Articles written by the author
Sudan Archives Is Making R&B Deeper and Stranger
LOS ANGELES — “Are you afraid of snakes?” asked Brittney Parks, the songwriter and violinist who records as Sudan Archives. In an interview at her home, where her bedroom often doubles as her recording studio, she was introducing me to Goldie, her ball python, as he languorously wrapped his gold-patterned body around her tattooed forearm.
Vagabon Found Her Voice in Indie Rock. Then Found a New One.
NEW YORK — “I have no idea what Vagabon will evolve to be,” said Laetitia Tamko, the 26-year-old songwriter, producer and one-woman studio band.
Ric Ocasek, New Wave Rock Visionary and Cars Co-Founder, Is Dead
Ric Ocasek, the songwriter and lead singer for the Cars, was found dead Sunday afternoon at his town house in Manhattan, according to the New York Police Department. No cause of death was available on Sunday night.
Beyoncé Reimagines 'The Lion King' as Global 21st Century Pop
(Critic's Pick)On 'Africa Speaks,' Santana finds a worthy partner in Buika
Buika is a multilingual singer and songwriter from Spain who has fused flamenco, jazz, rock, African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms and more.
Beth Carvalho, Brazil's 'Godmother of Samba,' is dead at 72
Beth Carvalho, a singer and songwriter known in Brazil as the “godmother of samba,” died April 30 in Rio de Janeiro. She was 72.
Morrissey Brings His Misery, and Melisma, to Broadway
NEW YORK — Self-pity, self-mockery, self-righteousness, self-loathing, self-defense — long before the era of the selfie, Morrissey was writing songs that turned constant self-absorption into a blood sport. “This is my life to destroy my own way,” he proclaimed in “Alma Matters” at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Thursday night, beginning a Broadway run that continues through May 11.
13 Standout Sets at a Milestone New Orleans Jazz Fest
(Live Review)Where Heirloom Tunes Are Still the Main Point
It started small, half a century ago, but with a mission.Life Lived in a neighborhood of minor chords, suspended between rowdiness and regret
Peace of mind is way out of reach on “Social Cues,” the fifth studio album by the Kentucky rock band Cage the Elephant.
Listening for the Light in the Darkness
Joseph Henry Burnett, known as T Bone, has spent most of his long career in music behind the scenes. He has won 13 Grammy Awards as a producer, music supervisor and songwriter for albums including “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and soundtracks for “O Brother, Where Are Thou?,” “Walk the Line,” “The Hunger Games” and “Crazy Heart,” which also brought him an Oscar for collaborating on the best original song. Lately his projects have included producing Sara Bareilles’ new album...Hornsby's New Album Is Complex and Untrendy in a Distressing World
One way for a songwriter to invigorate a long career is to keep breaking routines, to change up methods and parameters and solve different puzzles with every album. It’s a modus operandi that has carried Bruce Hornsby from radio hits in the 1980s through bluegrass, jazz, a stint in the Grateful Dead and, lately, collaborations with a younger-generation fan, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. “Absolute Zero,” his 21st album, is one more daring, rewarding turn in his catalog: 10 knotty, thoughtful yet ...Khalid Has Fresh Insecurities and a New Set of Musical Tricks on 'Free Spirit'
(Critic's Pick)Billie Eilish Redefines Teen-Pop Stardom on a Haunted, Heartfelt Debut Album
(Critic's Pick)The Shed opens with a purpose, and a party
(Hudson yards): NEW YORK — On opening night at Lincoln Center, in 1962, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, joined by opera singers and a choir, performed music by Beethoven, Mahler, Copland and Vaughan Williams for an audience in tuxedos and gowns.
Big Ears Festival: 15 performances that soothed, jolted and intrigued
(Critic’s Notebook): KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Big Ears Festival started 10 years ago, disappeared, returned, reorganized as a nonprofit and has quietly grown year by year, filling theaters, clubs and galleries in downtown Knoxville.
Immigrants created American music, and a new festival tells their stories
It’s the American story, repeated with countless variations for each new arrival; it’s also a hot-button subject in politics worldwide.
Solange defies pop expectations on 'When I Get Home'
“With ‘A Seat at the Table,’ I had so much to say,” Solange said in an interview streamed from Houston on Sunday night. “And with this album, I have so much to feel.”
She's making the blues move
“I want to make the blues dangerous again,” she said in an interview a few days ago, sharing the back seat of a car-service van crawling through rush-hour traffic to visit Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where she lived in the early 2000s.
Music Lives in the Present. Can the Grammys Escape the Past?
(Critic’s Notebook)
