May 1. 8PM. $20.

The band Las Rubias Del Norte – the blondes of the north – is a 21st century Brooklyn creation. But they want to transport you back to a mythical place in the 1960s where South American waltzes, French chanson, and Bollywood film scores all meet and dance together. With two classically-trained singers in elegant harmony, over a series of Latin American grooves, Las Rubias Del Norte offer a nostalgic trip back to a 1960s  exotica that never actually existed. Las Rubias Del Norte. They play on May 1 at Barbès' 24th Anniversary. 

Bang On A Can Long Play Festival
April 29-May 3. 

April 29 marks the start of the annual Long Play Festival, a collection of more than 70 concerts in 14 different venues around Brooklyn. On April 29,  Oneohtrix Point Never, who recently scored the film Marty Supreme, plays his electronic music at Pioneer Works. Over the next four days, you can see a free concert of John Luther Adams’ music in Fort Greene Park, or a rare live performance of Gavin Bryars early pieces with tape at Roulette. And on Sunday, May 3, we’ll be co-presenting the Bang On A Can All-Stars doing a new version of Philip Glass’s album Glassworks at Roulette.
 

For most of us, the question, what would I have done if I’d been born in a different generation, is just an idle exercise. Would I have fought for civil rights when it was dangerous to do so? If I were on the Titanic would I help others or save myself? Well for the award-winning British rapper Dave – just Dave – those questions have an answer: look at what you’re doing in your own generation. It’s the subject of his song “The Boy Who Played The Harp.” Rapper and philanthropist Dave plays two nights at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater, on April 30 and May 1.

The singer Niia is a musical provocateur, who lures in jazz audiences with smoky versions of songs like “Angel Eyes” and even “The Christmas Song” and then hits them with her own dance-oriented, occasionally X-rated originals. Niia draws freely on soul, hip hop and rock, and she recently put out her fifth album of her own works. That album is simply called V, the Roman numeral five. Niia plays at the Blue Note  on April 28-29, the make-up dates from her snowed out February run. Here's her 2026 Soundcheck Podcast session: https://bit.ly/Niia_V_SC

Carlo Gesualdo would be known for his haunting and unexpected vocal harmonies if it weren’t for those pesky murders he committed. But Gesualdo did kill his wife and her lover, and got away with it, what with him being a prince and all. The contrast between his beautiful music and his deeply troubled life has been catnip for opera composers, novelists, and the vocal group called Gesualdo Six. They are bringing their show The Death of Gesualdo to New York on Feb. 13 – a blend of music, puppetry, and live theater- at the Cathedral of St John The Divine.

As his name implies, Dogo du Togo is from the West African nation of Togo. After playing with various bands there, Dogo moved to the States, where he founded his own Afropop band in Washington DC. At the heart of Dogo’s music are the traditional rhythms of Togolese music, but on top of them he builds songs out of the sounds of Western funk, jazz, and pop. Dogo du Togo and the Alagaa Beat Band play on Oct. 23 at Barbès in Brooklyn.  

Between 2010 and 2012, the Norwegian band Kaizers Orchestra engaged in a feat of world-building with a trilogy of albums called Violeta Violeta. They told a surreal tale of a girl stolen from her allegedly crazy mother by her father.  The story includes a cameo by the devil, connections made in a dream world, and lots of singing in the band’s West Norwegian dialect.  Their musical language is alternative rock laced with elements of Balkan folk, theater music, and cabaret jazz.   This is their song “Hjerteknuser,” or “heartbreaker.” That’s Kaizers Orchestra with Hjerteknuser, from the Violeta Violeta trilogy.  The Norwegian band plays tonight at Town Hall 

The Cuban-Chinese cellist SUUVI mixes the sounds of her acoustic classical instrument with layers of electronics in her new project called Dark Therapy.  SUUVI developed the program with neuroscientists but also drew on traditional meditation practices to come up with an immersive experience that seeks to regulate the nervous system and offer a heightened sense of awareness, through a combination of ambient music, darkness, and storytelling.  This is her piece “Indigo.”

That’s SUUVI, with an excerpt from her immersive new piece called Dark Therapy.  She premieres the work tomorrow night at National Sawdust, in a New Sounds Live co-presentation.  

You never know when you’re gonna need a bit of zombie folk music to brighten your day.  If this turns out to be one of those days, then the Estonian duo Puuluup has you covered.  Their self-described “zombie folk” music is built around the sounds of their voices and their talharpas.  The talharpa is a medieval Nordic instrument – a four-string lyre that is usually played with a bow.Marrying these ancient sounds to modern looping devices, Puuluup creates fun, eccentric, often danceable music, like this song called “Kasekesed.”

That’s Puuluup with their song Kasekesed.The Estonian duo plays tonight at Drom.  

