The Tiny Desk is teaming up with globalFEST this year for a thrilling virtual music festival: Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST. The online fest includes four nights of concerts featuring 16 bands from all over the world. From Monday, Jan. 11, through Thursday, Jan. 14, we ll be streaming new performances at 8 p.m. ET on NPR Music s YouTube channel and NPR.org.
Every January, I attend globalFEST at a New York City nightclub and see some of the most fantastic music I ll experience all year. Now, given the pandemic s challenges and the hardening of international borders, NPR Music and globalFEST is moving from the nightclub to your screen of choice and sharing this festival with the world. Each night, we ll present four artists in intimate settings (often behind desks donning globes), and it s all hosted by African superstar Angélique Kidjo, who performed at the inaugural edition of globalFEST in 2004.
Originally published on January 8, 2021 2:28 pm
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It s the same spirit stripped-down sets, an intimate setting just a different space.
I don t recall any other artist at the Tiny Desk harmonizing their own introduction, but Philadelphia s own Jazmine Sullivan didn t waste a second, greeting us all by flexing those once-in-a-generation chops from the jump. The singer-songwriter, draped in a trench coat while her band sports all black, are nestled in the corner of a dimly lit space resembling a cabaret.
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It s the same spirit stripped-down sets, an intimate setting just a different space.
From a stunning room overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena, Calif., we hear the ethereal sounds of Active Child. I chose this space, as this is where I ve written nearly every piece of music for my active child project. my music and this house / this view are completely intertwined.
Active Child is the music of Patrick Grossi. For his Tiny Desk (home) concert, he layers his choral-styled voice on top of melodic harp and piano. Electronic beats propel selections from his latest album,
The Tiny Desk team had huge plans for 2020 â including what should have been the taping of our 1000th Tiny Desk concert â only to pivot madly as COVID-19 forced the closure of NPR headquarters in mid-March. By the end of that month, we d launched a new companion series: Tiny Desk (home) concerts, which gathered intimate, Tiny Desk-style performances from all over the world. It s been a feat of forced innovation, made possible through inspired performances and our incomparable Tiny Desk team of producers, videographers and engineers. So we asked that team to pull off one more feat as 2020 draws to a close: narrowing nine months of great Tiny Desk (home) concerts down to a single playlist of highlights.
Kara Frame, Tsering Bista / NPR
The Tiny Desk team had huge plans for 2020 including what should have been the taping of our 1000th Tiny Desk concert only to pivot madly as COVID-19 forced the closure of NPR headquarters in mid-March. By the end of that month, we d launched a new companion series: Tiny Desk (home) concerts, which gathered intimate, Tiny Desk-style performances from all over the world. It s been a feat of forced innovation, made possible through inspired performances and our incomparable Tiny Desk team of producers, videographers and engineers. So we asked that team to pull off one more feat as 2020 draws to a close: narrowing nine months of great Tiny Desk (home) concerts down to a single playlist of highlights.