The 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival returns Memorial Day Weekend, kicking off on Thursday, May 25 with the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition (feat. Duval drummer extraordinaire Ulysses Owens Jr. filling out th rhythm section), and continues with three days and nights of official programming, plus countless after-hours events, many of which are part of the popular Jazz Fest After Dark Series. …
For several years now, the return of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has meant the return of Jazz Fest After Dark, a slate of programming that extends the breadth and hours of the official festival festivities to venues in and around the city’s urban core. Presented by Moon River Pizza, JFAD is the brainchild of Jason Lewis, the legendary local concert …
The rapper Aminé and producer and DJ KAYTRANADA drop their highly anticipated joint project KAYTRAMINÉ this week, a free-wheeling, feel-good party album just in time for summer. We give a listen to several tracks from across the project to open this week’s show, marvel at the lyricism (“Y’all talkin’ like we’re equals when we know you’re Sméagols”) and talk about …
With partner Casey Vandyke, Tyler Fleming is half of golfer two, an experimental noise outfit based here in Jacksonville. So far this year, the pair has released two EPs—dead mouse and, most recently, bl00db4th6000, which Fleming describes as a grouping of tracks that “encapsulates the sound we like to play live.” Each track you hear on the EP was recorded …
Any song with fuzz bass guitar is invariably better than a song without fuzz bass. Let’s get that cosmic truth front and center. The new single from Gainesville-by-way-of-Jax garage rockers bed bug guru features some guttural fuzz bass—heard prominently in the song’s apparent bridge—yet “Hazy” offers up more than just sadistic 30Hz frequency. A dreamy pummel of lock-and-hammer electric guitars, …
One of the globe’s most prolific purveyors of experimental rock, Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple is currently on tour, with more than 12 US dates remaining, including a stop in Downtown Jacksonville, where they’ll play a free show on the loading docks of the Jessie Ball duPont nonprofit center on Friday, May 26. Led by Makoto Kawabata, AMT — with its …
NPR Music received nearly 6,000 entries to this year’s Tiny Desk Contest, the annual search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert. But one Springville, Utah, band rose to the top as its entry surprised the judges, moved them to tears and filled them with hope. Today, we’re thrilled to announce Little Moon is the …
As a supporter of the Jacksonville Jazz Fest since I was about 16 years old, I look forward to the lineup announcement annually. And what excites me about this 2023 lineup is that is includes some of the most dynamic jazz musicians relevant today and still playing at a high level. This year’s fest also includes a vast array of …
Somewhere between the prescriptive freedom-with-an-asterisk atmosphere of indie and the predictable wash-and-wear weather of Adult Album Alternative exists the music of Sun Child. Led by beaches native Brooke Garwood (Girl Pluto), the debut EP Everything features six cuts that lean predominately on acoustic guitar and piano arrangements with a production that is polished to a mellow, decorous sheen. “Backseat” is …
Local music fans get to experience a performance by Southern rock royalty when Duane Betts performs at Intuition Ale Works on Sunday, July 16. While Betts may tire of his legendary rock heritage, as the son of founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, the younger guitarist-vocalist is a bona fide torchbearer of that rock-music lineage. The fact that the …
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. New Wave The Psychedelic Furs – Tuesday, May 16 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Iconic British new wave band The Psychedelic Furs plays the Florida Theatre on Tuesday. Watch | Tickets | Map …
As a music descriptor, the term “wet” has been common parlance since the early 1960’s. Largely associated with reverb, it’s been used as a kind of shorthand to capture everything from the distant echo of the vocals on classic country tunes to the pedal effects of the single-string guitar leads pioneered by the King of Surf Rock: Dick Dale. If …
The singer Rahill is best-known to some for her work in the Brooklyn garage-rock group Habibi. But this week she drops her debut solo album, a collection of genre-hopping songs that are as danceable as they are idiosyncratic. On this week’s show we give a listen to Flowers At Your Feet and talk about the ways Rahill crafts deeply honest …
Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the comedy-rock duo dubbed Tenacious D, will take the St. Augustine Amphitheatre stage this weekend, bringing the opening leg of their Spicy Meatball Tour to an end. Though Black has been especially busy lately — he voices the villainous Bowser in box-office smash “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” contributed the viral hit “Peaches” to its …
The entertainment world is bidding farewell to MTV News. The network’s heyday ended years ago but, for a time, it was the go-to source for interviews with leading artists and newsmakers, from Madonna to Prince. The shutdown of MTV News comes as Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Showtime announced today that it is laying …
Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist includes the best new music emanating 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 includes the surprise Thundercat + Tame Impala track …
On the latest episode of Top Shelf — a series on NPR Music’s YouTube channel highlighting the best entries from the Tiny Desk Contest — Contest judges Sudan Archives and Baby Rose shared their top picks. Having both performed Tiny Desk concerts in early 2020, these Tiny Desk alums know exactly what it takes to make a performance shine. Their …
The Tiny Desk Contest is back for 2023, with a new panel of judges and another opportunity for unsigned artists to earn an invite to perform on the revered, improvised stage in front of Bob Boilen’s desk at NPR Music HQ. Tens of thousands of musicians submitted their videos before the March 13 deadline — including nearly two-dozen artists from …
The Sing Out Loud Festival returns this year to St. Augustine and features a lineup of popular Grammy-winning artists as well as emerging national and regional performers. This year’s SOL includes the two-day Francis Field Showcase, featuring a roster of impressive acts, including the indie-to-arena style blues rock of The Black Keys, innovative UK soul of Yola, the new-country stylings …
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 Melissa Etheridge – Tuesday, May 9 Thrasher Horne Center | Orange Park Nearly four decades after her debut album became an underground sensation, singer-songwriter and guitarist Melissa Etheridge continues to chase her …
Currently on a tour of North America, Tuareg musician Mdou Moctar will visit the Bier Hall inside Intuition Ale Works on Tuesday, May 2 as part of our JME Presents Music Discovery Series. If you’re unfamiliar with Moctar (pronounced em-dew mock-tar)’s work, the singer, songwriter, actor and activist is best known as something of a guitar hero. Moctar taught himself …
On the rap internet, “scaring the hoes” has become code for a certain type of hip-hop: anything abrasive or weird or super-lyrical, designed for repeat close listening. More broadly, the phrase has evolved into a euphemism for any rap considered unfit for a party or similar social setting. To play Death Grips at the function is to scare the hoes. …
A recent NPR story addressed the proliferation of “therapy talk,” an increasing form of vulnerability in contemporary conversation that is, by default a design, tantamount to a carny talk of the heart. In the sense that in lieu of a direct transmission of what one is actually feeling, those very same emotions are tied up a little too tightly in …
The elusive R&B star Frank Ocean, known for avoiding the spotlight, performed on the largest stage at Coachella on Sunday night. Ocean was a headliner this weekend alongside Bad Bunny and BLACKPINK — forming one of the most diverse line-ups in the music festival’s history. In his set, Ocean performed reworked versions of some of his most iconic songs like …
Last autumn, locals Racewall Mosquitoes gave us the concept album The Recital of Annie Lytle, which was a tribute to the rumored-to-be-haunted Public School Number Four. The real strength in that release was main-Mosquito singer-songwriter Matt Morgan’s ability to put melodicism and vulnerability square in the spotlight. The band are still incrementally doling out transmissions from Annie Lytle: the latest …
Jacksonville-based hip-hop artist Mecca thA Marvelous faces his audience, and more so himself, on “Relapse,” a reflective song from his new full-length album Jane Doe. Finnish producer SBLMNL’s beat extends Mecca the opportunity to be vulnerable, as the young rapper uses the soundscape as a canvas for painting reminders to himself of the perils of falling victim to the jones. …
Vinyl is (has been) back. And it’s arguably here to stay. For the last two years, sales of vinyl records easily outpaced those of CDs. And purchases weren’t confined to ultra-hip indie music shops. Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart are now big-time players, selling re-pressings of classic albums, as well as new drops from some of the world’s most …
For most jazz performers, a song is part of a performance. For Ahmad Jamal, each song was a performance. Over the course of a remarkable eight-decade career, Jamal, who passed away Sunday at the age of 92, created stellar recordings both as an ambitious youth and a sagely veteran. Jamal’s death was confirmed by his daughter, Sumayah Jamal. He died …
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. Rock/Tuareg Guitar Mdou Moctar – Tuesday, May 2 Intuition Ale Works | Downtown Jacksonville Tuareg singer, songwriter and guitar sensation Mdou Moctar plays Intuition Ale Works as part of our JME Presents series …
Name: Alana B.Title: “The Magic Recycling Bin”Grade: 3rd Grade
Name: Sophia L.Title: “Finding Coke & Cola”Grade: 3rd Grade
Name: Claire M.Title: “PET DAYZ”Grade: 3rd Grade
Name: Trisha S.Title: “BRAVE EMMA!”Grade: 2nd Grade
Name: Kiara W.Title: “The Time Machine”Grade: 2nd Grade
Name: Yolanda P.Title: “A Mysterious Mission”Grade: 2nd Grade
Name: Eesa A.Title: “Kindness Changes Hearts!”Grade: 1st Grade
