Salon.com > Quick Hits http://www.salon.com Thu, 23 May 2013 23:06:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Quick Hits: Anoushka Shankar performs ISHQ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/30/quick_hits_anoushka_shankar_performs_ishq/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/30/quick_hits_anoushka_shankar_performs_ishq/#comments Wed, 30 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12929302 There was a time when Anoushka Shankar’s music fell under her father’s shadow — how could it not, when you play the sitar and your father, Ravi Shankar, just happens to be the most famous sitar master in the world?  But Anoushka has established herself as an extraordinary musician in her own right, with her own distinct voice. In London she recently won the Songlines Music Award for Best Artist of 2012. Her new album, “Traveller,” finds her exploring the common roots of Indian classical music and Spanish flamenco.  She says the technical challenges were formidable, but the music explodes with an intensity that makes it all sound natural — and beautiful.

And as she explains to SOUND TRACKS reporter Arun Rath, she managed to get it all done through the pregnancy and birth of her first child, who now travels with her on tour.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/30/quick_hits_anoushka_shankar_performs_ishq/feed/ 6 Quick Hits: Rock icon Levon Helm plays live http://www.salon.com/2012/03/17/quick_hits_rock_icon_levon_helm_plays_live/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/17/quick_hits_rock_icon_levon_helm_plays_live/#comments Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12679451 Rock legend Levon Helm -- the drummer and a lead singer for the Band -- is batting 1.000 at the Grammys. Last month, when his "Ramble at the Ryman" won best Americana album, he made it three in a row -- three nominations, three wins -- following Grammy Awards for his two previous albums, "Dirt Farmer" (2007) and "Electric Dirt" (2009). Not bad for a 71-year-old survivor of throat cancer, who had once lost his voice completely.

These days, a happy-to-be-alive Levon Helm presides over what he calls "midnight rambles" -- concerts in his Woodstock, N.Y., barn, where he's surrounded by musical friends and family, including his daughter, singer Amy Helm. His voice may be raspy, but his energetic drumming and high-beam smile can warm the coldest winter night. Following rousing versions of "The Weight" and "Ophelia," Helm invites Marco Werman into his house for after-midnight conversation.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/17/quick_hits_rock_icon_levon_helm_plays_live/feed/ 8 Quick Hits: Yuja Wang plays live http://www.salon.com/2012/02/18/quick_hits_yuja_wang_plays_live/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/18/quick_hits_yuja_wang_plays_live/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12371191 At the age of 24, Chinese-born Yuja Wang is one of the most exciting concert pianists in the world. Onstage, she cuts an elegant, sometimes provocative figure. Backstage, she's more like a teenager, noshing snacks and listening to Rihanna on her earphones. But there's no doubt that Ms. Wang, now a resident of New York, has captivated audiences and critics, from Beijing to Berlin. Her "virtuosity is stunning," says the New York Times. "An artist of dazzling genius," raves the San Francisco Chronicle. She's earned praise for her almost "superhuman keyboard technique," as well as her sensitivity and fearlessness.

We caught up with the international sensation in Los Angeles, where she performed Prokofiev at the Disney Concert Hall. Afterward, in a Steinway showroom, Wang played for us and spoke with SOUND TRACKS reporter Alexis Bloom about her life as a musical nomad.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/18/quick_hits_yuja_wang_plays_live/feed/ 6 Quick Hits: Jazz trumpeter Tom Harrell http://www.salon.com/2012/01/14/quick_hits_jazz_trumpeter_tom_harrell/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/14/quick_hits_jazz_trumpeter_tom_harrell/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12037081 Tom Harrell is without question one of the most important jazz trumpet players now working. In 40 years of playing and composing cutting-edge jazz, he’s worked with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Carlos Santana.

And he does all this while managing an illness that would ordinarily prove debilitating: paranoid schizophrenia. Harrell’s condition is impossible to miss: he has a difficult time with social interactions, and is uncomfortable in public. But all of that melts away when he puts the horn to his lips.

SOUND TRACKS visits New York’s historic Village Vanguard for an exclusive look at Harrell’s latest adventurous project: his own arrangements of the works of Ravel and Debussy performed by his Chamber Ensemble. And after the show, Tom sits down for a rare, intimate conversation about his creative process.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/14/quick_hits_jazz_trumpeter_tom_harrell/feed/ 2 Quick hits: Milos Karadaglic plays live http://www.salon.com/2011/12/03/quick_hits_milos_karadaglic_plays_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/03/quick_hits_milos_karadaglic_plays_live/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10281588 At the age of 28, guitarist Milos Karadaglic is a rising star in the classical music world -- “Young Artist of the Year,” according to the Gramophone Awards in London. Milos is an advocate for his instrument, wanting the guitar to regain its profile in the classical world. He wouldn’t mind wooing some rock audiences, too, and why not? He’s darkly handsome, charismatic, and his fingernails are as sharp as daggers.

