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 C​ó​smico 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 C​ó​smico, 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

The Cristal Baschet is a very unique, 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. Loup Barrow has spent the past few hours here in our studio assembling this sound sculpture, which he plays, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. Northern Lights 2. Passio

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

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

The Norwegian sextet Kaizers Orchestra combines rock, opera, Balkan music, and a kind of alt-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 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 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 is a musician, fashion designer, and visual artist from Botwana 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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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:

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

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 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, 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 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.  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

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

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 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

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

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*

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

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. 

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

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

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.  The members of Sō have worked with Shaw as a composer (Narrow Sea), and collaboratively as a band as on the latest, Rectangles and Circumstance. They’ve described their groups songwriting as lyrics via adaptations of poetry, or by a band member - and music which can morph - whether added to and/or sliced up; it’s a process where everyone contributes equally. Sō describes percussion as an ethos – a willingness to make any and all sounds as requested, by whatever means necessary - whether that is a keyboard, a crotale dipped in water, or ripping a roll of duct tape in time. Despite everything being counted off in four, there are “beats of deceit”, where the music surfs on the edge of some meter, and it carries you, (-Caroline Shaw.) 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. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. Sing On 2. Slow Motion 3. The Parting Glass

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

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

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

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

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:   

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)

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

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

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 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

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, 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

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

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

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

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 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 non-student 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 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)

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 keyboardist Brooklyn-based 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

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 M​á​dibá 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

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 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, Malegr​í​a, 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

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

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 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

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

Welsh musician and songwriter Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals, the pop outfit known for their catchy songs and weird videos) poetically harnesses both the gritty and the trippy in his own music. But he’s also a composer, producer, filmmaker and author. His latest release, the 25th album of his career (individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands), is a solo album called Sadness Sets Me Free, sung in English, and left open to chance. Rhys and his bandmates play some of these new songs, in-studio. Sadness Sets Me Free by Gruff Rhys

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

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 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 “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 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, 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

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 Khatham 3 Koshish

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

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

Helado Negro is the avant pop project of Roberto Carlos Lange, born in Florida to Ecuadorian parents but for many years based in Brooklyn. In recent years he’s moved around a bit (Marfa, TX!) and is now based in Asheville NC, which is where he made his new dreamscapey bilingual avant-pop album called Phasor. While it definitely has the dreamy, warm sound of an Helado Negro album, it also feels different - the grooves are more prominent and there are new sonic textures we haven’t heard before, perhaps due to inspiration from Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening, Foley sound art, and many other sources – including what the sun feels like. Set list: 1. Echo Tricks Me 2. Out There 3. Best For You And Me

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 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

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. Well now those same three musicians have released a second album, called Compassion, which includes a couple of interesting covers along with a number of Vijay’s original works. The Vijay Iyer Trio performs some of these newer works, in-studio.  Set list: 1. Tempest 2. Compassion 3. Ghostrumental

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 cheeky 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

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

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, 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

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-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  

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

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

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 Gerswin'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 (Gerswhin/Edmar Colón)

Canadian-based Afro-Cuban duo OKAN takes their name from the word for heart/soul in the Afro Cuban religion Santeria. Both co-leaders, composers and multi- instrumentalists Elizabeth Rodriguez and Magdelys Savigne are classically-trained musicians (violin and percussion and orchestration); and their music combines the traditional chants and rhythms of the Afro-Cuban tradition with jazz, electronica, and pop. The Juno-Award winning OKAN plays compositions from their latest record, Okantomi, in-studio. Set list: 1. Oriki Oshun 2. Okantomi 3. La Reina del Norte

Self-described “lifelong hustler,” Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, is better known by his stage name Fantastic Negrito, and makes “black roots music for everyone” - blues with a giant undercurrent of punkass. Fantastic Negrito’s songs tell of a hard life with some complete do-overs and a few near-death experiences. Coming from a crossroads with optional deals, his music might be informed just as much by California funk-punk (Bad Brains and Fishbone), hip hop, thrash metal, punk, Prince and his self-taught ways - specifically Dirty Mind (according to this Guardian interview) and the blues records he’d heard as a kid, visiting family in southern Virginia. Lately, his tunes have been placed and licensed for TV and film series (Empire, Hand of God, and in the case of his song “Working Poor,” Bernie Sanders’ political campaign.) But back in the early 2000's he had co-founded a record label, which grew into Oakland-based multimedia creative collective, the Blackball Universe cooperative, fed and financed with the publishing royalties of his own musical alter egos Chocolate Butterfly, Me and This Japanese Guy and Blood Sugar X.  Fantastic Negrito's 2018 record, Please Don’t Be Dead, references his own near-fatal car crash, and is driven in part by political and social issues in these broken and fractured times. The record is full of heavy riffs, cheeky songwriting, playful musicianship, and a whole lot of surviving. It brings Fantastic Negrito to the studio to play some of these tunes. -by Caryn Havlik Watch the individual songs below:    

The singer and guitarist Lau Noah is based here in New York, but she’s originally from Catalonia in Spain, and her guitar playing reflects the sounds of Spanish classical and flamenco music. But there are also elements of Latin American music, jazz, pop, even bluegrass on her latest album. That’s because that record, called A Dos, is (as the title implies) a series of duets with people like jazz singer Cecile McLorin Salvant, mandolinist Chris Thile, and pop star Jacob Collier. Lau Noah with fellow singer Elliott Skinner, plays some of these duets, in-studio.  Set list: 1. Wooden Chair 2. Siete Lágrimas 3. If a Tree Falls in Love with a River Lau Noah's album release show for A Dos is on January 23rd at Joe's Pub

Nashville-based Brooklyn-born The Lone Bellow blends passionate, acoustic-based blues, country, and roots music into folky Americana with three-part vocal harmonies. They first brought their ever-shifting blend of American folk music and heartland rock to our studio before that first album even came out, and they’ve joined us at various points during their 10 year journey. The Lone Bellow plays songs built around warm, twangy guitar riffs, and a single old-timey microphone, in-studio, to celebrate their tenth anniversary.   Set list: 1. Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold 2. Cost of Living 3. Honey

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Louis Michot won a Grammy with his band the Lost Bayou Ramblers, a group that takes the Cajun tradition and adds a healthy dose of punk energy and occasional electronics. Now, he’s released a solo album called R​ê​ve du Troubadour – the troubadour’s dream – and it’s full of traditional Cajun sounds married to contemporary beats, whistled choruses, and guest musicians like Bombino, the Tuareg guitarist from Niger, and the cellist Layla McCalla. Louis Michot and his trio play some of these old melodies, enhanced with field recordings and danceable beats, in-studio.  Set list: 1. Amourette 2. R​ê​ve du Troubadour 3. Chanquaillie/Acadiana Culture Backstep

Hear favorite live performances from the WNYC studios this year: music by Indigenous two-spirit song carrier and activist Jeremy Dutcher; electronically-enhanced piano-based work by German-Swiss duo Grandbrothers; and Irish garage-punk band Sprints. Also, there's the quiet thrill and expressive song-play of Argentinian vocalist Sofía Rei and Peruvian bass player Jorge Roeder. Plus, listen to partly composed, and partly improvised music from Serbian quartet EYOT. ARTIST: Jeremy DutcherWORK: Honor Song [4:29]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, Oct. 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: jeremydutcher.com ARTIST: GrandbrothersWORK:  Blood Flow [5:55]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, Sept. 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: grandbrothersmusic.com ARTIST: SprintsWORK: Up and Comer [3:44]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, Dec. 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. The song appears on the album, Letter to SelfINFO: https://www.sprintsmusic.com/ ARTIST: Sofía Rei and Jorge RoederWORK:  Días de Sitio [2:54]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, Aug. 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. The song appears on the album, Coplas EscondidasINFO: https://jorgeroeder.bandcamp.com/album/coplas-escondidas ARTIST: EYOTWORK: 557799 [5:57]RECORDING: Recorded for the Soundcheck Podcast, May 2023SOURCE: This performance is not commercially availableINFO: A version appears on 557799

Hear favorite live performances from the WNYC studios this year: including Mercury Prize-winning London Afrobeat-jazz-hip hop quintet Ezra Collective; drummer Allison Miller’s chamber jazz band (with tap dance!); and beatmaker/bandleader Kassa Overall’s jazz meets rap and sound design. Plus, the furiously exhilarating post-punk of Atlanta-born quartet Algiers; and Mexican singer Magos Herrera with members of Brooklyn’s own The Knights. Playlist: ARTIST: Ezra CollectiveWORK: No Confusion [5:01]RECORDING: Live on the Soundcheck PodcastSOURCE:  This performance not commercially available. The song appears on the album, Where I'm Meant To BeINFO: https://ezracollective.bandcamp.com/album/where-im-meant-to-be ARTIST: Allison MillerWORK: Hudson [5:12]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, Nov. 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. INFO: allisonmiller.com ARTIST: Magos Herrera, Members of The KnightsWORK: Aire [5:02]RECORDING: Live on Soundcheck, August 2023SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.INFO: https://magosherrera.bandcamp.com/album/aire ARTIST: Kassa OverallWORK: Make My Way Back Home [4:57]RECORDING: Recorded for the Soundcheck Podcast, July 2023SOURCE: This performance is not commercially available. A version appears on AnimalsINFO: https://www.kassaoverall.com/ ARTIST: AlgiersWORK: Irreversible Damage [5:04]RECORDING: Recorded for the Soundcheck Podcast, April 2023SOURCE: This performance is not commercially available. A version appears on ShookINFO: https://www.algierstheband.com

The phenomenal pianist Stewart Goodyear, known as both an improviser and composer, famously played all 32 of Beethoven's sonatas in one sitting, when he turned 32 years old. In predictably jaw-dropping fashion, Stewart then turned his electrifying powers to Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker,' with his own transcription of the complete ballet. (The album, released in October 2015, was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015.) He has since recorded Ravel piano works, his own "Callaloo" Suite and Piano Sonata, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He was supposed to have toured with Chineke! Orchestra, playing his "Callaloo" Suite this past year, but well. Yeah. 2020. Instead, we'll revisit this 2015 in-studio performance of pieces from Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker.' 

JJJJJerome Ellis describes himself as “a stuttering, Afro-Caribbean composer, poet, and performer.” His last album, The Clearing, was a brilliant mix of sax, electronic music, and storytelling, featuring his own, stuttering voice. But his new project doesn’t involve speech – though it is inspired by prayer. It’s called Compline, named after the old evening prayers of Western Christianity, and it’s a series of contemplative works for solo piano. JJJJJerome Ellis plays improvisations on Compline, his new set of piano works, in-studio. Set list: Compline Improvisation No. 4, Compline Improvisation No. 2, Compline Improvisation No. 3 Compline in Nine Movements by JJJJJerome Ellis

Nefesh Mountain has established itself over the past ten years as an unusual sort of bluegrass band, playing progressive, Jewish-themed music. The band is led by the husband and wife team of Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff and they’ve played with bluegrass legends like Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush. What is different about Nefesh Mountain is the way they incorporate Jewish themes and sometimes even Hebrew lyrics into a style of music that has its roots, in part at least, in Christian gospel music. Nefesh Mountain plays a live set in The Greene Space.   Set list: Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, The Narrow Bridge, A Sparrow’s Song, A Mighty Roar

Singer and guitarist Anjimile made a striking impression with his 2020 album Giver Taker, a buoyant collection of indie folk pop. Now, he’s returned with a new record called The King, a much darker record that wrestles with Anjimile’s journey as a Black trans person in a divided America. The album draws on a wider range of sounds, including elements of metal and contemporary classical music. Anjimile plays solo, unplugged versions of some of these new songs. Set list: "Animal" "Anybody" "The King"

Pianist, bandleader and composer Joey Alexander was born in Indonesia and in 2013 at the age of 10, was invited by Wynton Marsalis to perform at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala. He spent his teenage years as an interpreter of many jazz classics, playing with Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, and at major festivals and night clubs, worldwide. In 2022, he released an album of originals rich in melodic and harmonic interplay called Origin. His latest album, a second record of (mostly) his own music, called Continuance, is just out, and it brings Joey Alexander to our piano, to play some of these tunes in a solo setting. Set list: 1. Blue 2. Aliceanna 3. Why Don't We  

Braxton Cook first made a name for himself as a teenager gigging on the Washington DC jazz scene; toured extensively alongside Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott), and worked in New York where he’s played sax with Jon Batiste (as part of the Soul soundtrack), Christian McBride, and others. But all the time, there was another side of Braxton Cook: the smooth R&B crooner. His latest solo album, Who Are You When No One Is Watching mixes jazz, soul, R&B, and some elements of hip hop production. The material also addresses current issues around injustices and racism, while giving a journaling spin to personal experiences. Braxton Cook and his band play in-studio some of these new songs and a tune from his 2018 record, No Doubt. Set list: 1. No Doubt 2. The Same 3. MB

Sprints is a garage-punk band from Dublin where they’re known for take-no-prisoners live shows and claim among their influences the likes of early Pixies, Bahaus, Siouxsie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages and LCD Soundsystem. Their first full-length album is called Letter To Self, and amidst the crashing, searing, seething guitars, there is “an exploration of pain, passion and perseverance”, (dedication for the album), and some inward-looking lyrics. Sprints throws down a mix of deadpan delivery and explosive emotion, playing new songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. Adore Adore Adore 2. Up and Comer 3. Literary Mind

Johan Lenox has one of the more unusual resumes in the music world. He’s probably best known as a producer, working with hip hop stars like Travis Scott and Big Sean. But he’s also a singer, pianist, and a composer of contemporary classical music. He’ll produce uncategorizable work with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, write music for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and cover a Nirvana song, all as part of his omnivorous musical diet. Lenox’s 2023 release is called Johan's Childhood Chamber Nostalgia Album, which leans toward ambient music with an unfocused childlike spirit. Johan Lenox and a small chamber music trio play in-studio.  Set list: "Hopes and Dreams", "Boy With Blurry Eyes", "When I Was Your Age"

The Minneapolis trio Barbaro grows out of the American bluegrass tradition, but the key words there might be “out of”, as Barbaro doesn’t race through banjo breakdowns and flashy fiddle solos, although they can do those things. The band is something of progressive version of bluegrass – using traditional instrumentation like fiddle and banjo, but drawing inspiration from electronic music and writing songs that may sound pastoral and folky but which often carry a bit of a bite. Barbaro plays new songs from their rootsy chamber music album, About The Winter, and chats about horse racing, in-studio. Set list: "Subtle Hints", "Gardens", "All My Friends"

Mountain Man, the Appalachian a cappella trio, features the timeless sound of three voices singing in harmony, with an occasional strum of the guitar. They released an album in 2010, a trio of college friends who’d gotten used to singing together, but then went their separate ways after college. All three of them toured for a long time as Feist’s backup singers, and lately Amelia Meath, one third of the trio, has been keeping busy as half of Sylvan Esso. Meath, along with Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Molly Sarle are back, with their first album in eight years, Magic Ship.  As our colleague Justin Sergi writes, "their immaculate precision of timing and tuning and phrasing, comes from love and friendship and the elemental, historic 'fun' of singing three-part harmony with your friends." "It is a precision that can, perhaps, only be born from family. Which is what they are: family." The family of Mountain Man joins us to perform songs, chat about community in North Carolina, the internet, peace and joy, and Molly's cat, Magic Ship.  Set list: Boat Underwear AGT Watch "AGT":   

