The Genius of Quincy Jones in 15 Songs
Spanning 70 years and towering roles as a musician, songwriter/ composer, producer, arranger, entrepreneur and more, Quincy Jones’ career in music is unparalleled. Jones — “Q” to friends and...
View ArticlePeter Sinfield, Surrealist Lyricist for King Crimson and Emerson, Lake &...
Peter Sinfield, the colorfully surreal British poet and lyricist who co-founded King Crimson with guitarist-composer Robert Fripp and went on to contribute lyrics to songs by Emerson, Lake &...
View ArticleGrace Bowers: Have Guitar, Will Travel
Everyone loves a guitar hero. And young talents who seem to have arrived fully formed, too. So there’s a lot of love in the room for Grace Bowers, the 18-year-old who this year became the fretboard’s...
View ArticleThe Best Music Books of 2024: Joni Mitchell, Lisa Marie Presley, Kathleen...
We say it every year: There are way too many music books for any human to keep track of, let alone read. Yet this year has seen a backbreaking pile of welcome additions to the boundless stacks, just a...
View Article25 New Holiday Music Releases: Victoria Monet, BTS’s V, Clay Aiken, the Kelce...
Even the best worst year ever – choose the epoch closest to your offended political affiliation – has a Christmas. And every Christmas, crumbling culture or not, comes with scads of new holiday music....
View ArticleMeet the Man Behind the On-Screen Singing of Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet...
Ariana Grande in “Wicked,” Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown” and Angelina Jolie in “Maria”: What these performances have in common – besides a strong shot at Oscar nominations – is the man who...
View ArticleMarianne Faithfull’s 10 Greatest Musical Moments
What makes a Marianne Faithfull song great is something an artist can’t buy or learn: It’s the sound of experience. Faithfull’s most haunting (and haunted) quality as an artist was the raspy world...
View ArticleJacob Collier, the Grammys’ Surprise Album of the Year Nominee (Again), on...
As he was with the 2021 Grammys and “Djesse Vol. 3,” Jacob Collier is, again, up for album of the year, this time courtesy of his spiky, soul-filled “Djesse Vol. 4.” While his first AOTY nom found the...
View ArticleThe Doors’ John Densmore and Robby Krieger on Their 60th Anniversary,...
Before John Densmore exits a conversation about 2025’s celebration of the Doors’ 60th anniversary with alive-and-thriving guitarist Robby Krieger, the drummer jokes about another six-decade-old...
View ArticleDavid Johansen, New York Dolls Co-Founder, Suffering From Stage 4 Cancer,...
David Johansen — the sole surviving founding member of the New York Dolls and a solo artist who also performs as the lounge singer Buster Poindexter — is suffering from stage four cancer, a brain tumor...
View ArticleRoberta Flack’s 10 Greatest Musical Moments
Once you put into perspective that chart-topping pop and R&B vocalist-composer Roberta Flack started her career accompanying opera vocalists on piano at one club, performing quiet jazz and blues at...
View ArticleAs David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ Turns 50, Guitarist Carlos Alomar Recalls...
When Carlos Alomar talks about the 50th anniversary of “Young Americans” — David Bowie’s self-defined ode to “plastic soul,” released March 7, 1975, and re-released today by Rhino/Parlophone — it’s...
View ArticleEli Roth on Curating the Music of Italian Sex Comedies for a New Album...
In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. For Eli Roth in spring, however, his fancies tend to turn darker, more menacingly humorous, and toward the more bloodily...
View ArticleWill Smith’s ‘Based on a True Story’ Foregoes Fun for Self-Help Soliloquies:...
Remember when Will Smith was the fun rapper? The enormously affable, uncomplicated rapper? The giddily cheerful Fresh Prince behind “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” the Big Willie Styling hunk of...
View ArticleClem Burke, Drummer for Blondie, Dies at 70
Clem Burke, the drummer for Blondie, has died, the group announced Monday morning, He was 70 and died following what was described by the surviving group members as a “private battle with cancer.” A...
View ArticleDavid Thomas, Founder of Boundary-Pushing Rock Band Pere Ubu, Dies at 71
David Thomas, who fronted the boundary-pushing rock band Pere Ubu from the late 1970s forward, died Wednesday at age 71. The news was announced on the group’s Facebook page, where the cause of death...
View ArticleChubby Checker on Finally Twisting His Way Into the Rock Hall of Fame:...
When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced Sunday night that Chubby Checker would be inducted into its ranks later this year, many fans of early rock ‘n’ roll who’d assumed that the Hall would never...
View ArticleBjörk on Her New Concert Movie, ‘Cornucopia,’ and Creating an Immersive...
In talking about her new concert movie, “Björk: Cornucopia,” the movie’s namesake mentions the way the performance in the film wraps up, and the finally hopeful message she wanted to get across with...
View ArticleAlex Warren on Getting Extraordinary Results Out of ‘Ordinary,’ the Single...
Amid the many familiar names in the top 10 at present, there’s one that stands out as this year’s biggest who’s that? breakout so far. Nestled in the No. 2 position on Billboard’s Top 100, and poised...
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