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    Natasha Rothwell and Samara Joy on Finding Their Voices

    The “How to Die Alone” creator and actress and the Grammy-winning jazz singer talk about genre, improvisation and romantic comedies.Admiration Society shows two creative people in two different fields in one wide-ranging conversation.The television actress and writer Natasha Rothwell grew up as an itinerant Air Force kid and started her career in improvisational comedy at places like New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade; she credits both experiences with nurturing her resilience and curiosity. After writing for “Saturday Night Live” in 2014 and then appearing in the 2016 Netflix series “The Characters,” she was hired to write on “Insecure” (2016-21), Issa Rae’s breakthrough Black rom-com HBO series. Rothwell, 43, became better known, however, for portraying Kelli, the show’s frank, sexually free sidekick. She then went on to play Belinda, a disillusioned masseuse at a Hawaiian resort, on the first season of Mike White’s “The White Lotus” in 2021. She’ll reappear on that show’s third season, which airs on Max early next year. And she just finished her showrunning debut as the creator and star of “How to Die Alone,” a New York-set comedy-drama series that premiered on Hulu earlier this month. She plays Mel, a single airport employee whose near-death experience shocks her into living a deeper life.Rothwell is also a jazz obsessive who’s put in many hours of karaoke. One of her favorite artists is Samara Joy, who at the age of 24 has already won three Grammys: Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2023, followed by Best Jazz Performance this year. Descended from two generations of gospel singer royalty (her grandparents co-founded the Savettes; her vocalist-bassist father toured with Andraé Crouch), Joy excels at rebooting jazz standards with tight new arrangements and dreamy, conversational lyrics. In 2020, while still a student at the State University of New York’s Purchase College, she performed Duke Ellington’s “Take Love Easy,” inspired by Ella Fitzgerald’s 1974 version, in a video posted to Facebook that became a pandemic-era viral hit. She has since released two albums, both influenced by her love of contemporary romance narratives.Joy has been touring almost nonstop for the past three years but, by early summer, when she spoke with Rothwell for the first time one evening, she had completed her third album, “Portrait,” which comes out in October. Their conversation took place over video — Joy at her parents’ home in the Bronx and Rothwell calling in from Thailand, where she’d just filmed White’s show. “Both of us are closing some chapters,” said Rothwell — and each was eager to cheer the other on. By the end of a 90-minute conversation, they’d already made plans to meet soon in person.Natasha Rothwell: When I was watching the Grammys [earlier this year], you would’ve thought I’d caught the spirit in my hotel. I was screaming for you, girl. You so deserved [it]. Where are you in New York?Samara Joy: I’m in the Bronx right now, where I grew up. But I’m moving to Harlem.N.R.: I used to live in New York. I’m in L.A. now, but I set everything I write and produce in New York because I’m trying to get a studio to pay me to come back.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    20 Pop and Jazz Albums, Shows and Festivals Coming This Fall

    Anticipated debuts and long-awaited follow-ups are due this season. Our critics plucked out a list of the most notable.Some of the year’s buzziest artists (Charli XCX, Chappell Roan) are headlining tours and festivals this fall, and a bevy of new albums from established stars (Shawn Mendes, Jelly Roll) and up-and-comers (Flo, Nemahsis) are on the way. Dates and lineups are subject to change.SeptemberNILÜFER YANYA The British musician Nilüfer Yanya makes pensive, intricately layered songs that revel in unexpected textural jolts. On “Like I Say (I Runaway),” the lead single from her third album, “My Method Actor,” the deadpan, Sade-like cool of Yanya’s vocals is interrupted by a sudden eruption of PJ Harvey-esque guitar distortion. A melodically rich meditation on identity, desire and the reverberations of heartache, “My Method Actor” is a confident and hypnotic follow-up to her 2022 release, “Painless.” (Sept. 13; Ninja Tune) LINDSAY ZOLADZNEMAHSIS Nemahsis — the songwriter Nemah Hasan, who has Palestinian roots — sings about seizing her tangled identity as an independent artist, a Muslim, the daughter of immigrants and a self-questioning but determined individualist. On her debut album, “Verbathim,” her producers include Drake’s regular collaborator Noah (40) Shebib, with songs that can be folky or test the electronic edges of hyperpop. (Sept. 13; Verbaithim) JON PARELESSEXYY RED Fresh off several high-profile collaborations with Drake, Sexyy Red, the 26-year-old St. Louis rapper, makes the leap to headlining arenas on her Sexyy Red 4 President tour, on which she’s playing songs from her latest mixtape, “In Sexyy We Trust.”