Music News

David Bowie's 27th album, Blackstar, was released on Friday, his 69th birthday. He died, following an 18-month battle with cancer, two days later.

Music & Culture

Review: David Bowie's 'Blackstar' Is Adventurous To The End

6:19pm January 11, 2016

by Barry Walters

Bowie's final album was recorded in collaboration with jazz musicians and inspired by Kendrick Lamar. Even when it challenges, Blackstar resonates because it emphasizes emotion.

David Bowie in 1974, on the set of the Dutch TV show TopPop, where he performed "Rebel Rebel," from the album Diamond Dogs.

Music & Culture

Reflections Of A Bowie Girl

5:33pm January 11, 2016

by Ann Powers

For decades, David Bowie helped young music fans realize that identity could shift, that you could love both reading and rock 'n' roll, that pop could hold lessons about love and integrity and grace.

Rock Icon David Bowie Dies At 69

12:03pm January 11, 2016

by Marie Andrusewicz

The singer — whose career spanned decades and included collaborations with John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Stevie Ray Vaughn — released his latest album, Blackstar, on Friday. He died Sunday of cancer.

Music & Culture

British Musician David Bowie Dies After Battling Cancer

9:07am January 11, 2016

David Bowie died Sunday at age 69. David Greene talks to Simon Warner, author and lecturer at the University of Leeds, about Bowie's contribution to music and pop culture.

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Music & Culture

David Bowie Dies At 69

3:06am January 11, 2016

by NPR Staff and Wires

Singer David Bowie has died after a long battle with cancer, according to a representative for the musician.

The Brothers Nazaroff is five klezmer musicians from three continents, brought together by a love of the curious 1954 recording Jewish Freilach Songs.

Music & Culture

60 Years Later, A Wild, Baffling Recording Finds A Modern Spark

1:14pm January 09, 2016

by Jon Kalish

In 1954, Folkways Records released an album that sold so poorly, the royalties to date total less than a thousand dollars. Today, five of the top names in klezmer have gathered to recreate it.

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Jamie Masefield made a name for himself leading the Jazz Mandolin Project. When the life of a working musician started to wear on him, the Vermont native became a certified dry stone mason.

Music & Culture

A Jazzman Turned Builder Says That In Both Fields, The Good Stuff's Made To Last

12:03pm January 09, 2016

by Angela Evancie

James Masefield has been improvising on the jazz mandolin for decades, including a release on Blue Note Records. Some years back, his eclectic creativity brought him to an unexpected second career.

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Fans of late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister are calling for a new heavy element to be named after him.

Music & Culture

Put Lemmy On The Periodic Table: More Than 100,000 Sign Petition

11:50am January 08, 2016

by Bill Chappell

To many, the life and career of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister personified heavy metal. Now his fans want his name on one of four new elements on the periodic table.

Olivia Block's recent compositions are a mix of music and found voices — often taken from used microcassette tapes, artifacts from the answering-machine era.

Music & Culture

A Composer Finds A Trove Of Ghostly Voices, Stuck Out Of Time

8:48am January 08, 2016

by David Schulman

Olivia Block ordered blank cassettes off eBay — the tiny kind you find in old answering machines — and quickly discovered they weren't blank. Now, those voices are finding their way into her work.

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Music & Culture

Composer Olivia Block In Her Own Words

6:22pm January 07, 2016

Composer Olivia Block is in love with the sounds of Chicago. What other people call noise, she calls music. We tag along with her and producer David Schulman for an audio tour of Chicago.

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