Sony Music Masterworks today releases Not Our First Goat Rodeo, the long-awaited follow-up album to the GRAMMY Award-winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions, with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile.  Making its debut alongside the new album is a live performance video for the song "The Trappings," featuring guest artist Aoife O'Donovan - watch here.

Sharing the story behind the track, Yo-Yo Ma recalls: "‘The Trappings' came out of a question of aesthetics. I believe Edgar was talking about pop music, how he used to think, ‘Oh, if something's too poppy, I'm not going to like it.' But that's like saying ‘classical music is boring,' or that jazz, rock, rhythm-and-blues are one way, or even ‘people from different countries are'... You know that as soon as you make a general statement like that, it's not true, because you can think of hundreds, thousands of exceptions. ‘The Trappings' is one of those."

In the fall of 1968, a sixteen-year old high school student named Danny Scher had a dream to invite legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and his all-star quartet to perform a concert at his local high school in Palo Alto, CA. In a series of twists and turns, against a backdrop of racial tension and political volatility, that concert happened and was recorded by the school's janitor. Palo Alto is set for release on July 31, 2020 on legendary jazz label Impulse! Records – marking Thelonious Monk's posthumous debut on John Coltrane's label home. 

GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr. pays tribute to essential workers in an emotional and uplifting new song "Stars Still Shine," on Verve Records out now. The song will be made available to all streaming partners and digital download after its debut on "UNITED WE SING: A GRAMMY® TRIBUTE TO UNSUNG HEROES," a star-studded 2-hour special event conceived and hosted by Harry Connick, Jr. airing on the CBS Television Network.

Blues Hall of Famer Bettye LaVette has decided to release her stirring rendition of "Strange Fruit" ahead of schedule as it says as much about the history of American racism and the state of the country today.  "Strange Fruit" was originally recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939 and written by Jewish teacher Abel Meeropol who wrote the song based on a photo of two black men who were lynched as a crowd of white people looked in the camera pointing and smiling. LaVette's version will be featured on her album, "Blackbirds" (Verve) set for release August 28. 

Milan Records today releases DA 5 BLOODS (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE) with music composed by six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning trumpeter and composer TERENCE BLANCHARD.  Available everywhere now, the album features music written by Blanchard for director Spike Lee's forthcoming film premiering on Netflix Friday, June 12.  The project reunites Blanchard with longtime collaborator Spike Lee, having most recently worked together on Lee's Academy Award®-winning film BlacKkKlansman.

Verve Records announces the release of Love Letter, a parting masterpiece and the first all-ballads album from magisterial tenor saxophonist-composer Jimmy Heath. The first single from the collection "Con Alma" is out now and you can listen to it here. Love Letter will be available worldwide on July 17 and is available by pre-order now.  

In addition to original material, Love Letter is the jazz ambassador's beautiful take on seminal ballads, including songs written by Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, and Kenny Dorham.  Recorded in New York during the 48 hours preceding Jimmy's 93rd birthday, and two more a month later in Atlanta, Jimmy presided over a brilliant cast of colleagues and friends.  Propelling the album forward is a multi-generational all-star unit, including NEA Jazz Master pianist Kenny Barron, poll-winning guitarist Russell Malone, soulful vibraphone veteran Monte Croft, New York first-call bassist David Wong, and all-world drummer Lewis Nash. Augmenting the group on separate tracks are 21st century vocal superstars Gregory Porter and Cécile McLorin Salvant, and trumpet icon Wynton Marsalis.

Ludovico Einaudi today releases a special 12-track digital collection, ‘12 Songs From Home', out digitally on Decca Records on 8thMay 2020 with artwork drawn by the composer. Recorded at home on his own upright piano in one evening during the lockdown, the release follows several live streams that were watched by thousands of people at a time on his Instagram page.

Einaudi explains, "I recorded ‘12 Songs From Home' between March and April 2020 during the peak of Italy's lockdown. In March I started to play live concerts regularly on social media. Switching on my phone to connect for 30-40 minutes with the world has been a beautiful and intimate alternative to the spring tour that I regrettably had to postpone. This new release is the memory of those home live concerts, my memory of this time, the memory of a strange and new atmosphere that we won't forget."

