Latest Cheff Podcast Episodes
Kinshasa Band Jupiter & Okwess Shares Music and Messages
Soundcheck - August 14, 2023 17:58 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsFrom Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, comes the band known as Jupiter & Okwess, led by the charismatic singer Jupiter Bokondji. When we last met the band, in 2018, they had just released their second album, a star-studded collection called Kin Sonic. Jupiter & Okwess are touring around to support...
Sessa, From the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in The Greene Space
Soundcheck - August 10, 2023 17:57 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsBrazilian singer/songwriter Sessa (born Sergio Sayeg in Sao Paolo) is heir to the great tradition of MPB – Brazilian popular music, in the vein of Gilberto Gil or Caetano Veloso. But he favors a stripped down approach that reflects his own love of the German minimalist group Cluster, and his lyr...
Jazz-Fluid Singer Magos Herrera's Rich and Silky Lightness
Soundcheck - August 07, 2023 16:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe Mexican singer Magos Herrera has a distinctive, elegant, and expressive voice, and while she’s usually thought of as a jazz singer, she’s also done a lot of collaborating with artists from the worlds of pop and classical music. Largely based here in New York, Herrera has recently put out a n...
Jiji, From the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in The Greene Space
Soundcheck - August 03, 2023 17:56 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsClassical Korean guitarist and improviser Jiji has a penchant for blowing minds with her playing, improvising, and stage banter. She adapts the stunning and acrobatic Caprice No. 24 by 19th century virtuoso violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. Plus, she plays a work by the Icelandic composer...
Black Belt Eagle Scout Heeds the Call of the Land
Soundcheck - July 31, 2023 16:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsBlack Belt Eagle Scout is the work of the singer and guitarist Katherine Paul, KP for short, whose music is deeply rooted in the culture of the Swinomish community on the coast of Washington. Black Belt Eagle Scout’s latest album is called The Land, The Water, The Sky, and it often pairs Katheri...
Altin Gün Glams Up Folk Tunes From Turkey As Dance-Psych-Funk, In-Studio
Soundcheck - July 27, 2023 16:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe band Altin Gün is based in the Netherlands but they’ve gained global attention – and a Grammy nomination – for their psychedelic, glam rock and disco-tinged versions of songs from Turkey in the 1970s. So, in the 70s the folk rock movement racing through the British Isles made its way to Anat...
Updated Chamber-Pop By Gracie and Rachel, In-Studio
Soundcheck - July 20, 2023 20:46 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe chamber pop duo known as Gracie and Rachel have always had a kind of yin and yang quality to them: Gracie Coates, the pop songwriter at the piano; Rachel Ruggles, the classically trained violinist. "Blending baroque elements, ethereal soundscapes, and penetrating vulnerability, the duo creat...
The Off-Kilter Experimental Pop of Goldfeather
Soundcheck - July 17, 2023 16:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsGoldfeather is the work of vocalist and composer Sarah Goldfeather and guitarist/producer Mike Tierney. Sarah Goldfeather is also a founding member of the ensemble Excpetet, a group modeled on the instrumentation of Stravinksy's "L'Histoire du Soldat" and created to commission new works by livin...
Ondara Negotiates a Rebirth of Self
Soundcheck - July 13, 2023 16:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSinger and songwriter Ondara's story is that of a young person in Kenya falling in love with Bob Dylan songs and winning a green card lottery that let him follow his dream of moving to America. Now Ondara has released his third LP, Spanish Villager #3, and while it has a more produced, electric ...
Phillip Johnston Trio Plays Loud Music for Silent Films
Soundcheck - July 10, 2023 16:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSax player, composer and author Phillip Johnston lives in Sydney, Australia, but for many years he was a familiar figure on New York’s downtown jazz and new music scene. He cofounded the Microscopic Septet – the band that did the theme song for the NPR show Fresh Air, led the bands Big Trouble, ...
Louis Cato, From the 2023 New York Guitar Festival in The Greene Space
Soundcheck - July 06, 2023 16:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsProducer, songwriter, and eclectic multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato is the bandleader for the newly renamed “The Late Show Band.” He has worked with has worked with many artists, including Bobby McFerrin, Snarky Puppy, Jon Batiste, Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest. Together with drummer Joe Saylor...
Steve Gunn, From The Greene Space
Soundcheck - July 03, 2023 16:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSteve Gunn’s solo far-out fingerstyle acoustic work may be influenced by the drones of Eastern music and the Western avant-garde; or his work with psych- and traditional folk artists, and/or collaborations with Mdou Moctar and Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society. Then, there’s the unbridl...
Crys Matthews, Activist and Troubadour of Truth
Soundcheck - June 29, 2023 16:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSongwriter and musician Crys Matthews uses the sounds of folk, gospel, folk rock, and country, to tackle some of the thorniest social justice issues facing our country today: migrant rights, LGBTQ rights, the Black Lives Matter movement, and more. She’s based in Nashville, but New York’s been ...
Bayonne Finds Peace in an Airy Dark Pop Groove
Soundcheck - June 26, 2023 18:07 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe band called Bayonne is basically the work of American minimalist composer and electronic musician Roger Sellers, who is from Austin TX, not Bayonne NJ. Along with guitars and keyboards, his looping station, which can give hints of both Steve Reich and Owen Pallett, is a treasure trove of tin...
Ben Harper Goes Minimalist in Masterful Songs
Soundcheck - June 22, 2023 22:32 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsWith influences from Bob Marley to Blind Willie Johnson to Bob Dylan, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ben Harper sees songs in colors and can taste them when they’re ready. His Grammy wins have come in the categories of Blues, Traditional Soul/Gospel, and Instrumental Pop. His musical range is...
