Jazz Inflections: Joanna MacGregor - BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

One of Britain’s most adventurous pianist brings all her creative flair to music – by Barber, Still and Mary Lou Williams – that deserves to be known better.

Some call the 20th century ‘the American century’, and from the blues bars of the Deep South to the concert halls of Manhattan, a thousand new musical voices sang out and made themselves heard. Joanna MacGregor brings her own perspective on the Ivy League elegance of Samuel Barber, the jazz-influenced music of Chick Corea and works by African-American composers Mary Lou Williams and William Grant Still.

Pianist Joanna MacGregor is a byword for a particular approach to music-making – a virtuoso pianist who vaults over boundaries of style and period, and makes everything she plays part of a bigger conversation. Naturally, she’s bringing her own music to the table today.

‘We make music together. That’s what we love to do with our lives.’ – Chick Corea