Music

Christian McBride performs at the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I. earlier in 2015.

Music & Culture

Christian McBride On Ray Brown's Bass And James Brown's Appeal

7:25pm November 18, 2015

Over the last year, the bassist and NPR's Audie Cornish have discussed and dissected everything about jazz. Their latest chat, held for a live audience, focuses on how his own career started.

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Music & Culture

John Grant On World Cafe

4:10pm November 18, 2015

Grant tackles his midlife crisis on an adventurous new album, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure. Download his World Cafe performance of "Geraldine."

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'Beatlebone' Is A Fictional Lennon's Magical Mystery Tour

3:02pm November 18, 2015

by Jean Zimmerman

Kevin Barry's hallucinatory new novel imagines John Lennon in 1978, at his lowest, wandering around Ireland (with a very mysterious tour guide) in search of a private island he bought but can't find.

Music & Culture

Songs We Love: Rex The Dog, 'Musik Hypnotises'

2:58pm November 18, 2015

by Dave P.

Another winning dance-floor monster, from the finest cartoon canine in the world of electro-house.

Matt Stevenson and Jack Collins of Spires.

Music & Culture

First Watch: Spires, 'In Between'

2:49pm November 18, 2015

by Kate Drozynski

Alongside dreamy vocals and psychedelic guitar, Spires taps into the unsettling side of '70s public information films in the new video for "In Between."

Music & Culture

KEXP Presents: Mammút

11:35am November 18, 2015

by Jim Beckmann

Watch the cathartic, energetic Icelandic rock band perform "Salt" live in the studio.

Athon (pictured left) died as the result of a motorcycle accident on Nov. 9, 2014, just weeks before a tour with Black Tusk.

Music & Culture

Viking's Choice: Black Tusk, 'God's On Vacation'

11:06am November 18, 2015

by Lars Gotrich

One year after the death of Jonathan Athon, the bassist's last recordings with the metal band Black Tusk are set for release. "God's On Vacation" sounds just as burly, unrelenting and trashy as ever.

All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen's first book, Your Song Changed My Life, will be out in April 2016.

Music & Culture

Bob Boilen Wrote A Book

10:34am November 18, 2015

by Bob Boilen

Your Song Changed My Life will explore the moment that musical obsession became a call to action, featuring interviews with musicians from Smokey Robinson to St. Vincent.

Once A Hard Sell, Wal-Mart's Patti LaBelle Pies Fly Off Shelves

7:09pm November 17, 2015

by Andrew Limbong

The sweet potato pie, sold in boxes bearing LaBelle's face, was a ho-hum seller until a video singing its praises went viral last week. Why pie fever? Partly, it's about celebrating black culture.

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Michael Mwenso (left) leads tap dancer Michela Marino Lerman and a cast of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola regulars in concert.

Music & Culture

Michael Mwenso And The Late Night All-Stars

6:46pm November 17, 2015

After the headliners and their crowds have left, a community of up-and-coming artists — brought together by a vocalist and natural ringleader — assembles in a corner of Jazz at Lincoln Center.