The musician known as No-No Boy is a Vietnamese-American singer and songwriter, real name Julian Saporiti, whose music incorporates the sounds of American folk but adds various Asian instruments and scales, as well as field recordings and found sound. Saporiti took the name No-No Boy from a post-war novel about the treatment of Japanese-Americans after the notorious internment camps set up during the second World War. And his songs often tell stories of marginalized Asian communities that are wrestling with their place in the American melting pot. No-No Boy’s latest album is Empire Electric, and it brings Julian and his band to our studio. Set list: 1. Jakarta 2. Little Monk 3. Two Candles In the Dark

New York-based drummer, composer, and educator Allison Miller has played with singer/songwriters like Brandi Carlile, Ani DiFranco, or Natalie Merchant, but she’s best known for her own bands, and her own music, which is usually labeled jazz, but you’ll hear elements of rock, funk and folk in there too. She’s the bandleader of the chamber jazz band Boom Tic Boom, and is part of the all-star jazz group Artemis along with many other collaborations. Allison Miller’s latest album, Rivers In Our Veins, features a new band, including several members of Boom Tic Boom but with tap dancers as well.  Allison Miller presents the full multimedia Rivers In Our Veins on Nov. 25 at Roulette.  Commissioned by Mid Atlantic Arts Organization and Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Rivers In Our Veins is inspired by five major rivers of the Northeast United States  – the James, Delaware, Potomac, Hudson and Susquehanna – their history, how they serve the communities around them, and how those communities need to better upkeep them. Allison Miller goes deep with research about rivers and social movement — migratory movement — along rivers, as well as what she learned from the River Keepers. [Much more about Rivers In Our Veins.] Her top-shelf band, with violinist Jenny Scheinman, bassist Todd Sickafoose, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, trumpeter Jason Palmer, and pianist Carmen Staaf, along with two phenomenally talented tap dancers, perform selections from Rivers In Our Veins, in-studio. Set list: 1. Hudson 2. Of Two Rivers (Part 2) 3. Fierce

Icelandic singer and songwriter Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, known by the mononym Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay), is having a breakout year. Now based in L.A., the young singer with the timeless-sounding voice crafts songs which look to the great American songbook and the jazz-inflected pop of the mid-20th century. Her roots are in both classical music (she’s a trained cellist) and in jazz and her mission is connecting multiple generations, especially her own, to both jazz and classical music. She plays modern torch songs from her latest album, Bewitched, in-studio.  [P.S. Check out Laufey’s online book club.] Set list: “Promise”, “California and Me”, “From the Start”

The songwriter, pianist, vocalist, and producer Raia Was has become known for her dark art- and alt-pop. She was raised here in New York, and some of the city’s darkness, risk-taking, and energy flow through her songs which may oscillate between brooding intensity and cathartic euphoria. [“You Are" was featured in HBO’s Euphoria.] Raia Was has just released her second record, called Captain Obvious, on a new cooperative record label called Switch Hit Records, and it brings her and her dream band of collaborators play in-studio.   Set list: “What It Feels Like” “Any Evil” “So Close” "Easy To Force It” Watch "What It Feels Like":   Watch "Any Evil": Watch "So Close": Watch "Easy to Force It":

The 2018 release from American pop band Speedy Ortiz, Twerp Verse, speaks smartly to political and social situations of the present from a feminist perspective of truth-telling and is designed, on purpose, to make us uncomfortable lyrically and musically. With songs that airdrop aggressive, unpredictable chord progressions and disorienting rhythms behind enemy lines, this record is music for popping out from the cover of safety, armed with teeth and claws. Speedy Ortiz plays some of these tunes, in-studio. (From the Archives, 2018.)  

Son Rompe Pera started as a street band in Mexico City, but the marimba-playing cumbia punks have spent the past six years honing an electrifying and buzzy mix of modern cumbia, tropical dance beats, hard-hitting punk, psychedelic guitars, traditional Mexican and Colombian rhythms, horns, and a pinch of dub and hip hop, (Kennedy Center program notes.) Their 2020 record Batuco, named after the band’s marimba player father, leaned more toward a folkloric, traditional sound by way of nine covers. However, their 2023 record, Chimborazo, delivers 12 originals that really bring the marimba to the mosh pit, including a song where the title is a Chilean expletive and is based on a dream about an alien abduction. Son Rompe Pera slays, in-studio. (-Caryn Havlik) Set list: "Selva Negra", "La Muerte del Amor", "Chucha" Watch "Selva Negra":

Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa is a member of the long-running hip hop collective known as Doomtree, though hip hop is just one part of what she does. She has also performed concerts of her songs with the Minnesota Orchestra, published well-received books of essays and audio plays, and hosts the podcast Deeply Human. Dessa, along with harpist Aviva Jaye and saxophonist/keyboardist Joshua Holmgren, play new songs from her 2023 album, called Bury The Lede, in-studio.  Set list: "Hurricane Party", "Blush", "Tell Me Again"

Pianist Pascal Le Boeuf’s background is in both jazz and electronic music, and he has established himself as a sought-after composer of contemporary classical music. His work communicates tension and release, leaves space for improvisation, and explores the limits of a continuous high-energy work lasting as long as possible. There’s also a lot of trust and collaboration built into the process. Le Boeuf performs in what might otherwise look like a classic jazz trio – piano, bass and drums – if it weren’t for the additional strings playing with them. Then, he also manipulates the strings inside our piano, and beats the outsides of the piano as well. Pascal Le Boeuf and his band play music from his 2023 album, Ritual Being, in-studio.   Set list: “Transition Behavior”, “Wanderlust”, “Obliquely Wrecked”

Pachyman is a one-man dub band; that one man is Pachy Garcia, and though he’s based in LA, he grew up in Puerto Rico, at a time when Jamaican music – especially dub reggae - was having a big impact on the island’s music scene. Pachyman’s new album is called Switched On, and is an homage to the era when musicians first began manipulating synthesizers to emit gloriously off-kilter bleeps, bloops, and whooshes - think Switched On Boleros and Switched On Bach. The new record brings Pachy and his dub-drenched sound system from another dimension to our studio. Switched-On by PACHYMAN

German singer and actress Ute Lemper’s career defies easy description. She’s a musical theater legend – starring in the original Paris production of Cabaret and adorning the sides of NYC buses when she starred in the Broadway run of Chicago. But she’s also a singer who has recreated the songs of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, and Kurt Weill, and sung contemporary songs by Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, and Philip Glass. And in recent years, she’s been writing songs as well, taking inspiration from Hiatus Kaiyote, John Legend, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox, Erykah Badu and/or Robert Glasper. Ute Lemper’s new album, Time Traveler, is a collection of her original works and she’s brought her band in to our studio to play some of them.  Set list: "Time Traveler", "Envie d’Amour"/"Magical Stone", "The Gift"

CMAT might look like one of those specialized tests you have to take to get into a post-graduate program, but this stage name is actually the initials of Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, a Dublin pop singer whose cleverly-titled debut LP If My Wife New I’d Be Dead was a hit in Ireland last year. With cultural references that range from Belgian football manager Vincent Kompany to Gilmore Girls, (she also loves Patsy Cline), CMAT knows how to take a deep dive down a topical rabbit hole and make it into relatable pop. She distills her maximalist tendencies down to an unplugged, intimate setting, playing songs from her brand-new record, Crazymad, For Me, in-studio.  Set list: “Where Are Your Kids Tonight?”, “Rent”, “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby” I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! by CMAT

Milwaukee-based blues singer and guitarist Buffalo Nichols, on his self-titled 2021 debut, showed how timeless the blues can be, both musically and emotionally. On his latest album, called The Fatalist, Nichols uses contemporary 21st century sounds and techniques to remind us that the blues have been and are always with us, intimately tied to present-day 2023. Buffalo Nichols plays some of these new songs, in-studio. Set list; “Turn Another Stone”, “The Long Journey Home”, “The Difference”

Jeremy Dutcher, the classically trained Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, and member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada burst upon the music scene in Canada in 2018, winning the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for his debut LP, which saw him performing with archival recordings of his Wolastoq ancestors. His latest, just released on October 6, is called Motewolonuwok (People of great spiritual power), and it continues Dutcher’s exploration of his First Nations roots: celebrating the culture, addressing the endangered language and land rights, and correcting the record. Jeremy and his trio play in-studio.  - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Skicinuwihkuk" (Indian Land), "Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok" (The People Are Rising), "Qonute" ( Honor Song)

Growing up in a Jamaican family in Florida, June McDoom was surrounded by reggae; but she found herself drawn to the sounds of 1960's and 1970's folk. Now based in New York, she has released her debut EP, which surrounds those songs with touches of psychedelia, and arrangements that in their own homespun way seem to echo another sound of the 60s – Phil Spector’s so-called "wall of sound". In her intimate acoustic musings, June McDoom’s voice rarely rises above a breathy croon, following its own melody regardless of the kaleidoscope of sounds behind her. McDoom and her band play in-studio. Set list: "On My Way", "Stone After Stone", "By June"     June McDoom by June McDoom

The London-based electronic music composer and producer Ryan Lee West records under the name Rival Consoles, and he’s always been concerned with creating an organic, living quality to his experimental electronic music. He draws on both the arena-sized grooves of EDM – electronic dance music – and the more intimate sounds of ambient music without ever settling on one or the other. Rival Consoles plays in-studio. Set list: “Pulses of Information”, “Articulation”, “Quiet Home”

Ballard is the name of the new album credited to LANZ & Kris Allen. Lanz is Benjamin Lanz, the trombonist and composer who plays with The National and Beirut and numerous other bands. Kris Allen is a sax player, bandleader and educator. But when you put them together, it's like Brian Eno and Sun Ra went to a My Bloody Valentine show, through perhaps a krautrock or post-rock filter. The result is a trippy batch of instrumentals built from highly processed electroacoustic sounds, sometimes maddeningly catchy and other times ambient and cool. LANZ & Kris Allen, along with drummer Robin Baytas, play some of this music, in-studio. Ballard by LANZ & Kris Allen

Bass player and songwriter Michael Olatuja has a career that spans continents and styles. He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, spent his teenage years playing on the London jazz scene, and has spent much of his career here in New York, playing with everyone from Diana Ross to Shakira to the band for the Broadway hit Frozen. His latest album, called Lagos Pepper Soup, is a tribute to those three cities, and his cinematic Afrobeat sound contains jazz roots of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, but also perhaps a bit of orchestration from his work with Broadway and Angelique Kidjo. Michael and his band play songs from the new album in-studio.   Michael Olatuja plays at Joe's Pub on Sept. 27.  Michael teaches you the recipe for pepper soup here:   Set list: “Brighter Day”, “The Hero’s Journey”, “Lagos Pepper Soup” Watch “The Hero’s Journey”:

The German-Swiss duo with the unlikely name of Grandbrothers draws on electronic dance music, ambient music, and minimalism. Their tag line is “messing around with grand pianos since 2012,” which captures the essence of their play: they use ALL parts of the piano to generate raw sounds –the notes of the keyboard but also striking the wooden case; or flossing, well, bowing the strings; and E-Bow-like contraptions that oscillate the strings – which are sampled, processed, and assembled in real time. The results are striking creations that are not out of place in either a cathedral or a dance club. Their latest record is Late Reflections, and it brings Grandbrothers, who are the Swiss engineer/mechanic/software designer Lukas Vogel and German-Turkish pianist Erol Sarp, to play in the studio on the occasion of their first U.S. tour. Set list: “Bloodflow”, “What We See”, “Bloom”

Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Atlanta, Carlos Simon has become one of classical music’s most eloquent and visible chroniclers of the Black American experience. Although it’s not just classical music – Carlos draws on jazz, R&B, and especially gospel music, as Simon is the son of a preacher. Music is his pulpit, and he says he uses music as therapy and to make sense of it all. He's toured from the back of a flatbed truck, done street-busking, and played cocktail piano music in bars, with an ever-optimistic outlook of "You never know who’s listening”. He’s currently Composer-In-Residence at the Kennedy Center, and his 2022 LP called Requiem For The Enslaved was nominated for a Grammy. Now, he’s released two recordings in quick succession – first Breadth, an orchestral response to the killing of George Floyd, and just one week later, Together, a collection that features Carlos Simon performing solo piano works and a few small ensemble pieces. He plays some of these solo works at our piano, and a rendition of a well-known hymn, with special guest cellist Seth Parker-Woods. Set list: 1. Amazing Grace with Seth Parker-Woods, cello 2. Memory of Summer 3. Traveling Song

Singer Nellie McKay’s songs  hearken to pre-Elvis pop and maybe even Tin Pan Alley, and are offered with charm and intimacy. She has also released a whole album of Doris Day songs and a record of 60s covers, in addition to her 2004 splash debut, Get Away From Me and appearances in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. And while she still sounds like a singer from another time, she’s back with an album of originals called Hey Guys, Watch This. Nellie McKay plays new songs on both piano and ukulele, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: The Drinking Song, Driftin’, Did I Catch You Dreaming

Brooklyn-based Pathos Trio consists of percussionists Marcelina Suchocka and Felix Reyes with keyboardist/composer Will Healy- all of whom are equally capable of playing acoustic chamber music or darker-hued electronically-altered sounds. The trio’s new album is called Polarity, and it’s a collection of works specifically written for the Pathos Trio by several composers - drummer/composer Ian Chang of Son Lux; percussionist and member of the International Contemporary Ensemble Clara Warnaar; and digital and electronic composer Phong Tran among them - with nods to alternative rock, progressive/black metal, minimalism, and electronic synthwave. The trio performs some of these newly-commissioned works, in-studio. Set list: "Mega Cicada" by Ian Chang; "Home/Gone" by Clara Warnaar; "Split" by Phong Tran

Listen to a set from contemporary jazz guitar legend guitarist Bill Frisell, together with guitarist, bassist, and vocalist Luke Bergman. Frisell is a singular player in the jazz world, consistently sticking to his roots and American folk, while trying out any other thing that may move him. Bergman is, in Frisell’s words, “a master harmonizer, organizer, orchestrator, imaginator” (Program notes, Grace Cathedral). Together they swapped musical ideas remotely during the pandemic and composed a number of pieces. Listen to some of those tunes, including “Waltz for Hal Wilner” from his 2022 album, Four (Blue Note), and other works. - Caryn Havlik Set list: 1. "Claude Utley" 2. "Let Them Ring" 3. "Fathers Day" 4. "Canon" 5. "Waltz for Hal Wilner"

English singer-songwriter and folk-rocker Mike Rosenberg, formerly of the band Passenger, might be best known for his song “Let Her Go.” Originally from Brighton & Hove, Rosenberg busked his way through England and Australia in the early 2000’s and worked with a five-piece band until 2009, when he decided to continue under that name as a solo artist. He’s played giant stages and summer festivals in Europe, opening for old friend Ed Sheeran. Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger, plays songs from his 2018 record, Runaway, in-studio. (From the Archives.) Watch the individual songs below:

