The Riverside Quartet features original music. The drummer, Nicholas Peterson, leads the group, and composes a lot of the group’s repertoire. When he talked to Phil Nusbaum ahead of the group's jazz Central Studios show next Thursday night, Nicholas addressed why the Riverside Quartet features its originals.

During some downtime in Atlanta Fantastic Negrito was doing a little genealogical digging when he started to follow a trail to his seventh generation grandparents. It turns out that in Virginia in the 1750s his grandparents, a White Scottish indentured female servant and an enslaved African man fell in love and started a family. This discovery prompted an outpouring of creativity from Fantastic Negrito. Negrito released an album based on this relationship in 2022 called "White Jesus Black Problems". Currently Negrito is out on the road screening the film. He'll be at the Dakota on Wednesday October 25 for a screening, q & a, and an acoustic performance.

Leslie Vincent visited the studios of Jazz88 to perform a haunting ukulele version of her song "Bury Her Down" and chat up her upcoming performance at Granada Theater on Saturday October 21.

Back in 2017 Jazz88's Bobby Vandell connected with drum legend David Garibaldi for a long interview covering many aspects of Garibaldi's legendary career going back to the earliest years of Tower of Power. Jazz88 will continue to share portions of this interview throughout the coming months. Enjoy this portion of the conversation, focusing on Garibaldi's formative years.

Roy Hargrove was born October 16, 1969. In his too-short life (Hargrove died in 2018) he became an icon; sharing stages with musicians from across genres, winning Grammys and penning songs with will live on. Minnesota-based trumpet player Omar Abdulkarim had occasion to share stages and conversations with Hargrove during Abdulkarim's time living in New York. Omar was nice enough to visit our studios and chat with Sean McPherson about his memories of Roy Hargrove.

Skarlett Woods, Brainerd singer-songwriter celebrates her new CD, Letters To The West, next Saturday night at Ginkgo’s in Saint Paul. In her writing, Skarlett turns her attention to intimacy as well as big societal issues. When she talked about her work with Phil Nusbaum, Skarlett first talked about one of her romantic songs.

Billy McLaughlin and Simple Gifts celebrate songs of Neil Young, in Harvest at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, 7PM on Sunday October 22. The show reimagines songs from Neil Young’s harvest and Harvest Moon albums. Phil Nusbaum got together with Karen Paurus, Amy Courts and Carin Vagle to talk about the production. When Phil asked about the appeal of presenting Neil Young’s songs.

When Raycurt a.k.a. Fiddla plays for brunch, he often calls it Bach for Breakfast. But it’s really a lot more than that, as at the Harriet Brasserie, Sunday October 15 from 11 till 1:30. The music often reflects a wide range of Raycurt’s musical experiences. When Raycurt spoke with Phil Nusbaum, Raycurt first addressed how he started.

Stablemates is a Twin Cities Piano Trio. The group plays at the Metronome in Saint Paul, Thursday October 12 at 7:00 PM. When Phil Nusbaum met up with the trio, it was running through some repertoire.

Stokley is an internationally acclaimed R&B star, both as a solo act and with his 20+ year career with Mint Condition. Hailing from the Twin Cities, Stokley can keep a low profile in town and he doesn't perform in town too often. But when he does. . .it's an EVENT. This Saturday Stokley is playing at the Uptown Theater alongside Jordan Johnston, Bakarii and LA Buckner and Big Homie. This week Stokley, Bakarii and LA Buckner stopped by the studio to talk about the big show and more.