Music Features

The members of C4 Trio, L-R: Rodner Padilla, Edward Ramírez, Héctor Molina and Jorge Glem

The cuatro players of C4 Trio are the future of Venezuela's national instrument

10:07am January 22, 2022

by Betto Arcos

From their unlikely start as rival contestants in a music competition, the Venezuelan cuatro players of C4 Trio have become a big concert draw. They're releasing a series of EPs ahead of a new album.

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Singer Bobby McFerrin performs at The 39th Annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Presented by Shell - Day 6 at The New Orleans Fair Grounds on May 3, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Music & Culture

Bobby McFerrin reflects on going from the hotel bar to prescribing 'medicine music'

1:38pm January 20, 2022

Host Christian McBride talks with vocalist and 2020 NEA Jazz Master Bobby McFerrin. We'll hear tracks from his vast catalog, stories from his illustrious career, and an impromptu jam with Christian.

Interdisciplinary artist-musician FKA twigs released 'CAPRISONGS,' her debut mixtape and first release with Atlantic Records, on Jan. 14, 2022.

Music & Culture

On 'CAPRISONGS,' FKA twigs vibrates at her highest frequency

7:01am January 17, 2022

by LaTesha Harris

The artist's community-oriented mixtape is a milestone of personal and professional transformation.

On Dawn FM, The Weeknd lets us consider whether we would like to age into the shape of our fears or the shape of our most heroic dreams.

Music & Culture

On 'Dawn FM,' The Weeknd is both suffering and saved

7:00am January 14, 2022

by Harmony Holiday

On his new album, The Weeknd lets us consider whether we would like to age into the shape of our fears or the shape of our most heroic dreams.

Tony Malaby, photographed in the fall of 2021, underneath the New Jersey Turnpike.

Saxophonist Tony Malaby's unlikely pandemic practice space: the New Jersey Turnpike

9:10am January 13, 2022

by Nate Chinen

Saxophonist Tony Malaby, unlucky at the beginning of the pandemic after catching a very early case of the virus — the subsequent isolation imposed on his playing led him to a unique solution.

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A red-tailed black cockatoo is seen sitting on a branch with the moon behind it. The bird is one of more than 50 featured on the album Songs of Disappearance that features the sounds of many of Australia's endangered birds.

An album made entirely of endangered bird sounds beat Taylor Swift on a top 50 chart

5:00am January 09, 2022

Songs Of Disappearance is an entire album of calls from endangered Australian birds. Last month, it briefly perched at No. 3 on the country's top 50 albums chart – ahead of Taylor Swift.

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Music & Culture

Watch Jazz Night in America's tribute to the icons lost in 2021

3:59pm December 29, 2021

by Nikki Birch

Bassist John Patitucci and his wife, cellist Sachi Patitucci, perform a moving ballad to celebrate the musicians we lost in 2021.

In 2021, Lil Nas X, whose single "Old Town Road" holds the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, delivered his debut album Montero and cemented his ability to bend media platforms to his will.

Music & Culture

Lil Nas X is the boundary-smashing pop revolutionary of 2021

7:32pm December 28, 2021

by Jason King

Boldly going where few gay men of color have been allowed to go before, Lil Nas X won the year by joyfully violating cultural taboos and exploiting media far more than it was able to exploit him.

The Beatles on Mount Doom (or a still from Peter Jackson's Get Back, a documentary constructed from footage shot during the making of the band's last studio albums and final performance).

Music & Culture

The Fellowship of the Rockers

5:36pm December 21, 2021

by Ann Powers

The new documentary Get Back, cut from 50-year-old footage of Beatles recording sessions by director Peter Jackson, offers a chance to look at one moment when the myth of the "band guy" took shape.

Drummer Nasheet Waits stretches out in real time on The Jazz Gallery stage.

Music & Culture

When clubs shuttered, The Jazz Gallery emerged like a phoenix

2:35pm December 20, 2021

by Stephanie Jones

"I predicted the pandemic wouldn't change live music," says Rio Sakairi, Artistic Director for the NYC jazz club. "And it hasn't."