Soundcheck

Brazilian Pianist Amaro Freitas' Futuristic and Spellbinding Music Oct 31, 2024

Brazilian pianist and composer Amaro Freitas is from the city of Recife, on the northeastern edge of Brazil, a city rooted in African culture. But his latest album, Y’Y, looks in a different direction. The title, spelled Y’Y, is an indigenous Amazonian word for river, and the album is celebration of nature in its musical journey down the Amazon - the water, the rainforest, the Indigenous people of the region, and the exotic wildlife. There’s also perhaps a warning that our connection to nature is more important than we may think. Freitas found that the usual piano sounds weren’t always enough, and enhances his sonic palette by preparing the piano and playing the insides for his visionary and futuristic decolonized Brazilian jazz. For example, in his piece, “Uiara,” an Indigenous name for the pink river dolphins of the Amazon, Freitas uses an electric magnet to bow some strings inside the instrument, and uses adhesive tape to give other strings a more earthy sound. Elsewhere, there are plucked strings and an echo-laden rattle as his polyrhythms shake the body of the piano - “it’s as though my left hand is Africa and my right hand is Europe,” he recently told The New York Times.

“Trying to rescue things that came before coloniality," he notes, is a theme that has been woven into Freitas's work for years, (National Sawdust). While his connection to the earth and the ancestors is an undercurrent on the record Y'Y, there is also a strong connection to and showcasing of the global Black avant-jazz community, as he recorded with woodwind and flute virtuoso Shabaka Hutchings (London), harpist Brandee Younger (New York), bassist Aniel Someillan (of Cuban descent), along with guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake (Chicago). For this live set in the studio, Amaro has prepared our piano and performs some of these works live. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Uiara/Viva Naná 2. Angico 3. Dança dos Martelos

Songwriter and Musician Fantastic Negrito Turns Trauma Into Art Oct 28, 2024

The story of Fantastic Negrito is one of those stranger-than-fiction tales – born Xavier Dphrepaulezz and raised in a strict Muslim home, he had an aborted career as an R&B star under the name Xavier, a near-fatal car accident, a seven year break from music, and then came roaring back with what he called “Black roots music for Everyone.” As Fantastic Negrito, he won the first NPR Tiny Desk Concert and then three Grammys for his stomping, blues-rockin’ albums. But the story has taken another unexpected twist, and that has led to Fantastic Negrito’s new album, Son Of A Broken Man.

During the quarantine part of the pandemic, Fantastic Negrito dug into his family’s past on one of the ancestry sites. He’d found that he was the son of a “yarn-spinning” father who claimed roots in East Africa, but whose lineage actually went back several generations to a tobacco plantation in Virginia. Between the large number of siblings and the “punk rock story” of mixed marriage in his family, he uncovered a lot of inconsistencies with the stories of the past, and a whole lot of loving. Fantastic Negrito “hides behind the flashy jacket” and turns his trauma into art, playing some of his blues-stomp-and-roll music for everyone, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Devil In My Pocket 2. Crooked Road 3. I Hope Somebody's Loving You 4. Son of a Broken Man

Hermanos Gutiérrez: Two Guitars Are Enough, Live, From National Sawdust Oct 24, 2024

Hermanos Gutierrez is a band formed of the brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez, based in Switzerland, who make instrumental music that looks to mid-century Mexican popular song, draws on the sounds of 60s surf guitar and the nocturnal landscapes of ambient music. Their 2022 album, El Bueno Y El Malo (The Good & The Bad) was definitely a nod to the Ennio Morricone soundtracks for those old spaghetti westerns, like The Good The Bad & The Ugly . Their 2024 release Sonido Cósmico looks to the desert for their spacious and spiritual fingerpicking, with one of the tracks specifically taking its inspiration from the Wim Wenders film, Paris, Texas. They play songs from their latest, Sonido Cósmico, in a special event, recorded at the GRAMMY Museum’s “A New York Evening With" at National Sawdust this past fall. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Sonido Cósmico 2. Low Sun, 3. Until We Meet Again 4. Cumbia Lunar

Loup Barrow's Otherworldly Music For Cristal Baschet, In-Studio Oct 21, 2024

The Cristal Baschet is a very rare and delicate otherworldly-sounding glass organ comprised of 56 chromatically-tuned glass rods. Only a handful of musicians on this planet play the instrument professionally; one of them is Loup Barrow, a French musician and composer. Barrow has been a committed instrumentalist since first taking violin lessons at age 5; he’s also focused on drums, Moroccan percussion, steel pan, and the glass harp. He features the Cristal Baschet, with piano and orchestra, on a striking album called Immineo, which might bring to mind Arvo Pärt or the 11th-century German composer, mystic, and abbess Hildegard Von Bingen. Recently, Loup Barrow spent a few hours here in our studio assembling this sound sculpture to play it, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Northern Lights 2. Passio

Scottish Composer Erland Cooper's Naturally-Aged Ambient Classical, In-Studio Oct 17, 2024

Scottish composer Erland Cooper writes ambient classical works that celebrate nature and create a strong sense of place. These days there are lots of musicians doing that sort of thing, but Cooper has gone all-in. His piece Carve The Runes and Be Content With Silence was composed and recorded in 2021, and then the only copy of the master tape was buried in the Scottish soil, to be recomposed, Cooper says, by the earth itself. There followed a kind of treasure hunt with Cooper leaving clues every solstice or equinox until a year and a half later the tape was discovered - and there’s a lot more to the story. Erland Cooper and his ensemble play excerpts from Carve The Runes And Be Content With Silence, in-studio.

Set list: 1. With Silence Mvt 3, part 2 2. Music For Growing Flowers (radio edit) 3. Shalder

Playful Trio Heavy MakeUp Makes Up Songs, In-Studio Oct 14, 2024

The trio Heavy MakeUp uses voice, synths, drum machines, and brass to improvise songs on the spot. Together, the band is singer and songwriter Edie Brickell and brass & electronic musicians CJ Camerieri and Trever Hagen, who have created music as side-people, songwriters, and producers. They bring all of those skills to bear and play, creating songs as a collective, somehow "beautifully constructing metaphorical stories with concrete sections", in the moment, (Camerieri, in a Relix interview). They freely and enthusiastically make up new songs, and play music from their album Here It Comes, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Here It Comes 2. So Emotional 3. 160 Varick 4. Song for John 5. Stay and Play

Kaizers Orchestra's Unholy Punk Cabaret, Straight From Norway, No Chaser, Live Oct 10, 2024

The Norwegian sextet Kaizers Orchestra combines rock, opera, Balkan music, and a kind of punk cabaret with character studies and heavy drinking to great effect. Many of their albums, and videos, are chapters in a Faust-like story, and though they sing in their local western dialect of Norwegian, somehow the sense of an unsettling narrative comes through. In 2013, they played at the Met Museum in what was billed as their first – and last- American performance. But this theatrical, indefinable band, are touring their live show in the US and they brought their car parts, concert trash barrels, pump organ, and hip flasks to play live in The Greene Space.

Set list: 1. Aldri Vodka, Violeta 2. Bøn Fra Helvete 3. En For Orgelet, En For Meg

My Brightest Diamond Fights For A Better Future In Song Oct 07, 2024

My Brightest Diamond is the project led by singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Shara Nova (formerly Worden), who has continued to weave her own way through pop, experimental and classical worlds. Her latest, Fight The Real Terror, strips things down to just Shara and her guitar, and is full of the raw emotion that erupted from her upon learning about Sinéad O'Connor's passing in 2023. Shara Nova plays some of these new My Brightest Diamond songs, in-studio, and wields an autoharp besides.