Emily King Untangles Complicated Feelings and Dances On
Soundcheck - June 19, 2023 16:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsNYC-raised songwriter, musician, and arranger Emily King makes sophisticated pop with strong elements of R&B, funk, and soul. But her discography also includes songs with a more electronic texture and a whole project with the chamber ensemble known as yMusic. Her latest album is called Special O...
Radical Love, Timeless Melodies, and Peace From Ani Cordero
Soundcheck - June 16, 2023 19:56 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe singer and multi-instrumentalist Ani Cordero is a Puerto Rican musician living here in New York. She is bilingual, singing in both English and Spanish, as is her latest record, Anamores, a concept album rooted in many kinds of love – Platonic Love, Love of a Child, Love for our Ancestors.) ...
Larry & Joe Blend Venezuelan and Appalachian Folk Music, From Big Ears 2023
Soundcheck - June 12, 2023 17:29 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsVenezuelan legend of Llanera music Larry Bellorín and GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician Joe Troop play as Larry & Joe. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina, and worked construction to make ends meet, although he has been a musician and educator all...
Yasser Tejeda Celebrates the Shared African Roots of Dominican Music
Soundcheck - June 08, 2023 16:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsDominican guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Yasser Tejeda explores the African roots of Dominican music, and combines the folkloric with jazz, rock and Caribbean influences. Lately, he has turned to Congolese guitar, and Haitian rhythms (Hispaniola), New Orleans and Afrobeaty funk to h...
Manchester Orchestra Finds A Tender Calm and Floating Optimism
Soundcheck - June 05, 2023 16:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsAtlanta-based indie rock band Manchester Orchestra has long had a decidedly cinematic approach to songwriting, with tunes that grow in the telling and explode into grand, almost orchestral choruses. Now, they’ve released The Valley Of Vision, a stirring, emotional journey of healing inspired by ...
Mike Peters of The Alarm, On Going Forwards With Euphoria
Soundcheck - June 01, 2023 15:19 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSince 1981, Welsh musician Mike Peters has been the voice of the hit-making British band The Alarm. After the band split up in 1991, Peters wrote and released solo work, before reconstituting The Alarm in 2000, (Wikipedia.) Since being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in 2005 (he is also c...
Orquesta Akokán Channels Golden Era of Cuban Mambo
Soundcheck - May 29, 2023 16:00 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsOrquesta Akokán bursts and flows with the spirit of dance orchestras of the 1940’s and 1950’s of Havana on their debut record of nine tunes - all sparkling, blazing, soulful, and meticulously arranged and composed mambo originals. Together, singer José "Pepito" Gómez, producer Jacob Plasse, and ...
An Aeropress at Cinderella's Castle
Hospo Bimbo - May 26, 2023 21:00 - 41 minutesI have officially moved back to the USofA after being in New Zealand for 10 years. What better way to fight jet-lag than with a brand new episode?! Where do we draw the line with coffee trends?! Jalapeños, orange juice, olive oil, hot sauce... I just saw a video this morning on Parmesan chees...
'American Songster' Dom Flemons' Old-Timey Stories and Tunes, In-Studio
Soundcheck - May 25, 2023 16:37 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsDom Flemons is a Grammy-winning singer, guitarist, banjo player, and all-around scholar of old Americana who was part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Flemons has dubbed himself “The American Songster,” and has performed songs rooted in blues, early gospel, ragtime, proto-country, and other form...
Violinist Curtis Stewart Carves Space In Classical Music
Soundcheck - May 22, 2023 16:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsCurtis Stewart is a violinist, composer and arranger, and the current Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra. He is also the son of two professional jazz musicians, and when, at some point, he was offered the choice between composition and improvisation, he said “yes please” and t...
Playful Folk Fuzz and Daring Warmth From This Is The Kit
Soundcheck - May 18, 2023 16:11 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThis is the Kit is the alias of British singer and guitarist Kate Stables, as well as the band she fronts. Her early albums were rooted in the long British folk/rock tradition, with later work perhaps more under the influence of indie rock. In June, she releases a new album called Careful of Yo...
The Heavy Taps Into the Muscley Sound of Southern Soul
Soundcheck - May 15, 2023 16:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThe Heavy is a band from Bath, England – an unlikely place for a group whose sound has been rooted in the kind of swampy, sweaty mix of gospel, R&B, funk and rock that we associate with the American south. Their latest, Amen, is "an exhilarating maelstrom of ‘60s R&B riffs, horns, and gospel har...
Gotopo's Indigenous and Ancestral Futurism
Soundcheck - May 11, 2023 16:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsGotopo is a Venezuelan singer and musician currently based in Berlin. Her music explores her own Afro-Indigenous roots through a mix of ancient folkloric sounds and modern electronic dance music. She is a "digger", and has thrown herself into researching source material, as in an Afro-Venezuelan...
Serbian Quartet EYOT Swirls Between Many Musical Styles
Soundcheck - May 08, 2023 16:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsSerbian quartet EYOT draws on traditional Balkan folk music, jazz, classical piano, punk, and art-rock, and fits neatly into none of these categories. Their music - partly composed, and partly improvised - never loses its groove, even as it frequently makes use of the odd rhythm patterns (5/8, 7...
Tribute to Doc Watson’s Lasting Legacy on 'I Am a Pilgrim'
Soundcheck - May 04, 2023 16:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 128 ratingsThis year marks the centennial of legendary North Carolina folk musician Doc Watson, one of the giants of the folk revival of the 50s and 60s. There’s a new album paying homage to Watson's lasting legacy and influence on American music, which features a stellar cast of contemporary musicians pla...
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