Soundcheck

The singer, guitarist and songwriter José Junior recently released his debut album, called Spanish Leather, a mix of indie rock, Latin pop, and psychedelia, with the songs pretty evenly split between…

In the 1930s the style known as "jazz manouche" took over France and soon spread around the world, led by musicians like the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt and the violinist Stephane Grappelli.…

The Australian-born, California-based singer/songwriter and producer RY X seems to have multiple careers: writing intimate, diaphanous folk/pop songs that offer connection and vulnerability; collabor…

Philadelphia-based garage band Low Cut Connie is led by pianist, and songwriter Adam Weiner, who has been sexing up piano-based party rockenroll for quite some time. Along the way, critics anointed t…

Danielia Cotton is a singer, guitarist, cancer survivor and marathon runner. The sounds of classic country and soul are at the heart of Cotton’s music, although her last couple of releases have seen …

English singer, songwriter, and producer Nick Lowe came out of the so-called pub rock scene in the UK in the 70s, and made his mark as a producer (Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, The Pretenders, The D…

Brazilian pianist and composer Amaro Freitas is from the city of Recife, on the northeastern edge of Brazil, a city rooted in African culture. But his latest album, Y’Y, looks in a different directio…

The story of Fantastic Negrito is one of those stranger-than-fiction tales – born Xavier Dphrepaulezz and raised in a strict Muslim home, he had an aborted career as an R&B star under the name Xavier…

Hermanos Gutierrez is a band formed of the brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez, based in Switzerland, who make instrumental music that looks to mid-century Mexican popular song, draws on the sou…

The Cristal Baschet is a very rare and delicate otherworldly-sounding glass organ comprised of 56 chromatically-tuned glass rods. Only a handful of musicians on this planet play the instrument profes…

Scottish composer Erland Cooper writes ambient classical works that celebrate nature and create a strong sense of place. These days there are lots of musicians doing that sort of thing, but Cooper ha…

The trio Heavy MakeUp uses voice, synths, drum machines, and brass to improvise songs on the spot. Together, the band is singer and songwriter Edie Brickell and brass & electronic musicians CJ Cameri…

The Norwegian sextet Kaizers Orchestra combines rock, opera, Balkan music, and a kind of punk  cabaret with character studies and heavy drinking to great effect. Many of their albums, and videos, are…

My Brightest Diamond is the project led by singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Shara Nova (formerly Worden), who has continued to weave her own way through pop, experimental and cl…

Geordie Greep was the lead singer and guitarist for the celebrated British rock band black midi. With that band on indefinite hiatus, Greep is now focused on his own songs, which range freely across …

Lollise is a musician, fashion designer, and visual artist from Botswana in southern Africa, now based here in New York. After many years of recording and touring with Underground System and the FELA…

The Heavy Heavy is a band out of Brighton, England – but they sound like a band that’s been time-shifted straight out of 1975. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, they breathe a…

Moira Smiley refers to herself as a song collector; she's also a singer, multi-instrumentalist (banjo, accordion, piano, and hand & body percussion), and songwriter. Smiley has sung in arenas, cathed…

The singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist Joan Wasser is "not a cop" and has been recording for the past twenty years under the name Joan As Police Woman – a saucy reference to the 1970s cop …

Yemen Blues is a band led by Israeli singer and songwriter Ravid Kahalani. For more than a decade now, the group has incorporated the sounds of Moroccan trance, Arab and Bedouin folk, and Western fun…