Music

Once he had established himself as a world-class saxophonist, Joshua Redman moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he grew up. Soon afterward, he co-founded the SFJAZZ Collective, an all-star resident ensemble and touring group, and served as its artistic director for several years. When he stepped down from his post, his replacement was another titan of the tenor sax: Joe Lovano.

With a wide array of instrumentation and lush melodies, the music of the L.A. band Lord Huron explores the beauty of the outdoors. Founder Ben Schneider captures a sense of place and translates it beautifully to live performances of songs from his band's full-length debut, Lonesome Dreams. Lord Huron has been a station favorite for some time now, and this performance is everything we hoped it would be.

Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, an improvising musician who pioneered a system of ensemble interaction he called Conduction, has died at a hospital in New York City, his publicist confirmed. He had lung cancer, which was diagnosed last August. He was 65.

Nearly a decade after releasing its deeply moving and profoundly beautiful album Rabbit Songs, the Brooklyn-based band Hem was on the verge of falling apart. "I actually believed that Hem might never make music together again as a band," songwriter and pianist Dan Messe tells us in an email. "Everything about who we were, where we lived, and how we related to each other seemed beyond repair."

The Internet put on one of my favorite in-studio performances ever — just super-relaxed and intimate. Matt Martians and the whole crew were really cool and funny, while Syd Tha Kyd is on some Lisa Bonet-level of chill.

Rich Robinson makes his first appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Charleston, W.V. By his mid-20s, Robinson had already achieved remarkable commercial success as the lead guitarist for Black Crowes. Alongside his brother Chris, the band all but single-handedly reintroduced soulful, bluesy Southern rock to a mainstream that had been occupied with hair-metal and glitzy pop. Robinson's guitar helped lay the groundwork for a sound that launched a long, successful, and tumultuous career.

Prices on mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service increased this week — the price of a first-class stamp now costs 46 cents, up a penny. But for small businesses that ship products overseas, like many independent record labels, the costs could be much larger.

Brian Lowit, who has worked at Washington, D.C.'s Dischord Records for 10 years, says that while a postage rate hike is a familiar bump in the road, "I've never seen one this drastic."

Musical talent tends to run in families. Think of Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Colin and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, or The Jackson 5.