It’s been said that nobody plays Beethoven and Schubert like British pianist Paul Lewis, 53, from Liverpool. Anthony Tommasini, writing in the New York Times, said, “there are many prized recordings of the Beethoven sonatas from past masters and current artists but if I had to recommend a single complete set, I would suggest Mr. Lewis’s distinguished recordings.” See for yourself when he takes the stage of Alexander Hall unaccompanied at Princeton University on Nov. 6.

On a Sunday afternoon at 3:00 in Madison at the Community Arts Center on Kings Road, the winners of the New Jersey Jazz Society’s 2025 Juried Scholarship competition will perform with NJJS Advisor-Educator-Saxophonist Don Braden (who doubles on flute) and his band of seasoned industry professionals on trombone (Mariel Bildsten), trumpet (Ted Chubb), bass (Mary Ann McSweeney) and drums (Alvester Garnett). The winners are saxophonists Joseph Foglia/Nate Tota, vocalists Kyra Cioffi/Sophia Varughese and composers Matthew Cline/Aiden Woods. (The six winners are from William Paterson University in Wayne and Princeton.)

We’ve all been to E Street to see the band. But have you been to B Street? It’s the same neighborhood so they play the same songs. Drew U in Madison on Nov. 1 will rock as this is the original Bruce Tribute band that has played almost 6,000 times. Denizens of E Street like Miami Steve, Mighty Max, the late Clarence Clemons and Bruce himself have jammed on B Street. 

Broadway pit cat Mark Gross leads his quartet to Teaneck on Cedar Lane Nov. 1 at Brvsh Cul7ur3. The Baltimore prodigy houses gospel, jazz, classical and rock’n’roll in his soul and it all comes out through his also sax. He’s well-versed on the music of Louis Jordan [1908-1975], was lead sax with the Jazz @ Lincoln Center All-Stars, and blew during Season #4 of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and the 2014 film Annie.

Crossroads on North Avenue in Garwood has been doing a Halloween event for the last six years. This year it’s emo-tinged so come dressed as your favorite failure and we can all sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. Just kidding. There’ll be a live band and a DJ.

Stevie Van Zandt will be 75 next month. To celebrate the occasion, The Stone Pony in Asbury Park will host a birthday party for him and his wife Maureen on Oct. 26 where he will be performing with members of The E Street Band, The Disciples Of Soul, plus Jesse Malin, Darlene Love and Gary “U.S.” Bonds. The show will benefit TeachRock, the innovative music education program he founded that will be awarding its “Star Teacher” Award on this night to Asbury Park public school teacher Casey Miles.

Asbury Juke lead guitarist Glenn Alexander will host his 10^th annual six-hour Pig Gig in Scotch Plains at the Italian-American Hall on Oct. 26 at 2:00 p.m. to benefit the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation. Glenn’s nephew, Jay Alexander, died from the disease in 2011. Participating artists include Glenn’s band Shadowland, his Glenn and Oria father-daughter duo, The Weeklings, The Lonesome Pines and comedian Mike Marino. Besides contributing to a great cause, your ticket gets you “all of the roast pig, pulled pork, sausage and peppers, wings, hot dogs and side dishes you can eat and a bottomless beer/win/soft drink bar.”

Detroit Pianist-Arranger-Composer William Hill has worked with Christian McBride and Wynton Marsalis He’s gigged at The Kennedy Center in DC, as well as clubs in Singapore and Tokyo. His Keep It Movin’ has just been released. 

There’s just something exquisitely dramatic about a good ‘bone man. Dinah Washington called it that “big long sliding thing.” Composer-Arranger-Educator-Designer Marty Scott wields his trombone like a weapon. The Long Islander melds hard bop with soulful funk-swing and Latin. With JJ Johnson [1924-2001] as his main influence (like practically all working trombonists on the planet), he blows with authority and smarts.

Joy On fire is the sax-bass-drums trio from Trenton who traverses a dangerous line with no chords from either a guitar or piano to wrap the sound around…like a high-wire act with no safety net. Their meld of rock and jazz started in Baltimore and their States Of America reached #48 on the Roots Music Reports album chart. They will be performing with two other bands:  Thieves in Paris and Guesstimate.