Set list: 1. Fight the Real Terror 2. Safe House 3. Have You Ever Seen An Angel

Geordie Greep (of black midi) Shocks and Delights, In-Studio Oct 03, 2024

Geordie Greep was the lead singer and guitarist for the celebrated British rock band black midi. With that band on indefinite hiatus, Greep is now focused on his own songs, which range freely across the musical landscape, encompassing jazz-rock and blues, but also country and Brazilian music. Hold on tight, for there are "stop-starts, blasts and bangs, and whispered soliloquies as [the listener] is never quite sure when, or whether, [one is] supposed to be shocked; or laugh", (Rough Trade Records). Geordie Greep and his band play new music from his debut solo album called The New Sound, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Holy, Holy 2. Terra 3. The New Sound

Lollise Creates Danceable Afrofuturist Pop, In-Studio Sep 30, 2024

Lollise is a musician, fashion designer, and visual artist from Botswana in southern Africa, now based here in New York. After many years of recording and touring with Underground System and the FELA! band, Lollise steps forward with her own bold Afro-futurist pop, rich with layers of kinetic, danceable percussion and gentle waves of ambient noise. Drawing on Setswana folk song, the sounds of nature, and infectious dance beats, she plays some of the hybrid songs from her debut LP, I Hit The Water, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Semang Mang 2. eDube 3. Mme Mma Ndi

Brighton's Vintage-Pop Band The Heavy Heavy, In-Studio Sep 26, 2024

The Heavy Heavy is a band out of Brighton, England – but they sound like a band that’s been time-shifted straight out of 1975. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, they breathe an incandescent new energy into sounds from decades ago, "transcending eras with a hypnotic ease" (Bandcamp.) Their sound might be a sweet and starry-eyed collision of psychedelia and blues, acid rock and sunshine pop all at once. The Heavy Heavy play in-studio.

Set list: 1. One of a Kind 2. Lovestruck 3. Happiness

One Of A Kind by The Heavy Heavy

Song Collector Moira Smiley Digs Deep and Celebrates Connection Sep 23, 2024

Moira Smiley refers to herself as a song collector; she's also a singer, multi-instrumentalist (banjo, accordion, piano, and hand & body percussion), and songwriter. Smiley has sung in arenas, cathedrals, kitchens, back porches, sound stages, and on glaciers with the likes of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tune-Yards, Tim O’Brien, Eric Whitacre, Los Angeles Master Chorale, New World Symphony and Solas. But she’s spent a good portion of her career collecting, arranging and performing traditional songs from Appalachia, The Balkans, The Republic of Georgia, Wales, and more. Her latest album is called The Rhizome Project, and features a string quartet along with many guests. Moira Smiley and a string quartet [Sara Caswell (violin), Dana Lyn (violin), Josh Henderson (viola), Jody Redhage-Ferber (cello)] perform in-studio.

Set list: 1. Go Dig My Grave 2. Mourning Dove 3.Now Is The Cool Of The Day

The Rhizome Project by Moira Smiley

Joan As Police Woman Celebrates Joy and Love, In-Studio Sep 19, 2024

The singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist Joan Wasser is "not a cop" and has been recording for the past twenty years under the name Joan As Police Woman – a saucy reference to the 1970s cop show that starred Angie Dickinson. She’s also collaborated with a huge range of musicians, from the worlds of rock, funk, folk, and experimental music. Her new album, called Lemons, Limes and Orchids, has a mostly nocturnal, understated quality while it celebrates joy and love in the face of extremely difficult times. Joan plays some stripped down versions of some of the songs, including the extraordinary title track, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Full-Time Heist 2. Lemons, Limes and Orchids 3. Remember the Voice

Yemen Blues Connects The Traditional And Modern With Swagger and Groove Sep 16, 2024

Yemen Blues is a band led by Israeli singer and songwriter Ravid Kahalani. For more than a decade now, the group has incorporated the sounds of Moroccan trance, Arab and Bedouin folk, and Western funk and rock into a high energy, groove-filled dance party. But behind that sound is a social conscience, and the band’s latest album is pointedly called Only Love Remains. Yemen Blues plays in-studio.

Set list: 1. Ma'Ahla Asalam. 2. Greatest Man /Prayers 3. Allenby 4. Lfouq Lfouq

Cellist Mabe Fratti's Playful Approach to Electrified Chamber-Pop, In-Studio Sep 12, 2024

Born in Guatemala but active in Mexico City’s bustling music scene, cellist, electronic music producer, and singer Mabe Fratti has been making music for several years that could lean toward the experimental and the avant-garde on the one hand, and what seems to be a flair for pop melodies on the other. She writes songs that encompass chamber music, electronic music, soundscapes, and hard rock, -perhaps with jazz overtones- without ever settling into any one of them. Fratti and her collaborators have such talent for risk-taking, for playfulness with sound and its manipulation, and for endless riffs - whether cello (amplified and with pedals) or vocal processors, and artfully using feedback, field recordings, and loops. Her latest album is called Sentir que no Sabes, or Feel like you don’t know. Mabe Fratti and her trio play some of these songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Quieras o No 2. Kravitz 3. Oidos

Midwestern Indie-Chamber Rock Band Cloud Cult, In-Studio Sep 09, 2024

The Midwest band Cloud Cult is more than a band – it’s a creative collective who continually celebrates life and love, and catharsis through music and multimedia performances (CloudCult.com.) They’re also known for their ecofriendly ways of making and touring their music. Recently in 2022, their orchestral-folk-rock sound was expanded as they were playing and recording with the Minnesota Orchestra. Over the years, the band has embraced joy as an act of resilience, and their latest, Alchemy Creek was written, recorded and produced by front man Craig Minowa in the solitude of a tiny cabin on wheels and named for the nearby creek in the middle of the Wisconsin woods. The band plays some of these new songs, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. The Universe Woke Up As You 2. One Human Being 3. Different Kind Of Day

Musical Polymath Conner Youngblood's Dreamy Bedroom-Pop Sep 05, 2024

Nashville-based artist Conner Youngblood is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer; his new record, called Cascades, Cascading, Cascadingly, is full of richly textured songs – in multiple languages (Spanish, Japanese, and Danish, in addition to his native English.) The music employs a wide array of effects without ever losing that organic, intimate feel; think of "sad Phil Spector meets shoegaze," (Schaefer). Conner plays some of these spacious, dreamy, and quietly curious maximalist bedroom-pop songs, in-studio.

Set list: 1. From an Ocean, to a Lake 2. Solo yo y Tú 3. Blue Gatorade

Meredith Monk's 'Cellular Songs', In-Studio (Archives) Sep 02, 2024

Vocalist and composer Meredith Monk is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose work involves music, dance, film, theatre, and now: biology meets anthropology. In her recent large-scale work, Cellular Songs, musical forms evoke biological processes as layering, replication, division, and mutation in a “deeply affecting meditation on the nature of the biological cell as a metaphor for human society” (Financial Times). Through this work, Monk takes the microscopic unit of the cell, then projects and expands it as a proposal for “an alternative possibility of human behavior, where the values are cooperation, interdependence and kindness,” (much like how a cell functions, minus the kindness part.) Using their voices-as-instruments, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble perform some of these Cellular Songs, along with violin, piano and keyboard, in-studio. [From the Archives, 2018.] -Caryn Havlik

Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble perform "Indra's Net" at the Park Avenue Armory, Sept. 23-Oct. 6

Watch the session via YouTube:

New York-Based Crumb Delivers Moody Psych-Pop, In-Studio Aug 29, 2024

The New York band Crumb creates playful and brooding swirls of sounds, somewhere at a crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock. Their latest album AMAMA (Grandmother) [self-released via their own label Crumb Records], experiments with textures and synthscapes: glitchy pitch-shifted vocals, cell phone recordings, nautical blips, sax mouthpiece solos, blasted drum samples, and piano strings dampened with Silly Putty. With lyrics whose meaning may emerge later, Crumb’s haunting music winds up being far from gentle or ‘chill’ and explores fraught encounters and transience, while striving to be carefree and searching for connection. Crumb plays a live set, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. The Bug 2. Side by Side 3. Genie

