The Best ‘Tiny Desk Concerts’ Of 2024: Phish, Billie Eilish, Kamasi Washington & More

Phish also had a memorable year in 2024, including the legendary jam band’s premiere on Tiny Desk Concert. Along with their debut at the Las Vegas Sphere (second band to play at the technologically advanced venue), Phish’s 16th studio album, Evolve, arrived on July 12. The busy year saw the Vermont quartet more visible in the media than usual, including their debut on Tiny Desk Concert shortly after Evolve arrived.

Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell mixed new and older material for their Tiny Desk including the title track to Evolve along with the classic “You Enjoy Myself,” which saw the Anastasio and Gordon bouncing on “tiny” trampolines and the quartet weaving through the audience with “tiny” percussion instruments.

Billie Eilish appeared on the virtual Tiny Desk (Home) Concert during the pandemic, recreating Bob Boilen’s iconic desk for the play. The pop star premiered at the real Tiny Desk late this year. Billie, her brother FINNEAS on guitar, drummer Andrew Marshall, bassist Solo Smith and pianist Abe Nour delivered songs from Eilish’s 2024 album Hit Me Hard and Soft, including the multiple-Grammy-nominated “Birds Of A Feather.”

The Queen of Funk Chaka Khan came to NPR’s homebase in Washington D.C. for her Tiny Desk Concert debut in June. The performance was part of Tiny Desk’s series in recognition of Black Music Month featuring Black female artists.

Chaka and her band reeled off a seven-song set including funk favorites from the singer’s time with Rufus such as the Stevie Wonder-written “Tell Me Something Good.” Chaka Khan touched on her solo career as well, closing her Tiny Desk debut with the 1978 hit, “I’m Every Woman.”

TV On The Radio’s appearance on Tiny Desk Concert was over a decade in the making.

“Thank you for having us here, I don’t know what happened 15 years ago,” lead vocalist Tunde Adebimpe told the Tiny Desk audience. “I think someone missed a phone call or an email ’cause we wanted to do it for a while. Sometimes we found ourselves in an office just going, ‘we could play here.’ And now it’s happened, dreams are coming true.”

“Sometimes we’ve been sitting around talking amongst ourselves just saying, ‘I don’t know why they don’t want us. Why not us?’” guitarist Kyp Malone added.

As the band celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2024, they delivered a career-spanning set for their long-awaited Tiny Desk debut.

Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield recently brought her Waxahatchee project back to Tiny Desk Concert for the first time in over 10 years. Crutchfield performed solo for Waxahatchee’s premiere.

“I rolled out of the tour band … I sort of didn’t really know what I was doing at all,” Katie said of her 2013 Tiny Desk debut. “My amp broke in the middle [of the set].”

This year, Crutchfield brought her band — Eliana Athayde (upright bass, background vocals), Cole Berggren (piano, banjo), Spencer Tweedy (drums, background vocals), Colin Croom (pedal steel, dobro, guitar) and Clay Frankel (guitar, background vocals). Katie led the group through songs from her 2024 album, Tiger’s Blood, for her triumphant Tiny Desk return.

Acclaimed saxophonist and bandleader Kamasi Washington offered his first Tiny Desk Concert in 2024. Washington and his band delivered a four-song set featuring selections from three of his albums.

The saxophonist’s outfit includes his father Rickey Washington on flute and soprano saxophone along with trombonist Ryan Porter, keyboardist Brandon Coleman, drummer Tony Austin, bassist Miles Moseley and vocalist Patrice Quinn. Washington’s set included two songs, “Lesanu” and “Asha The First,” from his most recent studio album, 2024’s Fearless Movement, along with the favorite “Street Fighter Mas.”

Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise in 2024 included a Tiny Desk Concert debut. Roan’s rise was boosted by the release of her Grammy-nominated album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which arrived in September.

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is nominated for the coveted Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2025 Grammys. Chappell Roan is also up for Best New Artist. For her Tiny Desk session, which premiered in March, Roan — along with a band including a string ensemble — delivered The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess tracks “Casual,” “Pink Pony Club” and more.

Touareg rockers Mdou Moctar returned to Tiny Desk for the first time since their debut for the performance series in 2018. This time around, the band brought songs from their 2024 album, Funeral For Justice.

The band’s hypnotic “desert blues” filled NPR’s homebase earlier this year. Funeral For Justice sees Mdou Moctar — lead guitarist Mdou Moctar, rhythm guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane, drummer Souleymane Ibrahim and American bassist/producer Mikey Coltun — continuing their quest to dismantle the vestiges of colonization in their native Niger and across Africa.

Embodying the band’s message is “Imohaur,” a call to preserve the Tuareg Tamasheq language. The song kicks off the band’s 2024 Tiny Desk appearance.

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sierra Ferrell also clocked a big year in 2024. Ferrell’s accomplishments included a stop by NPR HQ for a Tiny Desk Concert.

Along with big time supports and headline tours, Ferrell released her acclaimed album, Trail of Flowers, in 2024. The record clocked Sierra her first Grammy nominations including Best Americana Album. Ferrell’s Tiny Desk Concert arrived in August. The Grammy-nominated Trail of Flowers track, “American Dreaming,” was among the songs performed.

Neo-soul star Maxwell took to Tiny Desk Concert for the first time in 2024. The singer whose voice — along with Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu — graced the soul revival of the late-1990s, gave Tiny Desk a selection of songs from across his catalog. The performances included Maxwell’s hit singles “Sumthin’ Sumthin’” and “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder).”