Music

Congolese Rumba - Africa to Cuba and Back

July 17, 2020 - 1:00pm

Have you ever listened to a song, a grand orchestral work, or heard for the first time a style of music and fell madly in love? I did when the sound of Congolese rumba stopped me in my tracks. The year was 1994, and though I had courted many African and Cuban genres, I was endlessly charmed by the unanticipated marriage of both.

Benny Sings: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

July 14, 2020 - 4:00am

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.

I've never come...

At U.K. Care Home, Residents Brilliantly Re-Create Iconic Album Covers On Twitter

July 13, 2020 - 3:56pm

Residents at the Sydmar Lodge Care Home in Edgeware, England, have been in lockdown for four months.

As activities manager at the home, Robert Speker wanted to keep spirits up while visitors and outside entertainment aren't permitted.

Thus, a brilliant project was born: re-creating classic album covers with...

Margo Price On The Mysterious Process Of Album-Making And Motherhood

July 13, 2020 - 3:05pm

The day Margo Price walked into the studio to start recording her new album, That's How Rumors Get Started, she had butterflies in her stomach, a mixture of excitement, trepidation — and morning sickness.

"I definitely was not expecting to be pregnant," she says. "I had planned to...

Tom Misch And Yussef Dayes: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

July 13, 2020 - 9:00am

Producer/guitarist Tom Misch...

Korean Pop, Away From The Hit Factories

July 13, 2020 - 8:11am

Leenalchi's first album is about a turtle.

More specifically, a turtle in search of a rabbit's liver — the only antidote for the turtle's ailing emperor. This story is legendary in Korean history, spoken and sung across centuries, with the earliest written record dating back a millennia....

Start Here: Your Guide To Getting Into K-Pop

July 13, 2020 - 6:00am

The last half-decade of Western pop music has been dominated by whisper-singing: a deliberately dry, almost ASMR-like performance style popularized by the likes of major label "indie pop" artists Julia Michaels, Selena Gomez, Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish. The sound is hushed and pacifying, a response to the chaos...

The Lost Years Of South African Jazz

July 12, 2020 - 4:00pm

The political repression and censorship of apartheid forced a generation of Black jazz musicians out of South Africa and into clubs in Europe and the U.S. Historian Gwen Ansell has been documenting that lost South African jazz scene since she first encountered it in the late 1960s.

Author Explains Why Midwestern Singer/Songwriter Jason Molina Matters

July 11, 2020 - 11:00am

Jason Molina backstage during Magnolia Electric Co.'s 2009 summer European tour

Author Erin Osmon talks to "BETA's" Steve Gotcher about the life and music of Midwestern indie singer/songwriter Jason Molina.

Spectrum West, July 10, 2020

July 10, 2020 - 10:00am

Chautauquas, PBS Wisconsin Education and Eau Claire Library- The history of chautauquas is explored on “Spectrum West.” The program also discusses how PBS Wisconsin is helping to fill the gap in K-12 education during the pandemic, and how services at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire are evolving due to the coronavirus.

Rufus Wainwright Wants You To 'Unfollow The Rules'

July 10, 2020 - 9:00am

Rufus Wainwright has been making music pretty much his entire life. It's almost as if he were destined to do it, considering his pedigree: Rufus is the son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and the late Kate McGarrigle; his sister, musician Martha Wainwright; his half-sister, singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright...

Buddy's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

July 10, 2020 - 6:01am

While the last few months have provided more than plenty of obstacles for musicians worldwide, Compton emcee and singer-songwriter Buddy has kept his foot on the gas. He dropped an EP with Kent Jamz, released singles left and right — including a new one with Lucky Daye —...

African American Women Composers And Their Music

July 9, 2020 - 10:30pm

From my earliest days growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the U.S., I was 'surrounded' by music. My dad, who owned a jazz nightclub in Milwaukee, was a 'true-to-the-bone' jazz fan and live music enthusiast

...

5 People Arrested In Killing Of Rapper Pop Smoke, LA Police Say

July 9, 2020 - 1:00pm

Updated at 4 p.m. ET

Los Angeles police say they have arrested five people in connection with the killing earlier this year of Bashar Jackson — the rapper more famously known as Pop Smoke.

Three men and two juvenile males were arrested, the Los Angeles Police Department...

Lady A The Band Sues Lady A The Singer

July 9, 2020 - 11:01am

The country act now officially known as Lady A has sued a blues, soul and funk singer who says that she has used Lady A as her stage name for two decades.

On June 11, the country trio changed its name to Lady A, saying that they were,...

Watch Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf Episode 5 Featuring Tarik Moody

July 9, 2020 - 11:01am

On Thursday, July 9, Bob Boilen and Tiny Desk Contest judge Tarik Moody of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee hosted episode five of Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf. Moody's favorite Contest entries featured creative performances, energizing instrumentation and goosebump-inducing voices.

The hosts invited two artists into the livestream to talk about...

Jacob Collier: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

July 9, 2020 - 9:01am

Polymath musician Jacob...

The Many Electronic Surprises To Be Found In The Nation's Vast Archive Of Folk Music

July 9, 2020 - 5:00am

Think "Folkways Records" and what springs to mind is, well, folk. Founded in 1948 by Moses Asch, the New York label was conceived primarily as an audio library of American traditional music, but it also released a great number of ethnomusicological field recordings from around the world. The packaging of...

Survey Of The World's Major Musical Cultures

July 8, 2020 - 10:30pm

"This volume contains a wide-ranging survey of musics of the world in historical and social contexts, from ancient times to the present day. It begins by describing aspects of musical style and function in relation to the early developments of

...

The Airborne Toxic Event's Mikel Jollett, Live Interview and Performance

July 8, 2020 - 10:00am

I've just finished Mikel Jollett's memoir, Hollywood Park, and it's extraordinary. Mikel is best known as the front person in the band The Airborne Toxic Event, but his journey to his current life is both stunning and sad. The book opens with him as a child raised in...

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Congolese Rumba - Africa to Cuba and Back

Benny Sings: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

At U.K. Care Home, Residents Brilliantly Re-Create Iconic Album Covers On Twitter

Margo Price On The Mysterious Process Of Album-Making And Motherhood

Tom Misch And Yussef Dayes: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Korean Pop, Away From The Hit Factories

Start Here: Your Guide To Getting Into K-Pop

The Lost Years Of South African Jazz

Author Explains Why Midwestern Singer/Songwriter Jason Molina Matters

Spectrum West, July 10, 2020

Rufus Wainwright Wants You To 'Unfollow The Rules'

Buddy's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

African American Women Composers And Their Music

5 People Arrested In Killing Of Rapper Pop Smoke, LA Police Say

Lady A The Band Sues Lady A The Singer

Watch Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf Episode 5 Featuring Tarik Moody

Jacob Collier: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Many Electronic Surprises To Be Found In The Nation's Vast Archive Of Folk Music

Survey Of The World's Major Musical Cultures

The Airborne Toxic Event's Mikel Jollett, Live Interview and Performance

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