The voice of Phil Schaap was as distinctive as the trumpet of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk’s piano, or the sumptuous saxophone harmonies of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, but he didn’t didn’t make his mark as a musician. Instead, Schaap was one of the leading jazz scholars in America, and the genre’s foremost evangelist. He was a radio host, a record …
Want to be a Songwriter Spotlight Featured Artist?
Local showcase is looking for songwriters
The folks that run the popular weekly open-mic showcase at Five Points bar and music venue Rain Dogs are looking for artists to feature at upcoming Songwriter Spotlight events. The showcase put out an all call via its Instagram account last week. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Songwriter Spotlight (@songwriter_spotlight) Every Wednesday night, Songwriter Spotlight offers …
Kick Out the (Jazz) Jams | A guide to Jacksonville’s many jam sessions
The jam session has played a central role in the evolution of American music for over a century. As with so many other things, the jam session concept has its roots in Storyville, New Orleans, where jazz music began in the late 1800’s. In the era before records, before radio and before the modern touring infrastructure, the prominent musicians of …
Víkingur Ólafsson Wants To Change Your Mind About Mozart
When Víkingur Ólafsson was 8 years old, he threw a tantrum over Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As he tried to play the runs in the deceptive little Sonata facile in C major, the so-called “Easy Sonata,” he grew so frustrated that he literally scratched out the notes with a pencil. Since then, the 37-year-old Icelandic pianist has made peace with Mozart. …
Doo Wop Revival Celebrates Ten Years on WJCT
Host Glen Fisher on the prevailing allure of doo wop
It’s hard to believe the Doo Wop Revival recently celebrated ten years on the air at WJCT. It’s been a dream sharing seminal street-corner-harmony music with listeners in Jacksonville and those who stream the station around the world. From an early age I wanted to be a disc jockey. The music of the ‘50s consumed me. It all started when …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
Time to Sing Out Loud
The month-long Sing Out Loud Festival kicks off in St. Johns County this week. With more than 100 performances scheduled in and around St. Augustine’s historic district, SOL is set to dominate the September calendars of JME Contributors. (You can read our staff picks for SOL here.) It’s a busy month of music. Here’s what the JME team will be …
Local Spotlight | “Persian Rugs” by Sailor Goon
An inscrutable blend of pop, R&B and psychedelia
Sailor Goon remains as inscrutable as she is enigmatic. Previous cuts like 2019’s “Milk & Bones” and “Just For Me” up-tuned the equalizers to the Duval psychediva’s signature approach to holograph soul; especially within the latter tune’s overall effect resembling 50 years of R&B micro-dosing and collapsing onto itself. This spring Sailor Goon (aka Kayla Le) regenerated her dreamscapes with …
From A Small House In a Big Stadium, Kanye West Comes Up Empty-Handed on ‘Donda’
While recording Donda, Kanye West paid $1 million per day to live in the belly of Mercedes Benz Stadium, in a stuffy room that resembled a jail cell. As with his last several records, his hulking new album arrived in fits and starts, like a lawnmower revving up for three weeks. Three stadium listening parties – two at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, …
Bonnaroo cancelled due to excessive flooding
Music just can’t catch a break in 2021. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been cancelled. The impetus: flooding from Hurricane Ida, which made landfall near Louisiana on Monday, and has been dumping heavy rainfall as it charts its path toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. “While this weekend’s weather looks outstanding, currently Centeroo [the main festival area] is waterlogged …
JME Recommends | Our fave songs of 2021 (So Far)
JME contributors pick their fave local and not-local releases of the year
The JME team has already reviewed a lot of great local music this year. And it’s only July. Just to catch our breath, we decided to dig through everything that’s come across our speakers or headphones during the first six months of 2021 and pick out our faves. Here are JME contributors’ picks for the best local and best not-local …
Store namechecked in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” demolished
The Jacksonville building that once housed the Woodcrest Grocery store, which was immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”, was demolished last week, according to the Florida Times-Union. The song, written by Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins appeared on the band’s 1973 album Second Helping. Van Zant sings of collecting “soda bottles” …
JME Recommends | Sing Out Loud Staff Picks
What to see and hear at September’s Sing Out Loud Festival in St. Augustine
Remember livestream festivals? Right. Not the same. The return of live music got going in earnest early this summer, when Lollapalooza welcomed 300K-plus (vaccinated) fans to Chicago. Popular online music publication Pitchfork brings its indie-heavy fest back to Chicago during the second week in September. Here in Northeast Florida, music fans have been chomping at the bit, reveling in the …