Fresh from his Carnegie Hall debut, Milos talks with "Quick Hits" host Marco Werman about being inspired by the legendary Andres Segovia while growing up in Montenegro in the '90s during the Balkan wars. He also performs four beautiful pieces, at the nearby Klavierhaus recital hall and on a bench in Central Park.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/03/quick_hits_milos_karadaglic_plays_live/feed/ 3 French songwriter Piers Faccini performs live http://www.salon.com/2011/11/05/french_songwriter_piers_faccini_performs_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/05/french_songwriter_piers_faccini_performs_live/#comments Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10161190 Mississippi and Mali. The Delta blues and the mesmerizing music of West Africa. Those are the sounds and spirits that struck Piers Faccini to the core, shaping his expressive, intimate songs. But with his Anglo-Italian heritage, you can also hear English folk songs and old Naples rhythms in his music, as well as lyrical debts to Sufi poetry.

We first met Piers when he wrote theme music for the pilot episode of our upcoming PBS series, "Sound Tracks." We’d heard his dark warning, “A Storm Is Going to Come,” on “Grey’s Anatomy” and we knew he’d toured with Ben Harper and Amadou and Mariam. For “Quick Hits,” he agreed to perform three songs and to talk about his new album, “My Wilderness.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/05/french_songwriter_piers_faccini_performs_live/feed/ 0 Quick Hits: Meklit Hadero’s catchy, compassionate sound http://www.salon.com/2011/10/29/quick_hits_meklit_haderos_catchy_compassionate_sound/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/29/quick_hits_meklit_haderos_catchy_compassionate_sound/#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10152317 San Francisco offers a haven to creative talents from around the world. One of the city's newest stars is Ethiopian-born Meklit Hadero, a restless soul who found her voice in the funky Mission district's eclectic arts scene. You’ll hear hints of Billie Holiday, Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell in her music, but Hadero is her own unique creation. Her song “Leaving Soon” could easily slide into the rotation on your favorite rock or R&B station. She's also begun to explore traditional Ethiopian songs.

On our latest installment of “Quick Hits,” Hadero talks with Mirissa Neff about her unusual career, performs with her band in a small club, and sings some new acoustic songs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/29/quick_hits_meklit_haderos_catchy_compassionate_sound/feed/ 1 Meet the Italian Bruce Springsteen http://www.salon.com/2011/10/22/meet_the_italian_bruce_springsteen/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/22/meet_the_italian_bruce_springsteen/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10133120 Jovanotti is probably the biggest pop star you’ve never heard of, unless of course you happen to be Italian. Over the years, he's evolved into an Italian Bruce Springsteen or Bono -- an iconic pop star who takes on issues from AIDS to poverty in Africa. Back home, he sells out stadiums and churns out No. 1 hits like "L'ombelico del Mondo."

We caught up with Jovanotti on his first trip to San Francisco, where he played the Stern Grove Festival, a long-running series of free summer concerts.

Now on "Quick Hits," Jovanotti sings some impromptu ballads and tells Marco Werman about bicycling through Iran.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/22/meet_the_italian_bruce_springsteen/feed/ 1 Quick Hits: Dengue Fever performs live http://www.salon.com/2011/10/15/quick_hits_dengue_fever_performs_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/15/quick_hits_dengue_fever_performs_live/#comments Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10113191 Ready for something different? How about a band from Los Angeles that blends Cambodian music and California rock and roll? It's called Dengue Fever and it has a fervent following among hipsters and Cambodian immigrants. At Sound Tracks, we can’t get enough of them either. Whether it’s lead singer Chhom Nimol’s haunting voice, the “Twin Peaks” atmospherics, or the band’s dreamy mix of surf guitar, smoking saxophone and psychedelia, Dengue Fever is unique and unforgettable.

Band members are ironic enough to have named themselves after a mosquito-born disease and funny enough to recall groups like the B-52s. But they also have a mission: to resurrect Cambodian music crushed by the Khmer Rouge and reinvent it for the 21st century. They’re cultural ambassadors with a trippy, edgy sound and a new album, “Cannibal Courtship.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/15/quick_hits_dengue_fever_performs_live/feed/ 2 Quick hits: Abigail Washburn performs live http://www.salon.com/2011/10/08/quick_hits_abigail_washburn_performs_live/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/08/quick_hits_abigail_washburn_performs_live/#comments Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10105405 Abigail Washburn is a blond, blue-eyed banjo player from the Midwest who is obsessed with China, speaks Mandarin and sings in Chinese when she feels like it. That is, when she’s not performing her very contemporary versions of traditional Appalachian-style folk songs, threatening in one to use her shotgun on a lover who has betrayed her. (She ends that song with a wicked smile.)