. That’s one way to kick off election season. (Sept. 17; Barclays Center) ZOLADZSexyy Red’s tour started in late August and comes to Brooklyn in September.Torben Christensen/Ritzau Scanpix Denmark, via ReutersCHARLI XCX AND TROYE SIVAN Most live performances by the British pop singer, songwriter and producer Charli XCX tend to feel more like semi-legal warehouse raves than highly choreographed arena shows, but the breakout success of her sixth album, “Brat,” means that, on the Sweat Tour that she is headlining with the Australian pop star Troye Sivan, the 32-year-old industry veteran will be playing some of the largest venues of her career. Bid farewell to Brat Summer in style starting Sept. 14 in Detroit. (Sept. 23; Madison Square Garden) ZOLADZWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    7 Grammy Winners Worth Another Spin

    Hear songs by Laufey, Jason Isbell, Samara Joy and more.Laufey performing on the Grammys preshow on Sunday.Etienne Laurent/EPA, via ShutterstockDear listeners,I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but this year’s Grammys were … really good?The performances were almost uniformly excellent. Tracy Chapman, radiating joy and in fine voice, sang “Fast Car” publicly for the first time in ages, alongside a visibly reverent Luke Combs. (I wrote more about that moment here.) A regal Joni Mitchell sang “Both Sides Now” and made everybody cry. Billie Eilish and her collaborator brother, Finneas, absolutely nailed their performance of “What Was I Made For?” and showed everyone watching why their subsequent win in the song of the year category was so deserved.The wins were also pretty evenly spread. Yes, the universe’s current main character Taylor Swift took home the night’s top honor, album of the year, an award that she’s now won a record four times. But the person who took home the most Grammys this year (four) was someone who didn’t make it to the podium during the televised ceremony: Phoebe Bridgers, who during the preshow picked up three awards with her trio boygenius and one for a collaboration with SZA. The telecast also allowed some rising stars like Karol G, Lainey Wilson and Victoria Monét (who faithful Amplifier readers learned about in Friday’s rundown of the best new artist nominees) to make themselves known.For today’s playlist, we’re going to hear from some more of those slightly-less-than-household-name artists who took home Grammys this year. I chose two selections of my own, and I also asked my fellow Times pop critics Jon Pareles and Jon Caramanica to send me a few of their picks — a mix of jazz, folk, pop, gospel and more. Listen below to tracks from Laufey, Peso Pluma and Samara Joy, and check out the Bonus Tracks for more of our Grammy coverage.Don’t wash the cast iron skillet,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Laufey: “From the Start”The Icelandic singer and songwriter Laufey (pronounced Lay-vay) won the traditional pop vocal album category with songs like “From the Start,” which she also performed on the preshow. It’s a bossa nova that confesses to “unrequited, terrifying love” with absolute poise. PARELESWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    10 Festive (and Brand-New) Holiday Songs

    New tunes from Brandy, Cher and the Philadelphia Eagles may find their place among classics in your holiday playlist.Recent holiday releases include (clockwise from top left) albums from the Philadelphia Eagles, Samara Joy, Cher and Sabrina Carpenter.Dear listeners,Musically speaking, the holidays are a time when we return to perennial favorites — the fact that the current top five artists on the Billboard Hot 100 are Mariah Carey, Brenda Lee, Bobby Helms, Wham! and Burl Ives certainly attests to that.But there’s also something to be said for sprinkling some fresh holiday tunes in with the old to keep your playlist from getting as stale as last year’s Christmas cookie. Where ever will you find new holiday music? Never fear: Today’s Amplifier has you covered.Every song on this playlist came out this holiday season. A few are covers of classics, but they all put a novel twist on their material, whether it’s Cher doing her best Chuck Berry, the Lumineers paying homage to Willie Nelson, or Samara Joy channeling Judy Garland.This mix features quite a few new holiday originals, too: Sabrina Carpenter turns a sweet character from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” into a romantic rival, Brandy wishes Christmas would never end, and Norah Jones and Laufey find the Christmas spirit among the pine trees.You can add these songs to your existing holiday playlist, or — if you’re hosting a gathering and really want to impress your guests with how up to date you are on music — just play this one the whole way through. And if you