Billy Cox gigged with Jimi Hendrix in the Army, worked the chitlin circuit in the South, played bass as an R&B session man in Nashville, and backed countless stars on television.

Singers Izora Rhodes Armstead and Martha Wash, dubbed Two Tons o’ Fun, branched out from Sylvester and recorded their own albums, starting with 1980’s eponymous debut on Fantasy.

Vibraphonist Joel Ross makes music to serve a higher purpose.

Philly native Todd Rundgren came up in the city’s rich R&B scene but first made an impression on popular music with his garage rock band Nazz. 

Composer, arranger, and producer Thom Bell has quietly made his mark on the sound of popular music for the last half century.

Ryo Kawasaki reflects about his life of music, from jazz fusion to worldly vibes to ’80s electronic dance.

Aphex Twin and Squarepusher ushered in a new direction of U.K. dance music.

Ned Doheny befriended Jackson Browne, the two hanging out and writing songs in Laurel Canyon with David Geffen and the L.A. folk scene. After an album on Geffen’s Asylum Records...

As a disciple of kung fu flicks and hip-hop, the RZA began his journey as a teenage rapper learning the ropes. Over time, he has followed a sacred path of music, spirituality, and philosophy.

Where’s João Donato? It’s a frequently asked question, referring simultaneously to the physical location and the musical moment he inhabits. 

Equipped with determination, a Fender Rhodes, and a mental-health message of personal reflection, self-taught East London composer Alfa Mist creates profound space jazz.

Beat conductor and Dallas native Norvis Jr. exploded onto the global electro scene in 2013.

Kokoroko’s unique sound and take on Afrobeat expanded naturally by embedding an even wider array of sounds and ideas in their music.

With his revolutionary variety show Soul!, Ellis Haizlip unapologetically put down a marker that said, “This is the Black Experience.”

U-Roy was known as the Originator because he transformed the deejay, making incidental figures attached to sound systems into actual stars.

An interview with writer Heather Augustyn.

Randy Muller kicked off a trend in disco arrangements that would sweep the globe and help make New York City the epicenter of dance music.

Sly and the Family Stone cofounding guitarist Freddie Stone talks about the making of one of their biggest albums ever, Stand! 

Beginning 1971, Stevie Wonder utilized the synth wizardry of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff to create three of his most iconic albums. 

Producer Joseph Patel breaks down the unique challenges he faced giving life to Questlove’s vision of Summer of Soul.

Wax Poetics founder Andre Torres sits down with the singer-songwriter Eugene McDaniels, whose revolutionary melding of jazz and soul got the attention of the FBI. 

The U.K. jazz-funk movement, often misunderstood and underestimated, was hugely influential and continues to echo in today’s sounds.

It was 1960’s Giant Steps that thoroughly and inexorably changed the saxophonist’s game going forward. 

Syd tha Kyd and Matt Martians have emerged from production, engineering, and DJing roles within the Odd Future crew to claim their own stake in the movement of Black musical expression. 

A tale of two pandemics and a therapist whose unique approach to the unwell and to music-making gives us an undiscovered and heartening tale. 

The U.K. jazz-funk movement, often misunderstood, was hugely influential and continues to echo in today’s sounds. Part 2 of our story...

From sneaking listens to off-limits records in his older brother's room to eventually ruling the dance floor himself, a North London dancer looks back at the U.K. jazz-funk scene.

Lani Hall soared to great heights as the lead singer for Brasil ’66 and as a musical muse for bandleader Sergio Mendes.

In the late 1970s through mid-’80s, a Japanese DIY scene flush with post-punk attitude and electronic ambience offered a darker vision of the country’s boom years.

Producer Kip Hanrahan pulls an all-star cast of jazz and blues musicians together to bring novelist/poet Ishmael Reed’s words to life.

Through live jam sessions and studio recontextualization, drummer and producer Makaya McCraven cultivates a conduit between the jazz roots of improv and the expansive branches of modern music.

Look Around the Corner, the newest project from Alice Russell and multi-instrumentalist producer Will “Quantic” Holland, is an effort that exudes comfort.

It was 1987, and a nervous teenager, palms sweaty, made his way to the grimy old Times Square, hoping to score.  

The first of a four-part interview that gets to the heart of the talent and charm of the late, lamented Gregory Jacobs, aka Shock G.

The third of a four-part interview that gets to the heart of the talent and charm of the late, lamented Gregory Jacobs, aka Shock G.

Ramsey Lewis always operated in the popular realm, successfully crossing over from jazz to the pop-R&B world but always doing it with soul.

Guitarist Junior Marvin had a choice: join the Wailers or Stevie Wonder...

Amongst the hundreds of artists who recorded at Stax Studios in the 1960s, Linda Lyndell was a minor figure. But her song “What a Man” has had a surprising longevity...

At just eighteen years of age, Prince self-produced his debut album, 1978’s For You, writing all the music and playing every instrument himself.

Pete Rock keeps active nowadays by doing what he perfected as a teenager: putting sounds into his sampler and banging out beats.

Sharon Jones is the real deal. She’s an atomic bomb of funk that may come in a small package, but when it’s unleashed, no one is left standing. They’d rather dance.

In 1970s New York, photography student Chris Stein found his muse in singer Deborah Harry. Together they formed Blondie, merging cutting edge downtown visual style with a pop sensibilty.

Tenor sax player and arranger Gene Barge left his job teaching social studies, music, and English in Virginia, to work at Chicago’s famed Chess Records in 1964.

Jazz drummer and hip-hop producer Karriem Riggins recently moved from L.A. back to his hometown Detroit, the city where his heart beats.

What’s the future of dance music? Godfathers of the new EDM movement Daft Punk have proposed an answer in the form of a question.

Isaac Hayes, William Bell, Al Bell, Bettye Berger, Deanie Parker and Calvin Newborn share stories of Memphis during Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. 

Yusef Lateef discusses his colorful musical experiences that influenced his sonic persona and the influential producer Joel Dorn adds his unique perspective.

Back in the good old days of 1977 when gas lines were long and unemployment was high, there were two schools of DJs competing for Black and Latino audiences in New York City....

Back in the early ’60s, my sister’s hipster boyfriend used to bring his Herbie Mann albums over to our house, along with a couple Modern Jazz Quartet and Mose Allison records....

Welcome to the world of Daniel Dumile, whose youthful nickname of “Doom,” a phonetic abbreviation of his last name, has come to describe one of the most masterful rap artists.

Willed into being by one man, Earth, Wind & Fire became one of the biggest acts of the 1970s. 

Meet Kool DJ Red Alert, part of the trinity of DJs that fostered the Zulu Nation during the early days of hip-hop, along with Afrika Bambaataa and Jazzy Jay. 

Shuggie Otis sits down for a conversation to discuss his early life, main guitar inspirations, turning down a gig with the Rolling Stones and much more. 

Sure, tropicália is more than one band, but Os Mutantes encapsulated the movement’s reckless cultural cannibalism, absurdist humor, and innovative music like no one else.

In an arena where MCs seldom have extended careers, Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah has increasingly improved through two decades after his 1996 solo debut, Ironman.

The streets of New York City weren’t very pretty in the 1970s. Littered throughout once welcoming communities, an influx of heroin junkies, many broken young brothers home....

“The wildness is exquisitely wholesome. Furious dancing. Gentle laughter. Crepe paper and tinsel. Body energy shakes the room…”

Although enlightened music fans the world over were saddened by the passing of organist Lyman Woodard, the relationship that Wax Poetics had formed with the gifted musician and composer....

The Hot 8 Brass Band is a juggernaut of sweat, breath, metal, and drums, a powerhouse that lets nothing get in its way.

Hiatus Kaiyote is four uniquely talented individuals whose musical alchemy creates a whole that is more magical than its parts.

Lamont Dozier was a natural-born hitmaker. His famed songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland gained unparalleled success in the R&B world...

9th Wonder chats with Wax Poetics about the records that influenced him and discusses his mission to teach hip-hop history to the next generation.

That Teena Marie has authored several of the most enduring classics of modern funk is undeniable.

Barrington Levy, the most important and best-admired vocalist to emerge from the early dancehall movement, discusses his past, present and future. 

It was winter of 1994, and I had just scored a sweet assignment to interview the king of “champagne soul,” Barry White, in Europe. 

L.A. bass beast Thundercat mixes jazz intricacies with sweeps of forward thinking electronic inspiration.

When Nasir Jones released his 1994 debut Illmatic, his use of several superstar producers on the same album set a hip-hop precendent that forever changed the game.

Following in the footsteps of Double Dee & Steinski, Prince Paul, and the Dust Brothers, DJ Shadow would push the boundaries of sampling...

Producer, songwriter, and organist Edwin Birdsong is the anonymous genius behind some of jazz-funk’s most cosmic moments. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to know “Poppa” Willie Mitchell for a handful of years. When we first met, in August 2000, I was working for Ike Turner, who decided to...

On the heels of her best-selling debut, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, fifteen-year-old Aaliyah was rocked by a sex scandal that would have crushed a lesser talent. 

“My style is combined from a lot of different things I got growing up,” veteran producer and DJ Louie Vega states. 

In 1983, veteran journalist Carol Cooper was unable to score an interview with Prince. So she imagined one...

“Rain is wet, and sugar is sweet…” a voice calls, to the delight of the crowd. These are the words of Ingrid Chavez, in her guise as the Spirit Child....