Music Features

Gladys Knight will "give the anthem back its voice," she said in a statement explaining her decision to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LIII in spite of boycotts by other black artists.

Music & Culture

Gladys Knight To Sing The Super Bowl's National Anthem, As A Perilous Fight Endures

8:57am January 19, 2019

by Rodney Carmichael

In a statement, Knight failed to balm an increasingly pronounced cultural rift that's come to dominate the conversation around this year's big game.

Music & Culture

Different Ways To See And Be: The Lives Of Joseph Jarman And Alvin Fielder

8:02am January 19, 2019

by Howard Mandel

The deaths of two foundational members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a forward-thinking Chicago jazz collective, offers a chance to reflect on its evolving impact.

Hundreds of singers joined MILCK and the Canadian choral group Choir! Choir! Choir! to perform "Quiet" at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre in early 2017.

Music & Culture

A Song Called 'Quiet' Struck A Chord With Women. Two Years Later, It's Still Ringing

3:47pm January 15, 2019

by Elizabeth Blair

Born as a vessel for one person's trauma, the song by MILCK became an anthem overnight after the 2017 Women's March. But it wasn't done growing.

Queue Listen Now

Top: Cécile McLorin Salvant. Bottom row, left to right: Anthony Roth Costanzo, Chromeo.

Music & Culture

Tiny Desk Sketches: An Illustrator's Year In The Front Row

1:20pm January 09, 2019

by Angela Hsieh

NPR illustrator Angela Hsieh sketches Tiny Desk shows as they happen, capturing the musicians at a specific moment in time. Highlights include Yo-Yo Ma, the Wu-Tang Clan and Florence + The Machine.

Music & Culture

Why The Blueprint For K-Pop Actually Came From Japan

12:28pm January 09, 2019

by Naomi Gingold

Japanese boy band SMAP and its powerful agency, Johnny's Entertainment, are largely responsible for creating the K-pop model. Even though SMAP broke up, its influence is still being felt.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Instrumentalist Harouna Samake Dazzles Crowds At World Music Expo

7:21pm January 08, 2019

by Banning Eyre

The World Music Expo showcases the industry's up-and-coming artists. This year, Malian instrumentalist Harouna Samake stole the show, dazzling crowds with his unique approach to a gourd harp.

Queue Listen Now

Nina Simone onstage at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1968.

Music & Culture

Nina Simone's 'Lovely, Precious Dream' For Black Children

2:01pm January 08, 2019

With "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," Simone aimed to capture joy in black identity amid bloody civil rights struggle. The song was addressed to children, but adults caught on, too.

Queue Listen Now

Wayne Shorter, whose album Emanon was crowned the winner of the 2018 NPR Music Jazz Poll.

Music & Culture

Wayne Shorter Travels The Spaceways

1:08pm January 05, 2019

by Francis Davis

A new album by the octogenarian saxophonist is always a big deal, but his latest — and the winner of the 2018 Jazz Critics Poll — is also just plain big: 3 discs and an 84-page graphic novel.

Wayne Shorter's Emanon, a three-disc album accompanied by a 84-page graphic novel, was voted the No. 1 new album of 2018 by over 130 jazz critics.

Music & Culture

The 2018 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll

1:05pm January 05, 2019

by Francis Davis

Over 130 critics voted on the best jazz albums of 2018 — celebrated elders dominated the top of the results, but a class of younger musicians is rising.

Violinist Robert Mann, accepting a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement award on behalf of the Juilliard String Quartet in Los Angeles in 2011.

Music & Culture

In Memoriam 2018: The Musicians We Lost

9:28am December 26, 2018

A look back at the extraordinary creative souls we lost in 2018, from producer Richard Swift and opera singer Montserrat Caballé to rapper Mac Miller and Aretha Franklin.

Queue Listen Now