Music & Culture

Music & Culture

Carole King: The 'Fresh Air' Interview

1:46pm January 08, 2016

King, who recently received a Kennedy Center Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, says the thrill of hearing one of her songs on the radio "doesn't go away." Originally broadcast April 11, 2012.

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Daniel Wohl's new album, Holographic, is released Jan. 29.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Daniel Wohl, 'Source'

1:34pm January 08, 2016

by Tom Huizenga

Hear the Paris native merge the oldest instrument, the human voice, with a palette of colorful electronic sounds, applied with a painter's touch.

In Bob Boilen's favorite concert of 2015, Sufjan Stevens turned Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall into a place of self-discovery and magic.

Music & Culture

506 Shows In 365 Days: Bob Boilen's 2015 In Concerts

11:57am January 08, 2016

by Bob Boilen

In 2015, Bob Boilen actually stayed home a few times, but he still had more than 500 shows from which to pick his top 10 concerts of the year.

Fans of late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister are calling for a new heavy element to be named after him.

Music & Culture

Put Lemmy On The Periodic Table: More Than 100,000 Sign Petition

11:50am January 08, 2016

by Bill Chappell

To many, the life and career of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister personified heavy metal. Now his fans want his name on one of four new elements on the periodic table.

Silly Wizard on the cover of Live Again.

Music & Culture

The Thistle & Shamrock: New Year, New Music

11:25am January 08, 2016

Celebrate the New Year with songs that track the evolving traditions of music from Celtic roots.

Esperanza Spalding's new album Emily's D+Evolution will be released March 4.

Music & Culture

Esperanza Spalding Is Letting Emily Be Emily

10:09am January 08, 2016

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

The bassist/singer says a curious child-like spirit guides her new album, explains her "flashlight into the future" and her love of the band Cream, and premieres a new song.

James P. Johnson (front) in the mid- to late 1940s.

Music & Culture

James P. Johnson: The Father Of Stride

10:08am January 08, 2016

The early-20th-century musician's seminal work represents the cornerstone of jazz piano conception. Pianists like Aaron Diehl, Ethan Iverson, Marc Cary and ELEW pay tribute.

Tiny Desk Concert with Mariachi Flor De Toloache

Music & Culture

Mariachi Flor De Toloache: Tiny Desk Concert

10:03am January 08, 2016

by Felix Contreras

While on tour with The Arcs, the powerhouse mariachi band performs live in the NPR Music offices.

Olivia Block's recent compositions are a mix of music and found voices — often taken from used microcassette tapes, artifacts from the answering-machine era.

Music & Culture

A Composer Finds A Trove Of Ghostly Voices, Stuck Out Of Time

8:48am January 08, 2016

by David Schulman

Olivia Block ordered blank cassettes off eBay — the tiny kind you find in old answering machines — and quickly discovered they weren't blank. Now, those voices are finding their way into her work.

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Music & Culture

Composer Olivia Block In Her Own Words

6:22pm January 07, 2016

Composer Olivia Block is in love with the sounds of Chicago. What other people call noise, she calls music. We tag along with her and producer David Schulman for an audio tour of Chicago.

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