RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert

RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert

What Is It?

The YouTube video RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert by the YouTube channel NPR Music:

RAYE: Tiny Desk Concert

Here is the description for this video:

Ashley Pointer | April 12, 2023
“I’m a songwriter for a living, okay. I usually have all the words but I’m genuinely speechless.” RAYE told the audience at her Tiny Desk. “All I’ve wanted is to be seen and respected as a musician.”

The South London-bred singer-songwriter had finally made her way to NPR headquarters, her signature cherry-hued pin curls full of bounce and a radiant smile spread across her face.

It was a long time coming, and in a re-arranged set of songs from her stunning debut album tailored to the Tiny Desk, RAYE exuded the confidence and abilities of a veteran vocal powerhouse.

In the game for over a decade, RAYE’s debut album was 7 years in the making after being stuck in a major label deal that had her confined to recording mainstream pop and electronic records, and penning hits for other artists instead of executing her own creative vision.

Now independent, she released the genre-busting My 21st Century Blues this year, an impressive and raw album that touches on some of the artist’s most vulnerable life experiences.

Over the course of her Tiny Desk, RAYE’s musicianship shines as she displays a mélange of jazz scats, gospel and blues inflections.

Closing out her set with “Buss It Down.,” she recruits the audience for some call and response action only after giving us a brief vocal lesson, ’cause that’s just how particular she is.

If this Tiny Desk concert is your introduction to RAYE, prepare to be enraptured.

SET LIST
“Worth It.”
“Five Star Hotels.”
“Mary Jane.”
“Buss It Down.”

MUSICIANS
RAYE: vocals
Matthew Brooks: drums
Liv Thompson: bass
Briana Washington: keys
Paul Murray: guitar
Michael Cordone: trumpet
Greg DeAngelis: trombone
DeSean Jones: saxophone

TINY DESK TEAM
Producers: Bobby Carter, Ashley Pointer
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Creative Director: Bob Boilen
Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel, Alanté Serene
Audio Assistant: Neil Tevault
Production Assistant: Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Joshua Bryant, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Pilar Galván
VP, Visuals, and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#tinydesk #nprmusic #raye

Lee Fields: Tiny Desk Concert

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What Is It?

The YouTube video Lee Fields: Tiny Desk Concert by the YouTube channel NPR Music:

Lee Fields: Tiny Desk Concert

Here is the description for this video:

This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations, and walks of life.

Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time.

Stephen Thompson | February 10, 2023
You can’t see it on the screen, but there’s a piece of paper taped to the Desk in front of Lee Fields throughout the R&B, blues and soul veteran’s long-awaited Tiny Desk debut.

It’s got the set list, of course, but also an instruction to the singer: “NO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION!!!!”

It speaks to Fields’ legendary showmanship — he’s often been dubbed “Little JB” due to his similarities to the hardest-working man in show business — that his team felt a need to rein in his generous impulse to work any crowd before him, knowing the time constraints of a Tiny Desk concert.

It speaks further to Fields’ showmanship that he ended up ignoring the directive: By the time he got to the set-closing “Two Jobs,” which features a call-and-response listing the hours in the day, he was yelling, “I want y’all to count the hours!”

Though pandemic-era protocols limit the size of the Tiny Desk crowds these days, Fields got the shouts of approval (and participation) he was seeking, as he barreled through three songs from last year’s Sentimental Fool and one relative oldie from a career that stretches all the way back to the late ’60s: the self-explanatorily titled “Ladies,” from his 2009 album My World.

SET LIST
“Forever”
“Ladies”
“What Did I Do”
“Two Jobs”

MUSICIANS
Lee Fields: vocals
Benjamin Trokan: guitar
Jason Colby: trumpet
Frederick DeBoe: sax
Toby Pazner: keys
Evan Pazner: drums
Jacob Silver: bass

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Bob Boilen
Director: Kara Frame
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Audio Mixing: Josh Rogosin
Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Sofia Seidel
Editor: Sofia Seidel
Audio Assistant: Brian Jarboe
Production Assistant: Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer
VP, Visuals, and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#leefields #nprmusic #tinydesk

Soccer Mommy: Tiny Desk Concert

Soccer Mommy: Tiny Desk Concert

What Is It?

The YouTube video Soccer Mommy: Tiny Desk Concert by the YouTube channel NPR Music:

Soccer Mommy: Tiny Desk Concert

Here is the description for this video:

Andrew Flanagan | January 18, 2023

When Sophie Allison says to our friends and coworkers assembled around the desk, “We’re finally doin’ it,” she really means it.

A little less than exactly three years ago, Allison had just released the wonderful Color Theory as Soccer Mommy; it’s an album that marked significant strides in her songwriting and production.’

A big year was doubtless in store for her and her bandmates… and we all know how that went.

The band’s visit to the Tiny Desk, scheduled for March 30, 2020, was the first of many to be canceled due to the pandemic.

