Music

Bassist Gary Peacock, pianist Marc Copland and drummer Joey Baron bring an airy, elastic swing to their new album, Now This. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the players pull the melodies together well.

The Welsh band's name is a play on that of singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom. Ken Tucker likens the group's second album to a high-wire act accompanied by "furiously strummed punk-rock guitar chords."

In the 1940s, recording engineers perfected new sound techniques that were used in World War II — and which launched a hi-fi revolution. Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new 53-CD Decca box set.

Despite its clarity and cohesion, Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says the new album from Cuban pianist Ramon Valle and his trio is half knock-out, half schmaltzy.

The Nashville songwriter has written countless hits for other artists. Critic Ken Tucker says that Stapleton's debut solo album showcases a wide range of musical styles with a distinctive sound.

Fifty years ago in a Washington, DC nightclub, the Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded "The In Crowd," a rare jazz single that landed on the pop charts. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the fans were half the show.

The crooner sang lead for the Drifters and became famous for the classic hit "Stand By Me." King died April 30th. Fresh Air remembers him with this interview. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Triangles and Circles, the new album from Dafnis Prieto, blends Afro-Cuban beats, blues feeling and spontaneous rhythmic variations. Critic Kevin Whitehead says that drums are at the album's heart.

McKay's new album My Weekly Reader is a collection of covers of songs made famous in the 1960s. The range of material is wide — from the Beatles' "If I Fell" to Frank Zappa's "Hungry Freaks, Daddy."

In honor of Billie Holiday's 100th birthday this month, several artists are releasing out Holiday tribute albums. Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead looks at a couple of these by other singers. One he rather likes; the other, not so much.

Some 30 years ago, the Kronos Quartet created a sensation by releasing an album of chamber music that included an arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze." Now Brooklyn Rider, another gifted string quartet, is again blurring the boundaries between classical and more popular kinds of chamber music. Fresh Air classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says he admires that blur.

To mark the release of his seventh album, the singer-songwriter brings his acoustic guitar to the Fresh Air studio to sing some new songs as well as some of his favorites from the 1920s and '30s.

Over the course of Sound & Color, Alabama Shakes messes with what had already, after its first album, become its signature sound. Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker has this review.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker says the album is one of Yoakam's most stylistically diverse.

Donald Palumbo is the Metropolitan Opera's chorus master. He tells Fresh Air about "stagger breathing," the ways singers protect their voices and his own lack of formal training.

The producer says there was a moment when his co-writers thought, "Maybe this song wasn't meant to be." He also describes working with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker says The Mountain Goats' concept album about pro wrestling is filled with a remarkable range of melodies and moods.

Fresh Air music critic Ken Tucker says the rapper's second album has an excitingly adventurous sound.

Holiday was born 100 years ago Tuesday in Philadelphia. Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has some thoughts on Holiday's changing style, her influences, and singers she influenced.