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From Bowie to Beyoncé: the gateway albums to get into the greatest artists

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Keen to explore an artist’s oeuvre but overwhelmed by choice in today’s stream-heavy world? Fear not: from Joni to Fela, Madonna to Miles, our critics tell you where to start

We exist in a once unimaginable world of musical abundance. The internet means that more or less the entirety of pop history is available to anyone at the touch of a button; more than 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to just one streaming service every day. Complete obscurity has been essentially eradicated: even if a song is too arcane for Spotify or Apple Music or Tidal, it is more than likely someone will have uploaded it to YouTube. Indeed, music is so abundant, the sheer volume on offer can feel overwhelming – where do you start?

The obvious answer is a greatest hits record or a best-of playlist, but there is something more fulfilling about taking in a complete statement from an artist, even – or perhaps more so – in an era when the album increasingly seems like a devalued currency, just a collection from which you can cherrypick tracks for a playlist. Picking the ideal introduction to an artist is sometimes very straightforward – their best-known album may be their best-known album for a reason – and sometimes more serpentine: not every artist’s biggest album shows the full breadth of what they do. But here are 15 potential embarkation points for some of the most important artists of the pop era. Alexis Petridis

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Jazz

Bobby Weir and Sun Ra Arkestra to headline A Great Night in Harlem fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation of America

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The March 28 event will take place at Harlem’s Apollo.

Bobby Weir and Sun Ra Arkestra will headline A Great Night in Harlem fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation of America.

The annual benefit will take place March 28 at The Apollo in Harlem. Its name plays off of A Great Day in Harlem, the classic 1958 Art Kane black-and-white photograph for Esquire that featured more than 50 jazz musicians seated on and surrounding a brownstone stoop.

The event, with Steve Jordan as musical director, will also feature a tribute to drummer Max Roach, who would have turned 100 in January, with Charles Tolliver, Dee Dee Bridgewater, George Cables, Billy Harper and Rufus Reid, as well as the Titans of Jazz Drums with Al Foster, Billy Hart and Louis Hayes.

The evening will honor Richard Parsons with JFA’s Dr. Billy Taylor Humanitarian Award. Parsons is the former chairman of Citigroup and former chairman/CEO of Time Warner.

Parsons is stepping down after 15 years as JFA chairman and will be succeeded by JFA president Jarrett Lilien. Board member Dr. Daveed D. Frazier will become president of the JFA board of directors. Last year’s event honored Clarence Avant, Dave Grusin and Charles Lloyd at Los Angeles’ Vibrato Grill Jazz.

Proceeds from the benefit fund JFA programs that provide housing assistance, pro-bono healthcare, disaster relief and direct financial support to musicians and their families. For the past 35 years, JFA has been assisting not only jazz musicians, but artists in blues, roots and R&B genres.

For more information on tickets for the March 28 event, go to JFA@eventassociatesinc.com For individual concert tickets, go to jazzfoundation.org/gala2024. 

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Frank Portolese – ‘Chicago jazz guitar alive and well in Southwest Florida’

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Frank Portolese jazz guitar
Frank Portolese Chicago jazz guitar alive and well in Southwest Florida

Frank Portolese was my first guitar teacher. Until today, I have learned that his musical journey included studying privately with the great Jack Cecchini for five years, and learned the instrument along jazz Improvisation with Joe Daley and voice with Bill Rush. Our gaze in life is often stifled by the cards that we are dealt. ~ David Moore

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Joshua Redman – jazz saxophonist that speaks the language of love & art

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Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is without any doubt an acclaimed and charismatic jazz artists that has emerged in the decade of the 1990s. The son of legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff, Joahua was blessed with influences at an early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan). His first instrument was the clarinet at age nine. Later, Joshua switched to what became his primary instrument of expression, the tenor saxophone, only one year later. Like many jazz artists, Joshua Redman was influenced by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, The Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music. But although Joshua loved playing the saxophone and was a dedicated member of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and Combo from 1983-86, academics were always his first priority, and he never seriously considered becoming a professional musician.

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