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kendra Morris draws on 60s pop, 70s funk, the indie rock of the 2000’s, and the timeless sounds of soul and R&B on her latest record I Am What I’m Waiting For.  She’s also a visual artist who’s done videos for her own songs in the past as well as those by the hip hop supergroup Czarface and the producer MF Doom. Notably absent are “love songs” – instead, the record dives into her fears of flying, the mundane conflicts of domesticity and cohabitation, and a valiant attempt to expand the birthday song canon. Kendra Morris and her band play some of these songs, in-studio. Set list: 1. Still Spinning 2. Dominoes 3. What Are You Waiting For? I Am What I’m Waiting For by Kendra Morris

Bassist Jorge Roeder is from Peru; vocalist Sofía Rei is originally from Argentina. Both of them are based here in New York, and have worked with a broad range of New York musicians (John Zorn, Bobby McFerrin, Julian Lage, and many others); and that experience is reflected in the ease with which they move between Latin, jazz, and experimental music. (Between them they’ve worked in classical music, jazz, avant-garde, Latin music, metal, and electronics.) Their brand new album together, called Coplas Escondidas, is just the two of them – voice and bass – and it's a collection of songs with a variety of quietly thrilling textures and dramatic melodies. Sofía Rei and Jorge Roeder play in-studio.  Set list: 1. Días de Sitio 2. Prestados 3. Negro Sobre Blanco

Cellist Issei Herr, classically trained at Juilliard, creates expansive waves of sound through the processing and layering of her instrument. Her debut record, Distant Intervals, includes ambient soundscapes that explore openness, vulnerability, and a sense of wonder, and is full of titles that hint at transformation, both musical and personal. There also seems to be a Zen element in her layers; they’re contemplative, yet quite ordered as they build delicate crystalline structures. Issei Herr plays some of those pieces, as well as a brand new work where her acoustic cello interacts with forest sounds, in-studio. Issei Herr shares a bill with percussionist Matt Evans at the Noguchi Museum on Sunday. Aug. 27.  Set list: Prelude & Aubade, Flutter, Aveu (The Beginning Is a Farewell) feat. Maria BC Watch "Prelude & Aubade": Watch "Flutter": Watch "Aveu (The Beginning Is a Farewell)" feat. Maria BC:

Junun is a musical collaboration between India-based Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, a group of Indian musicians called The Rajasthan Express, and composer (and Radiohead’s guitarist) Jonny Greenwood. The music is in the ecstatic Sufi music style known as qawwali (made famous by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), and it's devotional music—sometimes in Urdu, Hebrew, and Hindi, and is built on a percussion-dense and brass enriched groove with everything to love. In 2018, the band was opening for Radiohead on tour, but they joined us to perform some of these ecstatic tunes, in-studio. (From the Archives, 2018.) -Caryn Havlik Watch the individual songs below:

The sounds of American roots music – folk ballads, fiddle tunes, early blues, New Orleans second line grooves  – may seem like they belong to another century. But the NY-based collective called Too Sad For The Public takes those old songs and remakes them, often in surprising ways. Too Sad For The Public’s arranger and producer Dick Connette, along with a sextet version of the band featuring vocalist Ana Egge, play some of the tunes from the latest album, Vol. 2, Yet And Still, in-studio. Set list: 1. Railroad Bill 2. Old Forty  Watch "Railroad Bill": Watch "Old Forty":

From Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, comes the band known as Jupiter & Okwess, led by the charismatic singer Jupiter Bokondji. When we last met the band, in 2018, they had just released their second album, a star-studded collection called Kin Sonic. Jupiter & Okwess are touring around to support their latest record, Na Kozonga, which offers a striking mix of high-energy dance, funk, and Afropop, while mixing samba, New Orleans, and soul influences in different languages. Set list: 1. Solobombe 2. Mieux que ca 3. Muba Watch "Solobombe": Watch "Mieux que ca": Watch "Muba": Na Kozonga by Jupiter Okwess

Brazilian singer/songwriter Sessa (born Sergio Sayeg in Sao Paolo) is heir to the great tradition of MPB – Brazilian popular music, in the vein of Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso. But he favors a stripped down approach that reflects his own love of the German minimalist group Cluster, and his lyrics – often about love, heartbreak, and the power of music – echo themes in Leonard Cohen’s songs and Sun Ra’s cosmic jazz. He plays songs from his latest, Estrela Acesa, or “Burning Star” at the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in the Greene Space.  Set list: Grandeza, Ponto de Faca, Pele de Estera, Sereia Sentimental, Flor do Real Watch "Grandeza":  Watch "Ponto de Faca": Watch "Pele de Estera": Watch "Sereia Sentimental": Watch "Flor do Real":

The Mexican singer Magos Herrera has a distinctive, elegant, and expressive voice, and while she’s usually thought of as a jazz singer, she’s also done a lot of collaborating with artists from the worlds of pop and classical music. Largely based here in New York, Herrera has recently put out a new album, called Aire, which features her own sextet and a full orchestra – a kind of communal response to the isolation of the pandemic, when most of the songs were written. Her own band and members of the Brooklyn-based orchestra called The Knights present some of these jazz-fluid songs, rich with drama and feeling, in-studio. Set list: 1.Aire 2. The Calling 3. Choro de Lun Watch "Aire": Watch "The Calling": Watch "Choro de Lun":

Classical Korean guitarist and improviser Jiji has a penchant for blowing minds with her playing, improvising, and stage banter. She adapts the stunning and acrobatic Caprice No. 24 by 19th century virtuoso violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. Plus, she plays a work by the Icelandic composer, guitarist and professor of electronic composition, Gulli Bjornsson. Both performances were recorded live at the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in the Greene Space.   Set list: Claudia Sessa (arr. Jiji): "Occhi Io Vissi Di Voi"; Gulli Björnsson: "Dynjandi"; Niccolò Paganini (arr. Jiji)- "Caprice No. 24" Watch "Occhi Io Vissi Di Voi": Watch "Dynjandi": Watch "Caprice No. 24":

Black Belt Eagle Scout is the work of the singer and guitarist Katherine Paul, KP for short, whose music is deeply rooted in the culture of the Swinomish community on the coast of Washington. Black Belt Eagle Scout’s latest album is called The Land, The Water, The Sky, and it often pairs Katherine Paul’s quiet musings on land, love, and community with roaring guitars and pounding drums. Black Belt Eagle Scout plays some of these new songs, in-studio.  Set list: 1. Nobody 2. Don't Give Up 3. My Blood Runs Through This Land Watch "Nobody": Watch "Don't Give Up": Watch "My Blood Runs Through This Land": The Land, The Water, The Sky by Black Belt Eagle Scout

The band Altin Gün is based in the Netherlands but they’ve gained global attention – and a Grammy nomination – for their psychedelic, glam rock and disco-tinged versions of songs from Turkey in the 1970s. So, in the 70s the folk rock movement racing through the British Isles made its way to Anatolia, inspiring young Turkish musicians to recast old Turkish folk songs with electric guitars, synthesisers and the like. Forty years later,  Altin Gun has been resurrecting the creativity and the energy of this corner of the music world, with their own hi-octane, dance-ready arrangements. Their latest album is called Ask, and they play new tunes, in-studio.  Set list: 1. Su Sızıyor 2. Canim Oy 3.. Doktor Civanim

The chamber pop duo known as Gracie and Rachel have always had a kind of yin and yang quality to them: Gracie Coates, the pop songwriter at the piano; Rachel Ruggles, the classically trained violinist. "Blending baroque elements, ethereal soundscapes, and penetrating vulnerability, the duo creates an emotionally haunting sound" with an electric energy, (Righteous Babe Records.) The high school friends from Berkeley, California were operating out of Brooklyn, where the duo made its reputation, but Gracie has moved to upstate New York. Rather than signaling an end, though, Gracie’s move has spawned a new collection of songs, called Nowhere Now Here, which focuses on the continued connection between the two. Gracie and Rachel play some of these new songs, in-studio.  Gracie and Rachel play at Public Records on July 21. Set list: "Middle Ground", "Sidelines", "Call Away" Watch "Middle Ground": Watch "Sidelines": Watch "Call Away":

Goldfeather is the work of vocalist and composer Sarah Goldfeather and guitarist/producer Mike Tierney. Sarah Goldfeather is also a founding member of the ensemble Excpetet, a group modeled on the instrumentation of Stravinksy's "L'Histoire du Soldat" and created to commission new works by living composers. In fact, all of the band members are classically trained, with experience and interests from bluegrass to experimental pop. Goldfeather’s new album, Change, is a head-spinning blend of hyperpop filtered through the lens of contemporary classical and electronic music. With its processed voices, sudden shifts in rhythm and harmony, and catchy pop hooks, the new songs are off-kilter fun, even as they tell a serious tale of "uncomfortable self-reflection" The band plays some of these tunes in-studio.   Set list: "Who Am I When I Am All Alone", "The Animal", "Beautiful Tree" Watch "Who Am I When I Am All Alone": Watch "Animal": Watch "Beautiful Tree":

Singer and songwriter Ondara's story is that of a young person in Kenya falling in love with Bob Dylan songs and winning a green card lottery that let him follow his dream of moving to America. Now Ondara has released his third LP, Spanish Villager #3, and while it has a more produced, electric sound, he’s touring around doing solo acoustic performances. He plays solo acoustic songs in-studio.   Set list: "A Shakedown in Berlin", "A Nocturnal Heresy", "A Seminar in Tokyo" Watch "A Shakedown in Berlin": Watch "A Nocturnal Heresy": Watch "A Seminar in Tokyo":

Sax player, composer and author Phillip Johnston lives in Sydney, Australia, but for many years he was a familiar figure on New York’s downtown jazz and new music scene. He cofounded the Microscopic Septet – the band that did the theme song for the NPR show Fresh Air, led the bands Big Trouble, and the Transparent Quartet, and was an early pioneer in writing new music for old silent films. In fact, his book Silent Films/Loud Music, has just come out in paperback, and it brings Phillip and his New York gang to the studio to play some special trio arrangements of his film music.  Set list: "The Unknown. Part 1: 'Men’s Hands'", "The Mermaid", "Hydrothérapie Fantastique"

Producer, songwriter, and eclectic multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato is the bandleader for the newly renamed “The Late Show Band.” He has worked with has worked with many artists, including Bobby McFerrin, Snarky Puppy, Jon Batiste, Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest. Together with drummer Joe Saylor, he plays original and traditional tunes that draw on gospel, pop, rock, and FUN, from his headlining set at the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in The Greene Space. - Caryn Havlik Set list: Down in the River to Pray In My Reach Look Within Anymore You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley Back and Forth

Steve Gunn’s solo far-out fingerstyle acoustic work may be influenced by the drones of Eastern music and the Western avant-garde; or his work with psych- and traditional folk artists, and/or collaborations with Mdou Moctar and Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society. Then, there’s the unbridled improvising freedom of his duo work with drummer John Truscinski; or his work with psych-folk band Hiss Golden Messenger or indie rocker Kurt Vile. Steve Gunn’s appearance at the 2023 Big Ears Festival playing trad folk songs with Jake Xerxes Fussell was just one side of this multifaceted guitarslinger. His most recent record is with David Moore, who records as Bing & Ruth. Steve Gunn plays original songs in The Greene Space, as part of the 2023 New York Guitar Festival. Set list: "Way Out Weather", "On The Way", "Morning Is Mended" Watch "On the Way": 

Songwriter and musician Crys Matthews uses the sounds of folk, gospel, folk rock, and country, to tackle some of the thorniest social justice issues facing our country today:  migrant rights, LGBTQ rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, and more.  She’s based in Nashville, but New York’s been a good place for her: in 2017 she was the grand prize winner at the New Song Music and Performance Competition in Lincoln Center. More recently, her song “Changemakers” was named Song Of The Year by the International Folk Music Awards for 2021. She plays some of her songs, with bonus foot percussion, in our New York studio. Set list: "Cancel Culture", "Like Jesus Would", "Written in the Stars" Watch "Cancel Culture": Watch "Like Jesus Would": Watch "Written in the Stars":

The band called Bayonne is basically the work of American minimalist composer and electronic musician Roger Sellers, who is from Austin TX, not Bayonne NJ. Along with guitars and keyboards, his looping station, which can give hints of both Steve Reich and Owen Pallett, is a treasure trove of tiny melodies that stretch and expand over time. His latest album as Bayonne, is called Temporary Time, and it might be his most personal record yet - perhaps almost "emo", coming as it did after the death of Sellers’ dad. Roger Sellers with drummer Matt Toman play these new songs in-studio. Set list: "Right Thing", "Perfect", "Words" Watch "Right Thing": Watch "Perfect": Watch "Words":

With influences from Bob Marley to Blind Willie Johnson to Bob Dylan, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ben Harper sees songs in colors and can taste them when they’re ready. His Grammy wins have come in the categories of Blues, Traditional Soul/Gospel, and Instrumental Pop. His musical range is indeed that varied, one can expect anything from alt-folk to reggae to indie rock to an operatic tenor hidden in a cabaret song. His latest, Wide Open Light, is a spare, largely acoustic set of songs, raw, and mostly solo. Ben Harper plays some of these pieces in-studio. Set list: "Masterpiece", "Giving Ghosts", "Love After Love", "Trying Not To Fall In Love With You" Watch "Masterpiece": Watch "Giving Ghosts": Watch "Love After Love": Watch "Trying Not To Fall In Love With You":

NYC-raised songwriter, musician, and arranger Emily King makes sophisticated pop with strong elements of R&B, funk, and soul. But her discography also includes songs with a more electronic texture and a whole project with the chamber ensemble known as yMusic. Her latest album is called Special Occasion and it might contain some heartbreak and complicated feelings, a few shoo-be-doos coupled with synth string sounds a la Paisley Park, and a country waltz dressed up as a pop ballad. Emily King plays some of these new songs in-studio as an intimate trio. Set list: “False Start”, “Medal”, “Special Occasion” Watch "False Start": Watch "Medal": Watch "Special Occasion":

The singer and multi-instrumentalist Ani Cordero is a Puerto Rican musician living here in New York.  She is bilingual, singing in both English and Spanish, as is her latest record, Anamores, a concept album rooted in many kinds of love – Platonic Love, Love of a Child, Love for our Ancestors.) Her music draws on her years of playing rock with bands like Pistolera, new wave synth influences, and the rhythms of the Caribbean – Clave and Bomba patterns. AND COWBELL. Ani Cordero and her band play some of these new songs, in-studio.

