Jersey City’s Tyler Bullock and Hackensack’s Esteban Castro (an alum of Christian McBride’s Jazz House Kids school in Montclair) have won the Inaugural 2026 Larry J. Bell “Young Jazz Artist” Award from The Gilmore, “the premier institution in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing and awarding extraordinary piano artistry,” according to its website. The Michigan-based Gilmore has presented 16 piano festivals, commissioned over 40 new works for piano, and awarded over $3 million to young pianists.

The new Bruce film, Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White, is almost here and its protagonist has been duly promoting it. At a recent advance screening of the film at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, Bruce sat and answered questions. As the credits rolled at film’s end, the audience gave it a standing ovation.

The Jersey City Poet Festival at The Stork Club this Friday, September 19 on Chapel Avenue from 7:00 to 11:00 combines “musical talent, community pillars, local businesses and poetic legacy,” according to Melida Rodas, the Poet Laureate of Jersey City.

For seven hours September 28 starting at 11:00, the annual free Hoboken Fall Arts & Music Festival will take place between Observer Highway and Seventh Street.

The ninth annual Asbury Park Porchfest will happen September 27 on porches all over town. Since inception, 600 bands have performed in the streets, in parks, and on people’s front porches, lawns and driveways.

The 14^th Annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival will take place at multiple Newark venues from November 8 to November 23. It is the state’s largest such fest and, this year, its theme is social justice.

Monmouth Arts has announced that Stevie Van Zandt will bestow upon the legendary vocalist Darlene Love a “Lifetime Achievement in Music” award at the “POP! A Night at the Lanes” fundraiser on October 23 at Asbury Lanes.

On October 17, one week before the Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere feature film hits theaters Oct. 24, Sony Music will release Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition with previously unreleased material, including a full-length Blu-Ray concert, and a raw stripped-down “Born In The USA” from the Electric Nebraska sessions.

There are those in the small town of Jefferson in Morris County who still remember the shocking murder-suicide of a mother-son. In 1988, the fear of heavy metal music was reaching epidemic proportions. The so-called “Satanic Panic” had ultra-conservative right-wing preachers, teachers, parents and politicians shouting at the devil to blame bands like Black Sabbath, Kiss, AC-/DC, Judas Priest, Slayer and Iron Maiden for all of society’s woes.

Carrie Jackson is a producer, arranger, actor, educator, sweet soul purveyor, a beboppin’ scatter, blues belter, music-biz exec and now a bouncer. No, not a nightclub bouncer, but the artist behind the new album, Jersey Bounce where she takes songs by The Beatles (“And I Love Him”), Bruce (“Fire”) and Al Green (“Let’s Stay Together”) and makes them her own.

The Nimbus Arts Center, at 329 Warren Street in Jersey City, is the site for the FREE Hudson West Fest on September 13. It’s an all-day groove to the sounds of Americana, Jazz, Folk, Country, Pop, Rock and even family square dancing.

The follow-up to last year’s Revelation, by Piper & The Hard Times, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Blues Album chart, is the self-released Good Company.

Bon Jovi’s current album, Forever, came out last year. This year it’s coming out again as Forever (Legendary Edition), re-recorded with a different guest artist on each song (plus one new song).

For those who like to dance to compositions in 7/8 time, with no radio play whatsoever, the American Northeast’s only international Progressive Rock Festival, ProgStock, happens October 9, 10, 11 and 12 at the Williams Center in Rutherford, Bergen County, an artist-run arts center, complete with cinema and comedy club.

A special concert this Wednesday, Sept. 3, has been added to the various celebrations put on by the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music (BSACAM) to honor the 50^th Anniversary of Born To Run, the album that made Bruce a star.

The scenic campus of Drew University in Madison, Morris County, is where Drew U’s 433-seat Concert Hall is nestled. The following shows have just been announced.

Cre8ive_MC, of Parsippany, has released his Make Sure They Spell Your Name Right debut. Born to an art teacher and sculptor/guitarist, Glenn Paul Simon, as he was born, has opened shows for Common, and was the featured poet at the Madison Community Arts Center in Morris County.

When Debbie Harry was being raised in Hawthorne (Passaic County), sure, she thought about being a rock star. Never once did she think of being a Comic Book Hero. But in 2023, out came Blondie: Against The Odds, a hardcover comic book, or Hardcover Graphic Novel as they’re calling it. Written by a team of 10 writers, illustrated by 13 graphic artists, in honor of the band’s 50^th Anniversary, Harry loved it because, as she said at the time, “one of the things that brought us all together as a band was comics and comic art. No matter how you slice it, Blondie has its roots deep into the genre.”

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark has announced its 2025-2026 winter season of classical music. San Francisco’s Chanticleer, “The World’s Reigning Male Chorus” (according to The New Yorker magazine), kicks it off December 6 at 3:00 p.m. with its “Chanticleer Christmas” presentation.

Very Early: Remembering Bill Evans (Joplin & Sweeney Music Company), by the Jim Witzel Quartet, is the latest tribute to one of the greatest pianists of all-time. Bill Evans was born in Plainfield, Union County, and died in 1980 at 51, a victim of his own excess. But before he killed himself with drugs, he was known for his complex melodic inventions, influential, introspective, innovative. His lyrical romanticism made what would become the biggest-selling jazz album of all-time, Kind Of Blue, in 1959, with the sextet of Miles Davis.