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      9 Great Songs That Mention Baseball Stars

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      The playlist to get you through Major League Baseball’s long offseason.Bad Bunny has frequently mentioned baseball players in his songs.Caroline Brehman/EPA, via ShutterstockDear listeners,I’m back! A big thank you to Jon Caramanica, Marc Tracy and Dave Renard, the three guest playlisters who filled in for me while I took a few weeks off. The Amplifier returns to its regular schedule today, though, just in time for … I don’t know, anything important going on this week?Ah, yes, of course! It’s the first official week of Major League Baseball’s off-season.The M.L.B. playoffs were particularly thrilling this year, and for a moment it looked like we might get a New York miracle: a Subway World Series. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Despite deep postseason runs from the Yankees and my beloved Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers ultimately prevailed and won it all. At least we Mets fans got to see The Temptations serenade Citi Field with the shortstop Francisco Lindor’s beloved walk-up song, “My Girl.”Those two great American pastimes, baseball and pop music, have long gone hand in hand. (Or is it hand in glove?) In honor of another great season in the books, today’s playlist is a collection of just a few of the many songs that refer to great ballplayers, with era-spanning tunes from The Treniers’ novelty hit about Willie Mays up through Bad Bunny’s many recent shout-outs to modern superstars. You’ll also hear tracks from the Beastie Boys, Faye Webster and Belle and Sebastian, among others.You certainly don’t have to know anything about baseball to enjoy this playlist. If you’re a fan, though, I hope it helps you endure the long offseason drought. When times get difficult, just remember: Pitchers and catchers report in mid-February.Life outside the diamond is a wrench,LindsayListen along while you read.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Flo Wants to Reinvent the Girl Group for a New Generation

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      On the British R&B trio’s awaited debut album, “Access All Areas,” nostalgia meets ambition.Flo’s singles kept on coming, but where was a full-fledged album? When all its pop machinery was already in motion, the group dared to put its debut on pause.The initial plan was for the British R&B trio to release a full-length album in 2023 after a string of singles that began in March 2022 with “Cardboard Box,” a coolheaded, close-harmony kiss-off that has been streamed more than 54 million times on Spotify. After the release of a 2022 EP, “The Lead,” and a hyperactive performing schedule that demonstrated their real-time virtuosity, Flo was named best rising star at the 2023 Brit Awards; they went on to release collaborations with Missy Elliott and Stormzy.But Flo’s three members — the singers and songwriters Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma — weren’t satisfied with their album tracks. They didn’t want anything that felt like filler. So amid tour dates for an ever-expanding audience, they took a risk, banking that fans would hold on a bit longer, and found time to continue writing and trying new collaborations. The group’s finished album, “Access All Areas,” will arrive on Nov. 15.“We just kept on making music — and we kept on making better music,” Downer said in a video interview from a couch backstage at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre in Charlotte, N.C., where Flo was opening on a headlining tour by Kehlani. They were casual before the sound check; slinky costumes and glossy styling would come later in the day.“Access All Areas” flaunts echoes of groups like Destiny’s Child, TLC and the Pussycat Dolls — music the three women, who are in their early 20s, have heard all their lives. “Back then, the standards were much higher,” Quaresma said. “Nowadays if you’ve got followers, you can be a singer. People can see that we’re really inspired by the real singers and the real artists. I think people are craving that.”But Flo is also determined to establish its own sound. “The melodies will always be nostalgic, because you’re a product of your environment,” Douglas said. “But we definitely have to be mindful of what’s more current at the moment.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Quincy Jones Orchestrated the Sound of America

