Soundcheck

Dan Tepfer is a sought-after composer and pianist who also studied computer programming and physics. His album of improvisations on Bach’s Goldberg Variations drew a lot of attention some eight years ago. Now, he’s released Natural Machines , a record of music for pianist and computer that responds to his real-time improvisations according to “simple rules” - musical algorithims that he programmed. Dan Tepfer joins us to explain what he’s done, and to do some of it on a Yamaha digital piano, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

The Israeli band called had a huge hit on its very first attempt when their song "Habib Galbi" (“Love of My Heart”) – which blended traditional Yemenite folk music with modern dance beats – became the first Arabic-language song to ever become the #1 song in Israel. It was also a viral hit throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Even Pitbull got into the act, featuring on a remix of the song.  A-WA is led by a trio of sisters from a Yemeni Jewish family who sing in Arabic and English. Their most recent album Bayti Fi Rasi , is Yemenite traditional music mixed with hip-hop, reggae, and electronic music is called and they’re here to play some of it for us, in-studio. - John Schaefer  

France-based Cameroonian musician Blick Bassy’s quiet and beautiful songs fall somewhere on the spectrum of blues, folk-soul, and pop, and embody a deep reverence for the traditional music of Cameroon and other parts of Africa. On his latest, record,  1958, dedicated to the memory of Ruben Um Nyobé, Felix Moumié and the other heroes of Cameroonian independence, Bassy embraces a listener (mostly in his ancestral language of Basaa)  over minimal cello, trumpet, trombone, keyboards, and electronic production. Bassy performs some of these songs, in an intimate, acoustic setting in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:    

London-based Xhosa singer, actor, musician, and author Nakhane (born Toure) grew up on a musical diet of Mozart, Handel, and South African choral pieces, along with Marvin Gaye and the O’Jays in South Africa, eventually wrenching himself away from a conservative Christian upbringing to accept, then embrace his sexuality. Now a leading voice among queer musicians, Nakhane seduces, swaggers, and charms with his tender falsetto in his sometimes dance-leaning, grandly orchestrated “anti-gospel” glam-soul-pop. In interviews, he has professed admiration for musicians including Anohni, Busi Mhlongo, David Bowie, Mbongwana Star and Nina Simone. He plays provocative and slow-burning songs from his latest, a collection called  You Will Not Die , in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

The Sudan-born, Ohio-raised and Brooklyn-based singer and musician Ahmed Gallab records under the name Sinkane and the latest Sinkane record, Dépaysé,  is an irresistible mix of western and African funk, Sudanese folk music, 1960s psychedelia, with pop, rock, soul music besides.  Dépaysé  is a French word that means being taken out of your homeland, being dislocated and as Gallab writes, the record “is the story of an immigrant’s journey of self-discovery in the Trump era.”  Sinkane, as an American band, is , “comprised of people from all over the world”: himself (Sudanese), guitarist Jonny Lam (Chinese), keyboardist Elenna Canlas (Filipina), drummer Chris St. Hilaire (Trinidadian), and bassist Michael “Ish” Montgomery (Black American.) Sinkane joins us in-studio to play songs from the latest, Dépaysé.   - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here: