Bob Weinberg

Possessing a flexible, octave-skating baritone, Kurt Elling is among today’s most-talented jazz singers. The Chicago native consistently tops the jazz-mag polls and has earned Grammy nods for damned near every album he’s recorded — although he didn’t collect one until 2009’s Dedicated to You, a tribute to John Coltrane and...

Where some people might see a pile of junk, James “Super Chikan” Johnson sees guitars. Discarded gas cans, lawn mowers, car parts, and even a ceiling fan have provided the raw material for the Mississippi bluesman’s instruments. And his songs are as singular as the axes he plays them on...

How does a musician remain visible let alone relevant on-stage with guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny? Ask Christian McBride. The Philly-born bassist routinely elicits awe while playing in Metheny’s trio, pulling rich, resonant tones from his upright or providing growling, slippery solos on his electric ax. McBride, 38, established himself as...

Bobby Lee Rodgers is best-known for his stint as lead guitarist and chief songwriter for the jam band Col. Bruce Hampton and the Codetalkers. Less well-known: Rodgers is a stone-cold jazz fiend. In fact, he was one of the youngest professors at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he...

Boston’s on the Beach celebrates America’s 234th birthday with three days of this country’s great indigenous art form — the blues. Never mind that the music was created by the descendants of African slaves or that it’s now dominated by white folk. The Delray Beach institution’s Red, White, and Blues...