Soon to be released on Netflix July 24th - Owen Huntington's life is one continuous loop of work, eat, and sleep. A loop that keeps him from ever seeing his wife Zoe, or his three year old daughter MacKenzie. A loop that is sure to kill him. Then, one day, Owen discovers a long lost Uncle passed away - and left his Circus to Owen. What could have been a blessing - soon unfolds into a curse. The circus is broke. The animals are all gone. And most of the crew are too old to be of any use. It's a disaster. But something magical happens. Owen discovers Buffalo Bob's secret. A box of Animal Crackers that gives the bearer the ability to become any animal in the box. Suddenly - there's hope. If Owen can use the box to become these animals and perform people will come. He'll be rich. But Owen forgot one thing. Buffalo Bob had a brother. Horatio P. Huntington. Owner of the largest chain of circuses in the world. And Horatio would stop at nothing to get his hands on the Magical Animal Crackers. Directed by Tony Bancroft (Mulan), Scott Christian Sava (Casper the Friendly Ghost), and James Maestro with voices of Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, John Krasinski, Ian McKellen, Raven Symone, Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Warburton, Gilbert Gottfried, and Harvey Fierstein.

Guitarist John Scofield celebrates the music of his friend and mentor Steve Swallow in an outgoing and spirited recording, made in an afternoon in New York City in March 2019 - "old school" style as Scofield says, acknowledging that more than forty years of preparation led up to it. John was a 20-year-old student at Berklee when he first met and played with bassist Swallow, and they have continued ever since, in many different contexts. 

"I love these songs", says Scofield of the selection of Swallow compositions explored here – a broad range including tunes that have become standards, as well as some lesser-known works. The rapport between Scofield and Swallow is evident in every moment. John: "Sometimes when we play it's like one big guitar, the bass part and my part together." 

Behind the drum kit, Bill Stewart is alert to all the implications of the interaction. "What Bill does is more than ‘playing the drums,'" Scofield says. "He's a melodic voice in the music, playing counterpoint, and comping, while also swinging really hard." The guitarist himself plays with fire and invention throughout: "These two giants bring out the best in me."

Milan Records Today Releases Capone (Original Motion Picture Score) With Music By The Grammy-Nominated Run The Jewels' Producer And Rapper El-P.  Available Everywhere Now, The Album Features Music Written And Produced By El-P And Co-Produced By Long Time El-P Collaborator Wilder Zoby (Run The Jewels, Roma) For The New Film Starring Tom Hardy As The Infamous Gangster Al Capone. This Marks The First Complete Film Score From El-P Since 2004's Bomb The System, And Arrives On The Heels Of Score Contributions To Fantastic 4 (For Which El-P Scored The End Credits, Which Marked The Beginning Of His Working Relationship With Capone Director Josh Trank) And 2016's Bleed For This (Directed By Ben Younger) As Well As Contributing To The Soundtrack For 2018's Oscar Winning Roma (Directed By Alfonso Cuarón).  With Capone, El-P Is Stepping Out As A New Voice In The Film Music World And His Emotive, Tense, And Beautiful Score Is Unlike Anything He's Done Before.

Composer, pianist, and conductor Michael Shapiro joins us to talk about the music on his latest disc, including his John Milton-inspired piano concerto entitled Archangel. In this action-packed work, Shapiro lays out the epic Biblical battle between good and evil as a metaphor for the challenges we all face in our daily lives (which includes the current coronavirus pandemic – something Michael recently fell victim to himself). Also on the disc: orchestral excerpts from an opera based on Federico Garcia Lorca, and a full-throttle realization for orchestra of the famous organ Toccata by French composer Charles-Marie Widor. LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION

Voice of Hope is Camille Thomas's second album for Deutsche Grammophon. The Franco-Belgian cellist's program pays tribute to people's ability to triumph over adversity, create harmony in place of chaos, and overcome hatred with love. The album presents the world-premiere recording of Fazil Say's concerto Never Give Up, a response to terrorist attacks in Paris and Istanbul written for and premiered by Thomas, and also includes an exquisite selection of songs, prayers, and laments, Bruch's Kol Nidrei and Ravel's Kaddisch among them. For June 30, Camille Thomas - Voice of Hope is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

Recently French composer and pianist Lucas Debargue breathed new life into the harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and presents works outside the standard piano repertoire. The Parisian pianist has already climbed the pinnacle of piano artistry with Beethoven, Liszt and Ravel and unleashed full-blown romantic thunderstorms with Schubert's A-minor Piano Sonata no. 14 and the madcap finale of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. On the album, Debargue devotes himself completely to Domenico Scarlatti. He already played four of this Italian master's sonatas on his highly acclaimed début album. Germany's Der Spiegel waxed ecstatic: "Debargue's Scarlatti recalls his mighty predecessors. He displays the subtle touch and feeling once bestowed on these miniatures by Vladimir Horowitz and imparts new sound to Scarlatti's keyboard music. … Debargue touches the outer limits of expression between joylessness and rapture: one may find it overwrought, but it's never less than gripping. And then there's the gentle Glenn Gould touch." Debargue joins us for this mini-episode of REMOTE with a couple words on some of his pandemic-projects, reading list, and the importance of emphasizing our similarities rather than differences.  READ THE Q&A