Venezuelan legend of Llanera music Larry Bellorín and GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician Joe Troop play as Larry & Joe.  Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina, and worked construction to make ends meet, although he has been a musician and educator all his life. Troop, a socially conscious “Latingrass” musician with Che Apalache, has written songs about migration, and works with asylum seekers; he relocated to North Carolina to be in this duo with Larry. Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music come together on Larry’s custom-built Joropo folk harp and Joe’s fiddle and banjo, as they blend their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling on their record, Nuevo South Train. The duo performs remotely from the 2023 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. The duo plays at 6PM on June 15 at Rockwood Music Hall.  Set list: “Gabanjo”, “Caballo Viejo” Watch "Gabanjo": Watch "Caballo Viejo":

Dominican guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Yasser Tejeda explores the African roots of Dominican music, and combines the folkloric with jazz, rock and Caribbean influences. Lately, he has turned to Congolese guitar, and Haitian rhythms (Hispaniola), New Orleans and Afrobeaty funk to highlight the way that music has crisscrossed the Atlantic. Tejada and his band tear it up in the studio with music from his latest, La Madruga, (Dawn/Dusk). Yasser Tejada plays at TV Eye on June 15. Set list: 1. "El Sol De La Madruga" 2. "En El Naranjo" 3. "Todo Va A Marchar" Watch "El Sol De La Madruga":

Atlanta-based indie rock band Manchester Orchestra has long had a decidedly cinematic approach to songwriting, with tunes that grow in the telling and explode into grand, almost orchestral choruses. Now, they’ve released The Valley Of Vision, a stirring, emotional journey of healing inspired by a 1975 book of old Puritan prayers found in a suitcase. In these six songs and a VR film, Manchester Orchestra digs deep to find the peaceful floating zen of resolve and try on what it might mean to feel all right again. Songwriter Andy Hull and guitarist Robert McDowell play some of these tunes remotely in intimate arrangements. Set list: “Capital Karma”, “Quietly”, “Rear View” Watch "Quietly":

Since 1981, Welsh musician Mike Peters has been the voice of the hit-making British band The Alarm. After the band split up in 1991, Peters wrote and released solo work, before reconstituting The Alarm in 2000, (Wikipedia.) Since being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in 2005 (he is also co-founder of the Love Hope Strength Foundation), Mike Peter’s career has been largely determined by the cycle of remission and relapse. But to listen to The Alarm’s upcoming album, pointedly called Forwards, and you’ll hear a man whose songwriting is as anthemic as ever, and, yes, determinedly forward looking. Mike Peters plays some of these new songs, as well as one of the band’s old hits, on acoustic baritone guitar, in-studio. (-John Schaefer) Set list: "Forwards", "Next", "The Stand" Watch "Forwards": Watch "Next": Watch "The Stand":

Orquesta Akokán bursts and flows with the spirit of dance orchestras of the 1940’s and 1950’s of Havana on their debut record of nine tunes - all sparkling, blazing, soulful, and meticulously arranged and composed mambo originals. Together, singer José "Pepito" Gómez, producer Jacob Plasse, and arranger Michael Eckroth, along with Cuba’s finest players, young and old, recorded the record live to tape in a three-day session at the legendary and revered Estudios Areito in Cuba – where percussion and piano absolutely pop, and the brilliance of brass is magnified. The recording is the first Spanish-language venture for Daptone Records, (the folks who brought you Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Charles Bradley, and other timeless artists) whose old-school techniques and attention to sonic detail ensure a living, breathing warmth. The big band collective Orquesta Akokán joins us to play some of these Cuban Mambo (and rumba, cha-cha and jazzy) tunes in-studio.  -Caryn Havlik

Dom Flemons is a Grammy-winning singer, guitarist, banjo player, and all-around scholar of old Americana who was part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Flemons has dubbed himself “The American Songster,” and has performed songs rooted in blues, early gospel, ragtime, proto-country, and other forms of old-time folk music. His new album, Traveling Wildfire, includes a couple of his unerring arrangements of older tunes, but it’s largely comprised of original songs. Dom Flemons, the preservationist, storyteller, and instrumentalist, brings his one-man Americana road show to the live studio.  Set list: "Traveling Wildfire", "Slow Dance With You", "It's Cold Inside"

Curtis Stewart is a violinist, composer and arranger, and the current Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra. He is also the son of two professional jazz musicians, and when, at some point, he was offered the choice between composition and improvisation, he said “yes please” and took both. So on his own and with the improvising string quartet known as PubliQuartet, along with The Mighty Third Rail, Curtis Stewart plays a huge variety of music. Stewart and several musical friends: (Aaron Diehl, Eleanor Oppenheim, students from the Kaufman Music Center, Special Music School, and PubliQuartet) give just a hint of his range, performing in-studio. (-John Schaefer) Set list: "Thalassaki Mou", "Pavement Pounding Rose", "Deep River" of Love. by Curtis Stewart

This is the Kit is the alias of British singer and guitarist Kate Stables, as well as the band she fronts. Her early albums were rooted in the long British folk/rock tradition, with later work perhaps more under the influence of indie rock.  In June, she releases a new album called Careful of Your Keepers produced by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), full of big ideas and big arrangements, but it’s also a very intimate, honest, and introspective set of songs. Kate plays some of them in a solo performance, in-studio. - John Schaefer Set list: “More Change”, “Stuck in a Room”, “Inside Outside” Watch “More Change”: Watch “Stuck in a Room”: Watch “Inside Outside”:

The Heavy is a band from Bath, England – an unlikely place for a group whose sound has been rooted in the kind of swampy, sweaty mix of gospel, R&B, funk and rock that we associate with the American south. Their latest, Amen, is "an exhilarating maelstrom of ‘60s R&B riffs, horns, and gospel harmonies" (Bandcamp), which "writhes with seditious blues drama, soul and gospel passion, the crunch of prime hip-hop and garage punk’s visceral electricity", (ShoreFire.) The full band joins us in-studio on a rare day off on their American tour. Set list: "Hurricane Coming", "I Feel the Love", "Feels Like Rain", "Bad Muthafucker" Watch: "Hurricane Coming":  Watch "I Feel the Love": Watch "Feels Like Rain": Watch "Bad Muthafucker":

Gotopo is a Venezuelan singer and musician currently based in Berlin. Her music explores her own Afro-Indigenous roots through a mix of ancient folkloric sounds and modern electronic dance music. She is a "digger", and has thrown herself into researching source material, as in an Afro-Venezuelan hymn intended for slaves to give a spiritual farewell to their relatives who died at the hands of the enslaver which informed her song, "Malembe". Her debut release, called Sacudete, comes out on May 19, and Gotopo performs her indigenous and ancestral futurism, in-studio.  Set list: "Piña Pa La Niña", "Cucu", "Sacudete"  Watch "Piña Pa La Niña": Watch "Cucu": Watch "Sacudete":

Serbian quartet EYOT draws on traditional Balkan folk music, jazz, classical piano, punk, and art-rock, and fits neatly into none of these categories. Their music - partly composed, and partly improvised - never loses its groove, even as it frequently makes use of the odd rhythm patterns (5/8, 7/8, 9/8) that are part of the turbulent history of the region. EYOT celebrates their 15th anniversary of making music together by playing some of the tunes from their most recent album, 557799, (yep, because of said odd meters contained therein), in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: "557799", "Linen", "Horizon" Watch "557799": Watch "Linen": Watch "Horizon":

This year marks the centennial of legendary North Carolina folk musician Doc Watson, one of the giants of the folk revival of the 50s and 60s. There’s a new album paying homage to pays homage to Watson's lasting legacy and influence on American music, which features a stellar cast of contemporary musicians playing some of the songs Watson had championed; it’s called I Am A Pilgrim – Doc Watson at 100. The producer of the collection is Grammy Award winning guitarist, songwriter, and producer Matthew Stevens, who gathered a few of the album’s featured musicians and collaborators - singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Valerie June, Brooklyn-born teen banjo wunderkind Nora Brown, fiddler Stephanie Coleman, and musician James Shipp - to play some of these songs in-studio. Plus, hear a bonus original tune, "Man Done Wrong", by Valerie June. -Caryn Havlik Watch Valerie June and Matthew Stevens play "Handsome Molly": Watch Nora Brown, Stephanie Coleman, James Shipp: "Am I Born to Die": Watch Nora Brown, Stephanie Coleman, James Shipp: "Your Long Journey":  Watch Matthew Stevens play "Alberta": Watch Valerie June play "Man Done Wrong":

Catalan folk duo Tarta Relena's vocal-based music limns centuries and borders, ranges from the sacred to the secular, and often uses electronics. Their body of work so far reimagines Mediterranean folk, Georgian laments, and the 12th century mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Then, there's their setting of verse from Afghan Pashto women singing about “controversial subjects such as envy, broken hearts, hatred or lust”, and adapted sacred music (they met as members of a religious music choir), (Songlines, 2022). Singing in Catalan, Spanish, Greek, Latin, English and Ladino, they treat each language as a tool, a color to bring up an emotion. Tarta Relena’s arrangements and performances traffic in the intense spirituality and human connection of the music, which lands with joy and poignancy, enhanced by dramatic use of electronics: percussion, drone, some bass synth, and vocal effects. For this edition of the Soundcheck Podcast, Tarta Relena sings a cappella, just like they started the duo back in 2016. They perform on location from the 2023 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. - Caryn Havlik P.S. “Tarta relena” means “stuffed pie” in Spanish. Set list: "Esta Montagne d’enfrente", "Tuta Pulchra"   Watch "Esta Montagne d’enfrente": Watch "Tuta Pulchra":

Louisiana-based Lost Bayou Ramblers are a swinging punkass party band who mix Cajun melodies on fiddle, accordion, guitars, and some electric sounds. They've won a regional roots Grammy for their record, Kalenda, but they’ve also done an original score for ROUS, a film about Nutria Rats and Louisiana’s coastal land loss, and contributed to the score for Beasts of the Southern Wild. Fresh off the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, the Lost Bayou Ramblers join us in the studio (from the Archives, 2018.)

The Atlanta-born quartet Algiers mixes post-punk guitars, gospel vocal harmonies, hip hop sampling, chopped and screwed production techniques, and pointed social commentary in a revolutionary way that is dark, urgent, angry, and utterly exhilarating. Their most recent record, Shook, has Algiers’ signature fury and weight, features a multiplicity of voices, and is the result of the creative energy released into the space and time generated by the enforced pause on touring. As Frankie Fisher says in a Bandcamp interview, "Algiers’s ethos, philosophy, and politics are about inclusivity and people generally on the margins", and in keeping with that, multiple guest artists from within the community contributed to this rich and complex sound, and the collaborative conversation even took on a new New York feel after the Shook stems were shared and manipulated into a separate companion soundworld. Algiers plays music from Shook, as a trio, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Irreversible Damage”, “Bite Back”, “Green Iris” Watch “Irreversible Damage”: Watch “Bite Back": Watch “Green Iris”:

The London quintet known as Ezra Collective looks like a jazz band, with their dueling horns, keys, bass and drums.  But their music reflects the lively artistic ferment happening now in South London, where the sounds of Caribbean music, hip hop, and especially the Nigerian style known as Afrobeat have all become part of the scene. Ezra Collective’s drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso studied with the late, great Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, and with his brother TJ on bass, the two Koleosos form a propulsive rhythm section, but one that’s full of surprises. Add in keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, and tenor saxophonist James Mollison, and the quintet brings audiences a hybrid jazz with killah beats for dancing. - John Schaefer Set list: "Ego Killah", "No Confusion", "Belonging" Watch "Ego Killah": Watch "No Confusion":  Watch "Belonging":

Harpist, collaborator, bandleader, educator, and improviser, Brandee Younger, has mastered the language of Debussy, Ravel, Alice Coltrane, R&B, hip hop, mid 20th century pop, funk, reggae, the blues, and hymns, to name merely a few genres. In her work, she weaves in ALL the sounds of the day- and is not locked into any one genre, just like the great pioneering harpist Dorothy Ashby – who was “way ahead of her time”. Younger’s latest effort, Brand New Life, covers and re-imagines some of Dorothy Ashby’s unreleased music, recruiting players like bassist/vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello, singer/songwriter/MC Mumu Fresh, guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer Makaya McCraven, vibraphonist Joel Ross, and the great hip hop producer Pete Rock. Brandee Younger brings the killer bass lines, hang time, wide expressive range, and the delicate chords, trills, and sweeps - and demonstrates  different extended harp techniques (pedal slide, prepared harp, playing near the board) - playing solo, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, “Essence of Ruby”, “Unrest I” Watch "Lift Every Voice and Sing": Watch "Essence of Ruby": Watch "Unrest I":

Fenne Lily is an English singer, guitarist and songwriter now based here in New York. The songs on her new album, Big Picture, were written as some kind of way to bring order to some of the most vulnerable points of 2020. She explores her ever-changing view of love as a process, brightly framing worry, doubt, closeness, and letting go. Fenne Lily and her band play in-studio. Set list: "Pick", "Lights Light Up", "Dawncolored Horse" Watch "Pick": Watch "Lights Light Up": Watch "Dawncolored Horse":

Brooklyn-based trombonist, composer, and bandleader Kalia Vandever weaves beautifully layered musical tapestries using layers of her horn, electronics, and occasional wordless vocals, creating works that sound dramatically different from the music she plays with her jazz quartet, or the work she’s done with Harry Stiles, Lizzo, indie rock’s Japanese Breakfast, and many others. Kalia Vandever's latest, We Fell In Turn, is inspired by Hawaiian mythology, dreamscapes, and ancestry. She plays some of these compositions for solo trombone and electronics, in-studio.  Set list: "Held In / Stillness In Hand", "Recollections From Shore" Watch "Held In / Stillness In Hand": Watch "Recollections From Shore": We Fell In Turn by Kalia Vandever

Alexandra Stréliski is a French-Canadian pianist who creates minimalist and cinematic music in the vein of composers Frédéric Chopin and Erik Satie as well as film music composers like Zimmer, Glass and Nyman - heavy on romance and with enough space to linger on the emotions in her work. Stréliski’s music was heard in HBO’s Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies Season 2 round-table, and in the Jean-Marc Vallée’s film Dallas Buyers Club (2013). Her latest release, Néo-Romance, conjures longing and hope, dream and imagination - inspired by the great themes of the romantic era, nostalgia, nature and spontaneity. Alexandra Stréliski performs some of these melancholic and beautiful tunes, in-studio. Set list: "In the Air / The Hills", "The Breach", "Borders" Watch "In the Air / The Hills": Watch "The Breach": Watch "Borders":

The New Pornographers reliably bring the power pop; one can always count on big hooks, anthemic choruses, and impeccably arranged orchestrations. Then there are the sweet vocal harmonies, a few additional beats to make things far from simple, and unexpected lyrical twists like a plan for “a long fade out,” "we burst through the Overton window”, and "You made this hell yourself?/Well, it's real nice". Songwriter & vocalist Carl Newman has never settled for a simple narrative or a beautiful landscape in song lyrics that seem halfway in the real world, but not quite right; or sometimes in images that are non-representational, maybe like modern art. From glittering arpeggiators to a well-placed sampled yelp, along with saxophones and meaty synths, the songs seem to be born of a playful approach – “trying out ideas as if no one is listening”, describes Newman, and perhaps hinting that he also uses another delicate method in his songcraft of ‘mess around and find out’. Some of the members of The New Pornographers play stripped-down arrangements of songs from their latest, Continue as a Guest, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Really Really Light”, “Angelcover”, “Firework in the Falling Snow” Watch "Really Really Light": Watch "Angelcover": Watch "Firework in the Falling Snow":

Mary Halvorson has established herself as one of the finest guitarists of her generation; Robbie Lee has established himself as a versatile flutist, sax player, and keyboardist. Their 2018 album together sports such oddities as a 19th-century harp guitar with 18 strings, the world’s smallest saxophone, and a Renaissance reed instrument called the chalumeau. The music of edited improvisations covers a lot of sonic ground, floating between folk and jazz and world music. Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson are in the studio for an improvised set of "mutant chamber jazz" (via @robbielee.) [From the Archives, 2018.]

