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      Sarah Dash, the ‘Glue’ of the Vocal Trio Labelle, Is Dead at 76

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      She brought her church-rooted soprano and high harmonies to the rock and funk powerhouse best known for the No. 1 hit “Lady Marmalade.”Sarah Dash, a founding member of the groundbreaking, million-selling vocal trio Labelle, died on Monday. She was 76.Her death was announced on social media by Patti LaBelle and Nona Hendryx, the other members of Labelle. They did not say where she died or what the cause was.Ms. Dash brought her church-rooted soprano and high harmonies to Labelle, which began as a 1960s girl group before reinventing itself as a socially aware, Afro-futuristic rock and funk powerhouse, costumed in glittery sci-fi outfits and singing about revolution as well as earthy romance. In 1974, Labelle had a No. 1 hit, “Lady Marmalade,” and performed the first concert by a pop group — and a Black group — at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.In Ms. LaBelle’s 1996 autobiography, “Don’t Block the Blessings,” she wrote, “It was perfect harmony, the way we sounded together, the way we fit together, the way we moved together.”Ms. Hendryx, speaking by phone on Monday, described Ms. Dash as “a little ball of energy.” She added that Ms. Dash had played a crucial role in Labelle’s vocal interplay.“Sarah was very meticulous about vocal parts,” Ms. Hendryx said. “Patti and I would just want to do whatever we wanted to do, and Sarah had really great ears and was really great with harmony. That was her strength. She was the glue.”Labelle reached its commercial peak with the 1974 album “Nightbirds,” produced by Allen Toussaint with a New Orleans backup band and featuring the hit single “Lady Marmalade.”Sarah Dash was born in Trenton, N.J., on Aug. 18, 1945, the seventh of 13 children of Abraham and Mary Elizabeth Dash. Her father was a pastor, her mother a nurse. She grew up singing in the Trenton Church of Christ choir and turned to secular music as a teenager. She met Ms. Hendryx when the two girls’ church choirs shared a bill, and invited her to join her in the Del-Capris, a local doo-wop quintet.In 1961, Ms. Dash and Ms. Hendryx joined Patricia Holte and Cynthia Birdsong, members of a Philadelphia group, the Ordettes, to form a quartet, which they named the Blue Belles. Because there was already another group called the Bluebells, Ms. Holte adopted the name Patti LaBelle and the group became Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles (sometimes spelled Blue Belles or Bluebells).Their first hit was not actually by them; “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman” was recorded by a Chicago girl group, the Starlets. But because of contractual complications, the single was credited to the Bluebelles, who performed it on tour and on television.The Bluebelles had minor hits of their own with gospel-charged versions of standard songs including “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Danny Boy,” and the group worked through the 1960s on the R&B circuit, recording on the Newtown, Cameo-Parkway and Atlantic labels. For years, they played three shows a night, up to 300 nights a year, at clubs and theaters; in New York City, they became known as the Sweethearts of the Apollo.Labelle performing on Cher’s television variety show in 1976. From left: Nona Hendryx, Ms. Dash and Patti LaBelle.CBS via Getty ImagesMs. Birdsong left the group to join the Supremes in 1967, but the trio persevered. In 1966, the group had performed on the BBC pop program “Ready, Steady, Go!,” and the members had stayed in contact with a producer from the show, Vicki Wickham. Ms. Wickham became their manager, along with the Who’s management team, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert.The Bluebelles metamorphosed into Labelle in 1970. Abandoning the formal gowns and wigs of a girl group for jeans, tie-dye and Afros, the group moved from the R&B circuit to rock clubs like the Bitter End in Manhattan.In 1971, Labelle released its self-titled debut album and collaborated with Laura Nyro on her album “Gonna Take a Miracle”; the group also opened for the Who on an arena tour. The trio’s 1972 album, “Moon Shadow,” started with the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”; its 1973 album, “Pressure Cookin’,” featured a medley of the Thunderclap Newman song “Something in the Air” and Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”Along with its sociopolitical messages, Labelle adopted a new look designed by Larry LeGaspi: “campy space costumes of channel-quilted metallic leather, disclike cowls and boots with stratospherically high stacked heels,” as Guy Trebay wrote in The New York Times. Labelle was at the forefront of glam-rock and Afro-Futurism.While Ms. LaBelle’s acrobatic voice often dominated Labelle’s arrangements, Ms. Dash was prominent in songs like “(Can I Speak to You Before You Go to) Hollywood.”Labelle reached its commercial peak with the 1974 album “Nightbirds,” produced by Allen Toussaint with a New Orleans backup band. Although most of its songs were written by Ms. Hendryx, its hit was by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan: “Lady Marmalade,” a tale of a memorable New Orleans prostitute, with the refrain “Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir?”Labelle made two more albums, “Phoenix” and “Chameleon,” before breaking up in 1977, with its members pulling in different musical directions: disco for Ms. Dash and Ms. LaBelle, rock for Ms. Hendryx. They moved into solo careers, and Ms. Dash started hers with a hit in 1978: “Sinner Man,” from her solo album simply titled “Sarah Dash,” the first of four she made in the 1970s and ’80s. “Oo-La-La, Too Soon,” from her 1980 album “Oo-La-La, Sarah Dash,” was turned into a commercial jingle for Sasson jeans.Ms. Dash in performance at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 2012. After Labelle broke up in 1977, she began her solo career in 1978 with a hit single, “Sinner Man.” Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesShe also recorded widely as a session singer — with Nile Rodgers, the Marshall Tucker Band, the O’Jays, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones. She looked back on her career in the 1990s with one-woman shows and an autobiography, “A Dash of Diva.”Information on survivors was not immediately available.Ms. Dash stayed in touch with the members of Labelle and appeared on solo albums by Ms. LaBelle and Ms. Hendryx. The trio had a club hit together in 1995 with “Turn It Out,” heard on the soundtrack of the movie “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.” In 2008, Labelle reunited for a full album, “Back to Now,” followed by a tour.Ms. Dash gave her final performance on Saturday night, two days before her death, when she joined Ms. LaBelle during a performance in Atlantic City.“Sarah Dash was an awesomely talented, beautiful and loving soul who blessed my life and the lives of so many others in more ways than I can say,” Ms. LaBelle posted on social media. “And I could always count on her to have my back!” More

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

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      Anticipated returns (Abba, Diana Ross), intergenerational collaborations (Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett) and hotly tipped follow-ups (Brandi Carlile, Makaya McCraven) are coming in the new season.When pandemic lockdowns shut down the concert industry last year, some artists forged ahead with planned album releases and answered a question loaded with risk: What would a rollout look like without the regular promotional cycle of in-person interviews, late-night performances and live shows? Many musicians pivoted to streaming; others buckled down on their songwriting and hit the studio. The results of these experiments are largely emerging now.While some of pop’s biggest names are still being coy about whether they’ll make their big returns this season (Adele, Beyoncé and yes, we’re still waiting, Rihanna), this fall’s music calendar is already stuffed with a reunion of disco legends, an all-star Afrobeats festival and the arrival of a slate of buzzy newcomers.Dates are subject to change; check vaccine and mask requirements for individual performers and venues.SeptemberJUSTIN VIVIAN BOND AND ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO It’s hard to think of an artistic pursuit that Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo haven’t tackled between them. Now the longtime friends and iconoclasts are joining forces for a theatrical concert, “Only an Octave Apart,” inspired by their mutual admiration for Carol Burnett’s collaborations with Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills, and for each other. Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly, also contributors to Bond and Costanzo’s upcoming album of the same name, will handle musical direction and arrangements. (Sept. 21-Oct. 3; St. Ann’s Warehouse) — Elysa GardnerCORY HENRY His soulful output as a keyboardist, singer and composer has landed Cory Henry attention from the jazz and gospel worlds, and made admirers of pop and R&B fans who pay little attention to either of those genres. He’ll perform Sept. 22-26 at the Blue Note Jazz Club, where other scheduled acts include the adventurous hip-hop and jazz fusionist Georgia Anne Muldrow (Sept. 29-30) and the sentimental favorites the Manhattan Transfer (Nov. 23-28). — GardnerAlessia Cara brings her introspective songwriting to a fresh era of her life on “In the Meantime.”Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesALESSIA CARA Since landing her first hit with “Here” — a tart, ambling song about being a wallflower — at 18, the Canadian singer Alessia Cara has documented the friction of adolescence and young adulthood with clear eyes and a sharp pen. On “In the Meantime,” her third album, Cara’s youthful unease gives way to mid-20s ennui; she sings about the passage of time (“What if my best days are the days I’ve left behind?” she wonders on one misty piano ballad), romantic disappointment and feelings of inadequacy. Incisive and introspective as ever, Cara continues to position herself as both pop star and self-therapist. ( Sept. 24; Def Jam) — Olivia HornTHE COOKERS There’s something dangerous about putting together an all-star crew of jazz musicians whose careers took off (mostly) in the 1970s. It was a complicated, ungoverned time in jazz, when fusion was upending the genre’s creative economy and even traditionalists were pushing their own boundaries. In the years since, our memory of the era has become a bit simplified, and some of its more rugged straight-ahead jazz — made for labels like Strata-East and Black Lion — hasn’t fully made it into the canon. But the Cookers, a group of luminaries mostly now in their 70s and 80s, have managed to retain the rough-and-tumble spirit of their old work, while accepting the laurels that have rightfully come to them. On their new album, “Look Out,” a bristling collection of originals, the old feeling is newly alive. (Sept. 24; Gearbox Records) — Giovanni RussonelloTHEO CROKER Born into a family of civil rights activists and jazz musicians, Theo Croker was well positioned to carry the mantle of the music and its message. Now in his mid-30s, he has amassed an impressive résumé as a side musician for a diverse array of musical innovators, including the jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and the rappers J. Cole and Common. For his new album, the smoldering neo-jazz collection “Blk2Life || A Future Past,” the tables are turned and he’s calling in favors: Guests include Wyclef Jean, Ari Lennox and Kassa Overall, a longtime Croker pal and collaborator. (Sept. 24; Sony Masterworks) — RussonelloThe big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique.Nicolas Koch FuttrupMIHO HAZAMA AND THE DANISH RADIO BIG BAND Top northern