Soundcheck

Montreal-born folk singer, songwriter, banjo player, and guitarist Kaia Kater grew up surrounded by her family’s ties to folk music and Appalachian music in West Virginia. Her music often touches on social issues, and her latest album ranges even wider, including her family’s Grenadian-Canadian background, while still drawing upon old-time banjo music. In her liner notes to her latest record, Grenades (Smithsonian Folkways), she writes, “Here’s to swimming in your own shadow.” She then explained in an interview with The Bluegrass Situation, "The 'swimming in your own shadow' thing is about getting comfortable essentially with being uncomfortable, and with having a lot of conflicting narratives, and trauma that comes from war or from being biracial, or from being a woman in the world." Kaia Kater and her ensemble perform some of these newest tunes, in-studio.  - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:  

A New York–born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, the multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla draws from traditional Creole, Cajun, and Haitian music, as well as American jazz and folk. McCalla is a former member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but her latest record, Capitalist Blues, contains very little of her signature instrument, the cello. While the tunes range from blues to calypso, and folk with some Haitian Creole, she explores connections between New Orleans and Haiti and tries to make sense of the current political "pressure cooker" in which the country finds itself. McCalla and her band perform some of these songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:   

Brooklyn band Dollshot crafts experimental dream pop that is a crazy-quilt of electro-art-rock, cabaret music of Schoenberg, chamber music by Poulenc, and futuristic noir soundscapes. They offer an unusual and often unsettling combination of sounds, with breathy, featherlight vocals floating over wailing saxes and pounding drums. Their new album called Lalande comes out on January 25 and today they’ll play a few songs from it, in-studio.  Watch the session here:   

Not many people can front a rock band, sing Górecki’s Third Symphony, deliver heavy works on themes of social justice for youth chorus, and compose pop songs for marching band, back-to-back. But Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond can. The classically-trained vocalist, composer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist has continued to reinvent herself on her journey through the worlds of chamber music, art-pop, rock, and new music. Her latest record, A Million And One, marries symphonic-leaning pop songs with electronic sounds that are dance-floor ready. My Brightest Diamond performs some of these works, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:   This is "It's Me on the Dance Floor":  

New York/Canada-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and poet Vera Sola, aka Danielle Aykroyd, crafts twangy-gothic-folk that might stem from horror punk as much as Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee. With a little wry and dark humor, a streak of seriousness, a few eloquent barbs, and a whole lot of vulnerability, Vera Sola channels the sounds in her head ("something like a demon’s orchestra", as she puts it) on her debut album, Shades. She and her band join us in-studio to play some of these songs, and perhaps discuss her EP of Misfits' covers.  - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here: 

From the live in-studio performance series, here's part two of our favorite sessions from 2018. Hear everything from a Cuban orchestra to a famous South African choir, along with music from My Brightest Diamond that came from our live performance series, The Soundcheck Podcast. The big band collective Orquesta Akokán channels the spirit of dance orchestras of the 1940’s and 1950’s of Havana and plays original Cuban Mambo music. Then, tenor sax superstar Joshua Redman and string quartet Brooklyn Rider, along with all-star rhythm section of Scott Colley and Satoshi Takeishi perform "chamber jazz" with swoops, dives, groove and bite. Hear a song by the great South African a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, with their uplifting vocal harmonies and signature dance moves. There’s also a performance by My Brightest Diamond, aka the classically-trained vocalist, composer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova, who has continued to reinvent herself on her journey through the worlds of chamber music, art-pop, rock, and new music. Plus, Ben Dickey, Ethan Hawke, and Charlie Sexton perform “Clay Pigeons” by little-known outlaw country legend, Texas singer/songwriter Blaze Foley.

