Soundcheck

Buke and Gase is an experimental pop duo that’s collaborated with everyone from The National to the Blue Man Group. The band is named after two of the instruments they’ve invented, a baritone ukulele and hybrid guitar-bass. Their songs are tasty slices of angular melodies and problem-solving off-kilter percussion that are creatively stacked like a magical, warped, and playful sandwich of aural goodness. And on their new album, Scholars, Buke and Gase offers a sound more rooted in electronics – especially in a device called the ARX that they also developed. The band of two musical Aarons with different spellings joins us to showcase their unique creations. -Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

Dancey and dreamy, Brooklyn-based Rubblebucket makes psychedelic and jazz-conscious pop swimming in a strange and lovely mix of celebration and melancholy. Their latest record, Sun Machine, is a celebration of the connection between trumpeter Alex Toth, and saxophone player Kalmia Traver, The two have survived momentous life-challenges like cancer and alcoholism, and their romantic uncoupling, and still managed to transform their musical partnership in a positive way. The expanded version of Rubblebucket performs these latest songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here (Set list: "Fruity", "Lemonade", "What Life Is"):

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/producer India.Arie has returned to spread love and joy through music and words. Her latest album, due out in February, is a collection of enchanting and soulful electro-acoustic pop songs, full of smart observations, sensuality, spirituality, and yes, empowerment. On one tune, “That Magic,” she lovingly describes the connection between two people that we can all hope for. Her latest single, “What If,” begins with the memorable lines, “what if Martin didn’t stand up/what if Rosa didn’t sit down.” The title track, “Worthy,” is a mostly acoustic, yet powerful assurance, that every one of us is worthy of love, life, and “saying no when something don’t feel right”. Wordsmith and songstress India.Arie joins us to play songs from her forthcoming record, Worthy. – Caryn Havlik

Set List: 

Meet RaaDie, which is the latest musical project of Vienna-based trumpeter Lorenz Raab (Volksoper Vienna, XY-Band, Bleu) and the composer, bassoonist, and zither player Christof Dienz (Die Knoedel, Quadrat:sch, XY-Band). With a balance of composition and improvisation, the duo crafts music using trumpet and e-zither with electronic effects and looping station, at times spacey, funky, contemplative, and eerie.  

Besides Prokofiev, Ravel and Schubert, Dienz also names Prince, AC/DC, Björk and Xenakis as sources of inspiration, while Raab cites the Beatles, U2 and Queen, also lists Bach, diverse jazzers and Led Zeppelin as his influences. Ahead of their free concert on Friday, Jan. 18 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, RaaDie joins us premiere song-like compositions from their new record, Vast Potential (Traumton Records), in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Mexican-American rock musician, songwriter, and singer Alejandro Escovedo draws from DIY punk, Tex-Mex country, and Americana rock for his latest record, The Crossing, a growly and crunchy guitar-filled, instrumentally cinematic, and in-your-face loud search for the American dream. In a cool twist, Escovedo has co-written the album with an Italian instrumental band, Don Antonio, and uses avatars, a young boy from southern Italy named Salvo, and a young boy from Mexico named Diego, who meet in South Texas. The record tells of their journey across the American Southwest by way of punk rock, beat poetry, and immigration and the immigrant experience. Alejandro Escovedo joins us in-studio to play some of these new and perhaps, timely, songs. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

London-based quintet Ezra Collective makes music with an irresistible blend of groove that includes Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime, reggae, and jazz. Led by drummer Femi Koleoso, and anchored by his brother TJ Koleoso on bass with keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, and featuring what looks like a hard bop frontline of Dylan Jones on trumpet and James Mollison on tenor sax, the group’s members are all skilled improvisers who can easily incite packed crowds into a sweaty dance party with their infectious rhythms. They’ve arranged Saturn-born Sun Ra’s “Space is the Place” on their EP, Juan Pablo: The Philosopher, as well as Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti tunes at their live shows, and take inspiration from classic and more recent bangers like Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots” or The Internet’s “Roll (Burbank Funk)“ (with thanks to musicismysanctuary.com). They’re here in town for the annual Winter Jazzfest and join us in-studio to play some of their originals. -Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

Coming from jangle-pop garage rock origins in the 1990’s in the Boston area, the band Guster is a group of talented songwriters, down to the last harmony. With electronic augmentation beyond just guitar amps, Guster long ago dropped its acoustic guitars and bongos in favor of arena rock with electrified-pysch-pop leanings. Their live shows are known for their quirky humor and legions of devoted fans singing along, and their latest batch of sing-along anthems from their record, Look Alive, is an insidiously hook-laden collection of polished pop. Guster joins us in-studio to play some of these new songs.  - Caryn Havlik

Watch the live session here: 

Montreal-born folk singer, songwriter, banjo player, and guitarist Kaia Kater grew up surrounded by her family’s ties to folk music and Appalachian music in West Virginia. Her music often touches on social issues, and her latest album ranges even wider, including her family’s Grenadian-Canadian background, while still drawing upon old-time banjo music.

In her liner notes to her latest record, Grenades (Smithsonian Folkways), she writes, “Here’s to swimming in your own shadow.” She then explained in an interview with The Bluegrass Situation, "The 'swimming in your own shadow' thing is about getting comfortable essentially with being uncomfortable, and with having a lot of conflicting narratives, and trauma that comes from war or from being biracial, or from being a woman in the world." Kaia Kater and her ensemble perform some of these newest tunes, in-studio.  - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here:

A New York–born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, the multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla draws from traditional Creole, Cajun, and Haitian music, as well as American jazz and folk. McCalla is a former member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, but her latest record, Capitalist Blues, contains very little of her signature instrument, the cello. While the tunes range from blues to calypso, and folk with some Haitian Creole, she explores connections between New Orleans and Haiti and tries to make sense of the current political "pressure cooker" in which the country finds itself. McCalla and her band perform some of these songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

Brooklyn band Dollshot crafts experimental dream pop that is a crazy-quilt of electro-art-rock, cabaret music of Schoenberg, chamber music by Poulenc, and futuristic noir soundscapes. They offer an unusual and often unsettling combination of sounds, with breathy, featherlight vocals floating over wailing saxes and pounding drums. Their new album called Lalande comes out on January 25 and today they’ll play a few songs from it, in-studio. 

Watch the session here: