Madonna did her Veni, Vidi, Vici thing at Madison Square Garden last week. Ms. Ciccone first headlined here 30 years ago and the seasoned professional entertainer knows what’s she doing.
Sound Advice
446 posts
I don’t want to put a jinx on her but after spending some time with Melanie Martinez, I’m convinced she’s got an extremely promising future as a recording artist. The 20 year old out of Baldwin, Long Island clearly has a creative vision for her music and whether it’s co-writing […]
Robert Plant is at The Capital Theatre tomorrow night Thursday 9-17-2015 and the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday. The former Led Zeppelin frontman is enjoying playing relatively intimate venues while Jimmy Page recently wrapped up his top to bottom remastering of the Led Zeppelin catalog.
There’s no trumpet (and flugelhorn) player I”d rather listen to than Roy Hargrove. He burns equally bright whether applying his pure lustrous tone to tough hard bop or to smoldering ballads. I spoke with the artist on a sunny late afternoon here in the city over the long Labor Day […]
An amazing group of Disc Jockeys spins under the Mobile Mondays! flag at The Bowery Electric. They all have their own unique style under a unifying aesthetic of playing 45 RPM records with great passion and knowledge. I had the pleasure of catching a hang with a pair of the […]
The new James Maddock album is called The Green. The British-born singer-songwriter who has called the Lower East Side of Manhattan home for the past 12 years has penned another appealing collection of songs. He treated the fortunate group who squeezed into Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 to a good handful […]
Fifth Harmony are on a roll! Their single Worth It was recently certified double platinum, they celebrated the release of their new video for I’m In Love With A Monster by premiering it in Times Square, and they sold out The Beacon Theatre. In addition to the look at the fab […]
Those who have seen The J. Geils Band perform in concert know the kind of energy, power, and passion that they bring every time they congregate. With Magic Dick blowing sublime harp, DK (Dr Funk) Daniel Klein rumbling and tumbling on bass, Seth Justman barrelhousing on keys, and the incomparable […]
Howard Jones combined adept, crafty skills on synthesizers and keyboards and (an area where many of his contemporaries who were lumped in a general category of synth-pop were lacking) strong songwriting to create a memorable catalog of hits. He brought those hits, 15 in the top 40 including 6 in […]
Yesterday I participated in the final broadcast of The Alternate Side radio station. It was emotional! After Russ Boris, Alisa Ali and I played New Order and Joy Division back to back, I recalled the once in a lifetime pairing of Iggy Pop and New Order performing a couple of […]
Justin Townes Earle was part of AmericanaFest NYC at Lincoln Center earlier this month. The singer-songwriter has added significantly to his impressive body of work recently with Single Mothers followed closely by Absent Fathers that was recorded in the same sessions. Here’s a taste of the performance and our conversation which featured […]
Before their show in Brooklyn at Barclays Arena, TOTO were given commemorative plaques to recognize an eyebrow-raising 40 million albums sold. The achievement is another feather in the cap of the veteran rock ensemble best known for their three top 5 hits Africa, Rosanna, and Hold The Line. Fans of […]
Amazing night Outdoors At Lincoln Center on Saturday 8/8/2015 as an all-star band (Smokey Hormel, David Garza, Benmont Tench, Al Kooper, etc) played Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited for the second annual AmericanaFest NYC. Watkins Family Hour, the long running side band of Nickel Creek’s siblings Sean and Sara Watkins […]
If you’re a Sharon Jones fan, you know Saun & Starr as her backing singers The Dapettes. Now, it’s time to know them at the front of the stage! Their new album on Daptone Records Look Closer is out and the dynamite duo celebrated with a show at Lincoln Center…
Country star Luke Bryan delighted the crowd at FarmBorough Festival earlier this summer. Now the Georgia native is coming back to New York City, where he was asked for directions during his last visit, to celebrate the release of his new album Kill The Lights…
New York City’s own John Pizzarelli is, like a lot of us, a lifelong Beatles fan. You can imagine the thrill it was for the jazz guitarist/vocalist to record with Paul McCartney on the latter’s Kisses On The Bottom a few years ago. Macca had liked the John Pizzarelli Meets The […]
Dr. John gave us a scare by canceling his show in Central Park on 8-2-2014 for health reasons. However, the New Orleans music legend was in good spirits when we chatted a couple of weeks after that on the release of his new album: Ske Dat De Dat – The Spirit […]
Moving to Los Angeles would be an intense experience for almost anyone but for Laura Marling, who grew up on the English countryside, it precipitated what the folk-rock singer-songwriter – half jokingly – called an existential crisis. Here she talks about that city which was an inspiration for her latest release […]
After the backlash of the Songs of Innocence giveaway and Bono’s harrowing Central Park bicycle accident last fall, U2 may have felt somewhat beleaguered. Whether or not that history had any bearing on their attitude for this tour is nothing that can be known. What is clear, however, after seeing […]
Four heavy jazz artists: Gary Bartz, Buster Williams, Larry Willis, and Al Foster have come together as Heads of State. The new album, Search for Peace, is out and they’ll be celebrating its release with shows this weekend at Manhattan’s Smoke Jazz Club. I spoke with Gary Bartz at the […]
Long time Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes has released an album unlike any in his tremendous career. Ashes & Dust was made with Railroad Earth at The Barber Shop Studios in Hopatcong, New Jersey. Haynesy explained that he’d been collecting songs for years that were the kind of thing that […]
Welsh rockers Super Furry Animals were a tasty take and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks didn’t disappoint as the 5th annual Village Voice 4 Knots Festival made the transition to a ticketed event and enjoyed its new digs on Pier 84 on Hudson River Park after 4 years at South Street Seaport, […]
Micky Dolenz recorded an album to be released in September 2015 over three shows at Manhattan supper club 54 Below last week. The Monkee and childhood television actor, who has a brilliant run on stage as well, draws upon all of it in his show A Little Bit Broadway, A Little Bit Rock […]
Early 1970’s Leon Russell is certainly worthy of a documentary and this one, A Poem Is a Naked Person, has style. Filmmaker Les Blank was a character in his own right and somewhere along the filming fell out of favor with the artist. The film ended up on the shelf […]
I’m mad about hanging out at the Jazzfest – this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival 2015 being no exception. I ran amok with my video camera and got a taste of groups as far afield as Novalima, The Barr Brothers and Cibo Matto. Catching the Wayne Shorter Quartet was a highlight […]