Watch Jacob Collier’s Magical, Multiplying Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Plus the best new songs you may have missed during quarantine.

by Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images Ask anyone at NPR Music about their favorite summer pastimes, and you’ll hear one thing: live music. Things feel a little different this summer, with nearly all concerts and festivals on pause due to the pandemic. Our friends at World Cafe are feeling this, too. So they put together an “imaginary music festival,” of sorts — a playlist of some of their favorite live tracks. Of course, since it’s an imaginary festival, they could book whomever they like: Joni Mitchell playing next to Aretha Franklin; Otis Redding right before John Prine.  We asked our teammates to join the fun and share some of their favorite live recordings, too. Assistant editor Cyrena Touros often returns to Joan Baez’s live version of “Gracias A La Vida,” and editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen says he rewatches TV On The Radio’s 2006 Letterman performance on a regular basis. Senior manager Otis Hart would argue that this Daft Punk track is “the best song of any kind to be released in 2007.” Resident Viking Lars Gotrich chose Dave Chappelle's Block Party, “the rare concert film that tells a genuinely affecting story — plus that Fugees reunion still slams.”  And as for your newsletter editors: Lyndsey will never not love Bruce Springsteen’s Winterland '78 performance of “Prove It All Night,” while Marissa is reliving the joyous feeling of dancing in a crowded room full of strangers with Fever Ray’s Live at Troxy album from last year. Freebird, Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music This week on New Music Friday from All Songs Considered: We discuss the first posthumous album from Chicago rapper Juice WRLD, a soaring new record from Margo Price, rock-inspired Sudanese jazz from Sharhabil Ahmed and more. For the next edition of their Song Project, our friends at Morning Edition turned to singer-songwriter Angelica Garcia, who conjured the four horsemen of the apocalypse in a disquieting piano ballad. Sufjan Stevens’s epic indictment of American culture, Lonnie Holley’s collaboration with the late producer Richard Swift, storytelling humor from Bill Callahan and more: Hear it all on this week’s new mix from All Songs Considered. We’ve continued to update Press Pause and Hit Play, our playlist of the best songs you may have missed during quarantine. This week, we’ve added a majestic new track from Wye Oak, a stirring song from Anjimile and more. Featuring Lady A, the country trio formerly known as Lady Antebellum, has sued Lady A, the Seattle-based singer Anita White who has been performing under the name for two decades.  Italian composer Ennio Morricone died Monday in Rome at the age of 91. A giant in the world of film scores, Morricone began writing music at the age of six, and never stopped; he wrote the music for more than 500 movies, including the iconic theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Twenty years ago, as R&B and pop reigned the charts, Jack and Meg White released their second album as The White Stripes, De Stijl. It became a bellwether of what was to come, a dispatch from a future so unlikely the duo didn't even realize they were representing it. Singer, songwriter and bandleader Charlie Daniels died Monday in Nashville. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2016, Daniels served as an important link between country and rock. He was 83 years old. Tiny Desk Courtesy of the artist When we record Tiny Desk concerts, there’s no studio magic — just musicians, their songs, a little bit of banter and the polite applause of our coworkers. But since we can’t film at Bob Boilen’s desk right now, things look a little different — and we were delighted by the visuals in this week’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts. Rapper Roddy Ricch gave an atmospheric and impressive performance from the famed auto garage West Coast Customs in California. Meanwhile, polymath musician Jacob Collier arranged a Rubik's Cube of a video production where he appears four times in the same frame, playing multiple instruments in perfect time. Incoming Looking for your next summer read? On Wednesday, July 15, Bob Boilen will be joined by writer and musician Mikel Jollett of the Airborne Toxic Event for a live conversation on his new memoir, Hollywood Park, which details his upbringing in the notorious Synanon cult. RSVP to receive a chapter of the book via audiobook or written text before the event. One More Thing Folkways goes electronic. What do you think of today's email? 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