Bernardsville drummer Dave Colella provides the stirring beat behind the self-released Revelation by Piper & The Hard Times, a bluesy, ball-buster of an album fronted by the soulful bluster of Piper. When Piper sings, you can hear his phlegm wiggle. He’s an old-fashioned blues shouter and it works well atop this studio octet.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) has impacted thousands of young musicians for the past 27 years. Registration is now open (closing September 23) for its “Jazz For Teens” 2024-2025 Education Program. The fall semester is October 5 to December 4. The spring semester is January 25 to May 17. Student musicians from ages 13 to 18 can apply.

Leave it to Little Steven to put on one of the most anticipated after-parties of the decade. After the two-day Sea. Hear. Now. music festival starring Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, “Asbury Park A Go-Go” at Asbury Lanes as presented by “Little Steven’s Underground Garage: Maximum Rock and Soul!” will rage on for four hours starting at 10:00 p.m.

Guitarist Scotti Hill, 60, from those favorite sons of Toms River, Skid Row, has lent his considerable talents to This Wild Darkness on its debut EP, 'The Notorious Memphis Rains,' due October 25.

With three shows on the current tour already under their belts, Stone Temple Pilots continue their tour with +Live+ tomorrow in Houston, Friday in Dallas, and Saturday in Arkansas. Montclair-born STP guitarist Dean DeLeo plays on the first new +Live+ tune in six years, “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’). +Live+ founding member Ed Kowalcyzk described DeLeo’s contribution to the song as “mystical slide guitar styling.”

An all-new, all-female version of The Bonnie Parker Band (with guitarist/keyboardist Denny Colt and drummer Hillary Blaze) will play its first gig at My Father’s Place on Long Island in Roslyn, New York, October 5.

He’s worked with members of The Cucumbers (Hoboken), The Catholic Girls (Union), The Bongos (Hoboken) and The Accelerators (Union) but mostly Tom Lucas is Sad About Girls (South Orange). Singer-Songwriter Palmyra Delran (Princeton) has been playing the new Sad About Girls song, “She’s Not Here,” on her show at SiriusXM’s “Little Steven’s Underground Garage.”

It’s already sold-out. The sixth annual Sea. Hear. Now. festival lineup for all three stages has been announced for September 14 and 15 on the beach in Asbury Park and in that town’s Bradley Park venue.

December 14 is the date for the Lenny Kaye/Tammy Faye Starlite concert to benefit www.njarts.net, a non-profit one-stop for everything cultural in our great state. Our friend Jay Lustig has helmed this site for 10 years, offering free content, based on his previous decades as a trusted Jersey journalist. The show will take place in Montclair at Outpost in the Burbs.

October 14 is the date that Blue Grape Music will release ‘Rush Of Energy’ by Bike Routes. Call it indie-alternative. Bike Routes is David Lawrence Osterhout from a sleepy Burlington County hamlet called Evesham Township. The single/video is “You Want It You Got It.”

The Passaic County rapper known as 973tony, currently stationed in Arizona working on F-16 fighter jets, will return home at the end of the year to resume his music career. He self-releases, self-produces and engineers his own music. He even painted the album’s cover.

Rock’n’Roll celebrities will “Bowl For Ronnie” November 14 to benefit the Ronnie James Dio “Stand Up And Shout” cancer fund at the PINZ Bowling Center in Studio City California. Eddie Trunk—from Madison in Morris County—will host.

Asbury Park power-pop band the dt’s drop their “Cherry” today right here and it’s a punchy rocker that we can’t seem to stop playing over and over again. David Cacciatore and Tom Losito have fashioned an exquisite sound that channels the raw urgency of punk with the tuneful joys of pop music. Their current EP, ‘Live at Lakehouse Studios,’ released in April, is also a solid listen.

The late New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint once wrote “everything I do gon’ be funky from now on.” The same could be said for one of the world’s greatest living bassists, Christian McBride of Montclair. Fresh off performing in ‘The Jersey Sound’ documentary currently free-streaming on Tubi, the bassist-composer-arranger-educator has shown up on the new album by jazz-rock fusion legend Mike Stern. E’choes And Other Songs’ won’t be out until September 13 but we have an advance listen of one track, “Stuff Happens.”

In 1865, the building on East Jersey Avenue in Elizabeth was known as the Drake Opera House. The Marx Brothers, George Burns, Jack Benny, Ray Charles, Harry Chapin, Maya Angelou, Chaka Khan, Rodney Dangerfield, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin have all graced its stage. Now, the accent is on esoterica with a slate of action-packed shows that will percolate with percussion including Salsa, Soul, Reggae, Mexicali, Worldbeat and Samba.

Rascal Felix Cavaliere has teamed up with Tennessee superstar Dolly Parton to aid victims of the Maui fire for a remake of his 1968 song “My Hawaii.” Maui, a year later, is still reeling from the devastating effects of a monster wildfire that killed over a hundred people and has crippled the state’s tourism economy. 100% of the proceeds to purchase the digital download of “My Hawaii” will go to the Maui Fire Disaster Relief Fund.

Soldier Mike Archer had to take time and write a letter to Tommy James thanking him “for weaving and tapestry of peace and tranquility through your music, offering solace to those who sought refuge from the chaos.” He put in the subject line that “you may never know the profound impact your song had on a young soldier fighting a war (Vietnam) far from home, but your music will forever hold a special place in my heart.”

In a quest to find the next great jazz singer, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) is now accepting entries for the 13th annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

The new song from Asbury Park band Lost In Society is “Pascal and Sabine.” Produced by Pete Steinkopf of New Brunswick band The Bouncing Souls, it’s off the new Lost In Society EP, ‘The Distribution Of Comfort’ (California’s Wiretap Records) due August 9.

Longtime Jersey City resident Walter Parks will inaugurate the new “Fletcher’s Listening Room” in Montclair. Ministers and congregants of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair (UUCM) put the new series with a coffeehouse vibe—according to Cindy Stagoff at njarts.net—into effect.