By Devon Wendell Los Angeles. Buddy Guy kicked off the 2015-2016 Center For the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Thursday night with a truly mesmerizing performance. Buddy Guy is the last true prophet of the blues, especially since we recently lost B.B. King. Buddy and his Damn Right… Read More Live Music: Buddy Guy At UCLA’s Royce Hall
By Mike Finkelstein If you have even a kernel of curiosity about the legend of Janis Joplin or if you simply want to see some great rock-related live musical theater, you will want to get to the Pasadena Playhouse and see A Night with Janis Joplin before it closes on August 23. Putting this production… Read More Musical Theatre: “A Night With Janis Joplin” at the Pasadena Playhouse
By Devon Wendell I just cannot process the fact that B.B. King is no longer on this earth. How can it be? It’s like trying to imagine life without oceans, trees, and air to breathe. No one in history changed the approach and sound of the electric guitar like B.B. King. Sure, there were T-Bone… Read More An Appreciation: Remembering The King
By Brian Arsenault They were so different. Unalike. Distinctive. Is that what unique is? Seems like that was typical of the era. Hendrix, not Clapton. Beatles, not Stones. Airplane, not Beach Boys. Each showed us something different. A different pulse and pace. Perhaps why we miss them in today’s largely homogenized pop rock world and… Read More 2014 Remembered: “Lost Boys” Lou Reed, Joe Cocker, Jack Bruce
By Mike Finkelstein Jack Bruce passed away on Saturday at the age of 71. It’s yet another hard-to-accept cold shot for any rock fan who fondly remembers what the rock medium had to offer in its late ’60’s/early ’70’s heyday. The luminaries of the field are disappearing slowly but surely. But around that time, rock… Read More An Appreciation: Farewell Jack Bruce
By Devon Wendell Finally the official autobiography of funk music’s most innovative architect is here. There have been many books on George Clinton and the P-Funk legacy; many including interview excerpts but this is the first time we get the pure “uncut” details of Dr. Funkenstein’s life. Clinton has teamed up with best-selling Brooklyn fiction… Read More Book Review: “Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?” A Memoir By George Clinton With Ben Greenman
By Mike Finkelstein Los Angeles, CA. Of all the guitar players to come along in the 20th century, none have been more influential than Jimi Hendrix. Forty-four years after his death, his presence is still felt vividly by anyone with ears open. On Friday night, the Experience Hendrix tour 2014 vintage rolled into the Greek… Read More Live Music: Experience Hendrix at the Greek Theatre
By Mike Finkelstein Los Angeles, CA. Cool is one of those qualities that, although hard to precisely define, we sure do recognize when we see it. On Wednesday night at the Greek Theatre, Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons, two of the coolest guitar personalities to ever spank the plank, shared a double bill, and also… Read More Live Music: ZZ Top and Jeff Beck at the Greek Theatre
By Devon “Doc” Wendell Lately I’ve been harkening back to a time in my hazy youth in which rock n’ roll seemed too square and being a jazz musician felt unattainable. I was a frustrated self-taught blues guitar player in his teens in search of something else. As much as I worshipped the blues, by… Read More A Twist of Doc: “Everything Is On The One”
By Devon “Doc” Wendell In my head I can hear Billie Holiday singing “There Is Music Everywhere.” She sang it with such glee as opposed to her better known and more tortured melancholy recordings. And she was right. It’s all around us at any time. Since I became a music journalist several years ago, I’ve… Read More A Twist Of Doc: The Dangers Of Writing About Jazz
The International Review of Music 