Soundcheck

Amayo is the Nigerian-born, Atlanta-based singer and songwriter who was the longtime front-person for the band Antibalas. Now out on his own, Amayo continues to create his own distinctive take on the Afrobeat sound pioneered in the 1970s by the legendary Fela Kuti. But Amayo’s songwriting and his live performances are also deeply affected by his longtime Kung Fu practice - he is a senior master (S...

The South African-born, UK-based cellist Abel Selaocoe doesn’t really cross musical boundaries – he ignores them entirely. He’ll play Bach cello suites, but he also writes music that draws on the throat singing and instinctive vocalizations of his South African heritage, as well as works with electronics, cello preparations, and site-specific sound installations. And sometimes, he’ll create a perf...

The English band Wunderhorse now have two albums under that name, although the first of them, 2022’s Cub , was essentially a solo album by vocalist and songwriter Jacob Slater. Their latest, called Midas , came out this past fall to rave reviews and is very much a portrait of a band who can capture a visceral feeling in their recorded music that is " very imperfect, very live, very raw; no frills"...

Richard Reed Parry is perhaps best known as the really tall, really redheaded guy playing half a dozen instruments in the Grammy-winning band Arcade Fire. But he’s also a founder of the instrumental group Bell Orchestre, and a composer of contemporary classical music. In 2018, he visited the studio with a new project called  Quiet River of Dust , and it was at least partly inspired by the psychede...

South African guitar virtuoso Derek Gripper plays music originally meant for the 21 stringed lute-harp, the kora, on his 6-string Segovia-styled guitar and does it so well that the world’s leading guitarists and kora players keep wondering how one even does that. His original music is informed by kora master Toumani Diabaté, Malian singer-songwriter Salif Keita, Estonian minimalist composer Arvo P...

Hip hop and classical music come together in the hybrid chamber music of W4RP Trio. The new record, featuring the spoken word artist DJ LiKWUiD, is called Sermon of the MatriarK and it is a celebration of powerful female characters in the African diaspora. But it’s also a celebration of the ways in which artists can move freely across genre lines – and possibly, upending even your most basic assum...

Violinist, composer, and bandleader Jenny Scheinman is a familiar figure to jazz fans, having played for years with Bill Frisell, Allison Miller, and many others. But jazz is just one part of her music. In her own albums and in her work with musicians from Lou Reed to Lucinda Williams to Jason Moran, Scheinman incorporates a wide range of American music, including rock, folk, country, gospel, and...

Sax player, MC, and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin grew up playing salsa and merengue in Washington Heights. She counts jazz greats Terri Lyne Carrington, Gary Bartz, and Clark Terry among her mentors; and her list of collaborators includes Missy Elliott, Stevie Wonder, Lil Wayne, Dianne Reeves, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Brandee Younger, and Jazzmeia Horn. Benjamin is primarily known as a jazz musician,...

Trumpeter, bandleader and composer Igmar Thomas has served as music director for Lauryn Hill, the rapper Nas, and the sax player Kamasi Washington, among many others. But for many years he has also been the leader of the Revive Big Band, a group that demonstrates just how closely related jazz and hip hop are. That band has finally released its debut album, called Like A Tree It Grows , and its sta...

Jarana Beat is a world music group based here in New York, whose cross cultural celebratory sound is inspired by Mexican folk and Afro-Indigenous music.  Using traditional instruments and dance percussion in addition to their voices, Jarana Beat gained wider attention by playing with the star Mexican singer Lila Downs, but they’ve also released a series of their own albums over the past decade or...

The team behind the Soundcheck podcast series offers their favorite live performances from the WNYC studios this year: including Mexico City-based cellist, producer, and singer Mabe Fratti and her trio; Brazilian composer Amaro Freitas playing the piano's insides; and the soulful mambo of Cuba big band Orquesta Akokán. Plus, Norwegian punk cabaret sextet Kaizers Orchestra, Georgia singer and music...

Hear favorite live performances from the WNYC studios this year including Georgia singer, musician, and record label founder Lizz Wright; the soulful mambo of Cuban big band Orquesta Akokán; and the roots music for everyone performer - American singer-songwriter Fantastic Negrito. Also, Brooklyn-based Zelenaya with their Eastern European folk songs set to heavy metal; and the multi-reed instrument...

