Journal
- Monday,February 2,2015
Rhiannon Giddens' debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, due out next Tuesday, is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "It's a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs," writes NPR's Ann Powers. "Though she didn't write most of these songs, Giddens owns them on Tomorrow Is My Turn ... Her voice—mobile, intelligent, ready to talk back to anyone's presumptions—is always at the center here, guiding the story. Let me be the first to say it: Today is Rhiannon Giddens' turn."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist NewsFriday,January 30,2015The Black Keys' latest performance on Austin City Limits (ACL) premieres this Saturday on PBS stations across the US. The band's set includes songs from their latest album, Turn Blue, and more. You can watch their ACL performances of "Fever" and "Little Black Submarines" here plus web-exclusive videos of "Too Afraid to Love" and "Howling for You." This is the band's second appearance on ACL.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTelevisionVideoFriday,January 30,2015Olivia Chaney has unveiled a second track, "The King's Horses," from her forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album. "As the clock inevitably hurls itself into the future," says The Bluegrass Situation, which premiered the track, "this moment right here is a nice respite from the craziness of modern life." You can hear the song here. Chaney performs in select North American cities starting next week.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsThursday,January 29,2015Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens joined Iron & Wine singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sam Beam on NBC tonight for a performance of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" on the series finale of Parenthood. Dylan's recording, from the 1974 album Planet Waves, has been the show's theme song since it first aired. The new version by Giddens and Iron & Wine, which they played during the episode, is available digitally from Nonesuch Records on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store. You can hear it here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTelevisionWednesday,January 28,2015The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has announced a new commissioning initiative—Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Beginning in the 2015/16 season, it will commission a collection of 50 new works—ten per year for five years—devoted to the most recent approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals. The works will be commissioned from an eclectic group of composers—25 men and 25 women, including label mate Rhiannon Giddens. Carnegie Hall, lead partner in the project, has named Kronos Quartet holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair for the 2015/16 season; Kronos will perform at Zankel Hall and lead a week-long workshop with three young quartets in April 2016.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday,January 27,2015Punch Brothers’ T Bone Burnett–produced new album, The Phosphorescent Blues. The album "shows off their eclectic sound," says NPR's Morning Edition. "The album mixes chamber-music intricacy, improvisational flash, lump-in-throat balladry, and a puckish Debussy cover," says the Boston Globe. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the new album features "some choral harmonies that are somewhere between the Beach Boys and heaven." The CBC calls the album "triumphant." "Listening to the Punch Brothers is an exercise in wonder," says the Irish Times. "The playing and harmonies are breathtaking. Enjoy." The Herald Scotland calls it "a quite masterly collection from a quintet of virtuosi."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist NewsReviewsTuesday,January 27,2015Steve Reich is the subject of a feature-length special on BBC Radio 6 Music's The Tom Robinson Show, for which the composer spoke about his career and his latest work, Radio Rewrite. "His work with repetitive patterns and rhythms has been hugely influential across mainstream as well as experimental music," says the show. NPR Music looks back on the 50th anniversary of one groundbreaking piece: "It's Gonna Rain is just one example of Reich's broad musical lexicon that over five decades has influenced countless musicians in classical, electronic and even popular music."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsRadioTuesday,January 27,2015New York Live Arts has announced the schedule of its 2015 Live Ideas festival, S K Y - Force and Wisdom in America Today, taking place April 15–19. Curated by Laurie Anderson in conjunction with New York Live Arts' Artistic Director Bill T. Jones, the 2015 Live Ideas festival combines the arts and social issues to creatively question the direction of modern culture. The festival presents more than 25 events via an array of music, dance, poetry, film, discussion, and a late-night lounge, featuring Anderson among others, as well as the work of artists including Lou Reed, Julian Schnabel, John Cage, and Arvo Pärt.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsMonday,January 26,2015Tigran Hamasyan, whose new album, Mockroot, is out now in France and coming soon to the rest of the world, recently sat down with Le Figaro in France to discuss the new album and to perform two songs from it—"Kars" and "Lilac"—as well as the Johnny Green tune "Out of Nowhere." You can watch all three performances here. "It's been several years now that Tigran Hamasyan has stood out in the world jazz scene," says Le Figaro, through translation. "For this prodigy, it is not only his technique that is impressive, but the way in which he literally dives into the notes ... whirling his fingers in a breathtaking ballet."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsVideoFriday,January 23,2015Rhiannon Giddens is the subject of a feature profile in the New York Times. Her forthcoming solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, "is a showcase for Ms. Giddens’s glorious voice, which merges an opera singer’s detail and a deep connection to Southern roots," writes Times music critic Jon Pareles. "She can summon the power of a field holler, Celtic quavers, girlish innocence, bluesy sensuality, gospel exaltation or the pain of slavery. She can sing velvety, long-breathed phrases or rasp and yip like a singer from the backwoods long ago. For all her technical control, her voice is a perpetually soulful marvel." The album's producer, T Bone Burnett, tells Pareles she has “a pretty profound gift ... I’ve been doing this for 50 years, and I haven’t seen anything like it."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsFriday,January 23,2015Due to a serious shoulder injury to Patrick Carney, The Black Keys’ forthcoming European concerts, part of their Turn Blue World Tour, have been cancelled up until March 10. Regrettably, due to prior scheduled commitments and venue availability, efforts to reschedule the original dates were unsuccessful; therefore all tickets will be refunded in full at their point of purchase. At this time, it is not expected that any dates after March 10 will be cancelled.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsOn TourThursday,January 22,2015Pianist Tigran Hamasyan has released a video that goes behind the scenes in the recording studio in Meudon, France, where his new album, Mockroot, was recorded in May of last year. The video shows Hamasyan with his trio—Sam Minaie on electric bass and Arthur Hnatek on drums and live electronics—and vocalist Gayanée Movsisyan as they record the new album. Watch it here.
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