“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is a daily feature of Black History Month on Iowa’s Jazz Station. Each show spotlights a jazz artist or an element of jazz that contributed to the fight for racial equality.
This Sevareid Award-winning series is hosted and co-written by Hollis Monroe, produced and co-written by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer, Dennis Green.
Soundtrack to the Struggle is available free of charge to any noncommercial radio station. Contact us for information.
Listen to each episode below or subscribe to the podcast.
2025 Season
Episode 1 – Cozy Cole
Episode 2 – Ethel Waters
Episode 3 – Beryl Booker
Episode 4 – Cal Massey
Episode 5 – Josephine Baker
Episode 6 – The Cotton Club
Episode 7 – George Shearing
Episode 8 – Big Jay McNeely and the Photograph
Episode 9 – Al Hibbler’s March to the Sunrise
Episode 10 – E. Simms Campbell
Episode 11 – Pullman Porters
Episode 12 – Folk Studio
Episode 13 – Current Struggle
Episode 14 – Gary Bartz
Episode 15 – Harlem Renaissance
Episode 16 – Sun City
Episode 17 – Harold Bradley, Jr.
Episode 18 – Charlie Haden
Episode 19 – Ella Arrested
Episode 20 – A Great Day in Harlem
2024 Season
Episode 1 – Queens of the Blues
Episode 2 – John Coltrane Grieves for Alabama
Episode 3 – Charles Mingus and the “Fables of Faubus”
Episode 4 – Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn’s Monroe’s Unlikely Friendship
Episode 5 – “You’re Under Arrest” – Miles Davis Gets Political
Episode 6 – Duke Ellington’s Grand Statement
Episode 7 – Count Basie’s “Same Old South”
Episode 8 – Nate Adderly — the Work Continues
Episode 9 – Nina Simone and Old Jim Crow
Episode 10 – Cab Calloway – Everybody Sing Along!
Episode 11 – John Hammond’s Advocacy
Episode 12 – Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance
Episode 13 – The Fearless Eartha Kitt
Episode 14 – Gladys Bentley, “The Brown Bomber”
Episode 15 – Nichelle Nichols’ Stellar Career
Episode 16 – Lena Horn’s Sweet Voice for the People
Episode 17 – Lester Young – The Fall of the President
Episode 18 – Louis Armstrong – Caught Between Two Worlds
Episode 19 – Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
Episode 20 – Melba Liston – Blowin’ in the Doors
2023 Season
Episode 1 – Dinah & Night Train
Episode 2 – Jack Johnson
Episode 3 – Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln
Episode 4 – Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Brother Where Are You?”
Episode 5 – Amanda Randolph, the First Black TV Star
Episode 6 – Herb Jeffries, “The Bronze Buckaroo”
Episode 7 – Roy Eldridge and Gene Krupa
Episode 8 – Producer Norman Granz
Episode 9 – Teddy Wilson & Benny Goodman
Episode 10 – Soundtrack to the Struggle: Art Blakey’s “Free For All”
Episode 11 – “We Insist”
Episode 12 – Blanche Calloway
Episode 13 – Earl “Fatha” Hines
Episode 14 – Terrance Blanchard
Episode 15 – Johnny Otis
Episode 16 – Territory Bands
Episode 17 – “Blood on the Fields”
Episode 18 – Clyde Otis “This Bitter Earth”
Episode 19 – The Green Book
Episode 20 – Paul Robeson