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      Daniel Kramer’s Year With Bob Dylan

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      For six months in 1964, the photojournalist Daniel Kramer, who died at 91 on April 29, dialed the office of Bob Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, to ask if he could photograph Mr. Dylan, a rising star at the time. Finally, Mr. Grossman said yes.What was meant to be a one-hour shoot turned into a five-hour shoot, which turned into a 366-day photographic odyssey in which Mr. Kramer was granted unrivaled access to Mr. Dylan. He captured rare behind-the-scenes images of the artist at home, on tour and at recording sessions.Mr. Kramer’s images were soon popping up in publications around the world. He also shot cover photos for two of Mr. Dylan’s best-known albums.Here is a look at some of those images.Mr. Kramer’s original photograph for the cover of Mr. Dylan’s 1965 album “Bringing It All Back Home.” (The woman in the photo is Sally Grossman, the wife of Mr. Dylan’s manager at the time. She died in 2021.)Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkMr. Dylan was surrounded by fans after a concert in Philadelphia in October 1964.Daniel Kramer, via Kramer familyMr. Dylan at the time of the Philadelphia concert.Daniel Kramer, via Kramer familyMr. Dylan with the singer Joan Baez in Woodstock in 1964.Daniel Kramer, via Kramer familyAway from the stage, Mr. Kramer managed to capture Mr. Dylan in rare moments of downtime. Rolling Stone magazine once described him as “the photographer most closely associated with Bob Dylan.”Mr. Dylan in 1964. Although he had already begun his rise to global fame, Mr. Kramer knew little about him until he saw him perform on television that February.Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkMr. Dylan during the recording of his album “Bringing It All Back Home.”Daniel Kramer, via Kramer familyMr. Dylan in performance at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens.Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkAt a Greenwich Village cafe in 1965.Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkBefore his photo shoot with Mr. Dylan, Mr. Kramer was a young Brooklynite trying to carve out a career as a freelance photographer. He went on to shoot portraits of luminaries, always maintaining his ability to connect with them on an intimate level.Mr. Kramer said that the historic significance of what was unfolding before his lens was not always apparent to him at the time. Daniel Kramer, via Kramer family“Bob didn’t really want to be Woody Guthrie,” Mr. Kramer said. “He wanted to be Elvis Presley.”Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkOut for a stroll in Philadelphia.Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New YorkMr. Kramer took the cover image for “Highway 61 Revisited” in 1965, in front of the Manhattan building where Mr. Dylan’s manager lived.Daniel Kramer, via Staley-Wise Gallery, New York More

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      The Legacy of Steve Albini, Rock’s Uncompromising Force

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicSteve Albini, who died last week at 61, was one of the most admired, and most divisive, figures in rock. He was an expert audio engineer who recorded ultra-classics by Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Pixies, along with key underground releases by the Jesus Lizard, Slint, Low, Neurosis and many, many others. For decades, he also relished his role as a brutally insulting critic — sometimes of the bands he worked with — and a gadfly who pushed uncomfortable buttons about race, politics and sex. He came to regret that, owning up to his history of provocation for its own sake.On this week’s Popcast, guest hosted by the music reporter Ben Sisario, we delve into Albini’s musical legacy and his singular role as a moral scourge in rock and of the music business overall.Guests:Jeremy Gordon, a senior editor at The Atlantic, who interviewed Albini last year in The GuardianJoe Gross, freelance writer and former critic at The Austin American-StatesmanConnect 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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      David Sanborn, Saxophonist Who Defied Pigeonholing, Dies at 78

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      He was best known as a jazz musician, but his shimmering sound was also heard on classic albums by David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen.David Sanborn, whose fiery alto saxophone flourishes earned him six Grammy Awards, eight gold albums and a platinum one, and who established himself as a celebrity sideman, lending indelible solos to enduring rock classics like David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” died on Sunday. He was 78.He died after a long battle with prostate cancer, according to a statement on his social media channels. He had received the diagnosis in 2018 but had maintained his regular schedule of concerts until recently, with more planned for next year.The statement did not say where Mr. Sanborn died.Drawing from jazz, pop and R&B, Mr. Sanborn was highly prolific, releasing 25 albums over a six-decade career. “Hideaway” (1980), his fifth studio album, featured two instrumentals written with the singer Michael McDonald as well as “The Seduction,” written by Giorgio Moroder, which was the love theme from “American Gigolo,” the ice-cool Paul Schrader film starring Richard Gere.“Many releases by studio musicians suffer from weak compositions and overproduction, including some albums by Sanborn himself,” Tim Griggs wrote in a review of that album on the website Allmusic. In contrast, he continued, “Hideaway” had a “stripped-down, funky” quality that showed off his “passionate and distinctive saxophone sound.”Mr. Sanborn’s albums “Hearsay” (1994), “Pearls” (1995) and “Time Again” (2003) all reached No. 2 on the Billboard jazz chart.Mr. Sanborn joined Miles Davis onstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1986. He worked with a long list of musicians, both in and out of jazz.Keystone/ReduxWe 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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      Kendrick Lamar Rides a Rap Beef All the Way to No. 1

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      On the Billboard album chart, Dua Lipa’s heavily promoted “Radical Optimism” opened at No. 2, held off by the third week of Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets.”An old-fashioned rap war that unfolded online at lightning speed has sent Kendrick Lamar to No. 1 on Billboard’s latest singles chart, while Taylor Swift easily holds off a challenge from Dua Lipa’s new album.Relations between Lamar and Drake, two hip-hop giants and longtime rivals, exploded into a public war of words in recent weeks, in the form of a rapid-fire sequence of diss tracks packed with insults and unsavory (and unproven) accusations. Lamar seemed to get the last word with “Not Like Us,” released May 4, which becomes his fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. That total counts collaborative releases — among them “Like That,” a track in March with the Atlanta rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, which kicked off the latest volley.Consumption of “Not Like Us” was driven by streaming, with 71 million clicks in the United States last week. Another Lamar diss track, “Euphoria,” which came out the week before, is No. 3 on the latest singles chart, while Drake’s “Family Matters” is No. 7.For this week’s Billboard 200 album chart, Lipa seemed to enter the contest with some advantages for “Radical Optimism,” her third studio LP. To promote it, she went on “Saturday Night Live” as both performer and host, and was on the cover of Time and Elle. Earlier this year, she had prominent performances at the Grammy and Brit award shows, and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.But “Radical Optimism” was still trounced by the third week of Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” which holds at No. 1 with a wide margin.“Tortured Poets” had the equivalent of 282,000 album sales in the United States, including 298 million streams and 51,000 traditional sales, according to the tracking service Luminate. In its first three weeks out, “Tortured Poets” — which smashed records in its debut two weeks ago, despite mixed reviews — has racked up the equivalent of 3.3 million sales, including 1.6 billion streams for its 31 total tracks in the U.S. alone.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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      The Power and Beauty of African Guitar Greats

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      Hear songs by Mdou Moctar, Bombino, Orchestra Baobab and more.Mdou Moctar onstage at Coachella in April.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for CoachellaDear listeners,For today’s Amplifier, your proprietor Lindsay Zoladz graciously lent me the keys for a little tour of Africa to celebrate some of the continent’s guitar greats. It was prompted by my recent profile of Mdou Moctar, the axeman from Niger who has built up a following with a tight band and stunning solos that can sound somewhere between vintage psychedelia and the so-called desert blues — a modern update of the African rhythmic and harmonic traditions that underlie so much popular music in the West, including the blues (and rock, and jazz, and R&B …).But honestly, any excuse is a good one to delve into this music and explore some of the characters behind it. There’s Ali Farka Touré, the Malian poet of the guitar, who learned from exposure to American bluesmen like John Lee Hooker but bristled at the idea that he was anything but an African purist. There’s Orchestra Baobab, whose songs are evidence of how musical styles pingpong around the world and can continue to evolve after returning home. And Oliver Mtukudzi, a force for justice and human rights who put music in service of his message.When I interviewed Moctar, much of our conversation was about politics. His latest album, “Funeral for Justice,” is a take-no-prisoners assault on the legacy of colonialism in Africa, which includes the struggles of the Tuareg, a historically nomadic ethnic group in the Sahara region that are divided by national borders. Political statements are scarce in American pop music these days, but they are a vital part of many of the tracks here, in ways that can be direct or oblique.This playlist is an assortment of some of my favorites, but is by no means meant as an exhaustive list, musically or geographically. If you’re new to this, I hope it can help you get started on a lifetime of exploration.Thanks for listening,BenListen along while you read.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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      Post Malone Goes Country With Morgan Wallen, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Raveena, Willow, John Cale and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen, ‘I Had Some Help’The ever-adaptable Post Malone moves into country with this duet with Morgan Wallen. It’s jovial on the surface, with cheerful steel-guitar hooks. But it’s deeply surly at heart, as Malone and Wallen take turns lashing out at an ex who blames them after a relationship crumbles. “It ain’t like I can make this kind of mess all by myself,” they insist. “Don’t act like you ain’t helped me pull that bottle off the shelf.” Personal responsibility? Nah.Willow, ‘Big Feelings’Willow embraces her outsize emotions in the full-tilt finale of her new album, “Empathogen,” which veers from her old pop-punk into jazz and prog-rock. Her voice sails over choppy piano chords as she announces her “big feelings,” and when she sings, “Yes, I have problems, problems,” she turns “problems” into a six-syllable arpeggio. In the bridge she tells herself, “Acceptance is the key,” and eventually it sounds like she’ll make peace with those problems, or even flaunt them.Raveena, ‘Pluto’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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      ‘Back to Black,’ and the Challenges of Dramatizing Amy Winehouse

