Music

Music & Culture

Interpreting the music of Julius Eastman, Wild Up honors the composer's vastness

10:21am August 04, 2022

by Harmony Holiday

The feat the Los Angeles group Wild Up achieves in interpreting the music of Julius Eastman is the refusal to attempt impersonation — the musicians make him their muse without fetishizing him.

"I remember there was a river next to the hotel, or across the street. And I walked along that," Keith Jarrett says of the tour stop captured on Bordeaux Concert. "That's what I remember."

Music & Culture

Keith Jarrett's eternal balancing act

5:00am August 04, 2022

by Nate Chinen

Keith Jarrett's two strokes in 2018 left the pianist unable to perform publicly. On the occasion of Bordeaux Concert, WBGO's Nate Chinen caught up with Jarrett.

Music & Culture

Coup de Foudre: 30 songs for your summer crush

2:59pm August 03, 2022

by Yara El-Soueidi

Your eyes meet and you know it's too late. The French-speaking Montréalais call it un coup de foudre — love strikes like a sudden thunderstorm. She makes you a playlist of her Canadian faves.

Music & Culture

Dora Jar, 'Bumblebee'

2:53pm August 03, 2022

by Hazel Cills

The 24-year-old artist sells her larger-than-life, psychedelic pop vision with undeniable magnetism.

Samara Joy performs at the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival, which spanned from July 29 to July 31, in Newport, R.I.

Music & Culture

After a pandemic disruption, Newport Jazz Festival makes a poignant, euphoric return

1:35pm August 03, 2022

by Nate Chinen

The festival's first full edition in two years — and its first since the death of co-founder George Wein — saw dynamic performances from Newport veterans alongside glowing debuts from newcomers.

Music & Culture

Eli Winter, 'Davening in Threes'

1:04pm August 03, 2022

by Lars Gotrich

Winter's new song "Davening in Threes" begins as brisk, countryside choogle that eventually kicks up some serious dust.

Amanda Shires' new album, Take It Like a Man, is her finest release, encapsulating much of what makes Shires an artist deserving of the word "singular."

Music & Culture

On 'Take It Like a Man,' Amanda Shires takes aim for the heavens

1:00pm August 03, 2022

by Brittney McKenna

On Shires' latest record, her songwriting is more fearless and vulnerable than ever – but as always, it's a reflection of an artist focused intently on community, equality and inclusivity.

Music & Culture

Memories become songs on Kevin Morby's 'This Is A Photograph'

9:30am August 03, 2022

In this session, Kevin Morby talks about how photography inspired his latest album, This Is A Photograph, and how he steps inside those moments.

A generation of contemporary artists are drawing on the lessons of the past to reimagine the classic bolero. Left to right: Olga Guillot, La Lupe, and Doris Anahí

Music & Culture

Reimagined for a new era, boleros become songs of gendered rebellion

8:50am August 03, 2022

by Isabelia Herrera

A new wave of artists are reimagining the classic bolero, rising above its gendered tropes and sharpening its quietly feminist rebellion for the contemporary moment.

A team of volunteers with an Ohio-based nonprofit handed out 2,500 doses of a nasal spray version of naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, at this year's Bonnaroo music festival.

Overdose reversal drugs gain support at music festivals, but not fentanyl test strips

6:24am August 03, 2022

by Blake Farmer

Festival promoters are allowing lifesaving medication as fentanyl deaths surge, but volunteers are often left to distribute it, and more controversial forms of harm reduction aren't openly allowed.