Pianist Christopher O'Riley on the Life-Changing Music of J.S. Bach Aug 26, 2024

American classical pianist and educator Christopher O’Riley has spent his career gleefully ignoring musical boundaries and playing whatever turned him on. In addition to playing Beethoven, Busoni, Ravel, Scriabin, and Liszt, he’s also arranged music by Nick Drake, Nirvana, Elliot Smith, and Radiohead; he leads masterclasses covering nearly every aspect of piano playing and repertoire from 1600 to 2020. Christopher O’Riley’s latest album is of J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, done in a distinctly personal, even idiosyncratic style. He presents his years-long study of the Preludes & Fugues by Bach and a recent arrangement of a classic popular song, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Bach: Prelude & Fugue #1 in C major, BWV 846 2. Bach: Prelude & Fugue #4 in C# minor, BWV 849 3."Over the Rainbow"

Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band, In-Studio Aug 22, 2024

Mehrnam Rastegari is a New York-based master of the traditional Persian spike fiddle, the kamancheh. She is also a composer, writing film scores and ensemble works that draw on both Eastern and Western musical traditions. She moved here from Iran in 2022 and formed the Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band, a group of New York locals which features traditional Iranian instruments kamancheh, qanoun, daf, and vocals. Rastegari leads that band in music she’s written, along with traditional Persian, Arabic, and Kurdish music. The Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band plays in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Velveleh 2. Khosha Howraman 3. Show charay

Guitarist and Educator Benjamin Verdery Plays Solo, In-Studio Aug 19, 2024

Guitarist, composer, and teacher Benjamin Verdery seems to know everybody who’s ever picked up the instrument. Ben is a classical guitarist himself, but his musical friends include Andy Summers of the Police, the fingerpicking virtuoso Leo Kottke, flamenco legend Paco Pena, guitarist Bryce Dessner of the indie rock band The National – the list goes on and on. Lots of contemporary composers have written works for him, and Ben himself has written a wide range of works. He’s filled a 40 year career with a wild assortment of collaborations and collaborators. Recently, Ben emailed to say he was retiring next year, so it seemed high time that we invite him back here before he jets off to Hawaii. Benjamin Verdery plays some of his own pieces from his collection called Some Towns and Cities, and yes, at least one of those towns is in Hawaii.

Set list: 1. Capitola, CA 2. Keanae, HI 3. Milwaukee, WI

Christopher Rountree Designs a Musical Framework for Electro-Chamber Players Aug 15, 2024

Christopher Rountree is probably best known as the conductor of the LA-based new music ensemble known as Wild Up. Over the last 14 years he and that band have played with Bjork, done live film scores to movie screenings, and embarked on a multiyear recording project of the long forgotten and now rediscovered music of Julius Eastman. But Christopher Rountree is also a composer, and his latest work is called 3 BPM. It seems like it might be his reply to the rise of AI in music, because he describes the piece as “a musical framework for being together.” In an open score that could be part map, and part game, the ensemble performs the entirety of 3 BPM in-studio.

Watch "3BPM":

The ensemble for this New York in-studio includes:

Christopher Rountree, voice / synthCatherine Brookman, voice / synth Nadia Sirota, viola Adam Tendler, pianoPhong Tran, electronicsTaylor Levine, electric guitarRachel Beetz, flute

3 BPM by Christopher Rountree with Wild Up | HOCKET | Nadia Sirota

Bette Smith Marries Gospel Fervor With Soul Moxie, In-Studio Aug 12, 2024

Brooklyn native Bette Smith reconnects with her Memphis and Mississippi roots on her latest, "Goodthing", full of songs that show off her voice -rich and raspy- and her band’s vintage soul and blues-rock sound. But the album also speaks to Smith’s spiritual side, embracing the gospel music she heard in church and around the house every weekend – like Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. Bette Smith and her band play up that southern rock/soul sound, inspire determination, and offer a prayer, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Whup 'Em Good 2. Darkest Hour 3. Eternal Blessings

LA LOM Reflects the Diverse Musical Diaspora of Angelenos Aug 08, 2024

The band called LA LOM is a trio of LA natives who play an instrumental blend of twangy guitar melodies over Latin rhythms like the cumbia and bolero, drawing on the sounds of their city. The band got their start as a hotel band playing soul covers, and morphed into warm, vibe-heavy rock that blends Mexican, Cuban, and Peruvian traditions alongside classic jazz, rockabilly, and soul. LA LOM – Los Angeles League of Musicians - who are Zac Sokolow (Guitar), Jake Faulkner (Bass), and Nicholas Baker (Drums/Percussion), play music that may touch on Cumbia, Chicha, and Americana, from their full-length self-titled album, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Danza de LA LOM 2. San Fernando Rose 3. Angels Point

Angélica Garcia Delivers Borderless Clublike Bangers, In-Studio Aug 05, 2024

Angélica Garcia has been on a journey – a musical journey – from “gothic storytelling, and swampy, blues-inflected rock” (Schaefer, 2016) to dance-floor Latin pop bangers with moody electronics, sung mostly in Spanish on her latest release, Gemelo. It’s a record that “untangles the Mexican and Salvadoran roots of the Californian-born artist, dismantles the cycles which help and harm, and calls upon the spirits of her ancestors for its power”, (Line of Best Fit). From throbbing, industrial rock that sounds like a sci-fi magic ritual to clublike textures couching empowerment anthems, Angélica Garcia performs her latest tunes, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Juanita 2. Gemini 3. Paloma

The Experimental "Doom Folk" of Cinder Well, In-Studio Aug 01, 2024

Cinder Well is the musical project of singer and songwriter Amelia Baker, who is from California but who fell under the spell of Irish folk music and eventually moved to County Clare on Ireland’s west coast. Cinder Well’s music often has a haunted, nocturnal quality – her 2020 album No Summer was widely referred to as “doom folk” - where the drone, darkness, and space may overlap with that in the metal world. Her latest record, Cadence, is full of evocative, often elusive imagery and her quietly intense vocals.

Set list: 1. Two Heads, Grey Mare 2. Overgrown 3. From Behind the Curtain

STEFA* Reconsiders Origin Stories and Channels Their Ancestors Jul 29, 2024

The artist STEFA* is a classically-trained vocalist who combines punk, experimental rage-pop, loops, and somatic jazz as they channel their ancestors. Based in Queens and born to Colombian immigrant parents, STEFA*’s latest is an album called Born With An Extra Rib, which was released alongside a ritual performance film that they created as Artist-In-Residence at The Kitchen. STEFA* shares their spirit and song, along with their talented band, in-studio. STEFA* plays at Industry City at 6PM on Aug. 8.

Set list: 1. 3COSAS! 2. Costillas 3. How Do I Cope?

Born With An Extra Rib by STEFA*

The Musical Ambition and Sharp Wit of Songwriter John Grant Jul 25, 2024

Although he’s based in Iceland, singer/songwriter John Grant is American, and his experience growing up gay in a conservative religious family in Colorado has colored his music since he began releasing solo records in 2010. A former member of the Denver-based alternative rock band The Czars, he’s recorded with the Texan folk rock group Midlake, collaborated with countless others, and is also a festival curator, noted polyglot, author, and translator. Grant’s own songs range from bangers to ballads, usually shot through with sharp streaks of mordant wit. That’s the case with his latest record The Art of the Lie which also features lots of electronics and some processing of the voice. John tells stories and performs unplugged versions of his tunes, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Grey Tickles Black Pressure 2. Touch and Go 3. Zeitgeist

From the 2024 New York Guitar Festival: Marc Ribot and Leyla McCalla Jul 22, 2024

The duo of Marc Ribot, the New York guitarist, and Leyla McCalla, the New Orleans cellist and banjo player, may seem unlikely at first. Ribot is known for his work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, his own avant-noise trio Ceramic Dog, and much more; McCalla writes songs that draw on the African-American string band tradition, Cajun music, and her own Haitian heritage. But Ribot was also a student of the Haitian classical guitarist/composer Frantz Casseus, and the two musicians share a strong genre-agnostic streak. Together they play a set at the 25th Annual New York Guitar Festival, recorded in June of 2024 at Kaufman Music Center and co-presented by the World Music Institute.