need even more Amplifier holiday cheer, you can always revisit my playlist of are-they-or-aren’t-they Christmas songs.Lastly, thanks to all who have submitted songs and stories about the older song that defined your year. There’s still time to send me your suggestions; you can do that here. We may use your response in an upcoming edition of The Amplifier.Listen along on Spotify while you read.1. Cher: “Run Rudolph Run”Cher’s first-ever holiday album has a refreshingly no-nonsense title: “Christmas.” ’Nuff said. Though the LP’s single is the glittery, dance-floor-ready original “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” my favorite track is Cher’s rousing rendition of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run,” which allows her to lean into her voice’s rock ’n’ roll attitude. (Listen on YouTube)2. Brandy: “Christmas Everyday”Brandy wants time to freeze on “Christmas Everyday,” a jubilantly upbeat number from her recently released “Christmas With Brandy.” “I don’t know another time when everybody shines so bright,” she sings, pining (ahem) for it to be Christmas every day. (Listen on YouTube)3. Sabrina Carpenter: “Cindy Lou Who”This season, the irreverent pop singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter put out her first holiday-themed release, the six-song EP “Fruitcake.” On this plaintive, breathily sung ballad, Carpenter becomes obsessed with an ex’s new girlfriend, who just may be from Whoville. (Listen on YouTube)4. Norah Jones & Laufey: “Better Than Snow”It’s an intergenerational summit of the jazz-pop girlies as the veteran crooner Norah Jones joins forces with the 24-year-old Icelandic sensation Laufey on this plinking, piano-driven song about celebrating Christmas in decidedly un-Christmas-like weather: “Now as I sweat through my ugly sweater, Christmas with you is better than snow.” (Listen on YouTube)5. Bright Eyes featuring John Prine: “Christmas in Prison”Bright Eyes tackle this bittersweet John Prine tune, with a little help from the late, great man himself. Conor Oberst sings in his warmly cracked voice and an extended sample from “A John Prine Christmas” enlivens the cover with Prine’s wry spirit and inimitable storytelling. (Listen on YouTube)6. The Lumineers: “Pretty Paper (Live at the Hollywood Bowl)”This April, the Lumineers were part of a star-studded group of musicians who performed Willie Nelson songs at the Hollywood Bowl, in honor of the legend’s 90th birthday. It’s finally seasonally appropriate to appreciate their song selection: “Pretty Paper,” Nelson’s enduring Christmas classic. (Listen on YouTube)7. The Philly Specials featuring Howie Roseman: “The Dreidel Song”Don’t think I forgot about Hanukkah, or this very delightful holiday album that members of the Philadelphia Eagles (yes, those Eagles) released this year. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe this is the first time the general manager of a professional sports team has sung lead on an Amplifier selection. (Listen on YouTube)8. Ladytron: “All Over By Xmas”The electro-pop group Ladytron create a dreamy, glacial atmosphere on this new original song about a poorly timed breakup: “Yes, it will be all over by Christmas.” (Listen on YouTube)9. Morgan Reese: “Scrooge Xmas”The young bedroom-pop artist Morgan Reese lets loose an admittedly catchy “bah humbug” on her first holiday release, the sparkly little ditty “Scrooge Xmas.” (Listen on YouTube)10. Samara Joy: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”And finally, the Grammys’ reigning best new artist, the 24-year-old jazz singer Samara Joy, brings her buttery tone and intuitive phrasing to this Christmas classic, proving — as she does throughout her new EP, “A Joyful Holiday” — that she possesses a musical intelligence well beyond her years. (Listen on YouTube)She reminds me of a chess game with someone I admire,LindsayThe Amplifier PlaylistListen on Spotify. We update this playlist with each new newsletter.“10 Festive (and Brand-New) Holiday Songs” track listTrack 1: Cher, “Run Rudolph Run”Track 2: Brandy, “Christmas Everyday”Track 3: Sabrina Carpenter, “Cindy Lou Who”Track 4: Norah Jones & Laufey, “Better Than Snow”Track 5: Bright Eyes featuring John Prine, “Christmas in Prison”Track 6: The Lumineers, “Pretty Paper (Live at the Hollywood Bowl)”Track 7: The Philly Specials featuring Howie Roseman, “The Dreidel Song”Track 8: Ladytron, “All Over By Xmas”Track 9: Morgan Reese, “Scrooge Xmas”Track 10: Samara Joy, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”Bonus TracksSpeaking of the Philly Specials, I cannot recommend highly enough this adorable and hilarious short, created by the Philadelphia animation studio unPOP, which accompanies the N.F.L. team’s album “A Philly Special Christmas Special.” It reminds me of all the stop-motion animation classics of my childhood and features, among other charming cameos, the Kelce Brothers, Jordan Mailata and a visit from St. Nick (Foles). Guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Unless you root for the Dallas Cowboys.Also: I spent much of the weekend immersed in the recently released, almost-six-hour third volume of Joni Mitchell’s Archive series — another experience I’d highly recommend. One of my favorite discoveries was this alternate cut of her 1972 hit “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio,” featuring Neil Young and his backing band the Stray Gators. Talk about Canadian excellence!Sprinkle in new tunes from Brandy, Cher and the Philadelphia Eagles along with Yuletide classics. More

