Music & Culture

Music & Culture

Vidya Vox Muses On Fusing Music Across Cultures

8:02am January 15, 2017

Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Vidya Iyer, who goes by Vidya Vox, an Indian-born American singer who blends her two identities through YouTube music videos that amass millions of views worldwide.

For the band's Simon & Garfunkel cover, Disturbed's lead singer, David Draiman (second from left), utilized the classical vocal techniques he learned at his synagogue as a child.

Music & Culture

When Metal Goes Acoustic: Disturbed On Covering Simon & Garfunkel

7:16am January 15, 2017

by NPR Staff

The band's Grammy-nominated cover of "The Sound of Silence" seems to come out of left field — until you learn where lead singer David Draiman first cut his teeth as a performer.

Jennifer Holliday at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2013.

Jennifer Holliday Won't Be Performing At Trump Inauguration Event After All

4:18pm January 14, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The Broadway singer had accepted an invitation to sing at a welcome event for Donald Trump as a "bi-partisan songbird." By Saturday, she backed out of that decision, "calling it a lapse of judgement."

The Austrian musician has found his voice in the worlds of both classical and jazz music.

Music & Culture

'It's Better To Be An Outsider': Wolfgang Muthspiel's Global Guitar Odyssey

8:08am January 14, 2017

by Tom Cole

One of the most respected jazz guitarists working today, the Austrian musician has spent his career straddling borders, be they sonic or geographic.

Music & Culture

The Flaming Lips Combats Evil Forces With New Album 'Oczy Mlody'

6:25pm January 13, 2017

by Mike Katzif

Beloved psych act The Flaming Lips delivers its newest brainteaser with the conceptual Oczy Mlody. Relishing in serious shenanigans, The Lips reach backwards in time with ceaseless self-reinvention.

Khoshaba Jaber, an Assyrian living in West London, plays a tambura, a traditional instrument known as the "mother of strings," after singing an epic poem he learned in his boyhood village in northern Iraq.

In England, An Effort To Preserve Ancient, Epic Assyrian Poetry

4:41pm January 13, 2017

by Alice Fordham

Driven to save his culture, an ethnic Assyrian living in Britain is recording ancient tales of adventure sung by modern-day bards. The songs echo stories from ancient Greece to the Bible.

Queue Listen Now

Jeannie Cheatham, pictured here with her husband, bass trombonist Jimmy Cheatham, joined Marian McPartland for this 1989 episode of Piano Jazz.

Music & Culture

Jeannie Cheatham On Piano Jazz

4:29pm January 13, 2017

The pianist and singer joins host Marian McPartland for a duet version of "Perdido" in a 1989 session.

Music & Culture

Across the Blue Ridge #55- A cavalcade of great performances old and new

3:30pm January 13, 2017

by Paul Brown

This week's Across the Blue Ridge presents a fine collection of musicians and styles perfect for wintertime listening. Host Paul Brown takes us through a 1950s radio segment with The Sauceman

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A still from Ace Tee's "Bist du Down?" video.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Ace Tee, 'Bist Du Down?'

2:00pm January 13, 2017

by Jessica Diaz-Hurtado

Ace Tee takes us straight back to '90s R&B with a silky voice and a video filmed under train tracks in Hamburg.

Watsky's cautionary tale, as told by sheep.

Music & Culture

How Sheep Teach Us To Hate Gun Violence

12:40pm January 13, 2017

by Bob Boilen

What begins as a bedtime story becomes a tale of what's wrong with a culture of violence. Watch as slam poet and hip-hop artist Watsky tackles a powerful issue in "Stick To Your Guns."