Solange: KCRW Guest DJ Set

Solange Knowles is a prolific, genre-obliterating, multi-disciplinary artist. From “Losing You,” her head-turning 2012 single with production by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), to her acclaimed 2016 opus A Seat at the Table — Solange excels at crafting songs that are as likely to make you think as they are to make you get down. In 2017, she won the Best R&B Performance Grammy for “Cranes in the Sky” — A Seat at the Table’s standout single.

Her 2019 Table follow-up, When I Get Home, found her taking a more experimental approach to her future-soul-stylings. For this album, she enlisted production assistance from the playful LA jazz pianist John Carroll Kirby and the NYC avant-garde collective Standing on the Corner (to name just a few of her many esoteric collaborators).

Beyond the boundaries of the music studio, Solange has been conducting performance-art shows across the globe and she is the president of the arts institution Saint Heron, which she founded in 2013. In 2022, she composed a jazz/classical score for the piece Play Time — choreographed by Gianna Reisen for the New York City ballet and featuring looks by Spanish fashion designer Alejandro Gomez Paloma.

And that was just the warm-up. In 2023, Solange launched an innovative event series in New York called Eldorado Ballroom. It explores the reach of Black music through experimental live performances. And now, she’s partnered with the LA Philharmonic to bring the second edition of Eldorado Ballroom to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The experience will run for three nights, beginning tomorrow — Thursday, October 10th — with wholly unique presentations happening at each subsequent show:

Eldorado Ballroom, curated by Solange Knowles for Saint Heron: On Dissonance (An Evening of Classical, Symphonic, and Opera Works) — Thursday, Oct. 10 @ Walt Disney Concert Hall

Eldorado Ballroom, curated by Solange Knowles for Saint Heron: Contrapuntal Counterpoints (Experiments in Funk, Soul, and Jazz) — Saturday, Oct. 12 @ Walt Disney Concert Hall

Eldorado Ballroom, curated by Solange Knowles for Saint Heron: Glory to Glory (A Revival For Spiritual and Devotional Art) — Sunday, Oct. 13 @ Walt Disney Concert Hall

For her KCRW Guest DJ set (and first radio interview in over six years), Solange is highlighting just a few of the groundbreaking artists who are a part of these shows. Scroll through to see and hear the selects directly and sink into the instant rapport of Solange Knowles and Novena Carmel in conversation. They’re covering everything from Solange convincing Moses Sumney to tap into his church music background, to how she immediately clocked the native Texan within LA-based R&B futurist Liv.e… and just how hard she stans for minimalist classical composer Julia Perry.

This session was recorded, mixed, and engineered by Katie Gilchrest.

More:Moses Sumney: KCRW Guest DJ Set

Julia Perry/Manhattan Percussion Ensemble & Paul Price – “Homunculus C.F.”

Liv.e – “Moving On Felt Great and This Feels (Good) Too (Feat. C.S. Armstrong)”

Bilal – “Sometimes”

Mary Lou Williams – “St. Martin De Porres”

GMWA Women of Worship – “Order My Steps”