Two recent solo debuts from guitarist Michael Kaiser run counter to the contemporary approach of bombarding the music scene with albums, product, content and social media posts. The dual release of Realms and Night Realms are akin to striking a primal urgrund-note on a squealing electric guitar, letting it resonate through life/death for three decades, and returning for the secondary …
Charley Crockett | Tiny Desk Concert
Charley Crockett knew what he was doing when he stood behind the Tiny Desk and introduced himself by smoothly dropping three names: Charley Pride, Davy Crockett and Freddy Fender. With those references, the Texas troubadour framed his concert as a shrewd conversation with sturdy, old ways of singing, spinning yarns of folk heroism and drawing freely from the cultural melting …
Jacksonville Jazz Artist Ulysses Owens Jr. Takes Home Third Grammy Win with the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
There’s an often-quoted joke amongst musicians : “How do you make a million dollars playing jazz? Start with two million dollars.” While jazz is routinely considered to be a true American art form, from jazz artists’ current fame to total albums sold, its recognition by the overall larger audience can still seem shortsighted. Thankfully, this is not the case for …
Tuareg Guitar Hero Mdou Moctar to Play Intuition Ale Works in May
Formidable Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar has announced a spring tour with a stop at the Bier Hall inside Intuition Ale Works Downtown Jacksonville taproom in May. The Niger-bred Moctar is widely praised as a torchbearer for Saharan rock, melding ear-turning modern fret work on his electric guitar with traditional polyrhythms, field recordings and ruminations on love, religion, women’s …
The Best Live Music in Jacksonville this Week
Thelma and the Sleaze, Joan Jett, Sam Grisman Project, PW5K and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Funk Tower of Power – Tuesday, February 28 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Bay Area legends Tower of Power celebrate 55-years of ear-turning funk at the Florida Theatre on Tuesday. Watch | Tickets …
The Dandy Warhols and the Art of Three Decades of 15 Minutes of Fame
Call it the long game. Since their formation, indie-alt-what-have-you stalwarts the Dandy Warhols have remained essentially intact and absolutely active. Formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994, the band has outlasted most of their peers and even survived their hometown’s upscale evolution from a well-rooted, post-‘60s counterculture to its present-day Airbnb-ing and foodie oasis. Their earliest live shows were a raucous …
Theo Croker | Tiny Desk Concert
This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations and walks of life. Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time. Trumpeter Theo Croker arrived at the Tiny Desk with an unmistakable air of chill, an easy smile …
The Best Live Music in Jax this Week
Winterland Music Festival, plus Marty Stuart, LPT and more.
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Jazz Blue Jay Jazz Jam – Tuesday, February 22 Blue Jay Listening Room | Jacksonville Beach The jazz jam, featuring some of the area’s top talent returns to the intimate Blue Jay Listening …
The Killers to Play St. Augustine Amphitheatre in May
Indie rock staples The Killers are embarking on a second tour in support of their 2021 album, Pressure Machine, this spring, with a stop at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Monday, May 8. The seventh studio album leans more into folk-rock than the band’s previous work. It tells the story of small-town America, loosely based on frontman Brandon Flowers’ upbringing …
Os Mutantes’ Sérgio Dias on Five Decades of Making Left-of-Field Music
When Os Mutantes perform at Winterland V, the free, two-day music festival in downtown Jacksonville on Sunday, February 26, the storied band brings a half-century-plus of iconoclastic Brazilian musical history to the local 21st-century stage. Even in the freak-freely 1960s, Os Mutantes (“The Mutants” in Brazilian Portuguese) were precocious teenagers formed during the decidedly youth-revolt of the Tropicália movement. A …
Jax Musician Jay Myztroh Remembers His Friend and Collaborator, the late Paten Locke
Introduction by Mr. Al Pete Music has a magical way of forging relationships. They say that the word is bond. Well, the music that matches the word makes this grip a steadfast one. In particular, hip hop is known for having a dynamic way of bragging about who’s the best and who does it cooler. The cool aspect gets as …
David Jolicoeur, De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove, dies at 54
The most formative musical memory of my youth occurred 30,000 feet over central California in the summer of 1989. I was almost 17, flying on a school trip from LA to the Bay Area, and popped into my Walkman was an album I had just picked up from my local record store, Moby Disc: De La Soul’s 3 Feet High …
Lee Fields | Tiny Desk Concert
