Listening intently – okay, hanging on each successive inviting syllable – to folk, country and Americana influenced singer/songwriter Amilia K Spicer, I found myself alternately soothed and seduced, then electrified. It was the haunting duskiness of her voice, backed by gentle acoustic and occasionally fiery electric guitars animating her expansive emotional playground. Yet I kept coming back to the crazy-cool, stick to the soul images of a few of her lyrics, particularly “Ru

A true new age piano Renaissance Man, Matthew Mayer has enjoyed a diverse career as a music teacher, TV composer and artist with 10 solo piano CDs dating back to 1999, when he was just 20 years old. Merging his passion for the ivories with his talent for encouragement, he is also the creator of the globally popular website www.solopiano.com where both well-known artists and up and coming indie solo piano artists build their own pages and stream over a 24/7 radio station. One

Growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, Lynn Tredeau was one of those all-star musical kids who could play it all. She mastered classical piano, played guitar in her school jazz band, clarinet in the orchestra, sax in the marching band – even hymns on the pipe organ at church. Though she set her musical dreams aside to teach professionally and raise a family, there has been no stopping her since her retirement, an empty nest and a relocation from her longtime home of Seattle to Id

As a veteran music journalist, I have to tip my hat to others who do this kind of work and come up with phrasing whose brilliance inspires me. While listening to and having my ears popped open by Brooklyn based blistering soul-fuzz rockers Lovehoney’s new three track EP Dig This! (which I do!), I encountered this description of the band by Polly Glass of Classic Rock Magazine: “If the Jimi Hendrix Experience was fronted by a woman and tuned into the Black Keys era, it might h

Attention all 80s’ trippers in love with the infectious synth-pop magic of legendary groups like Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and Dead or Alive! I dare you to pull your ears off Sirius/XM’s 80’s on 8 for 26 blissful minutes to take an energizing Balloon Ride Fantasy into a fresh dimension where nostalgic vibes from that era meet fresh, contemporary EDM flights of fancy. Led by the visionary duo of frontman/producer Chris Olszewski and guitarist/synth master Phil Conley, the fi

Twenty five years and thousands of life experiences and hard earned lessons after releasing his last album Plain Old Me with his L.A. band Hoi Polloi, Wayne Powers gets his groove, vocal chops and storytelling spirit back on his spirited and irresistible new collection If Love Were All. His still-sharp skills as a vocal interpreter serve him well as he and his dynamics rich quartet romp through a mix of lighthearted swing and deeply felt ballad arrangements of 14 familiar Gre

One of the great benefits of this truly independent DIY era of music creation and distribution is the opportunity for fantastic, deserving artists to get their music in front of appreciative audiences – without having to wait around for major labels to make that happen. The inviting, beautifully intuitive vocal interpreter extraordinaire Maurice “Moe” Frank is a classic example of a brilliant, engaging artist who is touching countless jazz fans because of this. With the relea

Although veteran bassist Sam Bevan moved to NYC in 2016 after over 15 years immersed in the Bay Area jazz scene, he has a blast vibing with a freewheeling ensemble of nine of his favorite Northern California musicians on Emergence, his latest and most melodically and harmonically transcendent album to date. The 9 track collection is infused with moments of seamless, horn section driven melodic buoyancy, playful punchy swing and otherworldly solos by masters like Ian Carey (tr

That moment when a veteran musician and producer making the magic happen for other artists steps out and forms a new band as an outlet to express years of burgeoning creativity is one to embrace and celebrate. This is especially relevant when the musical vision is as compelling, insightful, eclectic and emotionally hard hitting as what Chicago based composer multi-instrumentalist Mike Pryzgoda and three of the city’s top rockers – Ausberto Acevedo (acoustic and electric bass)

With Marty Elkins’ latest collection Fat Daddy, the phrase “re-imagining” just won’t do. We should be inspired to search for a higher minded term when it comes to describing this kind of joyful revisiting and refreshing of songs from the early heyday of jazz (1920s - 1950s) and making them ultra-relevant to our modern sensibilities. The versatile, veteran NYC singer does so much more than take 14 songs (some easily remembered, many delightfully obscure and worth reconnectin

As famed Bronx born, 7-time Grammy nominated drummer, percussionist and prolific bandleader Bobby Sanabria mentions in the colorful notes to his epic two CD re-imagining of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s stage and screen masterpiece, it’s all about celebration. The rip roaring, percussion booming, horns blazing live performance his 21 piece Multiverse Big Band put on in November 2017 at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in NYC marked the 60th Anniversary of its Broadway premie

Checking out versatile, hard grooving fusion bassist Oyton Ersan’s origins offers a compelling geography lesson, with every biography calling him a “Turkish Cyprot” – meaning he is of Turkish origin and born in Nicosia on the island of Cyprus. A quick review also offers his background, 20+ years and counting with the International Nicosia Municipality Orchestra, which he joined at 15. All of that would just be cool factoids if he wasn’t so crazily immersed in the Southern Cal