This week is the most ambitious BoL ever: we feature a classic from Pharoah Sanders, contemporary music from Dutch vocalist Tirjntje Oosterhuis, and an extensive “Amazing Grace” special that features Ernestine, Dirty Dozen Brass, Mica Paris, Walela, Klazz Brothers & Edson Cordeiro, World Saxophone Quartet, Soweto Gospel Choir, Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Blind Boys of Alabama, Jesse Fuller, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan, Aaron Neville, Aretha Franklin, BeBe Winans, Wycliffe Gordon, and Cassandra Wilson. Happy New Year!

This week we celebrate song: Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Randy Crawford & Joe Sample, Alicia Keys, The Main Ingredient, Burning Spear and Gregory Isaacs. The healthy embrace of the human voice.

We kick the week of with fusion masters Norman Connors and Hugh Masekela, and we end with an investigation of Porgy and Bess featuring Sammy Davis Jr, Rene Marie, Gerardo Gandini & Ernesto Jodos, Chaka Khan, Mederic Collignon, Ernestine Anderson, Miles Davis, Ray Charles & Cleo Laine, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Henderson, and Nina Simone. Wow!

This week we enjoy music from Hugh Masekela‘s early years, a new release from Michael Franti & Spearhead, and close out with Eddie Jefferson, Miles From India, Jon Hendricks, String Trio of New York, Doug & Jean Carn, World Saxophone Quartet, Kevin Mahogany, Mimi Fox, Eve Cornelious and Joe Henderson, all doing music from Miles’ Kind Of Blue classic.

What a special week this is: socially conscious singers. We start off with Jamaican icon, Jimmy Cliff. Next up is emerging Dallas-based vocalist N’Dambi. And we close with Mavis Staples. Now you know!