JME Staff Picks | 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival

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The Jacksonville Jazz Festival will return to the city’s Downtown on Memorial Day weekend, kicking off with the storied Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition at the Florida Theatre on Thursday, May 25 and continuing with three days and nights of performances on two stages in the heart of the Urban Core.  The buzz on this year’s fest is that it might …

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Now Playing | Stella Kola, “Rosa”

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Stella Kola by Stella Kola The eponymous debut from Stella Kola is a curveball from an already-unpredictable roster of underground U.S. musicians who are as provincial — in this case, the weird grottos and orchards of Massachusetts — as they are inscrutable. Led by Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man) and Beverly Ketch (Bunwinkies) the album opens with “Rosa,” …

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Daniel A. Brown’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. In 2002, the music world, like the overall planet, continued to dust off the feared-eschatological wipeout of the Covid pandemic. For millions, collective trauma and survivors’ relief were parlayed into music consumption. Bandcamp Friday continued to make the rest of the week …

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Fresh Rotation | 4 Songs We’re Listening to Right Now

New music from Sharon Van Etten, Khalid, Holiday Ghosts and a long-overdue Terry Allen reissue

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Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add to the rotation on The Independent 89.9 HD4 (and to our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist). Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least …

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Fresh Rotation | 4 new songs you should hear right now

Snarky synths from System Exclusive, art-pop from Kate Bollinger, ambient memories from Tonstartssbandht and somber swing from Horsegirl

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Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add into our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least a bit of context). Here are four …

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Fresh Rotation | Here’s what the JME team is listening to right now

New music from Georgia Harmer, Kurt Vile and P.E. featuring Parquet Courts' A. Savage

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Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to concoct the tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our Fresh Squeeze playlist. Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least a bit of context). Here are three new songs …

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Fresh Rotation | 4 new tracks we really dig

New songs from Kim Gordon, Aldous Harding, Robert Glasper and A Place to Bury Strangers

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Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to concoct the tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our Fresh Squeeze playlist. Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least a bit of context). Here are four new songs …

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Local Spotlight | 4 great tracks by Jax artists out now

New tunes from Awkward Groove, Cory Driscoll, Strangerwolf and Severed + Said

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The Jacksonville Music Experience team keeps its collective ear to the ground in Duval County in order to put the spotlight on the beautiful noise emerging from the First Coast and reverberating across the globe. Here’s four great new tracks by Jacksonville artists out right now. “Delayed Sad” by Severed+Said Tragic Seeker by SEVERED+SAID Duval mope fiend John Touchton, aka …

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Virtuoso pianist Alessio Bax and the Jacksonville Symphony present Mozart’s atmospheric masterpiece

The classical music maestro discusses his love for Mozart and the Jax Symphony's new Steinway

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While still only in his early forties, pianist Alessio Bax has the credentials of a bona fide maestro of classical music.  At 14 years old, he graduated from the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory in Bari, Italy. In his teens, he was already winning international competitions. In the decades since, he’s performed with major symphonies around the globe, has been featured on more …

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Instrumental Juggernaut Circles Around the Sun Bring their Singular Jam to Jacksonville

Eclectic L.A. jam quartet play the Bier Hall at Intuition

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Labels are for soup cans. While routinely stamped as a “jam band,” a varietal that is as nebulous, constricting and even as dismissive as “Americana,” the L.A. quartet Circles Around the Sun are cooking up something all their own.  Formed six years ago, the band has covered a lot of ground since. They’ve experienced certain gains. And with the 2019 …

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