Hey all you college singers out there, the New Jersey Jazz Society is adding a “Vocal Performance” category to its 2025 juried scholarship competition. You’ve got until March 28 to apply for either “Jazz Performance” or “Original Composition.” The contest is open to all New Jersey students currently enrolled in an undergraduate music program and also to New Jersey residents in out-of-state programs. Prizes

Two New Jersey recording studios—Mozart Studio in Passaic County and Absolute Audio in Monmouth County—have finished mixing and mastering the New Perspective of Steve Smith & Vital Information. Although the album won’t be released until this Friday, the first single is a complete undoing and putting-back-together of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

For the third annual American Music Honors, the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM), at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, has announced  honorees for its April 26 on-campus Honors:  Smokey Robinson, John Fogerty, Emmylou Harris, Tom Morello and Joe Ely.

Today is the last day of the venerable N.J. institution, the Jersey Journal. The newspaper has served Hudson County and beyond since 1867. While such print outlets in the state—like the Aquarian Weekly, Star-Ledger, Trenton Times, South Jersey Times, Hunterdon County Democrat and others—went online-only, the Jersey Journal will no longer be in existence at all.

Themes of passion, betrayal and revenge permeate Eugenie, the fifth album of singer-songwriter-producer Eugenie Jones. The Seattle product has been at it for 12 years.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) has announced its 2025 Jazz Vespers Concert Series, the 25^th year of free monthly concerts. The 6:00 p.m. shows will happen at the Bethany Baptist Church on Market Street in Newark on the first Saturday of the next five months.

Mayor Ray Giacobbe and the city of Rahway—as part of its ongoing “Prime Time Music Series”—will celebrate Black History Month by presenting The Bradford Hayes Quartet FREE at the Senior Center on Esterbrook Avenue February 21.

His rap has been called “throwback stoner indie hip-hop.” His new single—"L.G.H”—stands for “Let’s Get High.” Dude’s from Warren County, and records in a place he calls his “underground lounge.” But let us let him tell his tale…

Brian Stemetzki records as Valley Of Salt. The Gloucester County native—raised in Burlington County—will release a concept album, Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness:  The Story of John the Baptist on February 3.

On March 25, at Joe’s Pub in New York City, the original lineup of The Pretty Babies will reconvene, performing Blondie’s breakthrough 1978 third album, Parallel Lines, in its entirety.

Richard Barone of Hoboken’s The Bongos, whose appearance in The Jersey Sound documentary is garnering raves for his clear-headed, blunt, articulate assessment of the state’s multiple scenes, will co-host—with Terri Thal—a conversation downstairs at the iconic Bitter End club in New York City called “A Complete Unknown:  Fact And Fiction” about James Mangold’s popular Dylan movie.

As a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union, iconic folksinger Woody Guthrie [1912-1967] will be the subject of a “Song Celebration” at Hoboken’s 503 Social Club. Elena Skye and Boo Reiners of the Demolition String Band will host.

Happy MLK Day! Martin Luther King, Jr. lived in Camden from 1948 to 1951 when he was a seminarian working in Philadelphia. It was sometime during those years when he first heard of a New Jersey restaurant in Maple Shade (Burlington County) denying service to Black patrons. He rounded up three friends and accosted the owners of Mary’s Café on June 11, 1950.

The second annual President’s Lecture on Music History and Contemporary America will be held at Monmouth University on Cedar Avenue in West Long Branch at 3:00 p.m. in the on-campus Pollak Theatre. The subject will be Bob Dylan. The event is free. Advance registration is required.

Swedish singer Alexandra Jardvall’s In The Spirit of Springsteen: The Live Sessions Volume #1 is out online with 15 Bruce songs done live by her and guitarist Richard Hauer.

The first Blondie album, Blondie, came out 49 years ago in 1976. The last Blondie album, Pollinator, came out eight years ago in 2017. Debbie Harry—the former model and Playboy Bunny born in Miami and raised here in Hawthorne (Passaic County)—will be 80 this summer. Blondie

In a rare interview, Uncle Floyd told his former producer Jeff Friedman, that “this isn’t my final bow. But I have a long road ahead. This is real.” The interview appeared in the 12/26/24 edition of njarts.net. We can’t wait to be in that crowd giving him a standing ovation when he returns and first walks on that stage.

Bassist Mike Griot from Essex County is our resident blues legend. He’s the curator for the South Orange Performing Arts Center. He’s plunked his funky bass for the last 30 years with such artists as East Orange’s Lauryn Hill, Newark’s Queen Latifah, Mtume, Harold Melvin’s Bluenotes, Common, Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jamie Foxx and Popa Chubby.

The 19^th annual West Orange Classic Film Festival—a joint project of the West Orange Arts Council and the West Orange Recreation Department—starts this Sunday and will run for seven consecutive Sunday afternoons—but not on Super Bowl Sunday—at the Essex Green AMC.

This is the month for the 25^th annual Light Of Day Winterfest benefit concerts to raise funds and awareness in the fight against Parkinson’s disease, ALS and PSP. The foundation has already raised over six million dollars since 2020 when Pittsburgh’s Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers played The Stone Pony and a friend of his named Bruce jumped onstage to jam.