Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. 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. Jazz Blue Jay Jazz Jam – Tuesday, December 27 Blue Jay Listening …
Watch | LPT Live on the JME Soundstage
Our cavernous JME Soundstage felt a little less so a few months back when Jacksonville’s mighty LPT stopped by. The ten-piece salsa orchestra tends to fill up the room. As one of the most sought after live acts in the city, LPT not only commands the stage, they’re also prone to drawing the ire of those who would enforce fire-code-mandated …
LPT’s ‘Se Quema El Mundo’ is a dance-floor-ready Fire Stoked with Social Commentary
Jacksonville’s mighty 10-piece Afro-Cuban Salsa Orchestra LPT first introduced themselves through a series of monthly showcases in the backroom of Five Points watering hole Rain Dogs, enticing revelrous, full-capacity crowds onto the dance floor. From the jump, they were a force to be reckoned with. A band with a promising future. But right after the group’s debut of original material, …
Jax Artists rickoLus and Ángel García Team Up for a One-of-a-Kind Collab
Backed by The Ángel García Quartet and Good Pluck Trio, rickoLus will perform jazz standards, classic covers and new arrangements from his original song book
Two guys walk into a bar. One is Jacksonville’s most enduring songwriter. The other is a multi-instrumentalist and composer involved in an eclectic list of musical projects. There’s no punchline to this setup. It’s the origin story for an intriguing collaboration between two of the city’s most-respected musicians: Rick Colado and Ángel García. Under the moniker rickoLus, Colado has stacked …
Go | These are the Jacksonville concerts you don’t want to miss this week
Classical, prog punk or salsa: Take your pick
Each and every week the Jacksonville Music Experience team identifies the best concerts in Northeast Florida. This week’s calendar is chocked full of top-notch shows. Here’s what the JME team wants to see and hear. Americana The Wood Brothers – Wednesday, December 1 Ponte Vedra Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra With a new record grounded in improvisation, Grammy Award-nominated Americana trio …
The Tables Have Turned on Vinyl
Jacksonville musicians, labels and manufacturers embrace vinyl’s renewed popularity; if only they could get their records on press
The music of LPT is tailor made for vinyl. The Jacksonville-based ten piece performs original son cubano, salsa dura and salsa romántica, mambo, cha-cha-cha and other styles of Afro-Cuban Salsa, a fusion of sounds which, when introduced by Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians in New York in the 1970s, was distributed widely on vinyl records––the preferred format of the day. …
Go | Jacksonville PorchFest in Historic Springfield
Every neighborhood has its charms; only one has PorchFest
Certainly every neighborhood scattered across the vast sprawl of Jacksonville––the largest city by land area in the continental U.S.––has its charms. But the Downtown Jax-adjacent neighborhood of Springfield––with its rich history, walkability and varied range of historic and architecturally interesting homes gleaming with classical columns, fireplaces, crown modeling, decorative banisters, et al––is in a league of its own. And Springfield …
Local Spotlight | The best releases by Jax artists out right now
New singles from Faze Wave and Niki Dawson; albums by LPT and DeAndre Lettsome
The JME team was busy last week, as new music flooded in from across Northeast Florida. New tracks from indie rock quartet Faze Wave and singular vocalist Niki Dawson perked our ears. And meditative and complex new full-lengths from jazz-scene standout DeAndre Lettsome and ten-piece Afro-Cuban salsa orchestra LPT gave us much to chew on. Here are the best new …
Local Spotlight | ‘Se Quema El Mundo’ by LPT
New full-length by popular Jax-based Afro-Cuban Salsa ensemble is designed to move you
Since forming 2015, LPT have been vigilant in bringing their personal brand of salsa music to both the stage and studio. The 10-piece Afro-Cuban ensemble have released a handful of singles, a full-length and live releases on labels Winterland Records, Bold City Records and their own LPT Salsa imprint. In concert, LPT is a veritable juggernaut, setting stages ablaze (figuratively) …
Go | The best concerts in Northeast Florida this week
Funk jams, Pitbull, Thievery Corporation and LPT
If you haven’t yet heard Jax-based afro-cuban salsa orchestra LPT, this week represents perhaps one of the best opportunities, as the ten-piece owns a headline spot at Viva La Fiesta in James Weldon Johnson Park Downtown. Not only will the band closeout the two day celebration of the contemporary vibrancy of the city’s Hispanic culture. The event doubles as a …
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 …
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, …
Fresh Squeeze | August 2021 playlist
The juiciest playlist around
Each month, JME Contributors pick the juiciest noise emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond for our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Featuring a several dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Playlist Highlights: “Behaviour” by Glove “Damn” by Ada Lea “Uh Huh Okay” …
Local Spotlight | 3 new songs by Jax artists out now
New tunes to add to your playlist immediately.
Jacksonville artists continue to swing for the fences. This week brought us new tunes from multi-instrumentalist and producer Shane Malone, Afro-cuban salsa orchestra LPT, and hip-hop artist Jahny Steel. Whether working within the strictures of hip-hop, indie rock or salsa, the artists featured herein are expanding the scope of their preferred genre, while simultaneously redefining what music from Northeast Florida …
Watch | LPT drops new single and video “Se Quema El Mundo”
LPT seeks light among the darkness; emerges with a scorching new tune
What is LPT––Jacksonville’s mighty 10-piece Afro-Cuban salsa orchestra––without a dance floor? It’s a question that the band, which began its world-beating run performing in dank clubs in and around Northeast Florida, enticing revelrous, full-capacity crowds onto the dance floor (and all but daring the fire marshal to shut them down), was forced to reckon with in the face of an …