Locals can enjoy a triple dose of Billy Strings this spring. The much-loved Grammy winner is confirmed to perform at the Amp on Friday, April 19; Saturday, April 20, and Sunday April 21. Pre-sale for tickets starts tomorrow (Wednesday, January 10) at 10 a.m. at the official Billy Strings site. Tickets at the Amp box office go on sale this …
The Latest from Guitarist Dominic Miller Maintains the Quality Control of Mercurial Label ECM Records
ECM Records remains an object lesson in autonomy, tenacity and true independence. Co-founded by bassist-producer Manfred Eicher in 1969 to highlight the then-under-looked European jazz scene, ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) has gone onto release more than 1700 albums. The now-80-year-old Eicher has overseen every release, and the label’s cover designs are as consistent as Eicher’s ethereal-meets-high-fidelity production approach. To name …
Reissue of 1968 Debut from German Guitarist Volker Kriegel is a Worthy Mix of Early Jazz Fusion and Relic-Kitsch
While hardly a household name on these shores, German jazz guitarist Volker Kriegel (1943-2003) appeared on more than 200 releases and was a founding member of the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble, a large ensemble which included fellow European-based, forward-thinking jazz heavyweights including bassist Eberhard Weber, flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler and trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff. While still in his twenties, Kriegel was …
American-Roots Maestro Dom Flemons Follows the Roots of the Blues Through Northeast Florida
The rising tide of Black representation in (Mainstream) American roots music has resulted, to no inconsiderable extent, from the efforts of Dominique “Dom” Flemons and his colleagues in the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an exceptional band founded in Durham, North Carolina back in 2005. Flemons’ departure from the group in 2013 initiated what appears to have been the group’s final dissolution …
Journeyman Jacksonville Jazz Guitarist Taylor Roberts Brings It On Home With Latest Release
How does one honor any creative tradition without losing one’s identity and wind up stifled in the conventions and style of that very same heritage? Jazz is simultaneously based on an expectation from the audience that one knows the tune and an expectation from the players assembled on the bandstand that one knows how to forget the tune altogether, let …
Kurt Cobain’s Broken Guitar Sells for Nearly $600,000
Kurt Cobain’s black Fender Stratocaster is covered in scratches and chipped wood. The names of Cobain and his former band, Nirvana, are misspelled. And the guitar itself, which was once smashed and put back together, is no longer playable. But on Saturday, the broken guitar was sold at Julien’s Auctions for a whopping $596,000 — nearly 10 times more than …
Five Essential Mdou Moctar Tracks
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 …
Jax Rock Band Racewall Mosquitoes Share New Video for “Vagabond”
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 …
Celebrated Guitarist Eli Winter on his Early Influences, his Eponymously-Titled New Album and More
When 20th-century occultist-artist Austin Osman Spare remarked that, “It was the straying that found the path direct,” he could have been anticipating the peripatetic ways of guitarist Eli Winter. Granted, the British magician died nearly 70 years ago and Winter was born in 1997. Yet the Chicago-born Winter has packed a lot of experiential wallop and road miles in a …
Two Solo Debuts Shine Much-Needed Light on Lesser-Known Duval Experimental Musician Michael Kaiser
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 …
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 …
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 …
Fresh Rotation | 3 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To
Avant-pop from Dummy, folk punk from Pigeon Pit and a mythic free-jazz reissue
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 …
Robby Krieger of the Doors Returns to Jacksonville for a Night of Legendary Music
The iconic guitarist on the band's early influences, writing his memoir and more
The Doors are many things for many people: mythical ‘60s band fronted by a singer mired in even greater mystery; a soundtrack for baby boomer history; a potent merger of inventive poetry and sophisticated music, even a cautionary tale of excess pushed to saturation. Guitarist Robby Krieger has remained a viable force since the Doors disbanded decades ago. In the …
Don Wilson, cofounder of the instrumental guitar group The Ventures, dies at age 88
TACOMA, Wash. — Don Wilson, co-founder and rhythm guitarist of the instrumental guitar band The Ventures, has died. He was 88. Wilson died Saturday in Tacoma of natural causes, surrounded by his four children, The News Tribune reported. The band’s hits included “Walk, Don’t Run,” and the theme song for “Hawaii Five-O.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll …