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Kinga Głyk, the fabulous Polish bassist, is about to embark on her first U.S. tour with seven dates in nine days! She’s been touring the world for nearly ten years and wowing crowds with her electrifying performances. I reviewed her fifth album, Real Life (click for link), when it came out and it was one of my top albums of 2024! I was lucky enough to catch her live set at GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello and it was an overall highlight. Kinga first set foot in the U.S. in January 2026 as part of Michael League’s residency at The BlueContinue Reading

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What happens when one of your favorite guitarists, organ players, and drummers get together? Well, you get a supergroup called The Breaks and they’ve just released their debut album. On guitar, they have Eddie Roberts the cofounder of the now quasi retired quartet The New Mastersounds who wrapped up a twenty six year run at New Years Eve. On organ, there’s Robert Walter, with his own 20th Congress and reigning keys master in GreyBoy Allstars. And, rounding it out on the skins, the incredible Stanton Moore of Galactic and several additional side projects. This is a real dream team thatContinue Reading

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Masterclass in Modern Guitar Virtuosity Get ready to witness Matteo Mancuso, one of the young lions of the modern electric guitar at GroundUp Music Festival Alberobello June 26-28, 2026. In the process of researching and writing my full GUMF Italy Preview, Matteo was one that I hadn’t previously known, but got me pumped up for the annual festival put on by Snarky Puppy. The Sicilian phenomenon has really sprung up on global music scene the last few years by playing with a very unique technique that combining mind-bending speed with stunning melodic sensitivity. In this spotlight, I go deeper intoContinue Reading

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In: Album of the Week, ALBUMS, BLOG POSTS, Terminal West

High Fade is an Edinburgh-based independent funk-rock trio founded by guitarist/vocalist Harry Valentino in 2018. The band has made inroads on the U.S. jam band scene, having recently played Suwannee Hulaween in October 2025. For comparative bands, you might think of other power trios like Lespecial, SunSquabi or Consider the Source but more on the vocal and rock side of the biz. On May 8, they released their second full album, “Twice as Nice,” and it’s a scorcher. It’s not straight-up funk—more like a hard-edged crossover in a high-octane cocktail. The powerful lyrics are sung and shouted with energy and darknessContinue Reading

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GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello is back with a bang in 2026! It’s the special festival with most artists that you’ve never heard of (if you’re like me) but will become your favorites once you check them out! That is the very essence of all GroundUP Music Festivals put on by the organizers Michael League (of Snarky Puppy) and Paul Lehr (GroundUP Music). Naturally the festival features three sets of the 5-time Grammy winning ensemble Snarky Puppy. The band is coming in hot off the receent release of their latest masterpiece, Somni (read review here) and U.S. tour debuting the albumContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy’s Somni tour kicked off Wednesday, April 8th, at The Eastern in Atlanta! It was a full circle moment for me, starting with the Somni recording sessions in Utrecht, Netherlands, in January 2025; the release of the album in November 2025; and me naming it my Album of the Year for 2025 (link to review)! Now, they’re in the midst of the U.S. tour—I attended the first four in Atlanta, Charleston, Durham, and Charlotte and will be at 7 of the first 14, with Red Bank, Philly, and Nashville coming up later this month.  Here are my overall observationsContinue Reading

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Organ Fairchild is a serious band with a fun name, producing outstanding, fun music. The album “Boom!”—the band’s fourth album—is probably my favorite, and each tune is strikingly sonically sound. Organ Fairchild out of Buffalo, NY, is a traditional organ trio—organ, guitar, and drums—that shows off each of their members from time to time and has a bigger sound than their actual numbers. The compositions here have some old-school feel and yet still sound fresh and contemporary. The tunes often have a theme or vibe, and that is conveyed in the titles and the music proper. The variation from trackContinue Reading

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Bob Reynolds is one of my favorite sax players and one of the touring members of the Snarky Puppy ensemble. His latest album, “Eddie Told Me So,” is an homage to the sax pioneer Eddie Harris, who was one of the first to play an electrified sax. Harris first made a splash on my radar with the “Swiss Movement” album recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which is considered an all-time classic. So when I saw the premise for this album from Reynolds, I knew it would hit the sweet spot, and it does on all levels. Each tuneContinue Reading

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Soulive has been around for over 25 years and I first got into their music in the early ’00s with their second and third albums, ‘Turn It Out’ (2000) and ‘Doin’ Something’ (2001.) They represent(ed) the best of a new generation of organ trios, with brothers Alan (drums) and Neal (keys) Evans joined by Eric Krasno on guitar. Soulive developed their funky style in the wake of arguably the least funky decade (1990s) of the last 50 years. The band actually led to my discovery of Lettuce, the leading funk band of the 2000s and a cousin to Soulive, withContinue Reading

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In: BANDS, FESTIVALS, GroundUP Music Festival, Snarky Puppy

GroundUP Music Festival 2026 just announced its exceptionally strong lineup. This year will be the 10th annual, and the organizers Michael League and Paul Lehr pulled out all the stops, bringing in Flying Lotus, Patrice Rushen, Rickie Lee Jones, Bilal, and Isaiah Sharkey, among others. Let’s start with the connection to the recently departed and heavily revered D’Angelo. In a recent YouTube interview, Michael League stated, “I don’t know that you can play music in 2025 without being influenced by D’Angelo even if you never heard D’Angelo. Whenever you go somewhere and you hear someone playing drums in this way,Continue Reading