Music & Culture

Graham Nash Has 'Wild Tales' To Spare

3:11pm October 15, 2013

by NPR Staff

As part of Crosby, Stills & Nash, the British singer-songwriter helped define a West Coast sound. Here, he discusses the influence of Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers and marijuana on his career, as well as his new memoir, Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life.

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Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D mug as 1960s hippies in a promo clip for Festival Supreme, a Los Angeles-based alternative comedy festival of their own creation.

Music & Culture

A Comedy Woodstock, Courtesy Of Tenacious D

10:08am October 15, 2013

by NPR Staff

Next weekend, Los Angeles will host a massive festival dedicated to alternative comedy, featuring acts Eric Idle of Monty Python, Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler and dozens of others. Host Arun Rath speaks with the organizers (as well as one of the marquee acts): Jack Black and Kyle Gass, better known as the outrageous acoustic-metal band Tenacious D.

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Alan Rickman tells NPR's Arun Rath he wasn't familiar with CBGB or the punk scene until he began working on the film.

Music & Culture

Alan Rickman On 'CBGB' And The Importance Of Listening

6:12pm October 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the new film CBGB, Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the New Yorker who opened the dive bar he hoped would be a space for country, bluegrass and blues. CBGB instead turned into a hub for punk rock in the '70s. Rickman talks about preparing for the role and the challenges of playing a real person.

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Morton Subotnick performs at New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 2004. The pioneering electronic composer recently created a mobile app for children.

Music & Culture

Electronic Music's Godfather Isn't Done Innovating

8:05am October 12, 2013

by Howard Mandel

Morton Subotnick has been a pioneer in the creation, composition and popularization of electronic music since the 1960s. Now 80, he recently unveiled his latest creation: an iPad app that allows children (and everyone else) to create their own electronic compositions.

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Elvis Costello On Piano Jazz

4:03pm October 11, 2013

Costello joins host Marian McPartland and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi to perform "At Last" and more.

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Trombone Shorty, aka Troy Andrews, has started a foundation dedicated to music education in New Orleans.

Music & Culture

A Young Torchbearer Lights The Way For New Orleans Music Students

8:33pm October 10, 2013

by Debbie Elliott

At 27, bandleader Trombone Shorty is already an icon in his hometown. So he's giving back: Through his own foundation, the "supafunkrock" brass player is nurturing even younger talent in local schools.

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Music & Culture

Two Bluegrass Truths From James King And Alan Jackson

1:13pm October 10, 2013

by Ken Tucker

On Three Chords and the Truth, bluegrass musician James King picks from the canon of country music to rearrange its songs as bluegrass. On The Bluegrass Album, country star Alan Jackson has recorded his first collection of bluegrass music — some classics, some originals.

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Mala Rodriguez on stage at the Mulafest Festival in Madrid in June.

Music & Culture

Mala Rodriguez And The Women Of Latin Hip-Hop

7:39am October 10, 2013

by Jasmine Garsd

The genre has some of the most creative, politically savvy, intelligent female personalities in the industry, made by artists as different as Chile's Ana Tijoux, who melts and reworks the Spanish language like a blacksmith, and Dominican-Spanish Arianna Puello, she of the machine gun delivery.

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Johan Botha as the title character and Renée Fleming as Desdemona in the Metropolitan Opera's fall 2012 run of Verdi's Otello.

Music & Culture

How Verdi Improved On Shakespeare

3:22pm October 09, 2013

by Arun Rath

This coming week will mark Italian opera giant Giuseppe Verdi's bicentennial. NPR's Arun Rath isn't just a fan of the composer's adaptation of Othello — he says it just might have the edge on the Bard's original.

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Music & Culture

Ahmad Jamal Weaves Old And New On 'Saturday Morning'

2:26pm October 09, 2013

by Kevin Whitehead

The jazz pianist uses his new record to recall works of yesteryear and simultaneously illustrate his new sense of direction. Jamal isn't playing the way he did 60 years ago, now that he's finished warming up.

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