Why Al Walser Got A Grammy Nomination And Justin Bieber Didn't
The voting rules for the awards almost always leave room for disappointment or confusion, but if you're willing to market yourself, you too could win a nomination.
Music
The 'Ancient Vibration' Of Parlor Music, Revived By Two Generations
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.
Anat Cohen: Bringing The Clarinet To The World
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.
Reissued And Relevant, Marcos Valle's '70s Bossa Nova Returns
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.
Reg Presley, The Voice Of 'Wild Thing,' Dies
The lead singer of The Troggs, who had a string of hits in the 1960s, was 71.
Is Fleetwood Mac's Expanded 'Rumours' A Bit Much?
The reissued 1977 album includes several bonus tracks, but critic Tom Moon wonders if it's worth it.
Yo La Tengo: Decades In And Far From Fading
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.
A Tenacious Wordsmith Hits It Big In Nashville
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.
Wayne Shorter On Jazz: 'How Do You Rehearse The Unknown?'
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.
Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust
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.