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Just one of many pop fingerstyle arrangements by my friend Adam Rafferty…

My Philadelphia Weekly colleague Steven Wells has succumbed to cancer. His final column is here. I met him only once, when I stopped by PW’s offices and chatted about my “A-list” pitch on a Kimmel Center speaking engagement by Salman Rushdie. “So, what’s your take on Rushdie?” he asked, and before I could form two sentences, Steven gave me his

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Legendary Philly soul producers Gamble & Huff are mourning “a dear friend.” This is one of the songs they wrote and produced for him. Catch the rhythmic detail in the choreography at exactly 2:00. And the early hints of the moonwalk, 4:02. [P.S. – My colleague John Murph points out that Jeffrey Daniels of Shalamar was doing the moonwalk before

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“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.” — Richard Nixon [Via TNC.]

All in the current Philadelphia Weekly (with minor modifications): AlasNoAxis Wed., June 24, 8pm. $12. Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St. 215.545.4302 www.arsnovaworkshop.com Jim Black, a pillar of New York’s avant-jazz scene for some 15 years, has developed one of the most identifiable drumset approaches in all of music, his dry thuds and thwacks stirring up a riot of

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I’ll make a point of going to hear Israeli clarinet whiz Anat Cohen during her ambitious two-week stand at the Vanguard, June 23-28 and then June 30-July 5. The 3 Cohens band is really nice but I’ll have to prioritize and hear Anat next week with Benny Green on piano (saw him with Blakey at Sweet Basil’s in the mid-’80s),

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With Iranian culture and diaspora much in the news, it was a good time to hear Bay Area tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh (right) in a collaboration with New York-based Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar (left), last Friday at Alwan for the Arts. (Note: photo is from an earlier gig, elsewhere.) The two have developed an extraordinary language that draws on Iraqi

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