European big bands have long invited great composers and arrangers from abroad to collaborate on albums. These well-tooled orchestras can offer expert and faithful readings, though it’s often all too apparent that the bands don’t have a particularly lengthy or intimate relationship to the guest’s music. For the upstart Japanese big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique, that’s not a huge problem. If “Imaginary Visions,” her new album with the Danish Radio Big Band, feels like a master class in crisply executed contemporary big band jazz, it’s a class worth attending. (Sept. 24; Edition Records) — RussonelloKONDI BAND This intercontinental, intergenerational group’s story began when a YouTube video of the street musician Sorie Kondi made its way to Chief Boima, an American D.J. and producer with roots in Kondi’s native Sierra Leone. Boima’s subsequent remix of Sorie’s song “Without Money, No Family” paved the way for the pair’s ongoing collaboration as Kondi Band, named for Sorie’s 15-pin thumb piano, which lends an undulating backbone to glittering, electronic compositions that draw on West African traditions and contemporary dance music. “We Famous,” Kondi Band’s second album, expands its global footprint with contributions from a third member, the London-based producer Will Horrocks. (Sept. 24, Strut) — HornNAO With her gravity-defying soprano and lithe, darting melodies, the English songwriter Nao glides through songs about falling in and out of love, sounding buoyant even when she’s downhearted or uncertain. She’s joined by kindred jazzy-R&B songwriters on “And Then Life Was Beautiful,” including Lianne La Havas, serpentwithfeet and Lucky Daye. (Sept. 24; Sony Music UK/RCA Records) — Jon ParelesTHE OPHELIAS On their third album, “Crocus,” this Ohio four-piece delivers tender and sometimes unnerving songs of the heart, wrapped in thickets of expressive violin and delicate harmony. But the beauty of the arrangements doesn’t blunt the spikiness of lyrics penned by the group’s frontwoman, Spencer Peppet, as she surveys the emotional wreckage of relationships in the rearview mirror (“Holding you feels like a bomb went off in my chest” she sings, memorably, on “The Twilight Zone.”) Julien Baker, an artist with whom Peppet shares a knack for lyrical vulnerability, lends guest vocals to one track. (Sept. 24; Joyful Noise) — HornPoppy’s “Flux” captures an artist who works in between genres and moods.Burak Cingi/Redferns, via Getty ImagesPOPPY Since her ascent on YouTube several years ago, Poppy has ping-ponged from one identity to another: She’s styled herself as an internet satirist, a cyborgian pop star and, most recently, a nu-metal frontwoman. In every role, her signature move is to unnerve, whether she’s demonstrating a makeup look for a funeral, singing about body culture or screaming atop thrashing guitars and hurtling hard-core drums. Poppy’s upcoming fourth album follows last year’s “I Disagree,” which earned her a Grammy nomination for best metal performance. Titled “Flux,” it lands somewhere between the sonic extremes of her previous work, marrying heavy distortion with sticky pop hooks. (Sept. 24; Sumerian) — HornDAVID SANFORD BIG BAND The composer and academic David Sanford has spent his career exploring the ways big-band jazz and Western classical can feed off each other, with dashes of punk, ambient and experimental music thrown in too. His new album, “A Prayer for Lester Bowie,” pays tribute to the influential trumpeter and composer, a key member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who shared Sanford’s proclivity for scrambling prefabricated formulas. The album is a glorious hodgepodge of large-ensemble synchronicity and wah-wah-drenched blazes, with plenty of time devoted to featuring Hugh Ragin, a Chicago trumpeter like Bowie, whose rough and gleaming sound bespeaks a mix of pride and lament. (Sept. 24; Greenleaf Music) — RussonelloSUFJAN STEVENS AND ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE After some synthesizer-powered albums, Sufjan Stevens returns to his pristinely folky side on “A Beginner’s Mind,” a collaboration with the songwriter Angelo De Augustine, full of fingerpicking and delicate vocal harmonies. It’s high-concept in an unobtrusive way; the songs are inspired by movies, but it’s just as easy to take them as first-person ruminations on character and fate. (Sept. 24; Asthmatic Kitty) — ParelesBilly Strings. His name says it all.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressBILLY STRINGS The path from bluegrass to the jam-band circuit was opened by none other than Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Lately it has been traversed by Billy Strings, who writes pensive, philosophical songs and breezes through them with his virtuosic guitar picking. On “Renewal,” his fourth album, the core of the music is an acoustic string band — with fiddle and banjo, no drums — that happily takes an occasional psychedelic detour. (Sept. 24; Rounder) — ParelesENDEA OWENS & THE COOKOUT Let’s be honest: A lot of us started the pandemic with a pledge to fill the lonely stretches of lockdown with new and meaningful projects. For Endea Owens, a young bassist on the rise, that vow panned out. A member of the “Late Show” band led by Jon Batiste, she began organizing free “cookout” concerts in her Harlem neighborhood, providing live music and free meals to a broad swath of the often-underserved community, while playing a mix of jazz standards and backyard R&B jams. This fall, not long after Jazz at Lincoln Center reopens its doors for live concerts, Owens will bring her band, now called the Cookout, to Dizzy’s Club for a two-night run. (Sept. 25-26; Dizzy’s Club) — RussonelloTHE DIAMOND SERIES AT FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW Soprano Heaven arrives this fall, as the venue welcomes sparkling leading ladies for concert-length performances. Kelli O’Hara (Sept. 28-Oct. 3) and then Laura Benanti (Oct. 5-10) will kick off the series and Megan Hilty follows, Nov. 2-7. Also on tap at the Midtown club: the song and dance marvel Tony Yazbeck (Sept. 21-22); the silver-voiced Broadway veteran Christine Andreas (Sept. 24-25); the flame-haired dynamo Marilu Henner (Oct. 17); the grande dame Marilyn Maye (Oct. 25-30, Nov. 1) the show biz-diva Ruby Manger, alter ego of comedian and actor Julia Mattison (Oct. 13); and “Seussical Reunion Concert,” featuring members of the 2000 Broadway musical’s original cast (Nov. 22). — GardnerDUCHESS The women in this vocal trio — Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou — are not siblings by blood, but their sisterly, airtight harmonies have won them a following in jazz circles. The group will appear Sept. 30 at the newly reopened Birdland Theater, where the fall lineup includes beloved regular Natalie Douglas (Oct. 1-2, Nov. 15), Klea Blackhurst in a tribute to Jerry Herman (Oct. 20-22); Marissa Mulder, saluting John Prine (Oct. 3); and the singer-songwriter Christine Lavin (Nov. 22); in addition to weekly installments of “The Lineup With Susie Mosher” on Tuesdays and, upstairs at Birdland Jazz Club, “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party” on Mondays. The jazz club will also host a Sept. 20 concert featuring cast members from the returning Broadway production of “Company,” benefiting the mental health nonprofit Darkness Rising. — GardnerMICHAEL GARIN AND MARDIE MILLIT AT THE WEST BANK CAFE The husband-and-wife duo, who also perform together in the Habibi Kings, continue to hold forth at the West Bank Cafe (and on Facebook), where on the first two Sunday nights of every month you can catch Michael Garin — pianist, singer, raconteur, mash-up maestro — leap between genres with Mardie Millit serving as his comedy partner and lending a lustrous soprano. The Jazz Bandits appear every Friday, while Saturdays bring the piano and vocal stylings of Eric Yves Garcia, followed by the Gabrielle Stravelli Trio, led by the jazz singer and songwriter. — GardnerOctoberKELLY CLARKSON The original “American Idol” diva released her last album, the soulful, stomper-filled “Meaning of Life,” in 2017, and has since turned back to TV, where she dishes out advice to contestants on “The Voice” and hosts a daytime talk show. But Clarkson got back in the studio to capture a bit of holiday magic, and will release a Christmas album — her second — in October. The first single, “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You),” is due Sept. 23. (Atlantic) — HornJOEY PURP Like his fellow Chicagoan and occasional collaborator Chance the Rapper, Joey Purp wears his independent artist credentials with pride. He continues his string of self-releases with his third mixtape, “UpLate,” leaning into his more hedonistic instincts while rapping about conquests, cars and cash with cool detachment. With no features, it’s a relatively insular effort from an artist who tends to work collaboratively. He also contributed production, favoring bouncy, unfussy beats over the flashier aesthetic of earlier projects. (Self-released) — HornLady Gaga and Tony Bennett team up again, for what are to be Bennett’s final studio recordings.Marco Piraccini/Getty ImagesTONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA The two singers first connected on “Cheek to Cheek,” a 2014 album of jazz standards. “Love for Sale,” their newest, dives into the Cole Porter catalog, and will be Tony Bennett’s last studio recording following the recent announcement that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Lady Gaga is just a year removed from releasing the kaleidoscopic dance pop album “Chromatica,” but once again her chameleonic musical instincts make her flexible voice a natural fit alongside Bennett’s timeless tenor. (Oct. 1; Columbia/Interscope) — Jeremy GordonBRANDI CARLILE Since she released her sixth album “By the Way, I Forgive You” in 2018, the roots rock star Brandi Carlile’s profile has risen considerably. First there was that unforgettable performance of her anthemic song “The Joke” at the 2019 Grammys; then, earlier this year, her resilient and acclaimed memoir “Broken Horses” debuted atop the New York Times best-seller list. Expectations are high for her next album, but the searing “In These Silent Days” rises to the occasion. It’s a confidently composed testament to Carlile’s eclecticism, featuring fiery rockers (“Broken Horses”), politically engaged narratives (“Sinners Saints and Fools”) and a few shimmying folk numbers (“You and Me on the Rock”) that prove her recent live performance covering Joni Mitchell’s album “Blue” in its entirety may have unlocked a whole new phase of her own songwriting. (Oct. 1; Low Country Sound/Elektra) — Lindsay ZoladzTHE DAPTONE SOUL REVUE The 20-year-old Daptone label has been devoted to funk, soul and gospel that harks back to the 1960s and 1970s. In 2014, it gathered its roster on an appropriate stage to record “The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo,” with a parade of singers fronting an impeccable backup band, working up to one bluesy peak after another. Topping the extensive bill were Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, two gutsy, grown-up shouters who didn’t survive the 2010s. (Oct. 1, Daptone) — ParelesTIRZAH The avant-garde English electro-pop musician Tirzah’s sensuous second album “Colourgrade” is the result of extended jam sessions with her fellow producers and longtime collaborators Coby Sey (whose vocals are featured on the standout duet “Hive Mind”) and the experimental pop artist/Oscar-nominated musician Mica Levi (close friends with Tirzah since their school days). Tirzah’s songs are atmospheric, hypnotic and rarely straightforward, but her low croon has a beckoning allure — like Sade vocals refracted through a gleaming prism. (Oct. 1; Domino) — ZoladzLOST IN RIDDIM Afrobeats, the Nigerian pop that elegantly and ingeniously meshes African rhythms and savvy programming behind unflappable voices, was on its way to conquering the United States when