This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations and walks of life. Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time. You can’t see it on the screen, but there’s a piece of paper taped to the Desk …
Playlist | February’s Best New Music
Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist features the best new music emenanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Handpicked by our team of contributors, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Our latest Fresh Squeeze playlist includes new music from Black Thought. The …
The Best Live Music in Jacksonville this Week
The JWJ Hip Hop Fest returns, Rhiannon Giddens and Valerie June at Ft. Mose and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Salsa Gilberto Santa Rosa – Tuesday, February 14 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Six-time Grammy Award-winning bandleader, “El Caballero de la Salsa,” the great Gilberto Santa Rosa performs at the Florida Theatre on …
10 Jax Artists To Watch in 2023
In 2022, with fans thirsty for music after a two-year dry spell, artists seemed inclined to open the firehose. Pandemic era projects, and projects shelved during the touring halt, were released at a dizzying clip. And the only thing more disorienting was the onslaught of new tour announcements. Trends in the Jacksonville music scene ran parallel to those underway internationally. …
New 4-Part Series on Jax PBS Explores How Hip Hop Changed the World
Nearly fifty years ago, in the summer of 1973, Cindy Campbell asked her brother, Clive, better known as DJ Cool Herc, to spin records at a “Back to School Jam” at their apartment complex’s recreation room in the Bronx. While Herc dropped the needle on drum-and-bass-heavy cuts from his collection of vinyl, his friend Coke La Rock held the mic, …
Asamov, the Influential Jax Hip-Hop Group, Finally Gets its Due
Recent years have seen more mainstream attention being given to local rap artists than ever before. But the stars of today are newer, younger artists, most of whom have never known anything but the digital future we’re currently living in. There was, however, a whole generation of local legends who never got the hype they deserved. And Asamov sits atop …
Want to play your own Tiny Desk concert? The 2023 Contest is now open for entries
The Tiny Desk Contest–NPR Music’s annual nationwide search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert–is back for its ninth year. The Tiny Desk team will begin accepting entries on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023 at 10 a.m. ET. When you enter the 2023 Tiny Desk Contest, you join a nationwide community of music-makers and creators. Here’s …
Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight, Rhiannon Giddens, Christian McBride Headline February’s Fort Mose Jazz & Blues Series
Established as the Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose in 1738, Fort Mose was the first settlement for free Blacks in American history. Slaves fleeing South from British-controlled territories had been taking refuge among Spanish settlers since 1687, growing from an initial group of just 11 to more than 100. Once the British absorbed Florida, though, all such dreams …
10 takeaways from the 2023 Grammy Awards: Whose big night was it?
The Grammys love to brand themselves as “Music’s Biggest Night,” so it’s fitting that this year’s awards honored so many of music’s biggest names. Beyoncé, Adele, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny all took home trophies during Sunday night’s telecast, but some won bigger than others. Here are the storylines and takeaways that dominated the night. 1. The …
Four New Songs by Jacksonville Artists Out Now
Sammy María, Corey Kilgannon, Haxprocess and Limo Scene
And as we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got four great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. A reminder: You can hear the best new local tunes at 20 minutes after the hour, every hour …
Go | The Best Live Music in Jacksonville this Week
Neko Case, STRFKR, Mavis Staples, Christian McBride and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Singer-Songwriter Neko Case – Tuesday, February 7 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra Fresh off the announcement of a decades-spanning anthology, Wild Creatures, and a tour with her band, iconic Canadian indie act …
Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour is Ticketmaster’s next big test. Fans are already stressed
Updated February 2, 2023 at 8:06 PM ET News of Beyoncé’s first solo tour in more than six years has her many fans celebrating — and stressing out about whether they’ll actually be able to get tickets. The singer announced on Wednesday that she will bring her Grammy-nominated album Renaissance to cities across Europe and North America between May and …
M.I.A., Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta and More Headline this Year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami
Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, which is billed as “the world’s premier electronic music festival,” is back and bigger and better than ever. Ultra returns to Bayfront Park in downtown Miami on March 24-26, and will once again serve as the grand finale to Miami Music Week, the weeklong marathon of electronic music events that consistently draws hundreds of thousands of …
Giveaway | Tickets to see Neko Case at PV Concert Hall + Vinyl
Fresh off the announcement of a decades-spanning anthology Wild Creatures and a recent tour with her iconic band The New Pornographers, singer-songwriter Neko Case will visit the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall on Tuesday, February 7. And we want to get you to the show (and hook you up with some vinyl). We’re giving away two tickets to Tuesday’s show and …
Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson and more named 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees
Wednesday morning brought the announcement of the 2023 nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Among the first-timers in this year’s class of potential inductees are Sheryl Crow, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Warren Zevon, Missy Elliott and The White Stripes, the last two receiving their nominations in the first year of eligibility. To …
Celebrated Singer-Songwriter Neko Case On Her Many Career Milestones, Her Love of Collaboration and Feelings About Twitter
Judging by her sheer velocity and creative endeavors, 30 years into her career, Neko Case remains too busy to glance at her reflection. Prior to our talk with the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, she had just completed an intense tour with The New Pornographers; the Canadian indie-pop-juggernaut group whom Case began working with some 25 years ago. Yet her current tour, in …
Hermanos Gutiérrez | Tiny Desk Concert
There is a slow burning intensity to everything Hermanos Gutiérrez does, including how the duo walked into our offices and saw the Tiny Desk for the first time. “Wow, there it is…” Estevan said quietly to his brother Alejandro. Hermanos Gutiérrez’s origin story is as intricate as the guitar playing styles of its two members. The brothers have roots in …
NPR Music Partner Station’s 2023 Artists to Watch
From distinctive, R&B singer-songwriters to rising bands making fuzzed-out country rock, this year brings a new crop of artists set for a big break. Here, NPR Music’s partner stations select a new wave of artists poised for greatness in 2023. Baby Rose Atlanta based singer-songwriter Baby Rose has one of the most distinct voices in R&B right now and there’s …
Seattle Jazz Outfit Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Visits the Ritz Theatre on Saturday
Cold As Weiss is the third studio album by the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, released last year. The group will be performing at The Ritz on February 4, a stacked evening for live music in Northeast Florida. Their first album, Close But No Cigar (2015), scored the #1 spot on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. There are also two live …
The Smile to Play St. Augustine Amphitheatre in June
Riding the wave of their critically-acclaimed 2022 debut, A Light for Attracting Attention, The Smile, the trio comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner have announced 14 North American dates with a stop at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre in June. On A Light for Attracting Attention, the trio unspools an eclectic suite …
Parking Lot Palooza | Beloved Jax studio hosts 20 bands for free concert
Warehouse Studios’s Parking Lot Palooza 6 is a showcase for some 20 of the city’s up and coming bands, as well as several veteran acts of local renown, trading off on two stages, inside and out. They include bands like Tonal (the latest project by Warehouse boss Ryan Turk, joined by Michael Lee Martin and Jessica Walton), Hang Eleven, Alexander …
‘Dispatches from DaNang’ is the Latest Batch of Beats from Itinerant Jax Artist Batsauce
Britt Traynham, aka Batsauce, is currently living in Hawaii with his wife, Daisey. The couple have spent most of the past 15 years living the itinerant lives of digital nomads, writing and recording their way around the world. The newest collection of Batsauce beats, Dispatches from DaNang, was inspired by the time he spent in Vietnam. Track 2, “Waking Up …
Go | The Best Live Music in Jax this Week
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Susto, Bobby Weir, Parking Lot Palooza and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Americana Shane Smith & The Saints – Tuesday, January 31 Underbelly | Downtown Jacksonville Austin, Texas Americana act Shane Smith & The Saints perform at Underbelly on Tuesday night. Watch | Tickets | …
Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer of influential rock band Television, dies at 73
Tom Verlaine, a founding father of American punk and a fixture of the 1970s New York rock scene, died Saturday in Manhattan as the result of a brief illness. He was 73. His death was confirmed to NPR in a press release from Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine collaborator Patti Smith, who also once dated the artist. “I …