Chris O’Brien, founder, owner and instructor at the Lake Worth Beach-based music school Music4Lyfe (www.music4lyfe.org), tried doing things by the book. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music from Florida State University in 2009, the Delray Beach native and resident returned south to pay it forward. Over the next decade, he taught at a handful of Palm Beach … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in pop
"Pop" is an all-encompassing term used to describe music that basically isn't jazz, classical or opera. Therefore, it describes the sampling of James Brown, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Alison Krauss, Lucius, Nirvana, Public Enemy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Hank Williams. Which mostly constitutes a cross-reference of what's become, in the tribute act era, a form of … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2022-23: The season in jazz
In 1998, a quartet of jazz/fusion veterans started an instrumental group in which they interpreted music by seminal jam band the Grateful Dead. More recently, a rising jazz record label started mixing in elements of hip-hop to draw new and younger fans to America's time-honored genre. Both are called Jazz Is Dead. Yet this isn't an obituary for live jazz, rather … [Read more...]
Bumblefest, Edition No. 6, takes West Palm streets Sept. 2-3
For cultured South Florida listeners seeking to hear things they've never heard before, who think that the area is inundated with only classic rock nostalgia tours and tribute acts paying homage to them, this "buzz" is for you. The sixth installment of Bumblefest (www.Bumblefest.com), celebrating the 11th anniversary of Lake Clarke Shores-based promoter and publisher … [Read more...]
West Palm’s own jam band, Guavatron, seeks larger territory
None of the members of young, West Palm Beach-based quartet Guavatron (www.guavatron.com) are old enough to remember when the original "jam bands" started out in the late 1960s, long before that term was ever coined. That's when the California-spawned Grateful Dead, Georgia act the Allman Brothers Band, and British bands like Cream and Pink Floyd colored outside of the … [Read more...]
Guitarist Carlton masterful at Funky Biscuit show
Larry Carlton is on the short list of iconic jazz/fusion guitarists who emerged between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, bringing more attention toward the subgenre that mixes jazz with rock and other popular music forms. And during his late show at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton on July 24, "Mr. 335" (a nickname based upon his frequent use of the hollow-bodied electric … [Read more...]
Guitar hero Carlton to revisit greatest hits, plus Steely Dan, Crusaders, in Boca gigs
Jazz/fusion emerged as a musical subgenre from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s by blending traditional acoustic jazz with instruments more associated with rock, namely electric guitar. And some names rose to the fore in the process that are now practically household, including guitarists John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, and Larry Carlton. … [Read more...]
Oz Noy offers improvisational variety at Funky Biscuit Show
Prior to June 3, Israel-born, Manhattan-based jazz/fusion guitarist Oz Noy's last appearance at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton was barely more than two-and-a-half years ago. Yet those two shows in November of 2019, with bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Dave Weckl, appear further back in time because they occurred in a seemingly distant era -- pre-COVID-19. Noy's … [Read more...]
Black Pumas close SunFest with a set and sound to remember
For many of the SunFest performers, 2022 turned into RainFest between its first three days of April 28-30. Yet hope was kept alive on day four. Following a country music-heavy opening night, plus additional headliners then attempting to deliver whining pop, forced glam, and frat-boy rock between the raindrops, the Austin, Texas-based soul group Black Pumas … [Read more...]
ProgJect brings titans of prog rock to Boca, all too briefly
Tribute acts are the latest acid for the masses, especially in South Florida. Most of the artists being paid tribute to have either died or are still touring past age 50 --- meaning they're often popular enough to charge exorbitant fees for concert tickets to compensate for their lost recording royalties in the musical streaming era. So consumers who either can't, or … [Read more...]