1965: Sound, Fire & Revolution (Nels Cline, Melvin Gibbs, Chad Taylor) Live at Big Ears 2025
Hear a panel discussion from Big Ears 2025 titled 1965: Sound, Fire & Revolution, where guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer Chad Taylor, join critic and author Nate Chinen to reflect on a landmark year in music and culture. 1965 gave us works like A Love Supreme, Complete Communion, and Fire Music—that reshaped jazz and echoed broader upheaval. Sixty years later, these artists revisit that seismic moment, revealing how its sounds and struggles still resonate powerfully in our present.
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ganavya, Carlos Niño, Alabaster DePlume with Ann Powers: Live at Big Ears 2025
Hear a deep and searching live conversation from Big Ears 2025 between NPR Music critic and author Ann Powers and three remarkable artists whose practices reach far beyond the boundaries of genre — vocalist, double bassist and composer ganavya, multi-instrumentalist and scene-connector Carlos Niño, and British poet, saxophonist and troubadour Alabaster DePlume. In this wide-ranging interview, they explore themes of interdependence, the evolving meaning of “community,” and the porous line between art and everyday life. They challenge the language we use to describe music and the commodification of creative labor, while offering alternative frameworks grounded in love, joy, ancestry, and intuition.
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Joe Boyd with Ann Powers: Live at Big Ears 2025
At our 2025 festival, NPR critic and author Ann Powers sat down with legendary producer and music historian Joe Boyd for a wide-ranging conversation about his life in music. Boyd reflects on his recently published opus The Roots of Rhythm Remain, and a life at the intersection of sound and history in this intimate and revealing podcast episode.
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Charles Lloyd with Don Was: Live at Big Ears 2025
On this episode, we listen in on a rare exchange between Charles Lloyd — the legendary saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and NEA Jazz Master — and Don Was — President of Blue Note Records — recorded live at the Blue Note Lounge in Jackson Terminal during Big Ears 2025.
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Critics Reflection on Big Ears 2025
Three sharp-eared critics who attended Big Ears 2025—Bill Pearis (BrooklynVegan), Jennie Punter (Musicworks Magazine), and Natalie Weiner (Don't Rock the Inbox)—gather to reflect on the vast sonic and interdisciplinary arts landscape they encountered. From singular encounters to shared moments of awe, they explore the music, the food and the spirit of Knoxville. This talk reveals how Big Ears offers not one experience, but countless parallel journeys that may touch, or never overlap at all. We also pay tribute to the late Michael Hurley.Music featured in this episode:Terry Riley - “In C”Eiko Ishibashi - “Evil Does Not Exist”Hu Vibrational - “Calling to the Water Goddess”Tindersticks - “Don’t Walk, Run” Immersion - “State of Motion”Immanuel Wilkins - “MOSHPIT”Susan Alcorn - “Pedernal”Fieldwork - “Bend”Ambrose Akinmusire - “To: Taymoor”Michael Hurley - “Hog of the Forsaken”
Big Ears: Conversations About Music is a podcast that brings together cutting-edge musicians, journalists, and community leaders in discussions about the creative process, collaboration, and the transformative power of music.
Big Ears: Conversations About Music will offer one-on-one talks between artists, roundtables and interactions with fans offering a behind-the-scenes look at the stories and connections that make Big Ears one of the world’s most unique festival experiences.
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