The Tiny Desk Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

Plus, updates from the tragedy at Houston's Astroworld festival.

View this email online by Marissa Lorusso NPR This week, to highlight Native American Heritage Month, we shared a week’s worth of Tiny Desk concerts by Indigenous musicians. We asked NPR’s Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, who produced the series, to tell us about the performances: Conversations about Indigenous people are usually in the past tense: Who were they? What were their lives like? And Indigenous music forms are often discussed the same way, with antiquated notions of drums and flutes. But Native musicians today are engaging with genre, unsurprisingly, the same way any other artists might be — in exciting and vibrant ways.  This month, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite Indigenous artists making music today, those especially who are defying notions of what kind of music Indigenous people can make. Our lineup from the week: William Prince, the Juno Award-winning Winnipeg-based singer who brings a bit of gospel to the Tiny Desk, informed by his identity as a Christian and a member of Peguis First Nation. Ya Tseen, the project of Tlingit/Unangax̂ musician and visual artist Nicholas Galanin, who hails from Sitka, Alaska. Raye Zaragoza, the L.A.-based folk musician who proudly sings from her perspective as a Japanese-American, Mexican and Indigenous woman. In addition, we’ve featured some of our favorite previous Tiny Desks with Indigenous musicians over the years — including Tiny Desk Contest winner Quinn Cristopherson, Lido Pimienta and Martha Redbone — in a Tiny Desk playlist. Happy listening, and remember: Every month should be Native American Heritage Month! Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, NPR’s Code Switch Newsletter continues after sponsor message Astroworld Last weekend, eight people died and many more were injured due to crowd surges at the Astroworld Festival in Houston. On Thursday, the death toll from the concert headlined by rapper Travis Scott, which was attended by an estimated 50,000 people, rose to nine. Scott released a video in response to the tragedy and says he will cover the funeral costs of those killed at the concert, who ranged in age from 14 to 27 years old. But it’s not the first time Scott has come under fire around issues of fan safety at his concerts. Among Astroworld’s organizers was the conglomerate Live Nation, the world's largest live-events company. Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Live Nation Worldwide have been connected to about 200 deaths and at least 750 injuries since 2006, reports the Houston Chronicle. NPR has also found numerous OSHA citations against Live Nation. On Wednesday, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that he was forming a concert safety task force in response to the festival.  In the wake of the tragedy, NPR spoke to Joey Guerra, a music critic for the Houston Chronicle, about how his experience attending Astroworld colors his lifetime of covering concerts. We also shared an interview with Mehdi Moussaïd, a research scientist who studies crowd behavior, about his safety advice for anyone who might find themselves in a crushing crowd. New Music On this week’s New Music Friday episode of All Songs Considered, host Robin Hilton runs through the week’s biggest releases, including the frenetic fun of Japanese pop group Atarashii Gakko; a quieter, more reflective album from Courtney Barnett; meditative electronica from Jon Hopkins and the deep soul and funk grooves of what may be the most exciting collaboration of the year: Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic.  This week on All Songs Considered’s New Mix: a soundtrack to the end of the world, surprising new music from Jónsi and more. The #NowPlaying blog is our list of essential new songs, selected by NPR Music staff. This week, we featured the blues rock euphoria of Endless Boogie, the aching honesty of Mitski, a genuinely revealing alternate take of Karen Dalton’s “Something on Your Mind” and the long-awaited release of the 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” Taylor Swift’s magnum opus and not-so-secret fan favorite.  Featuring On Friday afternoon, the conservatorship that has controlled most aspects of the life of pop star Britney Spears since 2008 — including financial, personal, professional and medical decisions — was terminated by a judge in a Los Angeles courtroom. The decision brings to an end a highly publicized chapter in Spears' life that shifted course when the singer herself began speaking out against the legal arrangement this summer. Santigold's debut self-titled album captures the New York dream of being a singular sensation, looming exceptional above the masses. For our Turning the Tables series, novelist Dawnie Walton wrote about how it inspired her when she first moved to the city — and helped her again, years later, when she needed a new start. Alfredo — the Grammy-nominated album by rapper Freddie Gibs and producer The Alchemist — proves the power of a well-executed collaboration. On the third episode of The Formula, we visit Alchemist's L.A. studio for a conversation with the duo about the record’s special sauce. Music plays an outsized role in the cultural lifeblood of Chicago. This week, our friends at Chicago's Vocalo Radio dove into the cultural significance of Gramaphone Records for the store's 50th anniversary. British siblings Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason are classical virtuosos. Still in their twenties, the star soloists — Isata is a pianist and Sheku is a cellist — have just released their first joint album. One More Thing A drum break for the ages. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy