Latest Soundcheck Podcast Episodes
The Jazz Passengers Cover Themselves, In-Studio
Soundcheck - May 23, 2024 14:58 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsNew York’s The Jazz Passengers – despite the name – don’t just play jazz. Founded in 1987 by sax player Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, the band has worked with spoken word artists, rock stars like Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry, and theatrical elements that have an almost moderni...
Storyteller and Songwriter Alice Merton Plays In-Studio
Soundcheck - May 20, 2024 15:55 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsAlice Merton burst out of the starting gate with her 2016 single "No Roots", a song that celebrated her nomadic upbringing in four different countries. Since then, the British-based German-Irish-Canadian singer-songwriter has released two albums of songs with somewhat introspective, perhaps broo...
Kiran Ahluwalia's Songs of Protest and Hope
Soundcheck - May 16, 2024 14:56 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsSinger Kiran Ahluwalia was born in India, grew up in Canada, and is largely based here in New York. Her music reflects her transcontinental upbringing, as she mixes the sounds of traditional South Asian song forms with Western rock and jazz. A two-time JUNO (Canadian Grammy) winner, Ahluwalia’s ...
Shabaka's Latest Adventure: Connecting to Nature and Breath With Flutes
Soundcheck - May 13, 2024 18:47 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsShabaka Hutchings, now Shabaka, has been a crucial and connected London-based musician for years, leading arena dance-jazz band Sons of Kemet, cosmic psych-dub-funk trio The Comet Is Coming, and the collaborative band Shabaka & the Ancestors. He began incorporating layered flutes on the last Son...
José James Threads the Past Into Message-Music With Soul
Soundcheck - May 09, 2024 16:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsJosé James has often been called a “jazz singer for the hip hop generation,” having come to jazz through tracing hip hop samples and over the course of twelve records, he’s also incorporated R&B, soul, rock, funk, and Latin music into his songs. While he’s mostly sung his own music over the year...
Community-Fueled Chamber-Pop By San Fermin
Soundcheck - May 06, 2024 16:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsAmerican indie rock-chamber collective, San Fermin, has been making lush, wide-angled Baroque-pop songs for more than a decade. The band was founded by Brooklyn-based keyboardist Ellis Ludwig Leone, who has multiple creative outlets as a songwriter, classical composer, and founding partner (with...
Cameroonian Composer Blick Bassy's Folk, Soul and Electro Songscapes
Soundcheck - May 02, 2024 21:01 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsFrance-based Cameroonian musician and composer Blick Bassy’s quiet and beautiful songs fall somewhere on the spectrum of R & B, pop, and folk, while the sounds of West and Central Africa have continued to resonate. His Bandcamp calls it "Africanity at the crossroads of soul, folk, and electro". ...
Lizz Wright Transforms the Beauty of the Visual Into Song
Soundcheck - April 29, 2024 16:14 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsVocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright is usually referred to as a jazz or gospel singer, and she certainly does sing both of those styles. But she’s also comfortable with blues and R&B and the Great American Songbook. Her latest album is called Shadow, and it features striking versions of songs by...
Reyna Tropical's Spiritual Survival Songs
Soundcheck - April 25, 2024 17:55 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsReyna Tropical is led by guitarist, singer, songwriter and co-producer Fabi Reyna, who is the founder of She Shreds Media, dedicated to women and non-binary guitarists. Investigating landscapes of the tropical diaspora - from Cartagena, Colombia to Fajardo, Puerto Rico and Cuaji (la costa chica ...
Producer and Rapper Erick the Architect Smiles Through It
Soundcheck - April 22, 2024 13:56 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsBrooklyn-born rapper, producer & founding member of Flatbush Zombies, Erick the Architect released his debut solo LP, I’ve Never Been Here Before, in February. While it’s full of trenchant social commentary, it’s also focused on dealing with loss and finding freedom in vulnerability. The tracks ...
Indie Fuzz-Rock Duo Deerlady's Shoegaze With Bite
Soundcheck - April 18, 2024 22:12 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsDeerlady is the name of the band led by singer and bassist Mali Obomsawin and guitarist and singer Magdalena Abrego. Mali was part of the folk rock trio called Lula Wiles; then she released her album of Indigenous jazz called Sweet Tooth in 2022, drawing heavily on her Abenaki heritage. Magdalen...
London-Based Naturalist Cosmo Sheldrake's Marvelous Sound World
Soundcheck - April 15, 2024 16:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsLondon vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Cosmo Sheldrake creates songs and sound worlds out of people, places, creatures, plants, fungi, and collected sounds. With his combination of traditional instrumentation and electronic production, field recordings, and both human and more-than-...
Empress Of Explores Yin/Yang of Romance and Plays Intimate Songs, In-Studio
Soundcheck - April 11, 2024 17:55 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsHonduran-American artist Lorely Rodriguez, known professionally as Empress Of, is a singer, songwriter, musician and record producer based in Los Angeles, California. Her albums are full of bright, indie pop that mixes dance music, electronica, trap, and on her most recent album, Latin music. Em...
Welsh Musician and Songwriter Gruff Rhys Coexists and Persists
Soundcheck - April 08, 2024 15:06 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsWelsh musician and songwriter Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals, the pop outfit known for their catchy songs and weird videos) poetically harnesses both the gritty and the trippy in his own music. But he’s also a composer, producer, filmmaker and author. His latest release, the 25th album of hi...
Genre-Less British Rock Band Bombay Bicycle Club, In-Studio
Soundcheck - April 04, 2024 22:46 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsFormed in North London, Bombay Bicycle Club is the sound of four best friends finding joy and savoring the connection in making music together and experimenting. They think of themselves as a genre-less band (The Independent), “not bound down by genre in a way that a lot of our contemporaries we...
