Music

Booker Ervin on the cover of The Book Cooks, his debut album.

Music & Culture

No Need To Cook The Books: Booker Ervin's Debut LP Reissued

1:42pm November 11, 2013

by Kevin Whitehead

Down-home and majestic, the tenor saxophonist's sound was like a cane stalk shooting up out of rich earth. His 1960 album The Book Cooks features fellow sax-man Zoot Sims in a friendly square-off.

Queue Listen Now

Country Star George Jones Dies

12:13pm November 11, 2013

by Mark Memmott

Starting in 1959 and for decades after, he recorded some of country's greatest songs, including "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Jones was 81.

Queue Listen Now

Lucius' new album, Wildewoman, is out now.

Music & Culture

In Lucius, Two Singers Find An Arresting Harmony

6:58pm November 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

The New York band's sound veers from girl-group pop to sunbaked psychedelia. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with singers Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, whose entwined vocals are what make the group stand out.

Queue Listen Now

Dr. Lonnie Smith's In the Beginning, a new album that reimagines the artist's older, out-of-print work, is out now.

Music & Culture

Can I Kick It? Organ Master Lonnie Smith Can

5:00pm November 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

As a bandleader in the 1960s and '70s, Smith wrote timeless music — and secured that label during the '80s and '90s, when hip-hop producers sampled his work left and right. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Smith on the occasion of a new album that revives the out-of-print gems of a six-decade career.

Queue Listen Now

Steve Young learned about industrial musicals when he started coming across compilations, like this one, in used record stores. (You definitely want to click to enlarge this.)

Sales Take Center Stage: To Boost Morale, Companies Burst Into Song

9:47am November 08, 2013

Industrial musicals were like Broadway shows, only written and performed for corporate sales meetings or conventions. And as ridiculous as the songs were — "My bathroom, my bathroom is a private kind of place" — they were often delivered by very talented people.

Queue Listen Now

Soprano Nigia Hunt is a junior at Durham School of the Arts. She and others are singing for Paul Kwami, auditioning for a solo in the Duke Performances concert.

Striking Harmonies With The Jubilee Singers' Past And Present

6:51pm November 07, 2013

by Leoneda Inge

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are known for their near-perfect voices and performances of African-American spiritual songs. Now the choir's musical director is on the road, mentoring to young groups across the South. He's also hoping to preserve the songs too.

Queue Listen Now

Boardwalk Empire features music by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks.

Vince Giordano: The Fresh Air Interview

5:42pm November 06, 2013

Giordano has been obsessed with 1920s jazz since he first heard it on his grandparents' Victrola. His band the Nighthawks performs the music heard on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Queue Listen Now

M.I.A.'s fourth album, Matangi, is out now.

Music & Culture

'I Built The Platform Myself': M.I.A. On Being Heard

2:52pm November 05, 2013

by NPR Staff

While making the new album Matangi, the singer-rapper discovered she had a divine counterpart: a Hindu goddess who shares both her birth name and her taste for self-expression. She speaks with NPR's David Greene about fame, war and controversy.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Digital Music, In The Truest Sense

4:33pm November 04, 2013

by Scott Simon

Like a tap dancer of the hands, Darren Drouin slaps, clicks, claps and snaps his way to YouTube stardom. He even includes a tutorial on "freestyle finger snapping" so you can snap your own tune.

Queue Listen Now

Amir ElSaffar's new album is called Alchemy.

Music & Culture

Amir ElSaffar Navigates Uncharted Blue Notes On 'Alchemy'

3:01pm November 04, 2013

by Kevin Whitehead

Alchemy is a step forward in defining and refining the trumpeter's mix of jazz and Iraqi rhythms.

Queue Listen Now