Mudvayne’s “Hurt People Hurt People” on Alchemy Recordings was its first new music in 16 years. Now comes “Sticks and Stones.” Mudvayne—Chad Gray (vocals), Greg Tibbett (guitar), Ryan Martinie (drums) and Matthew McDonough (drums)—have taken to the road with Static-X and Vended opening. This loud evening will rattle the foundation of the Wellmont Theater on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair (plenty of great restaurants in walking distance). 

Phil Vassar was the 1999 Country Songwriter of the Year as named by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. His 2000 self-titled debut had five hit singles. The 2002 follow-up was a rollicking hoot as was his 2004 effort. After 19 hit singles, this Virginian singer-songwriter-pianist, at 62, is still at the top of his game with “Mississippi Remix.”

Psychedelic Los Angeles rockers The Third Mind are touring for the first time on the East Coast so, of course, they have to stop at Jersey City’s White Eagle Hall to spread some tracks from their new Right Now! (Yep Rock Records) on the smart ears of this room. Grammy winning singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Dave Alvin of The Blasters formed this band with Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Then, when Counting Crows and John Hiatt guitarist David Immergluck joined with Richard Thompson/John Cale drummer Michael Jerome and vocalist Jesse Sykes, their stage was set.

Any event the entity known as Darkside New Jersey puts on is sure to blow your mind. On Oct. 18, at the N.J. Convention & Expo Center on Sunfield Road in Edison, things will get creepy for ten full hours starting at 10:00 in the morning. Promoted as “a darker, more immersive, and beautifully twisted experience,” over 175 curated vendors of the macabre and bizarre will include tattoo parlors, piercing, taxidermy, a “Mother Knows Death” podcast, Mrs. Angemi The Human Dissector, Horror Panels, Five-Breathing Sideshows, live music and an on-site masseuse.

New York City band Black Satellite is on tour with Mushroomhead, Psychostick and Mind Incision. Their brand new Aftermath album is out with lead single “Kill For You.” They go from industrial to metal in an artful melding of dark, edgy soundscapes. Lead singer Larissa Vale is intense, indomitable and unflinching. The band has tightened up since their opening slot for Marilyn Manson. According to Vale, “the single explores the lengths someone will go to for those they love, and at what point that starts to border on obsession. I like to conquer my fears in my music videos. The last thing I’d ever want to do is let a tarantula crawl all over my face so I thought why not just do it?”

As part of ProgStock 2025 at the Williams Center in Rutherford on Oct. 12, vocalist-guitarist-keyboardist Mike Keneally will bring his Beer For Dolphins band onstage with guests Dave Bainbridge and Sally Minnear. Keneally has 30 years of material to choose from, including his work with Frank Zappa, Devin Townsend, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Robert Fripp, Mastodon, Wayne Kramer, The Loud Family and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (not to mention his 29 solo albums). 

Pianist Caelan Cardello will accompany Chicago singer-songwriter-arranger-educator Julia Smulson at Brvsh Cul7ur3 on Cedar Lane in Teaneck Oct. 11. She won the 2022 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition Her self-titled debut came out last year. She’s currently pursuing her Master’s at Julliard.

Swing’s the thing at Drew U Oct. 11 in Madison when Michael Martocci and Brandon Tomasello front the 22-piece JTole Jazz Orchestra in a night of Sinatra. Frank’s manager, Eliot Weisman, hailed Martocci as “the closest you will ever come to reliving the Sinatra experience.” Joe Piscopo collaborator Tomasello is planning on taking a deep dive into the Sinatra-Basie catalog, excavating songs not performed in nearly six decades.

British Soul-Pop duo Young Gun Silver Fox will start its stateside tour Oct. 11 down the shore in Asbury at Wonder Bar in support of fifth album, Pleasure (Blue Elan Records). Funky soul man Andy Platts used to run ragged with Mama’s Gun in London. Shawn Lee moved across the pond from Kansas to join England’s Ping Pong Orchestra. Reportedly, Jeff Lynne is a fan, and if he likes ‘em, so do we.