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    10 New Christmas Albums for 2023

    Our critics on 10 new holiday albums from Cher, Robert Glasper, Sabrina Carpenter and more.There is no one correct way to celebrate the holiday season in song. For some, reverence is key. But often the best Yuletide numbers are the ones that fiddle around with tradition, taking the familiar components of joy and generosity and remixing them into something silly, salacious or downright odd.Adam Blackstone, ‘A Legacy Christmas’Adam Blackstone, who has been a bassist and musical director for Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake as well as many television shows, revels in his jazz background on his own Legacy albums. “A Legacy Christmas” merges brassy, swinging big-band arrangements with electronically tweaked R&B, and it’s packed with guests: DJ Jazzy Jeff, Boyz II Men, Andra Day. There are glossy, muscular revamps of songs like “Lil Drummer Boy” (which has BJ the Chicago Kid singing alongside Blackstone’s melodic bass) and “Someday at Christmas” (with Robert Randolph’s slide guitar), as well as Blackstone’s own songs, including the neo-Motown “Christmas Kisses,” which has Blackstone rapping alongside Keke Palmer, who sings like she’s fronting the Jackson 5. JON PARELESBrandy, ‘Christmas With Brandy’Brandy leads with angst on her album “Christmas With Brandy,” which includes six songs she co-wrote including the opener, “Feels Different.” The moody, minor-key track leans into a deep post-breakup loneliness that “hurts the worst around Christmas,” even though “when I’m lovesick, you’re toxic.” But the rest of the album is cheerier and sultrier, like her upbeat, retro-styled “Christmas Everyday” and “Christmas Gift” (a duet with her daughter, Sy’rai) and the slow-motion come-on of “Christmas Party for Two.” The familiar songs play up Brandy’s misty tone and melismatic audacity. Her versions of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song” and even “Deck the Halls” are gauzy and leisurely. And who but Brandy would, in “Jingle Bells,” make an 11-note flourish out of “way”? PARELESSabrina Carpenter, ‘Fruitcake’The rising pop singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter brings her charmingly conversational and occasionally humorous sensibility to the six-song EP “Fruitcake,” her first holiday-themed release. Though she indulges in a straightforward, breathily sung “White Christmas,” the EP’s highlights are its irreverent originals, like “A Nonsense Christmas” (a holiday remix of Carpenter’s 2022 hit), the sleek, sassy “Is It New Years Yet?” and “Cindy Lou Who,” a piano ballad that playfully imagines the sweetest girl in Whoville as a romantic rival: “The snow’s gonna fall and the tree’s gonna glisten,” Carpenter sings. “And I’m gonna puke at the thought of you kissin’.” LINDSAY ZOLADZCher, ‘Christmas’Cher’s economically titled new album “Christmas” is an eclectic mix of holiday standards (a rollicking “Run Rudolph Run,” an especially lustful “Santa Baby”) and upbeat, electro-pop originals tailor-made for the woman who sang “Believe” (the strobe-lit “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” the fist-pumping “Angels in the Snow”). The guest list is star-studded and wide-ranging: Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé and Darlene Love all drop by to duet with Cher on their own holiday classics, while Cyndi Lauper provides an assist on “Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart,” a country-tinged Christmas tune first recorded by LeAnn Rimes. But the album’s most memorably bonkers moment is surely “Drop Top Sleigh Ride,” a campy party anthem featuring a pun-stuffed rap verse from Tyga. The holidays just aren’t the holidays until you’ve heard Cher sing, “Turn it up, it’s a vibe, it’s Christmas.” ZOLADZRobert Glasper, ‘In December’The keyboardist Robert Glasper is an expert in both abstruse jazz harmonies and sleek hip-hop grooves; he’s also a well-connected collaborator. He brings all those skills to Christmas songs on “In December,” a musicianly rumination on the season; it’s only available on Apple Music. Old carols get elaborate new chromatic convolutions and alternate melodies, while in their new songs, Glasper and his singers consider holiday tensions. In “Make It Home,” PJ Morton and Sevyn Streeter