Music

Music & Culture

Lennie Tristano's private stash of recordings reveal a trove of free improvisations

1:42pm February 22, 2022

by Kevin Whitehead

Despite the poor sound quality, Tristano's newly unearthed Personal Recordings from 1946-1970 are fascinating. Free jazz can be rambunctious, but these musicians step and listen carefully.

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A still from the music video for Jake Blount's "The Man Was Burning."

Music & Culture

Jake Blount, 'The Man Was Burning'

1:18pm February 22, 2022

by Ann Powers

On "The Man Was Burning," Blount spans the centuries to create an apocalypse for now.

Buffalo Nichols performs a Tiny Desk (home) concert.

Music & Culture

Buffalo Nichols: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

6:55am February 22, 2022

by Kara Frame

The blues singer plays a solo Tiny Desk home concert from a spare, dimly lit Austin office building.

Music & Culture

Spoon's latest album trades electronic instrumentation for raw rock and roll

6:53am February 22, 2022

Britt Daniel of Spoon tells NPR's Ailsa Chang that the band kept the blueprint simple for their 10th album: make a great rock and roll record.

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Music & Culture

Leon Bridges and Khruangbin, 'Doris'

3:45pm February 21, 2022

by Taylor Jennings-Brown

The two Lone Star State artists join forces once again on the EP Texas Moon, which begins with a slow and heavy song that breathes sensuality (with an emphasis on the "B" in R&B).

Music & Culture

Maude Latour, 'Headphones'

2:19pm February 21, 2022

by Emma Grazado

Maude Latour says she's sick of love songs, so the indie-pop singer wrote something that focuses on herself and nobody else.

Tenor Curtis Bannister sings the role of Stan in Beethoven's Fidelio, in a dress rehearsal.

Prison choirs sing in a reboot of Beethoven's opera about unjust incarceration

5:21pm February 19, 2022

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

A New York City opera company created an updated version of Fidelio for the Black Lives Matter era. The performance features singers who are incarcerated in real life.

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Music & Culture

Black Voices in American Music: The Playlist

6:00am February 19, 2022

by Lara Downes

Some of the first truly American music was created by Black voices. In this playlist, pianist Lara Downes offers a broad range of songs that speak to the irrepressible, irresistible sound of hope.

Music & Culture

For a new long-player of an album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, the four members of Big Thief decided to let the spaces they were recording in help shape the record's creative direction.

Music & Culture

Lucky Daye (feat. Lil Durk), 'NWA'

3:49pm February 18, 2022

by Bobby Carter

We've never heard Lucky Daye in this lane, but he feels right at home on the third single from Candydrip.