Exotic, mysterious, sensual, the music of Noemi Liba, like her name, flows off the lips rhythmically. A beautiful Aussie, I met her on the streets of New York and found myself having dinner with her.

“I’m a recording artist,” she told me.

“I’m a music journalist,” I told her.…

There’s a great moment in the first-ever documentary on The Hollies, Look Through Any Window 1963-1975 (Eagle Rock Entertainment/Reelin’ In The Years Productions) where Graham Nash “discovered the ‘60s,” according to the liner notes of Ben Fong-Torres. Nash had been getting tired of the three-minute pop gems that The…

Tom Waits sounds rushed and fevered. There’s a blues harp deep in the mix and Keith Richards on guitar but it’s trombone and clarinet that give “Chicago” flavor. When Waits goes falsetto for the bluesy “Talking At The Same Time,” a horn section moans low and David Hildalgo trades…

Who the hell is Alan Leatherman and how could he be making the music of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Cole Porter, Lerner & Lowe and Charlie “Bird” Parker come so alive again? On his self-released Detour Ahead, this neo-soul badass sings his heart out on material once considered dated.…

The Sena Ehrhardt Band’s Leave The Light On debut (Blind Pig) shows a tough, sexy take-no-prisoners blues belter who you’d think upon hearing might look something like Big Mama Thornton (1926-1984), the big bad bitch who wrote “Ball And Chain” that Janis done stole and did “Hound Dog” before…

Pianist Herbie Hancock, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Tony Williams (1945-1997) and bassist Ron Carter are all jazz legends. One couldn’t do any better if all one did when it came to jazz was listen to their respective catalogs. That’s why the recent release of the three-disc Miles Davis…

Venice Beach is festooned with skateboarders, homeless people, cafés, sun, sand, the ocean, tourists, street musicians and plenty of places to buy pot. Signs saying “THE DOCTOR IS IN” are all over the place and for $60 you can get a medical marijuana card no matter what state you’re…

In 1939, Woody Guthrie wrote a song called “Pretty Boy Floyd,” where he sang, “As through the world I’ve rambled/I’ve seen lots of funny men/Some rob you with a six-gun/Some with a fountain pen.” Seventy-one years later, Jason Charles Miller has updated that sentiment against white collar crime in…

There’s a fascinating interview with Jimi Hendrix as the last track of the last of four CDs of the new Winterland boxed set (Experience Hendrix/Legacy Recordings) in which Jimi seems at odds with both Jeff Beck and Frank Zappa, defending his right to turn the blues inside-out. “It’s my…

1956 was the year that some hillbilly truck driver with the unlikely name of Elvis Presley kickstarted rock ’n’ roll with a his jumpy, jittery, hiccupy versions of Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Otis Blackwell, Big Joe Turner, old-time country music, blues and standards his mother would love.…