Tag: NPR Music

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Anamaria Sayre | October 7, 2024 English language hip-hop and Latin trap exist in two separate dimensions; Kansas-born, Puerto Rico-raised Eladio Carrión embodies both and neither at once. That’s perhaps a poetic reflection of a childhood spent as a military brat, moving from state to state, across the country that colonized his family’s island before settling back in Humacao. At the Tiny Desk, Carrión wasted no time putting that multicultural flow on full blast. He kicked things off with a [See More…]

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Anamaria Sayre | October 4, 2024 The Argentine power duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso breathe authenticity. They each came up in their own right in an urban scene buzzing with energy, ideas and true ingenuity. Argentina is a country notorious for unabashed expression. The country has been rocked by some of the most notable music moments in Latin America, from the inception rock en español, to waves of extreme censorship on artistic expression. Contemporary artists take nothing for granted when [See More…]

Anamaria Sayre | October 2, 2024 Admiration is the spellbinding tenor of Rita Payés’ Tiny Desk performance. Flanked by mother Elisabeth Roma and husband Pol Batlle, the Spanish multi-instrumentalist’s presence at the Desk reflects the way she creates and lives her music: in the cradle of familial love. Payés performs a variety of Spanish jazz that is contemporary and nimble in its delivery, yet leans heavily on tradition. Born to a musical family in the same coastal town in Northern Spain where she now resides, she was raised surrounded by deep, musical tradition which she was able to identify as [See More…]

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Amamaria Sayre | September 26, 2024 Whether in a stadium of 75,000 or behind a desk in an office building, Ivan Cornejo sings two notes and the heart quiets. His voice invites harmony, reflection, llorando, gritando — whatever the listener needs to feel whole again. The 20-year-old Mexican American has emerged as a happy anomaly in recent years — a singer-songwriter who not only captivates audiences with excruciatingly descriptive lyricism but also invokes an ancestral wisdom. Cornejo voices the pains [See More…]

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Felix Contreras | September 20, 2024 From the opening flourish of its first song, the Mexican band Daniel, Me Estás Matando, aka DMEM, makes it obvious that the group is leaning into the drama and passion of the Latin song style known as bolero. In fact, with just a hint of a raised eyebrow, the band describes its own take as “Boleroglam.” On DMEM’s first song, it’s as if lead vocalist, drummer and band namesake Daniel Zepeda is mustering up [See More…]

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento | September 18, 2024 We had no idea, when we invited Danny Ocean to the Tiny Desk, that his concert would take place amidst another wave of political protests and violent repression in his native Venezuela. Despite the tumultuous timing, Danny and his band eased right into his lover boy pop anthems “Me Rehúso,” and “Volare.” The latter, kicked off by an ingenious jingle of plastic bottle caps, transformed into a beach-side serenade complete with a saxophone [See More…]

This Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 NPR Music celebrates artists from all corners of Latinidad with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover. Felix Contreras | September 16, 2024 From the moment Colombian superstar Juanes started singing “Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor,” we know we were in for something special. He usually performs in arenas and stadiums all over the Spanish speaking world, but he brought his intensely personal songs to the Tiny Desk — and none of them lost their power of speaking directly to the heart. A highpoint for me was when he converted his popular song “La Luz” into a [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | August 27, 2024 Lainey Wilson took a long, winding path to country-music stardom, beginning with a high school stint as a Hannah Montana impersonator. That path led the Louisiana native to a Grammy for best country album earlier this year — for her terrific 2022 breakthrough, Bell Bottom Country — and it continues with Whirlwind, which dropped Friday. Just days before the new album’s release, Wilson took yet another victory lap at the Tiny Desk, where she performed three songs from Whirlwind before closing with the first single from Bell Bottom Country, “Heart Like a Truck.” Though [See More…]

Mitra I. Arthur | August 23, 2024 Have you ever been in a room where you can feel a palpable, collective swooning? Welcome to a Maxwell Tiny Desk. The crooner’s sensual falsetto and rooted baritone have seduced audiences since his debut album dropped in 1996. One of the leading voices in the resurgence of soul music during the late ’90s, Maxwell’s albums are full of tender songs recounting love, life and heartbreak that have resonated with generations of fans looking for ways to be vulnerable. Clad in soothing neutrals, Maxwell charmingly admitted his nervousness at being at the Desk, stating [See More…]

Ann Powers | August 14, 2024 Sierra Ferrell is the May Queen of American roots music — no matter what month it is. For her summertime stop at the Tiny Desk, the West Virginia native adorned herself in garb befitting Florence Pugh’s star turn in Midsommar, a trail of cloth pansies encircling her eyes. Ferrell, whose 2024 album is appropriately called Trail of Flowers, quickly showed that her finery wouldn’t get in the way of a stellar musical performance; her fiddling in this set’s first song “I Could Drive You Crazy” anchored both the band and the entire performance in [See More…]