Thursday August 25 marked the opening of J&R’s 17th Annual MusicFest & Tech Expo in Downtown NYC, featuring three days of free music, hundreds of product demos, giveaways, seminars and enter to win contests — plus (and maybe most importantly) the biggest savings of the entire summer. Virtually an entire city block of savings — huge deals at all the Park Row stores.

Today’s entertainment featured songstress Zee Avi and NYC alt-rock legend Mike Doughty doing their thing from the stage in J&R’s Music Store at 23 Park Row (an NYC legend in it’s own right).

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We were pleased as punch that Esperanza Spalding won the Grammy® for Best New Artist. It’s not just her mad bass-playing skills, her gorgeous voice, her bionic afro, her incredible sense of style.

It’s not just that her Chamber Music Society has been on our iPods all year, or that she seems to have single-handedly made jazz hip to a brand new generation, or that she rocked the White House at the tender age of twenty-four.

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Seeing a break in the weather, J&R took the risk and kept J&R MusicFest outdoors in City Hall Park for the third and final day of the free festival. It proved a good choice, the rain abated so all performers could play to the outdoor crowd.

It was a fantastic show that moved musically from Hip Hop to Pop to Jazz.

Legendary MCs KRS-One & Buckshot opened the show with, as they say, raw, real Hip Hop like was in the ’80s and ’90s: schooling all on how to break it down. LeToya and twin dancers took the stage with more schooling with her heartfelt songs telling a story of love, breakup and healing.

Fifteen year old Nikki Yanofsky demonstrated a prodigious ability to reach the audience while fronting her jazz band singing souped up standards, at times floating over the rhythms with fleet-witted scatting.
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Thursday, August 27th at 5 pm, in City Hall Park, J&R’s MusicFest 2009 brings to the stage, singer-songwriter Diane Birch took half her lifetime, and traveled across the globe, to get to America, where she literally found her voice and made her remarkable debut, Bible Belt. Though only in her mid-twenties, Birch likes to think of herself as an “old soul,” and indeed there is a startling maturity in her singing and a veteran’s self-assurance in her writing. Hook-driven songs like “Fools” and “Valentino” offer more than just instant gratification: they’re like your new best friends - you’ll want to get together with them as frequently as possible. Birch mixes piano-playing virtuosity with easy-going soul, Continue Reading »

Although our MusicFest 2009 is centered an amazing three day schedule of brilliant artists performing for free outdoors in City Hall Park, Manhattan, if you add in this week’s schedule of free, live performances in J&R Music World across the street on Park Row, it is five days of live music.

This week’s music starts Tuesday, August 25th at 12:30 pm with two simultaneous performances: Jazz wunderkinder pianist, Eldar, upstairs in J&R’s Jazz Store (23 Park Row, 2nd Floor) and the dancehall-tinged, four-part harmonies of T.O.K. downstairs in the Pop Music Store (23 Park Row, 1st Floor). In both cases, the performances will be followed by autograph signings.
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The second day of MusicFest, Friday, August 28th, the free outdoor music performances start at 5:00 pm with Gospel singer, Melinda Watts, followed at 5:30 pm by J Moss. Hip Hop duo, Clipse comes on at 6 pm, R&B balladeer, Mario takes the stage at 7 pm.

Natural can be described as innate or instinctive in essence, disposition or temperament. Quite simply, natural can be summed up as God-given or God-inspired because it comes so easily. When 20 year-old Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, actor Mario realized that his talents came to him naturally, his growth and acceptance of these gifts aptly produced his third album, Go. “I feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to be at this place in every aspect of my life, from personal to business. This is where I am, this is where I chose to be.” Continue Reading »