Hear favorite live performances from the WNYC studios this year including Mexico City-based cellist, producer, and singer Mabe Fratti; Norwegian punk cabaret sextet Kaizers Orchestra; and an intimate piano and a microphone version of the title track, "Lemons, Limes, and Orchids", from the latest record of the same name by Joan As Police Woman. Plus, Sinkane, aka Ahmed Gallab, the bandleader and so...

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...

The band yMusic formed as a contemporary classical chamber music ensemble, but you’re more likely to have heard them playing with people like Paul Simon, Bruce Hornsby, Emily King, and John Legend. They’re also the sextet of choice for classical composers like Caroline Shaw and Missy Mazzoli. For 16 years they’ve been gleefully obscuring the line between classical and popular music, and their late...

Samora Pinderhughes is a singer, composer, filmmaker, and producer who has worked regularly with the rapper Common and scored several award-winning documentaries. His own works includes The Healing Project, a 10-year exploration of the prison system and the racism and violence that feeds it, which led to his official solo debut album Grief in 2022; and a new record, 8 years in the making, about lo...

Nour Harkati is a Tunisian musician and songwriter, now based here in New York City. His new album, Moulena , has just come out and it represents Harkati’s musical journey from North Africa to the US, featuring rhythms and instruments from traditional North African music blended with elements of Western pop and rock. The ancient Guembri used in trance music, combines with the gritty and modern sou...

Guitarist Jeff Parker is probably best known for his work in the Chicago-based post rock band Tortoise, but he’s had a prolific career as a soloist and a sideman. In the past few years he’s been leading his ETA IVtet, an all-star group of musicians (saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Jay Bellerose) -  on the L.A. experimental music scene. Together, they create transcenden...

Pom Pom Squad is the band led by singer and guitarist Mia Berrin; their debut album, Death of a Cheerleader, offered a gimlet-eyed, often ironic view of pop culture through a queer lens. Now Pom Pom Squad has released its sophomore LP called Mirror Starts Moving Without Me , full of punk attitude and blazing guitars, but also moments of intense vulnerability and reflection. The band plays in-studi...

Grammy and Mercury Nominated and Brit award-winning songwriter Laura Marling has mapped out new musical territories, including chamber pop and electronics. Her latest record, Patterns in Repeat was written following the birth of her daughter in 2023 and contains lovely songs crafted with propulsive riffs in motion, augmented by string arrangements. The album itself is an intimate affair, recorded...

Mulitple Grammy winning singer, songwriter and producer Rodney Crowell was one of the founders of the style that’s come to be known as alternative country. His career has been marked by notable collaborations, like the one with Emmylou Harris that brought Rodney to our ground floor performance venue The Green Space back in 2013 . Now Rodney is back, with a new album called Close Ties , and it feat...

Jontavious Willis is a blues singer and guitarist from west Georgia, hence the title of his recent album, West Georgia Blues . He’s not even 30, but Willis has an old soul – he loves the blues musicians from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, and when he writes his own songs they come from deep roots -and might easily be mistaken for music that could be nearly a century old. He has a soul singer’s croon, an...

The singer, guitarist and songwriter José Junior recently released his debut album, called Spanish Leather,  a mix of indie rock, Latin pop, and psychedelia, with the songs pretty evenly split between English and Spanish. The album is about overcoming the curveballs that life throws in the way - heartbreak, unemployment, and a near death experience -  and coming out the other side. “Rebirth is re...

In the 1930s the style known as "jazz manouche" took over France and soon spread around the world, led by musicians like the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt and the violinist Stephane Grappelli. That hot swinging style, a combination of American jazz elements and more traditional Romani music, has endured for almost a century. Over the past four decades that has been in part because of Dorado...

The Australian-born, California-based singer/songwriter and producer RY X seems to have multiple careers: writing intimate, diaphanous folk/pop songs that offer connection and vulnerability; collaborating as a producer, singer, or DJ with some of the biggest names in electronic dance and pop, like Drake, Diplo,  and the band Odesza; and performing with orchestras, including the LA Phil, and the Lo...