Critic's Notebook

For the last fifteen years, the Five Points Jazz Festival has celebrated the neighborhood’s rich jazz history. The neighborhood, which was once dubbed the Harlem of the West, used to be home to a number of jazz clubs. This year’s festival, which is from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., on Saturday, May 20, includes more stages and more bands than previous years. While there are dozens of stellar bands performing this year (you can see the band lineup here), these are five acts definitely worth checking out.

Porter Ray, the 29-year-old rapper, is no stranger to loss.

Khalil Arcady, who today performs under the name Sur Ellz, grew up on East Colfax Avenue in Aurora and in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, and never quite felt like he fit in.

Colorado has a bevy of great synthesizer artists, and not all of them are producing electronic dance music. We searched far and wide to create a list of synth masters, with a particular focus on people working on the fringes of club culture and pioneering new ways of using their instruments to craft music.

The history of Brazilian thrash-metal giant Sepultura is fraught with bitterness, tumult and controversy.

Peter Hook, the bass player for Joy Division and New Order, is touring with his band, the Light, to perform albums from both of his previews acts.

A short cartoon history of the Capitol Hill Tavern.

The BellRays have been forging their own path in rock-and-roll since their inception in 1990. Back then, as now, there were very few black women fronting rock bands, something lead singer Lisa Kekaula jokes she kind of likes it.

Brandon Connor, aka the rapper Young Fait, was still in the womb on the day his mother was washing dishes and dropped a plate. She bent over to pick up the broken pieces and narrowly dodged a bullet as it blasted through a window and into her refrigerator door.

Redd Kross is playing Denver for the first time in twenty years.

The U.K. punk scene lacked glamour when the Damned launched in 1976, and many clubs had no interest in booking the band.

A cartoon history of the Cherry Cricket.

Denver hip-hip duo Top Flite Empire has dropped a video for the track “WAVE,” from the debut album Bad Decisions, and it’s causing a stir within the local rap community thanks to the manner with which it’s tackling race and class stereotypes, and the prejudices that people harbor without knowing it.

Just because Methyl Ethel was perhaps the only band in the universe not to have descended upon Austin for South By Southwest last month doesn’t mean the trio hasn’t been plenty busy.

Since forming in 2008 and releasing a self-titled debut in 2012, the quartet the Allah-Las have become a constant presence in the United States’ psychedelic-rock circuit.

From the outside, Melina Duterte who plays under the name Jay Som appears to be an overnight success. At just 22, she has already positioned herself as indie rock’s newest critical darling.

Dazzle is leaving its longtime location at 940 Lincoln Street and preparing to move downtown to the Baur’s Building at 1512 Curtis Street, where the club will celebrate its grand re-opening on Thursday, June 1.

Jay Vance, who performs as Jbot, plays brutal music with robots.

Cloud Catcher guitarist and singer Rory Rummings lives and breathes heavy music. It’s been that way for as long as he can recall.

Denver goth promoter Joshywa Schrader passed away in the early morning hours of March 8, 2017, at age 41.

Yazman Azimi, who performs as YaSI, says, “Music is just about relating to people; the only thing that changes is the sounds.”

Before associates of Beyoncé Knowles recruited Too Many Zooz to perform on her hit 2016 album Lemonade, the trio had established itself as a standout act in New York’s subways.