Singer and Producer Hatis Noit Connects Worlds With Her Voice
Soundcheck - April 01, 2024 20:00 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsThe Japanese singer/composer/producer Hatis Noit, is originally from the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Her name, hatis noit ハチスノイト, means the stem of the lotus flower and is intended to serve as a connection between the living world (represented by the lotus flower) and the spirit world (the ...
Spanish Singer María José Llergo's Flamenco Has Roots And Wings
Soundcheck - March 28, 2024 15:55 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsSpanish singer and songwriter Maria José Llergo grew up in the region of Andalucia, the home of flamenco music, where she learned violin, and listened to her grandfather sing. From these roots, she grows her own flamenco - and it has "wings" - the sounds of contemporary pop, R&B, and electronica...
The Slow Pastoral Beauty of Roger Eno's Shifting Chords
Soundcheck - March 25, 2024 21:28 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsThe “distinctive style” of British composer and musician Roger Eno’s slowly unfolding sonic landscapes has “attracted a cult following” (Eno’s bio). As well as first collaborating with his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois in 1983 on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, he has made over a dozen so...
The Songs and Prayers of Tibetan Singer Yungchen Lhamo
Soundcheck - March 21, 2024 15:24 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsThe Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo was given the name Lhamo at birth by a Buddhist monk. The name means Goddess Of Melody, and Yungchen has spent her adult life living up to that title. After fleeing Tibet by walking over the Himalayas, in 1989, she established herself as a leading voice for Tibe...
Daymé Arocena Infuses Spirituality and Pan-Caribbean Pop Into Afro-Cuban Jazz
Soundcheck - March 18, 2024 15:01 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsDaymé Arocena, an Afro-Cuban singer from Havana now based in Puerto Rico, has been performing semi-professionally since she was 8 years old. She was trained as a composer, arranger, choir director, and band leader (Wikipedia) at conservatory, in addition to being “a practitioner of the Santeria ...
Sheherazaad's Insightful Blend of Poetry and Music, In-Studio
Soundcheck - March 14, 2024 16:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsThe singer and songwriter Sheherazaad blends the rich tradition of poetry and music from South Asia with Western instruments and production techniques. Her new album, Qasr, was produced by Grammy-winning Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab, and it offers a subtly colored, moody collection of s...
Composer and Flutist Nathalie Joachim Explores Family and Identity in Song
Soundcheck - March 11, 2024 16:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsHaitian-American composer, flutist, vocalist, and educator Nathalie Joachim is half of the duo Flutronix, whose music blends classical flute playing with electronic sounds. She also played for a spell in the Grammy-winning contemporary classical music ensemble Eighth Blackbird. But in 2019 Natha...
Composer, Songwriter, Flutist Nathalie Joachim Explores the Depths of Family and Identity
Soundcheck - March 11, 2024 15:48 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsHaitian-American composer, flutist, vocalist, and educator Nathalie Joachim is half of the duo Flutronix, whose music blends classical flute playing with electronic sounds. She also played for a spell in the Grammy-winning contemporary classical music ensemble Eighth Blackbird. But in 2019 Natha...
Mary Timony Recaptures Her Joy On 'Untame The Tiger"
Soundcheck - March 07, 2024 17:32 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsSinger, songwriter, guitarist, and educator Mary Timony has been a hugely influential figure on the indie and alternative rock scenes for over 30 years. Starting with the band Autoclave in 1990, she went on to front the group Helium for much of the 1990s, was a member of the supergroup Wild Flag...
Helado Negro's Return To What The Sun Feels Like
Soundcheck - March 04, 2024 16:52 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsHelado Negro is the avant pop project of Roberto Carlos Lange, born in Florida to Ecuadorian parents but for many years based in Brooklyn. In recent years he’s moved around a bit (Marfa, TX!) and is now based in Asheville NC, which is where he made his new dreamscapey bilingual avant-pop album c...
The American Patchwork Quartet Plays Songs of Enduring American Culture, In-Studio
Soundcheck - February 29, 2024 21:04 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsThe American Patchwork Quartet is a group that reflects the American melting pot – the patchwork quilt of people who’ve come and made the U.S.A. their home. APQ features two-time Grammy winner Clay Ross, of the band Ranky Tanky, drummer Clarence Penn, and two musicians who immigrated from Asia: ...
Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra Find Their Twisted Bliss
Soundcheck - February 26, 2024 17:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsEthan Lipton writes plays, and songs, and sometimes, plays with songs. His musical No Place To Go won an Obie for its trenchant take on the decline of the American workspace, and in another musical, The Outer Space, a couple finds that they can flee planet earth but not its problems. Ethan Lipt...
Vijay Iyer Trio Forges Telepathic Connections on 'Compassion'
Soundcheck - February 22, 2024 16:53 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsPianist and composer Vijay Iyer first got together with bassist and composer Linda May-Han Oh and drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey in 2021, when they released their brilliant album Uneasy. But with all three musicians having such busy careers, it seemed like it might be a kind of musical summit –...
Good Time NYC Rock Unit Bodega Considers Consumerism
Soundcheck - February 19, 2024 17:00 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsNYC-based rock unit Bodega makes artful post-punk songs with brawny, catchy riffs and shouty gang vocals. Their lyrics contain politically-minded and perhaps cheeky commentaries on advertising, technology, pop culture, high art - and how we consume it all; oh- and on gentrification as well. They...
A Rich Harvest of John Leventhal's Lyrical Guitar Work
Soundcheck - February 15, 2024 17:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 126 ratingsGuitarist and songwriter John Leventhal has spent almost a half century producing, playing for, and co-writing with some of the music world’s most familiar names – Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, Jim Lauderdale, Marc Cohn, Joan Osborne, Sarah Jarosz, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Willie Nelson, and o...
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