the pandemic struck and destroyed tour plans. But Afrobeats tracks have still been racking up tens of millions of streams. A festival at the Railyards District in Sacramento, Lost in Riddim, presents 20 hitmakers — including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage and Mr Eazi — offering a two-day immersion in Afrobeats for a U.S. audience. (Oct. 2-3; Railyards District, Sacramento, Calif.) — ParelesMISS RICHFIELD 1981 The toast of Provincetown and “ambassadoress” of her native Minnesota suburb celebrates four decades of drag glory with “40 Years on the Throne,” a multimedia shindig mixing songs, videos and games with audience interplay at the Triad Theater,(Oct. 7-9). The club favorites the Dozen Divas, starring Dorothy Bishop, return (Sept. 24); later, acclaimed jazz singer Sharón Clark will appear with the Chris Grasso Trio (Oct. 16); “Extra! Extra!” will showcase the MAC Award winner Scott Raneri (Sept. 25, Nov. 7); Naima Mora will spin “The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need,” a tale of inner life and solidarity in New York that the model and actress co-wrote with Marishka S. Phillips (Oct. 16); and the sessions singer and recording artist Clayton Thomas will deliver “A Christmas Love Song” a couple of weeks early (Dec. 11). — GardnerTammy Faye Starlite will embody the Israeli chanteuse Tamar at Pangea.Al Pereira/Getty ImagesTAMMY FAYE STARLITE Alt-cabaret’s most enchanting chameleon returns, this time in the guise of the Israeli chanteuse Tamar, who sings in English and Hebrew. Developed with the director Rachel Lichtman, Tammy Faye Starlite’s latest creation draws inspiration from her former muse Marianne Faithfull, as well as Françoise Hardy, Juliette Gréco and Leonard Cohen. (Tamar’s version of “Suzanne” includes lyrics from “Ba’Shana Haba’ah.”) She’ll hold court each Thursday in October at Pangea. On Nov. 8 and 15, the old-school champion Sidney Myer — held dear among cabaret fans as both an entertainer and a booker — starts his own new chapter, premiering “Sidney’s Back at Pangea.” And Tweed TheaterWorks returns with its “Sundays @ 7” series, with participants set to include the octave-jumping vocalist and mystic Carol Lipnik (Oct. 17) and the celebrated writer-performer David Cale with his musical collaborator Matthew Dean Marsh (Nov. 21). — GardnerJOHN COLTRANE No jazz recording is more sacrosanct than the John Coltrane Quartet’s 1964 capture of “A Love Supreme.” But perhaps no recording can live up to the fierce combustion of a live jazz show. So there’s reason to celebrate the recent discovery of a 1965 recording on which Coltrane gives a rare club performance of his masterpiece. “A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle” marks the first time that a live version of the suite is being officially released as an album of its own. At this show, verging into the avant-garde, Coltrane augments his quartet with two saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Ward, plus a second bassist, Donald Garrett, and lets the expanded group spontaneously remold his compositions into something new and cathartic. (Oct. 8; Impulse) — RussonelloNATALIE HEMBY Natalie Hemby has thrived in Nashville as a collaborator, sharing songwriting credits on dozens of songs (including the Grammy-winning “I’ll Never Love Again” from “A Star Is Born”) and lately joining the Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. But her voice can stand on its own. On her second solo album, “Pins and Needles,” she sings about love’s enticements and complications, avoiding current arena-country gimmickry for a sinewy, naturalistic 1990s sound that harks back to another of her collaborators, Sheryl Crow. (Oct. 8; Fantasy) — ParelesOLD DOMINION For the better part of a decade, members of this five-piece have been shaping the sound of country radio, both with hits of their own and those they pen for stars like Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Kelsea Ballerini. “Time, Tequila & Therapy,” Old Dominion’s fourth full-length, is packed with chipper, harmony-rich country-pop that teeters pleasantly between earnestness and goofiness. “There’s no hard feelings, and no bad vibes,” the frontman Matthew Ramsey sings on one contented tune; the album’s title is his recommended recipe for post-breakup enlightenment. (Oct. 8; Sony Nashville) — HornWORLD CAFE 30 OVER 30 WXPN is a Philadelphia radio station with rock foundations but an eclectic bent, known to public radio listeners across the country for its NPR-distributed flagship program, “World Cafe.” That show — which features live performances and interviews with artists including industry fixtures (recently the Wallflowers and David Crosby) and up-and-comers (Jensen McRae, Shungudzo) — turns 30 this fall. To celebrate, XPN will roll out 30 weeks of special programming on air and online beginning Oct. 11; offerings will include resurfaced archival footage and a collection of new covers by program alumni. — HornZAC BROWN BAND Longtime listeners who may have felt alienated by the country juggernaut Zac Brown’s pair of pop-oriented 2019 releases — his band’s eclectic album “The Owl,” and Brown’s even glossier solo album “The Controversy” — are likely to find “The Comeback” a fitting title for the Zac Brown Band’s seventh studio album. Returning to the raucous, full-bodied sound of the Georgia-based group’s 2008 breakthrough “The Foundation,” “The Comeback” leans hard into many of its proven strengths, from the playful, “Margaritaville”-esque dispatches “Paradise Lost on Me” and “Same Boat” to the lush group harmonies and intricate guitar work showcased on “Out in the Middle.” Don’t be afraid to call it by its name. (Oct. 15; Warner Music Nashville/Home Grown Music) — ZoladzCOLDPLAY After briefly linking up with the Swedish pop impresario Max Martin a few years ago, Britain’s most tender big-tent export has handed him the reins for its new album. “Music of the Spheres” refashions the band’s emotionally generous stadium rock into nimble and soaring pop, and further commits to its eternally optimistic worldview on bouncy songs like “Higher Power,” where a spiritual take on life also extends toward a belief in the extraterrestrial. It also features a formal collaboration with the Korean megastars BTS, following a few years of mutual public appreciation. (Oct. 15; Atlantic) — GordonFINNEAS The artist born Finneas Baird O’Connell is more commonly known as the primary collaborator of his sister, Billie Eilish, with whom he’s won eight Grammys. “Optimist” is his debut solo record, following a 2019 EP. Contrary to his sister’s moody, minor-key pop, Finneas is more of a classic crooner in the model of Rufus Wainwright or Elton John, which you can hear in the exposed “What They’ll Say About Us.” (Oct. 15; Interscope) — GordonXENIA RUBINOS The Brooklyn musician Xenia Rubinos continues to build on the creative ambition of her last album, “Black Terry Cat” from 2016, on which notes of hip-hop, R&B and rock mingled, bolstered by Rubinos’s considerable jazz chops and incisive, often barbed, lyricism. Early singles from her vivid upcoming album, “Una Rosa,” suggest the ways in which her project has expanded: Rubinos layers electronics into her already-eclectic sound, and mutates her vocals to signal alienation and grief. Named for a danza by the Puerto Rican composer José Enrique Pedreira, “Una Rosa” also digs deeper into Rubinos’s Afro-Latino musical heritage, and features more singing in Spanish than her prior releases. (Oct. 15; Anti-) — HornYoung Thug’s forthcoming album, “Punk,” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist.Jessie Lirola for The New York TimesYOUNG THUG The ’20s pop-punk renaissance is in full effect, and its latest devotee is the prolific rap chameleon Young Thug. After releasing the second installment of his “Slime Language” compilation earlier this year, Young Thug debuted a new sound during an NPR Tiny Desk concert this summer: chunky rock guitars, rapid-fire live drumming, and over the top of it all, the rapper pivoting between sharply confessional bars and catchy hooks. A little bit SoundCloud-era emo-rap, a little bit “Rebirth”-era Lil Wayne, the declaratively titled “Punk” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist who’s never content to repeat himself. (Oct. 15; 300 Entertainment/Atlantic) — ZoladzSAMARA JOY The daughter and granddaughter of accomplished gospel artists, this aptly named 21-year-old found her own calling in jazz. Floating from precociously warm, sexy low notes to a silky top, Samara Joy’s voice evokes classic influences and has earned her collaborations with leading contemporary musicians such as the guitarist Pasquale Grasso, whose trio will accompany her at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club on Oct. 17. On Oct. 24, Dizzy’s will host the scat master Ashley Pezzotti and Her Trio; Pezzotti will also join the JALC Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis for “Big Band Holidays” at JALC’s Rose Theater, Dec. 15-19. — GardnerTaylor Mac’s new show at Joe’s Pub is “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People.”Willa FolmarTAYLOR MAC The boundary-shattering theater artist returns with “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People,” crafted with the music director and arranger Matt Ray, and showcasing the talents of other old friends (along with new ones), including band members who performed in Taylor Mac’s acclaimed “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” and the costume designer Machine Dazzle. The show runs Oct. 19-23 at Joe’s Pub, where offerings include another reliable source of inspirational irreverence (and Ray collaborator), Justin Vivian Bond (Oct. 5-9); “Kludge,” a collection of music and poetry curated by Laurie Anderson (Oct. 12-16); the neuro-inclusive Epic Players (Oct. 24-25); the enduringly pure and fierce voice of Toshi Reagon, with Big Lovely (Nov. 9-11) and Lizz Wright (Nov. 12-13); Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force, the innovative young vocalist and dynamic big band (Nov. 16-20); and the drag diva Peppermint, in “A Girl Like Me …” (Dec. 5-6). — GardnerBRIC JAZZFEST Picking back up where it left off before the pandemic, this annual jazz festival will bring a mix of rising Brooklyn-based talent and established stars to the arts organization’s sprawling home base in Downtown Brooklyn. Headliners at the three-night festival will include the vocalists Cecile McLorin Salvant and Kurt Elling, both performing on opening night; the Sun Ra Arkestra, an avant-garde standard-bearer, slated for Friday; and Madison McFerrin, the upstart jazz-and-beyond singer and composer, who served as a co-curator of the 2021 festival. (Oct. 21-23; BRIC House) — RussonelloCIRCUIT DES YEUX Harnessing the bewitching power of Haley Fohr’s four-octave voice, the sixth album from her project Circuit Des Yeux, “-io,” has an operatic grandeur and a rumbling, Scott Walker-like intensity. Fohr composed these haunting and elemental songs for a 24-piece orchestra, and their bombastic percussion and screaming string sections make “-io” her most ambitious achievement to date. A stirring reflection on grief, oblivion and acceptance, the album sounds like a fearless free fall into the void. (Oct. 22; Matador) — ZoladzGROUPER Liz Harris’s work as Grouper is for listeners who crave mystery, and don’t mind if a song never resolves into legibility. “Shade,” her 12th full-length record as Grouper, compiles songs written over the last 15 years across the country. On tracks like “Followed the Ocean” and “Basement Mix,” her voice, submerged under tape hiss and aqueous piano chords, sounds like a dispatch from a lost civilization. (Oct. 22; Kranky) — GordonELTON JOHN The isolation of Covid-19 led Elton John to try collaborations galore. On “The Lockdown Sessions,” he takes his place (sometimes virtual, sometimes in person) alongside Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Wonder, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Rina Sawayama, Stevie Nicks, Charlie Puth, Nicki Minaj and many more. By turns he’s a colleague, a venerated elder, a cover act and a hook singer; all sorts of musicians wanted to latch on to his dramatic melodies and benevolent aura. (Oct. 22; Interscope) — ParelesMy Morning Jacket’s first album since 2015 harks back to even earlier eras of rock ’n’ roll.