Pianist, collaborator, and mentor Eunbi Kim presents sonic memoirs and meditations on life experiences through her latest batch of collaborative commissioned works. The dreamy soundworld features new pieces by living composers, plus electronics, strings, taped voices and found sounds. Eunbi Kim plays works by Pauchi Sasaki, Angélica Negrón, and Sophia Jani, in-studio. Set list: "Mother's Hand, Healing Hand (엄마손은 약손)" by Pauchi Sasaki (2021), "Saturn Years" by Sophia Jani (2021), "Disco giratorio de palabras" (Rotating Record of Words) by Angélica Negrón (2020) Kim holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she also held a fellowship in the institution’s Center for Music Entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for New York Foundation for the Arts and is co-founder of bespoken, a mentorship program for women in music. Watch "Mother's Hand, Healing Hand (엄마손은 약손)" by Pauchi Sasaki: Watch "Saturn Years" by Sophia Jani: Watch "Disco giratorio de palabras" by Angélica Negrón:

Composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariuki makes music that somehow draws on experimental electronics, contemporary classical music, pop, and sound art without settling into any one of them. She divides her time between New York, Maryland and Nairobi, Kenya and works with piano, voice, electronics, and several instruments from the African continent, including the kalimba and djembe, and sometimes arranges her work for strings, and/or percussion. Her new LP is called Feeling Body, and it sort of tells the story of Kariuki’s experience living with long COVID, although not in a conventional narrative way. Nyokabi Kariũki performs music from both her EP peace places: kenyan memories and the LP, Feeling Body, in-studio. Set list: “Folds”, “Galu”, “Nazama” Watch "Folds": Watch "Galu": Watch "Nazama":

New York-based composer, pianist, and coder Dan Tepfer, who has previously improvised a companion to the J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, has returned to using the animating idea in music by Bach as a starting point for his riffing, on his latest album, called Inventions/Reinventions. On this record, Tepfer takes Bach's 15 Two-Part Inventions as written (which he describes as “something deep happening under this simple surface”), and taps into what J.S. Bach was most famous for – his improvising genius, but in music that sounds like Dan Tepfer, in the remaining 9 keys of the complete cycle. Tepfer feels that the idea of joy is omnipresent in Bach’s music, and in his own play as he riffs on Bach, he finds a visceral joy in creation. In doing so, Tepfer tells his own story - his love of Bach from childhood, his appreciation of Brazilian music, his admiration of Lee Konitz, - and not only improvises within a framework, but also creates an entirely new structure for the frame. He also sings what he plays to make sure that he means it, which brings to mind another improviser, American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Dan Tepfer performs both J.S. Bach’s Two-Part Inventions, and his own unique reinventions, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “J.S. Bach: Invention in C major / Tepfer: Improvisation in Db major”, “J.S. Bach: Invention in Eb major / Tepfer: Improvisation in Eb minor”, “J.S. Bach: Invention in A minor / Tepfer: Improvisation in Bb minor” Watch “J.S. Bach: Invention in A minor / Tepfer: Improvisation in Bb minor”:  

Taking as a starting point Renaissance and Medieval music, Lisel (aka Eliza Bagg – a member of vocal group Roomful of Teeth), creates hybrid music that blends her classical vocal training with electronic production techniques found in hyperpop (like the ‘bass drop’ and frequent use of Auto-Tune.) Lisel has absorbed the capabilities of technology into her own music through experiments with Ableton, adding ambient electric sounds and aesthetics, and goes for maximalist sound on Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay. Running Ableton, and a Novation Launch Pad for the processing effects, Eliza Bagg, as Lisel, performs some of these studio creations, live on New Sounds. - Caryn Havlik

Hear new music for silent film by composer David Cieri with his music for Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. Joan of Arc is said to have heard voices – strange, unearthly voices. So Cieri’s score, by turns visceral and transcendent, includes Sardinian vocal quartet Tenores de Aterúe in the ensemble of musicians. Best known for his music for various Ken Burns films, among his many film scores, Cieri recently completed a major new work for carillon bells. The podcast was recorded remotely at Brookfield Place in early 2023.

The singer, guitarist, and songwriter Ruthie Foster recently released her ninth studio album, called Healing Time, and it is a rich musical stew with flavors from gospel, soul, folk, and of course, the blues. Growing up in Texas, Foster was surrounded by southern blues and gospel, and she also grooves toward  Motown-influenced soul and R&B, as she continues to avoid categorization, despite having earned multiple Blues Awards. “You can’t put me in a box, and I think that says a lot about not just who I am, but who we all are,” as she was quoted on Bluegrass Situation. She's also been an enthusiastic collaborator with the Allman Brothers, the Blind Boys of Alabama, pedal steel master Robert Randolph, and others. Ruthie Foster and her longtime bandmates play some of their feel-good and hopeful blues in-studio.   Set list: "Healing Time", "Feels Like Freedom", "Phenomenal Woman" Watch "Healing Time": Watch "Feels Like Freedom": Watch "Phenomenal Woman":

English singer and songwriter Charlie Cunningham makes music that references earlier English singers like Nick Drake, as well as classic jazz, and even flamenco, which he studied in Spain. He has written a body of intimate, largely acoustic songs, quiet and melodic, which carve out space in time. Add in his intricate finger-picked guitar, and the results are arresting. Cunningham plays in-studio. Set list: “Downpour”, “Bird’s Eye View”, “Don’t Go Far” Watch “Downpour”: Watch “Bird’s Eye View”: Watch “Don’t Go Far”:

When Yasmin Williams plays guitar, it looks like she’s trying to play something else. With the instrument laying on her lap, she attacks it from above with both hands, producing a kaleidoscopic array of sounds. Williams is also a fan of Earth Wind & Fire, and inspired by them she’s added the kalimba, or thumb piano, to her music. By taping the kalimba to the body of her guitar, she’s able to play both instruments at once; her distinct style also leaves her tap shoe-wearing feet available for her to make beats. Yasmin Williams performs her new soundtrack to Charlie Chaplin’s silent film The Kid remotely, for the Soundcheck Podcast, from Brookfield Place. 

Pearla (Brooklyn-based artist Nicole Rodriguez) makes off-kilter folk-pop that mixes reality and the surreal; in her songs, she builds a sound world through play and exploration. She's written a record about noticing things in the world and questioning her place in it, turning to music to attempt to figure it out. She and her band play new music from their strange and lovely record, 'Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming', in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Ming the Clam", "Unglow The", "Effort" Watch "Ming the Clam": Watch "Unglow The": Watch "Effort":

Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, collaborator, and producer Nabaté Isles seeks to bring the groove and movement back to jazz, in order to get people to dance, just like at a block party. Isles, who was born and raised in New York City (Queens), takes an eclectic approach in his music which might incorporate funk, disco, Latin, and R&B, but also reflects the sounds he grew up with: new jack swing, hip hop, and Caribbean music - all in sophisticated arrangements and with improvisation. Nabaté Isles plays new music from his latest record, En Motion, in-studio, with a sweet nod to his talented young person. Additionally, Nabaté Isles is also a producer and sports talk show host who has coveted sports trivia titles to his credit. Follow @NabateIslesSMTA. (Dear Citi Field, it would be magic to have Nabaté Isles play "Narco," as the relief pitcher Edwin Díaz walks on the field for the Mets in the late innings.) Set list: "The Jump Off", "Perfect Cadence", "Harlem Shake" Watch "The Jump Off": Watch "Perfect Cadence": Watch "Harlem Shake":  En Motion on Bandcamp: En Motion by Nabaté Isles

The contemporary silent film, Electric Appalachia, is a surprising, and surprisingly poignant look at how the coming of electricity changed Tennessee. Using archival footage, the film was put together by Eric Dawson, the director at TAMIS (the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound) and offers “a meditation on electricity and modernity in East Tennessee”. This silent film was created with two musicians in mind – guitarist William Tyler and harpist and synthesist Mary Lattimore, who add a moving, occasionally cosmic score. Listen to selections from their collaborative live soundtrack to Electric Appalachia, recorded at Brookfield Place.

Somebody that we used to know, Wally de Backer, Belgian-born Australian multi-instrumentalist, self-admitted “tinkerer,” and singer-songwriter (aka GOTYE), digs unusual instruments – like the rare French electronic musical instrument, the ondioline (invented in 1941.) He’ll perform tunes from the 1960's ondioline repertoire, created by the late Jean-Jacques Perrey, the instrument’s first and only virtuoso.  

Brooklyn-based via San Juan band Balún came from DIY electrified bedroom pop that embraced punk on the island of Puerto Rico. Now, with an even wider range of influences, (please see their ethnomusicological, technological, punk, hardcore, and New York Philharmonic credentials) their "dreambow" tropical electronica harnesses Caribbean rhythms, grime/jungle/IDM, Puerto Rican folk music, shoegaze and is a playfully-informed take on global pop music. Balún joins us in the studio to play music from their 2018 record, Prisma Tropical. (From the Archives.)Balún contributed music to the first season of La Brega, and to the new season of La Brega.  Watch the individual songs below: Watch the full session here:

The Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Mieke spent much of her youth traveling the world – from Spain to Bangladesh, Bulgaria to New Zealand.  Her songs can conjure an expansive sense of place, and of moving through those places - touching on change, age, death, dreaming, memory, family, and perhaps an alternate reality on her latest album Theatre. Anna Mieke’s enveloping acoustic chamber-folk can start with her borrowed 1936 Epiphone guitar, and may also involve improvisation with her core band. She’s also a bouzouki player, pianist, and a cellist who played with HEX, a Cork-based experimental outfit, and was a vocalist with the singing group, Rufous Nightjar. She’s collaborated with Irish artists Crash Ensemble, Adrian Crowley, and Linda Buckley and with New York-based artists Charlotte Greve, Grey McMurray, and Anna Roberts Gevalt; in March, Mieke will play shows with Iron & Wine. Anna Mieke and her band stopped by on their current tour to play these recent songs, in-studio. Set list: “Seraphim”, “Twin”, “Coralline” Watch “Seraphim”: Watch “Twin”: Watch “Coralline”:

The Sudanese-American rapper Oddisee – born Amir Elkhalifa – has been making socially conscious hip hop since 2008, and in live performance he’s known for playing not with a DJ or recorded samples but with a live band, called Good Company. Oddisee has just released the 2023 album called To What End, tackling big ideas of home, race, family, and human ambition. Oddisee, and the high-caliber musicians of the band Good Company, play these tunes in-studio. Set list: “Race”, “Already Knew”, “How Far” Watch "Race": Watch "Already Knew":  Watch "How Far":

New York -based UNI and The Urchins was started by “bassist/director/engineer/probably wizard” Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Bust Magazine), and in lead singer Jack James Busa, they have an androgynous alien who brings a glorious glam rock sensibility to the band’s mix of psychedelia and post punk.  The band has just released their debut LP, called Simulator, full of catchy, dance-y, sometimes cheeky songs about a world made dizzy by media and technology.  The conversation ranges from using AI – a neural network to generate lyrics, a love of David Bowie, their favorite Japanese food (the sticky, slimy kind), high school Latin, ASMR, waiting rooms, observations about the disappearing middle class, the New York music scene, growing up in the South, to tuba sound effects and more. Also, the band plays live in-studio. They play at Elsewhere in New York on March 3, and will be in Austin at South by Southwest. Set list: “Subhuman Suburbia”, “Popstar Supernova”, “Simulator” Watch "Subhuman Suburbia": Watch "Simulator":

The 8-piece multicultural gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello is based here in New York, but its founder, the vocalist, songwriter and all-around ringleader Eugene Hutz, was born in Ukraine. At the best of times, Gogol Bordello wants you to dance, and party, but also to think. Now, for Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora, these are not the best of times, so Gogol Bordello still wants you to dance and party and think, but also to act. Hutz and company have done several benefit shows, and he even did a secret show for the troops at the front line last summer. Members of Gogol Bordello play scaled-down punk from their most recent LP Solidaritine, in-studio. - John Schaefer Set list: "Focus Coin", "My Companjera", "Fire on Ice Floe" Watch "Focus Coin": Watch "My Companjera": Watch "Fire on Ice Floe":

New Zealand pop star Kimbra plays within the confines of pop music, bending and skewing and tone painting, according to her needs. Now based here in New York, Kimbra first made waves in 2011 when she teamed up with Gotye on his international hit “Somebody That I Used to Know.”  We know her now as a Grammy winning creator of arty and experimental pop, unafraid to take risks and address macro issues from the world around, as well as more introspective internal reckonings. On how she crafts this skewed pop, Kimbra says that “Improvisation is crucial to my process. It keeps me on the ledge. If I feel danger, if I feel a sense of the possible stumble, there’s something really powerful in that. Then watching yourself triumph.” Using her voice and a voice modulator, Kimbra wrestles with her inner demons over piano lines and carefully-chosen chords, as she plays some new songs from 'A Reckoning', in intimate arrangements, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Save Me", "Foolish Thinking", "The Way We Were" Watch "Save Me": Watch "Foolish Thinking": Watch "The Way We Were":

Meridian Brothers, founded by musician Eblis Álvarez, fuses a love of classic salsa with cumbia, vallenato, spacey psychedelia, and wacky samples for a playful dance party. With a body of songs containing some poignant social commentary about our obsession with technology, fear of war, police brutality, and other issues, the music hearkens to the salsa dura era (think Fania All-Stars); even the legendary Ansonia label took note and invited Meridian Brothers to be their first new signing in more than 30 years. With an interplay of sax, guitar, plenty of percussion, spoken/sung cartoon vocals (pitch-shifted and processed), and sound effects, Meridian Brothers plays their fantasy salsa-cumbia fusion, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Salsa Caliente” “Puya Del Emprasario”, “Metamorfosis”  Watch "Salsa Caliente": Watch "Puya Del Emprasari": Watch "Metamorfosis":

The duo of Rachael & Vilray courtesy of Rachael Price, lead singer of the popular band Lake Street Dive, and the New York-based singer and guitarist Vilray may sound like classic guitar jazz right out of the 1920s-1940s; Vilray’s guitar chops dip into the style of the great “gypsy-jazz” guitarist Django Reinhardt; and Rachael Price croons into an old RCA ribbon mic, up close, warm and intimate, with no reverb. Rachael & Vilray’s new originals are equal helpings of literate and populist, with cutting observations and character studies that might be operatic and humorous, allowing for the way that people contain multitudes. Their latest record, I Love A Love Song, continues to draw on, and in their own sly way, extends the tradition of the Great American Songbook.  The duo joins us in-studio to play some of their new, old-sounding songs (with one even featuring a lyric about narwhals.) - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Is A Good Man Real?” “Hate Is The Basis (of Love)” “Join Me In A Dream” Watch “Is A Good Man Real?”: Watch “Hate Is The Basis (of Love)”: Watch “Join Me In A Dream”:

