Soundcheck

Bruce Hornsby wrote a classic pop song with “The Way It Is” in 1986 (later sampled by Tupac Shakur for "Changes.") But his new album, Non-Secure Connection, is full of unexpected collaborations with Jamila Woods and Vernon Reid, and the late Leon Russell, as well as sounds drawing from contemporary classical music, hazy drones, driving minimalism, and the film scores he’s done with Spike Lee. (In fact, some of the tunes on the intriguing and at times, daring, record were inspired by music cues written for some of Spike Lee's films.) The one-time member of the Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan, and Willie Nelson collaborator, Bruce Hornsby, joins us to play a couple of songs and talk about a surprising range of wildly eclectic music.  "My Resolve": "Shit's Crazy Out Here": This is "Bright Star Cast" with Jamila Woods and Vernon Reid: 

S.G. Goodman writes songs that deal with the hard lives and hard truths of the rural south. She's a farmer's daughter with a high lonesome sound to her voice who grew up singing in church. Her album Old Time Feeling is about being a progressive, gay songwriter who lives in and loves her conservative Western Kentucky community. She joins us via the interwebs at home to play some of her latest songs.  "Old Time Feeling": "Supertramp":  

Julianna Barwick has been a repeat visitor in the studio (April 2013, Spring 2018.) In 2013, she was teasing songs from the protean, beautifully hazy Nepenthe, to which Sigur Rós's producer Alex Somers lent some of his trademark Icelandic sheen. Barwick's album, Will, preserved that ethereality, but also added sonic jags, peaks, and valleys. (Still no word on whether her collaboration with Dogfish Head brewery had any influence on this ...woozier... sound.) Julianna Barwick performs songs from Will in-studio in this session from 2016. (From the archives.)

On Sunday, pianist Leon Fleisher passed away at the age of 92. In the 1950s and early 60s, Fleisher was one of those classical musicians who was genuinely famous beyond classical music circles. Then disaster struck, and Fleisher was forced to reinvent himself – at least twice. His story is one for music fans (and possibly sports fans, of which Fleisher was one) of all stripes, and he told it over a couple of visits to the Soundcheck studio.  Celebrate an American original with this special memorial edition of the Soundcheck podcast.      

With his dramatic voice, his elliptical but emotive songs, his classically-derived piano playing, and his striking presence on stage, British artist, poet, vocalist, composer, and musician Benjamin Clementine occupies a singular place in the music world – somewhere between art music and pop. Clementine's debut album At Least for Now won the 2015 Mercury Prize; he was named knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2019, and together with his spouse and artistic/musical partner, Flo Morrissey, has put out music with as The Clementines earlier in 2020. He joined us at our piano back in 2016 to play music from that Mercury Prize-winning record. (From the Archives.)

Juno Award-Winning pop band from Oshawa, Ontario Dizzy consists of three brothers, Charlie, Alex and Mackenzie Spencer and their friend, lead singer Katie Munshaw. They make self-described “Sad Dream Pop” drawing on the intimate and detailed drama of “all the lousy things being a human entails -being jealous of your friends, pushing away the people you love most, being afraid of aging and death and on and on and on.”  Dizzy connects from Canada to play new music from their sophomore record, The Sun and Her Scorch, live, from their basement quarantine bubble. 

Miami-based Steven A. Clark grew up in the shadow of Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There was little about his time there that suggested the sweeping musical sound brewing in his head; he received the distinction of "Most Quiet" in his high school yearbook. Clark broke the silence in 2012 with a well-received indie release cheekily titled Fornication Under Consent of the King (check the acronym), and in 2015, he dropped his major-label debut, Lonely Roller. He's released another full-length since then, 2018's Where Neon Goes to Die, a shiny and glitzy number, which may hide darkness underneath. The title track from 2015's "Lonely Roller" sets the thematic and emotional stage: an immediately danceable tune that location-checks Las Vegas in the first line. You'd be forgiven for thinking Clark is embarking on an album of sleek but soulless dance-floor bangers, but his voice pierces the gated drums and cavernous reverb on songs like standout "Can't Have," and reveals a sharp observational eye and emotionally capacious lyricist. Listen to Steven A. Clark play songs from Lonely Roller in-studio from this 2015 session.   

Emmy The Great has always had a way with words. Her big break came in 2009 when she contributed the song “Seattle” to the Brighton Port Authority, an album by famed producer Fatboy Slim that also featured such heavyweights as David Byrne and Iggy Pop. The London-based singer-songwriter showed her fascination with the U.S. in “Seattle,” which had as poetic a description of sunrise as you’ll ever hear in a pop song: “a blue sky forming like a wire warming up America.” In 2011, her second record, Virtue, spawned the single “Paper Forest (In The Afterglow Of Rapture),” which found Emmy “standing in the afterglow of rapture with the words the rapture left.”  Skip to 2015, and Emmy The Great was living in Brooklyn and finishing her third full-length. While the wordplay was as strong as ever, there was an increased depth and elegance of texture.  Emmy the Great has just released the 2020 single, "Dandelions/Liminal" in advance of her October record, April. For this Soundcheck Podcast, Emmy The Great and her band play songs from the 2015 EP, including the haunted single “Swimming Pool,” in-studio. (From the Archives, 2015.) Set List: "Swimming Pool" "Paper Forest (In The Afterglow Of Rapture)" "Social Halo" 

