Music

Matt Berninger Goes Solo With A Little Help From Booker T. Jones

October 24, 2020 - 8:10am

Matt Berninger (photo by Chantal Anderson)

The National's Matt Berninger recently spoke with Doug Gordon of WPR's "BETA" about enlisting music legend Booker T. Jones to produce and arrange his new solo album, "Serpentine Prison."

Central Park Is Alive With The Sound Of Music, Thanks To A Site-Specific App

October 24, 2020 - 6:50am

Even this spring, when New York City was at the center of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S, the city's public parks never closed. Instead, they became a place where people went for a socially distanced refuge, often escaping into music with their headphones. Ellen Reid has taken that...

Spillage Village: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

October 23, 2020 - 11:01am

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

The setlist for...

The Rising Star of Black Umfolosi

October 23, 2020 - 10:00am

Album Photo, 1999 Black Umfolosi Project

Swinging The Clouds Away: Jazz Takes Over Sesame Street

October 23, 2020 - 6:00am

It wasn't your typical crowd in the Rose Theater one afternoon last fall, for a sold-out concert by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. For one thing, every grown-up in the audience seemed to be accompanied by an excited child or two. Then there were the...

'My Dream Was Being Used Against Me In Court'

October 23, 2020 - 5:00am

Rodney Carmichael and Sidney Madden are the hosts of Louder Than A Riot, a new podcast from NPR Music that investigates the interconnected rise of hip-hop and mass incarceration in America.

On February 20, 2000, Mac didn't want to get out of bed. As a...

Toronto's ASD Band Looks To Raise Autism Awareness By Example

October 23, 2020 - 3:58am

For the first few months of the COVID19 pandemic, Spenser Murray was afraid to leave his house.

"I was literally scared to leave the house, like even just ordering groceries was like freaking me out," Murray says. "And I turned 30 during the pandemic and that was the point...

Bob Dylan Covers On Mountain Stage

October 22, 2020 - 3:53pm

Our records show Bob Dylan songs have been performed over 130 times in Mountain Stage's 36-year history. In this set, we hear four great Dylan interpretations from our archives, all recorded live on Mountain Stage over the years.

Dylan's longtime collaborators, The Band, performed "Blind Willie McTell" when a...

New Folk And Roots Music Releases For Your Halloween Playlist

October 22, 2020 - 12:20pm

Couldn’t we all use a little seasonal break right about now? Halloween comes at just the right time, with a few pretend frights to take our minds, if only for a moment, off the serious news of the day. Musicians are always coming out with new music appropriate for the...

What Bruce Springsteen Lost And Found

October 22, 2020 - 11:30am

Bruce Springsteen, who writes so often of people who lost something — a job, a family, hope — was recently inspired by a loss of his own.

The death of George Theiss, his last surviving bandmate from his first group, sent Springsteen back into his recording archives and into...

Spectrum West, Oct. 22, 2020

October 22, 2020 - 10:00am

Eau Claire Jazz, Psychological Effects of COVID-19, String Concerts and Art- Robert Baca, the head of the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire jazz studies department, is on “Spectrum West.” The show also features a UWEC psychologist talking about the psychological effects of COVID-19, a local string concert series to be offered virtually, a virtual production of a classic play, and an interview with an Amery art gallery owner.

What Happens When TikTok Looks To The Avant-Garde For A Challenge?

October 22, 2020 - 9:37am

Around the beginning of lockdown this spring, alone in my apartment, I developed a little nightly routine. It involved heavy pours from a jug of Carlo Rossi and repeated spins of The Caretaker's An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, the 2011 breakthrough from a cult favorite English musician otherwise...

Ali Wong's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

October 22, 2020 - 4:00am

For Tiny Desk Playlists, we ask musicians, creators and folks we admire to choose the Tiny Desk concerts they've come to love. For this edition, comedian, actress and author Ali Wong picks her five favorites — and spoiler alert: She loves slow jams.

Wong rose to fame in...

#1375 October 24, 2020 Live Broadcast

October 21, 2020 - 10:00am

...

NEA Announces Its 2021 Jazz Masters

October 21, 2020 - 8:30am

A hard-bop stalwart. An avant-garde original. A ceiling-shattering bandleader. A bebop-obsessive broadcaster. These are some brief descriptors for the incoming class of NEA Jazz Masters, announced this morning by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Those four 2021 inductees — saxophonist, flutist and composer Henry Threadgill; drummers Albert...

Lil Baby On Taking Music Apart To See 'The Bigger Picture'

October 21, 2020 - 4:04am

At only 25, trap star Lil Baby is one of the most popular musicians alive. His most recent album, My Turn, spent weeks at No. 1, and over the past few years he's had four dozen songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100, putting him in a dead heat...

City Scenes: How Boston's LGBTQ+ Musicians Are Making Space For Each Other

October 21, 2020 - 4:01am

Boston's music scene has produced its share of rock legends. For decades, the stages within its gritty clubs have given rise to big acts like Aerosmith, The Cars, Pixies and more. With time comes change: Towering, overpriced condos are pushing out the city's beloved venues, leaving its emerging talent fewer...

Leo Kottke And Mike Gordon: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

October 21, 2020 - 4:00am

It's been 15...

'Gimme Some Lovin' ' Bandleader Spencer Davis Dead at 81

October 20, 2020 - 4:55pm

Spencer Davis, the multi-instrumentalist and leader of the band that bore his name, has died at the age of 81. The Spencer Davis Group recorded such hits as "Gimme Some Lovin' " and "I'm a Man." Davis wasn't the lead singer on either song though, giving that job to a...

Jason Flom, The Music Executive With An Ear For Injustice

October 20, 2020 - 3:42pm

Call it professionalism, but there are some things Cheryl Pilate just can't say. She's a criminal defense attorney in Kansas City, Mo., and toes a fine line between getting attention for her clients' stories and being bound by professional ethics.

"As a lawyer, frequently I feel — and I...

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Matt Berninger Goes Solo With A Little Help From Booker T. Jones

Central Park Is Alive With The Sound Of Music, Thanks To A Site-Specific App

Spillage Village: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Rising Star of Black Umfolosi

Swinging The Clouds Away: Jazz Takes Over Sesame Street

'My Dream Was Being Used Against Me In Court'

Toronto's ASD Band Looks To Raise Autism Awareness By Example

Bob Dylan Covers On Mountain Stage

New Folk And Roots Music Releases For Your Halloween Playlist

What Bruce Springsteen Lost And Found

Spectrum West, Oct. 22, 2020

What Happens When TikTok Looks To The Avant-Garde For A Challenge?

Ali Wong's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

#1375 October 24, 2020 Live Broadcast

NEA Announces Its 2021 Jazz Masters

Lil Baby On Taking Music Apart To See 'The Bigger Picture'

City Scenes: How Boston's LGBTQ+ Musicians Are Making Space For Each Other

Leo Kottke And Mike Gordon: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

'Gimme Some Lovin' ' Bandleader Spencer Davis Dead at 81

Jason Flom, The Music Executive With An Ear For Injustice

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