Sasha Frere-Jones

A new biography examines the enigma of the musician.

She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.

A musicological conversation about the history and social value of Black music.

The chaotic quest to mythologize America’s past.

Confronting a long tradition of projecting fantasies onto the South Bronx.

A lot has been written about the notorious concert, but so much of the language around it has been passive and exonerating.