Piece Comment

Review of Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later


For those of us who love the medium of radio and love what can be done with and by sound this piece is a Gem.
I remember hearing about Tony Schwartz as an odd duck swimming upstream in the audio waves of early recording and radio but I was never conscious of actually listening to any of his producitons. This piece, rebroadcast because of his passing, shows the incredibly breadth of his work. Just by gathering and sharing his recordings he enriched lives and brought personal happiness to his subjects. He also informed and educated a public that was, and remains, in need of such insightful information.
As always the harvest that the Kitchen Sisters gather and bring to the table is bountiful. Under the masterful hands of Jim McKee it is then prepared, sliced and stewed into the delicious mix that is the signature of their collaboration.
Listening to work like this, from Tony Schwartz through to Nicki Silva, Davia Nelson and Jim McKee inspires me. As long as work like this airs it gives me hope that information radio can truly still find room to engage the heart as well as inform the mind.