Fun fact: Late-night talk-show bandleaders have won Oscars the last two consecutive years. Last year, Colbert bandleader, along with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, won Best Original Score for Soul. This past Sunday, the Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, longtime bandleader for Jimmy Fallon, won Best Documentary for hi...

After moving to September last year for COVID reasons, the Chicago edition of Pitchfork Music Festival is returning to its original midsummer calendar placement in 2022. The fest will run from July 15-17 at Union Park in Chicago, and its lineup is looking stellar.

The last time the Roots held their Roots Picnic festival, it was a virtual affair. In 2020, the Roots, the long-running Philly rap greats, teamed up with Michelle Obama for a remote webcast that featured guests like H.E.R. and Lil Baby. Today, the Roots have announced that the Roots Picnic is once again returning to Philadelphia this June. It&am...

The veteran jazz pianist Robert Glasper has always been a prolific collaborator, traveling outside of jazz into the worlds of rap and R&B. Glasper has worked with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, and Q-Tip. In recent years, he’s taken part in supergroups like August Greene, R+R=Now, and Dinner Party. In 2019, Glasper r...

Ashley Monroe, the rootsy country singer who’s part of Miranda Lambert’s group Pistol Annies, has had a trying year. Shortly after releasing her new album Rosegold, Monroe revealed that she’s undergoing chemotherapy, battling a rare form of blood cancer. But Monroe hasn’t let that diagnosis stop her from m...