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Behind a dilapidated storefront in central Havana, an ancient ritual is under way. An old black man, sitting in a crumbling shell of a room, instructs four initiates in the art of traditional Yoruba drumming. Beneath the glare of a dangling light bulb, Elpidio Acea barely seems up to the task. Wiry and wizened, he looks like he’d have trouble keeping a heartbeat, let alone a tricky West African rhythm. But striking two cigar-shaped sticks together, he taps out the offbeat pattern that signs the drums to begin. His students, all young women, respond with a sudden flurry of beats. Today’s lesson is the guaguancó, one of the most complex of all Afro-Cuban rhythms. And two of the students can’t ...

The Grammy Awards has become one of the world’s most-watched television events. Last year, over 25 million people tuned in to see singer Sam Smith win basically … everything. This year’s edition, the 58th (Feb. 15, City), promises plenty of drama as Taylor Swift and The Weeknd challenge nomination leader Kendrick Lamar to decide who takes home the most hardware. Here are five of the biggest things to expect from music’s starriest night.   1. SHOW-STOPPING NUMBERS Live television means that music is spontaneous and often full of surprises. Don’t miss solo performances by Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Little Big Town, Pitbull and The Weeknd (the “Can’t Feel My Face” singer – a.k.a. Toron...

Dynamite is right. With a voice that channels Pasty Cline and Peggy Lee in equal measure, this Canadian torch singer has exploded since emigrating to New Zealand, where she’s become a country music star. From the plaintive twang of “Cry Over You” to the defiant sass of “Walk (Back To Your Arms),” her talent is on full display.

David Bowie 8 January 1947 - 10 January 2016 I interviewed Bowie on the morning of March 17, 1987, in a Toronto hotel room. He was the most extraordinarily controlled and self-contained subject I'd ever faced, immaculately dressed and absolutely oozing confidence. I remember wondering if he was really that self-assured or simply an extremely good actor (which of course he was). He later performed at a mid-afternoon press conference at the oldDiamond Club on Sherbourne Street, which I was lucky enough to attend, with a five-piece band that included Peter Frampton (see photo above). In looking back at my transcript, Bowie's intelligence and self-awareness leaps off the page. When I asked if he...

Rock’s most famous chameleon has changed personas countless times during his career, from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke. With each mask comes a new sound. For his 25th album, Blackstar (stylized as a symbol), the icon threw out the rulebook. His longtime producer, Tony Visconti, says the goal was to avoid rock ’n’ roll and create a new fusion sound. Released to coincide with the singer-actor’s 69th birthday, the seven-song album includes the unsettling title track, a shape-shifting, apocalyptic torch song that runs nearly 10 minutes, and “Lazarus,” the horn-drenched title number from Bowie's current off-Broadway musical, based on The Man Who Fell to Earth (he starred in the...

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, better known as Taj Mahal, is an American music treasure. A self-taught singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Mahal has done more to stretch and redefine blues music than any other artist past or present. Over the course of his over 50 year career, he has taken the blues and fused it with the sounds of the Caribbean, Africa, the South Pacific and beyond. This diverse, melting-pot approach has puzzled some listeners while making Mahal a hero to lovers of eclectic roots music. “Here’s the thing, plain and simple,” music blogger Miles Mellough once wrote about the man, “Taj Mahal has always been a conundrum; a man who is capable of mirroring many t...

They’ve never looked so fab. The Beatles were early adopters of film technology. But now it’s possible to see the group as never before. This DVD/Blu-ray collection offers 50 enhanced promotional films and videos, along with a book and the band’s 27 chart-topping singles, which will amaze even diehard fans. The material ranges from the Beatles performing “She Loves You” before a spellbound Stockholm audience in 1963 to a bittersweet London rooftop performance in 1969 of “Don’t Let Me Down” for what would be their last public performance. Among the many highlights are seeing the eye-popping primary colors in “Hello Goodbye” and the infectious ad-libbing between John Lennon and Paul McCartney ...

Seal has made a name for himself by baring his heart in song. The English-born singer topped the charts in 1995 with “Kiss From a Rose,” which earned him three Grammys. Since then, Seal has sold over 30 million albums, recorded with artists like Joni Mitchell and appeared as a coach on TV’s The Voice. Now the “Love’s Divine” singer has a new album, 7, that reflects the different dynamics of romance. One of its most soulful songs, “The Big Love Has Died,” appears to be about the breakdown of his marriage to Heidi Klum, with whom he shares four children. We spoke with Seal about the complexities of love and the challenges of parenthood. How autobiographical is your new album? There’s a li...

Allen Toussaint (January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) touched so much of my favorite music. He wrote Aaron Neville’s “Tell It Like It Is,” Ernie K-Doe's “Mother-in-Law,” Irma Thomas” “Ruler of My Heart,” Chris Kenner’s “I Like It Like That,” Lee Dorsey’s “Holy Cow” and Solomon Burke’s “Get Out of My Life Woman.” He also penned two famous instrumentals: Al Hirt’s “Java” and Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream.” Beyond songwriting, Toussaint groomed one of the best bands of all time, the Meters, and produced artists like the Neville Brothers, Paul McCartney, Dr. John, Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, Glen Campbell, Labelle and Robert Palmer. Everything he DID was funky. To hear the late great pianist capture...

Oscar Peterson is remembered as a gifted pianist who could play it all, from Chopin and Liszt to blues, stride, boogie and beyond. Peterson led his own jazz trios, performed with such legendary figures as Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, who dubbed him “the man with four hands,” won eight Grammy Awards and Canada’s prestigious Glenn Gould Prize. Called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, he released over 200 recordings before his death in 2007, including his 1956 Stratford Festival recording, 1958’s On the Town, recorded at Toronto’s Town Tavern, and 1962’s Night Train, which featured a number of Ellington pieces a...