julius Hemphill and many more. Click here for a full list.