Considered the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes drew on jazz and blues for rhyme, rhythm and words. His poetry is easily adapted for music and jazz guitarist Ken Hatfield heard the grooves

 2012 won’t necessarily be remembered as a great one. It’s almost certain to go down as the year the nation endured another bitter election cycle, stretches of unusual and frequently destructive weather patterns

 If the world is going to end on Dec. 21, Nightmare Painting—the third full-length album from former Racine bassist William Kopecky and Bulgarian dark master Dimitar Dimitrov—would be the perfect soundtrack. Dwelling in the deep

 Before electrical amplification, the guitar was easily drowned out in orchestras or noisy nightclubs. Once players were able to plug in, guitars overtook pianos and saxophones as the lead instrument in popular music. Charlie

Louis Armstrong was a prominent figure in American culture through his death in 1971, but many have argued that he was never as sharp as on the recordings he made in the late 1920s with the Hot Five and the Hot Seven

 Bessie Smith didn’t make the first blues recordings, but she may have been the first authentic blues singer to record. The Complete Columbia Recordings, a 10-CD set, is the definitive documentary of the artist who awakened the

 The great thing about jazz, one of America’s distinct contributions to the world’s culture, is that it’s always changing—not just year to year, but also performance to performance. At least that’s the line from some...

 Milwaukee rapper/producer Klassik recorded his debut full length, In the Making, over several trying years marked by self-doubt, depression, relationship struggles and a crushing quarter-life crisis. You’d never guess...

On their self-titled debut album, singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero and vocalist-instrumentalist Quinn DeVeaux partner on an accomplished collection of originals and covers. The music melts through genre boundaries...