portray a couple wondering if they can possibly reconcile for Christmas; “December,” written by Glasper and Andra Day, cycles through a year of seasonal anxieties and longings. And in “Memories With Mama,” Tarriona Ball, who leads Tank and the Bangas, confides in deep-toned spoken words about how Christmas has changed since her childhood — she’s nostalgic, but realistic. PARELESClockwise from top left: Holiday albums from Gregory Porter, Adam Blackstone, Jon Pardi and Wheatus. Samara Joy, ‘A Joyful Holiday’The resonant, low-end power of Samara Joy’s voice really emerges on her version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Me.” A Motown-era number sung sweetly by the Supremes and Stevie Wonder, it’s comforting molasses in Joy’s hands; at one point, she lingers over “twinkle,” toggling back and forth — eee-yuh-eee-yuh-eee-yuh — a caress and a promise. That’s the highlight of “A Joyful Holiday,” the first seasonal release from this sometimes startling jazz vocalist, who won best new artist at this year’s Grammys. See also her take on “Warm in December,” once sung by Julie London, which she renders as the most refined, stately and wise of come-ons. JON CARAMANICAJon Pardi, ‘Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi’For the past decade Jon Pardi has been, quite successfully, a country singer mindful of how the country singers before him conducted themselves. He’s a lightly unruly traditionalist, with an ear that favors Texas and Bakersfield and the, um, funkier sides of honky-tonk Nashville. So naturally, his first holiday album is a collection of frisky covers and originals that add just the faintest tweak to the canon. His take on Buck Owens’s “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” is cheeky and loose, and “I’ve Been Bad, Santa” — sung a couple of years ago by the Australian pop star Peach PRC — is a flirtatious duet with Pillbox Patti. “Reindeer” is a slow-walk heartbreaker about getting left behind by someone you love during the jolly season: “Might be a white Christmas, but all this snow just feels like rain, dear.” And on the lighthearted “Beer for Santa,” he swaps out the milk and cookies under the tree for something harder, then avers, “I might stay up and have one with him, too.” CARAMANICAThe Philly Specials, ‘A Philly Special Christmas Special’Last year, three offensive linemen who play for the Philadelphia Eagles — Jason Kelce, Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson — stunned the football world by putting out a surprisingly competent Christmas EP as the Philly Specials. This season, they’re upping the ante with a full album, featuring cameos from Philadelphia musical luminaries like Patti LaBelle, Amos Lee and Waxahatchee. Mailata — a 6-foot-8 left tackle who last year appeared as “Thingamabob” on “The Masked Singer” — is the star of the show, holding his own with LaBelle on a duet of “This Christmas” and nailing that high note at the end of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” but Johnson also impresses with his resonant country croon on a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper.” As for Kelce? Well, as Philly fans already know, he’s got a lot of heart. And, for a spirited reworking of the Pogues’ most famous song, here retitled “Fairytale of Philadelphia,” he recruits perhaps the most high-profile guest of them all, his brother Travis, who sings approximately as well as his girlfriend can play professional football. ZOLADZGregory Porter, ‘Christmas Wish’The jazz singer Gregory Porter brings his kindly baritone and a social conscience to his Christmas album. He reaches back to vintage Motown for the antiwar, pro-equality “Someday at Christmas,” and three songs of his own recognize troubles he wants to rise above for the season. In “Everything’s Not Lost,” he wills himself toward year-end optimism despite “all this misery” and “children in fear.” And with the surging gospel of “Christmas Wish,” he recalls the lessons in generosity his mother taught. Most of the backing uses genteel string arrangements, but in “Christmas Waltz,” with a jazz trio, he reminds listeners how he can swing. PARELESWheatus, ‘Just a Dirtbag Christmas’Skip the clever and fun and totally worthy originals on this EP: You’re here for “Christmas Dirtbag,” the Yuletide updating of “Teenage Dirtbag,” the 2000 debut single from the Long Island punk-pop band Wheatus. The original is somehow both a zeitgeist-definer and a curio. This updating morphs the main character into someone passed over by Santa, perhaps a fate more cruel than being ignored by the girl who mesmerizes him in the original. But here, in a holiday spirit, there’s a twist — it turns out Santa’s a dirtbag, too, and he’s bearing gifts after all: “I’ve got two tickets to AC/DC, baby/After-show party at CBGB.” CARAMANICA More

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    Jazz’s Year of Reckoning With Tradition

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicFor the last few years, jazz around the globe has been in a creative renaissance. Scenes in Chicago, London and Los Angeles have pushed the genre in novel creative directions, and reinvigorated the music as nightlife.But is it quietly radical to re-embrace the songbook? How much history does a musician have to imbibe to be properly heretical? In 2022, questions like these were addressed, implicitly and explicitly, by singers like Samara Joy and Cécile McLorin Salvant and instrumentalists like Immanuel Wilkins and Jaimie Branch.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about jazz’s rites of passage, the ways in which freedom is expressed even amid convention, and artists who are agitating against history.Guests:Harmony Holiday, a poet and essayist who writes about music for Frieze and othersGiovanni Russonello, who writes about jazz for The New York TimesConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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    12 New Christmas Songs for a Vast Array of Holiday Moods

    Hear tracks by the Linda Lindas, David Byrne, Summer Walker and others that lean cozy, confrontational and lightly comedic.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Silversun Pickups, ‘Just Like Christmas’The grungy Los Angeles band Silversun Pickups heard potential in “Just Like Christmas,” which was more like a country song when the Minnesota band Low introduced it on its 1999 album, “Christmas.” It’s a song about touring Scandinavia, seeing — and scoffing at — the snowy image of Christmas but feeling its attractions anyway. With sleigh bells and rippling, echoing guitars, Silversun Pickups find a chiming optimism in the song, embracing a joyful illusion even as they realize it’s temporary. JON PARELESSamara Joy, ‘Warm in December’Samara Joy sings with a jazz trio in “Warm in December,” taking on an aspiring standard as she goes swooping, quivering and hopping through her phrasing. The way she leaves room for her backup to improvise echoes the exchange of affection that the song promises. PARELESPhoebe Bridgers, ‘So Much Wine’Phoebe Bridgers’s annual Christmas cover is, by now, a modern tradition; she’s previously released renditions of such holiday laments as Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December” and Tom Waits’s “Day After Tomorrow.” This year, she tackles the folk duo the Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine,” a dark but ultimately tender tale of Yuletide overindulgence. While the original version is played for macabre comedy (“I had nothing to say on Christmas Day when you threw all your clothes in the snow”) Bridgers, characteristically, amps up the pathos and issues an impassioned plea to sober up for the holidays. “Listen to me, butterfly,” she sings in a trembling voice, “there’s only so much wine that you can drink in one life.” LINDSAY ZOLADZThe Tribe, ‘This Christmas’This team-up of soft soul music stalwarts takes on Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” with charm and adoration. High points include Freda Payne’s careful, tender entreaty to “shake a hand,” and Michael McDonald absolutely howling, “The fireside is blazing bright/And we’re caroling through the night.” (The song also features Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx and several other singers and musicians.) Proceeds from the track benefit the Donny Hathaway Legacy Project (DHLP), a mental health-focused charity established by Donnita Hathaway, Donny’s youngest daughter. JON CARAMANICASam Smith, ‘Night Before Christmas’’Tis hardly the season for something unholy, so Sam Smith’s “Night Before Christmas,” a new holiday original written with the musician’s longtime collaborator Simon Aldred, is tasteful, traditional and sweetly soulful. “With everything closed now, there’s nowhere to go,” Smith sings over a sparse guitar arrangement, but the atmosphere soon grows merrier with the addition of piano, percussion and a fleet of backup singers. “Baby, this time of year can make you feel old,” Smith sings on the chorus. Coziness, though, is the cure: “But when I’m with you, I don’t feel the cold.” ZOLADZThe Linda Lindas, ‘Groovy Xmas’This is how you do it — a jubilant, surf-ish rock jam about the small details of holiday thrill, including the ones that never, ever change: “Same playlist every year/Mariah brings the cheer/And pumpkin spice lattes are here.” The Linda Lindas continue to extract maximum happiness from every available moment, including watching the cat lap up water from the Christmas tree stand. CARAMANICAStars, ‘Christmas Anyway’Stars, the long-running Montreal indie-rock band, offers a pandemic-era Christmas song in “Christmas Anyway,” singing about a long-delayed reunion — “Two years since we did this” — fraught with unresolved tensions. Amid strumming guitars and a stolid backbeat, they sing about how “we got through it somehow,” and how a