Hurricane Ida destroys Karnofsky Tailor Shop, a jazz landmark and second home to Louis Armstrong
The Karnofsky Tailor Shop, a New Orleans jazz landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places was destroyed when Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday, according to CNN. In the early 1900s, the Karnofsky Tailor Shop played an integral role in the history of jazz. The building and the family that occupied it, the Karnofskys, are said …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
Hail, hail rock n' roll
While rock music may not be the cultural-needle-mover it once was, the genre remains a relative unit shifter in an increasingly genre-agnostic music ecosystem. This week JME contributors have their eyes and ears on five shows featuring bands performing on trad-rock setups––guitar, bass and drums. But that’s about all these five shows have in common. Here’s what we’re masking up …
Isolated By Pandemic, Violinist Jennifer Koh Nurtured A New Community Online
When the pandemic arrived, it hit artists like Jennifer Koh hard. A classical violinist whose repertoire runs from Bach and Beethoven to newly minted pieces, she returned to her New York home from a concert in March 2020, and within a day found all of her engagements postponed. “My first reaction was panic, because I lost all of my work,” …
Migos | Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. By the time Quavo hits the second half of his opening verse on “Avalanche,” all three members …
Reggae great and Dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry dead at 85
A towering figure in reggae, the pioneering Jamaican musician and producer Lee “Scratch” Perry has died at 85. Early in his career, Perry famously worked with Bob Marley’s fledgling group, The Wailers, helping to turn the band from a buttoned-up rocksteady outfit into a spiritual and politically conscious force. He was an instrumental figure at Kingston’s famed Studio One, where …
John Coltrane’s Masterpiece Breathes New Life With ‘A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle’
John Coltrane‘s A Love Supreme, recorded near the close of 1964 and released early the following year, inhabits an exalted plane beyond the realm of most other albums, in any musical genre. Easily one of the most celebrated jazz recordings ever made, it radiates a deep, devotional gravitas — a palpably focused ardor that has long inspired actual worship, as …
Local Spotlight | The best new tracks from Jacksonville artists out this week
Regular readers of JME are surely familiar by now with multi-instrumentalist Nick Garcia’s project Lost Club. Garcia’s been slowly releasing singles, each one seemingly more refined than the next. Same can be said for Duval hip-hop collective L.O.V.E. Culture, who, after a smattering of EPs and singles, dropped its debut full-length to much fanfare last week. We’ve got new tracks …
Daily’s Place will require proof of negative COVID test for Jonas Brothers show
Those attending the Jonas Brothers performance at Daily’s Place Amphitheater in Downtown Jacksonville on October 15 will be required to show printed proof of a negative COVID test, according to the venue’s website. The pop megastars announced on Monday via their Instagram page that they would be making proof of a negative test or proof of vaccination a requirement for …
The Marvelous Legacy of Larry Harlow
LPT singer on the prevailing influence of salsa legend Larry Harlow
His colleagues called him El judío maravilloso (“The Marvelous Jew”). His parents named him Lawrence. To fans worldwide he was “Harlow!” On Friday, August 20, 2021, famed salsa pianist, arranger and producer Larry Harlow passed away at age 82 from heart failure due to renal complications. Music fans worldwide mourned the loss of not just a legend, but also of …
Underbelly Returns to Downtown Jacksonville
The team behind 1904 Music Hall has revived the popular Bay Street venue
Post-hardcore/emo group Hawthorne Heights is set to play Underbelly on Friday. And if you feel like that sentence reads as though it was copied-and-pasted from a different year, you’re not alone. To clear things up: yes, emo is thriving in 2021. And, yes, Underbelly, the much-beloved but short-lived Downtown Jacksonville music venue is back. Along with Burro Bar and Club …
Man Photographed As A Baby On ‘Nevermind’ Cover Sues Nirvana For Sexual Exploitation
The cover for Nevermind, a 1991 Nirvana album that is said to have helped redefine rock music, features a naked 4-month-old baby in a pool, appearing to swim after a dollar bill that’s pierced with a fish hook. That baby — the now 30-year-old Spencer Elden — is suing Nirvana for child exploitation and pornography, saying the band knowingly distributed …
Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts Dies At 80
Charlie Watts, the unshakeable drummer for The Rolling Stones, died this morning. According to a publicist, he died in a hospital in London, surrounded by family. No cause of death was given. He was 80 years old. Where most rock bands take their cues from the drummer, Watts was the type to hang back. He told NPR in 2012 that …
Yola postpones Sing Out Loud Festival performance
