NPR Music

City Scenes: Ensuring Philly's Next Generation Of Jazz Musicians

By • Sep 23, 2020

Philadelphia's famed jazz culture runs deep among fans and regional artists, who have celebrated this uniquely American art form for the better part of a century.

City Scenes: Musicians Philly's Lost In 2020

By • Sep 18, 2020

Philadelphia lost seven great musicians in the first four months of 2020. As a matter of cultural endowment, the loss represents the equivalent of whole libraries reduced to ash. These elders were the children of auto mechanics, beauticians, restaurant workers, scientists, unionizers and ministers — people who added measurable value to their communities. Each of the departed took the lived experience of Black America and articulated it with an instrument. They nurtured generations of musicians in this calling.

NPR Music's Slingshot City Scenes Series Is Featuring Stories from WRTI

By • Sep 10, 2020
Courtesy of the artist

Since 2017, Slingshot—a collaboration between NPR Music and the digital music service VuHaus—has provided a platform where 'taste-making' music stations share stories about the music scene and emerging artists in their communities. Now, Slingshot is shining a spotlight on jazz in Philadelphia: its history, its present, and its future, with stories produced by WRTI.

City Scenes: Philadelphia's Best Of The Bass, Part 1

By • Sep 9, 2020

This is a glimpse, a cross-section of some of the most impactful bass players to have come out of Philadelphia. Sometimes their respective impacts were local, sometimes national, sometimes global. Collectively, they've excelled in several different eras and idioms, from bebop and hard bop, to free jazz and post-bop and fusion, all the way through Philly Soul and R&B to hip-hop.

Weather Report founder Joe Zawinul once famously declared that the city produced "the world's greatest bassists." This list will show you why.

City Scenes: Philadelphia's Best Of The Bass, Part 2

By • Sep 2, 2020

Philadelphia's Best Of The Bass, Part 1 includes WRTI's 8 favorite bebop and hard bop players. The list of some of the most impactful bass players to have come out of Philadelphia continues with this group of jazz, rock, funk, and fusion bassists.

WRTI's NPR Live Sessions Video of the Week: Vibraphonist Steven Perry In The Spotlight

By • Aug 23, 2020

The cohort of carefully selected emerging jazz musicians that make up the LUQ Boysie Lowery Living Jazz Residency collaborate to perform original works that forward the creative ideas of its namesake, Robert "Boysie" Lowery.

WRTI's NPR Live Sessions Video of the Week: Vocussionist Bethlehem Roberson's Song for Change

By • Aug 10, 2020

As America and the world reexamine race and equality, creatives are addressing these issues by producing art and music. NPR Music stations invited artists to join the the national discussion—and Philadelphia-based Vocussionist Bethlehem Roberson responded with her piece, "Evolution."

WRTI's NPR Live Sessions Video of the Week: Vocalist Laurin Talese Sings "Trench Coat"

By • Apr 20, 2020

It's Jazz Appreciation Month, and WRTI is highlighting vocalist Laurin Talese as part of a diverse playlist featuring both established and emerging women from around Philadelphia and around the world.

WRTI's NPR Live Sessions Video of the Week: Jonathan Scales Fourchestra

By • Jan 14, 2020
Sandlin Gaither

January 13, 2020. Jonathan Scales Fourchestra sessions—filmed as part of the noncomMUSIC Alliance's debut of the 2019 Public Radio Music Sumit—showcase the band’s impressive and unexpected instrumental charms that weave elements of funk, soul, R&B, jazz, Latin, fusion, and more.

WRTI 90.1 Jazz Video Content Launches On New NPR Microsite: Live Sessions From NPR Music

By • Nov 16, 2019
Christopher Andrew McDonald

NPR's recent debut of its new microsite, Live Sessions From NPR Music Stations Across America, now features “Philly Jazz,” a mix of music videos curated by WRTI. J. Michael Harrison is executive producer of WRTI’s jazz series.

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