Chat on the Radio (2/14 & 15)

My guest this Sunday morning at 11a.m. on "N'Shomah" (WMRD-AM 1150) is composer and multi-reed player Sam Sadigursky.  The native of Los Angeles, California, now lives in New York City is a very busy person, playing in several ensembles (including Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Pablo Mayor & Folklore Urbano, Rob Mosher's Storytime) and backing vocalists such as Julie Hardy and Andrea Tierra.  As a leader, he has issued 3 "Word Projects" CDs on New Amsterdam Records for which he has written music for works by Paul Auster, Sylvia Plath, Osip Mandelstam, Maxine Kumin, Donald Justice, Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde and others.  His newest release, "words projects iii: miniatures" is a departure from the earlier recordings in that Sadigursky decided to use shorter poems, no band, and hardly any improvisation.  Poems by Carl Sandburg, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Fernando Pessoa and others are featured. To find out more about this fine young musician, tune in the show or go to www.samsadigursky.com.

Monday afternoon at 12:30, you can hear my chat wth Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, author of "Drink This: Wine Made Simple", one of the best books I have ever read about wine.  Having spent 30+ years helping people pick wines for dinners and/or parties, I have often seen the glazed look in the eyes of customers whern they walk into a store full of hundreds of varieties.  I've watched people in restaurants looking at a 30-page wine list and get nervous when it comes time to choose. (To be fair, a good restaurant will have an educated staff that help one pair wine with food but, many's the customer who wants to impress someone by picking an expensive beverage that obliterates the taste of dinner.
But Ms. Grumdahl, restaurant critic and senior editor of "Minnesota Monthly" and the proprietor of "deardara.com", avoids the b.s. that can creep into wine talk.  She knows that really learning about wine takes many glasses over many years so she arms the reader with the right amount of information that takes the sting out of picking wine (and won't make one feel like a dolt.)  Informative, humorous and well-written, "Drink This" is impressive. 
My Monday show, "CT Food & Wine", is also aired on WMRD-AM 1150.