Soundcheck

Iraqi-born, American-based composer and NEA Heritage Fellow Rahim AlHaj plays the oud, the Arab lute. Derek Gripper is a classical guitarist from South Africa who has somehow found a way to play West African music for the 21-string harp, or kora, on the six strings of his instrument. Both musicians have played in a wide variety of styles, and recently, they began playing together as a duo. Hear th...

Derek Gripper is a classical guitarist from South Africa who has somehow found a way to play West African music for the 21-string harp, or kora, on the six strings of his instrument. Iraqi-born, American-based composer and NEA Heritage Fellow Rahim AlHaj plays the oud, the Arab lute. Both musicians have played in a wide variety of styles, and recently, they began playing together as a duo. Hear so...

Guitarist Steve Gunn has established himself as a singer/songwriter and as an ace collaborator with artists like Hiss Golden Messenger and Kurt Vile. With over 20 albums to his credit, you might think he’s done it all, but until 2025, Gunn had never done an album of solo instrumentals. In August 2025 he released Music For Writers, a collection of sonic landscapes, and in very short order he was ba...

Klezmer music may have its roots in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, but it found a home here in NY in the 1920s and 30s, and the klezmer revival that began almost a half century ago was also centered in New York. Clarinetist Michael Winograd has been a major figure on the klezmer music scene for a couple of decades now, both as a composer and as a kind of music historian. His current pro...

The British band Public Service Broadcasting describes their work as "Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future", ( Bandcamp ). Their songs are often built on sampled speech, layers of melodies, and propulsive grooves. Public Service Broadcasting plays music from their latest project, The Last Flight , based on the enduring story of Amelia Earhart, (plus an older banger from...

Rebecca Foon is best known as a cellist – she’s been a pivotal figure on the Montreal scene, playing with bands like Thee Silver Mt Zion and her world music/chamber ensemble Esmerine. But Foon has also been making solo records, often including her vocals as well, and her latest, Black Butterflies , is a collection of songs that blends dream pop, minimalism, and ambient music. Rebecca Foon plays li...

Listen to music from South African-born, UK-based cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe; Hot Psychedelic Gnawa Blues By French-Moroccan band Bab L’ Bluz; guitarist, producer, bandleader Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas and his dramatic Latin pop 'Boleros Psicodélicos', featuring Grammy-winning Puerto Rican singer-songwriter iLe. Plus, composer and harpist Brandee Younger and her trio; and the Dublin-bas...

Hear music by Portuguese fado singer Carminho; Grammy-winning classical quartet Third Coast Percussion performing music written for them by the late Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain; and Ethiopian-born singer and bandleader Meklit’s blend of jazz, pop, and soul. Also, music from Chicago-formed, New York-based American rock band Horsegirl; and the quartet Les Égarés, who are Ballaké Sissoko (kora...

New York-based drummer and educator Matt Wilson has performed with and/or played on many recordings by other musicians - Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz, among others - and leads ensembles of his own, but at this time of year, the thing he might be best known for is his Christmas Tree-O. And yes, he went there – putting a pun right in the band’s name. The trio, featuring multi...

Saxophonist and composer Donny McCaslin has been playing with jazz luminaries like Maria Schneider and Dave Douglas, and leading his own band, for a couple of decades. But he’s best known for his work with David Bowie, who basically hired Donny’s whole ensemble to be the band on his final album Blackstar . His latest, Lullaby for the Lost , is a  guitar-driven, rock-influenced, groove-laden beast...

New York-based classically trained composer and musician Kelly Moran’s music draws on everything from classical to dance to metal, but ends up sounding like none of those. She has become known for her music for prepared piano – a regular piano whose strings have things like metal or wood placed on the strings to alter the sound. Moran has also worked with electronic keyboards, and has recorded mus...

The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse. The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night. The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings. The Besnard Lakes are a rock band from Montreal with a knack for intriguing album titles. Their latest is The Besnard Lakes Are The Ghostly Nation , a collection of arty, often psychedelic songs about a society in crisis. The Besnard Lakes play live in o...

The Brooklyn band called Momma revolves around the singing and songwriting team of Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten who combine gauzy vocal harmonies with walls of roaring guitars. Their 2022 album Household Name was a critical favorite, and their 2025 album, Welcome To My Blue Sky, builds on that success with songs about longing, infidelity, leaving people behind, and unknown futures. Etta an...