The DJ Pedro Canale records and performs under the name Chancha Via Circuito, and from his home base in Buenos Aires he has spent years creating hypnotic dance music that incorporates the sounds of traditional South American instruments and voices, which he sets to his own electronic beats. His most recent album sees him collaborating with some of the current crop of South American musicians, like the Meridian Brothers from Colombia, on a song called “El Pavo Real,” or “the peacock.”  Chancha via Circuito plays a DJ set on Sept. 30 at Xanadu in Bushwick.  

Rumbo Tumba is the project of the Argentine musician Facundo Salgado, who uses a looping station and a battery of handmade, traditional South American instruments to make melodic, engaging music. Rumbo Tumba can make an improbable amount of sound, live and alone, and he proved it when he came to our studio and recorded a piece called “Monte.” Rumbo Tumba and a live, solo performance of Monte. He’s playing at Public Records on October 10, but you can hear his live set for us and his explanation of how he makes all this music live, on the latest edition of the Soundcheck Podcast.

Pianist and composer Omar Sosa draws on his own Afro-Cuban heritage, American jazz, and spiritual and meditative practices from around the world to create music that defies categorization.  He’s traveled widely, especially in Africa, recording the sounds of the people, the animals, and the instruments of those places and sometimes incorporating them into his own works.  He’s currently playing with the Cuban-born, New York-based sax player Yosvany Terry, a fixture on the jazz scene since 1999.  Here’s the two of them playing Sosa’s piece “Momento III.”

That’s Omar Sosa with Yosvany Terry and a piece called “Momento III.”They’re playing two shows a night at Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, through Sunday night.  

Canada’s Ron Sexsmith is a songwriter’s songwriter.His fans include Elton John, Paul McCartney, and a few other folks who know a thing or two about that mysterious process.  Sexsmith is now forty years into his career, with 18 albums, three of Canada’s Juno Awards, and a novel to show for it.  His new album is called Hangover Terrace, and features his distinctive blend of melancholy, dry wit, and old-fashioned storytelling.  This song is called “Cigarette and Cocktail,” and has echoes of pre-reggae Jamaican music.

That’s Ron Sexsmith with Cigarette and Cocktail.  He’s unlikely to have a free hand for either tonight as he plays the guitar and leads his band at City Winery.  

For centuries, the Gnawa musicians of Morocco have acted as sonic healers, using trance-y rhythms and texts that praise the Sufi saints in performances that can incorporate athletic movement and can run through the night.  In this century, some Gnawa musicians have found ways to incorporate their tradition into more contemporary settings.  One such group, based here in New York, is Imal Gnawa.  This duo uses the traditional lute or sintir and the metal castanets or krakrebs, but blends them with electronic textures and drum machines.  Here’s their song “Belyalji.” Imal Gnawa plays on Sept. 4 at Barbès  in Brooklyn.  

Ash Fure is usually referred to as a composer, but she’s actually more like a sonic sculptor.  Her music often doesn’t deal with traditional melodies and harmonies, instead focusing on sound as something we experience in our bodies.  So her favored materials are speakers cones and polycarbonate sheets that filter both the sounds and the lighting in a room.Her piece Animal was inspired by the techno music of Berlin and Detroit, but with its deep bass tones, white noise, and sonar clicks, it’s not meant for passive listening, but for actively engaging your whole body. That’s some of Ash Fure’s piece Animal.  She presents this live, immersive sound, light, and movement piece tomorrow night at Issue Project Room.  

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen and his trio have developed a distinctly personal approach to the classic jazz combo of piano, bass, and drums.  Over the course of a series of records for the prestigious ECM label, Gustavsen has blended improvisation with the sounds of Scandinavian hymns and contemporary classical music.  But occasionally, he looks back at an earlier era too.  Here’s his trio, in our studio, performing an arrangement of music originally written by Bach; it’s called “Schlafes Bruder” or “sleep’s brother.”

That’s the Tord Gustavsen Trio with Schlafes Bruder, recorded live in our studio.  The trio’s full set is today’s edition of Soundcheck

It was 20 years ago that We Are Scientists burst out of the New York indie rock scene with their debut album With Love And Squalor. Over the next two decades that band would wander into the worlds of comedy and English soccer, although, strangely, not science. And of course they’ve continued to make their own brand of melodic indie rock. Their new album is called Qualifying Miles, and the band plays a live set in our studio for the latest installment of the Soundcheck Podcast.

Iris Dement has made seven albums during a career that stretches back to the early 90s, but she might be best known for her collaborations with the late John Prine, and her duets with people like Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle.Dement’s own songs have a country-folk quality to them, and occasional touches of gospel; and her vocals have echoes of the so-called “high lonesome sound” of Appalachian bluegrass music. Iris Dement plays tonight at Sony Hall.  

