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One of the most recognizable guitar riffs in America belongs to Living Colour. The band's 1988 hit, "Cult of Personality," won the group Grammy Awards and fame. In the past two decades, that fame faded, but Living Colour is back — and members say they've gained wisdom.
In 1957, a celebrated photographer moved into a building known as a hangout for New York City's top jazz musicians. W. Eugene Smith began to obsessively tape-record and photograph everything he saw and heard, from his cats to the cats holding forth in late-night jam sessions.
Patrick Watson and his band The Wooden Arms defy easy categorization. The group from Montreal takes inspiration from contemporary indie rock, cartoon music from the 1940s and impressionist composers. Depending on the song, you'll hear pots and pans or bottles and barrels.
She was part of a folk dynasty that included father John Lomax and brother Alan Lomax. But not only was she a musician and teacher: Her tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts helped to increase federal funding for traditional music across the U.S.
Host Scott Simon once described Betty as the Marx Brothers and the Andrews Sisters having three daughters who form a rock band. Simon catches up with Amy and Elizabeth Ziff and Alison Palmer, who have a new CD called
Bright and Dark. It was recorded while singer and guitarist Elizabeth was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Edith Piaf is usually thought of as a gifted, tragic figure: a great voice and spirit who sang through lost loves, loneliness, drink and depression. But actress and singer Gay Marshall takes a different approach to Piaf, seeing a joyful, mischievous side to France's "Little Sparrow." Host Scott Simon speaks with Marshall, who just finished a one-woman Piaf show and has a new release,
Gay Marshall Sings Piaf, La Vie L'amour.
In 1957, photographer W. Eugene Smith moved into a lower Manhattan loft which served as a late-night hangout for jazz musicians. He proceeded to make approximately 4,000 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings, and take nearly 40,000 photos, in and around his apartment.
Gogol Bordello has been making supercharged music since first forming in 1999, six years after frontman Eugene Hütz landed in the U.S., having fled the Chernobyl disaster in his native Ukraine. The band's philosophy: to "make the contradictions of life sound harmonious" with a head-spinning mix of ska, punk, metal, rap, flamenco, roots reggae, dub and more.
How has technology changed the relationship between musicians and their fans? While major record labels still struggle to grasp the power of the MP3, artists, including Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, have embraced and even found creative solutions around file-sharing.
Jazz icon Louis Armstrong didn't just leave behind a treasure trove of musical recordings; he also documented hundreds of his private conversations on tape. Those recordings served as the basis for Terry Teachout's new biography of the legendary musician,
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.
For the past 10 years, the record industry has struggled to control how we listen to music. But the shift from CD to MP3 is just the latest iteration in the evolution of formats. The MP3 file has yanked music free from physical formats entirely, and the number of ways fans can experience music has exploded.
Vic Chesnutt was paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 18, but he's still a massively productive songwriter. Chesnutt has fifteen albums under his belt and his songs have been covered by Madonna, Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M. His new album,
At The Cut, is a collaboration with Guy Picciotto of the band Fugazi.
After all these years, conductor Fritz Reiner's 1955 recording of Bartok's music remains the best. He understood the poignant, brooding, mysterious and exuberant moods it explores, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays as if it has been set on fire.
Producer Jack Perry and White worked together until the singer's death in 2003. Perry recently compiled and produced a four-disc retrospective box set spanning White's career, titled
Unlimited. NPR's Steve Inskeep recently spoke with Perry about the late soul singer.
Horace Clarence Boyer had a profound impact on gospel music over the past 50 years. He was one half of the Boyer Brothers, but was best known as one of the first scholars to formally study African-American sacred music. Boyer died in July at age 74.
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