Journal

  • Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Browse by:
Year
Publish date
  • Wednesday, February 5, 2025

    Rhiannon Giddens reunites with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, due April 18. Produced by Giddens and Joseph "joebass" DeJarnette, the album features Giddens on banjo and Robinson on fiddle, playing eighteen of their favorite North Carolina tunes. Many were learned from their late mentor, legendary North Carolina Piedmont musician Joe Thompson; one is from another musical hero, the late Etta Baker. Giddens and Robinson recorded outdoors at Thompson’s and Baker’s North Carolina homes, as well as the former plantation Mill Prong House, accompanied by the sounds of nature, including two different broods of cicadas, which had not emerged simultaneously since 1803, creating a true once-in-a-lifetime soundscape. A video of “Hook and Line,” a traditional tune from Joe Thompson’s repertoire and filmed at his home in Mebane, NC, may be seen here. The duo, along with four other string musicians, embarks on Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue Tour April 25.

    Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, Video
  • Tuesday, February 4, 2025

    "Multiple Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Cécile McLorin Salvant is a fearless singer, composer, and visual artist who is one of the most highly regarded jazz vocalists of her generation," David Krauss, MET Opera Principal Trumpet and host of the Speaking Soundly podcast, says of his guest. You can hear their conversation about Salvant's life and music, including her Carnegie Hall Perspectives series this concert season, here.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Podcast
  • Tuesday, February 4, 2025

    Punch Brothers begin a spring tour of the US on May 13 in Virginia Beach, culminating at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 19-22. Additionally, they complete the second season of their musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour, in NYC in February. The band also returns for the third year of the four-day Acousticamp June 27-July 1 in Pacific Grove, CA.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, On Tour
  • Sunday, February 2, 2025

    Congratulations to Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion—Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting—who won the GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance, for their album Rectangles and Circumstance, at the 67th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Friday, January 31, 2025

    Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s album honey from a winter stone, which he calls a “self-portrait,” is out now. It features improvisational vocalist Kokayi, pianist Sam Harris, Chiquitamagic on synthesizer, drummer Justin Brown, and the Mivos Quartet. “For arguably the most technically gifted trumpeter of his generation, a lot of Ambrose Akinmusire’s breakthroughs actually come from letting go of standards and structures," says the New York Times. "Lately Akinmusire has been making some of the most intimate, spellbinding music of his career.”

    Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News
  • Wednesday, January 29, 2025

    Rhiannon Giddens was on NPR's Code Switch podcast to talk with co-host B.A. Parker, who is learning to play the banjo and is looking to find community and reclaim an instrument rooted in Black culture. You can hear their conversation here.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Podcast
  • Monday, January 27, 2025

    Composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams performed "Nectar," from her new album, Acadia, for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's Late Show Me Music online performance video series. You can watch it here. Williams kicks off a US tour in Ann Arbor this Friday.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Video, Web
  • Friday, January 24, 2025

    Steve Reich and Caroline Shaw are performed at Carnegie Hall, while Reich is also performed in Brooklyn, and Ringdown—Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan—performs in Portland. John Adams is performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Jeremy Denk is also in San Francisco, with Takács Quartet, at Hertz Hall. Gabriel Kahane and his father Jeffrey Kahane are at Northwestern, while Cécile McLorin Salvant is at Yale.

    Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events
  • Friday, January 24, 2025

    Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, was on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform "Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)," from their 2024 album, The Past Is Still Alive. You can watch it here.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, Video
  • Thursday, January 23, 2025

    Portuguese fado singer Carminho stopped by the NPR offices in Washington, DC, to perform a Tiny Desk Concert of songs from her albums Portuguesa and Maria and her EP Carmimho at Electrical Audio. "The world of Portuguese fado is full of emotion that is on display within seconds of this performance by vocalist Carminho," says NPR's Felix Contreras. 

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Video
  • Thursday, January 23, 2025

    Congratulations to John Adams and Davóne Tines, who have been nominated for BBC Music Magazine Awards—"celebrating the best new classical music recordings"—Adams for the Opera Award for his Girls of the Golden West (on which Tines performs) and Tines for the Vocal Award for his solo recording debut, ROBESON. Winners will be chosen by public vote and announced at an awards ceremony at Kings Place in London on April 23.

    Journal Topics: Artist News
  • Wednesday, January 22, 2025

    Composer/trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, whose new album, honey from a winter stone, is out next week, stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. He chose recordings by Joni Mitchell, Paul Jacobs (performing Schoenberg), Jonny Greenwood, Mary Halvorson, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Steve Reich, and Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade.

    Journal Topics: Artist News, Nonesuch Selects, Video