I don’t hear aggression in any piece except for a little bit in the Bartok. I’m worried cartoons have trained me to hear almost all classical music as program music (the worst association I make is between pizzicatos and tiptoeing), but from that sensibility I definitely hear parties that proclaim and menace. I wonder though if a story that tells of aggression is itself aggressive.

Affirmation is tricky, especially because I’m not entirely sure how it ought to be defined. The Bartok and Harbison don’t affirm anything I’m familiar with, or they don’t affirm in a way I’m familiar with, or both. (“Alienation” is the word that comes to mind with the Harbison segment, but I wonder if that’s like thinking of a song as sounding “exotic,” it isn’t exotic to the culture it comes from.) The Coltrane, Armstrong and Teagarden, and Basie though, at least relative to the things I’ve been listening to (and I’ve actually tried to find videos from the Grammy’s to get an idea of why Yehudi was in despair), have to be a 9 or a 10, for different reasons. I don’t know to what extent what I have to say about them would make sense though. I want to say they’re rich, warm, and direct without being presumptive. A neighborhood with the sensibility of Li’l Darlin’ would be a wonderful place to live.

One reason I love your show so much is that growing up and living out here in the Pacific Northwest I never would know about a person like Tom Gleason. I loved this sincere little interview and look into this man’s world. As with so many of your interviews, you open up a wonderful humane space of ideas and enjoyment in the movements of this or that life and mind. Thanks again and again.