David Hajdu

Warm and unaffected, Philip Glass’s memoir is nothing like his music.

A new book about the music industry misses the fact that we’ve already entered the post-industrial age.

Legendary vocalist Mark Murphy exemplified the jazz values of improvisation, swing, and in-the-moment spontaneity.

Adrian Tomine’s universe features a society of contingent values, ill-defined expectations, and diminishing options.

In the making of Blackstar, David Bowie trusted that Donny McCaslin and his quartet would invoke a profoundly emotive album.

Kill ’Em and Leave is a stunningly unorthodox book, indifferent to the conventions of biographical nonfiction.

During her long lifetime, the First Lady of Swing was as engaged with the new as she was driven by classicism.

William Brittelle has drawn from classical music, punk rock, and electronica to produce music that is at once free-ranging and a thrill to experience.

The LA musician is the pop star made for AirPods.

Or everything that came before Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus walked down that “Old Town Road.”

The Pulitzer Prize–winning composer turns the history of the string quartet upside down, turning a once fusty form into something adventurous.

Nathalie Joachim’s debut album, Fanm d’Ayiti, bridges vast expanses, bringing together the sounds of Haitian folk music, Western classical music, electronic, and hints of pop.

A new archival collection of little-heard music from the Balkans prompts questions of how and why we recover sounds from history.

Ted Hearne and Saul Williams’s Place captures the volatile energies of a changing city beset by the forces of late capitalism.

An exploration of her father’s past and the rock music of the 1970s is a new challenge for the artist.

Our music critic’s 10 favorite pieces of music from this year.

The neglected music of a revolutionary 20th-century composer continues to shock and awe.