The Icelandic keyboardist and composer Eydís Evensen has released three albums of music that blends classical lyricism with the repeating patterns of post-minimalist music. "Her compositions, guided by emotion, are intimate explorations of mourning, hope, reflection, and renewal—creating a world that invites listeners to feel their way through the music" ( Lincoln Center event program ). On her la...

The L.A-based, Brooklyn-born band called Boyish is built around the songwriting of India Shore and Claire Altendahl, and while they’ve been releasing music since 2018, they’ve just put out their debut album, called  Gun.  The album presents a series of scenes and character studies from a fictional American town called Gun, which seems to be haunted – by memories and dreams for sure, but also possi...

English singer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wolf built his sizable reputation on a blend of Baroque pop and arty, classically-informed folk-rock. But a series of setbacks kept him from the music scene for a decade, before he returned with an EP in 2023, and in June of 2025, his latest LP called Crying The Neck. Patrick Wolf joins us at the piano, to play new songs, in-studio.  Set list: 1. En...

Both old and new, Austin-based band Black Pumas is centered around guitarist and producer Adrian Quesada and 27-year-old songwriter Eric Burton. Grammy Award-winning Quesada has played in Grupo Fantasma and Brownout, and accompanied artists from Prince to Daniel Johnston. Burton grew up in church and then got heavily involved in musical theater. He arrived in Austin in 2015 after busking his way a...

Listen to music from American musicians, the harpist Ashley Jackson and the Oklahoma-based Cherokee singer and songwriter Ken Pomeroy. Both sets come from our Soundcheck series of live performances and interviews, available as a twice-weekly podcast, wherever you get podcasts.  With her clever guitar playing and powerful stories, Oklahoma-based Cherokee singer and songwriter Ken Pomeroy draws on b...

Ye Vagabonds are brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn. They grew up in rural Carlow but moved to Dublin in 2012 and became known on the traditional Irish, blues and folk scenes in the city, playing folk songs as well as their own original material, ( Bandcamp ). They’re part a wave of bands who’ve remade or extended the folk tradition; they’ve also collaborated with members  of the Dublin new mu...

Cochemea is a sax player, composer and arranger who spent some years playing vintage-style soul with Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, as well as stints with Amy Winehouse, David Byrne, hip hop duo Run The Jewels and dozens more. Born Cochemea Gastelum into an Indigenous Yaqui family in California, he’s found time over the past few years to release three albums of his own music, the latest being  Vol....

The now London-based Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani quickly attracted fans with her 2019 album of solo piano works in the post-classical style, a blend of classical lyricism and minimalist patterns. Her later albums expanded to include electronics, and her voice; she is equally versed in the music of composers like Philip Glass and bands like Radiohead. But her new record is something diff...

Master violinist/vocalist/composer L. Shankar (aka Shenkar) has spent the past four decades developing a personal style that ranges from strict Indian classical music to Western instrumental pop although usually he lands somewhere in the middle. Since playing his first solo concert at the age of seven, he has gone on to accompany many of South India’s leading vocalists and become a major soloist....

The Australian-born musician and songwriter Tommy Emmanuel is a virtuoso guitarist and Grammy winner who has played with everyone from the legendary Chet Atkins to younger guitarists like Jason Isbell and Billy Strings. Long based in Nashville, he’s been releasing solo albums pretty regularly since 1979.  His new record is called Living In The Light , and fuses his pop, jazz, classical, and roots...

The Barr Brothers, the indie-folk-rock band from Montreal, have just released their first album in eight years called Let It Hiss . Brad Barr, the band’s singer, guitarist and songwriter is a versatile collaborator and risk-taker who revels in making unusual sounds. The latest songs can be folk-leaning, or may draw from the blues and American songwriting; they represent a reckoning with vulnerabil...

The Portuguese singer and songwriter Carminho is one of the leading singers in the style known as fado – the deeply soulful, melancholy music that is somewhat akin to Spanish flamenco or American blues. She has collaborated with the iconic Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, performed for the late Pope Francis, recorded with Steve Albini, and made a special appearance in the film Poor Things , by Y...