That time in history required a lot of lemonade-making from all of us; we at NPR Music and beyond were lucky that, not too long after lockdown had sunk its teeth in, Soccer Mommy was the first to record a Tiny Desk (Home) performance for us.

It was an early, much-needed sign that life might still be waiting for us on the other end.

But, as we’ve learned well, there’s no replacement for proximity.

With all of that indelibly in mind, it was particularly lovely and emotional welcoming Sophie, guitarist Julian Powell, keyboard player Rodrigo Avendano, bassist Nickolas Widener and percussionist Rollum Haas, finally, to the Tiny Desk.

Their four-song set, with work from each era of Soccer Mommy’s catalog, is beautifully performed and contoured. Welcome back to your debut, Soccer Mommy.

SET LIST
“Shotgun”
“Circle The Drain”
“Newdemo”
“Still Clean”

MUSICIANS
Sophie Allison – vocals, guitar
Julian Powell – guitar
Rodrigo Avendano – keyboards
Nickolas Widener – bass
Rollum Haas – drum machine

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Bob Boilen
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Sofia Seidel, Kara Frame
Audio Assistant: Brian Jarboe
Production Assistant: Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Josh Rogosin, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#nprmusic #tinydesk #soccermommy

How A Black Neighborhood Association In Pittsburgh Helped Shape Emergency Medicine

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What Is It?

The NPR (National Public Radio) news article / audio: How A Black Neighborhood Association In Pittsburgh Helped Shape Emergency Medicine.

Here is the description for this news article / audio:

American Sirens author Kevin Hazzard tells the story Freedom House, a neighborhood nonprofit that, with the help of a pioneering physician, trained some of the nation’s first paramedics.

DAVE DAVIES, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross.

In most of the United States today, if you have a medical emergency, you can dial 911 and count on an ambulance arriving with a crew who have the equipment and training to perform CPR and provide other critical care before getting you to a hospital.

But as recently as the 1960s, that just wasn’t the case.

Back then, your call for help would at best get you a ride to the hospital, perhaps in a police van or a hearse from a funeral home, but no medical treatment until you reached the emergency room.

Our guest today, Kevin Hazzard, is a writer whose new book is the remarkable story of a community organization called Freedom House Enterprises in a Black neighborhood in Pittsburgh that became an incubator for modern emergency medicine.

With the help of an innovative physician, the organization trained a cadre of men as paramedics – a term then just coming into existence – and sent them in newly equipped ambulances on lifesaving missions that earned a national reputation and spawned similar programs in other cities.

Kevin Hazzard is a journalist, a TV writer and author of a previous book called “A Thousand Naked Strangers” that was about his 10 years working as a paramedic.

His new book is “American Sirens: The Incredible Story Of The Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics.”

Ezra Collective: Tiny Desk Concert

Ezra Collective: Tiny Desk Concert

What Is It?

The YouTube video Ezra Collective: Tiny Desk Concert by the YouTube channel NPR Music:

Ezra Collective: Tiny Desk Concert

Here is the description for this video:

Suraya Mohamed | November 10, 2022

The day before The Ezra Collective’s Tiny Desk concert, the band members practiced for hours at a nearby community music space and the next morning, they walked in the door giddy and ready to go.

The warm-up was good, but once we started to record, a crazy intensity and energy spilled out into the room.

They were fierce and fun, and all of their solos were on fire.

The band makes amazing jazz music and mixes it with a fusion of other genres like Afrobeat, hip-hop and grime.

The London-based band was supposed to play this Tiny Desk concert in 2020, but then, as bandleader and phenom drummer Femi Koleoso put it, “the world collapsed.”

Here it is now, rockin’ hard with the highest level of musicianship and technique.

Before coming to NPR, Koleoso had just finished a world tour with the group Gorillaz.

He met up with his bandmates in Washington, D.C., to play this concert and kick off promotion for the band’s newly released sophomore album, Where I’m Meant To Be.

He explained on Instagram that he loves the album title because it’s vague and specific at the same time, just like his band, a multifaceted complement of contrasting attributes.

The first two songs in this set are from that new album, while the last, “Chapter 7,” is from the group’s 2016 EP.

Throughout the set, watch how keyboard player Joe Armon-Jones barely stays on his seat and hear how the audience couldn’t keep quiet.

After the concert, the spirit of the music lingered for a long time and the day ended with pictures, hugs, and plenty of smiles.

SET LIST
“Victory Dance”
“Welcome To My World”
“Chapter 7”

MUSICIANS
Femi Koleoso: drums
TJ Koleoso: bass
Joe Armon-Jones: keys
James Mollison: saxophone
Ife Ogunjobi: trumpet

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Creative Director: Bob Boilen
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Sofia Seidel
Audio Assistant: Andie Huether
Production Assistant: Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer
VP, Visuals, and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#nprmusic #tinydesk #ezracollective

Music

SONG: Victory Dance

ARTIST: Ezra Collective

ALBUM: Where I’m Meant To Be

LICENSES: [Merlin] Liberation Music, PIAS, WMG (on behalf of Partisan Records)