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      Several depictions of the singer’s life have explored her tense relationship with fame. The new biopic “Back to Black” instead centers her romantic life.In another life, Sam Taylor-Johnson might have crossed paths with Amy Winehouse. The filmmaker and the singer had some mutual friends, “but we never met,” Taylor-Johnson said recently. “It was like a strange sliding doors moment,” she added: “I would arrive somewhere, and she would have just left.”Taylor-Johnson is the director of “Back to Black,” a new biopic about Winehouse that stars Marisa Abela (“Industry”) as the beloved British singer. In the 13 years since Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning in her North London home at age 27, there has been a posthumous album, a tell-all memoir from her father, an Oscar-winning documentary and several museum exhibitions about her life.Some of these projects — most notably the 2015 documentary, “Amy” — emphasized how ferocious public and tabloid interest in her personal life fueled Winehouse’s addictions. (In a review of that documentary for The Times, Manohla Dargis wrote, “What’s startling now is to realize that we were all watching her die.”)For Taylor-Johnson, it was time to create a narrative that celebrated Winehouse for “her great achievements,” she said. A documentary is a forensic breakdown of someone’s life, Taylor-Johnson added, whereas she saw her own film as “more poetic.”Sam Taylor-Johnson said she had ignored reviews of “Back to Black.” “If a friend starts to tell me, I hang up on them,” the director said. “I don’t want to be thrown off my path.”Philip Cheung for The New York Times“Back to Black,” which opens in theaters in the United States on May 17, revolves around Winehouse’s turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, an on-off romance that inspired the artist’s soul-inflected album of the same name. “She tells her story through the narrative of her songs,” said Taylor-Johnson. Using the lyrics as the movie’s main source material put Winehouse’s perspective at the center, she said.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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      How a Novelist Became a Pop Star

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      “I hope you fall in love, I hope it breaks your heart” is the refrain (in English translation) of “Pasoori,” Ali Sethi’s 2022 global hit. Is this a curse or a blessing? The song, performed as a duet with the Pakistani singer Shae Gill, defies such simple classifications — it’s a pop banger sung in Urdu and Punjabi, punctuated with flamenco handclaps and driven by a reggaeton beat. Sethi, a Pakistani-born artist who lives in Manhattan’s East Village, composed it in the wake of a thwarted collaboration with an Indian organization that feared reprisal (because of a 2016 ban on hiring Pakistani creatives). Drawing on themes from ghazals — sly courtesan poems about desire and betrayal that have doubled as political critiques, a genre that dates to seventh-century Arabia — “Pasoori” is at once “a love song, a bit of a flower bomb thrown at nationalism, a queer anthem, a protest song, a power ballad [and] a song of togetherness,” Sethi says. It’s now been viewed some 850 million times on YouTube, including by countless Indian fans.Sethi, 39, is a master of microtonal singing, gliding between the notes of the Western tempered scale. He’s been lauded for sounding like a vestige of another age — his supple, keening tenor the result of years of apprenticeship to the Pakistani artists Ustad Saami and Farida Khanum. Growing up in Lahore, where he was recognized at school for his academic and artistic abilities but also, he says, “taunted by both students and teachers for being part of a queer cohort,” he found in traditional music a way to be good but also fabulous, rooted without being fixed.Back then, he didn’t see the arts as offering a viable career path. As an undergraduate at Harvard in the early aughts, he was expected to study economics. He instead took courses on South Asian history and world fiction, and first read Jane Austen at the behest of his teacher Zadie Smith. In 2009, he published “The Wish Maker,” a semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel set in his home city. The narrator navigates the wounds and thrills of adolescence, as well as a factionalized, globalizing country, alongside his female cousin: They watch an “Indiana Jones” film (“about an American man of the same name who wore hats and enjoyed the company of blonde women”) and are puzzled by its Indian villain; they fuel their crushes with love songs by Mariah Carey and the Pakistani artist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.According to Sethi, his hit single “Pasoori” is at once “a love song, a bit of a flower bomb thrown at nationalism, a queer anthem, a protest song, a power ballad [and] a song of togetherness.”Philip CheungThe book was well received, though Sethi now thinks its realist form couldn’t fully accommodate Pakistan, a society in flux. As he was finishing the novel in Lahore in 2007, the country was besieged by sectarian violence. His father, Jugnu Mohsin — both he and Sethi’s mother, Najam Sethi, are prominent journalists and publishers — received death threats, and Sethi spent over a year in hiding, staying in the basements of friends. In 2011, he traveled to India to work as an adviser on Mira Nair’s 2012 film, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” adapted from Mohsin Hamid’s 2007 novel. One evening, when everyone was eating and singing, Nair was so moved by Sethi’s version of a ghazal famously sung by Khanum, “Dil Jalane Ki Baat,” that she urged him to record it. The song became part of the soundtrack and the first step toward Sethi’s recording career.Storytelling is still inherent to his work. Whether at concerts or on Instagram, Sethi often describes the inclusive nature of traditional South Asian music. Because it’s always been “anciently multiple” and cosmopolitan, it contains the “antibodies,” he says, to heal a divisive culture from within. But there are moments when he wishes to not represent but present for a while. He plans to write another novel, in the more experimental form of lyrical autofiction. Today, the burden of being an ambassador is lightened by the presence of other queer South Asian artists, including the writers Bushra Rehman and Sarah Thankam Mathews, and Sethi’s own partner, the painter Salman Toor. Last year, Sethi appeared at Coachella along with several other South Asian musicians, whose multilingual sets slotted right in alongside the Spanish artist Rosalía and Nigeria’s Burna Boy, who performed in English and their native languages.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