Vicki Randle is a multi-instrumentalist based in Oakland, California who has performed and/or recorded with Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Wayne Shorter, Todd Rundgren, Laura Nyro, and Herbie Hancock among others. She became a permanent member of the Tonight Show Band in 1992 and remained in that position until 2009, then continued her affiliation with NBC as a member of the Kevin Eubanks-led Primetime Band on The Jay Leno Show.
Randle has also released music under her own name, including the 2006 album Sleep City: Lullabies for Insomniacs, and contributed extensively to the album Heavy Lifting, the final LP from MC5, a group which she also toured with during its final incarnation alongside founding member Wayne Kramer and vocalist Brad Brooks.
She is a founding member of the Oakland queer female group Skip The Needle, which the quartet refers to as “black dyke rock.” Formed in 2014 the outfit has to date released two albums and an EP titled Octavia of Earth, Volume 2, inspired by writer Octavia E. Butler. The latest Skip The Needle recording is the EP Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up, which is out March 7 via Soulelectric. As Randle explains in this conversation, the material was produced and recorded at Women’s Audio Mission, “the only professional recording studio in the world run entirely by women and gender-expansive individuals.”
Host/producer: Jedd Beaudoin
Digital producers: Karlee Cooper, Beth Golay, Hugo Phan
Theme music: Torin Andersen
