Search results for

The accordion has traveled the world, and its sound has been altered by every culture it touches. Music critic Banning Eyre says Argentinean Chango Spasiuk takes lowbrow music from the countryside and transforms it into sophisticated urbanite fare. He reviews Spasiuk's new album, Pynandi Los Descalzos.

News from Somalia usually involves violent warlords or pirates hijacking ships off the coast. Other than that, average Somalis don't have much of a voice. The rapper K'Naan is trying to change that, and in the world of hip-hop, he's become an artist to watch.

Before Barack Obama's election, a group of musicians recorded and released a collection of 43 original songs, one for each U.S. president. Titled Of Great and Mortal Men, the three-CD set ended with the presidency of George W. Bush. Now, just in time for the inauguration, the creators are making their 44th song available for download here.

Friend and patron to several generations of composers and artists, Freeman was the catalyst behind the opera Nixon in China by John Adams, as well as pieces by John Cage, Harry Partch, Thomas Ades, Philip Glass and dozens of others.

Washington, D.C., is known more for suits than fun, but it also has a long history as a home to diverse styles of music — from Duke Ellington to hardcore to go-go — and some of the hottest guitarists to ever touch the fretboard: Roy Clark, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton. Today, the city is home to an experimental music scene that's thriving under D.C.'s official radar.

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement return for a second season of their music-driven comedy series, which follows two hapless New Zealanders trying to make it as a folk-pop band in New York City.

You probably haven't heard the band Freezepop on the radio. But if you've played the games Guitar HeroM or Rock Band, you've probably played along to its music. The Boston band spoke about playing for crowds and playing for Playstation.

He grew up with John Coltrane, gigged with Art Blakey and shared the silver screen with Tom Hanks. Now, on the eve of 80, illustrious saxophonist and jazz composer Benny Golson is re-creating his greatest ensemble: the six-person Jazztet.

On her latest recording, Devil's Got Your Tongue, jazz singer Abbey Lincoln includes two songs about her parents -- both of whom are now dead. Lincoln says she composed the songs because there were a few things she still needed to write down and to say.

The 14-piece Washington, D.C.-based afrobeat orchestra blends rhythms from all across the African continent, and then some. And as their name indicates, the band might just be crazy enough to pull it off.