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Renee Klahr/Think of the best songs of 2021 as a playlist catering to the most basic human urges. Within it, booties were called, muffins were buttered and bloody revenge was contemplated. It was quite a year. -
Renee Klahr/Think of the best songs of 2021 as a playlist catering to the most basic human urges. Within it, booties were called, muffins were buttered and bloody revenge was contemplated. It was quite a year.
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Fresu's work on trumpet and flugelhorn provides a perfect foil for Sosa's introspective intersection of jazz, Afro-Cuban sounds and a chamber-music mentality. In this concert at NPR Music's offices, the duo's quietly energetic performance hangs over the crowd like a soft mist.
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From 1948 until 1966, the Palladium Ballroom, at the corner of 53rd and Broadway, was the city's mecca for Afro-Caribbean dance music. And for a lot of that time, Puente was one of the main attractions. A new box set compiles the Latin music legend's RCA recordings of this crucial period. -
From Louis Jordan to Hawaiian music to Destiny's Child, the Divine Miss M opens up her record collection.
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The advent of bebop added a fresh sound to American music. It also added new voices to some metropolitan radio stations: the late-night jazz DJs who specialized in presenting this new music to their fellow hipster nightflies. Appreciative musicians often wrote them tributes like these.
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The South African trumpeter is one of the giants of African music. Over his long career, he pioneered jazz fusion and even managed to bump the Rolling Stones from the U.S. charts. Still, at age 74, he says, "I feel like I'm just beginning."
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For centuries, the country turned its back on black musicians — including the jazz artists whose creations embodied freedom and empowerment. Today, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival is one of Africa's largest musical gatherings. Here are five musicians who played the festival this year.
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The pianist plays raucous original tunes with an Afro-Caribbean flavor with host Marian McPartland.
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Kurt Elling's pianist and arranger joins host Jon Weber for Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way."
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Mosaic Records has released Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928-1945, a seven-disc showcase for the jazz pianist and bandleader. Hines' right hand played lines in bright, clear octaves — and his left hand had a mind of its own.
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With his ever-changing Fairgrounds band, the drummer gets to mix and match his favorite musicians. Ballard and a multi-generational band play live in New York.