Set list: Kamen Sa Ou Fe (trad Haitian); Petro (Frantz Casseus); City Called Heaven (trad American); Lavi Vye Neg (Gesner Henry); Sun Without The Heat (Leyla McCalla); Non Fon Bwa (Casseus); Peze Café (trad Haitian); Tree (Leyla McCalla)

Marc Ribot has released over two dozen records on his own, ranging from Cuban dance music to free jazz, Haitian classical guitar to political avant-folk. His playing – elegant, edgy, and sometimes, somehow, both at once – has made him the go-to guitarist for artists like Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, McCoy Tyner, and so many others. He has been a regular part of the New York Guitar Festival over the years.

Leyla McCalla was the cellist in the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, before moving on to writing her own songs. She is a member of Our Native Daughters, a quartet of Black women who all play the banjo (and other instruments), and has recorded four albums on which she also plays guitar. Her new record, Sun Without The Heat, came out in April.

Pulsing, Percussive, Layered Minimalism By Akusmi, In-Studio Jul 18, 2024

Akusmi is the name of the recent project by the French-born London-based producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Pascal Bideau. His work blends the churning rhythms of minimalism with the sounds of jazz and, occasionally, the gamelan music of Indonesia. Mostly he plays sax and piano, but in a pinch he’ll play bass guitar, flute, synthesizer or percussion too. Some Akusmi songs can be ethereal and atmospheric, but more often they’re pulsating and almost danceable. In live performance, Akusmi becomes a band, in this case a trio with violinist/composer Christopher Tignor and trombonist Rick Parker. They play in-studio.

Set list: 1. Divine Moments of Truth 2. Oblique 3. Concrescence

Deep and Fiery Cuban Mambo, Salsa, and Soul by Orquesta Akokán, In-Studio Jul 15, 2024

The vintage sounds and energy of Cuban dance music of the mid-20th century live on in the music of Orquesta Akokán, a group of Cuban and American musicians who made a big splash with their debut record just six years ago. The band’s name, Akokán, is from Africa; it’s a Yoruba word meaning “from the heart.” And this group’s collective heart beats to the rhythms of Havana (and Miami, and Brooklyn), which means salsa, rumba, and soul in addition to mambo. Orquesta Akokán has a brand new album called Caracoles, and it brings the band back to our studio to play some of these new songs.

Set list: 1. Con Licencia 2. Pan con Tibiri 3. Caracoles 4. Suave Suave

Road-Tested Songs by Sō Percussion and Caroline Shaw, In-Studio Jul 11, 2024

Sample collaborative music by Pulitzer Prize-winning vocalist/composer Caroline Shaw and the versatile quartet Sō Percussion from their latest release, Rectangles and Circumstance, as played in-studio.

Composer/vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw, who has produced for Kanye West and Nas, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for her Partita for 8 Voices, which was written for and performed with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth; she also teaches at NYU. Brooklyn-based Sō Percussion (Eric Cha-Beach, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen, Jason Treuting) is a force of music and noise-making comprised of composer/percussionists/instrument builders/finders who beat, shake, bow, immerse, and rip all kinds of things – home goods and instruments - both acoustic and electric; they also compose.

Listen to some of these songs with contributions by Caroline Shaw, and with her band Ringdown, together with Sō Percussion, as played live, in-studio.

Bandleader and Timbalero Ivan Llanes Brings the Dance Moves, In-Studio Jul 08, 2024

Cuban singer, percussionist, and bandleader Ivan Llanes is now based here in New York, and on his debut LP, called La Vida Misma, you hear a reflection of Ivan’s musical interests, which begin with Cuban salsa and go on to include R&B, Brazilian music and more. He's fluent in Latin, Caribbean, and jazz traditions and is a prolific composer and sideman. Ivan’s band is similarly expansive, an 8-piece ensemble who perform new music from Ivan's debut record, in the round, in-studio.

See Ivan Llanes and his band in Times Square on July 11 at 5PM

Set list: 1. La Mejor Mujer 2. Cubahia 3. Respira y Siente

Marissa Nadler Sharpens Her Elegant and Eerie Dream-Folk (Archives) Jul 04, 2024

Boston-based Marissa Nadler writes intimate, sweeping dreamy and eerie songs, that shimmer with gothic melancholy. On her 2018 record, For My Crimes, she enlisted accomplished musicians: harpist Mary Lattimore, drummer Patty Schemel (Hole), experimental multi-instrumentalist Janel Leppin, and Eva Gardner plays additional bass. Guest vocals came from Angel Olsen, Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls), and Sharon Van Etten, plus saxophonist Dana Colley (Morphine) was also a collaborator. These bittersweet and sharp slow burning tunes have a piercing intensity, driven home by Nadler’s gripping voice. Marissa Nadler performs some of these songs in their stripped-down form, in-studio (from the Archives, 2018.) -Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. For My Crimes 2. Said Goodbye to That Car 3. I Can’t Listen to Gene Clark Anymore

Indie/Prog-Leaning Post-Punk Band English Teacher, In-Studio Jul 01, 2024

The band called English Teacher is from the northern English city of Leeds, although as their debut LP This Could Be Texas suggests, one place is very much like another when it comes to how people treat each other, and themselves. One might expect a band with a name like English Teacher to be smart, and their songs are chock-full of literary and cultural references, as well as unexpected shifts in sound and mood. They play bright and crispy post-punk songs that combine a talky, angularity with indie-prog, rock, and folk electronica, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Albatross 2.Nearly Daffodils 3. Albert Road

Guitarist and Composer Paolo Angeli, An Innovator Like No Other Jun 27, 2024

Composer, guitarist, and instrument builder Paolo Angeli is from the Italian island of Sardinia, and his instrument began as a chiterra sarda, a large, slightly deeper member of the guitar family. But over the years he has added multiple layers of strings: harp strings, sitar strings, motorized hammers, pickups, propellers, movable bridges, kalimba, and so much more – attached to the body of the guitar to help multiply the sonic possibilities. Then, there are the pedals! Paolo Angeli, as a one-man-orchestra with foot percussion, and traditional Sardinian vocals, performs new compositions from his latest, Nijar, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Monologo de la Luna 2. Nijar 3. Ramas de Suenos 4. Telon 5. A tour of the prepared Sardinian guitar

Richard Thompson OBE Is Still the Shreddingest (From the Archives) Jun 24, 2024

British singer, songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson OBE was part of the groundbreaking folk rock band Fairport Convention in the 1960's, made records with his then-wife, Linda Thompson, and has many fan-favourite solo records as well. Rolling Stone lists him as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time and the LA Times called him the greatest living songwriter after Bob Dylan. The folk-shredder and troubadour Richard Thompson joins us to play some acoustic solo versions of songs from his 2018 album, called 13 Rivers. (From the Archives.)

Watch the full session here:

NYC's Zelenaya Sculpts Traditional Folk Into Doom Metal, In-Studio Jun 20, 2024

The NYC group Zelenaya mixes traditional folk music with heavy metal in ways that are both surprising and convincing. Haunting three part harmonies, doom-laden guitars, pummeling drums – somehow it all comes together in Zelenaya’s debut album, called simply, Folk Songs. The band has both confused and carried away audiences at campground diasporic folk festivals and at death metal shows; serving up music for those who are into Ukrainian choirs, Mussorgsky, math rock and Tuareg guitar bands, Black Sabbath, and Bolt Thrower. In what is likely the first instance of a blast beat and a wall of amps in the Soundcheck Studio, Zelenaya sculpts Eastern European folk tunes into doom metal-laden arrangements, sung in Ukrainian and Georgian, in-studio. (-John Schaefer/Caryn Havlik)

Zelenaya plays a FREE show with Gamelan Yowana Sari, and Antinomie in Forest Park, Queens at the Seuffert Bandshell on June 23 at 4PM AND in Brooklyn on June 27 at Our Wicked Lady.

