The day before their concert performance at North Park College, the Shanghai Quartet was at the WFMT studios. Betty Bucchari explained her job was to search for great musicians that were not well-known. The Li brothers were destined to play the violins, as their parents were music teachers for 15 years.

Terkel interviews Corky Siegel and the West End String Quartet. Corky Siegel and the West End String Quartet also performs during the broadcast. They also discuss the musical genre of chamber blues.

Singer Harry Belafonte discusses Black music including spirituals and jazz and how it has contributed to American culture.

Presenting Corky Siegel's chamber blues

Studs Terkel interviews Mary Lou Williams and her manager, Father Peter O'Brien. They discuss music, musicians, and instruments. Some clips of piano music playing at the end.

The blues and jazz are topics covered by Ralph Ellison. Ellison himself started to play the trumpet at the age of seven. Ellison said for him, when hearing classical music, he then had to go and find classical literature.

Howard Levy, Stuart Rosenberg, and Johnny Frigo reminisce about their discovery of musical genres that inspired them and discuss the early roots of folk music.

Fela Sowande discusses his career, different types of Nigerian and African music, the Yoruba people, and religion. Includes clips of an African Yoruba pagan hymn "Oyigiyigi," a Christian version of that hymn, and an organ version of that hymn. Includes Sowande's song "Roll de Ol' Chariot." Quotes a poem by [Anthony Gregascoigne], an English poet he met in England.