Celebrating Community
Listening to music on the speaker of a cell phone is about as enjoyable as eating a burrito through a straw. You can get the taste but did you really experience the textures it had to offer? Ok, get yourself a damn high quality stereo already and listen to it often. Yes, vinyl is that good; it’s not just a […]
Like most people, my introduction to Jamaican music started with Bob Marley, whose aptly titled hits collection Legend set my standard for all other reggae music. Soon after I discovered Peter Tosh, Toots and The Maytals, Black Uhuru, and more. A family trip to Jamaica in the spring of ‘87 exposed me to the dancehall styles of Admiral Bailey and […]
For an artist of such enormous popularity for such a long period of time, Prince was never one to fall in line with expectations. He played sexuality and spirituality side by side, willfully crossed perceived lines of race, gender and musical genre and insisted on musical autonomy where most artists in his league happily cash the corporate checks. So an […]
Having heard about a show featuring The Glow, a band whose current lineup featured musicians from other groups I admire; Teen Body, whom I had wanted to hear live; and Sean Henry, a band releasing a record on one of my favorite labels, I knew this was not one to miss. I was further intrigued that the show was hosted […]
Today, hearing Afrobeats punching through speakers in many NYC bars and clubs is the norm. The rise of Afrobeats in recent years tells an interesting story about music’s ever-evolving landscape. Afrobeats isn’t Dancehall or Reggaeton, yet these genres do have a shared ancestry, surprisingly or not. Much like hip hop, Afrobeats’ far-reaching roots have made the genre a poignant sound […]
Would jazz have anywhere the accumulated history if its development had not coincided with that of audio recording and reproduction technology? As an art form, it’s gloriously impure, not only stitched together at its base with musical ideas from multiple traditions but integrated into the rise of the record business from the very start – two important early jazz labels, […]
Well I ain’t broke but I’m badly bent, everybody loves them dead presidents – Willie Dixon* As the Presidential electoral season shifts into full-throttle Aristotle mode, we need to gird ourselves for the incoming bombardment, and I can guarantee it will be vein-bursting. Candidates will glom onto anything that might give them an edge in the popularity stakes. Don’t expect […]
Sunn O))) – Pyroclasts (Southern Lord) LIke Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere – Sacred Quietus (Zazen Sounds) Every so often, a band comes along the greatness of which is beyond its own measure, a band that stands as a gateway to discovery. Miles Davis’s groups, the Yardbirds, the various incarnations of Acid Mothers Temple, all lead to multiple – and […]
Scott Sharrard has told me that he’s like the Yo-Yo Ma of Americana music. In other words, he’s playing music which is sadly slipping into history. He said that as many younger people drift away from roots music, music with traditions, they are often looking for music with a beat, music made on a laptop, music that sounds like a […]
With a colorful career spanning more than 40 years, Robyn Hitchcock remains one of the world’s most idiosyncratic song writers. Born in Paddington, a neighborhood of London, in 1953, his father Raymond Hitchcock was a novelist, screenwriter, and cartoonist best known for his novel Percy. Robyn attended Trinity College at Cambridge but failed to graduate. However, it was here he […]