Set list: 1. Hora Za Horoyu (Ukrainian) (Mountain Beyond Mountains) 2. Okro Mch’edelo (Georgian) (Goldsmith) 3. Oy Letilo Kupailo (Ukrainian) (Oh, Kupalo Flew)

Tuareg Guitar Shredder Mdou Moctar Brings the Joy, In-Studio Jun 17, 2024

The Tuareg singer and guitarist Mdou Moctar is from Niger, and his music career began with his songs being shared across mobile phone trading networks in West Africa. Now, as an ambassador of the Agadez sound, he plays his songs on the world’s biggest music stages, including Coachella, and, coming soon, Bonnaroo and Glastonbury. Moctar and his band combine rock and psychedelia, often in the "Desert Blues" style of loping and sometimes accelerating threes. Mdou Moctar’s latest album is called Funeral for Justice, and features his most fiery guitar playing yet. He and his band are here, to stretch out and play this perhaps trancey music for staying lifted, in-studio.

They play at Bowery Ballroom on June 25 and at Warsaw in Brooklyn on June 26.

1. Imouhar 2. Modern Slaves 3. Imajighen

Electronic Cinematic Pop From the Duo Ringdown, In-Studio Jun 13, 2024

The duo called Ringdown makes what they refer to as electronic cinematic pop from Portland, Oregon. But there are also elements of folk and classical music in their songs, which makes sense given who they are. Ringdown is Caroline Shaw, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and musician, and Danni Lee Parpan, folk-rock singer and songwriter. Together, they have a handful of Grammys, and a "Best Drum Major" Award - and they have begun releasing songs about love, and heartbreak, and dancing. They present a preview of new music - using synths, violin, keyboard, voices, and processing - from their forthcoming EP, in-studio.

Ringdown headlines the closing night celebration of ChamberQUEER 2024: Constellation, in Brooklyn on Sunday, June 16.

Set list: 1. Reckoning 2. Thirst 3. Two-Step

Brooklyn-Via-Peru Combo Tipa Tipo Brings the Yacht Rock With Cowbells Jun 10, 2024

The band called Tipa Tipo comes from Brooklyn via Peru. The trio plays an unexpectedly danceable mix of tropical Latin funk, cumbia, disco, and yacht rock. With their synthesizers, guitar, and tight vocal harmonies, they offer a kind of retro 70s sound, but with a modern, feminist sensibility and lyrics sung mostly in Spanish. Tipa Tipo play songs from their latest record, Cintas, in-studio, with all of the cowbells.

Set list: 1 Poco Tiempo 2 Grifo 3 Ataque de Medianoche

Julia Holter's Artful Minimalism and Fluidity, In-Studio Jun 06, 2024

Julia Holter’s could be in the realm of contemporary classical music, experimental pop, and ambient music. Often dreamy and elusive, her songs defy easy description. As likely to work with adventurous rockers as with contemporary classical musicians, Holter has an unusually keen ear for unexpected sounds. Take her song, “Evening Mood,” where hazy layers of vocals swirl over a rhythm section that seems more about the feeling of movement than the actual sound of it – and it turns out the basis of the song is a heavily processed heartbeat. Her latest record, built around the waterlike flow of the body's internal sound world, is called Something in the Room She Moves. Julia Holter and her band play new music, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Spinning 2. Marienbad 3. Talking to the Whisper

Guster Slings Hooks and Harmonies, With Bongos, In-Studio Jun 03, 2024

The alternative rock band Guster, formed over bongos and acoustic guitars at Tufts University in 1991, has built its reputation on their striking vocal harmonies, their close connection to their fans, and their sense of humor. So in the wake of Taylor Swift’s bank-busting Eras tour, Guster embarked on their own tour, which they called "We Also Have Eras" – a reminder of their enduring presence and road warrior work ethic on the music scene for over 30 years. Guster has a new record out, their first in 5 years, called Ooh La La, and it brings the band back to our studio for a live set, with bongos.

Set list: 1. Keep Going 2. Black Balloon 3. Satellite (with Max Fine, piano)

Grace Cummings Channels Emotion Into Powerful Vocal Poetry May 30, 2024

Grace Cummings, the Australian singer and songwriter from Melbourne, has a strikingly rich and commanding voice, the kind that can cut through a big production. Which is good because Cummings has become known for her love of big, dramatic productions and gothic atmospheres. Her new album, Ramona, made in L.A., goes for a cinematic, emotional sound, and it brings Grace Cummings and her band to play some of her songs, in slightly smaller arrangements, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Common Man 2. Ramona 3. Work Today (And Tomorrow)

Ramona by Grace Cummings

Composer and Cornetist Graham Haynes Confounds Expectation May 27, 2024

Graham Haynes, the Bahia, Brazil-based composer, cornetist, and bandleader, “expands and confounds what we understand as jazz and electronic music.” His work grows out of a keen sense of New York’s many histories of music and musical movement, (Graham Haynes’ Instagram.) Haynes has played with jazz luminaries like Vijay Iyer, the late Pharoah Sanders, and of course his own dad, the famed drummer Roy Haynes. But he has always been interested in other styles – electronic music, hip hop, traditional music from other parts of the world, and contemporary classical music. Haynes, along with New York-based multi-instrumentalist Lucie Vitkova, do some improvisations involving cornet, electronics, accordion, synthesizer and more, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Improvisation 1 2. Improvisation with hichiriki / cornet

The Jazz Passengers Cover Themselves, In-Studio May 23, 2024

New York’s The Jazz Passengers – despite the name – don’t just play jazz. Founded in 1987 by sax player Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, the band has worked with spoken word artists, rock stars like Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry, and theatrical elements that have an almost modernist vaudeville flavor. Over the years the band would become a place where some of New York’s most creative musicians could spread their wings and have some fun.

Their new album, Big Large, is a journey back through the band’s long musical history – it is also the last album made with Curtis Fowlkes, who died last year. The Jazz Passengers is now a mix of the veterans and a new generation, and Roy Nathanson has led them all to our studio to play tunes by turns angular and searing, warm and masterful from the band’s repertoire.

Band members: Roy Nathanson, sax, voice; with Bill Ware, vibes; Brad Jones, bass; EJ Rodriguez, drums; Marc Ribot, guitar; Sam Bardfeld, violin; Lucy Hollier (Curtis' student, now playing his trombone); Isaiah Barr, sax; Gabe Nathanson, voice and trumpet.

Set list: 1. Tikkun 2. Kidnapped 3. Jolly Street

Big Large: In Memory of Curtis Fowlkes by The Jazz Passengers

Storyteller and Songwriter Alice Merton Plays In-Studio May 20, 2024

Alice Merton burst out of the starting gate with her 2016 single "No Roots", a song that celebrated her nomadic upbringing in four different countries. Since then, the British-based German-Irish-Canadian singer-songwriter has released two albums of songs with somewhat introspective, perhaps brooding lyrics, set to uplifting and sunny melodies. When we last checked in with her in 2019, she’d just released her debut LP called Mint and was living in Germany. She has lately been touring on music from her new EP called Heron, and plays a stripped-down intimate set, in-studio, including her rearranged single, "No Roots".

Set list: 1. Don’t Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts 2. Run Away Girl 3. No Roots

Kiran Ahluwalia's Songs of Protest and Hope May 16, 2024

Singer Kiran Ahluwalia was born in India, grew up in Canada, and is largely based here in New York. Her music reflects her transcontinental upbringing, as she mixes the sounds of traditional South Asian song forms with Western rock and jazz. A two-time JUNO (Canadian Grammy) winner, Ahluwalia’s work has featured collaborations with leading musicians from the Celtic and Fado worlds, as well as Malian super group, Tinariwen. Her six-piece band includes electric guitar, tabla, drum kit, accordion/organ and electric bass and is led by guitarist Rez Abbasi, a Pakistani-American who is also Ahluwalia’s husband. Her latest album, Comfort Food, features songs that protest Hindu fundamentalism in India and the nationalism that continues to stir conflicts between India and Pakistan and celebrates pancakes… Kiran Ahluwalia and her band perform some of these songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Dil 2. Tera Jugg 3. Pancake

Shabaka's Latest Adventure: Connecting to Nature and Breath With Flutes May 13, 2024

Shabaka Hutchings, now Shabaka, has been a crucial and connected London-based musician for years, leading arena dance-jazz band Sons of Kemet, cosmic psych-dub-funk trio The Comet Is Coming, and the collaborative band Shabaka & the Ancestors. He began incorporating layered flutes on the last Sons of Kemet record Black to the Future, and kept on picking up more and other woodwinds, first on his 2022 ambient meditation, Afrikan Culture, and now on his new full-length, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. On it, Shabaka plays flutes: the Slavic woodwind called svirel, Japanese shakuhachi, Andean quena, and even clarinet. Plus, rapper and flutist André 3000 contributes flute to “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”.