Zar Electrik is a band based in Marseille that blends rock and electronica with traditional Moroccan and North African music.  The trio features the vocals of Anass Zine, who sings in both Arabic and French, and while the band’s sound is rooted in North African trance and dance music, their lyrics are sometimes right out the of the protest songbook. Zar Electrik takes an unflinching look at the plight of refugees around the Mediterranean, as in the song, “Babord,” meaning the port side of a boat. Zar Electrik plays on Aug. 20 at DROM.

In the 1980s, the late German composer and broadcaster Hans Otte released a series of solo piano pieces called The Book Of Sounds.  Inspired by Buddhist thought and American Minimalism, Otte created a series of works that were lyrical, alternately contemplative and energetic, and possibly a little psychedelic. It was a forgotten masterpiece until the New York pianist Conor Hanick began playing it a couple of years ago, to great acclaim. Conor Hanick plays the entire Book Of Sounds in a free concert on Aug. 21 at The Glade on Little Island.  

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is yet another series of free concerts offered to New Yorkers who stick it out here in the city during the summer. Augusts 22-24, the festival will present the famed sax player Branford Marsalis, pianist Bill Charlap, jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, and a host of others. Ron Carter’s Great Big Band, led by the legendary bassist Ron Carter, opens the free Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park on Aug. 22, with more concerts Saturday night, Aug. 23 at that park, and on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 24, at Tompkins Square Park. 

The singer and songwriter known as mxmtoon began her career posting bedroom pop songs, often accompanying herself on the ukulele.  Her stage name comes from her initials and the fact that she also posted cartoons online in her early days.  With her knack for storytelling and her direct, confessional lyrics, mxmtoon soon attracted a large following.  Her sound has grown bigger as well, although as she showed when playing at WNYC’s Centennial concert in Central Park last fall, she can still command a stage by herself.This song is a colorful slice of indie pop called “I Hate Texas.” That’s mxmtoon with her song I Hate Texas.  She plays a free show tomorrow evening as part of the summer concert series at Hudson Yards.  

The Brooklyn-based experimental soul singer born Josiah Wise is known as serpentwithfeet – that’s all one word, no caps. Many of his songs celebrate the Black queer experience – they can range from sexy club bangers to eerie, future-soul ballads.  But sometimes, serpentwithfeet indulges his inner child, as on this track called “Down Nuh River,” which has the springy rhythm and chant-like chorus of a kid’s playground tune. serpentwithfeet plays a free show on June 20 at 10PM at the Glade on Little Island, part of a series of free, late night events at Little Island.  

Over the course of the past 40 years, Marc Ribot has been the guitarist of choice for singers like Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Norah Jones and dozens more. He’s also led a number of his own projects, one focused on Cuban music, another on downtown experimentalism, still another on Haitian classical guitar music. But Ribot himself rarely sings – which makes his new album, Map Of A Blue City, a striking change of direction. It’s full of Marc Ribot singing his original songs, some in the works for decades. Ribot’s full in-studio set, including a song called “Elizabeth”, about loss and grief and a cemetery, is the latest episode of the Soundcheck Podcast. 

José James has often been called a “jazz singer for the hip hop generation,” since he came to jazz through tracing hip hop samples back to their original sources.  Over the course of twelve records, he’s also incorporated R&B, soul, rock, funk, and Latin music into his songs. And while he’s mostly sung his own music over the years, he has occasionally covered songs by some of his favorite artists: Bill Withers, Gil Scott-Heron, Erykah Badu and Billie Holiday.Last year James put out an album called 1978, which sees him looking back, past hip hop, to the soul music of the 70s.  This song is “Dark Side of the Sun.”

That’s Jose James with Dark Side of the Sun.  He’s playing tonight thru Thursday night at the Blue Note.  

The band Lucius has a signature sound – namely, the vocal harmonies of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. Over the past almost twenty years, they’ve made 5 albums of technicolor indie-pop, which isn’t really a lot… but then they’ve been really busy collaborating with a wide swath of the music scene. Everyone from John Legend to Brandi Carlile to Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne has been eager for a chance to bring that Lucius sound to their own music. The band just released their fifth album, which is self-titled, and have hit the road to play their new batch of songs. Lucius plays May 14 at Irving Plaza.  

Anoushka Shankar has created a truly global form of music built around the sounds of her sitar.  Her father, Ravi Shankar, was the leading Indian classical musician of the 20th century, and Anoushka has followed in his footsteps by collaborating with musicians from around the world and across the musical spectrum, from flamenco to West African to electronic dance music. The 11-time Grammy nominee recently concluded a trilogy of EPs that trace her musical journey, and she and her London-based band performed some of those works in a Grammy Museum event here in New York. Anoushka Shankar's live set and our conversation onstage at National Sawdust is the latest edition of the Soundcheck Podcast.

