Updated August 2024

Suga’ in My Bowl was a radio show focused on long form interviews with artists interspersed with music that aired and streamed online on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM in New York City and could be heard throughout the tri-state area. The final broadcast was in early 2020 when the show was voluntarily discontinued by host and executive producer Joyce Jones to focus on other projects.

We  plan to maintain this site with audio archives of most shows as aired on WBAI as a resource–especially as some artists interviewed, sadly, make their transition. Right now, we have shows going back to 2009, which is most of the shows that have been aired. There are a few older shows still missing and we’re hoping to get them up eventually. Old shows can be streamed from our archive page.

Suga‘ evolved from September 5, 2004, when Soul Central Station host Tony Ryan allowed Suga’ executive producer and host Joyce Jones to present a special on producer/arranger/composer Charles Stepney during the his time slot (thanks, Tony!). In 2007, Joyce was granted a more regular monthly slot under the title of “Suga’ In My Bowl” (a name that was suggested by a friend named Andrew), where it’s been an honor to feature artists such as Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves, Diane Schuur, Lou Donaldson, Freddie Hubbard, Yusef Lateef and many others.During its time on air, it varied from monthly to biweekly to weekly schedules.

The show focused on original long format interviews with jazz (and jazz-inspired) musicians mixed with music. It was one of the few remaining shows (in any format) that gave people a chance to really talk in-depth about their music, life, and what’s on their mind. While musicians are the primary focus, we occasionally took a broader view and talked to producers and other cultural workers who’ve had a significant impact on the world of music or whose work is music-inspired. Good examples of this were interviews with journalist and author Ashley Kahn, poet/ activist/ jazz critic Amiri Baraka, and poet/ activist/ educators Sonia Sanchez, Jayne Cortez, and Jessica Care Moore, among many others.

Most artist interviews are pre-recorded, though for a while, some interviews were live and a few guests even took listener calls.  Suga’ also went “on the road” to record the occasional interview (we have a couple of good stories from our trip to Philly to talk to Marshall Allen).

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