The Surprising Artwork That Inspired Netflix’s ‘The Piano Lesson,’ a New Movie Based on August Wilson’s Award-Winning Play
A Romare Bearden print served as a starting point for the American playwright’s 1987 drama, which follows a Black family’s struggle to decide the fate of an ancestral heirloom
Quincy Jones Was a ‘Musician’s Musician’ Who Was Uniquely Beloved in the Cutthroat Music Industry
A Smithsonian curator reflects back on the artistic legend, a “Renaissance man” with 28 Grammys to his name, who died Sunday at 91 years old
Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries
These 15 Groovy Photos Capture the Joy of Music
Musical instruments have existed for eons, and humans continue to create and enjoy them
At Her Globe-Spanning Nightclubs, This Black Entertainer Hosted a ‘Who’s Who’ of the 20th Century
Ada “Bricktop” Smith, who operated venues in Rome, Paris and Mexico City, brushed shoulders with the likes of Langston Hughes, Salvador Dalí and Gertrude Stein
How John Coltrane’s ‘My Favorite Things’ Changed American Music
Looking back at the moment when one of our greatest jazzmen raised the stakes for everyone who came after
Tony Bennett’s Passion for Art Lives On in His Paintings
Smithsonian curators reflect on the beloved crooner’s legacy as a musician and visual artist
‘La La Land,’ an Homage to Hollywood, Is Coming to Broadway
A stage adaptation of the hit 2016 movie musical is officially in the works
How Marian Anderson Took the World by Storm
Her mighty contralto propelled her across color lines
This Rap Documentarian’s Latest Subject? Louis Armstrong
Sacha Jenkins tells the jazz musician’s story through rarely-seen archival footage and letters
The Music and Freedom We Experienced on the Streets of Kyiv
The story of a joint Smithsonian-Soviet-Ukrainian program in 1990 lends poignant resonance to Russia’s brutal invasion today
The Evolution of Betty Boop
Film censorship sparked the beloved cartoon character’s mid-1930s makeover
The Little-Known Recording of Louis Armstrong Reciting ‘The Night Before Christmas’
Shortly before he died, the jazz legend offered his own rendition of the classic holiday poem
Hurricane Ida Destroys New Orleans Jazz Landmark Dubbed Louis Armstrong’s ‘Second Home’
The historic Karnofsky Tailor Shop and Residence collapsed on Sunday after water pooled on its roof
How Norman Granz Revolutionized Jazz for Social Justice
Often remembered for his artful management of legendary jazz musicians, but Granz also saw the potential for themusic to combat racial inequality
A New Museum in Nashville Chronicles 400 Years of Black Music
The culmination of two decades of planning, the National Museum of African American Music opened its doors last month
Why the Newly Released 1980s Album ‘Sons of Ethiopia,’ by the Ethiopian D.C. Band Admas, Is Going Viral
Admas draws from and rearranges “golden era” Ethiopian music with then-fairly-new synthesizer and drum-machine rhythms.
Musician Sunny Jain Reflects on Jainism, Jazz and the Punjabi Dhol Drum
While the originations of the dhol are not known with complete certainty, what is known is that it is a sound that has migrated
Kid Ory Finally Gets the Encore He Deserves
The childhood home of the musician who put New Orleans jazz on the map will soon open to the public
‘The Great Gatsby,’ Songs by Ma Rainey and Other Classic Works Are Now in the Public Domain
Canonical books, songs and films became free to use in 2021
The Soviet Spy Who Invented the First Major Electronic Instrument
Created by a Russian engineer, the theremin has delighted and confounded audiences since 1920
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