Music & Culture

Glenn Dicterow joined the New York Philharmonic as its concertmaster in 1980. He has performed as its soloist every year since.

Music & Culture

New York Philharmonic's Lead Fiddler Rests His Bow

11:58am June 25, 2014

by Jeff Lunden

Glenn Dicterow became the youngest concertmaster in New York Philharmonic history in 1980, when he was just 31. After spending more than half his life leading the violin section, he says goodbye.

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U.S. Army soldiers take part in a morning run at Camp New York, Kuwait, in 2002.

Music & Culture

Sound Off: Where The Military's Rhythm Came From

3:13pm June 24, 2014

by Frannie Kelley

In almost every Hollywood depiction of the American military, at some point a bunch of guys will jog past the camera, singing and stepping in unison. That rhythm infiltrated the Army in 1944.

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"Music and books, I think, were the two things I trusted the most as a child," Mary Gauthier says.

Music & Culture

Mary Gauthier De-Romanticizes Romantic Love

2:28pm June 24, 2014

Trouble & Love is about a relationship that went bad. "I think that this is one where Mary finally gets the lesson," Gauthier tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

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A still from "The Beyoncelogues: Irreplaceable."

Music & Culture

To The Left, To The Left: Behind The Beyoncelogues

5:20am June 24, 2014

Actress Nina Millin, who performs Beyonce lyrics as monologues, speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about how a karaoke failure blossomed into a series of viral performances.

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Music & Culture

Remembering Horace Silver, Hard Bop Pioneer

3:00pm June 20, 2014

by Kevin Whitehead

Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Horace Silver died Wednesday at age 85. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead says that Silver had been off the scene awhile, but his influence is as strong as ever.

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Note the message on Kevin Eubanks' cap: "Meet You at the Blue Room." It's a nice club in Kansas City, in the historic district where Count Basie, Lester Young and Mary Lou Williams used to play.

Music & Culture

Kevin Eubanks On JazzSet

10:25am June 20, 2014

by Becca Pulliam

At the annual Detroit Jazz Festival on Labor Day 2011, an amphitheater full of Motor City music lovers grooves with the Kevin Eubanks Band — outdoors, free, and in Surround Sound on JazzSet.

Regina Carter (right) with Yacouba Sissoko.

Music & Culture

Regina Carter, Wynton Marsalis On JazzSet

3:12pm June 19, 2014

by Becca Pulliam

From a traditional blessing to a children's dance, hear a violin address the African diaspora — and a trumpet tell a bedtime story.

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Music & Culture

A Double Dose Of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Free-Funk

3:06pm June 18, 2014

by Kevin Whitehead

Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society's Man Dance and its sequel Barbeque Dog are now available again as downloads, after being out of print for ages.

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Music & Culture

Album Review: 'While You Were Sleeping'

11:28am June 18, 2014

by Tom Moon

Singer-songwriter Jose James' music lives at the intersection of jazz harmony, pop songcraft and hip-hop rhythm.

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Music & Culture

Parquet Courts' Misery Is Exhilarating

2:36pm June 17, 2014

by Ken Tucker

The quartet has drawn comparisons to the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, and Sonic Youth, but rock critic Ken Tucker says this album proves Parquet Courts is an original.

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