This time, in his visit to our studio, Shabaka, together with Charles Overton on harp and Austin Williamson on drums play some of the songs from Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. Plus, Shabaka talks us through the different flutes in his bow case, including a clay turtle ocarina and a century-old shakuhachi. Read more on Shabaka’s Shakuhachi journey via SoundAmerican. – Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Insecurities / As the Planets and the Stars Collapse 2. Living 3. I'll Do Whatever You Want

José James Threads the Past Into Message-Music With Soul May 09, 2024

José James has often been called a “jazz singer for the hip hop generation,” having come to jazz through tracing hip hop samples and over the course of twelve records, he’s also incorporated R&B, soul, rock, funk, and Latin music into his songs. While he’s mostly sung his own music over the years, he has occasionally covered songs by some of his favorite artists: Bill Withers, Gil Scott-Heron, Erykah Badu and Billie Holiday.

James has just released a new album called 1978, which sees him looking back, past hip hop, to the soul music of the 70s. But this is soul music with a message; songs like “For Trayvon” make that clear. But it’s also message-music with soul: José James closes the album with “38th & Chicago,” which has a jazzy bassline, an almost bossa nova guitar sound, and a Caribbean lilt in the percusson. José James and his band play some of these hot grooves in-studio. -John Schaefer

Set list: 1. Let's Get It 2. Planet Nine 3. Saturday Night (Need You Now)

Community-Fueled Chamber-Pop By San Fermin May 06, 2024

American indie rock-chamber collective, San Fermin, has been making lush, wide-angled Baroque-pop songs for more than a decade. The band was founded by Brooklyn-based keyboardist Ellis Ludwig Leone, who has multiple creative outlets as a songwriter, classical composer, and founding partner (with bandmate Allen Tate) of a record label focused on collaborations. The latest batch of 'immediate pop' songs on the 2024 album, Arms, is about things falling apart, but the process of making it brought people together, (Brooklyn Magazine). The band San Fermin plays some of these new songs, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Weird Environment 2. Didn't Want You To 3. Arms

Cameroonian Composer Blick Bassy's Folk, Soul and Electro Songscapes May 02, 2024

France-based Cameroonian musician and composer Blick Bassy’s quiet and beautiful songs fall somewhere on the spectrum of R & B, pop, and folk, while the sounds of West and Central Africa have continued to resonate. His Bandcamp calls it "Africanity at the crossroads of soul, folk, and electro". Past albums by Bassy have also referenced Delta blues, and his latest effort, Mádibá, dedicated to the theme of water, is full of modern electronic beats, delicate guitars, brass arrangements, and rich Bassa vocals. Blick Bassy is about to release an extended version of that 2023 LP; it’s called Mádibá Ni Mbondi and is due out on May 17. Catch him on tour in the U.S.A. this May. -Caryn Havlik

Set List: 1."Loba" 2."Hola Me" 3."Li Yanga"

Mádibá Ni Mbondi by Blick Bassy

Lizz Wright Transforms the Beauty of the Visual Into Song Apr 29, 2024

Vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright is usually referred to as a jazz or gospel singer, and she certainly does sing both of those styles. But she’s also comfortable with blues and R&B and the Great American Songbook. Her latest album is called Shadow, and it features striking versions of songs by Cole Porter, Sandy Denny, and others. The record also includes a number of Lizz Wright’s own songs, which draw inspiration from her Southern upbringing in Georgia, and wander freely among the many styles of American music. “Shadow” happens to be Wright's studio debut under her label, Blues & Greens Records, a new step in her artistic freedom, and without the genre constraints imposed by record labels. Lizz Wright and her band perform some of these acoustic songs, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Sparrow 2. Circling 3. Your Love

Reyna Tropical's Spiritual Survival Songs Apr 25, 2024

Reyna Tropical is led by guitarist, singer, songwriter and co-producer Fabi Reyna, who is the founder of She Shreds Media, dedicated to women and non-binary guitarists. Investigating landscapes of the tropical diaspora - from Cartagena, Colombia to Fajardo, Puerto Rico and Cuaji (la costa chica de Guerrero), the latest release, Malegría, is a collection of 20 tracks infused with the beat of all things tropical. The music is a blend of Latin rhythms with rock, dance music, and psychedelia and offers connection to the land and the ancestors as well as resilience, and a continuation—a celebration of spiritual survival pulsing with sunny dance beats. Reyna Tropical plays in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Suavecito 2. Catagena 3. Conexion Ancestral

Malegría by Reyna Tropical

Producer and Rapper Erick the Architect Smiles Through It Apr 22, 2024

Brooklyn-born rapper, producer & founding member of Flatbush Zombies, Erick the Architect released his debut solo LP, I’ve Never Been Here Before, in February. While it’s full of trenchant social commentary, it’s also focused on dealing with loss and finding freedom in vulnerability. The tracks draw from funk, gospel, soul, reggae and jazz, with throughlines to musical greats like John Coltrane and George Clinton (who contributed to the album). Erick the Architect and his touring trio bring their elastic funk basslines, character studies, killer beats, and spacey sound effects to perform in-studio.

Set list: 1. Ezekiel's Wheel 2. Beef Patty 3. Liberate

I've Never Been Here Before by Erick the Architect

Indie Fuzz-Rock Duo Deerlady's Shoegaze With Bite Apr 18, 2024

Deerlady is the name of the band led by singer and bassist Mali Obomsawin and guitarist and singer Magdalena Abrego. Mali was part of the folk rock trio called Lula Wiles; then she released her album of Indigenous jazz called Sweet Tooth in 2022, drawing heavily on her Abenaki heritage. Magdalena, a Chicago-born guitarist whose parents migrated from Mexico and Puerto Rico, has played with the minimalism-meets-jazz collective known as Numinous, as well as the improvising sax player Allison Burik. In January, the two of them released their first album together, with the cheeky title Greatest Hits, “a collection of songs about intimacy under colonialism by Mali Obomsawin" (Bandcamp), and it sees the two of them turning the amps to 11 and pairing softly sung vocals with roaring guitars. Deerlady plays their shoegazey headbangers, in stripped-down arrangements, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

1. Masterpieces 2. Believer 3. There There

Greatest Hits by Deerlady, Mali Obomsawin, Magdalena Abrego,

London-Based Naturalist Cosmo Sheldrake's Marvelous Sound World Apr 15, 2024

London vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Cosmo Sheldrake creates songs and sound worlds out of people, places, creatures, plants, fungi, and collected sounds. With his combination of traditional instrumentation and electronic production, field recordings, and both human and more-than-human voices (birdsong and insect choruses), Sheldrake pursues adventures in song, capturing the childlike wonder of a curious tea party, and staying connected to the natural world throughout. Cosmo Sheldrake juxtaposes these orchestrated natural sounds with his racks of gear to share his marvelous sound world in some songs from his latest, Eye to the Ear, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Stop the Music 2. I Did and I Don't and I Do 3. Does the Swallow Dream of Flying?

Eye To The Ear by Cosmo Sheldrake

Empress Of Explores Yin/Yang of Romance and Plays Intimate Songs, In-Studio Apr 11, 2024

Honduran-American artist Lorely Rodriguez, known professionally as Empress Of, is a singer, songwriter, musician and record producer based in Los Angeles, California. Her albums are full of bright, indie pop that mixes dance music, electronica, trap, and on her most recent album, Latin music. Empress Of’s new album, her fourth, is called For Your Consideration, and it’s a mischievous exploration of heartbreak, affairs, regaining your sexiness, and pursuing lust and control. Empress Of plays some stripped down versions of some of the new songs, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1.Lorelei 2. Kiss Me 3. What's Love

Genre-Less British Rock Band Bombay Bicycle Club, In-Studio Apr 04, 2024

Formed in North London, Bombay Bicycle Club is the sound of four best friends finding joy and savoring the connection in making music together and experimenting. They think of themselves as a genre-less band (The Independent), “not bound down by genre in a way that a lot of our contemporaries were”. With the 2023 release of My Big Day, and an EP called Fantasies, both of which feature a host of guest vocalists, it’s clear that they’re still freely mixing sounds and cover a lot of ground, sonically. Bombay Bicycle Club plays an unplugged set in-studio.

