Jake Clemons Steps Off E Street To Deliver Solo Debut – Fear & Love released 1-13-17 Jake Clemons has performed more than admirably since stepping into the oversized shoes of his Uncle Clarence in 2012 as sax player in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. The Boss’s crew draws heavily on the personality […]
Interview
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Donny McCaslin Goes Beyond Now At Birdland – January 9, 2017 It was one year ago, last January, when we got the amazing Blackstar album from David Bowie and then learned of his death two days later. I had been fortunate enough to speak to Tony Visconti shortly before the […]
Pharoah Sanders Recalls Homelessness At Winter Jazzfest – January 5, 2017 2017 Winter Jazzfest NYC got underway on Thursday with an appearance by Pharoah Sanders at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village. The 6 day event is now in its 13th year of delivering a well-curated mix of heavy […]
Lee Fields & The Expressions’ Special Night – Album Out Now, Irving Plaza Show this Saturday 1/7/17 Lee Fields released his first single in 1969. The North Carolina native followed his voice to New York City as a young man and settled in New Jersey to raise a family. He […]
Dr. Lonnie Smith Leads Octet Into 2017 At Jazz Standard – 12/28/16 through 1/1/17…video shot on Thursday, 12/29 Ah, Dr. Lonnie! I could see him perform every night. He’s that engaging, that thrilling when he sits down at his beloved Hammond B-3 organ. Noticing heavy guys like Jason Marshall on […]
Return Of The Lox – New Album Filthy America…It’s Beautiful Out Now 12-28-16 Jadakiss, Sheek Louch, and Jadakiss have been flirting with the possibility of a full-on reformation of The Lox for a few years and the release of Filthy America…It’s Beautiful this month closes the deal. The tracks deliver tough street reporting […]
The Bad Plus Talk Covers Ahead Of Village Vanguard Run – Tonight (12/27/16) through Sunday (1-1-17) The first track on the self-titled debut album by The Bad Plus from 2001 was Abba’s Knowing Me Knowing You. Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson, and David King also included a dynamite version of Nirvana’s […]
Bob Margolin & The Nighthawks Salute Muddy Waters – December 11, 2016 A treat to get one of the world’s toughest blues bands at Iridium in Times Square earlier this month. The Nighthawks are led by Mark Wenner on vocals and harmonica who formed the original group in 1972 in Washington DC. […]
Tom Rush Talks Songwriting & Performing – Schimmel Center at Pace University December 9, 2016 When Tom Rush was a student at Harvard University in the early sixties, he hosted a Tuesday evening radio program on the college station WHRB called Balladeers that featured his own performances on the air as […]
Busy December For Kenny Barron In NYC – In Action Beginning this Friday (December 9, 2016) through Christmas Day It’s no secret that Kenny Barron is a wonderful piano player. He was honored by The National Endowment for the Arts in 2010 as a jazz master and he has earned […]
Masta Killa Talks Future Of Wu Tang Clan It was this month in 1993 that the Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers) album was released catapulting the Staten Island based collective to the forefront of the hip hop world. This month, November 2016, sees a reissue of the disc on […]
The Hold Steady Bringing Anniversary Reissues & Residence; Brooklyn via Minneapolis Band Marks Ten Years On Boys And Girls In America with Deluxe Version Plus Sexy Reissues of Almost Killed Me & Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady have become an essential New York band since coming together in Brooklyn about thirteen […]
Martha Wainwright CD Release Party At Le Poisson Rouge – November 18, 2016 Martha Wainwright is the daughter of two accomplished singer songwriters: American Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian Kate McGarrigle who died almost seven years ago. She inherited great expectations along with royal musical blood. Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole is the […]
Helmet Kicks Ass At Highline Ballroom In Return To NYC; November 12, 2016 Regarding the first album by his group in six years, according to Page Hamilton: “People who hate Helmet are not going to like the record…and the people that love Helmet; some of them may take a minute […]
Chick Corea 75th Birthday Residence At The Blue Note – November 12th, 2016 Chick Corea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts – (same as me!) – and was too young to remember the day the piano came. However, according to the story that he got from his folks and relayed to […]
Danish String Quartet Makes Carnegie Hall Debut; At Zankel Hall on 10-26-16 Almost twenty years ago, three thirteen (or maybe fourteen) year old musicians became friends and began to play together. A professor (who is still a mentor) Tim Frederiksen at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen took interest […]
Dweezil Keeps Zappa Flag Flying At Beacon Theatre 10-30-16 I think Frank Zappa would be very proud of what his son Dweezil has done and what he is doing in regards to keeping his music alive on stages around the world. He plays it with skill and passion and is […]
Tricky Gets Personal At Webster Hall – 10/28/31 When I spoke to Tricky a few hours before his show last Friday, he explained how people had mentioned to him that when he’s on stage there is a tension and a vibe that would be welcome in larger doses in his […]
The Damned Celebrate Forty Years At Gramercy Theatre – Saturday 10-29-16 as well as Sunday 10-30-16 The Damned vini, vidi, vici’d two sold out shows at a grand old theatre. The interview occurred in between sets on Saturday night which is the most manic time imaginable to conduct an interview. […]
I stumbled upon Black Violin at SXSW last year and have been a fan ever since. The mad instrumentation of two fiddles, a drummer, and a turntablist creates a unique template on which to build songs. Hip hop and classical music are the genres most easily identified when sampling BV […]
Bela Fleck Leads Banjo Roundtable At Symphony Space – Sunday 10-23-16 The brilliant Bela Fleck invited some of his favorite banjo players to Symphony Space for an event that highlighted the range of sounds that the instrument can make across models, playing styles, and regional traditions. Â The mutual respect and […]
Jojo Makes Triumphant Return With Mad Love – Her First Album As An Adult & Her First In A Decade It was a delight to meet Jojo whose Massachusetts/New Hampshire roots are close to mine. She takes pride in being from New England and both states are represented among her […]
Pedrito Martinez Group Hitting Subrosa Next Two Tuesdays: 10-18 & 10-25-16 Pedrito Martinez is undeniably a demon on percussion and his interest in the music and culture of countries around the world, along with his spiritual approach to his own, helps elevate his hot quartet. He’s an intuitive bandleader and […]
New Morphine Documentary, Vapors Of Morphine Shows in Brooklyn This Saturday 10-15-16 Oh the joy Morphine has given me! One of the bands I have played the most in various living rooms of apartments I’ve lived in. Always there to create a very cool vibe. As he said near the […]
Derek Trucks Talks Listening In The Tedeschi Trucks Band Tonight – Saturday, October 8th 2016 – marks the nineteenth show for the Tedeschi Trucks Band at The Beacon Theater. It caps a six night Fall ’16 residence for the twelve piece group that included three nights of support from Jorma […]