- "Sound Tracks presents Quick Hits" is a 20-part web series for PBS Arts that ran online from 2010-2012 accompanying the PBS TV music specials, "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders." Each Quick Hits webisode included an interview with a singer, musician or band plus several musical performance videos. It also exists now on a SoundTracksQH YouTube Channel. Produced by The Talbot Players, San Francisco.
- "Sound Tracks presents Quick Hits" is a 20-part video online series featuring interviews with and performances by singers, musicians and band members from around the world and all genres of music. It is a companion web series to the PBS TV music specials, "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders" which aired in 2010 and 2012. The web series first appeared on PBS Arts online. It is also now a YouTube channel, SoundTracksQH.
Episode #1 The Italian pop star Jovanotti is interviewed by Sound Tracks host and co-creator Marco Werman. Jovanotti also performs several extended versions of his hits, including L'Ombelico del Mondo, at the outdoor Stern Grove Music Festival in San Francisco. August 2010
Episode #2 Brazilian singer and musician Seu Jorge performs on stage in Boston, showcasing his surf rock influenced Cirandar, and is interviewed by Marco Werman about his David Bowie covers and his acting in the Brazilian movie, City of God. September 2010
Episode #3 Ethiopian-American jazz singer and musician Meklit Hadero speaks with Sound Tracks reporter Mirissa Neff about her life and work and performs Leaving Soon with her band at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco. October 2010
Episode #4 KT Tunstall speaks with Mirissa Neff about starting as a busker in Scotland and becoming a rock star with songs like Suddenly I See. She performs an acoustic version of her new single, Fade Like a Shadow, and then joins her band on stage in San Francisco for more. November 2010
Episode #5 Ozomatli, the L.A. Latino and hip-hop rock band, performs on stage at the Fillmore in San Francisco and speaks with reporter Mirissa Neff about their music and their politics, including their State Dept. tours. December 2010
Episode #6 French-born concert pianist Helene Grimuad discusses her music, her synesthesia and her love of wolves with interviewer Alexis Bloom and then plays a private concert of Liszt and Bartok for Sound Tracks Quick Hits at the Steinway showroom in New York City. February 2011
Episode #7 Soul singer Charles Bradley tells Marco Werman about his troubled past and his late-in-life emergence as a star for Dap-Tone Records in Brooklyn. Bradley then delivers an emotionally searing rendition of Heartaches and Pain on stage in New Hampshire. Bradley also gets some love and support from his touring partner, Sharon Jones, who sings I'll Still Be True. March 2011
Episode #8 Dengue Fever, the Cambodian-American indie rock band from Los Angeles, takes the stage at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and sits down for a late-night interview with Mirissa Neff. Backstage at Amoeba Music in the Haight-Ashbury, Dengue Fever's lead singer Chhom Nimol delivers a haunting version of an Indonesian folk song with a bitter past, Gendjer, Gendjer. June 2011
Episode #9 Seun Kuti, the son of Afro-pop legend Fela Kuti, carries on his father's musical and political legacy, performing with his Egypt 80 band on tour in San Francisco, and speaking with reporter Mirissa Neff about Nigerian music and the state of African politics. August 2011
Episode #10 Banjo player and singer Abigail Washburn talks in New York to interviewer Arun Rath about her experiences living and studying in China and how she came to appreciate the banjo. She performs three songs just for Sound Tracks, including City of Refuge, the title track from her new album. September 2011
Episode #11 On tour in San Francisco, singer/songwriter Piers Faccini talks with Mirissa Neff about his life in France, his love of West African and Middle Eastern music, and his travels. Faccini and his percussionist perform No Reply and other evocative, personal songs. November 2011
Episode #12 The youthful and handsome classical guitarist from Montenegro, Milos Karadaglic, discusses with Marco Werman his life, his early success and his music and then displays his dazzling skill in several music video performances on the eve of his appearance at Carnegie Hall. November 2011
Episode #13 Jazz musician and composer Tom Harrell brings his trumpet and band to the Village Vanguard in New York in a performance filmed by Sound Tracks Quick Hits. Harrell then has an intimate, after midnight talk with interviewer Arun Rath about the obstacles he's overcome. January 2012
Episode #14 Chinese-born Yuja Wang displays her virtuoso piano style in a private, impromptu performance at the Steinway showroom in West L.A. Then the young star discusses her training, career and fashion choices with interviewer Alexis Bloom. February 2012
Episode #15 Nearing the end of his life, Levon Helm, the legendary drummer and a singer for the Band, leads his musical friends and daughter Amy Helm through some rock classics like The Weight and Ophelia at one of his last midnight rambles in his Woodstock, NY barn. After the show, in one of his very last interviews, Levon Helm shares stories with Marco Werman of his Arkansas past, his rock fame, his struggles with cancer, and his resilience. March 2012
Episode #16 Ravi Shankar's daughter Anoushka Shankar shows her mastery of the sitar and displays her willingness to mix genres -- in this case flamenco and classical Indian music -- at a performance in New York filmed by Sound Tracks Quick Hits. Plus, the acclaimed musician talks with reporter Arun Rath about her father, her Anglo-Indian-U.S. experience, her pregnancy and her determination to keep innovating. May 2012
Episode #17 The Carolina Chocolate Drops take the stage in Petaluma, California with their revival of old-time African American music and lead singer Rhiannon Giddens belts out the Ethel Waters blues song, No Man's Mama. Giddens and Dom Flemons discuss their fascination with traditional music with interviewer Mirissa Neff. June 2012
Episode #18 Of Monsters and Men, the Icelandic folk rock band, plays an exclusive, unplugged set of songs, including Little Talks and Dirty Paws. August 2012
Episode #19 Julie Fowlis, the Scottish singer who sang the theme song for the animated movie Brave, performs a ballad at home with her husband, My Love is on the High Seas.
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