The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark (NJPAC) has announced this year’s lineup for the 15^th annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival Nov. 6-22. Highlights include tributes to Miles Davis, Zakir Hussain and James Moody [1925-2010}, the bebop sax man who was raised in Newark. Anticipation is also running high for a rare appearance by Tony Award winner Ben Vereen.

Rarely does one get to experience the grandeur, the majesty and the might of the New Jersey Symphony but to get to digest it for free? Better head on out to Newark tomorrow night, June 26, in Branch Brook Park.

Jack Flowers and the Petal Tones are on the road. If you missed them last Saturday in their Montclair hometown at the Serendipity Café, this “vibrant addictive electrifying” band with its “euphoric stage presence and transcendent cyber-fueled melodies” will bring their brand of alt-punk to Brooklyn July 3 at The Sultan Room; Greensboro North Carolina July 4 at the Above Board Skate Park; Washington DC July 5 at Union Stage; Newark July 24 at QXTs; Richmond Virginia July 25 at Bandito’s Burrito Lounge; and Philly July 26 at Little Big Planet.

The Communications Coordinator for Middlesex County Government, Zakiya Jones, reached out to tell us about their third annual four-hour FREE Folk Live Gospel Music Festival, Saturday, July 25, downtown New Brunswick, at 2 Livingston Avenue, starting at 3:30 p.m., outside the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC), with headliners The Group Fire out of Newark (consisting of two sets of brothers who blend jazz, spirituals and rhythm’n’blues, which they call rhythm’n’church) plus Grammy Award-winning artists Erica Campbell/Jonathan McReynolds.

Rosanne Cash narrates Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today, a new documentary film set to air on PBS this summer. Cash: “I was proud to narrate this beautiful film about a timeless artist.” Twelve Guthrie classics are included as is Springsteen’s epochal “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Suede Aces have released their Suede Aces Volume #1 debut. Singer Lily Slix, the Bell Brothers on lead guitar and drums, bassist Gort Odendaal and rhythm guitarist Jerry Reaves—as produced by Steve DeAcutis at his Sound Spa Studios in Edison—have fashioned a modern take on classic rock since its 2021 birth. They’ve opened for Steven Adler, Slaughter and Bolan at such prestigious venues as The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville and The Stone Pony in their Asbury Park hometown.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) will again present its annual “Horizon Sounds of the City” FREE concert series at Chambers Plaza right outside the NJPAC building.

Mint 400 Records in Hawthorne has signed Afloat from Cherry Hill. The first single from the Speak Low Then Leave EP is “Knuckles” (see below). We introduced them to you in 2023 when they were a four-piece. Now a trio with singer-songwriter-guitarist Gabby Relos, bassist Josh Rubeo and drummer Max Bizerak, their alt-emo sound rings true.

Longtime Seattle bassist-composer Chuck Bergeron has worked with everyone from Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, James Moody, Stanley Jordan and Elvis Costello. His new album, Bass & Face: Duets With 10 Premier Vocalists (Summit Records) has him in duet mode, co-producing 13 tracks from Mingus to The Meters.

We told you about Ben Vaughn the musician in 2023, then announced his podcast earlier this year. Now, the composer, performer, producer, radio host, born in Camden County 71 years ago, has released the 11^th installment of his podcast series, “Straight From The Hat” with co-host Laura Pochodylo of Sun Records in Tennessee.

The Bradley Beach Tourism Commission has been presenting its FREE weekly “Songwriters On The Beach” series since 2005 as produced by Brookdale Public Radio 90.5 The Night. All shows start at 7:00 p.m. on the Newark Avenue Beach.

He’s the singer of The New Bardots and the author of the eminently readable book The Undiscovered Showman: A True Story of Being Almost Famous. And he’s mad as hell.

Virtuoso jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan, who graduated from Princeton University, has teamed up with the legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento on a cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s 1958 “Meditation,” the lead single of Jordan’s new Feather in the Wind album.

Glenn Morrow has released numerous records in the 40 years of his venerable Bar/None Hoboken label. Earlier this year, he relinquished the business reins to his A&R guru Emmy Black in an effort to concentrate on his own band, Cry For Help, who will be releasing its third record in 12 years. Our Final Album:  Volume #1 comes out on July 12. Produced by Ray Ketchem at his Montclair Magic Door Studio, the 11 new songs go from “Beatle Bones” and “Boom Boom” to “Let’s Stay In Bed.”

Guitarist-Composer-Educator Tomas Rodriguez lived in Union County for the first eight years of his life. He recently went back to his Westfield hometown to film himself playing a song he wrote commemorating his New Jersey youth. “Melancolie” aches with the sadness he felt when his family moved away.

No one has epitomized the essence of feel-good summer-time beach music like Nashville singer-songwriter-producer Mark Mulch. Originally from Toms River in Ocean County, his music will put a smile on your face and a strut in your step. Like Elvis with “Slicin’ Sand” (which Mulch should cover!), like the Beach Boys of “Catch A Wave,” like Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville,” his music is a balm for the soul in these troubled times. Now he’s come Full Circle with an album filled with such pleasures.

The legends of jazz knew if they wanted the best, they’d have to cross the Hudson from New York City to Hackensack. Rudy Van Gelder [1924-2016] was a sound scientist. Coltrane, Monk, Miles, Ellington, Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, they all made the trip. The studio is in Englewood now, run by Maureen and Don Sickler. And it’s still producing gems.

Chris Vincent follows up last year’s Good Crook with The Chicken Mart EP, a collaborative effort wherein the New Orleans songwriter/guitarist/singer got some of his Louisiana friends in the studio to bash out two new originals at Grammy Award-winning Jake Eckert’s Rhythm Shack studio. Originally from Bayonne, Vincent plays a mean slide and demonstrated such at the recent New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. (See him below showing off his funky fretwork live on WWL-TV.)

They’ve been on the road for what seems like forever but the follow-up to their Killing The Bear debut comes out next week. Three singles from the upcoming album are out now. Check out “Crows In Camouflage” here.

There’s only one state in the U.S. that does not have a state song. Ironically, it is New Jersey, a state filled with music and musicians. We have been given permission to post Richard Lee’s strong argument—published in the prestigious journal American Music Perspectives in 2004 and updated by Lee last month—why the time is right for “Born To Run” by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band to, indeed, be The State Song Of New Jersey.