Mar 13th, 2008 · Best known for his sly, sexy party anthems, 72-year-old Andre Williams toiled in the music industry trenches for decades, battling homelessness and addiction along the way. Now he's been rediscovered by young white rockers.
Jul 4th, 2009 · NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Cuban singer CuCu Diamantes about her debut album, CuCuland. Diamantes is of Spanish, African, Chinese and French heritage, influences which can be heard in her music. She is also the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated band Yerba Buena.
Jul 3rd, 2009 · In 1989, two members of the rock band Superchunk launched a tiny record label. Twenty years later, amid the struggles of the music industry at large, Merge has become one of the most respected and successful companies in the business.
Jul 3rd, 2009 · Guitarist Julian Lage is a true jazz prodigy. Discovered by Gary Burton when he was just 12 years old, Lage has since played with Herbie Hancock, Joe Lovano and Carlos Santana. Lage shows off his amazing technique and improvisatory abilities on "My Funny Valentine" before teaming with McPartland on "You and the Night and the Music."
Jul 3rd, 2009 · Classical violinist Mark O'Connor's boyhood hero was a country musician. O'Connor says that he'd spend hours on end learning the songs of Johnny Cash — and to this day, his great passion is the tune "Big River."
Jul 3rd, 2009 · The opera has a scatterbrained story, full of decidedly goofy characters. Yet Rossini's gift for musical profiling, plus a raft of bravura arias and ensembles, make this La Scala production a comic gem.
Jul 2nd, 2009 · The Fourth of July is a birthday party and the whole country is invited. And every party needs music. Whether meditating on America's landscape, its freedoms or the things about it that frustrate us, America is ripe for inspiration, as evidenced by the songs here.
Jul 2nd, 2009 · Twitter, as we've seen in the protests in Iran, is becoming something of a force for democracy. It's proving useful not only for organizing street demonstrations but also for bringing down the walls around that most rarefied of communities: the world of music reviews.