Music

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There's something about Johann Sebastian Bach's music that nourishes musicians. Pianist Andras Schiff and cellist Yo-Yo Ma have said that they play Bach almost every day — like having breakfast, it seems essential for them.

Chihiro Yamanaka is big in Japan — of course, it helps that the pianist was born and grew up there. Now, she's based in New York City and making strides in the stateside jazz world. Her 2012 album Reminiscence features two trios: one is her working band, while the other features special guests Larry Grenadier (bass) and session artist Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums). An imaginative virtuoso on the piano bench, she's enjoyed a recent itinerary which has seen her play in many of the East Coast's most prominent jazz clubs and concert halls.

"Eres tan moderno, que mis caricias ya son anticuadas," Mexican singer Carla Morrison croons to an indifferent lover in "Falta De Respeto" ("Disrespect"). That beautiful line — which translates as "You are so modern that my caresses are antiquated" — captures Morrison's essence. Part tragic heroine, part bold feminist, she's always a pining romantic, yet she won't sit pretty in a corner and wait to be swept off her feet. She'll get in your face and tell you just how much she loves you.

This past week Barbra Streisand, born and raised in Brooklyn, played the borough for the first time since she was eight years old. Back then it was on somebody's stoop on Pulaski Street in Bed-Stuy. Now 70 — after winning all the awards (Emmy, Grammy, Tony, Oscar, etc.) — she was only the second performer at a new venue in her hometown, a 19,000 seat basketball and entertainment arena called the Barclays Center.

Everywhere you look right now, it seems like American symphony orchestras are fighting for their lives — strikes, lockouts, bankruptcy. Perhaps the biggest example is the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which is just coming out of its own bankruptcy. Tonight, its new 37-year-old music director takes the podium as the venerable orchestra begins a reboot.

Travel to northern places in Europe and North America to hear the sound of unspoiled landscapes and rocky shorelines bathed in northern light.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Ahmed Janka Nabay was one of the first musicians to take 500-year-old bubu music outside of his homeland of Sierra Leone, where he'd been a rock star. Nabay was forced to flee the country in the midst of that country's civil war, and eventually wound up in Philadelphia in 2003. Nine years later, Nabay's band has released its first album, En Yay Sah, which blends bubu and electronic dance music.

Singer, songwriter and author Josh Ritter had just reissued his second album, The Golden Age of Radio, when he appeared on Mountain Stage in April 2003.