WRTI is proud to announce the launch of Dangerous Sounds, an eight-episode podcast series on WRTI.org. Based on the award-winning Danish podcast Dangerous Tones—The Story of Danish Jazz, Dangerous Sounds is the English-language version co-produced by WRTI's Josh Jackson and JazzDanmark, the national Danish organization for jazz.
“This revealing new Dangerous Sounds series showcases a powerful history and relationship between the U.S. and Denmark through jazz, and significantly adds to the overall history and appreciation of jazz music in America, as it has already done in Denmark,” says WRTI General Manager Bill Johnson.
The podcast enlightens listeners about how American music impacted the world starting back in the early 1920s, when banjos and saxophones were a threat to the bourgeoisie, leading up to the ‘50s and ‘60s when Denmark became a world center for jazz. ‘Dangerous Sounds’ tells how the ‘dangerous’ sounds of jazz went hand in hand with sex, racism, indignation and drugs, and brought us to today, where jazz music — especially in Europe and the Nordic countries—is more alive than ever.
The American Dangerous Sounds podcast is being celebrated with a touring project that presents some of the content from the series live, featuring American jazz luminaries and saxophonists Odean Pope and Immanuel Wilkins performing with Danish-American drummer Kresten Osgood at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN on Sunday, March 27th, and in association with Ars Nova Workshop at The Ruba Club in Philadelphia on Thursday, March 31st.
Kresten Osgood also hosts the Dangerous Sounds podcast series, which features American musician Joan As Police Woman as narrator. The original Danish podcast won the Prix Audio Danish radio award for “Music Program of the Year” in 2020 and 2021, and received a special commendation and nomination for “Music Program of the Year” in the Prix Europa 2020, Europe’s largest radio award.
Dangerous Sounds is available here and at dangeroussounds.org.