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Jazz Artist Benjamin Boone Celebrates Poetry Of Philip Levine With New Album

courtesy Benjamin Boone
Saxophonist and composer Benjamin Boone

A new project from Fresno-based jazz artist Benjamin Boone is getting national attention. It combines original compositions by the Fresno State professor and saxophonist, with the poetry of the late Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine. It also features some of the top names in the jazz world as guest stars including Branford Marsalis and Tom Harrell, as well as Valley Public Radio’s own David Aus. Levine was known for his love of jazz and recorded with Boone's band shortly before his death in 2015. Many of Levine's poems on the recording reference jazz icons like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. The album was released last week, and for the occasion we recently caught up with Benjamin Boone in Ghana, where he is spending the year as visiting Fulbright Professor.

Joe Moore is the President and General Manager of KVPR / Valley Public Radio. He has led the station through major programming changes, the launch of KVPR Classical and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership the station was named California Non-Profit of the Year by Senator Melissa Hurtado (2019), and won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting (2022).
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