Music

Karen Haglof, No-Wave Guitarist Turned Doctor, Relaunches Music Career

6:43pm April 12, 2015

by Rick Karr

Karen Haglof made her name as a guitarist on the ultra-competitive New York no-wave scene of the 1980s. Then she stopped playing and launched a career in medicine. Now she's back with a solo album.

Queue Listen Now

Salón Los Angeles is the oldest dance hall in Mexico City. It's here that well-dressed couples dance to danzón.

Music & Culture

From Ballrooms To Concert Halls, Mexico Kept This Cuban Style Alive

10:54am April 11, 2015

by Betto Arcos

Born in Cuba in the late 1800s, danzón had couples gliding in a kind of formal square dance a century later.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

There Is A Rich World In Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp A Butterfly'

3:27pm April 09, 2015

by Ken Tucker

Fresh Air music critic Ken Tucker says the rapper's second album has an excitingly adventurous sound.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Remembering Ralph Sharon, Tony Bennett's Pianist

9:05am April 09, 2015

by Tom Cole

The longtime piano accompanist and musical director accidentally broke the hit "I Left My Heart In San Francisco." But he was also the driving force behind the style Bennett is best known for.

Queue Listen Now

Billie Holiday has become a mythic presence in absentia.

Music & Culture

Billie Holiday: A Singer Beyond Our Understanding

7:54pm April 07, 2015

by John McDonough

Most artists belong to their times. But Holiday, born 100 years ago Tuesday, fits in the present.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Billie Holiday's Voice Was Always Her Own

3:07pm April 07, 2015

by Kevin Whitehead

Holiday was born 100 years ago Tuesday in Philadelphia. Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has some thoughts on Holiday's changing style, her influences, and singers she influenced.

Queue Listen Now

Megan Draper (Jessica Pare) and Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in an episode of Mad Men's sixth season.

Music & Culture

A (Nearly) Comprehensive Guide To The Music Of 'Mad Men'

11:56am April 07, 2015

by Chris Molanphy

From "The Twist" to "Is That All There Is?," the songs that Mad Men uses to depict the 1960s are perfect — but often unpredictable — representations of the decade's slow evolution.

"I'm more and more coming to the idea," composer Philip Glass says, "that it's the lineage and the connection to the past and the connection to the future — that is the real connection."

Philip Glass On Legacy: 'The Future ... It's All Around Us'

4:21pm April 06, 2015

For the composer, life is how the past and the future connect. Glass' new memoir, Words Without Music, looks back on his childhood, travels through Asia and when his music provoked violence.

Queue Listen Now

Exploring Songs In Native Languages From Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia

11:19am April 05, 2015

When you think of Latin American music, you may think of songs in Spanish or Portuguese. This week, Jasmine Garsd of NPR's Alt.Latino brings NPR's Rachel Martin music sung in indigenous languages.

Queue Listen Now

Daniel Levy works with Vateya (left) at the Rikers Island prison in New York City in February 2015, as part of the Lullaby Project.

Music & Culture

Bringing Mothers In Prison Closer To Their Children, Through Music

10:30am April 04, 2015

by Jeff Lunden

Mothers in prison rarely get a chance to see or touch their children — or sing them a lullaby. A group of professional musicians is helping female inmates in New York City to create those connections.

Queue Listen Now