What’s the top horn section in the world going to do now that Southside Johnny is laying low? Here’s the answer:  They’re going to raise the roof off Wonder Bar this Saturday on Fifth & Ocean in Asbury with Glenn Alexander & Shadowland.

Saxophonist-Educator Julius Tolentino has been blowing on NYC bandstands for two decades. He was with the Louis Hayes Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band as well as in the bands of Natalie Cole, Connie Francis, Gloria Gaynor, Christian McBride, and the ghost bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

The Concert Hall at Drew University in Madison, Morris County, will present “60 Years of The Beatles in America” on June 29. With privately-owned concert footage, author Charles F. Rosenay and archivist Erik Taros will share their stories, insights and answer questions.

She’s only 23 but she sings with an old soul. This pretty Texan straddles bebop, blues, the Great American Songbook, Broadway and pop to achieve a stunning vocalese synthesis. She’s already performed at Newport, SXSW, Dizzy’s, The Blue Note, Birdland and Lincoln Center. Cyrille Aimee, Sheila Jordan and Wynton Marsalis love her tone. So will you.

Manhattan guitarist Allan Bezama crosses the Hudson to play Teaneck at the art gallery and performance space known as the Puffin Cultural Forum. He’ll have tenor saxophonist Skyler Nolan, bassist Ilya Osachuk and drummer Kai Craig with him. They do some Ellingtonia and then get way out there with Ornette Coleman’s “Turnaround.” They also do Coltrane, Marsalis and more. Call it post-bop. A Jersey City University grad, he’s performed alongside Jeff “Tain” Watts, Mark Whitfield, Steve Wilson and other bright lights of jazz.

Equipment and Summer Bruise will share this triple-bill with Kerosene Heights at Pino’s Fruit Basket on North Fourth in Highland Park June 27. They’ll do it all over again the next night in Merchantville at The Old Post. These North Carolinians will have their Blame It On The Weather album released August 15 on Side One Dummy Records. The first single will be “New Tattoo.” Their emotional, confessional songs fall just to the left of shoe-gaze emo.

San Francisco’s Steve Cohn started out playing blues piano in L.A. before studying flute at UCLA. After two years in Japan, he earned a degree in classical piano performance and gigged in the bands of Sonny Simmons and Eddie Henderson. Ultimately, he made his way to New York City to explore his unique Far-East modalities of pianistic excellence. In other words, you gotta hear this guy!

American Treasure Tommy James will bring his mile-long list of hits to Englewood at the Bergen PAC on June 22. Amazingly enough, he still sounds as good vocally today at 78 as he did in 1964 at 17 when he recorded a song by the legendary songwriting duo of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich called “Hanky Panky” which, ultimately, a few years later, became the first major hit in years for Roulette Records. 

This North Carolinian studied sax at Duke, then moved to New York City to be mentored by  Jimmy Heath [1926-2020] and Sir Roland Hanna [1932-2002]. He received his Masters Degree at Queens College and has recorded with Slide Hampton, The Mambo Legends Orchestra, Matchbox 20, Christian McBride, Chico O’Farrill, “Mighty” Max Weinberg and Bebo Valdez.

Bongo James Mastro will be joining alt-folk-Americana-pop singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist Rachael Sage, 53, in Hoboken at the 503 Social Club June 21. Mastro records for her label MPress which she founded 30 years ago. The upcoming Canopy is her 16^th album. Opening will be Kristen Ford, the bi-racial queer artist who usually confounds with her amalgam of unplugged acoustic loveliness to screaming electricity, tape loops and beatboxing. She’s currently working on an album with Ani DiFranco, due in August.

Deep in the bowels of The Williams Center in Rutherford, Bergen County, there’s The Black Box. On June 21, its walls will tremble and shudder as Gridiron will no doubt perform selections from its new Poetry From Pain (Blue Grape Music). Singer Matthew Karll, guitarists Will Kaelin/Xavier Wilson, bassist Lennon Livesay and drummer Tyler Mullen are raring to go. Do you dare enter the pit that they will instantly create with their heady combo of mosh-inducing groove, bounce, swagger and VOLUME? They’re also on the Hatebreed tour which lands them back in Jersey at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville July 19.

It’s been five albums and counting for Saxophonist-Composer-Educator Jordan VanHermet. This Korean from Michigan goes from swing, post-bop, hard bop and folkloric Far East motifs to the blues.

Los Angelenos Danyell Souza and Tony Nova are Dead Posey and they have no limits on their imagination. Their songs are filled with cults, monsters, nightmares, devils, sexism, oppression and religious dogma. Call ‘em goth punk synth-pop alt-rock. They’ll be performing songs off their Are You In A Cult? debut EP on a tour they call “The Damned & The Dead” with Outlier and Another Day Dawns opening.

They call him the King of Dancehall. His “Pretty Girl” single is out stretching Jamaican music to unheard of heights. He just played Miami and they went wild. Maybe because he’s been gone for almost two decades. Once he got his visa problems in order, the first thing he did was play Brooklyn. And they went wild. Before traipsing around the globe to London, Amsterdam, Cologne and Paris, he’ll rock AC on its heels at Boardwalk Hall June 14. Dude spent 13 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. As his camp says, “this isn’t a comeback, it’s a coronation.”

Yes it’s Glenn Alexander, the lead guitarist of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, with his talented vocalist daughter Oria from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. in the intimate surroundings of Chrone’s Trattoria, the great Italian restaurant on Mountain Avenue in Mountainside, Union County.

