From the fertile musical soil of Queens, a group of musicians called the Jamaica Kats perfected a modern fusion of jazz and funk under the tutelage of elders Weldon Irvine and Lenny White.

International Anthem presents the Charles Stepney documentary, Out of the Shadows, Episode 4.

Fat Jack started an old-school nightclub in Harlem. The local kids made their rap scene the star attraction.

Dust Brother “E.Z.” Mike Simpson pulls endless possibilities from the funky past.

Headhunters drummer Mike Clark chops it up with Mackrosoft’s Aja West.

From the late 1950s to present day, doo-wop and sweet soul has been the unofficial soundtrack of the Chicano experience.

Actress/singer Meiko Kaji’s roles in Japanese exploitation films influenced writer-director Quinten Tarantino.

International Anthem presents Episode 3 of the documentary Out of the Shadows about Charles Stepney.

The uniquely arranged vibrations of Chess Records producer Charles Stepney.

“The Willow Tree” singer-songwriter Cleveland Francis embraced the term soul folk

International Anthem presents the documentary Out of the Shadows about Charles Stepney.

New film The Sun Rises in the East documents Brooklyn’s music venue and sociopolitical movement, the East.

Excerpted from Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield.

Engineer Matt Forger discusses producer Quincy Jones and his partner, iconic sound wizard Bruce Swedien, during the making of Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller.

Kashif infused synthesizers into R&B and took the post-disco genre into a modern boogie wonderland.

Excerpted from DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution by Lance Scott Walker. Reprinted with permission from University of Texas Press.

Suzi Analogue’s Never Normal Records prioritizes representation and Black identity inclusive of the entire African diaspora.

Multi-instrumentalist/producer Dennis Bovell helped cement reggae’s legacy in the U.K.

German collective Jazzanova reworks the Strata Records catalog.

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

DJ Nuts, aka Rodrigo Teixeira, is arguably the best known Brazilian DJ internationally.

Some of the most innovative music of the post-punk era was made at the intersection of the United Kingdom and New York.

Pieces of a Man is the the groundbreaking 1971 debut of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron.

Boulevards latest feels like a “psychedelic rock record with a soul base,” says Blake Rhein of Durand Jones and the Indications.

When James Mtume passed away on January 9, 2022, it took a mapmaker to craft an apt obit.

The making of Billy Preston’s 1971 album I Wrote a Simple Song.

Marcus Garvey was a powerful symbol of pro-Black pride and self-determination. After his death he acheived an almost mythical status, inspiring countless musical tributes.

The birth and rebirth of Manchester post-punk.

Glasgow’s jazz scene emerges out from London’s shadows.

Record Rundown: Lord Finesse is on a habitual quest for musical knowledge.

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, died on Christmas Day, 2006.

Wu-Tang’s origin story, as told by RZA, Raekwon, and the rest of the Clan.

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Frank Zappa’s kaleidoscopic, surrealistic masterpiece film and soundtrack, 200 Motels.

After releasing a couple 12-inch singles with the help of producer/songwriters Leon Sylvers and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Real to Reel was poised to release a full-length album.

Chic created sophisticated dance music draped in mystery and anchored in the unison singing of a rotating cast of female vocalists.

Aftab commands a calm, precise whirlwind of sound. Never loud, but a deeply intense, personal take on South Asian music.

Writer A. D. Amorosi goes Round 2 with the famous Philadelphia composer/arranger/producer Thom Bell.

Purple Rain is considered Prince and the Revolution’s peak, but Prince never went backwards. Parade climbed mighty heights as the Revolution’s final album.

Susumu Yokota brought international attention with his deeply personal forays into techno and ambient music, leaving behind a vast oeuvre of music that is only just being rediscovered.

Though a reluctant front man, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen has emerged as one of the most famous rock voices of all times.

We Almost Lost Bochum tells the story of RAG (Ruhrpott AG), the best German rap group that never rose to mainstream-level recognition. 

From rough-cut funk 45s to beloved stars Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, Daptone Records built a lasting empire.

As part of Brazil’s mid-’60s bossa jazz scene and a session player in Rio’s numerous studios, pianist Dom Salvador played with that country’s best.

“I was trying to find my voice, my crowd, find whatever my thing was. There was nothing glamorous or cool about singing at four in the morning.“

The agonizing emotional depth of Moment of Truth was unlike anything in Gang Starr’s previous work.

G-Stoned immediately changed Kruder & Dorfmeister’s lives.

As front man of the beloved Delfonics, William Hart brings an unmistakable falsetto and uncanny songwriting about love and heartbreak. 

Brooklyn band B.T. Express bridged the gap between funk and disco, and were the first funk band to play at the White House.

Mikey Dread was one of those unique artists that Jamaica produces every so often—his musical creations and nonconformist personality indicating a man cut from a different cloth.

Questlove’s journey uniquely qualified him to bring footage from the fabled Harlem Cultural Festival to full fruition in Summer of Soul.

The story of how two influential musicians joined forces with Coretta Scott King to secure a national holiday to memorialize her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer immersed himself in New York City’s avant-garde scene and traded musical concepts with Ornette Coleman.