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      Jones, who died at 91, erased boundaries, connected worlds and embraced delight. As a producer, he coaxed ingenuity from his players and singers.I have this book called “The Complete Quincy Jones,” from 2008. It’s the sort of grand coffee table experience so ephemera loaded that it all but spills out photos and reproductions of letters and sheet music and newspaper clippings and report cards. It’s a book that requires a plan to transport it from a store to your house. Some of this stuff is affixed to the pages, as if Jones, who died on Sunday, had assembled it just for me, even though my name’s nowhere near Oprah Winfrey’s effusive “thank you” note. One of the unglued news items, from a 1989 edition of The International Herald Tribune, has now become a bookmark that reads, inartfully: “Quincy Jones: Black Music’s Bernstein.”It’s a constellatory, celebratory, classy volume, just like the music Jones devoted the majority of his 91 years to. As you make your way through, you realize how ubiquitous this man was. I mean, I knew he was connected. (Maya Angelou writes the preface. The foreword’s by Clint Eastwood, the introduction is by Bono and the afterword belongs to Sidney Poitier.) But not until I sat down with this thing could I truly appreciate something else: what a connector he was, human ligament.That, of course, was also in the music. He played many brasses — sousaphone, trombone, tuba, horns — but settled on the trumpet and quickly became an ace arranger and producer, someone whose brilliance involves having it all figured out. His approach to music involved not simply the erasure of boundaries but an emphasis on confluence, of putting some of this with some of that, and a little of this thing over here. Bossa nova together with jazz, Donna Summer doing Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Van Halen and Michael Jackson. On records, for movies, in concerts, with “We Are the World” and Vibe magazine. Connections.This wasn’t iconoclasm and, officially, it wasn’t civil rights, either. It was vision, curiosity and taste that aligned with civil rights. Jones didn’t want artificial boundaries dictating that vision. So what you hear in all of that music is a little bit of everything — African percussion and R&B rhythm ideas, percolating alongside fur-coat string arrangements and trans-Atlantic flights of falsetto. It sounds like whatever America is supposed to mean. Often, he was orchestrating the sound of America, complicating it while grasping what makes it pop. It’s worth considering how his music opens one of the most-watched television events ever broadcast (“Roots”) and his production is behind the best-selling album ever recorded (“Thriller”). Two titles that nail the depth and sensation of the Quincy Jones experience.Jones, right, at the inauguration of President Clinton in 1993, with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross among the celebrities in attendance.Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis, via VCG, via Getty ImagesBut there’s another, related aspect of that experience, and it’s all over “The Complete Quincy Jones.” In just about every photo, he seems so happy to be wherever he is. Standing next to Hillary Clinton, chatting with Colin Powell, cracking up next to Nelson Mandela, perched beneath a conductor’s podium alongside Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. In one picture he’s got an arm around Sarah Vaughan and the other around Chaka Khan. Elsewhere, he’s planting a kiss on Clarence Avant’s cheek; pressing his cheek into Barbra Streisand’s (she signed that one: “My big ole black butt is sticking out — isn’t it?”; and I’ll just say her dress is dark). A big spread on “The Color Purple,” which he produced and scored, includes a photo of him and Alice Walker, forehead to forehead. Then there’s the intriguing shot of him looking heavenward with Leonard Bernstein at, we’re told, the Sistine Chapel.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      14 Essential Quincy Jones Songs

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      As a producer, arranger, composer, bandleader and recording artist, he made a powerful mark on nearly every genre he touched. He died Sunday, at 91.Quincy Jones, who died at 91 on Sunday, was a colossus of American music, leaving a profound influence on nearly every genre he touched, from the 1950s on — jazz, funk, soundtracks, syrupy R&B and chart-topping pop.The scope of his career is so vast, it seems almost impossible that it’s the work of a single person. He cut his teeth as a trumpeter in Lionel Hampton’s touring band in the early ’50s, then studied in Paris under the great classical pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. He produced jazz albums for Mercury Records, made fast friends with Frank Sinatra — who called him “Q,” a nickname that stuck — and recorded “It’s My Party,” a No. 1 hit by a teenage Lesley Gore.Then came gorgeously textured movie scores, slithery funk and a fantastically successful partnership with Michael Jackson, whose 1982 LP “Thriller,” produced by Jones, is the biggest seller of all time. And it didn’t end there. In 2018 documentary, “Quincy,” Kendrick Lamar, the reigning rap laureate, is seen bumping fists with Jones and crediting him as the inspiration for “combining hip-hop and jazz.”Here is a sampling of some of Jones’s essential work, as a producer, arranger, composer, bandleader and recording artist in his own right.‘Evening in Paris’ (1957)Jones was a jazz journeyman in the 1950s, playing trumpet with Hampton, working at Mercury and putting together his own albums. This gorgeous ballad, from “This Is How I Feel About Jazz,” his standout early LP, was composed by Jones and features an all-star band including Herbie Mann, Zoot Sims, Hank Jones and Charles Mingus.Ray Charles, ‘One Mint Julep’ (1961)Jones and Ray Charles met as teenagers in Seattle in the 1940s, as dramatized in the 2004 film “Ray.” By the time of his big band LP “Genius + Soul = Jazz,” Charles was a giant who seemed to remake American music with every step. Jones arranged half the tracks on the album, including “One Mint Julep,” a hot and swinging instrumental take on the Clovers’ original that Charles — leading from the organ — made a Top 10 hit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Anitta Mesmerizes the Weeknd, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks from Ethel Cain, the Black Keys featuring Beck, Ilham and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.The Weeknd featuring Anitta, ‘São Paulo’The Weeknd gets top billing on “São Paulo,” but the song is defined by its Brazilian funk-style synthesizer riff and a hook that Anitta borrowed (with credit) from the Brazilian funk singer Tati Quebra Barraco. Anitta chants about her irresistible body (and dominates the version edited for video), while the full song gives the Weeknd ample time to bemoan how thoroughly he’s in her thrall.Champion, Four Tet, Skrillex and Naisha, ‘Talk to Me’Three top producers concocted the sparse beat and boinging riff that accompany a nearly weightless melody from the Indian singer Naisha Bhargabi. She sings and raps in Hindi about solitude and self-sufficiency — “My nights are by myself alone, never lonely.” But she switches to English for the simple invitation to “talk to me.”The Black Keys featuring Beck, ‘I’m With the Band’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Empire: Winnowed, but Still Weighty