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressMY MORNING JACKET With a self-titled album, its first since 2015, My Morning Jacket ponders the nature of reality in a digitally mediated, late-capitalist era. The music, harking back to the late 1960s and early 1970s of Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers, makes even clearer how much the band longs for a vanished analog past. (Oct. 22; ATO) — ParelesARTIFACTS TRIO The self-titled debut album from this iconoclastic group of all-star Chicagoan improvisers, released in 2015, was a direct homage to the legacy of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, featuring covers of compositions by figures from throughout the history of that avant-garde collective. This time, the trio — Tomeka Reid on cello, Nicole Mitchell on flute and Mike Reed on drums, all association members themselves — is carrying the spirit of homage into the present, with a disc of their own original compositions called “… and Then There’s This.” As on the last album, the intrigue is in the empty spaces, the territory left open by the lack of a piano or a bass or, often, any clear rhythmic pulse at all. (Oct. 29; Astral Spirits) — RussonelloGEESE Last spring, while many of their fellow high school seniors were solidifying their college plans, members of the buzzy Brooklyn rock band Geese were taking meetings with record labels. After announcing themselves with the misleadingly named single “Disco,” this teenage five-piece is set to release its expansive, guitar-forward debut record on the same label that houses post-punk groups like Idles and Fontaines D.C. Titled “Projector,” it’s packed with spiny guitar riffs, angsty, psychedelic musings and plenty of indulgent instrumental breaks. (Oct. 29; Partisan/Play It Again Sam) — HornED SHEERAN Ed Sheeran’s guileless style of pop music made him an unlikely global superstar, largely owing to his intuition for navigating universal emotions through undeniable melodies. “=” (pronounced “equals”), his latest LP, draws from the same genre-agnostic well: The lead single, “Bad Habits,” splits the difference between folk and pop like a polite club banger, while “Visiting Hours,” a tribute to his late mentor, Michael Gudinski, is pure choral pathos. A variety of musicians such as Kylie Minogue, Natalie Hemby and Ben Kweller also contribute. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonTHE WAR ON DRUGS Over the last decade, Adam Granduciel’s band has developed a conduit between blurry art rock and blue-skied Springsteenian ambition, slowly refining its ethos with the patience of a painter stippling a canvas point by point. On “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” the band’s first studio record since winning the Grammy for best rock album, still waters mask anxieties about change, love and finding one’s place in the world. Ideal for those who want the experience of standing in a cool breeze while sitting at home. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonPOSTY FEST If you’re trying to figure out “the kids” — or, if by the miracle of chronology, you’re one of them — you could do worse than attending Posty Fest, a two-day festival curated by the pop-rap trickster Post Malone. This year’s lineup features Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, Flo Milli, Jack Harlow and more. The festival will take place outdoors in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. (Oct. 30-31; AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Tx.) — GordonNovemberIdles escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIDLES The British band Idles wrings new variations from the post-punk vocabulary of obstinacy, impact, dissonance, talk-singing and ratcheting-up tension on its fourth studio album. The band escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar; the vocalist, Joe Talbot, veers from bitter cynicism to dance-floor instructions to howls of “Damage! Damage! Damage!” (Partisan) — ParelesABBA After nearly 40 years, the Abba fan’s plea of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! … some more Abba songs, please” has finally been answered. “Voyage” is the Swedish mega-group’s first LP since “The Visitors,” but the lush grooves of songs like “Don’t Shut Me Down” sound like they’ve been retrieved from a time capsule. The new record will be followed by a reunion concert starting in 2022, where the group will perform as holograms. No, seriously. (Nov. 5; Capitol) — GordonART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS The quintessential band of the hard-bop era was near the height of its powers in 1961, when it traveled for the first time to Japan for a series of performances. With Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass, this configuration (the group’s membership rotated constantly) had already recorded a pair of instant-classic albums, “The Big Beat” and “A Night in Tunisia,” but there’s nothing quite like the casual synergy and playful sparring that they put on display live. On “First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings,” a previously unheard collection that was recently dug up, no performance is under 10 minutes long. Extended takes on Benny Golson’s “Blues March” and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” are among the standouts. (Nov. 5; Blue Note) — RussonelloAIMEE MANN The singer-songwriter Aimee Mann’s 2017 album, a glum but elegant collection straightforwardly titled “Mental Illness,” is a good primer for her new project: a song cycle based on “Girl, Interrupted,” Susanna Kaysen’s celebrated memoir about her stint in psychiatric care at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. Mann’s new songs were commissioned for an upcoming stage adaptation of the book — the details of which remain unknown — and will soon be released on the album “Queens of the Summer Hotel” (a reference to a line from a poem by Anne Sexton, another notable McLean patient). The theatrical prompt puts good use to Mann’s more maudlin songwriting instincts, and gives her occasion to indulge in lush orchestrations. (Nov. 5; SuperEgo) — HornRADIOHEAD Radiohead decisively jettisoned rock’s structural and sonic conventions with its 2000 and 2001 albums “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” challenging itself to upend expectations with every new track. It’s reissuing the two albums along with a third disc of material from the same sessions as “Kid A Mnesia,” including a few rare songs and radically different takes of familiar ones. (Nov. 5; XL) — ParelesDiana Ross’s first album in 15 years features production from Jack Antonoff, known for his collaborations with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.Rick Kern/Getty ImagesDIANA ROSS You can’t hurry a Diana Ross record. The Motown icon’s first album in 15 years is the beatific “Thank You,” which features some fresh talent: Jack Antonoff, pop producer du jour, contributed to “I Still Believe,” a boisterous disco track that also features St. Vincent on guitar, and Tayla Parx, a frequent Ariana Grande collaborator, helped write the schmaltzy ballad “Just in Case.” (Nov. 5; Decca) — HornSNAIL MAIL On “Lush,” her debut LP as Snail Mail, Lindsey Jordan pushed herself to the forefront of modern guitar pop. “Valentine,” which she co-produced with Brad Cook, expands her tightly manicured sound by incorporating R&B and hip-hop, but still centers her emotive songwriting about the fussy and devastating thoughts that keep us up at night. “You’ll always know where to find me when you change your mind,” she sings on the title track, like someone who intimately knows how feelings can’t be ignored. (Nov. 5; Matador) — GordonDONNA McKECHNIE One of musical theater’s true triple threats, Donna McKechnie was already a Broadway veteran when she scored a Tony Award singing, dancing and acting in the original company of “A Chorus Line.” In “My Musical Comedy Life,” at the Green Room 42 from Nov. 11-13, she’ll share songs and stories tracing her career, including numbers from “Company,” “Sweet Charity” and “Promises, Promises.” The venue’s fall lineup also features the two-time Broadway World Award winner Mark William (Sept. 25); the “Dear Evan Hansen” alumnus Michael Lee Brown (Oct. 2 and 9); the multi-artist showcases “Broadway Belters Sing!” (Sept. 29, Oct. 6) and “Whitney Houston: A Celebration in Song” (Nov. 6); the musical actress Bianca Marroquin (Nov. 10); and, on Tonys night, Sept. 26, “Hold Me Closer Tony Extravaganza: Tony Award Viewing Party,” hosted by the Skivvies. — GardnerDamon Albarn wrote lyrics for “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” during pandemic lockdown.Torben Christensen/EPA, via ShutterstockDAMON ALBARN Remarkably, the prolific musician from Blur, Gorillaz and many more projects is releasing what’s formally just his second solo album. “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” originated as an orchestral piece, but was lyrically fleshed out during lockdown. Here, the acid wit of Damon Albarn’s earlier work further peels away to reveal contemplative lyrics about the passage of time, among other openhearted ideas, set against a shimmering musical backdrop of strings and synth textures. (Nov. 12; Transgressive) — GordonCOURTNEY BARNETT Witty, dense lyricism and uneasy ruminations on modern life are this Australian musician’s bread and butter; since her breakout EP arrived in 2013, they’ve earned her scores of fans. On Courtney Barnett’s third album, “Things Take Time, Take Time,” she seems unburdened: her tone is lighter, her guitar tamer. “Don’t worry so much about it,” goes the amiable thesis of “Rae Street,” “I’m just waiting for the day to become night.” The record was produced with Stella Mozgawa, of the indie-rock band Warpaint, and features contributions from Vagabon and Cate Le Bon. (Nov. 12; Mom & Pop) — HornJONI MITCHELL Following last year’s revelatory “The Early Years,” the second volume of Joni Mitchell’s ongoing collection of archival releases charts one of the most astonishingly productive periods of her career, from 1968 to 1971 — or, in terms of Mitchell’s discography, from her promising debut “Song to a Seagull” to her enduring masterwork “Blue.” (“Clouds” and “Ladies of the Canyon” came in the years between, if you can believe it.) Across five discs and 119 tracks, “Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)” provides an intimate glimpse into the process of a peerless songwriter’s rapid evolution, including some previously unheard early versions of Mitchell classics like “All I Want,” “A Case of You” and “California.” But just as compellingly, the many live recordings in this collection also chronicle Mitchell’s increasingly confident command of larger and larger audiences, including an unreleased 1968 set in an Ottawa coffee house (taped by the devoted Mitchell fan Jimi Hendrix), her famed 1969 Carnegie Hall debut and a breathtaking 1970 London show that features backing vocals from her partner at the time and one of her “Blue” muses, James Taylor. (Nov. 13; Rhino) — ZoladzBen LaMar Gay’s “Open Arms to Open Us” bubbles with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays.Sebastien Salom Gomis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBEN LAMAR GAY For Ben LaMar Gay, a love song can also be a kind of self-affirmation, and a low-key theory of everything. Likewise, as his career wears on, the walls between the various corridors of his artistry — as an electronic musician, a jazz-trained improviser, a postmodern folklorist — continue to disintegrate. The 17 tracks on “Open Arms to Open Us” bubble with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays. One thing that stays relatively clear is Gay’s voice, a wise and confiding baritone, which he barely alters with any reverb or effects. (Nov. 19; International Anthem/Nonesuch) — RussonelloROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS Much has changed since “Raising Sand,” the 2007 Grammy-winning and chart-beating collaborative album between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, but on “Raise the Roof,” their voices still fit together like a pair of dusty boots nestled atop a welcome mat. Fans of Led Zeppelin’s folksier side will appreciate Plant’s return to Appalachian bluegrass, and the covers of artists from Merle Haggard to Bert Jansch to Geeshie Wiley. T Bone Burnett returns as producer. (Nov. 19; Rounder) — GordonMAKAYA McCRAVEN The drummer, composer and producer Makaya McCraven has become one of the most talked-about improvising musicians in the game largely thanks to his method: He tinkers with his band’s live recordings until they’ve become something murkier, groovier and more kaleidoscopic. He typically doesn’t pull from old recordings or archival aesthetics, but instead remixes his own group’s music. With the release of last year’s “We’re New Here,” an affectionate reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album, that changed: McCraven strapped on his headlamp and wandered deep into the archive. On “Deciphering the Message,” McCraven’s newest album and his first for Blue Note, he delves into the label’s own back catalog, using samples and clips from classic recordings as a centerpiece around which his band improvises and embellishes. (Nov. 19; Blue Note) — RussonelloThe newest entry in Taylor Swift’s series of rerecorded albums will be “Red (Taylor’s Version).”Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTAYLOR SWIFT In the most prolific chapter of her career so far, Taylor Swift is both exploring new sounds — the moody cabin-pop of last year’s twin releases, “Folkore” and “Evermore” — and revisiting her early work. Swift’s ongoing project of recreating her first six albums in an effort to reclaim control of her master recordings continues with “Red (Taylor’s Version).” This new edition of her 2012 album comes with nine previously unreleased tracks; among them are “Nothing New,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers; Swift’s own version of “Better Man,” which she wrote for the country group Little Big Town; and an extended cut of the fan-favorite song “All Too Well.” (Nov. 19; Republic) — HornSUZANNE VEGA In 2019, the folk-influenced singer-songwriter, author and occasional theater artist Suzanne Vega embraced another outlet for storytelling, performing a two-week residency at Café Carlyle. Her New York-themed set was released last year as “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories” — now the basis for “Two Evenings of New York Songs and Stories.” The show arrives Nov. 26-27 at City Winery, where the fall roster veers from other troubadours — including John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band (Sept. 26-27), Rodney Crowell (Oct. 14), Graham Parker (Nov. 1 and 8), Marc Broussard (Nov. 2-3), Joe Henry (Nov. 14) and Vanessa Carlton (Nov. 22) — to the actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo (Oct. 11) and “A John Waters Christmas” (Dec. 12), with the Pope of Trash ringing in the holy season. — GardnerDecemberANA MOURA Ana Moura is firmly rooted in the smoky, fatalistic traditions of fado from her birthplace, Portugal. But album by album she has been connecting ever more widely to the former Portuguese empire and to 21st-century technology. On “Mázia,” the melancholy richness of her voice is backed not only by the Portuguese guitarra but also by beats from Portugal, Brazil, Angola and Cape Verde, and she’s perfectly at home with blues-rock guitar, electronics and flecks of Auto-Tune, even as the melancholy richness of her voice comes through. (Dec. 3; Universal) — ParelesALSO THIS FALL100 GECS The 2019 debut album of Dylan Brady and Laura Les’s internet-inspired future pop launched 1,000 think pieces about the duo’s chaotic approach to musical collage. That LP was conceived over email, but “10000 gecs,” the follow-up, was recorded in person in Los Angeles. Their way-way-way-left-of-center approach to the pop mainstream is grounded by the studio drummer Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses, Katy Perry), but there’s still enough manic genre collision to launch 10,000 more think pieces. (Dog Show) — GordonKEVIN ABSTRACT The impending breakup of the all-American boy band Brockhampton hasn’t slowed the creative momentum of Kevin Abstract, its most visible member. Befitting his ongoing work to collapse artistic distinctions — famously, Brockhampton includes a handful of nonmusical members — his third solo album flits between genres and moods. The hard-hitting rap of “Slugger” bleeds into a softhearted track like “Sierra Nights,” which sounds like a coming-of-age movie. (Question Everything/RCA) — Gordon More

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      A Rare Look at Bob Dylan in the Studio, and 13 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Tems, Adia Victoria, Cuco and others.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.Bob Dylan, ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Version 2)’“Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Version 2)” is from the latest deep dive into the Bob Dylan archives, the five-CD “Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 1980-1985.” The track is similar in feel — though full of Dylan’s improvisatory variations — to the take that appeared on “Infidels” in 1983, with a new mix that dials back the unfortunate 1980s drum sound. Dylan had a superb studio band, with the Jamaican team of Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Skakespeare) on drums and bass, and a conversational interplay between Mick Taylor (formerly of the Rolling Stones) on slide guitar and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) on electric guitar. It’s not the most radical discovery in the set — which also includes rarities like “Enough Is Enough” and “Yes Sir, No Sir” — but it arrives with live footage of the sessions, a rare glimpse of Dylan in motion in the studio. JON PARELESThe War on Drugs featuring Lucius, ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’The War on Drugs trades psychedelic haze for 1980s heft in “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.” Adam Granduciel sings about coming to terms with the past, breaking up, letting go and moving on, deciding — with the voices of Lucius as a choir — “We’re all just walking through this darkness on our own.” Deploying neat, reverberating guitar and synthesizer hooks like Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” the song is a booming march toward a willed recovery. PARELESTems featuring Brent Faiyaz, ‘Found’This stellar duet between the young Nigerian singer Tems and the R&B crooner Brent Faiyaz is saturated with an easy melancholy. On the song from Tems’s new EP, “If Orange Was a Place,” she sounds anxious and unraveled: “I feel I might just be coming undone/Tell me why you can’t be found.” When Faiyaz arrives, he’s alternately soothing and cloying. “Found” has echoes of SZA’s insular angst, and also the robust, earthen texture of mid-1990s R&B. It’s utterly swell. JON CARAMANICACarly Pearce and Ashley McBryde, ‘Never Wanted to Be That Girl’A stoic and affecting back and forth between Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde, both coming to the realization that they have a man in common. It’s a timeless trope, and an effective one — neither one attempts to out-sing the other, a gesture of their shared frustration (unlike in, say, Reba McEntire’s blistering 1990s duets with Linda Davis, which delved into throat warfare). CARAMANICAAdia Victoria, ‘Mean-Hearted Woman’After dabbling in electronic textures with her 2019 album, “Silences,” Adia Victoria circles back, at least partway, toward bluesy roots-rock on her new album, “A Southern Gothic.” Its songs deal with power, mortality and, in “Mean-Hearted Woman,” heartbreak and revenge. Lingering on one chord, with a plucked guitar and a persistent tambourine, she sings about being dumped and replaced, and while her voice stays quiet and breathy, she moves bewilderment and heartache to fury, with a death threat that’s no less menacing for staying quiet. PARELESCuco, ‘Under the Sun’“Under the Sun” is a shape-shifting statement about the journey to self. Cuco immerses us in interdimensional psych rock, only to quickly shift to a cumbia interlude, and then to a wave of lightning guitar licks. In the video, he leaves a lit candle at an altar featuring the artwork for his 2019 album “Para Mi.” Consider this a new era, one where all bets are off. ISABELIA HERRERASnail Mail, ‘Valentine’“Why’d you want to erase me?” Lindsey Jordan — the songwriter behind Snail Mail — yowls in “Valentine.” It’s a song about affection, obsession, estrangement, jealousy and bewilderment, with tempestuous quiet-LOUD-quiet indie-rock dynamics that mirror a passionate, messy, still unresolved relationship. PARELESMoor Mother, ‘Rogue Waves’For years, it has felt painfully imprecise to slap the “hip-hop” label onto the music of Camae Ayewa, a poet, electronic musician and Afrofuturist who performs as Moor Mother. (Not that that’s stopped streaming services and other grid jockeys from trying.) But two confluent things have been happening recently: Ayewa is embracing lower-slung, more head-nodding beats, and hip-hop itself is becoming a spacier, gooier, more abstract zone. The new Moor Mother album, “Black Encyclopedia of the Air,” features guest spots from rising rappers and vocalists, like Pink Siifu and Orion Sun, on most tracks. But on “Rogue Waves,” over a hydraulic swinging beat, Ayewa goes it alone — confronting subject matter that’s sometimes abstract and evocative, elsewhere tender and intimate. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOCraig Taborn, ’60xsixty’In the same week that he announced his first solo album in 10 years (coming Oct. 8), the pianist Craig Taborn released another collection of music that’s similar in nature, but not quite the same. “60xsixty” contains 60 restive and fleeting pieces, all about a minute each, that play back-to-back at 60xsixty.com in a randomized order that’s different each time you visit the site. You’re unable to pause or skip: The listener’s usual sense of control is stripped away, as is the very notion of a finished product — Taborn has said he may swap out some tracks for new ones in the future, keeping the total number at 60. The current range of tracks varies from 12-tone-scale improvisations on acoustic piano to the kind of squelchy, three-dimensional electronic music that Taborn makes with his project Junk Magic. On other tracks, he’s most concerned with stirring up ambient sound. RUSSONELLOOneohtrix Point Never and Elizabeth Fraser, ‘Tales From the Trash Stratum’Leave it to Oneohtrix Point Never and the Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser to craft the ultimate experiment in glossolalia. “Tales From the Trash Stratum” runs like a New Age seminar on mushrooms: OPN collages glitchy arpeggios, synth crashes and delicate piano keys; Fraser’s echoed sighs and angel-dust melodies flicker in and out of the production. It’s a blast of neurological delirium and decay, rendered as soothingly as possible. HERRERAAmaarae featuring Kali Uchis, ‘Sad Girlz Luv Money (Official Remix)’Last year, the Ghanaian American artist Amaarae quietly released “The Angel You Don’t Know,” an imaginative, buoyant album that masterfully harnessed all kinds of Afro-diasporic sounds, including R&B, Southern rap and Nigerian highlife. “Sad Girlz Luv Money” was an immediate standout: a breezy Afropop anthem for midnight trysts. On the official remix, the Colombian American singer Kali Uchis whispers hushed, silky come-ons in Spanish, and Amaarae’s sky-high melodies and smoky raps curl over the beat. HERRERALindsey Buckingham, ‘Swan Song’A frenetic drum loop, like a pummeled punching bag, drives “Swan Song” from Lindsey Buckingham’s new, self-titled album, recorded solo in the studio and released after his severance from Fleetwood Mac and emergency triple-bypass surgery. The mix feels inside-out, with his voice enclosed by percussion while his flamenco-tinged acoustic guitar and wailing electric guitar both poke outward. He taunts mortality — “She says it’s late, but the future’s looking bright”— with fast fingers. PARELESIann Dior featuring Lil Uzi Vert, ‘V12’What a dreamily beautiful song from Iann Dior, a sweet-sounding sing-rapper with just the faintest of barbed edges, and Lil Uzi Vert. Together, they’re boastful and playful, and yet the production has an elegiac edge, as if sadness were an inevitable byproduct of success. CARAMANICAOuri, ‘Chains’Ouri — the Montreal composer and electronic producer Ourielle Auvé — sketches a track being assembled and tweaked on the spot with “Chains,” from her album “Frame of a Fauna,” due Oct. 22. She dials in swooping sounds, echoey vocal syllables, a glitchy beat, tentative chords; the dance beat solidifies, falls away and reappears, briefly locking into syncopation with wordless vocal syncopations before evaporating. The video shows Ouri concocting a CGI dancer who leaps out as flesh and blood: virtual efforts turning physical. PARELES More

