Journal
- Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) has released an official music video for their song “Buffalo.” One of many highlights from The Past Is Still Alive—one of The Best Albums of the 2020s So Far, per Pitchfork—“Buffalo” is a love song about survival, patience, miracles, and memories of real people and places that Segarra experienced during trips to New Mexico. In the video, directed by Jeff Perlman, Segarra takes over the Field Museum in their brand new home of Chicago, roams alongside a herd of wild buffalo, and shines a light on extinct and endangered species. Hurray for the Riff Raff also performed the song on The Kelly Clarkson Show. You can watch both here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, Video
- Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams returns to Aquarium Drunkard's Transmissions podcast to talk with host Jason P. Woodbury about her upcoming Nonesuch debut album, Acadia. "It's beautiful—a showcase for a one-of-a-kind artist. And while the focus remains Williams' fluid and lyrical guitar work, she's joined by a roster of ringers to help fill out the corners," says the show. You can hear their conversation here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, PodcastTuesday, August 13, 2024Composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams 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. She chose recordings by Makaya McCraven, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Tigran Hamasyan, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Sam Amidon.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Nonesuch Selects, VideoMonday, August 12, 2024Congratulations to singer and composer Nathalie Joachim, whom the Museum of Modern Art in New York has named to its 2024–25 MoMA Scholars in Residence cohort. The program invites three acclaimed, inspiring thinkers to join the Museum for a one-year term to pursue projects and research initiatives that contribute to new understandings of modern and contemporary art.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday, August 6, 2024Listen: Laurie Anderson Shares New 'Amelia' Track Featuring Anohni, "India And On Down to Australia"Laurie Anderson has released “India And On Down to Australia,” a track featuring Anohni, from her new album, Amelia, due August 30, about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. "The rhythm was from an unreleased song called ‘Rumba Club’ that I always wanted to use as something,” Anderson says of the new track. “It was recorded during pandemic times. And so the orchestra [Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies] recorded their part, and then it came to me to put the electronics and voice on it. And I thought, ‘I need to make the story a little bit bigger,' so I’m going to find a bridge between the electronic viola that I’m playing and the orchestra, so that became percussion by Kenny Wollesen, bass by Tony Scherr, viola by Martha Mooke—a little string trio that was organized by Rob Moose, with Nadia Sirota playing as well. And then Marc Ribot doing some groove parts and of course Anohni. So it became this big romantic orchestral thing.”
Journal Topics: Artist EssaysFriday, August 2, 2024Lianne La Havas, Makaya McCraven, and Jeff Parker perform at Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, while Richard Goode, Rhiannon Giddens, and Jeremy Denk perform at Caramoor outside NYC. Giddens is also in upstate NY and PA. Hurray for the Riff Raff's tour with Norah Jones concludes in San Francisco, while Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's tour with The Infamous Stringdusters begins in Seattle and Montana.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsThursday, August 1, 2024Molly Tuttle is the inaugural guest on photographer Fletcher Moore's new video series My Day With. They get ready for the day in Nashville, paint while listening to Emmylou Harris, rate taco trucks, and talk about life and music. Tuttle also performs a cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams" and a solo version of "When My Race Is Run," from City of Gold, her 2023 GRAMMY-winning album with her band Golden Highway. You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoTuesday, July 30, 2024Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's new six-song EP, Into the Wild, is due September 20 on Nonesuch. The EP, a follow-up to their acclaimed Grammy-winning album City of Gold, features three new songs—including the title track, available now—as well as previously released covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u,” and an alternate version of the City of Gold track “Stranger Things.” They have announced new US dates in November, with stops in North Carolina, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and more.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News, On TourMonday, July 29, 2024Composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams's Nonesuch debut album, Acadia, is due October 4. The album, her most sonically expansive to date, is nine original, mostly instrumental tracks written and produced by Williams, with her on various guitars, banjo, calabash drum, tap shoes, and kora. She is joined by an eclectic cast of collaborators—including Immanuel Wilkins, Dom Flemons, Aoife O’Donovan, William Tyler, Darlingside, and others—creating a folk music that reflects the wide range of musical influences that have inspired her throughout her life. Album tracks “Virga” and "Dawning" can be heard now. Williams tours North America with Brittany Howard and Michael Kiwanuka this fall and plays London's Pitchfork Music Festival. "Yasmin Williams treats her guitar like a playground," says NPR Music, noting the “joy and possibility she brings to the guitar.” Songlines calls her “an original, a genuine trailblazer, one of those rare musicians who challenges your preconceptions about the possible.”
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, July 29, 2024Chris Thile joined the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Eric Jacobsen in concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to perform his narrative song cycle ATTENTION!, and more this past April. Also on the program were works by Bach, Beethoven, Dvořàk, and Ellington, and Caroline Shaw. You can watch them perform "Julep," from Punch Brothers' 2015 album, The Phosphorescent Blues; the Allegro from Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor; and "The Rooftop," from ATTENTION!, here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, On Tour, VideoMonday, July 29, 2024"It's a real break. It's a real historical break from, like, anything goes ... to suddenly no, I want one chord," composer Steve Reich says of the cultural shift in his lifetime to new musical ideas by American composers, in a new video from Boosey & Hawkes for its America at 250 series. "I want to be able to hear the details that come out of staying put. It isn't recognized what a change happened in my lifetime. I'm proud, delighted, and pleased to have been a part of it." You can see what else he had to say here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoMonday, July 29, 2024"More than 50 years later, this ensemble has forever changed the shape and sound of classical music," Jon Fasman says in a feature on Kronos Quartet on The Economist's The Intelligence podcast. "Kronos has also delighted in breaking genre barriers. They’ve played pieces by some of the greatest living classical composers, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. But they’ve also played songs by Thelonius Monk and Jimi Hendrix. At its core, though, Kronos has dedicated itself to expanding chamber music repertoire ... Throughout it all, they’ve developed and performed scores rich with depth and meaning." You can hear the feature, including conversations with Kronos's David Harrington and Paul Wiancko, here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, PodcastFriday, July 26, 2024Rhiannon Giddens and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway perform at Newport Folk Festival and tour the Northeast. Makaya McCraven leads NYC Blue Note residency. Ambrose Akinmusire concludes Asia tour in Hong Kong and Seoul. Jeremy Denk and Joshua Bell perform Mozart and Beethoven in Rockport, MA. Hurray for the Riff Raff joins Norah Jones on tour in Boise and Walla Walla. Lianne La Havas is in DC. Davóne Tines joins Minnesota Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth in Brainerd, MN. Yasmin Williams is in Ohio.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events