New Americans

Mulatu Astatke‘s mesmerizing soundtrack for the film “Broken Flowers” brought him a new generation of fans. But the Ethiopian musical icon has spent the last 50 years bridging western jazz with Ethiopia’s indigenous sounds. Gideon D’Arcangelo first met up with him in Addis Ababa.

The pipa, or Chinese lute, has been part of traditional music in China for more than 2,000 years. These days, a few intrepid players have been incorporating the pipa’s sound into jazz, bluegrass, and modern classical music. Pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen finds it impossible to stick to just one genre. Produced by Studio 360’s Lu […]

At just 24, she put out one of 2008’s best indie rock records, We Brave Bee Stings and All and she’s touring the country now with her band. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where her mother owns a coin laundromat and dry cleaning business. We sent Jesse Dukes to meet up with Thao and […]

For hundreds of years, musicians from India and Pakistan have taken the poetry called ghazal and set it to music. The songs project such deep longing that you don’t need to know Urdu to feel the pain. Produced by Rob Weisberg.