Set list: 1. Turn The World On 2. Diving 3. Luna

Singer and Producer Hatis Noit Connects Worlds With Her Voice Apr 01, 2024

The Japanese singer/composer/producer Hatis Noit, is originally from the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Her name, hatis noit ハチスノイト, means the stem of the lotus flower and is intended to serve as a connection between the living world (represented by the lotus flower) and the spirit world (the lotus root). Further, Hatis Noit feels that singing is not unlike Tai chi, and is a way to connect the physical world to the spiritual world and nature.

Now based in London and using vocal techniques she’s adapted from around the world, Hatis Noit makes music by using electronics to layer and occasionally process her voice. She sings in a pure, Renaissance vocal style, in the keening tradition of the Balkans, in the style of Japanese gagaku or court music, and in a classical operatic mode… sometimes all in the same song. The Japanese singer and electronic musician Hatis Noit creates these choirs of sound all by herself, using a looping station, live, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Aura 2. Himbrimi 3. Inori

Spanish Singer María José Llergo's Flamenco Has Roots And Wings Mar 28, 2024

Spanish singer and songwriter Maria José Llergo grew up in the region of Andalucia, the home of flamenco music, where she learned violin, and listened to her grandfather sing. From these roots, she grows her own flamenco - and it has "wings" - the sounds of contemporary pop, R&B, and electronica to augment and transform the style. Where there could be flamenco guitar and the "torn throat" crying vocals of flamenco singing, her music is soaring and buoyant global pop, showcasing her instrument - her voice. Maria José Llergo and her band perform in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Juramento 2. SuperPoder 3. Aprendiendo A Volar

Watch "Aprendiendo A Volar":

The Slow Pastoral Beauty of Roger Eno's Shifting Chords Mar 25, 2024

The “distinctive style” of British composer and musician Roger Eno’s slowly unfolding sonic landscapes has “attracted a cult following” (Eno’s bio). As well as first collaborating with his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois in 1983 on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, he has made over a dozen solo albums and other collaborative pieces. He’s composed for theatre, TV, and film; formed the ambient music supergroup Channel Light Vessel in the 90s; collaborated with The Orb, Lou Reed, Laraaji, Jarvis Cocker and Beck; and was the Musical Director for Tim Robbins and his band, The Rogues Gallery, (RogerEno.com).

In 2020 the album Mixing Colours by Roger and Brian Eno brough him to the prestigious classical music label Deutsche Grammophon. Roger’s latest solo release for that label is called the skies, they shift like chords, and includes solo piano tracks, layers of instrumental and electronic colours, along with an appearance by vocalist Cecily Eno, his daughter. Roger Eno and Cecily Eno perform in-studio.

Set list: 1. There Was a Ship 2. Shadow Clock 3. Tapestry

The Songs and Prayers of Tibetan Singer Yungchen Lhamo Mar 21, 2024

The Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo was given the name Lhamo at birth by a Buddhist monk. The name means Goddess Of Melody, and Yungchen has spent her adult life living up to that title. After fleeing Tibet by walking over the Himalayas, in 1989, she established herself as a leading voice for Tibetan culture in the west, releasing a series of albums on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Record label and has become one of the signature voices on the global music scene, even singing for the Dalai Lama. In her work, she combines songs, prayers, and mantras dedicated to spiritual awakening, unconditional love, and compassion for all beings. Now based in upstate New York, she’s put the principles of Tibetan Buddhism to work not only in her music, but also in her activities leading the One Drop Of Kindness Foundation. Her latest album is also called One Drop of Kindness, and it brings Yungchen Lhamo back to our studio.

Set list: 1. Sound Healing 2. Sun and Moon (acapella) 3. Four Wishes

Daymé Arocena Infuses Spirituality and Pan-Caribbean Pop Into Afro-Cuban Jazz Mar 18, 2024

Daymé Arocena, an Afro-Cuban singer from Havana now based in Puerto Rico, has been performing semi-professionally since she was 8 years old. She was trained as a composer, arranger, choir director, and band leader (Wikipedia) at conservatory, in addition to being “a practitioner of the Santeria religion, and a master of its profound musical tradition,” (Afropop Worldwide). Arocena was also part of the band Maqueque, an all-female band of young Cuban artists blending folkloric Cuban music and jazz (NPR Music).

Since emerging as a solo artist, her songwriting has been a winning mix of jazz, soul, Caribbean, rumba, and folkloric music, imbued with Yoruban spirituality. But her latest release, Alkemi, celebrates the sounds of North American and Latin pop, intentionally so, as she picked Eduardo Cabra of Calle 13 to help produce on the album, which also features guests and sounds from around the Caribbean. Daymé Arocena and her band play some of the songs from Alkemi, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. America Boy 2. Como Vivir Por El 3. Por Ti

Sheherazaad's Insightful Blend of Poetry and Music, In-Studio Mar 14, 2024

The singer and songwriter Sheherazaad blends the rich tradition of poetry and music from South Asia with Western instruments and production techniques. Her new album, Qasr, was produced by Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab, and it offers a subtly colored, moody collection of songs that, in the tradition of the old collection 1001 Nights, tell stories. Stories that conjure "real strains of displacement, the push and pull of diaspora, and the depravity of erasure and forgotten roots", (Erased Tapes). Sheherazaad and her ensemble perform the music of her origins, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Dhund Lo Mujhe 2. Khatam 3. Koshish

Composer and Flutist Nathalie Joachim Explores Family and Identity in Song Mar 11, 2024

Haitian-American composer, flutist, vocalist, and educator Nathalie Joachim is half of the duo Flutronix, whose music blends classical flute playing with electronic sounds. She also played for a spell in the Grammy-winning contemporary classical music ensemble Eighth Blackbird. But in 2019 Nathalie began exploring her family’s roots in Haiti with a striking album called Famn d’Ayiti, using flute, string quartet, electronics, field recordings and her own singing. Now, she’s continued that exploration with a new album called Ki moun ou ye, or Who Are You / and the Kreyol meaning is Who Claims You? On it, her precisely assembled original songs and compositions explore ideas about family, ancestry, and identity using recorded voices of family members, along with her own flute riffs and voice, and percussive elements. Nathalie Joachim presents music from her latest album called Ki moun ou ye, or "Who Are You / Who Claims You?", in-studio.

Set list: 1. Kenbe m 2. Kouti Yo 3. Ki moun ou ye

Mary Timony Recaptures Her Joy On 'Untame The Tiger" Mar 07, 2024

Singer, songwriter, guitarist, and educator Mary Timony has been a hugely influential figure on the indie and alternative rock scenes for over 30 years. Starting with the band Autoclave in 1990, she went on to front the group Helium for much of the 1990s, was a member of the supergroup Wild Flag, and is a guitarist and singer of the band Ex Hex. Her latest album, Untame The Tiger, is a solo record – her first in at least 15 years – is full of tasty guitar licks and thoughtful lyrics. Mary Timony and her band play some of the new tunes, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Summer 2. No Thirds 3. The Guest

The American Patchwork Quartet Plays Songs of Enduring American Culture, In-Studio Feb 29, 2024

The American Patchwork Quartet is a group that reflects the American melting pot – the patchwork quilt of people who’ve come and made the U.S.A. their home. APQ features two-time Grammy winner Clay Ross, of the band Ranky Tanky, drummer Clarence Penn, and two musicians who immigrated from Asia: the singer Falu (from India) and bassist Yasushi Nakamura (from Japan). Their debut, untitled album is just out, and includes fresh, often Indian-tinged arrangements of old fiddle tunes, folk hymns, and early blues. As the famed folksong collector and producer Alan Lomax said, “America has a patchwork culture made of the dreams and songs of all its people.” The American Patchwork Quartet performs their take on old folk songs in-studio.