holiday can offer at least a temporary reconciliation. PARELESSummer Walker, ‘Santa Baby’“Santa Baby” is one of the classic holiday flirtations, and Summer Walker is one of contemporary R&B’s great emotional reckoners — an optimal match. But Walker’s version of this classic is restrained, and almost a little reluctant. Just a sweet little plea for some seasonal blessing. CARAMANICADavid Byrne, ‘Fat Man’s Comin’’David Byrne applies his quizzical-observer perspective in “The Fat Man’s Comin’,” a brief, brawny and elaborately arranged chamber-pop bolero about “a roly-poly man in the dark, he’s riding.” It’s perfectly poised between objectivity and amusement. PARELESOld Crow Medicine Show, ‘Trim This Tree’“Trim This Tree,” an original from Americana stalwarts Old Crow Medicine Show, is a spirited, occasionally hilarious snapshot of Christmas in modern, overdeveloped Nashville: Sloshed reindeer ride by on a pedal tavern, the ornaments are exclusively from Dollar Tree, and, as the frontman Ketch Decor puts it in a Springsteenian croak, “In front of this Airbnb, there’s a Joseph and a Mary and Jesus all lit up like a Walmart.” Even in such environs, though, the group’s rollicking sound manages to rustle up some genuine down-home cheer. ZOLADZImogen Clark, ‘I Got Dumped for Christmas’The Australian songwriter Imogen Clark bashes her way through the self-explanatory “I Got Dumped for Christmas,” with sleigh bells and power-pop guitars. “Your timing was extraordinary,” she jabs, nicely capturing how seasonal expectations can go so badly awry. PARELESNorah Jones, ‘The Christmas Waltz’Norah Jones has nearly doubled the track list for the expanded version of her 2021 album “I Dream of Christmas,” mostly with bluesy, louche studio tracks and live remakes. Her version of the vintage Tin Pan Alley song “The Christmas Waltz” — written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, once recorded by Frank Sinatra — cheerfully trades a waltz for a shuffle, bringing in a quivering harp and an insinuating saxophone, playing with meters but still sounding fond. PARELES More

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    Samara Joy’s Voice (and Social Media) Is Helping Jazz Find Fresh Ears

    The 23-year-old singer had something rare in the genre — a viral moment — and will compete for best new artist at the Grammys in February.Samara Joy was kicking off an encore engagement at New York’s storied Blue Note club in November, just days before her 23rd birthday, when sparks began to fly.“It was my first set, and I was in the middle of telling a story,” she recounted a few weeks later. “I was building up this whole scenario that was going to get me into the song, and then I closed my eyes — and when I opened them, five seconds later, there was all this smoke coming up.” (A woman seated by the stage got a bit too close to a flickering candle; the fire was swiftly extinguished.)“Nothing like that had ever happened to me before,” Joy said, giggling softly. Just a week later, she had another, more traditional first, picking up two Grammy nominations for “Linger Awhile,” her second album and Verve Records debut. The album teams her with noted musicians — the guitarist Pasquale Grasso, the pianist Ben Paterson, the bassist David Wong and the drummer Kenny Washington — on standards including Monk’s “‘Round Midnight” and Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me.”Joy, a Bronx native who’s currently based in Washington Heights, goes by her first and middle name (her surname is McLendon). She will compete in February for best jazz vocal album and best new artist — a field in which recent winners have included ubiquitous stars such as Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion and Billie Eilish.When she got the news, Joy was on a train heading home after a gig in Washington, D.C. “I felt like screaming,” she said, “but I was in the quiet car, so I couldn’t freak out.”Joy has grown accustomed to reaping honors. In 2019, as a student at the State University of New York at Purchase, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition; she became an Ella Fitzgerald Memorial Scholar the following year. Joy’s singing, with its precocious depth, creamy tone and fluttery vibrato, continued to inspire comparisons to both of those legends after the release of several videos that went viral, something of a rarity in jazz — in one, she performed Duke Ellington’s “Take Love Easy,” a song recorded by Fitzgerald in the 1970s — and a self-titled album in 2021.While Joy said she wasn’t especially active on social media at first, it has grown into a natural tool for expression. Jamie Krents, the president of Verve Records, said Joy’s presence there “was one of the things that attracted us to her — seeing how genuine and intriguing she was, and how that could shine through on those channels. She’s a normal 23-year-old person who happens to be a world-class singer.”Regina King, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Don Cheadle have also expressed admiration. The celebrated bassist and composer Christian McBride, who judged Joy in the Sarah Vaughan competition, finds her vocals “full of wisdom.”