Mar 20 2026
Marian McPartland possessed one of the most unusual careers in jazz. She was an accomplished pianist and bandleader, a record-label founder, a writer, an educator, and eventually the warm, unmistakable voice behind one of public radio’s most enduring music programs. For more than three decades, Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz brought listeners into intimate conversations with …
Dec 26 2025
Listen to Ahmad Jamal for a few minutes and one of the first things you may notice is what he does not play. A phrase arrives, stops, and leaves a pocket of silence behind it. The bass continues moving, the drums establish a subtle rhythmic pattern, and Jamal waits just long enough to make the …
Dec 19 2025
Phil Ochs believed a song could function almost like a newspaper column. Armed with an acoustic guitar, a sharp eye for hypocrisy, and an instinct for turning current events into memorable lyrics, he became one of the defining topical songwriters of the American folk revival. He sang about war, civil rights, labor, political campaigns, social …
Dec 14 2025
Jane Birkin became such a familiar part of French culture that it is easy to forget she arrived in Paris as a young English actor who barely spoke French. Over the following five decades, her soft British accent, unconventional singing voice, effortless clothes, film performances, and deeply personal collaborations turned her into something much more …
Dec 11 2025
McCoy Tyner could make a piano sound enormous. His left hand struck rich, ringing chords with almost orchestral force while his right hand released torrents of notes that seemed to tumble effortlessly across the keyboard. The sound was muscular without being heavy, rhythmically fierce without sacrificing lyricism, and immediately recognizable after only a few measures. …
Nov 30 2025
You can hear Bob Moore on some of the most recognizable recordings ever made in Nashville, even if you have never heard his name. His upright bass anchors Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” Roger Miller’s “King of the Road,” Marty Robbins’s “El Paso,” Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never,” Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and an extraordinary …
Nov 23 2025
Few composers could suggest an entire landscape with as little musical material as Manuel de Falla. A distant rhythm, a repeated piano figure, the snap of percussion, a melody bending unexpectedly around a note, or a brief flash of orchestral color can suddenly evoke a garden at night, a flamenco dancer, an Andalusian village, or …
Nov 11 2025
For millions of radio listeners who had never crossed the Pacific, Webley Edwards made Hawaiʻi audible. His weekly broadcasts carried steel guitars, ukuleles, vocal harmonies, hula songs, and the sound of the surf from Waikīkī into homes thousands of miles away. At the height of its popularity, Hawaii Calls reached audiences around the world and …
Oct 17 2025
Born on October 17, 1922, in Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Bonfá became one of the great Brazilian guitarists and composers of the 20th century, helping introduce the sounds of Brazil to an international audience just as bossa nova was beginning to transform popular music. His lyrical melodies, sophisticated harmonies, and extraordinary command of …
Oct 16 2025
Born on October 16, 1938, in Cologne, Germany, Christa Päffgen—better known simply as Nico—traveled one of the strangest paths through 20th-century popular culture. She was a European fashion model, an actress in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, a presence in Andy Warhol’s Factory, the mysterious voice on several of the Velvet Underground’s most enduring recordings, …