The band called Ranky Tanky won the Grammy for best Regional Roots Album back in 2020.  The group is based in Charleston, SC, and their regional roots are in the Gullah music of the coastal southeastern states, the Sea Island music; their name comes from a Gullah phrase for “get funky”.  Gullah culture comes from the descendants of Africans captured along Africa’s rice coast [in West Africa], and while Gullah people today speak English, traditionally they’ve also spoken an African-American creole also called Gullah. Ranky Tanky’s music is a kind of creole – a mix of jazz, American gospel, and soul, all with the through line of the original Gullah rhythms, game songs, praise songs, ring shouts, and songs of gratitude kept alive from slavery into the present day. Ranky Tanky has been nominated for another Grammy for their latest album, Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. They play in-studio for us, with all the joy they can bring.    Set list: "Down in my Heart", "Beat 'Em Down", "Lift Me Up" Watch "Down in my Heart": Watch "Beat 'Em Down": Watch "Lift Me Up":

Sax player Marcus Strickland has worked with many notable jazzers, including Roy Haynes, McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Dave Douglas, and Keyon Harrold. He also leads his own band Twi-Life, which inhabits an Afro-futuristic space at the crossroads of Hip Hop, Soul, and Jazz. Twi-Life's album, The Universe's Wildest Dream, conceptualized into being during the lockdown times, urges an awareness of how precious and miraculous and random and delicate our existence is here on Planet Earth, the vast universe, (and everything.) On the album, Marcus Strickland & Charles Haynes stretch out into beat-makers and producers, fleshing out layered studio creations with found sound, guest artists, overdubs and electronics, and ultimately extend the Afro-Futurist tradition to far-out places. Strickland and Twi-Life bring a Hammond B-3 organ with hypnotic Leslie speakers into the studio to play some of the tunes, ahead of the record release, and shows in New York at the Blue Note on Jan. 17 & 18. Set list: “Dust Ball Fantasy” “Bird Call” “You and I, an Anomaly”

Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever blends 60's Cambodian pop and psychedelic rock with danceable grooves and ghostly noir romanticism. Cambodian Chhom Nimol fronts the band and sings mostly in her native language, she's basically from "a family best considered as a Cambodia pop music dynasty-- a not unlike a Cambodian version of the Jacksons", (Bandcamp.) She's backed by American rockers who play guitar, farfisa (a small, Italian-made organ), bass, drums, and saxophone. Dengue Fever joins us remotely, as they are about to play globalFest 2023 on Jan. 15 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Set list: “Silver Fish”, “Uku”, ”One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula”

Hear unpredictable and graceful melodic lines traded by sax and strings, as tenor sax superstar Joshua Redman and string quartet Brooklyn Rider, along with all-star rhythm section of Scott Colley (bass) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) take over the studio. It's chamber music with swoops, dives, groove and bite in original and newly-arranged music with one foot in the jazz world where sharps are optional. (This session is from the Archives, 2018.)  -Caryn Havlik Watch the full session here:

Turkish-German singer and composer Alev Lenz, who splits time between London and Germany, has had something of a hit tune with “Fall Into Me”, a song used in the series Black Mirror. That song has had a few versions, including one recorded by vocal octet Roomful of Teeth, and another as a work called “Splendid Soldiers.” Her dark (only sometimes) and thoughtful compositions and collaborations are often finding their places in films and limited series, as in the films Im Nachtlicht and Downhill, and the series Dark. Alev Lenz has been something of a serial collaborator, working with sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar, Lisel (Eliza Bagg), Sand Dunes, synthesist and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, French-Cuban vocal duo Ibeyi, and the aforementioned Roomful of Teeth, to name a few. During the interview, Lenz describes her creative process, and when the words might come in, and shares her experiences in the world of “sync”, when composers license their music to film and streaming series. Plus, hear Alev Lenz and pianist Vana Gierig, recorded in the studio. Set list: "Cigarettes and Blow", "Fall Into Me", "Ivory Tower" Watch "Ivory Tower": Watch "Fall Into Me":

Listen to more highlights from this off-again-on-again year of live performances from the Soundcheck Podcast. These bright spots come by way of Mexican singer-songwriter and arranger Silvana Estrada, London-based tuba player Theon Cross, and the psychedelic cumbia of Combo Chimbita, recorded live at Brooklyn Bowl. Also, listen to music by Cuban-born pianist Omar Sosa and sax player Peter Apfelbaum, of the band Quarteto Americanos. Plus, playful and surreal British musician and songwriter Robyn Hitchcock riffs on an unrealized Raymond Chandler title. ARTIST: Theon Cross WORK: We Go Again [5:49] RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Mar. 2022 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: A version appears on Theon Cross’ album, Intra I ARTIST: Omar Sosa and Peter Apfelbaum WORK: umbo kondo  [5:47] RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Sept. 2022 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: https://omarsosa.com/ ARTIST: Robyn Hitchcock WORK: The Man Who Loves the Rain  [3:58] RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Nov. 2022 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: The song appears on his 2022 record, Shufflemania! ARTIST: Silvana Estrada WORK: Marchita  [4:35] RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Jan. 2022 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: The tune appears on her 2022 album, Marchita ARTIST: Combo Chimbita WORK: La Perla [4:35] RECORDING: Live for the Soundcheck Podcast, Sept. 2022 SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.  INFO: The song appears on the 2022 release, Ire.

Montréal’s Black Ox Orkestar has been making 'music of the Jewish diaspora not tied to any state' since the early 2000’s. Orkestar is a name you’ll see a lot in Balkan music; it’s simply Serbo-Croatian for orchestra or ensemble. But the musicians were also in much-admired post-rock bands like Silver Mt Zion, and Godspeed You Black Emperor, so after a while they went their separate ways, but came back together in 2021. Their new album, called Everything Returns, "connects key current issues—from refugees forced to leave their homes, to the return of fascism and exclusionary nationalism—with the legacy of modernist Yiddish poetry and song", (Bandcamp liner notes.) The songs are a melancholic twist on traditional Jewish klezmer music, with vocals mainly sung in Yiddish – with piano, violin, upright bass, clarinet and cymbalom (a stringed instrument of the dulcimer family) – taking on hues of indie rock, experimental folk and avant-jazz. Black Ox Orkestar plays both traditional and original songs for us, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Tish Nign” “Body Keeps the Score”, “Mizrakh Mi Ma’arav” Watch "Tish Nign": Watch "Body Keeps the Score": Watch “Mizrakh Mi Ma’arav”:

One of the marks of a dedicated and accomplished artist is that they continue to level up, testing their own limits and working to break out of habits and patterns. New York-based guitarist, singer/songwriter, and collaborator Steve Gunn is such a one; he can tap into Indian classical modes, inhabit the drone of minimalist founding father La Monte Young, pick like fingerstyle players Jack Rose and John Fahey, and coax the reclusive Japanese folk legend, guitarist and songwriter Sachiko Kanenobu, back to playing (NY Times.) In Gunn’s songs -which float between the worlds of Philadelphia soul, British folk, DC punk, and the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra with ease- one finds unexpected chromatic lyricism, and keen lyric observations. He’s also done several challenging collaborations with a head-spinningly wide range of musical colleagues (Mary Lattimore, John Trusinski, Bridget St John, Mdou Moctar, Bing &Ruth, Kim Gordon, Kurt Vile) and continues to step outside of music into the worlds of film, line drawings, sculpture, or podcasts, in order to prevent tunnel vision (gathered from ToneGlow.substack.com.) The ace guitarist and fingerstyle folk rocker Steve Gunn plays recent songs from Other You and its companion EP, Nakama, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Fulton”, “Morning River”, “On the Way” Watch "Fulton":  Watch "Morning River":  Watch "On The Way": 

The four members of Combo Chimbita are from Colombia. But they met and formed their band here in New York. From their home base in Queens, Combo Chimbita plays a kind of tropical futurist pop that combines elements of Afro-Colombian spirituality, razor-sharp social commentary, and booty-shaking dance rhythms. Hear their set, live from the New Sounds 40th Anniversary Party from Brooklyn Bowl, and an interview with bass/synth player Prince of Queens.  Set list: Candela Esto Es Real Babalawo Download or Listen to Part 1: IRE by Combo Chimbita

The Brazilian singer and guitarist named Rogê made his mark playing his own brand of samba and samba funk in the clubs of Rio de Janeiro. [Samba in Brazil is rather like the Blues in America, a statement and sound born of the forced migration of Africans, and in both styles, these musical roots grew up and out into many more kinds of popular music.] Now, L.A.-based, Rogê is preparing to release his first album outside Brazil in early 2023, in partnership with producer/guitarist Thomas Brenneck (Menahan Street Band, producer/guitarist for Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones and The Budos Band.) It’ll be called Curyman, (his given name is Roger José Cury), and even though the record has a big, almost orchestral sound at time, thanks to string arrangements by fellow Brazilian Arthur Verocai, it all starts with the voice and guitar. Samba star Rogê performs these new tunes with percussionist Stephane San Juan, in-studio. Set list: “A Voz Que Não Se Cala”- (by Stephane San Juan), “Existe Uma Voz”, “Pra Vida” Watch “A Voz Que Não Se Cala” - (by Stephane San Juan): Watch  “Existe Uma Voz": Watch "Pra Vida":

Nashville-based Appalachian Road Show are veterans of the bluegrass, folk, and roots music scenes who polish the raw emotion in tunes inspired by the Civil War and America’s barn dance eras. The American roots music supergroup features Todd Phillips (bass, bowed bass, vibraslap, vocals), Zeb Snyder (guitars, slide guitar, vocals), Jim VanCleve (fiddle, vocals) and Darrell Webb (mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, vocals.) They play for us remotely from Blackbird Studios in Nashville, and banjo player, vocalist, and whistler Barry Abernathy chats about their spirit-lifting 2022 release, Jubilation. Set list: Gallows Pole, The Ballad of Kidder Cole Watch "Gallows Pole": Watch "The Ballad of Kidder Cole":

Songwriter Jesse Harris has been a standout musical figure since the 1990s in New York, as a singer and guitarist, and lately as a producer. When his friend Norah Jones swept up all the Grammys back in 2003, it was for an album featuring five of Jesse’s songs, including his Grammy winning song of the year “Don’t Know Why”; other interpreters of his songs include Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, and Emmylou Harris. Jesse Harris and percussionist/producer Kenny Wolleson have just birthed an unusual collection of songs called Silver Balloon, where they aimed to experiment with (and subvert) song form, play with an imaginative sound world, and maybe bend time to suit their play as they embrace unexpected chaos. Jesse Harris and percussionist Kenny Wolleson, along with the band, play some of these new songs in-studio, and tease the forthcoming instrumental record, Cosmo, of songs without words. Set list: “The Hanged Man” “Hummingbird” “New Year’s Day” Watch "The Hanged Man": Watch "Hummingbird": Watch "New Year's Day":

Thee Sacred Souls is a group of 20-somethings who blend the sounds of Chicano soul with its Philadelphia, Memphis, and even Panama counterparts. Their debut self-titled LP, on Daptone Records, is a smooth and sultry type of timeless soul, featuring Josh Lane’s effortless crooning vocals. Their 'retro' sound is inspired by everything from trailblazing East LA Chicano band Thee Midniters to Italian library music. The band plays in-studio. Set list: "Future Lover", "Easier Said Than Done", "Can I Call You Rose" Thee Sacred Souls by Thee Sacred Souls

New York singer/songwriter Nick Hakim has been producing records of gently psychedelic soul here for almost a decade.  Occasionally, he drops the gentle psychedelia in favor of something more obviously trippy – it happens several times on his newest album, Cometa. (The title is Spanish for “kite,” although the American-born Hakim sings in English.) He is one of those singers whose voice rarely seems to rise above a whisper – and though he’s probably sick of being compared to the ill-starred but still-mythic English folkie Nick Drake, Hakim’s songs can sound a little like Nick Drake fronting a psychedelic soul band from the early 70s. Nick Hakim and his band perform these songs in-studio.  (-John Schaefer) Set list: Vertigo, Happen, Feeling Myself

Violinist and composer Layale Chaker has done something exquisite in her music with the Ensemble Sarafand from the record, Inner Rhyme: she has gone about capturing the “shape and essence of epic testimonials on life, death, war and love that make the heart of Arabic poetry,” (Layale Chaker.) It’s an alchemical wedding of music derived from the form, rhythm and structure of Arabic sung poetry using chamber music instruments: her violin, along with piano, cello, double-bass, and hand percussion. Chaker and Sarafand perform some of these Arabic-poetry inspired, jazz-embracing chamber music works, in-studio. (From the Archives, 2019.) Watch the session here:    

Who wants to know what The Shuffle Man knows? The playful and surreal British musician and songwriter Robyn Hitchcock does. His latest batch of songs, 'Shufflemania!', is primed for the sub-personalities within - feathery serpent god, the shuffle man, vampire, scorpio tv detective. Robyn’s love of trams and Raymond Chandler are steady, as is his ability to balance the inane and the poignant in lyrics musing about inner lives, vegan casserole, crawling fish, hemlock-drinking, and the inevitability of death. Robyn Hitchcock plays songs from his latest, and a tune from his vast back catalogue, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik  Set: "The Shuffle Man", "Noirer than Noir", "The Man Who Loves the Rain", "Glass Hotel" Watch "The Shuffle Man": Watch "Noirer Then Noir":  Watch "The Man Who Loves the Rain": Watch "Glass Hotel":

British singer and songwriter Beth Orton has found distinctive ways to blend her folky acoustic guitar-playing with the sounds of the electronic music world. But her latest record, Weather Alive, settles in a distinctly personal space where genres don’t so much collide as fade away, and the basis for the album wasn't guitar, but tracks she recorded on a beat-up, questionably-tuned upright piano she bought at a street market. Orton also says that she got to collaborate with herself - as she produced the record - and with that old piano, which "really spoke to me," (Pitchfork.) Additionally, in keeping with her wide ranging musical circle (she's worked with Chemical Brothers, William Orbit, Nick Cave, Emmylou Harris, Four Tet, to drop a few names), she collaborated remotely on Weather Alive with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, the Smile drummer Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet), and guitarist Grey McMurray, and other folks during lockdown.  Beth Orton and her band play some of these tunes in-studio.  Set list: "Friday Night", "Fractals", "Arms Around a Memory" Weather Alive by Beth Orton