Pianist Joel Zelnick will present his “My Bill Evans: A Personal Conversation,” his personalized tribute to Union County’s greatest piano player on Oct. 11 at 2:00 in the afternoon at the Closter Library on High Street. This event is free to the public.

Los Angeles shock-rockers Patriarchy revel in the dark-wave scene with industrial and metal influences. Besides opening for The Cult, they’ll be doing a string of headlining dates which will take them to Newark Oct. 10 at QXT’s Night Club where they will be performing selections from their just-released Manual For Dying, co-produced by Brooklyn’s Twin Shadow, the Dominican Author, Fashionista, Actor, Guitarist, Keyboardist, Bassist with six albums of his own.

With its new Earthkeeper album just out on Hopeless Records, this Maryland trio—vocalist Ashrita Kumar, guitarist Paul Vallejo and drummer Myron Houngbedji—fuse pop-punk, alt-rock, dance, grunge, metalcore and a love of Beyonce into a well-pounded spark. Their second single, “I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist On You,” is their most-known song. The new single is “Vacant.”

As part of her “Blues Is So Good” tour, in support of her new Moonlight Movin’ & Groovin’ album, Louisiana blues belter Geminii Dragon will perform with her partner Linwood Taylor in Newark at Clement’s Place on Oct. 8, as co-produced by the Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies.

On Sunday afternoon at 3:00, the Madison Community Arts Center on Kings Road will present the Anais Reno Duo. New York City award-winning singer-songwriter Reno—with the backing of pianist Jeb Patton—should do songs from her Lady Of The Lavender Mist album, as well as her repertoire of Ellington, Strayhorn and “The Great American Songbook.” Opening will be The Desmond Diehl Trio:  guitarist Diehl, bassist Lark Villinski and drummer Beckitt Diehl.

Glenn is the Guitarist-Vocalist-Composer who played lead in the Jukes. Oria is the transcendent singer who just happens to be his daughter. That Bood Harmony will be in full effect down the shore at the Transparent Clinch Gallery—210 Fifth Avenue—on October 4 in Asbury Park. Glenn tells us there’s some new material that he’s been writing and, of course, they’ll do some discreet covers of songs that will never die. The 4:00 p.m. start time will be for one 75-minute set.

Supporting its self-produced Corporation P.O.P., Hot Milk will spill all over Jersey City at White Eagle Hall September 30. They’ve got a lot on their minds and it all comes spewing forth on this, their second album: collective pain, personal fear, saving the world, politics and a sense of doom and gloom that permeates throughout their stance. Oh, and they’re very British. They wear their allegiance to their Manchester hometown on their sleeve.

The first three dates of the American tour of Norway’s rock’n’rollin’ Cocktail Slippers are in New Jersey starting September 28 in Ringwood at Live At Drew’s. The following two nights, in Hightstown, at the Randy Ellis Man Cave, they’ll perform the new “Back Where You Belong” (on Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool record label). Then, on October 11, they will open for labelmates Soraia in Denville at the Sweet Vinyl Café (the seriously cool place with great coffee).  

In support of The 502s at Asbury Lanes down the shore, Arts Fishing Club will play a full set including the first single, “Gary Busey,” off their new Supernatural Groove EP. The indie-rock band from Tennessee is fronted by Christopher Kessenich, a dude who walked for five months—over 1,600 miles—from Maine to Georgia, playing 60 shows and sleeping on the floor in the homes of strangers. 

Cuban-Venezuelan pianist-vocalist-composer-arranger-producer-educator Cesar Orozco will be performing on Cedar Lane in Teaneck at 8:00 p.m. with his trio. He’s been based in New York City for the last decade and has worked with famed sax man Paquito D’Rivera among many others, having toured extensively throughout the U.S. as well as Scotland, Mexico, Australia, Columbia, England and Holland. 

The music of Australian hard rockers AC/DC has never been more gay! Dee Snider of Twisted Sister loves ‘em and they redo AC/DC’s iconic “Bad Boy Boogie” into the ironic “Gay Boy Boogie.” Coming to Rutherford for the first time, these shockingly astute hard rockers had members of L.A. Guns, Armored Saint and King’s X on their “Highway To Hell” video.