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      As Concerts Resume, H.E.R. Will Headline Two Festivals of Her Own

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      After a pandemic-mandated pause, the singer and guitarist’s Lights On Festival brings an R&B showcase to California and Brooklyn this fall.It was going to be the start of something big.In 2019, H.E.R. inaugurated, curated and headlined her own festival: Lights On, a one-day marathon of young R&B acts that also included Jhené Aiko and Ari Lennox. It sold out the nearly 13,000 seats at the Concord Pavilion amphitheater in Concord, Calif., so a sequel in 2020 was the obvious next step. But with the pandemic, it had to wait a year.For Lights On in 2021, H.E.R. didn’t just double down; she quadrupled, going twice as long, bicoastal and multigenerational. “I feel like it’s the perfect way to celebrate opening back up,” the singer and guitarist said by phone from Brooklyn earlier this summer, before rising Covid-19 cases had the concert business stopping, starting up again and adding rules about vaccines, tests and masks. For the events this fall, the festival will be following the rules mandated by each location’s local government. The 2021 Lights On Festival in Concord expanded from one day to two, Sept. 18-19, to be headlined by H.E.R. and the earth mother of neo-soul, Erykah Badu; it sold out immediately. Then H.E.R. announced an East Coast edition of Lights On: two days at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Oct. 21-22, with H.E.R. and the suave 1990s hitmaker Maxwell topping the bill. (On both coasts, the lineup also includes Bryson Tiller; H.E.R. did her first national tour, in 2017, opening for Tiller.)With more than a dozen acts on the festival bills — along with surprise guests, H.E.R. promised — each day’s show is scheduled to run about eight hours. The California version of Lights On extends outdoors, with carnival rides, game arcades and sponsored exhibitions like Fender House, where concertgoers can try playing guitar. The large lobby at Barclays will also house some festival-style attractions.R&B “makes you want to fall in love,” H.E.R. said. “It tells stories. It helps you through heartbreak. It’s literally the soundtrack of our lives.”Natalia Mantini for The New York TimesH.E.R., 24, was born Gabriella Wilson; she has said that H.E.R. stands for Having Everything Revealed. She has been performing her own songs since she was a teenager: singing, rapping and playing keyboards, guitar and bass, flaunting an old-school, hands-on musicianship in the lineage of Prince and D’Angelo. H.E.R. won her first Grammy awards in 2019 for best R&B album (“H.E.R.”) and best R&B performance. When Shawn Gee, the president of Live Nation Urban, approached H.E.R. to build her own festival, she had a clear concept.“R&B is not dead — that’s the slogan, that’s the theme,” H.E.R. said. “Rhythm and blues is the foundation of everything. It’s raw, authentic, organic — just truth and feeling, straight feeling. It makes you want to fall in love. It tells stories. It helps you through heartbreak. It’s literally the soundtrack of our lives. There’s so many different elements of R&B that live in other music, like country and pop and so many other genres. It’s in everything. And people show up for R&B.”When the pandemic shut everything down, H.E.R. said she considered mounting a virtual festival, but, “It didn’t work out the way that we wanted it to.”But she still had nationwide exposure during the pandemic. She sang Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” for the Emmy Awards in 2020, “America the Beautiful” before the Super Bowl in February 2021 and “Hold On” as a duet with the country singer Chris Stapleton at the CMT Awards in June. In April, she performed “Fight for You” — the song she wrote for the film “Judas and the Black Messiah” — at the Oscars; it won the award for best original song.During the pandemic, all sorts of musicians did webcasts from their homes or in other bare-bones settings. H.E.R. started an Instagram Live series, “Girls With Guitars,” that became a showcase for fellow female songwriters. She believes the pandemic reminded listeners of the value of unvarnished, hands-on musicianship. “I think people forgot how much they loved that intimate feeling of just a singer and a guitar,” she said. “Like, ‘I haven’t seen that in a long time. I haven’t felt that in a long time.’ Now you’re watching me from my living room, and not a big stage, and you get a different feeling. I definitely think people were missing that.”H.E.R. onstage at Lights On in 2019.Tim Mosenfelder/Getty ImagesBut H.E.R. got nostalgic for making live music in person again. “There’s nothing like performing in front of an audience that’s there for you, and that knows the songs,” she said. “It’s a different energy when you can be connected to the fans in that way. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most with everything coming back — just that connection.”H.E.R. also used the isolation of quarantine, she said, to center herself after years of touring: to cook and play video games along with writing and recording songs. She completed an album, “Back of My Mind,” that was released in June, while in 2020 she also wrote “I Can’t Breathe,” her response to the police murder of George Floyd and to Black Lives Matter protests. “I Can’t Breathe” won the Grammy for song of the year in 2021.“Seeing somebody that looks like me being killed or attacked — of course I’m going to write about it and feel very deeply about it,” she said. “As I grow older, and I’m seeing more and I’m understanding more and I’m learning more about my history, I think all artists should feel a responsibility to talk about what they feel. And how could you not feel something towards an event like that?”As the prospect of live concerts re-emerged, H.E.R. was eager to resume and expand Lights On. “With more people vaccinated and things opening up, being able to put on a festival didn’t seem ridiculous,” she said. “We knew that things would have to come back eventually. We’ve been planning for the past year, but really just locking everything in” since January, H.E.R. said.Putting on a festival in 2021 means reactivating complex mechanisms: staging, sound systems, lighting, security, food, promotion, sponsorships and more. But Gee, of Live Nation, said production logistics were easier to restart than might have been expected.H.E.R. said she used the isolation of quarantine to center herself after years on the road.Natalia Mantini for The New York Times“Everyone was ready to go back to work, but everyone had to wait until when they were told when they could go back to work,” he said by phone from Philadelphia. “Fans were ready to go back and experience live music again in a safe, healthy environment. As an industry we listened to science, and we listened to governance. Each local government decided what can be done. And once everyone got the green light to start productions again, ramping back up was almost like muscle memory.”Concert production companies had not been entirely dormant during quarantine. They had geared up to produce livestreams and other online shows instead. “Every virtual event still needed a big production team,” said Jeanine McLean-Williams, the president of MBK Entertainment, which manages H.E.R. “There was so much Covid testing! Even now, to this day, I’m vaccinated, but we’re Covid tested three times a week.”The latest surge in infections, and the rise of the Delta variant, still presents uncertainties. “Honestly, we’ve just been praying everything goes well, and it always works out,” H.E.R. said. “We’ve been very blessed to have everything just fall into place. And if it didn’t, then it was for a reason and we recognize that later. So I’m going all in on this and I’m excited and I’m hopeful.” More

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      John Coltrane’s Unearthed Live ‘A Love Supreme,’ and 12 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by SZA, Fantastic Negrito, Mary Lattimore and others.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.John Coltrane, ‘A Love Supreme, Pt. IV — Psalm (Live in Seattle)’When John Coltrane recorded his masterpiece, “A Love Supreme,” in late 1964, he was demanding an escape from the confines of modern jazz. He was improvising on the level of sound, as much as notes, and he’d already started bringing in new, more freewheeling collaborators to join his quartet. Partly because of that shift, and partly because of how intimate the piece felt to him, he barely played “A Love Supreme” live. But this week, Impulse! Records revealed the existence a 56-year-old tape of him performing the suite in Seattle, in fall 1965, with an expanded version of the quartet. It’s the only known recording of Coltrane playing it for a club audience, and it will be out as a full album on Oct. 8. “Psalm,” the suite’s serene finale and the only publicly released track so far, is the most personal part: Coltrane had set “Psalm’s” melody to the cadence of a praise poem he wrote, and in Seattle he played it without either of the two other saxophonists in that evening’s band. More than an hour in, with the energy of the set suffusing the stage, he turns pieces of the melody into little incantations, coaxing a deep-bellied cry from his horn. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOSZA, ‘Nightbird’SZA released a trio of intimate songs on SoundCloud this week, perhaps as a place holder before her next album. On “Nightbird,” the mood is toxic and the singing is limber. SZA has a way of frankly and unflashily relating profoundly complex emotional experiences, building on the melodic structures of 1990s R&B, but also adding some of the sonic distance that’s been built into the genre over the last decade. “Nightbird,” both offhand and devastating, is among her best. JON CARAMANICAFantastic Negrito featuring Miko Marks, ‘Rolling Through California’“Rolling Through California” has a twangy, country-soul groove that harks back to the late-1960s San Francisco of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Grateful Dead, all affable and gleaming. But Fantastic Negrito, with Miko Marks harmonizing above his bluesy cackle, sings about how the old California dream has given way to wildfires and pandemic; the foot-stomping chorus goes, “Can you hear the sound/It’s burning to the ground.” JON PARELESThe Felice Brothers, ‘To-Do List’This “To-Do List” starts with everyday chores — “Go to the bank and deposit checks” — but escalates quickly, casually and magnificently to greater goals: “Defy all natural laws,” “Proclaim a lasting peace,” “Discover a miracle drug.” True to the band’s upstate New York location, the Felice Brothers hark back to the Band, with hand-played instruments and a chugging beat; it’s romping honky-tonk existentialism. PARELESRandy Travis, ‘Ain’t No Use’Listen to the mechanical beat of the drums and the ultraprecise mesh of the twin guitars in “Ain’t No Use,” an unrequited love song complaining, “It ain’t no use to talk to you about love.” It’s a track that was shelved from Randy Travis’s 1986 album “Storms of Life,” and even with Travis’s conversational vocal, it’s also a harbinger of the computerized country to come. PARELESDeerhoof, ‘Plant Thief’“Someone’s cooking with my spices!” Satomi Matsuzaki complains in “Plant Thief”: just one reason for the song’s pummeling drums and bass and guitar that wrangle in stereo with staggered, constantly shifting jabs. The song starts out frenetic and builds from there, assembling and discarding dissonant patterns, switching meters and coming to a fiercely open-ended conclusion: “They never weren’t!” she sings. PARELESTerence Blanchard, ‘Diana’No influence looms larger over the Grammy-winning pen of Terence Blanchard — an esteemed jazz trumpeter known for his Spike Lee film scores — than the saxophonist Wayne Shorter, with his terse yet seemingly horizon-less compositions. On “Absence,” a new album paying homage to Shorter, the trumpeter visits with a few rarely covered Shorter gems. Blanchard’s version of the cloud-dwelling ballad “Diana” opens with the strings of the Turtle Island Quartet (featured throughout “Absence”), entering one by one; eventually his quintet, the E-Collective, takes over. Swaddled in synthesizers and trumpet effects, avoiding a firm tempo, Blanchard savors each unorthodox harmonic payoff, feeling no need to take a solo. RUSSONELLOSelena Gomez and Camilo, ‘999’In “999,” Selena Gomez vies with Camilo for who can whisper-sing more quietly. Their voices, harmonizing and dialoguing, share a duet about infatuation, distance and anticipation: “I don’t have photos with you, but I have a space on the wall.” It’s set to a skulking bass line and percussion that wouldn’t wake the neighbors, enjoying the tease, the buildup and a nearly vanished 21st-century experience: privacy. PARELESIcewear Vezzo featuring Lil Baby, ‘Know The Difference’For Lil Baby, it’s new day, new flow on this collaboration with the Detroit favorite Icewear Vezzo. Rapping first, Lil Baby leans in on terse bars, tightening his flow until it’s taut: “I wasn’t ’posed to make it out/I stay by the governor house/I done found another route.” When Icewear Vezzo arrives, the fog lifts ever so slightly — his subject matter is the same, but his flow dances and shimmies. CARAMANICA​​Umu Obiligbo, ‘Zambololo’A duo of brothers from Nigeria, Umu Obiligbo shares close harmonies over their band’s dizzying six-beat, two-chord electroacoustic groove — Nigerian highlife — with constantly evolving tandem guitars and choral harmonies teasing and extending each other. Most of the lyrics are in the Nigerian language Igbo, but the glimpses of English are sharp: “What a man can do, a woman can do it better.” PARELESEsperanza Spalding: ‘Formwela 10’The bassist, singer and songwriter Esperanza Spalding convened not just musicians but also experts — in neuroscience and psychology, among other fields — as she wrote the therapeutic-minded songs for her album “Songwrights Apothecary Lab,” due Sept. 24. That that didn’t impair the virtuosic playfulness of her music. “Formwela 10” is an apology for mistreating a lover: “I put you through a living hell/This is a way to make the damages clear so I won’t do another that way”; it’s also a leaping, twisting, syncopated melody, a chromatic ramble, and a meter-shifting arrangement that dissolves and realigns around her as she makes peace with her regrets. PARELESMary Lattimore, ‘We Wave From Our Boats’Mary Lattimore’s music holds potent simplicity. The delicate plucks of a harp and the hum of a synth are all she employs on “We Wave from Our Boats,” a four-minute meditation with an arrangement that reflects the aquatic quality of its title: ripples of plucked strings stream over each other, like waves lapping on the shore. But there is also a kind of congenial intimacy to the song. Underneath its marine textures is the glow of closeness: maybe an after-dinner drink shared among friends, a tender embrace, a laugh that fills the belly with warmth. ISABELIA HERRERANite Jewel, ‘Anymore’There are breakup songs that express the profound heartache of a relationship’s end. And then there are songs that probe at the trickier feelings of its denouement, like Nite Jewel’s “Anymore,” from her new album, “No Sun.” Its bright synths and divine harmonies belie the song’s true content: “I can’t describe anything that I want,” sings the producer and vocalist Ramona Gonzalez. “I can’t rely on my desire anymore.” This is a song about the uncertainty and estrangement of a separation: the feeling of no longer recognizing yourself, of no longer trusting your own desires to find a way forward. HERRERA More

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      Don Everly, Older Brother in Groundbreaking Rock Duo, Dies at 84

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      The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil, were the most successful rock act to emerge from Nashville in the 1950s, rivaling Elvis Presley for radio airplay. NASHVILLE — Don Everly, the elder of the two Everly Brothers, the groundbreaking duo whose fusion of Appalachian harmonies and a tighter, cleaner version of big-beat rock ’n’ roll made them harbingers of both folk-rock and country-rock, died on Saturday at his home here. He was 84. His death was confirmed by his family, which did not provide the cause. The most successful rock ’n’ roll act to emerge from Nashville in the 1950s, Mr. Everly and his brother, Phil, who died in 2014, once rivaled Elvis Presley and Pat Boone for airplay, placing an average of one single in the pop Top 10 every four months from 1957 to 1961.On the strength of ardent two-minute teenage dramas like “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Cathy’s Clown,” the duo all but single-handedly redefined what, stylistically and thematically, qualified as commercially viable music for the Nashville of their day. In the process they influenced generations of hitmakers, from British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Hollies to the folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel and the Southern California country-rock band the Eagles.In 1975 Linda Ronstadt had a Top 10 pop single with a declamatory version of the Everlys’ 1960 hit “When Will I Be Loved.” Alternative-country forebears like Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris were likewise among the scores of popular musicians inspired by the duo’s enthralling mix of country and rhythm and blues.Paul Simon, in an email interview with The Times the morning after Phil Everly’s death, wrote: “Phil and Don were the most beautiful sounding duo I ever heard. Both voices pristine and soulful. The Everlys were there at the crossroads of country and R&B. They witnessed and were part of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.”“Bye Bye Love,” with its tight harmonies, bluesy overtones and twanging rockabilly guitar, epitomized the brothers’ crossover approach, spending four weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1957. It also reached the top spot on the country chart and the fifth spot on the R&B chart.Art Garfunkel and Don Everly performed in Hyde Park, London, in 2004. Mr. Everly recorded several solo albums.Jo Hale/Getty ImagesAs with many of their early recordings, including the No. 1 pop hits “Bird Dog” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Bye Bye Love” was written by the husband-and-wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and featured backing from Nashville’s finest session musicians.Both brothers played acoustic guitar, with Don being regarded as a rhythmic innovator, but it was their intimate vocal blend that gave their records a distinctive and enduring quality. Don, who had the lower of the two voices, typically sang lead, with Phil singing a slightly higher but uncommonly close harmony part.“It’s almost like we could read each other’s minds when we sang,” Mr. Everly told The Los Angeles Times shortly after his brother’s death.The warmth of their vocals notwithstanding, the brothers’ relationship grew increasingly fraught as their career progressed. Their radio hits became scarcer as the ’60s wore on, and both men struggled with addiction. Don was hospitalized after taking an overdose of sleeping pills while the pair were on tour in Europe in 1962.A decade later, after nearly 20 years on the road together, their longstanding tensions came to a head. Phil smashed his guitar and stormed offstage during a performance at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., in 1973, leaving Don to finish the set and announce the duo’s breakup.“The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago,” he told the audience, marking the end of an era.Isaac Donald Everly was born on Feb. 1, 1937, in Brownie, Ky., not quite two years before his brother. Their mother, Margaret, and their father, Ike, a former coal miner, performed country music throughout the South and the Midwest before moving the family to Shenandoah, Iowa, in 1944. Shortly after their arrival there, “Little Donnie” and “Baby Boy Phil,” then ages 8 and 6, made their professional debut on a local radio station, KMA.The family went on to perform on radio in Indiana and Tennessee before settling in Nashville in 1955, when the Everly brothers, now in their teens, were hired as songwriters by the publishing company Acuff-Rose. Two years later Wesley Rose of Acuff-Rose would help them secure a recording contract with Cadence Records, an independent label in New York, with which they had their initial success as artists.Phil and Don Everly at the 10th annual Everly Brothers Homecoming concert in Central City, Ky., in 1997. The brothers had a fraught relationship and the act broke up in 1973, but they later reunited.Suzanne Feliciano/Messenger-Inquirer, via Associated PressDon’s first break as a writer came with “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” a Top 20 country hit for Kitty Wells in 1954, as well as with songs recorded by Anita Carter and Justin Tubb. He also wrote, among other Everly Brothers hits, “(’Til) I Kissed You,” which reached the pop Top 10 in 1959, and “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad),” which did the same the next year. “Cathy’s Clown,” which he wrote with Phil, spent five weeks at the top of the pop chart in 1960.That record was the pair’s first hit for Warner Bros., which signed them after they left Cadence over a dispute about royalty payments in 1960. They moved from Nashville to Southern California the next year.Their subsequent lack of success in the United States — they continued to do well in England — could be attributed to any of a number of factors: the brothers’ simultaneous enlistment in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1961; their lack of access to material from the Bryants after their split with Cadence and Acuff-Rose; the meteoric rise of the Beatles, even though their harmonies on breakthrough hits like “Please Please Me” were modeled directly on those of the Everlys.They nevertheless continued to tour and record, releasing a series of influential albums for Warner Bros., notably “Roots,” a concept album that reckoned with the duo’s legacy and caught them up with the country-rock movement to which they gave shape.Don also released a self-titled album on the Ode label in 1970 and made two more solo albums, “Sunset Towers” on Ode and “Brother Juke Box” on Hickory, after the Everlys split up.In 1983 he and his brother reunited for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, a show that was filmed for a documentary. The next year they recorded “EB84,” a studio album produced by the Welsh singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds. That project included the minor hit “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” written for the Everlys by Paul McCartney.The duo released two more studio albums before the end of the decade. They were inducted as members of the inaugural class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.They also received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 1997 and were enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.In 2003 they toured with Simon and Garfunkel, and in 2010 they appeared on an album by Don’s son, Edan Everly.In addition to his son, survivors include his wife, Adela Garza; three daughters, Venetia, Stacy and Erin; his mother, Margaret Everly, and six grandchildren.In an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 2014, Mr. Everly acknowledged his decades of conflict with his brother but recalled their intimate musical communion with pride.“When Phil and I hit that one spot where I call it ‘The Everly Brothers,’” he said, “I don’t know where it is, ’cause it’s not me and it’s not him; it’s the two of us together.” More