Trumpeter, composer, and educator Wynton Marsalis is arguably the most famous jazz musician of our time – though few would actually argue the point. He’s won multiple Grammys and in 1997 became the first jazz composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for his piece Blood On The Fields, a work about two slaves and their difficult journey to freedom. Born into one of the great families of New Orleans jazz, Marsalis has been closely tied to New York, and particularly to Lincoln Center, since the late 80s. He is the longtime visionary force behind Jazz At Lincoln Center; and his work has included both diverse live performance projects and a deep, ongoing concern with education, especially with bringing jazz and classical music to children.  In partnership with Gothamist and their Future NYC series, host John Schaefer consults with Wynton Marsalis as he considers arts possibilities in the after-times, touching on full participation and the ways to question institutional curation. Marsalis would like to see increased engagement with the arts - inviting folks to participate, creating the will to participate, and building community. Practically speaking, that might mean lowering ticket prices, offering classes and encouraging curiosity. Wynton Marsalis shares his ideas for this Soundcheck Podcast.  Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) is hosting its first virtual free Summer Jazz Academy now through August 1. Students of any level (ages 12 and up) can go to jazz.org for more information.    Cecile McLorin Salvant, Wynton, Nduduzo Makhatini and more heavy hitters are providing free classes throughout.

zYoung Fathers defies labels in its songs. A tapestry of electronic music, rock, pop, and R&B, the alternative hip-hop group crafts songs as unique as its multi-ethnic background, which spans Scottish and West African lineages. Producer 'G' Hastings and vocalists Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole all met in Edinburgh, Scotland as teenagers, and later formed the band in 2008, named after the fact that each member has the namesake of their fathers, hence, Young Fathers. But Young Fathers true breakout came six years later, in 2014, with its Mercury Prize-winning second record, Dead. On their 2015 record, White Men Are Black Men Too, the group pushed ahead with a status quo-challenging aesthetic and message. Young Fathers subverts conventional views on race with their unique, vocally layered sound of organized chaos. It's a winning sound and original point of view that has won over fans and critics alike. Young Fathers performed in-studio for the Soundcheck Podcast. (From the archives.) Set List: "Rain Or Shine" "Old Rock n Roll" "Shame"

Yasmin Williams reinvents the guitar with a dazzling array of two-handed techniques, hammering, bowing, and percussion effects – but all in the service of the music. Music that dances, and, in its own way, sings. Her next full-length album, Urban Driftwood, both a beautifully melodic and, of course, percussive affair, is due out in the fall of 2020. Yasmin Williams shares her latest songs without words – featuring all her multi-tasking limbs - remotely, from her home in Virginia. 

Robert Glasper draws together his parallel passions for hip hop and jazz on his 2012 release, Black Radio. In addition to his formal jazz training, the pianist has long navigated the nebulous territory between the two genres – working with artists like Q-Tip, Kanye West, and Erykah Badu. In 2012, The Robert Glasper Experiment (featuring Casey Benjamin, Derrick Hodge, and Chris Dave) joined us for a live set in the Greene Space with a special guest – “Black Radio” collaborator and Grammy-nominated R&B artist Bilal. (From the archives.)

The Weather Station's 2015 record Loyalty features eleven songs with that most laudable quality of sounding like they are being sung directly to the listener, and recorded in a small quiet room. Which is all the more remarkable for the fact that the album was actually made in a large tumbledown French chateau outside of Paris. But the intimacy captured on the record is no accident. It's the sound of The Weather Station principal Tamara Lindeman and just two multi-instrumentalist accomplices, who make every guitar flourish and drum rattle sound purposeful and in-its-place. The huge, hushed emotional terrain of the record is as sweeping and rolling as Lindeman's Canadian homeland, with songs like "Way It Is, Way It Could Be" inviting the listener like an open road.  Setlist: "Shy Women", "Floodplain", "Way It Is, Way It Could Be"

Nostalgia permeates the blood running through Leon Bridges' debut album, Coming Home. It's unusual for a 25-year-old to be so plugged into the Golden Age of soul and R&B, but with an expansive online music education and an influential mother from the era, it's hard not to be. The Fort Worth native's music is haunted by Sam Cooke's swaying rhythms and Nat King Cole's smooth romance, yet Bridges doesn't get lost in wistfulness.  The album outlines a world in vintage bass lines and delicate percussion. It's colored in by velvet vocals and vibrant horns ("Brown Skin Girl," "Smooth Sailin'"). Heartfelt songwriting carries a touching tribute to his mother in "Lisa Sawyer." Throughout, Bridges dusts off Golden Era motifs and brings them into the 21st century with radiance and fresh musicality. (First aired in 2015.) Setlist: "Coming Home," "River"

Guitarist Kaki King is perhaps best-known for her virtuosic instrumental guitar compositions and extended technique, but she’s also written songs, chamber music, and film scores. She’s come up with innovations that change the nature of the guitar itself; she taps, she bends, she projects onto the guitar body, and now she has added a bridge called a Passerelle to her guitar. A Passerelle is a bridge that turns any regular six string guitar into a twelve note zither-like creation that can produce sounds reminiscent of the Japanese koto or Chinese guzheng, and sounds really cool when she bends the note.   She uses the Passerelle on her new album Modern Yesterdays, made at the beginning of March in the year 2020, as the entire world changed. The album was perhaps not what she set out to make, but it is a guitar record with lots of sound design, influenced by the pandemic. Some of the pieces might also be related to her latest multimedia work, “Data Not Found” which involves projections onto a special guitar which, when certain notes are played, triggers certain images or visuals. (Coming soon, in the after-times.) For this Soundcheck Podcast, Kaki King joins us to discuss Big Issues like getting COVID19, the mysterious creative process, and fingernail care. She also nerds out about her family of fretted instruments (guitars, modified guitars, high-strung guitar, harp guitar), and plays some new songs.   Set list: “Teek,” ”Puzzle Me You” “Doing the Wrong Thing” "Teek" "Puzzle Me You": "Doing the Wrong Thing"