It’s probably safe to say that the blues world never saw Samantha Fish (www.samanthafish.com) coming. The 35-year-old emerged from the historic Kansas City, Missouri, music scene 20 years ago with her ample vocal chops, heady songwriting and incendiary guitar playing, aided since by an attention-grabbing pinup gal sense of fashion. She’s appeared on a dozen albums, most … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2024-25: Stalwarts keep the flame alive for jazz fans
If all music forms encompassed a herd of prey animals, jazz might be the unfortunate member struggling to keep up at its rear flank. It’s unfortunate, and not the way it should be, but sadly the way it is in the modern music biz. South Florida has numerous music schools producing quality jazz musicians, yet many need to go into teaching, perform and record popular music, and/or … [Read more...]
Legendary UK band Squeeze marks 50th with performance in Pompano
Fifty years together as a band is rare, but the route toward such a golden anniversary isn’t often as circuitous as that of Squeeze (www.squeezeofficial.com). The heady British pop group’s celebratory tour of the United States started in Oregon in mid-August, and includes a stop at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre on Sept. 21. Best-known for late-1970s and early-1980s U.K. and … [Read more...]
‘Not Not Jazz’: Medeski, Martin & Wood doc shortchanges importance of jazz/fusion band
A new phenomenon emerged through the 1990s when keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood (www.medeskimartinandwood.com) created what proved to be the most formidable jazz/fusion act without a stringed instrument since Weather Report. Director Jason Miller’s new Medeski, Martin & Wood documentary, Not Not Jazz (Oscilloscope Laboratories/MVD … [Read more...]
Veteran cover duo Twocan Blue a staple at Boca club
Certain musical gigs that were once frequent have become rare in South Florida. The area nightclub scene is now mostly dominated by open mics, jam nights, karaoke, trivia, stand-up comedy, and singing guitarists who are sometimes accompanied by pre-recorded backing tracks. In essence, anything that club owners and managers can think of where they only have to pay one host or … [Read more...]
Dead tribute band Crazy Fingers teams with Boca Symphonia for free concert
As the year 1970 approached, an up-and-coming British hard rock band called Deep Purple had a crazy idea. With a soaring new vocalist in Ian Gillan and a bassist/producer in Roger Glover replacing Rod Evans and Nick Simper, respectively, even fans forget that the new lineup’s first release wasn’t its 1970 breakthrough studio album Deep Purple in Rock. Rather, it was the … [Read more...]
Versatility pays off for South Florida musician Greenberg
When it comes to South Florida’s current music scene, area musicians know it’s a jungle out there. Gone are the 20th-century days when one could earn a living locally by exclusively performing within the realm of popular music. So modern success stories usually involve versatility — as in original songwriting plus cover-song acumen, multiple instruments played within … [Read more...]
WPB’s Positively Africa Experience to salute Juneteenth at Arts Garage
With tributes to famous bands and artists seemingly taking over the South Florida music scene, it’s refreshing to note that Lake Worth-launched group Julius Sanna & the Positively Africa Experience (www.positivelyafrica.com) has paid tribute to an entire continent’s culture — through uplifting original compositions rather than mimicry — since 2007. And its founders are … [Read more...]
Fifty-three years later, blues-rock stalwarts Foghat still on their slow ride
Even though he plays while seated, 78-year-old drummer Roger Earl is literally the last man standing in Foghat. And if he has his way, his 53-year-old British act will be the last band standing. Foghat comes to the Sunshine State not to retire, you see, but to work. Which includes performing at Wells Hall at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale on June 15 in support of … [Read more...]
Loxahatchee’s Mount Sinai proves a welcome progressive surprise
Going to see South Florida acts in a festival setting can lack the element of surprise. Those events are usually themed, and even expected top area blues, jazz, or alt-rock artists will usually give listeners only exactly what they came to expect. So it came as a jolt — even among the folk-to-punk stylistic swath presented at the latest all-purpose 561 Music Fest — when … [Read more...]