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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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 100^th 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.

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.)

“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.

Bob Dylan’s new box—Through The Open Window 1956-1963—is the 18^th 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.

Alto Saxophonist-Composer-Bandleader-Educator Jaleel Shaw, 47, a resident of Fort Lee in Bergen County, has made one of the jazz albums of the year, a record so brimming with detours, side-trips, extemporaneous bursts and ensemble tightness-to-the-max, that one can groove high without even realizing the importance of its inspirations.

It’s called Jersey Metal Beer…The Beer That Rocks. It’s an American Lager, alcohol content 4.5. Longtime photographer Frank White is the man behind the brew.

Chris Dickscheid put bad guys away for 28 years. Now, at 54, he just wants to write, record and perform his music with his band, Side Project Skip. “Age truly is just a number,” he maintains. “It’s never too late in life to get out there and pursue something you’re passionate about, or maybe just curious about trying.”

The Christian McBride Big Band has reunited vocalist Sting and guitarist Andy Summers—for the first time in 17 years—for “Murder By Numbers,” originally released as the B-side to the 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take” by The Police.

Indie-alt-rockers Fear Of Falling from Hunterdon County have followed up their Speak Low EP from last year with their sixth release, Long Shadows (Echo) on Quark Records. It’s their first full-length in 30 years. Four years in the making, the 11-tracks sprouted from the remains of songs they wrote while on tour in Europe with lyrics like a private journal.

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.