Add to Playlist

Singer and composer Zara McFarlane and jazz drummer and composer Ollie Howell take us on a musical adventure with the help of composer and musician Nitin Sawhney, as they join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the next five tracks. Tune in for a scat singing lesson and a 50,000-year history lesson in the origin of musical scales. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome...

Kathryn Tickell - composer, performer and the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes - is joined by singer pianist and songwriter Joe Stilgoe and percussionist Ruairi Glasheen as they help Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye add the next five tracks to the playlist. It's a serendipitous musical journey which takes them from Quebec to New Orleans via Egypt. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey...

Russian-British composer, DJ and producer Gabriel Prokofiev and oboe-player Uchenna Ngwe join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye in the studio as they add the final five tracks to the current playlist in the final episode of the series. From the starting grid to the cellars of Cadiz via central Africa, with the help of flamenco guitarist Edina Balczo, we reach the end of the current musical journey...

Saxophonist Camilla George and guitarist Sean Shibe take us on a global journey and beyond as they help choose the next five tracks for the playlist. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye also explore the finer details with guests John Dillon, Cathy Jordan and David Owen Norris. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald The five tracks in this week's playlist: Beauty in t...

Composer and musician Nitin Sawhney and cellist Gabriella Swallow head towards the sun as they help add five more tracks to the playlist. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are also joined by Hinako Omori as they fly high with the lark. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald The five tracks in this week's playlist: You Ain’t the Problem by Michael Kiwanuka I Am the...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by bassoonist Linton Stephens and Ukrainian pianist Dinara Klinton as they embark on another musical journey, from Veracruz in Mexico to a pioneering Black female composer and a huge Grime hit as they add five more tracks to the playlist. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald The five tracks in this week's playlist: La...

Classical pianist Iain Burnside and saxophonist Jess Gillam continue the musical journey, taking us from a tragic tale of a shepherdess in Yorkshire to the Appalachian Mountains and to Portugal. With the help of drummer Woody Woodmansey and biographer Paul Thompson, Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye discover new details and stories behind the five tracks on this week's playlist. Presenters Cerys M...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by musicologist Hannah French and composer Neil Brand as they take us from the stables of Versailles to a Shirley MacLaine classic as they add another five tracks to the playlist. Bhangra specialist DJ Sonny Ji celebrates a joyous track inspired by the children's chant 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe'. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerom...

From mariachi trumpets to calypso and ragtime, Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye continue the musical journey of discovery. Saxophonist Soweto Kinch and composer Hannah Peel help create this week's playlist, with a special appearance by pianist Richard Stilgoe, and Black music specialist Kevin Le Gendre on the significance of calypso. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome We...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye return to the studio to start a whole new playlist in the company of the film and TV composer David Arnold, who's written scores for five James Bond films, and the organist Anna Lapwood, Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge. This new playlist takes us back to Mexico in the 19th century and to a famously dystopian landscape populated by robots. Presente...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye present the first episode of the new series from the BBC marquee in front of a live audience at the Hay Festival 2022. Their musical guests on stage in the tent are the opera tenor Wynne Evans, best known as Gio Compario in the TV insurance adverts, as well as Anne Denholm, Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2015 to 2019, and the violinist and composer P...

Vocalist, cellist and composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson, and pianist and performer Joe Stilgoe, help Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye complete the series. A feminist anthem and a heart-warming classic rub up against some very high bpm as they round off this playlist of 40 tracks. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald The five tracks in this week's playlist: I'm a Wo...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by composer Howard Goodall and pianist and music director Yshani Perinpanayagam to add five more tracks to the playlist. In this week's adventure they explore the enormity of variety the keyboard offers, a journey that takes us to the cathedral, to outer space and, closer to home, Peru! Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weathe...

Pianist Dinara Klinton and composer and writer Neil Brand join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to select the next five tracks on the playlist, each track chosen for its musical connections with the previous one. From grief to joy, they unpick the familiar and the not-so-familiar musical tracks, and demonstrate how the compositions work. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerom...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined this week by Gillian Moore, Director of Music at London's Southbank Centre, and Romanian concert violinist Bogdan Văcărescu, to add the next five tracks to the playlist. The studio guests serve up their usual eclectic mix, and from Mumbai we hear from one of the great voices of a classical Indian music tradition. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Bo...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by saxophonist Jess Gillam and conductor Jeremy Summerly to select the next five tracks for Add to Playlist. We travel from Colombia and Brazil to the Grand Canyon, with tracks that feature astonishing vocal dexterity. Speaking of the voice, we hear from another familiar Welsh singing legend who can tell us more about one particular note that famously p...

Violinist Rebekah Reid and composer Neil Brand explore music under Stalin and a Billy Wilder classic as they join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add five more tracks to the playlist, and it's another global journey. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald The five tracks in this week's playlist: (Where do I Begin) Love Story by Andy Williams First Movement of...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by organist Anna Lapwood, South African cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe and songwriter/producer Phil Thornalley as they add the next five tracks to the playlist. As usual, each track is chosen for its musical connections with the previous one, as we pick up from the final track of the previous episode. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Pro...

Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye return with a new series as they create a new playlist with the help of jazz bass player Gary Crosby OBE, pianist Dinara Klinton and music director Kojo Samuel. Follow their musical journey of discovery as they reveal surprising connections that link one piece of music to another, as they cross eras, continents, genres and styles. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jef...

For the final episode of this series, Afrobeat musician Dele Sosimi and soprano Clare Norburn talk us through the importance of building a track's opening, and celebrate a visionary Abbess from the 12th century. This takes the playlist of this series to 40, chosen and curated by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye. Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye Producer Jerome Weatherald This week's f...

Pianist Jamie Cullum and trombonist Mark Frost join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye in the penultimate episode of the current series as they add the next five tracks to the growing playlist. What links one of the most famous brass pieces in all opera to an all-star jazz musical ensemble in New York? And how does that get us to Sesame Street? The serendipitous musical journey continues. Presenter...

Pianist and singer Joe Stilgoe helps Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye compile the next five tracks for the growing playlist, with musical connections taking us from a controversial singing style to the Austrian Alps. DJ and BBC Asian Network presenter Sonny Ji and voice coaches Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher provide insights into the techniques and background to individual tracks. Presenter...

Jasmin Kent Rodgman, the British/Malaysian artist and composer, joins Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones and British/Chinese artist Aowen Jin as they select and discuss the latest five tracks to be added to the weekly playlist, where each track has a musical connection with the previous one. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye pick up where they left off last time, with Luis Fonsi and Justin Bieber's cla...

Birmingham-based saxophonist Soweto Kinch is joined by keyboard specialist Steven Devine and percussionist Ruairi Glasheen, as Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye compile the next five tracks for their growing playlist. Last week concluded with Nina Cried Power by Hozier, featuring Mavis Staples, but where will that lead for the start of this episode's selection? Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffre...

Where does Dave Brubeck's celebrated 1961 classic Take Five lead us? Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are joined by saxophonist Jess Gillam to select the next five tracks to add to the playlist. Last week's musical journey took us from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to London jazz clubs, and we're travelling again today, from Lahore to New York and beyond, with the forensic help of composer and mu...