In this edition of "Quick Hits," Sound Tracks reporter Arun Rath talks with Washburn about how she fell in love with China and how listening to Doc Watson made her fall for bluegrass music. And she performs three songs exclusively for "Quick Hits," including "City of Refuge," the title track from her new album.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/08/quick_hits_abigail_washburn_performs_live/feed/ 7 Quick Hits: Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones bring back soul http://www.salon.com/2011/10/01/sharon_jones_charles_bradley/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/01/sharon_jones_charles_bradley/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/2011/10/01/sharon_jones_charles_bradley/ If you like soul music, you’ve come to the right place. Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley are living proof that America has not lost its soul. Sharon Jones and her band, the Dap-Kings, are the leaders of a soul music revival that has swept the nation and crossed the Atlantic to inspire the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse, whose "Back to Black" album featured the Dap-Kings. Now Jones is joined on her Brooklyn-based Daptone Records label by a powerful new voice, Charles Bradley, whose raw, passionate style recalls the spirits of Wilson Pickett and James Brown. "Quick Hits" showcases Jones and Bradley on tour, spreading the gospel of soul. Sound Tracks reporter Marco Werman interviews the soul man after his big break at age 62.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/01/sharon_jones_charles_bradley/feed/ 0 Quick hits: The genre-bending, joyous sound of Ozomatli http://www.salon.com/2011/09/24/quick_hits_ozomatli/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/24/quick_hits_ozomatli/#comments Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/09/24/quick_hits_ozomatli Listen as you cruise the streets of L.A., and you'll hear the rhythms of Ozomatli, a band named for the monkey in the ritual Aztec calendar. It's the music of the multi-ethnic City of Angels with its rising Latino population and its polyphonic mix of rock, hip-hop, funk, cumbia and Chicano low-rider R&B. Ozomatli likes to create a street party atmosphere, but it's always been a band with a social conscience, too, whether it's defending immigrant rights or expressing tolerance and acceptance in the new song "Gay Vatos in Love." Lately, band members have become global ambassadors, roaming the world on State Department tours. As they tell "Sound Tracks" reporter Mirissa Neff, they started out as representatives of the new L.A. but feel like they've become "citizens of the world."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/24/quick_hits_ozomatli/feed/ 11 Quick Hits: KT Tunstall’s grand return http://www.salon.com/2011/09/17/quick_hits_kt_tunstall/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/17/quick_hits_kt_tunstall/#comments Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/09/17/quick_hits_kt_tunstall A few years ago, KT Tunstall was ubiquitous -- on radio, on tour and on iPods. Her song "Suddenly I See," played over the opening scene of the movie "The Devil Wears Prada," became a "girl power" anthem. There were more hits -- "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" and "Other Side of the World" -- and nonstop concert dates. Then she vanished. Her record label told her, politely, to take a break and "get lost," which is exactly what she did.

Now, after roaming the world with her husband, drummer Luke Bullen, and focusing on her songwriting, she's back -- with a new album, "Tiger Suit," and a wry perspective on her sudden fame. Tunstall charms "Quick Hits" with three new songs and talks to Mirissa Neff about staying "unglam" and authentic in the crazy world of pop.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/17/quick_hits_kt_tunstall/feed/ 5 Quick Hits: Helene Grimaud plays live http://www.salon.com/2011/09/10/quick_hits_helene_grimaud/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/10/quick_hits_helene_grimaud/#comments Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/09/10/quick_hits_helene_grimaud "Cerebral" and "passionate." Words often used by critics to describe pianist Hélène Grimaud and her interpretations of Mozart, Liszt and Bartók. Having met her, we would now add "enchanting." Grimaud looks like a French actress and speaks about her art with an almost childlike wonder. But there's a fierce intelligence at work, and her performances provide "a glimpse of the transcendental," as one London reviewer put it.

During a stopover in New York on her current world tour, Grimaud spoke with Alexis Bloom, who notes that the concert pianist "has battled back from illness to play like a titan." Grimaud also took us to visit her Wolf Conservation Center, the other passion in her life.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/10/quick_hits_helene_grimaud/feed/ 12 Quick Hits: Brazilian samba star Seu Jorge performs live http://www.salon.com/2011/09/03/quick_hits_seu_jorge/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/03/quick_hits_seu_jorge/#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/09/03/quick_hits_seu_jorge Seu Jorge has got to be one of the coolest cats on the planet -- a Brazilian samba singer with a rich baritone and an easy groove. You may know him from his popular Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs featured in the Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic," or, from his role as a street hood in the great Brazilian film "City of God."

We caught up with this international music star and his new band, Almaz, at a recent concert at the Royale in Boston. On our latest "Quick Hits," you can see Seu Jorge onstage, singing a song for us outside on the theater's fire escape, and talking with Marco Werman about his music and his rough early life in a Rio de Janeiro favela.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/03/quick_hits_seu_jorge/feed/ 3 Quick Hits: Afrobeat sensation Seun Kuti performs live http://www.salon.com/2011/08/27/quick_hits_seun_kuti/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/27/quick_hits_seun_kuti/#comments Sat, 27 Aug 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/08/27/quick_hits_seun_kuti When African music legend Fela Kuti died in 1997, his son Seun -- then just 14 years old -- took over his father's band, Egypt 80.

Now he's well on his way to becoming a Nigerian afrobeat pioneer in his own right -- as well as a fiery and energetic performer with a strong social and political conscience. In this episode of Quick Hits, we visit with Seun in Lagos and capture exclusive performances centered around his second album, "From Africa with Fury: Rise." 

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