Three musicians are standing outside of a recording studio, talking among one other. Guitars and musical equipment are piled nearby. The conversation resembles a chemistry worthy of band members or life-long friends.

But one of them is a teacher, and the other two are students.

As the rehearsal room opens, it’s clear that this is no ordinary classroom. And this is no ordinary music class. There’s an overstuffed couch …

Free events don’t get much better than the West Oak Lane Jazz & Arts Festival. Now in its sixth year, the festival is a three-day jazz extravaganza produced by the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corp. (OARC) and presented by Brown’s Family ShopRite taking place on four stages along Ogontz Avenue.

Philadelphia has always been a city for jazz. Beginning in the 1930s with Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti through the 1940s with Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane and the 1970s jazz-soul-rock fusion of Grover Washington Jr., jazz has always had a …

Jazz legend John Coltrane lived in Philadelphia from 1952 to 1958.  His Strawberry Mansion home still stands on 1511 N. 33rd St. with a historical plaque in front.  It was named a historical building in 1999 by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. The commission’s office in City Hall still holds many old photographs and legal documents on file.

Norman Gadson, the late owner of the building, left the property to his daughter, who is not old enough to legally own the property.  The family is in the planning process of preserving the Coltrane home.

The Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia …

Row homes line this North Philadelphia street–some of them abandoned and wet from the grip of constant rain. There is a single rumble of thunder. A low-lying fog covers the front of a three-story brick house on 1511 N. 33rd St. near Oxford in North Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion section. Plywood and planks help hold this home together. The crumbling window frames accent the collapsed ADT Security sign hanging in the central window. Abandoned …

The area around 15th Street at Ridge Avenue is practically vacant during the middle of the day. Aside from a few people who live in the area and walk the streets or those who own the few businesses at that end of Ridge, there usually isn’t much activity.

Now fast forward to the hours after the sun goes down and take another look at the location. Between some boarded-up, abandoned …

The Word of God has never sounded so cool.

Meet Donte Holland, also known by his rapper name Beloved the Ghostwriter, gospel rapper from the Strawberry Mansion area of Philadelphia. Getting his start when he was 13 years old, Beloved has now solidified himself as a Christian rapper with lyrics based on the gospel. “Since I’ve started, my lyrics have always been that way, it’s what …

Memorial Day Weekend – the kickoff to summer, famed for beach trips and getaway weekends. The city of Philadelphia clears out a little bit, as people jump at the chance to get away and enjoy the start of the warm weather.
Members of the Performing Arts Tradition of Philadelphia decided to offer an alternative activity for those sticking around the city, holding their second annual Harp Festival of Philadelphia May 22-25 at The Church of Saint Luke and The Epiphany.
Saul Davis Zlatkovski, Philadelphia soloist and artistic director of the festival, credited choosing the timing for the …

It’s four o’clock on Friday and the click-clack of freshly shined shoes and black leather pumps pound the pavement in four-four time.
As trains roll in and out of Suburban Station at 15th and John F. Kennedy streets, commuters bustle by in hopes of catching an early train. Their focus is tight on the overhead digital boards reading off their train’s arrival and departure.
Five minutes late.
Their disappointment is as apparent as it is fleeting as it is quickly wavered by a thumping bass and rat-a-tat-tat of …

When you think of music in Philadelphia, undoubtedly certain areas come to mind: the melodic jazz tones born of North Philadelphia, the gritty, stark hip hop that rises from the tough streets of the western reaches of the city, the soaring strings of Gamble and Huff’s downtown soul or the smooth voices of the street corner crooners that put South Philadelphia on the map in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll.  Don’t look now, but it’s time to add an unlikely neighborhood to this storied list: Fishtown.
Along …