Concerts

Esmé Patterson has dropped the banjos and folk from her previous project Paper Bird, and in their place are electric guitars and a backing band worth getting behind.

Killer Mike and El-P continue to out-muse each other in a supergroup that somehow seems to get better, louder, and more pertinent since their start in 2013.

The rapper/singer storms the NPR Music offices, activating his signature smile and bouncing through five highlights from his catalog — including the smash single "Broccoli."

The rising R&B star performs three falsetto-drenched highlights from his 2016 debut, Ology — including "Bourbon," which features a guest rap from Chance The Rapper collaborator Saba.

Watch the Virginia band sweep the NPR crowd off its feet with a collection of exquisite boleros by Puerto Rican composer Sylvia Rexach.

The 88-year-old singer and actress is a living legend. She's performed with artists like Count Basie and Charlie Parker, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson an unprecedented 76 times.

The jazz band, known for its soulful interpretations of songs by Nas and Ol' Dirty Bastard, plays its own new material live in the NPR Music offices.

The Transformations Suite is Samora Pinderhughes' ambitious new work combining music, words and visuals — inspired by African-American resistance and protest movements.

With a voice that borrows heavily from opera, Downs performs the kind of full-throated mariachi singing that would fit right in at Mexico City's Garibaldi Square — ground zero for mariachi.

Hear McCaslin, the saxophonist and bandleader whose group backed David Bowie on Blackstar, near the anniversary of that album's release. Selections include an instrumental take on Bowie's "Lazarus."