Lara Pellegrinelli
Lara Pellegrinelli is a freelance journalist and scholar with bylines in The New York Times and the Village Voice. She has been the commissioned writer for Columbia University's Miller Theatre and its Composer Portrait series since 2018.
Pellegrinelli began reporting locally in New York for WNYC and producing segments for its daily music talk show, SoundCheck. She has been a contributor to NPR's arts coverage since 2008, reporting stories that have been heard on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. From 2011 to 2014, she was the coordinator for educational outreach and audience development for NPR's Live from the Village Vanguard and wrote regularly for A Blog Supreme. In 2021, Pellegrinelli led a team of reporters in a data analysis of the NPR Music Jazz Critics poll, published on NPR Music as "Equal at Last? Women In Jazz, By The Numbers."
An ethnomusicologist by training, Pellegrinelli received her Ph. D. in music from Harvard University. Her dissertation, "The Song is Who? Locating Singers on the Jazz Scene," is the first ethnographic study of jazz singing. She currently teaches at The New School in New York City.
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Visionary musician Ingram Marshall has died at the age of 80; a leading figure of the West Coast avant-garde music scene, Marshall forged unusual connections between minimalism and electronic music. -
Half of the top 10 spots in 2019's NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll went to women. But a deeper look at the data from across the poll's lifetime complicates claims about women's equality in jazz.
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The ways in which Spalding's music is the most radical are perhaps the most easily overlooked: how, through her singing and playing, she challenges gender norms across styles. -
The owner of the revered Village Vanguard in New York City — and a champion of generations of jazz musicians, including Thelonious Monk — died Saturday at age 95. -
The selective, historically black women's college in Atlanta has cut the college's once-esteemed jazz program, a rarity within the traditionally male-dominated genre. -
The best-known father figure in jazz has famous musical sons. But the Marsalis clan is even more extensive, as you can see when students reflect on his influence. -
Matthew Stevens has mostly moved on from his shelved debut recording — but one tune remains in rotation. He explains how Tony Williams and a certain pop hit influenced his unconventional "Emergence." -
The Shreveport, La. siblings talk growing up together and the lessons of gospel master Brady Blade Sr. -
The saxophonist explains why his band returns to a certain palate-cleansing, dairy-titled tune so often — and discusses his connection to its composer, long-time collaborator Ralph Alessi. -
Before he was the drummer for The Bad Plus, King developed a strong work ethic — or maybe not — doing various forms of menial labor in the Midwest.