A performance by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Yola at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre has been postponed, according to the venue’s website. The English musician was scheduled to perform with special guest Patty Griffin on September 12 as part of the month-long Sing Out Loud Festival in St. Johns County. A statement on The Amp’s website reads: Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s …
Don Everly, Half Of The Quintessential Harmonic Duo The Everly Brothers, Dies At 84
Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll’s pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician, known for singing close harmonies with his brother, was 84. With hits like, “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love” and “Cathy’s Clown,” The Everly Brothers were a sensation in the late 1950s and early …
Lorde, Now Fully Adulting, Embraces A Folksy Analog On ‘Solar Power’
Ella Yelich-O’Connor, known to the world as Lorde, is embracing a sunnier and more analog sound, full of plucked acoustic guitars and brushed snares. Since releasing her breakout single, “Royals,” in 2013, she’s made the most of hook-heavy pop songs constructed from a palette of overcast electronic sounds. “In the past,” she says, “I’d hear an acoustic guitar and I’d …
Clash between corporate mandates and state laws put Northeast Florida music venues in a bind
For many the return of live music was a signpost on the way out of the new normal. In late June, Bruce Springsteen opened the curtain on Broadway’s reopening while The Foo Fighters’ Madison Square Garden set counted off the return of arena rock. Across Northeast Florida, venues large and small returned to full-capacity shows; no masks required. Thanks to …
The Isley Brothers: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Before the Isley Brothers played “That Lady” during this Tiny Desk (at Home) concert, lead singer and …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
Underbelly is back!
There was a time, say 2012, when Downtown Jacksonville was the center of Northeast Florida’s live music universe. If one were to wander along Bay Street from Liberty to Main, and went to the right on Ocean toward Adams Street, one would’ve likely heard (within that six-block radius) live music pouring out of no less than four mid-sized venues––Burro Bar, …
JME DJ Sessions | 3 dance-floor-ready local tunes
August's JME DJ Sessions featured three songs that are sure to set the dance floor ablaze.
The delta variant has already caused live music to pump the brakes. While venues around the country are beginning to require proof of vaccination, some larger festivals, like the popular New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, are calling the whole thing off. Meanwhile, many nationally touring artists are postponing shows in areas struggling under the weight of the outbreak. Still, …
Sound & Vision | Visual artist Overstreet Ducasse curates a sonic palette mix
R.E.M., Steely Dan, Wu-Tang Clan inspire Ducasse's latest output
Sound & Vision is a semi-regular feature that examines how music influences Northeast Florida artists. Accompanying playlists for each Sound & Vision feature can be found on JME’s spotify channel. Overstreet Ducasse taps into the realm of signifiers and symbols to create paintings that merge the political with the cryptic. Mixed-media works feature the human body suspended over shooting range …
Crate Diggin’ | Spin it Live
JME Contributors wax on their favorite live albums of all time
Just when we thought it was safe to get back out there, the delta variant once again threatens the viability of live music. On that note, JME contributors dug through their vinyl collections to pull out their favorite live recordings of all time. We made it through more than a year without shows. And the music kept playing. We’ll keep …
One Of The Biggest Live Music Companies Will Require Full Vaccination
Some of the most recognizable music venues across the country will soon require proof of vaccination to enter. The new rules will take full effect by Oct. 1. Until then audience and staff will be able to show a negative COVID test to enter. AEG Presents, the world’s second-largest live music company, announced today that it will start implementing a …
Go | Live music recommendations
In recent weeks, concert attendees have been forced to reckon with an uninvited interloper: the delta variant. While some shows have been cancelled, festivals postponed, etc., many venues across the country are responding with vaccine or negative-COVID-test mandates. Many of the new edicts won’t go into effect for another month. In the meantime, artists and venues alike are encouraging masking …
Just Announced | Sheer Mag, Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Surfer Blood highlight Intuition Ale Works’ fall lineup
An insanely good October for fans of indie rock
Intuition Ale Works downtown taproom was just getting a head of steam when the pandemic put the brakes on its renovated live music space, the Bier Hall. Of particular disappointment to Jacksonville-based fans of indie rock, was the postponement, then cancellation of a scheduled performance by multifaceted, extremely talented indie darling Ty Segall. Despite the setbacks, Intuition is pushing forward …