Music

Music & Culture

Cuban Drummer Dafnis Prieto's Crisp Rhythms Are 'Good For Jazz'

9:31am May 07, 2015

Triangles and Circles, the new album from Dafnis Prieto, blends Afro-Cuban beats, blues feeling and spontaneous rhythmic variations. Critic Kevin Whitehead says that drums are at the album's heart.

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Musician and producer Adrian Utley in his studio in Bristol, U.K., in 2013.

Music & Culture

In Search Of Intensity, Musicians Turn To Adrian Utley

7:00pm May 06, 2015

by Paula Mejia

The Bristol, U.K.-based producer and member of Portishead has become a go-to collaborator for dark, uncompromising rock, with credits on recent albums by Torres, Marianne Faithfull and Perfume Genius.

American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger (left) adopted and helped popularize "We Shall Overcome" by teaching the song at rallies and protests. Here he sings with activists in Greenwood, Miss., in 1963.

Music & Culture

The Inspiring Force Of 'We Shall Overcome'

4:23pm May 06, 2015

by Noah Adams

It is not a marching song. It is not necessarily defiant. It is a promise.

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Charles Limb describes what the brain looks like when its being creative.

What Does A Creative Brain Look Like?

10:56am May 06, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

What happens in the brain during musical improv? Researcher Charles Limb scanned the brains of jazz musicians to find out.

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Percussionist Clayton Cameron says learning the language of numbers improved his music.

Can Math Make You A Better Musician?

11:03am May 05, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Drummer Clayton Cameron tells a story about how his math skills helped him impress the godfather of soul, James Brown.

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"Three is like a magic number." - Clayton Cameron

Why Is 3 A Magic Number?

11:02am May 05, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Percussionist Clayton Cameron continues his thoughts about the relationship between math and rhythm and why the number three "feels great."

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In his new memoir, It's A Long Story, Willie Nelson writes about his early career as a DJ in Fort Worth. He can still recite what he'd say on the air.

Willie Nelson: 'Ain't Many Of Us Left'

9:14am May 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Red-Headed Stranger has a new memoir out, titled It's A Long Story. On a tour bus in Thackerville, Okla., Nelson explains to NPR's David Greene why no one can tell him what to do.

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Kurt Cobain Speaks — Through Art And Audio Diaries — In 'Montage Of Heck'

2:09pm May 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

"The idea was not to tear him down, nor was it to put him on a pedestal," says director Brett Morgen. Instead, executive producer Frances Bean Cobain told Morgen to "make it honest."

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John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon, seen here with his band Public Image Ltd at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, is the former frontman of the Sex Pistols.

John Lydon: The Foul-Mouthed Yob Sets The Record Straight

6:27pm May 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

"After reading so much rubbish written about me over the years, it became obvious that I had to just tell it like it is," Lydon tells NPR's Arun Rath. Lydon just wrote his memoir, Anger Is An Energy.

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Sina Shahbazmohamadi places a 3-D printed copy of a recorder foot joint into a measuring device in a lab at the University of Connecticut's Center for Clean Energy Engineering.

3-D Printers Bring Historic Instruments Back To The Future

10:26am May 02, 2015

by Tom Verde

You just can't stick a modern mouthpiece on an antique saxophone and get the right sound. The answer could be in the lab.

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