Music

On his new album, Magical Thinking, Chico Mann uses a host of electronic playthings to craft West African, Latin and 1980s "boogie" rhythms.

Music & Culture

Chico Mann: Plastic Keys, Blinking Lights And Burbling Beats

11:37am July 01, 2014

by Oliver Wang

The musician born Marcos Garcia was known for years as a member of the Afrobeat ensemble Antibalas — but one day, he began tinkering with his daughter's Casio keyboard.

Queue Listen Now

Modern hymn writers Kristyn and Keith Getty run through their song "In Christ Alone" at their home near Nashville's Music Row.

Music & Culture

Modern Hymn Writers Aim To Take Back Sunday

11:35am July 01, 2014

by Blake Farmer

In recent decades, churches have moved to rocking praise songs made popular by Christian radio. Now, some modern hymn writers are looking back to a more traditional style.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Lana Del Rey's 'Ultraviolence' Has A Firm Grasp On Pop History

2:09pm June 26, 2014

by Ken Tucker

Lana Del Rey continues a time-honored pop tradition of developing a public persona that challenges fans to decide what's real and what's not.

Queue Listen Now

Glenn Dicterow joined the New York Philharmonic as its concertmaster in 1980. He has performed as its soloist every year since.

Music & Culture

New York Philharmonic's Lead Fiddler Rests His Bow

11:58am June 25, 2014

by Jeff Lunden

Glenn Dicterow became the youngest concertmaster in New York Philharmonic history in 1980, when he was just 31. After spending more than half his life leading the violin section, he says goodbye.

Queue Listen Now

U.S. Army soldiers take part in a morning run at Camp New York, Kuwait, in 2002.

Music & Culture

Sound Off: Where The Military's Rhythm Came From

3:13pm June 24, 2014

by Frannie Kelley

In almost every Hollywood depiction of the American military, at some point a bunch of guys will jog past the camera, singing and stepping in unison. That rhythm infiltrated the Army in 1944.

Queue Listen Now

"Music and books, I think, were the two things I trusted the most as a child," Mary Gauthier says.

Music & Culture

Mary Gauthier De-Romanticizes Romantic Love

2:28pm June 24, 2014

Trouble & Love is about a relationship that went bad. "I think that this is one where Mary finally gets the lesson," Gauthier tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

Queue Listen Now

A still from "The Beyoncelogues: Irreplaceable."

Music & Culture

To The Left, To The Left: Behind The Beyoncelogues

5:20am June 24, 2014

Actress Nina Millin, who performs Beyonce lyrics as monologues, speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about how a karaoke failure blossomed into a series of viral performances.

Queue Listen Now

Music & Culture

Remembering Horace Silver, Hard Bop Pioneer

3:00pm June 20, 2014

by Kevin Whitehead

Jazz pianist, bandleader and composer Horace Silver died Wednesday at age 85. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead says that Silver had been off the scene awhile, but his influence is as strong as ever.

Queue Listen Now

Note the message on Kevin Eubanks' cap: "Meet You at the Blue Room." It's a nice club in Kansas City, in the historic district where Count Basie, Lester Young and Mary Lou Williams used to play.

Music & Culture

Kevin Eubanks On JazzSet

10:25am June 20, 2014

by Becca Pulliam

At the annual Detroit Jazz Festival on Labor Day 2011, an amphitheater full of Motor City music lovers grooves with the Kevin Eubanks Band — outdoors, free, and in Surround Sound on JazzSet.

Regina Carter (right) with Yacouba Sissoko.

Music & Culture

Regina Carter, Wynton Marsalis On JazzSet

3:12pm June 19, 2014

by Becca Pulliam

From a traditional blessing to a children's dance, hear a violin address the African diaspora — and a trumpet tell a bedtime story.

Queue Listen Now