The once-bearded Jewish-American roots-reggae vocalist and beatboxer Matisyahu found success in both the Hasidic spiritual community and beyond, back in the mid-2000’s. He has continued to reflect on seeking the divine, despite the surprise of shaving off his trademark beard, and started bringing a little more stretch and even more groove into his newer music. Matisyahu and his top-notch band - original Stubbs guitarist and longtime staple of the downtown New York improv scene Aaron Dugan, Dub Trio bassist and long-time Matisyahu collaborator Stu Brooks, percussionist and Cyro Baptista go-to-drummer Tim Keiper, and Addison Groove Project founder Rob Marscher. – take mystical, improvisational journeys both on record and in live performance. Together, they’ll collaboratively summit the jam and play tunes from their latest record, Undercurrent, in-studio. -Caryn Havlik  

From the live in-studio performance series, we’ll be recapping our favorite sessions from 2018. Part 1 features the Norwegian band Wardruna, Chicago-based duo OHMME, the dance-jazz band Sons of Kemet, porch and mountain music duo Anna & Elizabeth, and the qawwali devotional collaborative music by Junun.   Hear the ancient Norse ritual music of Norwegian band Wardruna, and their captivating combination of old and recreated Norse historical instruments. Their music has also scored episodes of the History channel's series Vikings. Then, revisit music by the Mercury Prize-nominated supergroup Sons of Kemet led by London-based Barbados-born saxophonist and composer Shabaka Hutchings. Theirs is a dance party which may or may not touch upon techno, hip hop, grime, psychedelia, Caribbean music, and social commentary using jazz vocabulary, honoring some black women across history who were worthy of the title of queen – queens who were made, not born. Then, listen to music by the Chicago-based duo OHMME, who are classically-trained pianists who've opted to harness the growl and fuzz of guitars. Theirs is intriguing art-rock with vocal hockets and harmonies, oh - and lots of time and feel changes. Also, hear ecstatic Sufi devotional music by Junun, a musical collaboration between India-based Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, a group of Indian musicians called The Rajasthan Express, and composer (and Radiohead’s guitarist) Jonny Greenwood. Plus, listen to a mountain music meets minimalism in a song from Anna & Elizabeth, who draw on lovingly researched old-time traditions of home, porch, and kitchen music. - Caryn Havlik

Michigan-born, Colorado-raised, but now Icelandic-based singer/songwriter John Grant crafts anguished, lush ballads and spacey electro-pop. He speaks five languages and is also a former member of The Czars, a Colorado-based band that split in the early 2000’s. After battling personal demons in New York, Grant returned to music and recorded with Texan folk rock group Midlake. He just got a publishing deal for his autobiography, and released his latest record, Love is Magic. It brings John Grant to treat us to intimate piano-and-a-microphone tunes, in-studio. Watch the session here:    

Larkin Poe is Rebecca & Megan Lovell -two singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalist sisters who are originally from Atlanta, but are now Nashville-based. Combining guitar, lap steel, minimal percussion, and sibling harmonies, they make roots-infused southern heritage-steeped rockenroll, with a helping of both gut bucket and Delta blues. Larkin Poe are acutely aware of the historicity of blues legends, touching on the imagery of the crossroads (Robert Johnson) and including a version of Skip James’ “Hard Times Killing Floor Blues” on their latest record, Venom and Faith. Fun Fact: the sisters are also descendants of Edgar Allan Poe. Larkin Poe joins us in the studio to play some of these latest unsettling, shiver-inducing, and powerful tunes. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:    

Singer-songwriter and producer Laura Gibson was born and raised in the small Oregon logging town of Coquille but now splits her time between Oregon & NYC. She recently completed an MFA in fiction writing (Hunter College) and her sharp story-songs quietly and gracefully explore darkness on her latest, Goners. Gibson’s storytelling is both raw and bold in its exploration of the depths of grief and other hidden feelings; the music hearkens toward folk traditions with unexpected arrangements, with each containing an alluring hint of the experimental. Laura Gibson and her band join us to play some of these songs, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here: 

