Critic's Notebook

Jazz enthusiasts look forward to Denver’s Five Points Jazz Festival, a yearly tradition in the historic African-American neighborhood, and the 2018 lineup looks stellar.

As long as mankind continues to devolve, the members of Denver’s Of Feather and Bone will find inspiration in humanity’s atrocities.

Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA has been obsessed with The 36th Chamber of Shaolin since he was a kid.

Forty years is a long time to wait for a reunion tour.

Brian Bourgault refuses to give up. Despite ongoing financial challenges and a disability that would destroy most careers and psyches, the Denver musician, who fronts the band Borgo, creates the kind of music that first inspired him as a teenager: soulful rock.

The members of San Francisco-based experimental band the Residents have attempted to cloak their identities under wild costumes, including their infamous eyeball masks, for more than 45 years.

Béla Fleck is often considered the world’s greatest banjo player – and now he’s playing classical music.

The Colorado Symphony has announced yet another Red Rocks concert: a solo performance by Yo-Yo Ma, who will be playing J.S. Bach’s cello suites.

The list of jazz legends that 82-year-old drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath has gigged with over six decades is extensive.

The Colorado Big Game Trophy Wook Hunters are on the prowl.

Jeff Campbell once fancied himself the next Mos Def. Now he’s bringing black theater back to Denver.

Suffering from depression, rapper Alyssa Taylor, aka Jay Triiiple, turned to writing and produced two albums in 2017: Who’s Triiiple 1 and, six months later, Who’s Triiiple 1.5.

The first time the Nuns of Brixton played the Bluebird, Jon Solomon nearly drowned in sweat.

Annie Booth takes inspiration from the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.

In a room at a local high school, Michael Acuña leads a group of students and Denver police in breathing exercises.

Alex Luciano, the singer, songwriter and guitarist for Diet Cig, which headlines at Lost Lake Lounge on Wednesday, February 7, didn’t set out to be an inspiration to young women who wanted to rock. It just sort of happened, like her entire career in music, as Luciano explains in the wide-ranging interview below.

When August Burns Red played Denver in January, one reader noticed how many Devil-horn hands were in the crowd.

Before William Hill wrote a note of The Raven, a tone poem for orchestra and chorus based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same that will be released on February 2, the principal timpanist for the Colorado Symphony spent months reading the poem out loud and studying everything he could find.

Anarchist rapper Sole is dropping sloganeering for something he says is more urgent: nuance and poetry.

Have a drink, watch a show, and tip well.

The artistry of Todd Anders Johnson lies at the intersection of jamming and shredding.

The first time Steve Pavey of Revenant played a show, chairs and bottles started flying.