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      Chucky Thompson, Hitmaking Producer, Is Dead at 53

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      He brought a range of musical influences to bear on the tracks he helped create for Mary J. Blige, the Notorious B.I.G. and many others.“My mind is always on ‘Record,’” the producer Chucky Thompson once told an interviewer, explaining how he was able to bring such a wide range of musical influences to the hits he helped create for Mary J. Blige, the Notorious B.I.G., Nas and other stars.For any particular track, he might draw on the soul records his parents used to play, or his time as a conga player in Chuck Brown’s go-go band, or some other style in his mental archive, as he sought to realize the vision the performer was after, or perhaps take him or her in a whole different direction.Mr. Thompson helped forge the hip-hop and R&B sound of the 1990s while in his mid-20s. He showed his versatility with his work on Ms. Blige’s second album, “My Life,” and the Notorious B.I.G.’s debut, “Ready to Die,” both released in 1994. The next year he was a producer on almost all the tracks on Faith Evans’s debut, “Faith,” another hit.In this period he was working for Bad Boy Entertainment, the influential label Sean “Diddy” Combs founded in 1993, as part of the producing team known as the Hitmen. But he continued to produce for a range of artists after the Hitmen dissolved later in the 1990s. If he — unlike some other producers in those years — defied categorization, that was deliberate.“In my brain, as a producer, I never wanted a sound,” he said in a 2013 video interview with Rahaman Kilpatrick. “That’s why you hear me on so many different records.”Mr. Thompson died on Aug. 9 in a hospital in the Los Angeles area. He was 53.His publicist, Tamar Juda, said the cause was Covid-19.Mr. Thompson was different from many of his contemporaries in that he was a multi-instrumentalist, often contributing guitar, piano, trombone or other flourishes to the tracks he produced. To get a particular effect for the 2002 Nas track “One Mic,” he flipped a guitar over and banged on the back of it.“He’s a true musician and doesn’t like to program heavily — just like me,” Mr. Combs told Billboard in 1995, when that publication included Mr. Thompson in an article on “the next crop of hotshot producers.” “Chucky has so many melodies in his head and produces from the heart.”Carl Edward Thompson Jr. was born on July 12, 1968, in Washington to Carl and Charlotte Thompson. In the 2013 interview, he said that his mother recognized his innate musical ability early.“She used to sit me in the kitchen and — you know how kids would just be banging and making noise? I was actually on beat with it,” he said. “She knew from there that something was different.”At 16 he was touring with Mr. Brown and his band, the Soul Searchers, playing the funk variant known as go-go, which was popular in and around Washington. It was a time when traditional live performances by bands were losing ground to D.J.s, who could keep the music constant rather than breaking between songs and thus keep people on the dance floor. Mr. Brown had his young conga player try to compensate.“He decided, ‘I’ll put a percussion break in between songs,’” Mr. Thompson told Rolling Stone in June. “So we would finish a song, then I’d do a percussion break, and I’d do a call and response — ask the crowd, ‘Y’all tired yet?’”The year 1994 was a big one for Mr. Thompson. Among the albums he worked on that year was the Notorious B.I.G.’s debut, “Ready to Die.”Bad Boy AristaThat same year, he co-produced much of Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” the Grammy-nominated follow-up to her successful debut, “What’s the 4-1-1?,” with Ms. Blige and Sean Combs.Uptown RecordsBy the early 1990s he was in New York trying to market himself as a producer, and Mr. Combs and Ms. Blige were looking for material for the follow-up to her successful first album, “What’s the 4-1-1?” (1992).“She picked my song out of a ton of tracks from new and previous producers,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview with the website StupidDope.com in June. “I was truly honored. That track was ‘Be With You,’ and at that time it was very different for her and her sound. I felt at that moment we were onto something that would be special.”He ended up co-producing much of the album with Ms. Blige and Mr. Combs. Ms. Blige had a tough hip-hop image that defied female-singer stereotypes, and some people didn’t care for it. Mr. Thompson took that reaction into account as he helped her create the songs for her second album.“I didn’t like people throwing stones at something they didn’t understand,” he told Rolling Stone. “So I was like, on this record, people are gonna know you’re a singer. You’re the real deal.”“My Life,” full of confessional songs exploring Ms. Blige’s personal struggles, received a Grammy nomination for best R&B album and helped establish her as a star. In June, Amazon Prime unveiled a documentary about her career and the record, “Mary J. Blige’s My Life.”Over the years Mr. Thompson also produced for Usher, Raheem DeVaughn, Total and many others. He produced some of the final tracks for his early mentor, Mr. Brown, who died in 2012 at 75.Mr. Thompson’s survivors include five children, Ashley, Emille, Myles, Quincey and Trey Thompson. More

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      Pink Siifu Releases 'Gumbo'!,' a Nod to Southern Rap

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      The prolific 29-year-old rapper, singer and producer returned this month with “Gumbo’!,” a hat tip to the soulful Southern rap that inspired him.In 2018, Livingston Matthews landed in New York for a series of gigs and was low on money after having to unexpectedly check a bag on his flight. So he hopped a subway turnstile, only to be detained by a police officer who wanted to put him in his place.“He was just O.D. extra, bruh,” Matthews said in a relaxed Southern drawl between bites of cinnamon-sprinkled oatmeal in a Brooklyn cafe recently, visiting from Baltimore. “He was like, ‘You’re dead meat, I can do anything I want with you.’” The incident led him to write “Deadmeat,” the fiercest track from his 2020 album, “Negro,” which scolded racism and police brutality through an aggressive mix of rap, punk and free jazz.The album arrived just as Covid-19 cases surged globally and a month before protests arose following the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. For Matthews, a 29-year-old rapper, singer and producer who records under several names, mainly Pink Siifu, “Negro” was the most fearless album in his vast catalog of equally experimental music. It was also the most intense.“That record? It was Allah and my ancestors,” he said. “I was damn near crying after each track.”His most recent album, “Gumbo’!,” came out at the top of this month and flashes back to an even earlier musical moment: the trunk-rattling bass and downtempo Southern rap that Atlanta’s Dungeon Family crafted in the 1990s.“Their records sounded like everything,” Matthews said of the cornerstone collective that has counted Outkast and Goodie Mob as members.The poet Ruben Bailey, known as Big Rube, a Dungeon Family member who appears on “Gumbo’!,” said he hears the group’s influence in Matthews’s sound. “He’s got a Southern type of style, but at the same he’s lyrical,” Bailey said in a phone interview. “When I first saw his name, that tripped me out because it sounded like he was really creative, and it turned out he was.”Wearing a white sweatshirt, denim coveralls, glitter-gold-painted fingernails, beaded braids and a white durag beneath a brimmed leather kufi hat, Matthews looked like his influences all at once: Sly Stone, Andre 3000, Sun Ra. He spoke with the same laid-back cadence that he employs in his music, and he lit up when talking about his upbringing.He’s not always so chill, though: His live shows are filled with perpetual movement. Sometimes he’ll hop on speakers, and at other moments he’ll walk in a nonstop loop onstage or occasionally through the crowd. It’s as if all the music he has taken in over the years were trying to come through concurrently.Matthews grew up between Birmingham, Ala., and Cincinnati in a family that exposed him to all kinds of music. His mother loved ’90s R&B, and his father, a saxophonist, played old records by Charlie Parker. He got into rap through his older brother, Hardy, who liked the New Orleans-based Cash Money Records — Lil Wayne, especially — and decided to follow suit.“I always wanted to be like my brother, so I was like, ‘Wayne’s my favorite rapper, too,’” Matthews said.“You can lump me in with anybody you want to, but my music is everything,” Matthews said. Schaun Champion for The New York TimesHe took up the trumpet, then the drums, and he played in marching bands from fifth grade through high school. (The cover art for “Gumbo’!” is a caricature drawing of Matthews in a marching band uniform.) He didn’t get serious about music until he got to college where, as a theater major at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, he started performing poetry while quietly honing his image as a Cash Money acolyte who sang like the R&B vocalist Macy Gray — “I really want to work with her,” he said — but also admired the balladry of conscious rap.“I heard what they were saying, and I thought, ‘They’re just rapping poems!’” Matthews said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh nah, I can rap my poems.’”Featuring a who’s who of experimental musicians, including the soul vocalists Liv.e, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Nick Hakim, “Gumbo’!” is a comedown from the raw emotion of last year’s LP, designed to showcase the full breadth of Matthews’ artistry. The sound is bigger and more bass-heavy, but the focus remains his deep admiration for family and the companionship of friends, full of voice mail messages from relatives and recorded conversations with pals. On a run of tracks near the end of the album, songs like “Living Proof” and “Smile (Wit Yo Gold)” slow the tempo to a stroll that feels like summertime barbecues when the sun starts to dip and the temperature cools to perfection.“I didn’t want people to box me in,” Matthews said. “I was trying to make something that reminded me of those drives from Birmingham to Cincinnati.”His overall goal is to keep working to try to reach the heights of two of his idols: Prince and George Clinton. “You can lump me in with anybody you want to, but my music is everything,” he said. “It’s a slow meal. You at grandma’s house, you ain’t gotta rush.” More