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      The music mogul’s business portfolio has shrunk, in part because of multiple sex abuse allegations, but his wealth remains a critical factor as his criminal case unfolds.In arguing to keep Sean Combs in jail until his trial on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges, prosecutors have portrayed him as a lavishly wealthy, well-connected music mogul who would be well positioned to flee. In court papers, prosecutors cited media reporting that estimated his wealth at close to a billion dollars.But as Mr. Combs’s reputation has unraveled amid a wave of high-profile lawsuits and criminal charges, so has his business portfolio. Once a major brand ambassador and chairman of a media platform, he has been forced to withdraw from those roles. In June, several months before Mr. Combs was indicted, Forbes estimated his net worth at $400 million, down from $740 million in 2019.Mr. Combs’s fortune has been at the forefront of his public persona since the 1990s, when the success of his hip-hop and R&B label, Bad Boy Entertainment, meant he was known as much for his high-flying, champagne-popping lifestyle as the music he produced.One year ago, Mr. Combs, who is known as Diddy, was at the helm of an ever-growing portfolio: He was a record label founder, a liquor promoter, a cable TV and digital media chairman, a philanthropist and a fashion executive with a label called Sean John.Mr. Combs has gained prominence as a record label executive, a liquor promoter and the founder of a cable TV and digital media platform.From left: Theo Wargo/WireImage, via Getty Images; Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Revolt TV“He was a larger-than-life marketer,” said Dessie Brown Jr., an entertainment consultant who long viewed Mr. Combs as a model for building a career. “He always talked about being like a ringleader in a circus.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      FKA twigs’s Electro-Pop Enticement, and 8 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Haley Heynderickx, Cymande, Bonzie and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.FKA twigs, ‘Perfect Stranger’Collaborating with a consortium of electronic producers — Koreless, Stargate, Ojivolta and Stuart Price — FKA twigs makes the case for an anonymous hookup in “Perfect Stranger”: “I’d rather know nothing than all the lies / Just give me the person you are tonight,” she urges. The ticking, pumping track is neater and poppier than most FKA twigs songs, yet her high, whispery voice reveals the anxiety behind the offer.Cymande, ‘Chasing an Empty Dream’The British funk band Cymande was formed in 1971 by Caribbean musicians in London, broke up in 1974 after releasing three albums, and regrouped in 2014, long after being sampled for hip-hop from the Fugees, Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul. “Chasing an Empty Dream,” from an album due in January, rekindles socially conscious 1970s R&B, with a conga-driven Afro-Caribbean groove, swooping disco strings, pointed horn arrangements and a call for music to reclaim a purpose beyond materialism. “Everybody chasing fame, with no message for the young to hold onto,” the lyrics warn. As Cymande urges listeners to heed the lessons of “yesterday,” the music embodies them.Kelly Lee Owens, ‘Love You Got’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stevie Wonder Live: A Night of Love and Mischief

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      At 74, the singer and songwriter returns to arenas with a message of healing and understanding. He’s using trademark exuberance and joy to deliver it.It was a little after 9 p.m. Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, and Stevie Wonder was finally getting loose. He’d begun “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” one of his defining anthems, with a hopped-up-hootenanny version of the country standard “You Are My Sunshine.” He almost giggled — it was light work.Then, with fullness and verve, he jerked hard into his song, and the music went from 2-D to 3-D. He wasn’t denigrating the other one, so much as he had a point to make.“I. Feel. Like. This. Is. The. Beginning.”Each word arrived like a rocket whizzing past your ear — propulsive, powerful, so potent you almost tilted your head away ever so slightly to let it zip by. He was singing a love song, a declaration of emotional commitment, but when he really got going, it felt much more like a convocation. This love, we’re all in it together.Much of Wonder’s set list was drawn from the stretch from the late 1960s through the mid 1970s during which he released some of the most indelible entries in the history of American song.The New York TimesSo it went during this performance — part of a brief tour with the extremely chewy title, Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart — which was much of the time a display of unparalleled singing, some of the time a kaffeeklatsch of feel-good utopianism, and in more places than you’d think a showcase for a very serious artist to be very silly.First, the voice: Wonder can do things with it that no popular singer in the five decades since his commercial prime has truly been able to match. It can sound like it’s falling apart while it’s in fact landing with strength and precision. With Wonder, a song is a suggestion, a framework to set up pyrotechnic runs and novel alternate melodic approaches. The song (usually) has a fixed starting and concluding point — everything else is a negotiation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More