Algiers is a mesmerizing band of musicians born in Atlanta, Georgia and now splitting time between London and New York. Their urgent, genre-resistant, chill-inducing, and fist-shaking music taps into and channels the frustration of locally-informed global citizens in these dark times - with a soulful and compelling roar. Their live sets feel spiritual and cathartic, but also might be for dancing. Then again - they also put out a music/zine series of somewhat more experimental sounds. 1st November 1954 by Algiers Frontman Franklin James Fisher is a multi-instrumentalist who might, at any point in their set, be stationed at the Rhodes, handling the samples. or wielding a guitar. (Read about his non-tour instrument on which he composes, Rhoda.) Ryan Mahan, ostensibly on bass, also handles drum programming, baritone guitar, and synthesizer. There’s also the multi-instrumentalist stylings of Lee Tesche, on guitar, prepared guitar, harmonium, saxophone, and prepared piano. The 2017 record, The Underside of Power, was the band's first to include drummer Matt Tong (ex-Bloc Party) on hybrid drum kit, chimes, and percussion. (NPR has published this excellent in-depth article on Algiers, by Ned Raggett.) Algiers, in their press materials, cite a great breadth and variety of influences - Big Black, Wendy Carlos, W.E.B. Dubois, John Carpenter, Cybotron, The Four Tops, Portishead, Public Image Limited, Steve Reich, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone - which may or may not inform their (I’m going for it here) their postpunk-gospel-kraut-y-motown-rocking ferocious crooning resistance music by this "American experimental band." We’re super-pumped to have them play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik    

Pianist, composer, engineer, and producer, Kelly Moran takes pride in trying to “obfuscate exactly what the piano sounds like. The whole point is to make it sound different.” (Tiny Mix Tapes) Moran, on her latest record, Ultraviolet (Warp Records), has also found a delicate balance of improvisation and structure in her expansive compositions. It'd be a reductionist approach to label her work merely minimalist or ambient music because it's also melodic cascades of these studiously prepared acoustic sources combined with synth wizardry, all washing over the listener in hypnotic and fascinating waves. The music is mainly produced and engineered by Moran herself - with a little help on this latest record from a friend, one Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never.)  Kelly Moran has brought her baggies of screws and bolts, along with other tools, to expand the insides of our piano into a new sonic palette of thoughtful and provocative sounds - somewhere in the realm of a gamelan meets hammered dulcimer or qanun. She performs works mostly from Ultraviolet, in-studio AND plays an early show (12PM start) on Saturday, Dec. 8 as part of Hospital Fest at Knockdown Center. -Caryn Havlik  Watch the session here: 

Canadian conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the incoming Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, is taking over two years earlier than initially planned. In this interview with John Schaefer for the Soundcheck Podcast, he outlines his plans to welcome more folks to the opera and to make sure that routine does not become the norm. Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s intensity is fueled by his boundless energy and his understanding of the legacy and the history of the Metropolitan Opera. He's the first new Music Director in 42 years and yet is optimistic that the Met can present itself as the generator of and ultimately a place for the creation of new operas, but understands that the large space does not lend itself to experimentation. Due to his unique placement as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as his new role with the Metropolitan Opera, Yannick hopes to be able to shepherd new productions to life. He also plans to go out of the theatre, in collaborations with BAM (in Brooklyn) and the Public Theatre with the aim of welcoming more folks to the Opera. Pointing out that opera is itself a unique combination of drama and music with ballet, theatre projections, and modern dance, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is eager to see more folks able to immerse themselves, and be challenged and nourished with stories and ideas in opera. He’d also like to let people in on the behind-the-scenes aspects as well as invite them into the glamour and magic of a performance. He's also an omnivorous listener himself - with singers as his main focus. Yannick (yah-NEEK) is currently listening to Janelle Monáe, Canadian singer/songwriter Daniel Caesar, Frank Ocean, and neo-soul of the early 2000’s when not at work. He also dips back into classic singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. - Caryn Havlik

Grammy-nominated chanteuse Emily King went into the family business via a different route, that of an R&B-influenced singer-songwriter. (She’s the daughter of New York jazz vocalists who has moved to the Catskills.) Her latest record, Scenery, due in February of 2019 (on ATO Records), promises to be a clever mix of R&B, pop, and perhaps a little retro disco. A bicoastal preview tour brings Emily King and her band to our studio to perform some of her brand-new “retro-cinematic” tunes (NPR Music) before playing at the storied Apollo Theatre tonight. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session via Facebook here: Or via Youtube: