News + Reviews

The most exciting and important music news in New Jersey

Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Gypsy Jazzer Stephane Wrembel Brings his ‘Django New Orleans’ to Dizzy’s Oct. 30-Nov. 2

There’s no one like him. Guitarist-Composer-Vocalist-Musical Director Stephane Wrembel, from Maplewood in Essex County, has been single-handedly keeping alive the tradition that started in 1934 Paris when the three-fingered Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli started the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Wrembel’s new album, Django New Orleans II, will be released November 14. But, before that, he will be leading his nonet into Dizzy’s Club within the Jazz at Lincoln Center campus in New York City from October 30 to November 2 in a rare four-night residency for two shows each night.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Deena Is Our Favorite Cucumber

John is our favorite Beatle. Keith is our favorite Stone. Ray is our favorite Kink. And Deena Shoshkes is our favorite Cucumber.  Hoboken’s Cucumbers have been rocking since 1982. Now singer-songwriter-guitarist Deena has temporarily “gone solo” with the release of a three-song EP called This Is The Time. She wrote the three with a lyricist friend David Graham.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Here’s The Five Sassy Award Finalists

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark has announced who the five finalists are for the 2025 Sassy Awards. The 14th Annual Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition will culminate November 23 as part of the James Moody Jazz Festival. (Vaughan and Moody were both from Newark.) Almost 200 singers from 27 countries vied for the honor.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Jeiris Cook Pleads To ‘Unbreak My Heart’

Jeiris Cook used to sell mattresses. He used to manage a warehouse. He raised his three boys with his wife Jennifer. But in 2016, at the age of 37, in his Jefferson hometown in Morris County, he first taught himself how to play the guitar and started writing songs. Five years later, in 2021, his “Date Night” signaled his arrival. Next month, his “Unbreak My Heart” will be released and it reveals a fully-formed artist comfortable with his talent, and direct in his soulfulness.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Madison Band is Still Above The Moon

Above The Moon—vocalist-guitarist Kate Griffin, bassist Kyle Griffin, guitarist Shawn Murphy and drummer John Gramuglia—have been writing, recording and performing their own original music since 2015. In celebration of its 10th anniversary, the band is putting out 10 new songs on two EPs.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Bill Evans Gets His Due With New Box

Craft Recordings, on November 21, will release Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings, a three-CD or five-LP boxed set which contains such trailblazing studio albums as Portrait In Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961) as well as 26 alternate takes, 17 of which have never been heard.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Remember Jones Tackles Some Heavy Meat Loaf

Remember Jones is the Asbury Park iconoclast who can go from Dean Martin, Dionne Warwick and Amy Winehouse to Joe Cocker, Queen and Tom Jones. Now he’s back with a new show performing Meat Loaf’s 1977 Bat Out Of Hell album in its entirety with a 15-piece orchestra.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Earls Of Babylon Release ‘Piece Of My Mind’

Steve Conte and Brian Ray—known collectively as Earls Of Babylon—have released a gritty punk-infused piece of Instant Classic Rock called “Piece Of My Mind.” The flip side is a terrific remake of “Hungry,” the 1966 rocker by the severely under-rated Paul Revere & The Raiders. The new original “takes aim at chronic complainers and finger-pointers,” according to the duo, “a reminder to step back, gain perspective, and recognize that plenty of people have it tougher.”

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Bongo James Mastro’s Photos Exhibited

And we thought James Mastro of famed Hoboken band The Bongos was just a singer-songwriter-guitarist who has a terrific debut solo album, Dawn of a New Error. Little did we know that he’s a shutterbug who constantly took pictures while on tour around the world. Now his photographs will be prominently displayed in an exhibit called “The Passenger” from yesterday to November 23 at the 503 Social Club in Hoboken.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

The Music Of Tommy James Sounds Almost As Good In Chinese

Longtime Essex County resident Tommy James has had a string of hits a mile long. His music has been used in countless movies, TV shows and commercials. It’s timeless. His compositions sound as vital and fresh now as they ever did. One of his songs, “Mony Mony,” originally released in the U.S. 57 years ago in 1968, a #1 in England and #3 in the U.S. and Canada, was released in Indonesia 47 years ago in Chinese.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Zaki Ali Band Takes the Prog Path

Zaki Ali is smart. Y’know how oftentimes a band can be tight, edgy, exciting and provocative…then the singer opens his mouth and the whole thing turns to shit? The Great Path of Reconstruction, by the Zaki Ali Band of Hudson County, is an original instrumental progressive metal piece written, recorded and mixed by Ali. But let’s let him tell it.

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Dr. Jon Epstein Dr. Jon Epstein

Marillion’s Steve Hogarth to Headline Progfest 2025

Steve Hogarth is slated to headline Progstock 2025. It marks the first time he’ll deliver a solo show anywhere in the U.S. For fans in the States, this is not just a novelty—it’s a landmark. Hogarth’s presence has always loomed large in the American underground prog circuits, but a dedicated solo set across the Atlantic might open a fresh chapter.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Lost Sinatra Arrangements Discovered

When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, he bequeathed his entire library of 1,200 music scores to his son who died in 2016. Those scores then went to his daughter Tina. Enter longtime Sinatra fanatic Seth MacFarlane, yes, the actor-animator-writer-producer-director-comedian responsible for The Naked Gun, Family Guy and American Dad. Dude also sings.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Bruce Back on the Cover of Time Magazine

In October of 1975, Bruce Springsteen became the first rock star in history to simultaneously land on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines. Fifty years later, he’s back on the cover of the current Time.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Bruce is ‘Open All Night’

He’s usually so humorous. His “People Against The Abuse Of Acronyms” graced our “Visual Sound” section last April, followed by “Underwater Basket Weaving” in October. But his latest work takes a deeper turn: a new song called “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” inspired by Springsteen’s 1982 depression and the friendship with Jon Landau that helped him through. (Scott Cooper’s film of the same name comes out this month.)

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

New Jersey Hall of Fame Prepares for Celia Cruz Centennial Saturday

Salsa legend Celia Cruz escaped Cuba and ended up in Fort Lee where she lived out the rest of her life. On the occasion of the 100th year of her birth, the New Jersey Hall of Fame at American Dream in East Rutherford—in conjunction with the estate of Celia Cruz—will celebrate her 2013 NJHOF induction on October 4.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Jason Didner Gets Profound

He’s usually so humorous. His “People Against The Abuse Of Acronyms” graced our “Visual Sound” section last April, followed by “Underwater Basket Weaving” in October. But his latest work takes a deeper turn: a new song called “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” inspired by Springsteen’s 1982 depression and the friendship with Jon Landau that helped him through. (Scott Cooper’s film of the same name comes out this month.)

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

Have some Ice Cream with Annabelle Chairlegs

“Ice Cream On The Beach” (Todo Records) is the new single from Austin’s Annabelle Chairlegs,  originally Lindsey Mackin from Kearny in Hudson County. Since moving west in 2013, Chairlegs has amassed a considerable following in and beyond the Lone Star State due to her Watermelon Summer (2017) and Gotta Be In Love (2020) albums.

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Mike Greenblatt Mike Greenblatt

New Dylan Box Includes Two Rare Tracks Taped in East Orange

Bob Dylan’s new box—Through The Open Window 1956-1963—is the 18th volume of The Bootleg Series (Columbia Records). The mammoth 8-CD set—with 48 of 139 songs never-before released—comes out October 31 and includes two super-rare tunes Dylan taped of himself in 1961 at the home of Bob and Sid Gleason on North Arlington Avenue in East Orange, Essex County.

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