St. Augustine was once a bastion for Black musicians in the South, as both a home to, and a stopping off point for, some of the most influential performers of their time. It’s on the threads of that legacy that St. Augustine-based music promotion company Underwire Collective tugs. Established in 2019 by Bianca Dawson and Kinsley Stewart, Underwire Collective uses …
Local Spotlight | Top tracks from Jacksonville artists out now
There’s so much high quality music pouring out of Northeast Florida right now that we aren’t quite sure what to do with it all. We’ll start by writing about it below. And we’ll also continue to add the standout tunes to our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Beyond that, the rest is up to you. But we’d highly recommend putting these …
Go | What to see and hear this week in Jacksonville
Living (and future) legends
The month-long Sing Out Loud Festival comes to a close this weekend with several free showcases ‘round town and some epic headliners at The Amp in St. Augustine. JME Contributors have singled out two FREE SOL showcases featuring some of the Sunshine State’s premier talent sandwiched between two performances by living legends at the Florida Theatre in Jax and the …
The Learning Curve Of Lil Nas X
“I guess I’m a lot more confident… “ When Lil Nas X first dropped “Old Town Road” at the end of 2018, the country-rap banger broke the internet. In the process of wrangling viral fame, Lil Nas X’s trajectory sparked debate over the racial boundaries of genre. While some might have thought this was just a teenager’s 15 minutes of …
Fresh Squeeze | September 2021 playlist
A juicy mix of new tunes picked by the JME staff
There’s so much great music coming out, seemingly everyday, that keeping up with it all can feel overwhelming. The JME team is here to help. Each month, JME contributors pick the juiciest noise emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond for our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, there are …
Join NPR Music’s Listening Party For John Prine’s Debut Album
For its 50th anniversary, join us in an online listening party for John Prine‘s self-titled debut. NPR Music’s Ann Powers will be joined by John’s wife Fiona Prine, their son Jody Whelan, legendary singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt and producer Jim Rooney in a live conversation about this monumental album. The event will take place on the anniversary of the album’s release, …
George Wein, Music Festival Pioneer, Dies At 95
Music impresario George Wein, who spawned the modern music festival when he helped launch the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals, has died at the age of 95. According to a statement from his family, Wein died peacefully in his sleep early Monday morning. Wein co-founded the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. Newport …
Go | What to see & hear this week in Jacksonville
Rock & Blues & SOL
Last week marked the return of St. Augustine’s Sing Out Loud Festival. The month-long fest features more than 100 performances, including big-time headliners and dozens of local acts. There’s more to check out in St. Johns County. You can read about all of our SOL staff picks here. There’s also plenty of music in Duval this week. Here are our …
Announcing The Winner Of The 2021 Tiny Desk Contest
Picking one Tiny Desk Contest winner from the thousands of amazing entries we received this year wasn’t easy. Over the past few months, we’ve spent time with early standout entries; asked our judges about their top picks; and celebrated tons of creative videos. And after all that, one entry rose to the top: a song that our judges said stopped …
Local Spotlight | “Life and Death of a Nation” by Bronero
Jax multi-instrumentalist Jonah Pierre drops a timely (and funky) call for introspection
Jonah Pierre’s been up to something. Easily recognizable with his close-crop afro and effortless cool, the Jacksonville-based pianist and percussionist has become a fixture in the local music scene, sharing the stage with the region’s top-tier jazz players, as well as performing with the Afro-Cuban salsa band, LPT (disclosure: I also perform with LPT). As busy and in-demand as Pierre …
The Best Moments From The MTV VMAs
MTV’s Video Music Awards returned to the stage after 2020’s socially distanced show. The show also marked the network’s milestone 40th year. It was a big night for Olivia Rodrigo, Justin Bieber and Lil Nas X, among others. Here are some of the memorable moments and “Moon person” winners. Standout performances and memorable moments The night saw performances from Justin …
Local Spotlight | ‘Blood On My Birkenstock’ is Freddy Bricks’ fourth album (this year)
Something clicked for Freddy Bricks in 2020. He’d had been floating around the Jacksonville music scene for more than a decade before releasing his first studio album The Man Who Remembered Too Much, which earned Bricks high marks that year from Duval County’s hip-hop community. Then the floodgates opened. That same year, he fed the scene, 11 Forks 1 Knife, …
Local Spotlight | The best new tracks from Jacksonville artists
Jacksonville artists are making a habit out of turning genre conventions on their ears. New tracks from Sailor Goon and K.UTIE find the vocalists toying with the protocols of pop, while Freddy Bricks offers up a singular approach to hip-hop (with a little help from his Duval friends). Here are the best new tracks from Jacksonville artists out right now. …
Just Announced | R&B super-producer Babyface added to Jacksonville Jazz Festival
Singer-songwriter, R&B super-producer and 12-time Grammy winner Babyface will headline the Jacksonville Jazz Festival on Sunday night, October 3. Born Kenneth Brian Edmonds, Babyface get his start as a multi-instrumentalist for prominent funk acts in the late ’70s and ’80s before making his mark as a songwriter and producer working with pop and R&B acts including Bobby Brown, Karyn White …
Phil Schaap, Iconic Jazz DJ And NEA Jazz Master, Dies At 70
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 …