Some thought Gene McDaniels disappeared for five years. Former fans thought his first album in five years was on some new shit; they didn’t recognize what they heard in Outlaw.

Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble tackle the moment with a musical and artistic approach to activism.

In 1958, pianist Ahmad Jamal recorded a show tune entitled “Poinciana” at a hip, Black-owned venue called the Pershing Lounge in Chicago’s South Side. 

Bill Coleman is a long-standing ambassador of NYC club and music culture.

New York’s gay landmark the Continental Baths was a DJ incubator for Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles.

THEESatisfaction’s Catherine Harris-White and bandmate and partner Stasia Irons met in 2006 during their time at college and discovered a number of parallels.

The U.K. jazz-funk movement, often misunderstood, was hugely influential and continues to echo in today’s sounds. Part 3 of our story...

Sergio Mendes enters a new decade, revamps his band as Brasil ’77, and rubs shoulders with Harrison Ford, Stevie Wonder, the Brothers Johnson, and Pelé.

Daymé Arocena is a burst of light energy—an interstellar body in the constellation of Afro-Cuban world music.

DJ Krush embarked on a journey with Mo’ Wax that found the turntablist/producer using hip-hop’s breakbeat foundation while pioneering a new genre of abstract instrumentals.

Schifrin is a musical chameleon with a sense of drama so heightened, an expertise and scope so wide-angled, that some cinematographers he has worked with had to have been jealous.

Monophonics singer-songwriter Kelly Finnigan got his start spinning hip-hop and making beats, which led to an obsession with studio production and classic analog keyboards.

Of all the musical acts that have referenced tropicália, the Brazilian art/film/music movement of the late ’60s, Chicano Batman most embody its key concept: cultural cannibalism.

Visionary organist Doug Carn brought a spiritual lyricism to his soulful jazz offerings on Black Jazz Records.

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

Born in West London in the mid- to late ’90s, broken beat (aka bruk) was created by a community of producers with their roots in a variety of London’s club scenes.

From its psychedelic black and white cover by David Stahlberg to its perfect 1968 production by Gary McFarland, Dreams has remained one of my most treasured LPs.

San Francisco’s Om Records is primarily known for house and downtempo. But it had a potent, if short-lived, offshoot dedicated to hip-hop...

A chance meeting thousands of miles from home led to a one-off recording session and the creation of Disco Jazz, cult favorite. Singer Rupa Sen tells her story.

Iconic composer Giorgio Moroder got his start writing and producing pop music in Germany. But an encounter with Donna Summer would change his career forever. 

“He is a beautiful cat,” I was told about celebrated Brazilian drummer and percussionist Ivan “Mamão” Conti, and I could hear it in his voice.

Nina Simone had no filter. She spoke with candor about civil rights when many in her position didn’t dare. She sang about uncomfortable subjects.... 

Cynthia Robinson was a single mother when she joined Sly and the Family Stone as a trumpeter and vocalist in 1966. Her story winds from the very start of the band into the next century...

A prolific musician and songwriter, King Curtis was an in-demand session man who played on records with many legends, from John Lennon to Aretha Franklin.

Amoeba Music opened on November 17, 1990, in Berkeley, California, offering an eclectic palette of music...

Many of McCann’s most innovative recordings, like his 1972 lush electronic opus Layers, have gone virtually ignored.

First-call funksters, the Meters have provided the backbone to countless classics. But the story of the band remains seldom-told.

Remembering the life of J Dilla, featuring conversations with those closest to him, including Q-Tip, Common, Busta Rhymes, Questlove, and more.

Kamasi Washington received worldwide recognition for arranging and playing saxophone on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. 

When did you first hear the Skull Snaps? Was it in the summer of 1993 when the Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By” rode the pneumatic drums of the...

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.

An excerpt from People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry

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

The Fishtail Bar in the Bay Watch Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is right out back overlooking the beach. Dozens of families are crowded in several swimming pools....

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. 

Jimmy Cliff is one of reggae’s true pioneers. Helping to inaugurate the Beverley’s Records label in the early 1960s....

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 progressive singer teams up with producer Madlib for bountiful Seeds, which she calls Black music “in the tradition of anyone who wasn’t scared.”

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

I had no expectations going into this interview with Teddy Pendergrass at the Conrad Chicago hotel.

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

Little Dragon’s brand of electronic future funk and fractured pop-soul was delivered the old-fashioned way, through nonstop touring.

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

Bobby Womack is a thread that runs through soul music. 

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

There are a few things to know about Erykah Badu. First, she lives on a different plane. One that only true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool artists inhabit. 

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

Ishmael Butler effortlessly made his mark on hip-hop in 1993 with his unique voice and delivery, and then flipped the script with Shabazz Palaces.

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.

On a sunny October morning in 2015, a historic marker was placed in front of Sigma Sound Studios, the Philadelphia landmark recording hot spot.

Growing up with a roller-disco mom and drummer dad, Kon has been chasing the perfect beat his entire life.

Getting his first shot with Marley Marl’s Juice Crew—and the posse cut “The Symphony”—Kool G Rap was a real hip-hop OG.

The Roots first hit the national spotlight as a live hip-hop act with their 1993 indie debut, Organix...

“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....