Max Richter's trailblazing 2015 composition Sleep is now available to download with the launch of a new app. The app enables listeners to reimagine the 8-hour Deutsche Grammophon recording in custom-made musical sessions to help with focus, meditation and sleep which many people will need in the midst of the pandemic lockdown. It brings to a wider audience some of the experience shared by those lucky enough to attend Richter's extraordinary eight-hour overnight performances of Sleep – complete with beds – including LTW's own Tim Cooper who wrote about it here when it came to London in 2017. READ THE FULL Louder Than War ARTICLE

In episode 925 of "ANIMAJAZZ", conceived and conducted by BRUNO POLLACCI , broadcast TUESDAY June 30 at 20.30, on PUNTORADIO, also streaming on www.puntoradio.fm and in an immediate podcast on http: // animajazz. eu will be the protagonists CARLA BLEY - ANDY SHEPPARD - STEVE SWALLOW - CD "Life Goes On" - "Life Goes On_ III. And On "(ECM). The third volume of a sequence of albums begun with Trios in 2013 and continued with Andando El Tiempo (2016), Life Goes On – once more recorded in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher - features striking new music from American pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bassist Swallow has a long history. (Their first recording in trio format was Songs with Legs, recorded for the ECM-distributed WATT label in 1994.) Bley has composed for ensembles of every size but, over time, the trio has established itself as an ideal unit for expressing the essence of her work. Throughout Life Goes On, Carla's terse, distinctive piano, shaping phrases irreducible as Monk or Satie, is beautifully framed by Swallow's eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard's yearning saxes. This trio has a unique collective sound, reflecting – as The Telegraph recently noted – "musical mastery of a rare order".  We remind you that "ANIMAJAZZ" can be heard on TUESDAY at 20.30 in immediate podcast on http://animajazz.eu and the "DOWNLOAD" of the episode can be made, free of charge, from the podcasts area. Happy listening. SEE THE PLAYLIST

The 2020 Juno Awards have wrapped, announcing a list of winners that has been on hold since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the in-person Saskatoon weekend of events in March. But tonight, June 29, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and CBC combined the usual two-night series of events into an hour-and-a-half-long pre-recorded special, delivering a night that Canadian music fans have been waiting for. Winner for 'Classical album of the year: large ensemble' is Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Kent Nagano, The John Adams Album. Released to coincide with Nagano's final season with the Montréal Symphony, The John Adams Album contains his key orchestral works conducted by one of his greatest, lifelong champions "Like all great pieces, each time one returns to them and restudies them, I'm able to find something more - new dimensions that I haven't seen before, other reflections of innovation and genius." - Kent Nagano on John Adams SEE ALL WINNERS ON CBC PAGE

How can it be possible that we're only halfway through the year? On its relentless whiplash toward the middle, the first six months of 2020 have reframed, redefined, shocked, torn down, confounded and crumbled our expectations, our priorities, our concepts of distance and closeness, of responsibility, of tragedy, of joy. They changed how we listened to music, too: so often alone, through wires and screens and glitches and delays. But in six full months packed with moments where we needed music to cope with challenges new and old, there was so much to see us through. These artists had their lives upended as well – it's amazing to look back on this six months of music and realize they made nearly all of it before the year even began. They'll give us so much more in the months to come, no doubt, as reckoning continues to rise to the surface of their songs. (Oh yeah, there's also a Beyoncé visual album on the way.) Below, you'll find more than two dozen records from 2020's first six months that are worth holding onto for the next six, and beyond. We didn't vote on them. Each is the favorite of one member of the NPR Music team. You can find our favorite songs of the first half of 2020 here. With a wink to heart-on-sleeve Romantic piano concertos by Rachmaninov, British composer-conductor Thomas Adès unleashes perhaps the most pleasing concerto written yet this century. A jolt of sheer joie de vivre, the piece features flamboyant orchestration (a duet for xylophone and piccolo?), sizzling passages deftly navigated by pianist Kirill Gerstein and a central slow movement that pushes yearning to new emotional levels. Adès Conducts Adès dropped in February and I listened to its concerto nonstop, until the pandemic hit hard. Then I turned to the grim and masterful Totentanz (Dance of the Dead). Adès was inspired by a 15th-century frieze depicting the figure of death waltzing with representatives of each rung of society, from Pope to peasant and finally an infant. Baritone Mark Stone sings the role of death with self-assured devilry, while mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn sensitively interprets his impotent victims. In orchestration that is massive, beautiful and frightening, Adès's music singularly underscores the inevitability of death in deadly times. -Tom Huizenga SEE THE FULL LIST