The Japanese singer and guitarist Ichiko Aoba makes a lyrical, winsome form of experimental pop that draws on classical music, the arty rock of groups like Radiohead, and the hushed sound of ambient music. Her latest album is Luminescent Creatures, inspired by the beauty – and the mystery and occasional terror – of the ocean. The impact of climate change is a theme on the record as well, and it’s possible to hear that poignance in Aoba’s pure vocals even if you don’t understand the language. Ichiko Aoba plays May 14  with the Wordless Music Quintet, a contemporary classical ensemble; that’s at Kings Theater in Brooklyn.

Guitarist William Tyler has come to be associated with a style known as cosmic country, a blend of the rootsy and the psychedelic, the acoustic and the electronic. After stints playing with the bands Lambchop and Silver Jews, Tyler went solo, issuing a string of well-received albums as well as soundtracks and an album of duets with fellow guitarist Marisa Anderson. His new album, Time Indefinite, was the result of the uncertainty and doubt of the pandemic, when Tyler found himself away from his home and most of his gear for an extended time. William Tyler plays on May 13 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.  

From the 1950s until his death in 1990, the great jazz drummer Art Blakey led the group called The Jazz Messengers. Actually, it was more of a kind of musical college than a band – Blakey would find talented young musicians who would play with him for a few years and then move on to their own careers. Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, and Terence Blanchard are just a few of the dozens of stars who first shone while playing with the Jazz Messengers.  A sextet of Jazz Messengers alumni are playing a tribute concert to Art Blakey from Feb. 26-March 2 at Smoke Jazz Club. 

Until his death in December, Zakir Hussain was probably the most celebrated player of the Indian tabla, the tuned hand drums of Indian classical music. One of Zakir’s innovations was bringing the tabla to the worlds of jazz, rock, and Western classical music. One project he was looking forward to was his new piece “Murmurs in Time” written for the quartet Third Coast Percussion.  The New York Premiere of the work will go ahead tomorrow night, with Salar Nader, one of Zakir’s students, playing his part. Third Coast Percussion plays Zakir Hussain's piece, new music by Jlin; Armenian jazz pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan; and New York City’s own Jessie Montgomery on Feb. 27, at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.  

Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh is from Syria, although he’s been based here in New York for many years now. Azmeh has played with Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and in addition to that band’s global mix of traditions, Azmeh’s own compositions encompass both Arab and Western classical traditions as well as jazz improvisation. He’s written works that range from string quartet to jazz big band, but the group that’s perhaps closest to his heart, and certainly closest to his home, is this New York-based group called CityBand.  Kinan Azmeh and CityBand play on March 1 at Joe’s Pub.  

Daymé Arocena is an Afro-Cuban singer now based in Puerto Rico.  She left Cuba in 2019 and originally settled in Canada, where she joined the all-female Cuban music group Maqueque. Since emerging as a solo artist, her own songwriting has been a winning mix of jazz, soul, rumba, and other deeply-rooted Caribbean styles. But her latest album, Alkemi, celebrates the sounds of North American and Latin pop, and her big, bright vocals are a perfect fit for songs like “Por Ti.” Daymé Arocena plays a free show on Feb. 28 at Lincoln Center’s Rubinstein Atrium.  

The renowened Irish playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh has teamed up with composer Anna Mullarkey on Safe House, which they describe as a combination of “gig theater, song cycle, and smashed up memory play.”  The work’s themes of displacement, history, and life on the edge of society are rendered by Irish actress Kate Gilmore, who stars as Grace, a young woman living in an outdoor handball court.   Here she sings Mullarkey’s song “The Road.”

That’s “The Road,” a song from Safe House by Enda Walsh and Anna Mullarkey.  Safe House is running now at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn and runs through March 2.  

Grammy winner Aoife O’Donovan is a leading singer in the world of American roots music, known for her work with the band Crooked Still.  But she’s also performed her songs with full orchestra, including her suite called “America, Come,” inspired by the fight that led to the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.   Here she is singing that song  with the National Symphony Orchestra.

That’s Aoife O’Donovan singing “America, Come.” The New York orchestra The Knights will present this work, plus Mozart and Mendelssohn, tomorrow night at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.  

When Horsegirl released their first album in 2022, they were a band of three friends in high school showing that DIY music didn’t have to be simple.  Tomorrow they’ll release their second album, called Phonetics On And On, a deadpan title that matches the understated creativity of their music.  The band formed in Chicago, but with two of the three young women now attending NYU, Horsegirl is now based here in New York, and they came to our studio to play a live version of this song called “2468.” The band's live set in our studio is the latest edition of the Soundcheck Podcast. Horsegirl's album comes out on Feb. 14.

Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl