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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer On WNYC. Yes, there are geniuses among us. The 2020 MacArthur Fellows were named a couple of weeks ago. That's the official designation of this group of "exceptionally creative individuals," but they are better known as MacArthur Genius Grants, and our listening area is home to quite a few of the winners this year. All week on the Brian Lehrer show, we are lining up a 'genius'-a-day to end the show with five newly minted Genius prize winners.

Again, one to end the show with each day this week. Today, we're joined by Cécile McLorin Salvant of Brooklyn, who was honored to quote what the MacArthur Foundation had to say, "for using manifold powers of interpretation, to infuse jazz standards and original compositions with a vibrant global Black feminist sensibility." Congratulations, Cécile, and thanks for coming on and sharing your genius.

Cécile McLorin: Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: I'm sure being called a Genius must be welcome, anytime, but in a year that has seen so much disruption in the performing arts and before we play a little bit of your music, does this help?

Cécile McLorin: It definitely helps. I mean, it's strange, because it's also a moment of reckoning because I don't necessarily identify with that word. It's been a really strange year, especially because I haven't done a live performance since March. The last one was at Angela Davis' house in her living room with a 13-piece orchestra.

Brian Lehrer: You'll have to get that new technology that lets players sync up without a delay and perform as an ensemble from their homes. Let's give the listeners a little sample of your work, for folks who aren't already fans. They'll get here an idea of your wide vocal range. Four octaves, really? And maybe even more expansive range in terms of musical genres. This is a 42-second melody of three songs by other artists that you've performed live.

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Brian Lehrer: Okay, I'm going to go home now and just play your music for the rest of the show. No, I wish I could. That was Wild Is Love by Nat King Cole, the folk ballad, Omie Wise, and Jim Crow era Vaudevillian Bert Williams signature song, Nobody, little excerpts from those three. Is there a common thread there for you?

Cécile McLorin: I'm singing them, but other than that, I think all three songs surprised me, and that's what attracted me to them. A song like Omie Wise is it's a murder ballad. Wild Is Love is this song about all the different places that love can take us, all the wild places. Nobody is this really incredible tragic-comic masterpiece by the great Bert Williams. It's a song about caricature and stereotype and identity, and lack the feeling of lack. I don't know. I think there's a yearning in all three songs. I really am drawn to that feeling of yearning.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners will play a little more Cécile McLorin Salvant music before we go out in this segment, but I guess to what you were just saying, you don't turn away from the racism and misogyny in our past. Do you see what you're doing as transformative or more simply trying to make sure we don't forget?

Cécile McLorin: I think maybe there's a little bit of both. I have something in me that I really love to share forgotten gems with people, whether it's in music, film, or visual art, but I do like how it makes us question. I do like how looking at different eras, different cultures, make us question our own and how it rubs up against our own values and our own way of life.

Brian Lehrer: I see that you also do visual art. What do you do?

Cécile McLorin: I make really big drawings on silk and embroider drawing of all kinds of things on silk organza. They're large scale textile works. I do a little bit of animation. I'm actually working on a feature-length animated film, which, if we make it, will be the first animated feature film directed by a Black woman.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. I see that on Instagram. That's shameful that that would be your first at this point, right?

Cécile McLorin: Isn't it?

Brian Lehrer: I see on Instagram that you've offered a line drawing for other people to color in.

Cécile McLorin: Yes. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: What can people go do and participate in?

Cécile McLorin: I really like doing things collaboratively and seeing where people take my drawings and even my songs. I really want to start writing songs for other people too, because so far, it's mostly been me singing my own songs. There's something really exhilarating about hearing your music or seeing your work in the hands of someone else.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome, and you do write your own songs as well. We'll point out the medley we played was of older works. Do they range as widely as the genres that you choose from outside to sing?

Cécile McLorin: I think so. I'm not sure, but I was brought up in a household with really eclectic tastes, whether it was food or music or art or film. I think that is reflected in what I'm drawn to and the way that I write, and the way that I draw for sure.

Brian Lehrer: Well, congratulations again, as we say goodbye to McArthur Fellow, Cécile McLorin Salvant and we bring in a little more of her music, this time an original called Fog, taken from an NPR Tiny Desk Concert that she did. Congratulations, Genius. Thanks for coming on.

Cécile McLorin: Thank you so much for having me.

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