Gary Moskowitz has written about music for The Economist, The New York Times, San Francisco Weekly, TIME Magazine, Mother Jones Magazine, and other publications. He writes the MUSIC NERD newsletter. He teaches journalism at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley and plays trumpet for RADIO VELOSO.
Lang Lang is known worldwide as incomparable, prodigious, and virtuosic in his mastery of the piano — an instrument he began playing in China at age 3. Because he plays with dramatic, physical flair and visible emotion — and often interprets piano works in unconventional ways — the GRAMMY nominee is also considered a rockstar. Among many other accolades, Lang…
Ten years ago, Josh Levi was spending a lot of time asking his mother for rides. He was keen to perform and needed her to drive him to dance classes and competitions, hip-hop conventions, musical theater auditions and rehearsals, studio recording sessions, and performances throughout the Houston area. "She was taking me to talent shows, showcases, churches, basically anywhere there…
Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Pachy García is a one-man band. Under the moniker Pachyman, he combines the heavy, reverb-drenched grooves of classic 1970s dub reggae with the big synthesizers and keyboard sounds of Krautrock. Throughout his career, García has recorded himself playing all the instruments on each song. He then mixes those tracks with an acute level of…
In 1965, as legendary trumpeter, singer, and bandleader Louis Armstrong was celebrating his 65th birthday and 50 years of making music, his hit song "Hello Dolly" had beat out the Beatles on the pop charts and earned him a GRAMMY award. Countless journalists wanted to speak with him to document the iconic American musician. "I had a wonderful experience for…
When Patrick Patterson and Steve Scipio formed Cymande in 1971 in South London, they had two main goals in mind: Make original music, and make music with a message. The group didn’t have a specific approach or genre, but pulled musical and cultural inspiration from the African and Caribbean roots of their predominantly Black communities. They wrote lyrics about the…
For more than two decades, American rock band The National has been fine-tuning their signature, somber sound. Their delicate, sensitive anthems consistently explore relatable moments of sadness, grief, melancholy, anxiety, and love. Vocalist Matt Berninger delivers moody, middle-aged confessions in a signature, un-rushed baritone voice that can often sound like Leonard Cohen mixed with Ian Curtis of Joy Division. Berninger…
In May, the globally-renowned pianist and composer AyseDeniz Gokcin conducted an experiment in Los Angeles. In front of a room full of people at the conference CogX, AyseDeniz sat at a piano and played three short excerpts of music. The first piece was by legendary Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, the second was an original composition in the style of Chopin,…
If Aaron Frazer had not wound up singing and playing drums with the soul outfit Durand Jones & the Indications, or on his own solo records, he suspects he may have ended up working as a music history teacher. "My favorite classes in college were music history. Even something I knew already, like the history of rock and roll, those…
Bay Area pop-punk band Green Day returned to their roots on April 2 for a high-energy sold-out show at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium. The two-hour set rocked through their latest album, 2024's Saviors, and 2004's American Idiot in full — but the four-time GRAMMY winners were performing for more than just a homecoming. The band (which is known for performing…
The 2024 South By Southwest Festival got off to a dramatic start: approximately 80 artists, speakers, and event sponsors pulled out of the event to protest the sponsorship of the U.S. Army and defense companies and then a hit-and-run traffic incident in a crowded festival area resulted in a fatality and serious injury early Tuesday. SXSW spokespeople issued statements about…
South By Southwest lures more than 250,000 people to Austin each year to learn about a range of topics, including education, the cannabis industry, technology, film, and video gaming, but music is the heart and driving force of SXSW. The festival kicks off March 8, and a dizzying array of musical performances brings the festival to life from March 11…
In the early 2000s, when Andrew Mayer Cohen was in his 20s, he moved from his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a hip-hop DJ. He had been DJing clubs and parties in Detroit but was ready to take things more seriously. At a party in L.A., the artist now known as Mayer…
When Taumata "Mata" Grey was growing up in Hawaii, there was always a guitar, a microphone, or a piano around the house. The youngest of four kids, there were musicians and entertainers in his Samoan family — including his dad, who would have preferred that his children stay away from the tough life of a traveling musician. Mata did not…
Hank Shocklee’s earliest — and most profound — experience with hip-hop was at a roller rink in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Long Island, New York, where Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were performing. A young Shcokleee watched as Flash effortlessly cut, scratched and mixed Pump Me Up by the Washington, D.C. go-go band Trouble Funk, and then saw MC…
After more than 20 years in hip-hop — as one-half of the supergroup Run The Jewels and also as a solo artist — the Atlanta rapper Killer Mike is ready to make what he calls "a generational statement." Born Michael Render, the activist rapper's statement comes in the form of his personal "origin story": a 14-song solo album called Michael.…
Roughly 120,000 people will head to California's wine country May 26-28 for the 10th BottleRock festival, which serves up music, food and libations at the Napa Valley Expo. BottleRock leans in on the food and beverage experience: on social media they refer to themselves as "a food festival with music playing in the background." On the festival’s culinary stage, headline…
"There’s no need for purist music," says reggae icon Shaggy, who brought this attitude to an unlikely source. His latest album, Com Fly Wid Mi, runs Frank Sinatra songs through a filter of ska, swing, and reggae rhythms. On his second collaboration with producer Sting, Shaggy dropped his signature dancehall toasting voice in favor of a new croon, which floats…
Presented by GRAMMY.com, Living Legends is an editorial series that honors icons in music and celebrates their inimitable legacies and ongoing impact on culture. GRAMMY.com recently caught up with Chucho Valdés, whose work has greatly influenced Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz. has earned him seven GRAMMY Awards and four Latin GRAMMYs. The Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés seems…
Ten years ago, the founding members of Japanese psych-rock band Kikagaku Moyo began jamming at a rotary in front of the Takadanobaba train station in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Surrounded by skateboarders, artists and students from the nearby college, Tomo Katsurada and Go Kurosawa led rotating lineups of musician friends through late-night, open-ended musical explorations that combined '70s psychedelic…
