Neo-Soul

Have you been to the church of Avery*Sunshine? With her thunderous, gospel-bred pipes and heart-to-heart content, the singer-songwriter can’t help spilling the truth in her music. She knows the best route sometimes is the direct one. No detours. So listeners won’t have to “get on her level.” She’s already on …

Regarded as one of the strongest talents in R&B, Brian McKnight is a quiet storm known for his strong falsetto range and love ballads. By the age of 19, McKnight had signed a recording contract with a major record label. During those first years in music, he mastered eight instruments, …

Photo of Roy Hargrove by John Whiting Jazz legend Sonny Rollins once said, “Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own,” and Roy Hargrove has taken those words to heart.  In an exclusive interview with iRockJazz, multiple Grammy winner, bandleader and jazz trumpeter extraordinaire, Roy …

Haitian electronic music composer/percussionist/turntablist, Val Jeanty aka Val-Inc evokes the musical esoteric realms of the creative subconscious and self defined as “Afro-Electronica®”. She incorporates her African Haitian Musical traditions into the present and beyond, combining acoustics with electronics and the archaic with the post-modern. She works with a diverse array …

Born in Paris, France and a native of the French West Indies, Meemee Nelzy has been infatuated with black and caribbean music since her childhood. Challenging herself as a teenager, she wrote her first texts in french a few years later in her dorm room in Toulouse, France and incorporated …

Jazz vocalist and DC-native Akua Allrich has proven herself to be a musician of extraordinary talent and crowd-moving passion. With finesse and charisma, this vocalist, composer and teacher, has successfully etched out a place for her unique musical expression, electrifying audiences in and around the nation’s capital with sold-out performances. …

What do you call a musical gumbo that recalls the ancestral strut and joie de vivre of the New Orleans’ Tremé, the drama and ecstasy of the church’s wailing floor, and the suited-up sophistication of jazz threaded with the party funk of Parliament? What do you name sounds that hail …

Victoria Theodore received her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Classical Piano Performance and Computer Music from Oberlin College / Conservatory of Music (where she studied piano with Sedmara Zakarian Rutstein), and her Master of Arts degree in Classical Piano Performance from Stanford University (where she studied …

The daughter of an actress, dancer, and theatrical producer Kidjo was born in Quidah, a coastal city in the West Africa country of Benin. Inheriting her mother’s love of performing, she made her stage debut with her mother’s theatrical troupe. She was singing professionally by her 20th birthday. Afro-funk, Reggae, …

Bass players have historically worn many hats. To be able to stop on a dime, keep it all together, and let it groove, is no easy undertaking.  Anyone who has ever listened to Motown understands this whether they know it or not. James Jamerson’s driving bass lines provided the solid …

One of the preeminent female jazz vocalists in the world, Dianne Reeves, is set to release her Concord Records debut, Beautiful Life, on February 11, 2014. The album showcases Reeves’ sublime gifts by melding elements of R&B, Latin and pop within the framework of 21st Century jazz. “At its essence,” …

“Snarky Puppy” is a pretty hard name to forget. But it was not too long ago that the mysterious title of the Brooklyn-based band was only being thrown around amongst its fervent cult following. That all changed in December when the collective was nominated for a Grammy Award in the …