Bob Boilen
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
Significant listener interest in the music being played on All Things Considered, along with his and NPR's vast music collections, gave Boilen the idea to start All Songs Considered. "It was obvious to me that listeners of NPR were also lovers of music, but what also became obvious by 1999 was that the web was going to be the place to discover new music and that we wanted to be the premiere site for music discovery." The show launched in 2000, with Boilen as its host.
Before coming to NPR, Boilen found many ways to share his passion for music. From 1982 to 1986 he worked for Baltimore's Impossible Theater, where he held many posts, including composer, technician, and recording engineer. Boilen became part of music history in 1983 with the Impossible Theater production Whiz Bang, a History of Sound. In it, Boilen became one of the first composers to use audio sampling — in this case, sounds from nature and the industrial revolution. He was interviewed about Whiz Bang by Susan Stamberg on All Things Considered.
In 1985, the Washington City Paper voted Boilen 'Performance Artist of the Year.' An electronic musician, he received a grant from the Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to work on electronic music and performance.
After Impossible Theater, Boilen worked as a producer for a television station in Washington, D.C. He produced several projects, including a music video show. In 1997, he started producing an online show called Science Live for the Discovery Channel. He also put out two albums with his psychedelic band, Tiny Desk Unit, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boilen still composes and performs music and posts it for free on his website BobBoilen.info. He performs contradance music and has a podcast of contradance music that he produces with his son Julian.
Boilen's first book, Your Song Changed My Life, was published in April 2016 by HarperCollins.
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On this week's podcast: Epic country rock, blistering punk and a nearly seven-foot-tall clown mashes up Johnny Cash and The Who. Seriously.
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A bonkers new song from Shugo Tokumaru helps wash away an unwelcome earworm, Lana Del Rey lauds (her?) youth, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy weirds out over love and Bob revisits an old favorite.
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Patrick Jarenwattananon, former writer for NPR Music's A Blog Supreme, joins us to talk about the most memorable jazz artists to appear at the Tiny Desk.
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On this episode of All Songs, we premiere new music from The Jayhawks, Margaret Glaspy and more, plus new Weezer and saxophonist Colin Stetson's reimagining of Górecki's Third Symphony.
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A beautiful folk song solidifies The Ballroom Thieves' message with the aid of a youth orchestra.
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Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and longtime David Bowie producer Tony Visconti talk Blackstar and Bowie's deep dive into jazz.
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For this week's All Songs +1 podcast, Patrick Jarenwattananon swings by to discuss jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington and his new album, The Epic.
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A classical virtuoso and an equally captivating flamenco player combine for a set of duets. Whether playing music by Bach or Peña, they're undeniably brilliant.
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The hot and historic band from New Orleans brings us a tuba-wielding Santa and some original holiday cheer and praise — what its members call a Cajun Christmas from the French Quarter.
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With a stunning command of her instrument, Beiser stays tightly tied to technology. She takes the sound of her cello and runs it through loop pedals to make her instrument shimmer, drone and groove.