It is high time for us to come out of hibernation and take in some classical music, and this spring’s thaw has some excellent choices in store. Our hometown group the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra has several interesting shows coming up. On March 9, they perform live music to the film Star Wars: A New Hope at […]
You wouldn’t think there were many teenagers living in Pawtucket in the late 1960s who were heavily into John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Bob Dylan. But then again, Rudy Cheeks (nee Bruce McCrae) has always danced to his own drummer — and quite successfully — which is why he is receiving Motif’s Impact Award for his lifetime […]
Okee dokee folks… I find myself often starting sentences with the phrase, “When I was young.” Just one of the realities of aging, I guess. Anyway, when I was young, when we wanted to start a band we would just ask schoolmates who played the instruments we wanted to have in the group, we met up […]
In the RI jazz community, connections run deep, so with a loss comes profound sorrow. Recently, the jazz community lost one of its most cherished souls, Debra Mann, and the outpouring of both grief and love toward her from across the state has been inspiring to see. Debra Mann graduated from Berklee College of Music in […]
Rhode Island has a rich and varied musical tradition that dates from the 19th century. For proof, all you have to do is take a stroll through the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame’s gallery in the Hope Artiste Village and see the local musicians it celebrates. You’ll see everything from opera to country, rock, […]
Blackout Chatter with Rafay Rashid Ravi Shavi’s new record, Blackout Deluxe, was one of my favorite records from 2018. It was released just before Christmas and shows a more adventurous side of Ravi Shavi. Their previous self-titled release was pretty much straight forward rock ‘n’ roll, but Blackout Deluxe incorporates everything from new wave funk (“Midnight”) to haunted grunge-stained […]
The popularity — and profitability — of programming an evening of one-act plays is quite undeniable for most smaller theaters. In our current short-attention-span culture, televised entertainment is often doled out to viewers in 20-minute packages, so it stands to reason that live theater would easily follow suit. While television and plays are commonly produced […]
The nominees are out! We asked club owners, booking agents and journalists – anyone with expertise in our local music scene – to nominate their favorite musicians for the Motif Music Awards. We reached over 60 of them. The results of their efforts are here and now we turn it over to you, our readers, […]
As a lifelong Rhode Islander who loves the genre of hip-hop, both the local and nationwide scene, it’d be a mistake to say that Dee Gomes does not stand as one RI’s most popular and most successful acts. Working on his craft year after year, Dee Gomes has grown into the budding star he currently […]
Bobby Hackett, a one-of-a-kind original soft-performing trumpet-player, was born in Providence in 1915. His slow and romantic high-quality tone has never been properly imitated, though many performers have tried. He became popular in the last part of the previous century after being recorded with seven labels, including his most important recordings with the Capital Studios. Over the […]