Robin Trower, 80, is one of the great British rock guitarists of all time. He started with Procol Harum from 1967 to 1971. His Bridge Of Sighs was one of the best albums of 1974. Chrysalis Records has just re-released For Earth Below, which hit #5 in ’75, as a four-CD box with all sorts of extras. After having experienced health problems last year which forced him off the road, he’s supporting the box with a mammoth tour. Besides 6/14 at Borgata in Atlantic City, he’ll play the Count Basie Performing Arts Center in Red Bank June 17 and The Wellmont Theater in Montclair June 18.  

Dry Kill Logic’s metal bona fides have been assiduously documented since 1995 when they came out of New York. They’re on tour for the first time since 2005 (the band went on hiatus in 2007) and will be playing their first single in six years, “Now You Belong With The Dead,” at Dingbatz in Clifton June 14. They will also be celebrating the 20^th Anniversary of their monumental The Dead & Dreaming album.

It’s called their “No Rain, No Flowers Tour.” The Black Keys are back out on the road and will end their trek in Asbury Park June 14 at the Stone Pony Summerstage…and anybody who has ever been to the final gig of a major tour knows that this will be one helluva party. Opening will be The Heavy Heavy, a British duo.

The Asbury Jukes may not be in action these days but Juke lead guitarist Glenn Alexander is a man for all seasons, be it jazz-rock fusion, rock’n’roll or country-rock. His Shadowland moves like a big wheel on a Georgia cotton field. They’ll be at Triumph Brewery on Bridge Avenue in Red Bank June 13 playing two sets of Shadowland songs and Asbury Juke songs—8:30 and 11:30 p.m.—with the Juke horn section and gifted teenaged singer Oria Aspen (Glenn’s daughter). 

Those up for some groove-ready riddims can hit Crossroads in Garwood June 12 for Save Ferris, the Cali ska punks whose “Get Dancing” single will have you doing just that. Singer Monique Powell is a powerhouse and has been ever since her cheeky rendition of “Come On Eileen” in 1996. The guitars still incessantly riff, the horns still blow hard and fast, and, despite lineup changes, Save Ferris have maintained a modicum of mayhem.

What better way to spend a June Sunday afternoon at 3:00 than to be on Kings Road in Madison at the Community Arts Center for trumpeter Danny Jonokuchi and his quartet with pianist Hyuna Park, bassist Liany Mateo and drummer Kevin Congleton. And get there early because trombonist Alex Marichal walks the tightrope with no net as his trio with bassist Ansh Parikh and drummer Alex Kavlakian use no chords. 

Jersey’s own blues legends will be performing at The Bernie, a basement room that a century ago used to be a speakeasy in the days of Prohibition. They’ll also be at The Laundromat in Morristown on June 12, the Montclair Brewery on June 22 and Shanghai Jazz in Madison on June 28.

His 500+ album appearances with artists of all genres and his dozens of Hollywood film scores barely scratch his surface. Marcus Miller is right up there with the icons of the funky popping bass like Stanley Clarke, Larry Graham, Jaco, Bootsy Collins, Flea, Victor Wooten and Les Claypool. The two-time Grammy Award-winner will obviously be playing tracks from his terrific new Laid Black album.

Boston pop-punkers Ringpop! is on its “Summer Wasted” tour which will take them down the shore at the Asbury Park Brewery on June 6 and The Sanctuary in Butler June 20. You can bet they’ll be playing their new single “Brain Diss.” After five years together, they’ve honed their sugar-rush of a sound to incorporate emo into bubble-punk proportions. They’re all Berklee grads but they don’t let their musical know-how get in the way of their full-on assault. As they like to say, we need “a break from the melodrama.”

Bassist-Composer-Educator Ben Basile—of Big D and the Kids Table—has gone solo. He’ll be previewing songs—a ska, punk, jazz mix—off his Benergy debut on the Sleep Walk Sounds label in the tasting room at All Points West Distillery on Tichenor Street in Newark June 5.

This Floridian blows a wicked sax. He blew with the William Paterson University Jazz Orchestra at Dizzy’s Club in New York City in April. Now he’ll bring his own band to Brvsh Cul7ur3 in Teaneck June 4 at 7:00 p.m.

She’s a real Texas guitar slinger and she’ll be spewing out her brand of blues, country and rock at this year’s Crawfish Fest in Augusta on May 31. Her new Alligator Records album, Truth Is, is pure electricity:  soulful, sophisticated, passionate, romantic and sensual. And just wait until you hear her shred!

Who wouldn’t want to spend “An Evening With Heart” as the next leg of the iconic band’s national tour is called?

Ann Wilson: “The music we are making at this moment has timeless teeth, muscle, bone and hair, also poetry, soul and emotion.  I'm very proud to be a part of it all and I will give all of myself to it as long as we both shall live. It's magic!”

Nancy Wilson: “I’m super proud of how this band is crafting the ongoing tour. The show continues expanding with elements ranging from kick-ass rock to acoustic campfire jams. We love celebrating and sharing the electric energy of a 100% live on-the-spot real rock show.”

Chris Ruggiero, 25, calls it “Livin’ The Dream.” Fresh off his Darlene Love collaboration, Ruggiero will interpret the music of Adele, Lionel Richie, Jay & The Americans and more. Influenced by Justin Timberlake, he says, “I try to make every move and sing every song with a touch of class that reminds the audience of a time when entertainers put their heart and soul into their songs and delivering an exceptional concert was paramount.”