Clarence G. Williams
Clarence G. Williams, founding director of the MIT Black History Project, is Adjunct Professor Emeritus in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and former Special Assistant to the President.
To the Tune of CGW
Setting the Table
Adapted from "Radio show removes veneer from guests," MIT News, 31 March 2004
President Charles M. Vest gets "thrills up his spine" when he listens to a certain song from "Cats." [This is] just a taste of the fare on junior Eric Chemi's radio show on WMBR (88.1 FM), "Dinnertime Sampler," which offers a peek under the academic veneer of MIT professors and administrators on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Guests bring their favorite CDs to play, and between songs, they chat with Chemi, a junior in electrical engineering and computer science.
"I love the show because it provides a window into the culture of MIT and the surrounding community," said [Maria] Zuber, head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. "The shows are all over the map in terms of genre, and from one week to the next you have no idea what kind of music you'll hear. It provides a wonderful cross-section of the diverse personalities that make up MIT."
During his appearance with Chemi earlier this month, [Alan] Oppenheim, who joined the electrical engineering faculty in 1964, called himself "an MIT lifer" and described how he came to MIT "by accident" as an undergrad.
"We all walked around with slide rules hooked onto our belts," recalled Oppenheim. "There were, I think, three women in my class. It was a much narrower kind of place. Now it's a much more interesting place, and the student body is much more interesting."
The show's conversation and music format started two years ago on a whim. Chemi had jokingly invited his physics professor, Walter Lewin, to join him on his radio show, which in those days aired at six o'clock in the morning.
"He arrived at 5:45 with this tape recording of Tibetan monks singing, and one of frogs," said Eric about his first guest. "The phones just started lighting up. So I decided to make it recurring."
And recur it has, on WMBR most Wednesdays since October 2002. Guests have included professors Alex Slocum of mechanical engineering, Evan Ziporyn of music and Steven Pinker of psychology (now at Harvard), and MIT treasurer Allan Bufferd.
Sekazi Mtingwa
Sekazi Mtingwa '71, MIT MLK Visiting Professor of Physics (2001-2003), was a featured guest on October 16, 2002.
Mtingwa's Music
101 - "What's it Gonna Be"
Destiny's Child - "Survivor"
Curtis Mayfield - "Keep on Pushin"
Curtis Mayfield - "This is My Country"
Bob Marley - "Get Up, Stand Up"
Dinah Washington - "What a Difference a Day Makes"
Ella Fitzgerald - "Mack the Knife"
Nat King Cole - "Mona Lisa"
Nat King Cole - "Pretend"
My Fair Lady Soundtrack - "With a Little Bit of Luck"
Sound of Music Soundtrack - "16 Going on 17"
Sound of Music Soundtrack - "My Favorite Things"
Miles Davis - "So What"
Miles Davis - "ESP"
Rachmaninoff - "Variations on a Theme"
Debussy - "Clair de Lune"
Phillip Clay
Phillip L. Clay PhD ‘75, MIT Chancellor (2001-2011), was a featured guest on October 30, 2002. As former Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, he was the first black professor to head any department at MIT.
Music Claylist
Carmen McRae - title unknown
Nina Simone - "Trouble in the Mind"
Nina Simone - "Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out"
Four Tops - "Baby I Need Your Love"
Temptations - "The Way You Do The Things You Do"
Four Tops - "If I Were a Carpenter"
Inkspots - "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire"
Roberta Flack - "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face"
Aretha Franklin - "This Bitter Earth"
Duke Ellington - "Prelude to a Kiss"
Keith Jarrett - "Prelude to a Kiss"
Louis Armstrong - "Mood Indigo"
Nina Simone - "There is a Balm in Gilead"
Judy Collins - "Amazing Grace"
Judy Collins - "Everything Must Change"
Odetta - "If I Had a Hammer"
Cannonball Adderley - "Mercy Mercy Mercy"
Marvin Gaye - "Let's Get It On"
Adam Clayton Powell IV
Adam Clayton Powell IV '92, PhD '97, the Thomas B. King Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering (1999-2006), was a featured guest on December 10, 2003. Powell is the grandson of U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the fourth African-American--and the first from New York--to be elected to Congress.
Powell Radio
Elton John - "Circle Of Life"
Lenny Kravitz - "Fly Away"
Aaliyah - "Try Again"
Alicia Keys - "A Woman's Worth"
Hazel Scott - "The Jeep Is Jumpin'"
Hazel Scott - "Like Someone In Love"
Sade - "Cherish The Day"
Sting & The Police - "Russians"
Milton Bronson - "I'm Available to You"
Take 6 - "The Best Stuff In The World Today Cafe"
Kirk Franklin - "Lean On Me"
Richard Smallwood with Vision - "Angels"
Quincy Jones' arrangement - "Hallelujah!"
Charles Vest
Charles "Chuck" M. Vest, President of MIT (1990-2004), was a featured guest on March 31, 2004.
President Charles M. Vest chats with WMBR radio host Eric Chemi during a taping of "Dinnertime Sampler," March 2004
Vest's Bests
Louis Armstrong - "When It’s Sleepy Time Down South"
Dave Brubeck - "Take Five"
Ella Fitzgerald - "Someone to Watch Over Me"
Fiddler on the Roof - "Sunrise, Sunset"
Cats - "Memory"
Bernstein - West Side Story - "Somewhere"
Harry Belafonte - "Matilda"
John Denver - "Country Road"
Beatles - "Yesterday"
Beatles - "Hey Jude"
Elgar - Cello Concerto in E Minor - First Movement
Mozart - Mass in C Minor - Kyrie
Luciano Pavaroti - "Sanctus" from Berlioz Requiem
Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis - Handel: Let the Bright Seraphim
University of Michigan Marching Band – "Hawaiian War Chant"
Isaac Colbert
Isaac "Ike" M. Colbert HM '06, MIT Dean for Graduate Students (1999-2007), was a featured guest on November 17, 2004.
Ike Tunes
Bull Moose Jackson - "Bow Legged Woman"
Little Richard - "The Girl Can’t Help It"
The Marcels - "Blue Moon
Ivory Joe Hunter - "Since I Met You, Baby"
Count Basie - "Jumpin’ At The Woodside"
Chubby Checker - "The Twist"
Koko Taylor - "I Cried Like A Baby"
Gladys Knight & The Pips - "Midnight Train to Georgia"
Marvin Gaye - "Got To Give It Up"
Luther Vandross - "I’d Rather"
B52s - "Love Shack"
Quincy Jones - "Wee B Dooin It"
Dinah Washington - "September In the Rain"
Tuck & Patty - "Dream"
Lou Reed - "Walk On the Wild Side"
The Band - "I Shall Be Released"
Etta James - "Something’s Got A Hold On Me"
Enya - "The Celts"
Little Richard - "Long Tall Sally"
Sarah Brightman - "Nessum Dorma"
Barry White - "Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe"
Collin Stultz
Collin M. Stultz, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and of Health Sciences and Technology (2004-2008), was a featured guest on January 12, 2005.
Stultz Pulse
Black Sabbath - "Children of the Sea"
Jane's Addiction - "Just Because"
Bush - "Comedown"
Lifer - "Breathless"
Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell"
Alessandro Scarlatti - "Mio tesero per te moro" (performed by Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis)
Chevelle - "The Clincher"
Godsmack - "Straight out of line"
Black Sabbath - "Snowblind"
Black Sabbath - "The sign of the southern cross"
Metallica - "Fade to Black"
Tony Iommi and Skin - "Meet"