Joowan Kim wants to pioneer a new kind of American art music. He derides concert hall compositions as either reheated European classics or cultural appropriation pieces, like “Tibetan yak herding songs,” which he compares to wildflowers ripped from their native field and put into an expensive vase. After emigrating from South Korea…
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If anyone could have dodged death, it might’ve been David Bowie. The shape-shifting superstar carried himself like a savant ambassador from a far groovier galaxy. His conventional passing is almost more shocking than if he had ascended skyward via tractor beam. But now that he’s gone, fans crave a summation of his…
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Miranda Lee and Gemma Rose first sang together in a fifth grade choir in the tiny Iowa town of Fairfield. They went to different schools, so they didn’t reconnect until a mutual friend’s birthday party during college. There, they became instant, vocal soulmates over their shared passion for obscure harmonies.
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The last time Kevi Ford hung out with childhood pal Justin Bieber, the Canadian megastar quite literally shit himself. The Biebs, standing atop a table in a Vegas nightclub, soiling his white leather Dolce and Gabbana pants after apparently succumbing to food poisoning. Bros being bros, Ford couldn’t resist cracking wise about…
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It’s buried deep in the heart of every boom-bap beat; it’s churning hot at the center of every rip-roaring rock & roll riff; and it’s slyly creeping in the smoky shadows of every soulful R&B jam. As we argued last week, jazz, and the music from which it sprang—the blues—are the purest…
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John Flynn on August 4, 2016
Over the course of his career, Rahsaan Roland Kirk was not always appreciated. Nonetheless, he inspired many still-active jazz musicians. Running the gamut from a trombonist and conch shell player to a pianist and composer to a Bill-Clinton-approved saxophonist, the following artists either played with Rahsaan or deeply studied his works, making…
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In his recent Netflix special, Freedumb, Jim Jefferies calls Donald Trump’s backers “fucking dummies.” The comedian, who plays the City National Civic in San Jose on July 28, characterizes the demagogue’s statements as “really simple shit that means nothing” and concludes the bit with a legitimately touching plea, entreating his audience to…
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El Da Sensei built his life upon the four pillars of hip-hop. As a pre-teen, he was a breakdancer, which lead him to writing raps for friends. Then he developed the confidence to spit his own rhymes, so he started digging through crates of vinyl, on the hunt for the samples, which he…
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John Flynn on July 14, 2016
Weird Al Yankovic peaked commercially in the 38th year of his career. His 2014 release, Mandatory Fun, debuted at number one—unprecedented for a comedy album. But this singular success provides a fitting coronation for the four-time Grammy winner, who has long been the jester in the court of A-list pop. “I thought…
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John Flynn on June 8, 2016
“First of all, there’s no such fucking thing as high art anymore,” says Joowan Kim, leader of the Ensemble Mik Nawooj—a group that melds hip-hop and classical music to create singular and postmodern songs. Kim, who began pioneering this hybrid sound in his final years at the Berklee School of Music, says…
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