Set list: 1. Wayfaring Stranger 2. Lazy John 3. Shenandoah

Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra Find Their Twisted Bliss Feb 26, 2024

Ethan Lipton writes plays, and songs, and sometimes, plays with songs. His musical No Place To Go won an Obie for its trenchant take on the decline of the American workspace, and in another musical, The Outer Space, a couple finds that they can flee planet earth but not its problems. Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra, according to their own biography, offer "modern lounge with a chewy singer-songwriter center" with songs that may present a melancholy wit and a cockeyed worldview. Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra, his longstanding four-piece band, have a new album out, called Did You Do The Thing We Talked About, and they play some of these songs in-studio.

Set list: 1. Mess That Summer 2. To Have Done It 3. Crazy for New York

Vijay Iyer Trio Forges Telepathic Connections on 'Compassion' Feb 22, 2024

Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer first got together with bassist and composer Linda May-Han Oh and drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey in 2021, when they released their brilliant album Uneasy. But with all three musicians having such busy careers, it seemed like it might be a kind of musical summit – the sort of thing that only happens once. Now, those same three gifted players have released a second album called Compassion, on which the trio's connected interplay can seem telepathic, as the musicians imagine future possibilities with warmth and clarity. The Vijay Iyer Trio plays some of these newer works, in-studio.

Set list: 1. Tempest 2. Compassion 3. Ghostrumental

Good Time NYC Rock Unit Bodega Considers Consumerism Feb 19, 2024

NYC-based rock unit Bodega makes artful post-punk songs with brawny, catchy riffs and shouty gang vocals. Their lyrics contain politically-minded and perhaps cheeky commentaries on advertising, technology, pop culture, high art - and how we consume it all; oh- and on gentrification as well. They play bracing new tunes from the forthcoming album, Our Brand Could Be Yr Life, in-studio. -Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Tarkovski 2. Shiny New Model 3. City Is Taken

Our Brand Could Be Yr Life by BODEGA

A Rich Harvest of John Leventhal's Lyrical Guitar Work Feb 15, 2024

Guitarist and songwriter John Leventhal has spent almost a half century producing, playing for, and co-writing with some of the music world’s most familiar names – Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, Jim Lauderdale, Marc Cohn, Joan Osborne, Sarah Jarosz, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Willie Nelson, and of course, Rosanne Cash, to whom Leventhal is married. He’s won a fistful of Grammys, but the one thing he hasn’t done in all that time is a solo record. Until now. Rumble Strip is a collection of instrumentals, a few songs, and a surprising cover or two. John Leventhal plays some of these tunes in-studio.

1. Floyd Cramer's Dream 2. JL's Hymn No. 2 3. That's All I Know About Arkansas

Bluesman Bobby Rush on Funk, Chicken Heads, and the Music Business Feb 12, 2024

Bobby Rush is in the Blues Hall of Fame, and he’s won three Grammy awards. The first came when he was 83, the second four years later, and the third most recently this month. Now 90 years old, Bobby Rush still tours, dancing around the stage like a guy half – no, a quarter of his age, and not even COVID could stop him from writing and recording his latest album, called All My Love For You. Bobby Rush demonstrates how he put the funk into the blues, recounts what it was like enduring within the music business (he owns all his own publishing), and tells tales while playing the blues, in-studio. -Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Let Me In Your House 2. Chicken Heads 3. Garbage Man

Trumpeter/Songwriter Keyon Harrold Stretches and Expands Jazz Feb 08, 2024

Trumpeter, singer and composer Keyon Harrold gained a lot of attention for his contribution to the Don Cheadle film Miles Ahead, where he played all of the Miles Davis parts on that Grammy-winning soundtrack. But Keyon’s first professional gig was with the rapper Common, and throughout his career he’s moved effortlessly between the worlds of jazz, hip hop, soul and R&B, as a trumpeter, and, as a singer and songwriter. His new album, his third, is called Foreverland, and Keyon Harrold and his band PLAY some of it, in-studio. (Serious emphasis on play. The band is a joy to watch! – Caryn Havlik)

Set List: 1. Find Your Peace, feat. Stout 2. Don't Lie, feat. Malaya 3. Beautiful Day, feat. Malaya and Stout

Foreverland by keyon harrold

Ute Lemper Singt Cabaret Songs of Weimar Berlin, In-Studio Feb 05, 2024

The German-born, New York-based singer and actress Ute Lemper's career has spanned a century of songs from the worlds of cabaret jazz, avant-garde pop, musical theater, even contemporary classical music. But when she sings the music of Kurt Weill, a much earlier German-born, NY-based artist, she has few equals. So when Carnegie Hall decided to launch its series exploring the music of the Weimar Republic, Ute Lemper had to have a featured role to play. On Friday, Feb. 9, she’ll be performing her tribute to Weimar Berlin at Zankel Hall, and she’s in the studio to give us a preview of what that’ll sound like. Ticket info for Ute Lemper at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in the round on Feb. 9.

Set list: 1. Solomon Song/Pirate Jenny 2. Cabaret Songs (Medley of Sexual Liberation) 3. En Brecht/ Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

London's The Wandering Hearts Spin Folk Tales For Hard Times Feb 01, 2024

London-based country-folk-pop outfit The Wandering Hearts are known for their deft fingerpicking, rousing choruses, dark-hued lyrics, and sweet, close vocal harmonies. Their music is a blend of Laurel Canyon and British folk sensibilities, heartfelt songwriting and storytelling, and was a great fit at the recent official Americana Fest showcase in Nashville, TN. The Wandering Hearts play new songs from their latest release, ‘Mother’, in-studio.

Set list: 1. River to Cry 2. Not Misunderstood 3. About America

Singer Britti Embraces Retro Pop, Country, and Soul Jan 29, 2024

The singer Britti is from Louisiana, and her debut LP, winningly titled Hello, I’m Britti, is like being introduced to someone who somehow already feels familiar. Britti’s songs are full of the classic sounds of vintage soul, New Orleans funk, blues, and even country/heartland rock. Her sultry croon, ranging from Sade-meets-second line to shimmering country-pop (like her childhood favorite Dolly Parton), on her Dan Auerbach-produced debut album, lounges atop a hazy retro vibe with both country twang and a horn section. Britti plays some of these new songs in a stripped-down setting with just voice and guitar, in-studio.

Set list: 1. So Tired 2. Nothing Compares to You 3. Keep Running

Sinkane Crafts Music For Community and For Shaking It Jan 25, 2024

Sudanese-American bandleader Sinkane, aka Ahmed Gallab, weaves the sounds of Afrobeat, disco, soul, even krautrock into his irresistible, dance-ready songs. With his latest, We Belong, due out in April, Sinkane found inspiration in Black Arts, Music and Culture and sought out collaborations across a New York community of artists, musicians, poets, and authors. Those full gospel harmonies, a deeper understanding of composition, and connecting with people all generate a message of hope and belonging, and of shaking it. As Sinkane has quoted of late in some interviews, “Free your mind and your ass will follow!”

Set list: 1. Everything is Everything 2. How Sweet Is Your Love 3. We Belong

Pianist Lara Downes Aims To Expand Classical Music Jan 22, 2024

American pianist Lara Downes has been redefining what it means to be a classical musician, often by expanding our definition of classical music. She’s championed the works of women and Black composers; she’s been a cultural activist and a broadcaster. Now, she’s commissioned a radical new arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" by Puerto Rican composer Edmar Colón, to mark the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s iconic piece. Lara Downes and Edmar Colón play some of "Rhapsody in Blue, Reimagined", in-studio.

Set List: 1. Love Will Find A Way (Eubie Blake) 2. My Lord What A Mornin’ (trad/arr. H.T. Burleigh) / On Bended Knees (Burleigh arr of Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen) 3. Study in Blue (Gershwin/Edmar Colón)

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