Amy Albany’s memoir Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood charts her life with a talented, tormented jazz musician father. In the recent film adaptation, Albany is played by Elle Fanning, her father by John Hawkes and her young boyfriend Cole—also, of course, a musician—by Caleb ... More

Nikki Yanofsky doesn’t miss a beat. Maybe the 20-year-old Canadian jazz-pop ingénue, who has sounded like Ella Fitzgerald incarnate since she was 13, has just been improvising the standards long enough for the skill to translate to conversation. Regardless, she’s so sure of herself, and so quick on the draw, ... More

Take note: there is a new princess holding court in the pop queen kingdom. Skipping around the stage in her ‘50s floral prints, letter jackets and disarming mop of a faux-hawk, Betty Who is over six feet of uncalculated, fresh-faced charm—and she’s coming for the crown.   But she won’t be going ... More

Christopher Owens speaks in full sentences. Slowly, deliberately, he brings his thoughts back around on themselves, orating small compositions with artful clarity. But this comes as no surprise. A sharp intellectualism and a willingness to divulge his innermost quandaries and revelations is much of what has made Owens into a ... More

They're always on call, and the music never stops. When they're not performing, their lives consist largely of twelve-hour jam sessions at Paisley Park, Prince's mysterious Minnesota recording studio. They pretty much only stop to eat, sleep, and play Ping-Pong (Prince's vice of choice). There's no doubt they're in the ... More

When Keith Richards’ hardcover confessional Life made it to the New York Times bestseller list in 2010 and hung on for 22 weeks, it showed the publishing industry just how lucrative a hard-livin’ rocker’s tell-all could be. Baby boomers can now air guitar to the pages of Steven Tyler, Sammy ... More

In the opening moments of the music video for “The Chamber,” the first single off Lenny Kravitz’s new album, Strut, the screen is splashed with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche. “The true man wants two things,” it reads, “danger and play.” But for Kravitz, who’s got 25 awards-strewn years in the music industry behind ... More

When Mapei’s single “Don’t Wait” was released in late 2013, it immediately landed the 30-year-old singer in the spotlight and got tongues wagging about the new-on-the-scene Swedish chanteuse. A year later, Mapei has taken the smart, soulful sound that made “Don’t Wait” so accessible and expanded it to an album’s ... More

For Lia Ices, making her third album was more than just collecting songs, it was a journey. As the Connecticut-born, New York-based musician began working on Ices, she was also beginning a move to California, a relocation that would heavily influence the songs she was writing.  The resulting album, out this ... More

Jesse Jo Stark is pretty much the lovechild of a romance between a skull and its dearest crossbones. Her parents are Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark, creators of the L.A. rock 'n' roll luxury brand Chrome Hearts, which has been outfitting trendsetters with products articulating turns of phrase like “Fuck ... More