“It’s spooky; she sounds and tells a story like an elder,” he said in a phone interview. “But I think what I love most about her — and I pray that the challenges in life don’t change this — is she’s always positive. She’s got such a fun, positive spirit.”That spirit was palpable during a conversation at a food court in her neighborhood, where Joy admitted her fast success has left her head spinning a bit. “Sometimes I honestly don’t believe this is happening,” she said. “I see pictures of this glammed-up girl, but I’m just me” — on that afternoon, a young woman wearing sensible glasses and no perceptible makeup, clad in sneakers and a down jacket she picked up at Marshalls.The singer, who is currently touring with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in “Big Band Holidays” — the show will arrive at the Rose Theater Wednesday through Sunday — has spent little time at home over the past six or seven months, juggling dates throughout the United States and Europe. “When there are people my age in the crowd, it’s mostly students,” she said. “Or you have younger audience members who have seen me on Instagram or TikTok” — Joy has more than 200,000 followers on the video platform — and tend to be less familiar with jazz.Joy can empathize: She sang with a jazz band in high school that tended toward “a lot of contemporary, fusion-y stuff,” and was largely unfamiliar with the repertoire until arriving at Purchase. And while she’s the paternal granddaughter of the noted gospel singers and preachers Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, who performed with the Savettes of Philadelphia, that genre also held little appeal initially.Joy will compete for two Grammys in February, including one in an all-genre category: best new artist.Scott Rossi for The New York TimesInstead, Joy listened to the old-school R&B beloved by both her parents, “Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin and Stevie and Chaka,” she said, and sang in middle and high school musicals, making her theatrical debut as Erzulie (the goddess of love) in a sixth-grade production of “Once on This Island.” “I was scared about the acting part, because I was very shy — I still get that way sometimes,” she said. “But I wanted to sing, so I was like, ‘We’re going to learn these lines and try as best we can to get inside this character.’”Eventually, Joy did begin singing in church, where her father also performed frequently. (Antonio McLendon is a singer, songwriter and bassist who has toured with the gospel star Andraé Crouch.) “I started in the choir when I was 16, and then I started to sing lead, which was nerve-racking,” she said. “The church live-streamed the services, and I had all these eyes on me.” She nonetheless became “more serious about it, because I was there all the time. We had rehearsal, we had Bible study, we had services on Saturday and Sunday. That was my priority — whereas jazz band was just an after school thing, a couple of songs here and there.”When Joy won the Sarah Vaughan competition, “My grandfather was disappointed, I think” — Ruth McLendon had died in 2014 — “because he thought singing belonged in the church, that it should serve as worship to God,” she explained. “I don’t think he would ever come into a jazz club, because of his beliefs, which I respect and understand. I know that he still loves me, regardless of how he feels about the career decisions I’m making.”Joy’s ambitions include writing; she penned rhapsodic lyrics for “Nostalgia (The Day I Knew),” a sweetly breezy number on “Linger Awhile.” “Now I’m paying more attention to the melodies and harmonics of all these songs I’m singing,” she said. “I’m telling this composer’s story and this lyricist’s story, and it’s beautiful, but I hope I can be influenced enough to write content for myself.”Studying giants like Vaughan and Fitzgerald — Carmen McRae and Betty Carter are also favorites — has also made Joy eager to explore a range of styles: “Sarah Vaughan could sing anything; she could go incredibly deep and then she could sing operatically, and neither seemed like a struggle. I look at her, and at some opera singers, and I want that ease.”When Joy speaks specifically of jazz, of course, there is a particular sense of devotion. “I look at all these influences — like Charlie Parker, like Duke Ellington, like Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan — and I think, these people were here,” she said, a measure of awe creeping into her quiet voice. “This is a young music, and they did so much in their lives to draw people to this type of music; it deserves to be talked about and shared. And as long as I’m passionate about it, that’s my goal — to share it.” More