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Jazz pianist, keyboardist, producer and composer Marc Cary holds tight to his roots in Washington, D.C.’s go-go music scene, but they represent only one more element to fuse with the many other musical forms he explores. Cary’s interests run from Indian classical to Malian music to hip-hop. He started his career …

I remember hearing Bitches Brew for the first time. I was new to the Jazz scene and it seemed appropriate to first navigate Miles Davis. Up to this point in my travels, I had made stops at Kind of Blue, ‘Around Midnight,’ and Sketches of Spain, but the moment I …

Damien Brown is an Australian doctor based in Melbourne. He began writing seriously after his last humanitarian posting, encouraged by readers of a blog he kept while working in Africa. This is Damien’s first book Band-Aid for a Broken Leg is a powerful, heart-breaking, surprisingly funny, honest and ultimately uplifting …

Esperanza Spalding – We Are America from ESP Media on Vimeo. “We Are America” shines a light on human rights and calls for closing the detention camp. Esperanza Spalding says she was motivated by nagging concerns that grew as she was on tour with her band. “It was the first time …

The diatonic harmonica has long been associated with the Blues styles of artists such as Sonny Terry and Sonny Boy Williamson. However, Frederic Yonnet defies expectations and brings the harmonic into new roles and settings within diverse styles of urban jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. His philosophy is one of challenging …

iRock Jazz recently interviewed vocalist and film maker Brandon Bain, the creator of Capsulocity, an online video series. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Bain emerged on the Jazz scene just a few years ago with an understanding that whether an artist is in New York City, or somewhere on the …

Pianist Michele Rosewoman is considered one of the most versatile players in modern jazz. For over 30 years, Rosewoman made a name for herself as an active exponent of Afro-Cuban music and culture, studying traditional Yoruba rhythms and incorporating them into her personal work.  She worked with the late great …

Brian Culbertson began his musical journey at the age of 8 on piano, adding drums at 9, trombone at 10, then bass at 12. Loving genre-crossing jazz-pop artists such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Chicago, and Tower of Power, Culbertson’s artistry cannot be categorized into one genre. Brian has released …

  “Occasionally I hear the wind blow, And I find that just hearing the wind blow makes it worth having been born .” The quotation of the Fernando Pessoa‘s poem can illustrate what is to be adrift, listening to the wind, not necessarily in silence, but to be in an introspective …

Jerald Daemyon is an American electrical violinist born in Detroit, Michigan. Daemyon rose to fame in the mid-90’s with his debut album, Thinking About You. The big-sounding Thinking About You was released independently on Jerald’s own label Jazzestra Records, before making its way around the urban radio market in the …

Drummer/percussionist Francisco Mora Catlett made some serious noise in New York jazz circles with the release of his ground-breaking Afro-Horn MX, a wildly eclectic mix of Afro-Cuban ritual, avant-garde jazz, and Latin American surrealism. Fans and critics alike were enthralled with the thematic direction of the music, which was inspired …

Talk to any Atlantan of a certain age and they inevitably wax nostalgic about the mid-to-late 1990s – with good reason.  The city was simmering with soulful possibilities, creative verve overflowed and iconoclasts seemed to dwell on every block.   Jason Orr tapped into this energy and created the preeminent showcase …