Get insight from the music scene as we profile new artists, interview popular singer-songwriters, and cover the creative process.
Music
Especially in a pandemic, her and the Indigo Girls’ arresting performance matters.
David’s album, Journey To Love, released September 30, 2020, with a debut on iTunes’ top 100 R&B albums, at #3. Journey To Love was preceded by two singles entitled “Laugh” and “Let Me Know,” featuring rapper Lyteral.
V. Jeffrey Smith has been on major hit records as a recording musician, most notably playing the sax solo on Billy Ocean’s #1 hit record, Caribbean Queen. He plays with The Soul Folk Experience, The Black Rock Coalition, and The Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber and often makes guest appearances alongside countless artists.
Famed keyboardist John Medeski is not easily contained to a single project or genre. He is credited on over 300 works to date, most notably as one-third of the groundbreaking trio Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Native New Yorker Sophia Ramos began as a rock singer/songwriter for the 90s NYC hard rock outfit SOPHIA’S TOY signed to Epic/Sony Records. Sophia has toured around the globe, helping break barriers for women of color in Rock.
Tom Newman is a well sought after guitarist from the Washington, D.C. area. His company, New Mu Production, houses all of his comprehensive musical services which include educational services, talent consulting, and much more.
Vernon Reid is probably best known for leading Living Colour. He founded Living Colour in New York City circa 1985 and piloted the band through a successful career that continues to this day. He also has a prolific session output in a variety of contexts.
Moist Paula, so named for her legendary turn of the century instrumental rock trio Moisturizer, is an Australian saxophonist and composer who has been based in NYC since the mid-90s.
Shelley Nicole—the mainspring behind Shelley Nicole’s blaKbüshe—is simultaneously a product, a witness and architect of Black-on-Black love, a calling that has informed all of her work as a singer, writer, composer, actor, poet, musician and a healer.
Born on the Mothership of Parliament-Funkadelic’s rise to fame in 1978, Garrett Shider came out of the womb wailing for the hand-me-down diaper of his parent’s legacy.
Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset and Indian classical music on tabla.
In the mid-1990s, an arts renaissance took place in the U Street corridor of Washington, D.C. It rose from the debris of decades of post-riot neglect after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. Miscellaneous Flux was born in this era.
I hopped on the cheapest flight from Los Angeles, California, to New York City, New York. I arrived with my Walkman, Simon and Garfunkel tapes, one suitcase, an old Apple computer tower, about $1,500 in cash, a place to crash, and a pocket full of promises and recommendations. All I needed.
Stephanie Rooker was always singing in church choirs growing up. She grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, with small community festivals and talent shows. She and her family would get up there and do their numbers. This is her story.
A conversation with Ben Tyree, who’s spent his life making music and playing guitar. He’s not famous. He’d say he’s never made it. And yet he’s made a living doing what millions of people only dream of doing.