The three singers who lead the group Say She She all like different things: 70s style New York dance music, classic soul and R&B, the swirling psychedelia of Turkish pop or Hindi film music. The resulting global pop is something close to ‘discodelic soul’ and revolves around the sweet harmonies of the three singers. Say She She has just put out a debut album called Prism, a post-disco confection built around the eclectic and thrilling harmonies of their three singers, Piya Malik, Nya Gazelle Brown, and Sabrina Cunningham. The full 7-piece band plays in-studio. Set list: "Fortune Teller", "Blow My Mind", "Prism", "Forget Me Not" Bonus Dance Moves in this operatic song, "Forget Me Not":

Black Feminist Punk trio Big Joanie formed in London, but are now based over various cities in the U.K. Their sound is “punk” and… also looks to Riot Grrrl jaggedness and DIY sensibilities, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and girl group harmonies. Their 2022 album, Back Home, sees the band ruminating on the ideas of home, whether that’s in the U.K., back in Africa or the Caribbean, and considering how second and third generation communities of Black & Brown folks define themselves as British people. Borne of guitarist/vocalist Stephanie Phillips’s desire for a space “where I could be Black and be into punk and it wouldn’t be seen as a conflict”, Big Joanie began as a post on social media, (Kerry Cardoza, Bandcamp), and is named for Phillips’ mom. Stephanie Phillips of Big Joanie talks DIY and making one’s own culture, and the band plays remotely from their London recording studio. On a literary note, Phillips is also a writer and journalist, whose own book Why Solange Matters is out now, via University of Texas Press. Drummer/vocalist Chardine Taylor-Stone’s book, Sold Out: How Black Feminism Lost Its Soul, via Cassava Republic Press, is due out in late November of 2022. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Your Words”, “Cactus Tree”, “Today” Watch "Your Words":

As a solo artist, Grammy-winning Puerto Rican singer-songwriter iLe (Ileana Cabra) has explored the rich history of classic Latin American pop music, and she contributed vocals in the popular hip hop band, Calle13, with her brothers. Her new 2022 album, Nacarile sees her mixing boleros and ballads with reggaeton and synth pop for a collection of politically- and socially-conscious art-rock tinged with some psychedelia, whose intent is to sound more like the present, despite looking to the classic styles. There are also some unusual sounds on Nacarile: the eerie and expressive theremin; the all-female Mariachi band Flor de Toloache, and other collaborators like Natalia Lafourcade and Mon Laferte, as well as background vocal arrangements with textures that are lush and airy.   The material takes on the elections in Puerto Rico as well as in the  U.S., as well as that colonial legacy and its abuse of power. Also, there is a focus on the strength and power in femininity, especially in response to the patriarchy. The pioneering reggaeton star Ivy Queen makes an appearance on a protest song that speaks to the loss of women’s reproductive rights worldwide. In an interview with NPR, iLe says: “Something pretty for me is that we have our own rights, and that we should be treated respectfully and that no one can say anything about what we can or can't do with our own bodies.” iLe and her band play some of these tunes, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Donde Nadie Más Respira”, “(Escapándome) De Mí”, “Traguito”

Oregon-based songwriter Laura Veirs re-discovers her “self-sovereignty” as she calls it, on a new record, Found Light. For this album, Veirs made her first foray into producing on her own, making choices about out-of-sync guitars to create waves, adding saxophone, or calling on friends to be guest artists, and co-produce with her. Mostly, it's about keeping choices mostly simple and direct, and harnessing the power of her dad’s nylon string guitar to sublimate her raw emotions from personal upheaval. She plays these intimate songs of artistic independence, remotely. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Ring Song”, “Naked Hymn”, “Sword Song”, “Time Will Show You” Watch "Ring Song": "Naked Hymn": "Sword Song": "Time Will Show You":

The four members of Combo Chimbita are from Colombia. But they met and formed their band here in New York. From their home base in Queens, Combo Chimbita plays a kind of tropical futurist pop that combines elements of Afro-Colombian spirituality, razor-sharp social commentary, and booty-shaking dance rhythms. Hear their set, live from the New Sounds 40th Anniversary Party from Brooklyn Bowl, and an interview with bass/synth player Prince of Queens.  Set list: "El Camino", "Testigo", "La Perla", "Sin Tiempo", "Ahomale", "Oya" IRE by Combo Chimbita

Guitarist, composer, ethnomusicologist, and instrument builder Paolo Angeli plays a custom prepared Sardinian guitar, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument that looks like a guitar crossed with a cello. Angeli’s build has been fitted cross-wise and lengthwise with additional strings: cello strings and drone strings, and has numerous other inventions attached to it, including hammers, pedals, bicycle cables, and some propellers at variable speed. Then, there’s his array of electronics and treatments... Paolo Angeli demonstrates some of these sounds, which include percussion, organ, kora, sitar, slide guitar, cello, hammered dulcimer, fretless bass, and drone (and teases a new custom prototype in the works!) He also performs music from his latest release – a concept album about the wider Mediterranean - Rade, on his custom instrument, complete with plastic bag percussion, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Baklawa", "Mare Lungo", "Rade" Watch "Baklawa": Watch: "Mare Lungo": Watch "Rade": Watch the entire session: 

Banjo player, fiddler, singer, and scholar Jake Blount’s latest feat is an Afro-futurist concept album called The New Faith, where instead of shiny interstellar travel, man-made climate crises reach their logical end points, and a small community survives, staying lifted by the sacred songs of the past. Blount presents the music of this imagined community as a religious service in three sections, captured as a future field recording - one with a direct through-line to folk, gospel, the blues, and spirituals. The tie-in with Octavia Butler’s visionary 1993 work of climate/science fiction, Parable of the Sower, is explicit, says Blount, as this album may well be the first musical Afro-futurist cautionary tale (some might say dystopia, but that would imply that there was a utopia to begin with.) The collected and re-cast songs on The New Faith have been deeply researched (just as they were on his excellent 2020 record, Spider Tales) and show profound respect invoking and honoring the ancestors: Bessie Jones of the Sea Island Singers, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, bluesman Skip James, and the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. There’s a full-throated electric guitar on “Didn’t It Rain” summoning guitar hero Sister Rosetta Tharpe; songs sourced from fingerstyle and Delta blues players Blind Willie McTell and Skip James, respectively; and a pervasive bass thump throughout extending from the Gullah-Geechee Ring Shout tradition of groove-keeping. Together with cleverly deployed fiddle and banjo, (please see his explainer on the banjo, and Black String Band history(!)), lots of hand claps, and call and response vocals, gospel choruses, and rapped verse from Demeanor, Blount seamlessly and instructively links up past, present, and potential future, in ways that will undoubtedly resonate. Jake Blount and his band play some of these tunes, in-studio. – Caryn Havlik Set list: "Once There Was No Sun" "City Called Heaven" "Didn't It Rain" Watch "Once There Was No Sun": Watch "City Called Heaven": Watch "Didn't It Rain":

Classically-trained Belgian-Egyptian singer/songwriter Tamino has a voice that covers three octaves; his sultry croon and rich falsetto envelop a listener and draw inevitable comparisons to Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley. Tamino's vocal lines and riffs sometimes incorporate Arabic quarter notes, and he now writes on the Arab oud, not unlike his grandfather, the Egyptian singer and movie star Muharram Fouad. His latest album, Sahar, “just before dawn” – suggests an in-between time, full of reflection and moments of mystery. He performs these latest baroque pop / Arab-gothic* songs, in-studio. (*Thanks, GQ Middle East for the hybrid term.)  - Caryn HavlikSet list:  “A Drop of Blood” “The Longing” “The First Disciple”

With eight members, London-based caroline looks like a combination rock band and chamber music ensemble with their violins, cello, flute, guitars, bass, percussion, and drums. Their songs are a study in the balance of restraint and release, as they journey through what could sound like Appalachian folk, Midwestern emo, minimalist classical, electronic music, and post rock music. caroline writes their songs improvisationally, as a core trio, then they develop them further as the full 8-piece band. Phrases are chanted, intermittently, drones are established and then carefully moved, as the songs stretch out to suites. In live performance the band has a tendency to play in the round, as if in the middle of some private ceremony – the better to play off of one another. caroline plays in-studio. - John Schaefer/Caryn Havlik  Set list: "Dark Blue", "Skydiving onto the library roof", "BRJ" Cover of claire rousay's "Peak Chroma":peak chroma by caroline

The singer/songwriter Denitia first attracted notice here in New York as a kind of alternative R&B singer. Her songs, either as half of Denitia & Sene or as a solo artist, often had subtle, but expansive production. But her new album, Highways, takes a turn to a more intimate, largely acoustic sound, with songs that draw on folk and even country music. Now based in the Hudson Valley, Denitia has traveled down to our studio to do some solo versions of these new songs.  Set list: "Highways", "My Weakness", "All the Sweet Tea" Watch: "All the Sweet Tea":

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. The couple at the heart of the band, Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, decided on their name after hearing an interview with David Bowie. They describe their sunny, trippy sound as “primal, yet extra,” and  enjoy an expanse of sound with reverb and layered vocals, along with organ and guitars. The Heavy Heavy plays some of their psychedelic pop remotely. Set list: “Miles and Miles”, “Go Down River”, “All My Dreams” Watch Set list: “Go Down River”:

The party band, Red Baraat, is from Brooklyn, but their music grows out of the hard-partying tradition of Punjabi wedding bands. They're a big band full of brass instruments and drums, rock guitar, jazzy improvisations, occasionally some rap, (both the dhol and drumset keep the groove going), who bring the festivities with them wherever they go. Hear their set, live from the New Sounds 40th Anniversary Party from Brooklyn Bowl, and an interview with drummer and composer Sunny Jain, who leads the band on dhol, the double-sided drum, one which is definitely an “outside” instrument. Hear Jain play his new, bigger, responsive Sufi dhol from Lahore, Pakistan, which suffered a strap malfunction during their set, and the band barely missed a beat. - Caryn Havlik Set list: “Chaal Baby” “Kala Mukra” “Zindabad” “Gaadi of Truth” “Shruggy Ji” “Ishq Tera Tadpave” “Thumbs Up”

Portland, Oregon-based Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. From spacious melancholic laments to transcendent minimalism, Anderson is coming from a place between country, blues, and drone. On her 2018 record, Cloud Corner, she touches on Tuareg scales from "desert blues," the finger-style picking of so-called “American Primitive,” and chiming sad cowboy chords, while continuously moving and traveling on her guitar. She joins us in-studio.Marisa Anderson's new 2022 record is Still, Here:  Still, Here by Marisa Anderson   Watch the individual songs below:

Lebanese-born Paris-based trumpet superstar Ibrahim Maalouf plays a custom four-valve trumpet that can not only play western music, but also accesses the quarter tones in Arab classical music. He’s played jazz, worked with rappers, global pop stars, and has collaborated with everyone from Angelique Kidjo to Wynton Marsalis, New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas, Cuban funk-rapper Cimafunk, and actress Sharon Stone. On his latest record, called Capacity to Love, due Nov. 4, he has opened the doors to and between all kinds of music: classical Arab music, Western classical music, sacred music, rap, jazz, and pop music. He and his band play an intimate acoustic set in-studio ahead of a North American tour (Sept. 29-Oct. 6). -Caryn Havlik Set list: "Feeling Good", "True Sorry", "Right Time"

Cuban-born pianist Omar Sosa has made beautiful records with musicians from West Africa, from all over East Africa, from Spain, where he's lived for many years, and now, with American friends, including sax player Peter Apfelbaum, whom we've heard over the years playing with the Kamikaze Ground Crew, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, and the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, among others. They play duo versions of music from the Quarteto Americanos project, including recorded sounds fired from a sampler pad, that Sosa has put together, in-studio.  Set list: "umbo kondo", "Move in D", "Mis Tres Notas"

From the 2022 New York Guitar Festival at The Greene Space, listen to cosmic inventions from guitarist and composer Vernon Reid together with Laraaji on zither and electronics.  Adept at metal, funk and jazz, Vernon Reid gained fame as the main songwriter for the rock band Living Colour, and as a founder of the Black Rock Coalition. Crashing this year’s guitar festival to join Vernon is the innovative ambient zither player and electronic musician Laraaji, who was also part of Brian Eno’s groundbreaking Ambient Music series back in 1981. Vernon Reid and Laraaji, together with an arsenal of electronics, in addition to their instruments, with occasional vocalizing, improvise a breathtaking longform set (perhaps taking inspiration from the Oblique Strategies card Ghost Echoes).  Watch their improvisations here:

Lean Year is Virginia-based singer Emilie Rex and filmmaker/musician Rick Alverson, along with Erik Hall, who lives in rural Michigan, where he records and co-produces the band’s records with Alverson. The band’s latest, Sides, is heavy on dreamlike and beautiful melodies, yet the material is also meditation on grief and the processing of personal tragedy. Using mellotron, keyboards of many colors, guitar, and a tapestry of synth pads of sampled woodwinds, together with Rex’s distinctive voice, the music is “a balancing act between pathos and pop” (Bandcamp), which feels haunted and cinematic, while celebrating memories and embracing calm amidst the sorrow. Lean Year plays in-studio.  Set list: "Nitetime", "Marriage of Heaven and Hell", "Trouble with Being Warm" Watch "Nitetime": Watch "Marriage of Heaven and Hell": Watch "Trouble with Being Warm": 

Mafer Bandola, aka Maria Fernanda González, is originally from Venezuela, and is one of the few women who plays bandola and electric bandola professionally. The Bandola is a traditional 4-stringed instrument found in both Colombia and Venezuela; it is avacado-shaped, and related to the bandurria and mandolin (thanks, Wikipedia.) In her music, she is constantly stretching and innovating within her tradition by incorporating jazz, blues, Brazilian influences, as she experiments with genres, sounds, and cross-cultural collaboration. González is also an educator, self-taught composer, journalist, and a co-founder of LADAMA, a multinational band of four women from four countries. She joins us remotely to perform original works, ahead of her appearance at Flushing Town Hall on Sept. 18 at 1PM.  Set list: “Zumba que Zumba”, “Agreste”, “Pajarillo” Watch "Zumba que Zumba": Watch “Agreste”: Watch "“Pajarillo”:

Wikipedia says Bill Frisell “is an American jazz guitarist.” Well they got “American” and “guitarist” right. Frisell has indeed played jazz, but also country, rock, folk, West African, classical, and lots of less easily defined styles of music. Widely considered to be one of the great guitarists of our time, he is the subject of a new biography called Bill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamer. He plays solo acoustic in The Greene Space as part of the 2022 New York Guitar Festival. - John Schaefer Set list: Look Out for Hope, Blues from Before, Strange Meeting, Waltz For Hal Willner Watch the set:

Colleen is the alias of French multi-instrumentalist Cécile Schott, who has been living and working in Spain for the past few years. Her musical ax of choice was a Baroque instrument - the viola da gamba (as well as modified music boxes, melodica, classical guitar, clarinet, toy gamelan frame drum, piano, and wind chimes) electronically looped and layered; on later records, she added her voice. But on her 2017 release, she’s completely put away the viola da gamba in favor of electronic devices like the Pocket Piano and the Moogerfooger. In fact, this album, A flame my love, a frequency, is her first fully electronics-based record - 100% electronics and voice. Colleen and her synth armada are here in the studio to play these unconventional avant-pop creations in their live versions today. (From the Archives, 2017.)  

From his beginnings in his father’s band, Terry Riley and The All Stars, Gyan Riley has branched out into classical music (both his own and that of composers like John Zorn), spacey electric guitar excursions, and Eastern-influenced collaborations with a wide range of artists, including recent Grammy winner Arooj Aftab. Gyan Riley plays and improvises original pieces. From the 2022 New York Guitar Festival at The Greene Space, hear guitarist and composer Gyan Riley's post-minimalist jazz-limning new music. - John Schaefer Set list: And then… (improvisation), Sparkling Pines, Sometimes You Go Back for More, Toucher les Nuages/Appa-tango Watch "And then... (improvisation)": Watch "Sparkling Pines": Watch "Sometimes You Go Back for More": Watch "Toucher les Nuages/Appa-tango":   Watch the entire show from Night 2 of the 2022 New York Guitar Festival:

Hear the eerie, arresting, co-composed electro-orchestral pop from Minneapolis electro band POLIÇA and Berlin new-music outfit stargaze, led by conductor André de Ridder. The two groups have worked together since the 2015-2016 season, in a “virtual residence,” commissioned by Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music series. They have arranged and adapted Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood as well as co-creating their latest, a long-form work inspired by ideas and themes in James Kunstler's book The Long Emergency. On their 2018 record Music For the Long Emergency, sweeps of strings, French horn, flute and oboe, along with synth bass, industrial electro-percussion, and jarring electronic textures are arrayed in support of often electronically-altered vocal lines. Hear some of this music, in-studio, which Poliça frontwoman Channy Leaneagh describes in National Sawdust Log as “not a pill to swallow that calms us down.” (From the Archives, 2018.) Read more about the long-distance collaborative romance via this interview in the National Sawdust Log. Watch the 2018 session:

Although he has a background in rock and experimental music, fingerstyle guitarist Glenn Jones is best known as a keeper of the flame of “American Primitive,” the folk-based style associated with the 20th century guitarist John Fahey. With a variety of tunings, capos, and even specially-made half-capos, Jones’s country-blues music is full of unexpected textures. He plays new works from his 2022 record, Vade Mecum, in The Greene Space for the 2022 New York Guitar Festival. - John Schaefer Set list: Vade Mecum, Black & White and Gray, Each Crystal Pane of Glass, Ruthie's Farewell,  John Jackson of Fairfax, Virginia  Watch "Vade Mecum":   Watch "Black & White and Gray": Watch "Each Crystal Pane of Glass": Watch "Ruthie's Farewell": Watch "John Jackson of Fairfax, Virginia" Watch the whole show from Night 1 of the New York Guitar Festival: 

The Austin-based minimalist instrumental ensemble Balmorhea uses acoustic instruments to create atmospheric soundscapes. Comparisons to Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor might not be too far off, but where those bands tend to build, swell and fade, Balmorhea maintains a “relaxed, clear-eyed sense of reflection” throughout their 2017 album, Clear Language. With strings, keyboards, guitars, vibraphone, & the occasional muted trumpet, the multi-instrumentalist core of Balmorhea has crafted a record of expansive layered spacious music, painting in broad brush strokes a feeling of wide-open Americana. Balmorhea joins us in their six-piece formation to play songs from 2017's Clear Language. RIYL: Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, This Will Destroy Us, Friday Night Lights.

From the 2022 New York Guitar Festival, listen to the space-Americana and pastoral country stylings of guitarist William Tyler, whose music pulls in folk, country, indie, and electronic music. His latest record is Lost Futures (2021), with the experimental guitarist Marisa Anderson for Thrill Jockey, and he’s collaborated with electric harpist Mary Lattimore, pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider, and the ambient drone project Six Organs of Admittance. He plays solo in The Greene Space for the Soundcheck Podcast. Set list: "Waltz of the Circassian Beauties", "Missionary Ridge", "Gone Clear", "Not In Our Stars", "We Can’t Go Home Again" Watch "Waltz of the Circassian Beauties": Watch "Missionary Ridge": Watch "Gone Clear": Watch "Not in Our Stars": Watch: "We Can't Go Home Again": Watch the whole show from night 4 of the 2022 New York Guitar Festival:

Somewhere on the spectrum of art music and prog rock, is the band Palm. Underneath airy vocal melodies, they build out an architecturally precise combination of guitars and percussion, plus extra electronic triggered effects like steel drums, backwards samples, and other hard-to-identify noises. With strange and unusual combinations of ever-shifting meter (fives, thirteens, threes, and many other grooves that are really hard to dance to), the Bard-College born, Philadelphia-based outfit trips gaily through fun, smart, and weird pop experiments. They perform music from 2018's Rock Island in-studio. Their 2022 record, Nicks and Grazes, comes out in October. Set list: "Parly" "Composite" "Dog Milk" Rock Island by Palm  

The guitarra Portuguesa, or Portuguese guitar, looks a bit like a mandolin on steroids, and has a long history of great performers – all of them men. Until Marta Pereira da Costa showed up.  She plays the double six-stringed, teardrop-shaped instrument in its traditional setting – Portuguese fado music – but has also written her own music and collaborated with artists like Iranian singer Tara Tiba and Cameroonian bass player Richard Bona. Hear works by master player of the guitarra Portuguesa, Marta Pereira da Costa, together with pianist Alexandre Diniz, performed live in The Greene Space, for the 2022 New York Guitar Festival. - John Schaefer Watch "Terra": Watch "Verde Anos/Summertime": Watch "Encontro": Watch "Minha Alma": Watch  "Meditando /Fado Lopes" : Watch "Alfonsina y el Mar”, “Dia de Feira": Watch the entire concert from Night 4 of 2022's New York Guitar Festival from The Greene Space:

The singer and songwriter known as Sirintip lives here in New York, but like many musicians who are here in New York, she came from somewhere else. She was raised in Thailand, and spent her teenage years in her mother’s homeland of Sweden, before making her way to the city. Her debut LP called Tribus (due out Feb. 9) also seems to come from several places at once. There are jazz harmonies, Thai drums, electronics and singable pop all mixed together to often startling effect. Sirintip and her band play some of these songs live. Set list: In My Garden Nothing in the Room/Pretend Shut it Up

From the 2022 New York Guitar Festival at The Greene Space, hear Malian guitar virtuoso Vieux Farka Touré. The Malian singer and guitarist's career began with collaborations with two of West Africa’s most celebrated musicians: the kora player Toumani Diabate and Vieux’s own dad, the famous guitarist Ali Farka Touré. Since then he has worked with American singer Julia Easterlin and popular Israeli musician Idan Raichel, in addition to releasing five solo studio albums rooted in the sounds and rhythms of West African blues. His latest record, Les Racines (2022), addresses unrest in his home country, and marks a return to his roots – the style of his father’s playing. He and percussionist Adama Kone perform in The Greene Space. (-John Schaefer) Set list: "Philipa", "Fafa", "Ali", "Tamala", "Ngala Kaourene", "Djaraby"Watch "Philipa": Watch "Fafa", "Ali", "Tamala": Watch "Ngala Kaourene": Watch "Djaraby":

Some time ago, Malian singer, songwriter, guitarist and actress Fatoumata Diawara did a wonderful and daring thing – inspired by her friend Rokia Traoré, she bought an acoustic guitar, and taught herself to play it. Since then, Fatoumata has put out her debut record, Fatou, collaborated with Damon Albarn's Africa Express, and contributed vocals to albums by Cheikh Lô, AfroCubism, and Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Her 2018 record, Fenfo translates as “Something to Say”, and she plays some of those songs, in-studio. (Archives.) Watch Fatoumata Diawara perform "Fenfo" in-studio:   Fatoumata Diawara: "Don do" | In Studio:    This video for the album’s first single “Nterini,” was directed by Ethiopian photographer and contemporary artist Aïda Muluneh, and filmed in the remote Afar region of Ethiopia, to which archaeologists have traced the origin of humanity.  

The New York-based band Innov Gnawa performs the traditional healing music of Morocco: Gnawa - a trancey, rhythmic music that is played on an array of unique instruments — from the lute-like gimbri (sintir), to the metal qarqaba (castinets) with which the kouyos (chorus) keep time and pound out clattering, hypnotic rhythms. One of Innov Gnawa's innovations is to collaborate with modern electronic acts like Bonobo, and continue to update  “The Moroccan Blues”. Innov Gnawa performs music from their 2018 record, Aicha, in-studio. (From the Archives.) Watch the individual songs below:

Los Angeles-based band Vintage Trouble is a powerfully fun time of old-school soul, southern rhythm & blues, sizzling dance moves, and catchy, crunchy guitar-driven rockenroll. When describing their own sound, the band uses the term “formatted recklessness.” Yes, and that almost puts words to their timeless and appealing concoction of old-school soul, powerful riffs and high energy showmanship. Vintage Trouble joined us live in the studio in 2018 to shake the walls with their “live-wired, straight-shootin, dirty-mouth'd juke music,” at once spirited and thunderous, possessed and powerful, full of party and good-times.   

Singer, songwriter, violinist, guitarist, whistler, glockenspielist, and actor (on Fargo), Andrew Bird, continues “his subversion of indie rock”, (-Schaefer) by including classical, folk, expansive violin solos, and old-time jazz; and has made a remarkable document of tilting at the windmills of his inner demons during these last few years of isolation and insularity. This latest record, 2022’s Inside Problems, sees Bird once again as an entertaining thinker who can couch dark cultural commentary in joyfully buoyant pop songs, (he prefers this exercise in contrasts.) Especially entertaining is a counting/numbers song (in the vein of Schoolhouse Rock), “Eight”, which, he says, is his favorite number -  and both this live version, and the album version of this song feature a pretty epic classic rock-length violin solo. As The Thinker, he invites us into getting literary with references to the late novelist and essayist Joan Didion (and related work by Irish poet William Butler Yeats), Greek mythology (Icarus and Orpheus), The Velvet Underground, and Beethoven. Interestingly, Bird says that rather than compartmentalizing the various musical genres and conservatory training experiences (“I spent…four years trying not to let them educate me”, Pitchfork), he says that he approaches melodies like folk music in the oral tradition, whether they are classical riffs of Ravel or Beethoven, old time music, Irish tunes, jazz standards, or Lou Reed/John Cale. So it makes perfect sense that when his internal jukebox kept spinning a piano reduction of Beethoven’s Allegretto from the 7th Symphony, which he’d heard in the movie, Howard’s End, he turned that theme into a bridge in his own song “Atomized.” Over the past few years, Andrew Bird has also taken up acting (Fargo), scored a Judd Apatow film, earned a Grammy nomination for My Finest Work Yet (2019), and continued his wide-ranging musical collaborations. Additionally, his work, “Hover”, was performed at the most recent 2022 Ojai Festival, in an early music instrument arrangement by Emi Ferguson (Artist Propulsion Lab Class of 2022). All this to say, we are excited and honored (ok, I am BEYOND EXCITED) that Andrew Bird plays remotely and chats about his new album for the Soundcheck Podcast. – Caryn Havlik Set list: “Eight”, “Atomized” “Make a Picture” Watch "Eight": Watch "Make a Picture":

Resisting gender-specific compliments in print since 2014 (and probably before), producer, songwriter, badass, and musician Neko Case unleashed her record, Hell-On, into the world in 2018. She’s written songs that traverse a lot of ground: folk ballads, radio pop, rock anthems, a little bit of goth moodiness, honky-tonk piano, and swagger of all kinds. Her exceptional and distinct voice, “like garotting wire,” delivers wordplay of the highest o, rder on this gorgeous, daring, won't-be-a-supplicant-ever record. Neko Case brings her touring band to play some of these new tunes in-studio, (from the Archives, 2018.)  Neko Case is on tour in 2022 with her career-spanning retrospective album, Wild Creatures.

Coming from a rock and funk place, Dominican singer-songwriter Vicente García has become something of a folk pop revivalist, incorporating his love of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, from acoustic bachata to reggae on his latest record, A La Mar. Formerly the lead singer of the band Calor Urbano, the winner of Best New Artist at the 2018 Latin Grammys has been digging into Dominican folklore, despite his having relocated to Bogotá, Colombia. (He was also up for Best Tropical Song for "Bachata In Kingston," according to alt.latino.) Vicente García joins us for an acoustic set to play some of these eclectic love songs. (From the Archives, 2018.) Set list: Te Soñe  Dulcito e coco Juana Mecho 

Musician, actor and doctor (otolaryngologist) Jorge Drexler grew up in Uruguay, and now lives in Spain. Listeners may be familiar with Drexler’s music because his theme song for The Motorcycle Diaries won an Academy Award (presented to him by Prince.) His 2018 album of songs, Salvavidas de Hielo, is guitar-based, but augmented by a wide sonic palette of effects – samples, loops and beats created by different parts of guitars, dobros, and banjos. There is a song that touches on the loss of the planet’s glaciers, there’s one about how people have been migrating throughout time to stay alive – “Movimiento”, and yet another celebrating the elegance of silence. Jorge Drexler and his band play arrangements of these songs in-studio.  Set list:  "Movimiento" "Asilo" "Telefonía"

Pianist and composer BLKBOK, (pronounced “Black Bach”) has played with some of the biggest pop names: Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, and John Mayer. Born Charles Wilson III, he grew up in Detroit with a traditional classical foundation and pursued more musical interests including jazz, Motown, hip-hop and the blues. While he’s not conservatory-trained, he creates by channeling his thoughts and reflections, and running them through his fingers onto the piano, creating musical poems in the process. Despite the absence of touring during the pandemic, it was a productive time for BLKBOK, who finalized the instrumental compositions that would become Black Book, a continuation of the legacy of (and inspired by) the movie Green Book, which told the story of trailblazing black classical pianist/composer Don Shirley. BLKBOK plays some of these works remotely for the Soundcheck Podcast. Set list: “The Hustle Is Real”, “November 7, 2020”, “Amalia’s Ocean” Watch: "The Hustle Is Real": Watch: “November 7, 2020”: Watch: “Amalia’s Ocean”:

The Bogotá-based Monsieur Periné has taken the the Latin music world by storm since their start in 2008. The eight piece band takes the music of their native Columbia, and infuses it with sweet swing sensibilities of the 1920's and a good dash of modern pop styles. Their upbeat and lively arrangements are engaging, detailed, and above all such a joy to move to. Their excellent musicianship and energy has not gone unnoticed; they were given a Latin Grammy award as 2015's best new artist. They have not slowed down since then and recently released the wildly popular Bailar Contigo. They perform live in-studio. Watch the individual songs below:

The great South African a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a global phenomenon. With their uplifting vocal harmonies and signature dance moves, they’ve been anointed “cultural ambassadors to the world” by no less than Nelson Mandela. (Some listeners might recall them appearing on Paul Simon’s Graceland album back in 1986.) The group was formed in 1960 by Joseph Shabalala, has recorded more than 50 albums, and won five Grammys. Joseph Shabalala retired from the group in 2014, and died in February of 2020, but his sons and other family members carry on the tradition. During their 2018 world tour, Ladysmith Black Mambazo returned to perform songs in our studio. (From the Archives, 2018.)