Setting musical intentions for 2024

Plus, a look at the year in experimental music, a tribute to jazz pianist Les McCann and more

View this email online January 6, 2024 by Stephen Thompson We make a few music-themed New Year’s resolutions; plus, a look at the year in experimental music, a tribute to jazz pianist Les McCann and more. Wanida Prapan/Getty Images At the end of each year, my Pop Culture Happy Hour co-hosts and I gather to make pop-cultural New Year’s resolutions — after a brief pause in which we assess whether we’ve followed through on the ones we’d made the year before. When done right, each year’s resolutions episode gives listeners a potent cocktail of fervent hope, steely determination and bitter, sobering reality. This year, I steered clear of music-specific resolutions and instead promised to finally get cracking on writing the children’s book that’s been percolating in my brain for ages. But I make music-specific promises to myself nonetheless, so I figured this would be a nice spot to share the ones I’m making at the start of 2024. Feel free to steal them and do a better job of following through than I will. 1. Embrace the new. This is actually a lift from my PCHH resolution for 2023, which thankfully turned out to be at least a partial success. My goal last year was for my year-end Top 10 Albums list to contain no fewer than four artists whose music I’d never heard before — in other words, to seek out artists I didn’t already love — and I’d very much like to carry that pledge into 2024. There’s nothing wrong with falling back on favorite artists, big names and old reliables, but the thrill of discovery (and of sharing those discoveries with others) can keep your relationship with music eternally vital. 2. Spend actual money on the music I love. I’ve got lots of ways to help my favorite musicians, most of which revolve around singing their praises on various NPR platforms. But I’m not spending enough money on them — buying vinyl copies of their records, buying T-shirts and other merch at shows, keeping an eye out for Bandcamp events and exclusives that put cash in their pockets and so on. This feels like a good year to put more of my money where my mouth is. 3. Build playlists for every mood. Over the summer, a vacationing friend texted me to ask for a playlist of upbeat music, suitable for the party atmosphere she was enjoying. I choked in the moment and texted back a Spotify link to Andrew W.K.’s album I Get Wet — the correct choice, I maintain, but not the vibe she’d had in mind. I want to get more aggressive about curating my Spotify page (and get more active on Apple Music, come to think of it) so there’s a playlist to meet virtually every occasion. And finally, one to file away for a little later in the year: 4. Plan ahead for the holidays. Last month, my holiday blues were magnified by how much the commercial landscape had shrunk holiday music down to a handful of blandly cheerful oldies, each of which seemed to follow me from store to store, restaurant to restaurant and commercial radio station to commercial radio station. By Thanksgiving 2024, I pledge to have programmed an all-killer-no-“Jingle Bell Rock” holiday megamix — which I will, of course, share in this space and elsewhere. It’s going to be a wild year on many fronts, so I’ll be counting on music to help get me through it. Newsletter continues after sponsor message More to read, watch and hear At the very end (or, in this case, the very beginning) of every year, my dear friend and colleague Lars Gotrich joins All Songs Considered to revisit the year in experimental music — the weird, the mind-expanding, the noisy, the abrasive, the unsettlingly beautiful and so on. No matter how deeply you like to explore music’s outer reaches, you’re bound to encounter something new in these 40 minutes. The jazz pianist Les McCann died Dec. 29, at age 88. McCann was a hitmaker across several eras and genres — first in jazz and later as an artist sampled by the likes of Massive Attack and The Notorious B.I.G. This week, Nate Chinen wrote a lovely remembrance that contextualized McCann’s long career, versatile gifts and far-reaching influence. Reporting for Morning Edition, Rachel Treisman took a fascinating and moving look at the ways access to music can shape and change the lives of people in prison. In addition to conveying music’s meaning and power — “I don’t want to lose track of what the world is like,” said one man serving a life sentence — Rachel also examined the day-to-day mechanics of how incarcerated people are able to acquire and enjoy music. Fresh Air’s Terry Gross went long with Bradley Cooper, who directed, co-wrote and starred in Netflix’s new Oscar contender Maestro, a biopic about the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein. It’s not too late to revisit our innovative presentation of 2023’s 123 greatest songs, as chosen by the NPR Music staff! (Same goes for our list of the year’s 50 best albums.) Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, who wrote an upcoming book on Harry Belafonte, took a look at how the late singer and activist’s Caribbean roots shaped his impact on America. And, one more time, don’t miss Lars Gotrich’s survey of the musicians we lost in 2023. Tiny Desk Photographer/Source Sunny Jain’s big and blissful, brass-forward party band Red Baraat played two Tiny Desk concerts, one in 2012 and one in 2017. Both were explosively joyful and surprisingly, well, loud; it’s not often that audience members are advised to wear earplugs at a Tiny Desk concert. Now, Jain has returned to the Tiny Desk once again — this time as he presides over a project called Wild Wild East, whose music dissolves geographic and genre boundaries in playful, pleasurable ways. Also this week: Tiny Desk photographers offered a peek behind the curtain (technically speaking, there’s no curtain, but go with me on this) in presenting some of 2023’s highlights. Plus, the Tiny Desk got its own category — not just an answer, but a whole column of its own — on Tuesday’s episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! One More Thing The world’s largest collections of musical instruments are located in Paris, Brussels… and Vermillion, S.D. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music 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. 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