Norman Teague. Booming Riffs. 2024. Digital image, 40 × 30″ (101.6 × 76.2 cm). Courtesy of Norman Teague Design Studios

This Jam Session playlist presents music by Black artists, spanning from the early 1920s to the present day, selected by Norman Teague and his team as a riff on Teague’s Designer’s Choice exhibition at MoMA. Dive into the energetic rhythms of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Dexter Gordon, and Liniker, who have spurred Teague’s creative process as he designs new objects and studio-based furnishings. These are tracks, deeply rooted in Black culture, that have been a constant source of inspiration for Black artists, designers, writers, and songwriters.

But the Jam Session playlist is not merely a passive experience: If you’re listening while in the exhibition, contemplate the materiality of the objects Teague has chosen from MoMA’s collection, along with prototype designs created by Teague and his team. This interactive approach is meant to foster an imaginary immersion in the creative process behind each work.

We are confident that you, too, will find sources of inspiration that resonate within your soul—let music be a catalyst for your own creativity. As you are moved by the salty, sassy lyrics of Corrine Bailey Rae—or Sade, or Erykah Badu, or Bob Marley and the Wailers—remember that your energy is what breathes life into this exhibition. So keep Jamming. You provide the heartbeat of this experience.

Designer’s Choice: Norman Teague—Jam Sessions is on view at MoMA October 10, 2024–May 11, 2025.