Music & Culture

Lena Hughes recorded one album of Southern parlor music before her death in 1998.

Music & Culture

The 'Ancient Vibration' Of Parlor Music, Revived By Two Generations

9:29am February 07, 2013

by Joel Rose

A voice from a bygone era, Lena Hughes was never very famous outside of her native Missouri. The only album she ever recorded has been saved from near-oblivion, and it acts as a kind of time capsule.

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Jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen has a new album out called Claroscuro.

Music & Culture

Anat Cohen: Bringing The Clarinet To The World

4:28pm February 06, 2013

On her latest album, Claroscuro, the jazz clarinetist explores influences that range from Louis Armstrong to Brazilian music to that of her native Israel. It's this desire to adapt the instrument to so many musical traditions that has earned Cohen such acclaim.

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Music & Culture

Reissued And Relevant, Marcos Valle's '70s Bossa Nova Returns

6:36pm February 05, 2013

by Will Hermes

Four of the Brazilian singer-songwriter's classic records are being re-released this week. Critic Will Hermes says that, while the music is steeped in a political climate of the past, they still resonate with the present.

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Music & Culture

Reg Presley, The Voice Of 'Wild Thing,' Dies

6:36pm February 05, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

The lead singer of The Troggs, who had a string of hits in the 1960s, was 71.

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Cover art for Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album.

Music & Culture

Is Fleetwood Mac's Expanded 'Rumours' A Bit Much?

10:29am February 05, 2013

by Tom Moon

The reissued 1977 album includes several bonus tracks, but critic Tom Moon wonders if it's worth it.

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Music & Culture

Yo La Tengo: Decades In And Far From Fading

1:19pm February 04, 2013

by Milo Miles

The indie-rock favorite's new album, Fade, demonstrates that the group is all grown up but not at all stuffy. The album's music and words add up to pure affirmation of life and living.

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Once a poet and an English teacher, Jim McCormick has become a powerhouse Nashville songwriter.

Music & Culture

A Tenacious Wordsmith Hits It Big In Nashville

6:21pm February 03, 2013

by Gwen Thompkins

In the 1990s, Jim McCormick was teaching at the University of New Orleans and looking ahead to a future in academia. Today, he's one of the hottest lyricists in country music, having hit the top of the Billboard Country Music charts twice in the past six months.

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Wayne Shorter turns 80 this year. His newest album is called Without a Net.

Music & Culture

Wayne Shorter On Jazz: 'How Do You Rehearse The Unknown?'

6:41pm February 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

Shorter says that in combos led by John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Blakey, he learned a crucial rule of being an effective bandleader: Leave the musicians alone.

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The Nazis imprisoned Czech composer Rudolf Karel (shown here in a sketch from 1945) for helping the resistance in Prague. He wrote his compositions down on toilet paper.

Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust

9:56am February 01, 2013

by Sylvia Poggioli

For two decades, Italian musicologist Francesco Lotoro has searched for and resurrected works of music written in World War II concentration, labor and POW camps. He wants to fill the hole the Holocaust left in Europe's musical history and document the triumph of creativity over brutality.

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Ron Sexsmith's new album, Forever Endeavour, comes out Feb. 5.

Music & Culture

Ron Sexsmith: At Midlife, A Songwriter Ponders Mortality

7:55pm January 31, 2013

by NPR Staff

The Canadian musician discusses dealing with setbacks — including a health scare and an unpopular album — and how he channeled his energy into his new album, Forever Endeavour.

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