ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS
Producer CREED TAYLOR cast strong jazz talent for his personal masterpieces.
Producer JOEL DORN helmed a funky golden era for Atlantic.
Bassist-turned-arranger RICHARD EVANS put the soul in Cadet Records.
Pianist and composer HORACE TAPSCOTT cultivated the Los Angeles jazz community.
Guitarist MELVIN SPARKS fueled funky sessions for soul-jazz’s master mechanics.
The making of ULULATION was a celebration of life.
STONEPHACE transcends the limitations of a genre.

9DW proves seeds of funky fusion are best sown at home.

RHODES ELECTRIC PIANO
JOE CUBA, HANK CRAWFORD, DAVID “FATHEAD” NEWMAN, and LYMAN WOODARD remembered.

Wax Poetics is always available at Boundless NY.

Our first issue of 2008 showcases a strong redesign. Hip-hop legend Grandmaster Flash gets cover honors, but it's the whole Furious Five who get the props inside. The late, great Eddie Harris is on our back cover; writer John Kruth fleshes out his story by speaking to those who worked with the saxman.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS
* An excerpt from I Want to Take You Higher - The Life and Times of Sly & the Family Stone by Jeff Kaliss
*Reggae maverick Jimmy Cliff reached global
audiences without toeing the line *Pianist Ahmad Jamal charted a new popularity for jazz
*Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince electrified hip-hop in the ’80s
*Large Professor laid the groundwork for a generation of beatmakers
*Cey Adams established the visual constituent of the hip-hop nation
*The South Korean b-boy cipher
*Jean Grae’s daring wordplay propelled her to hip-hop’s forefront
*Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince electrified hip-hop in the ’80s
*H-Town rappers H.I.S.D. initiate a Lone Star rebirth
*Terry Lynn upends traditional reggae with charged frontline commentary
*Norman Whitfield, Alton Ellis, and Earl Palmer remembered.

Wax Poetics is always available at Boundless NY.

Bill Withers from the soul, Herbie Mann,Detroit Techno, Brazilian Soul, Cut Chemist, Studio One.

Cover Story: Album Cover Art vividly explores an element of music culture that has withered with the advent of MP3s and digital downloading. Records possess a visual as well as an aural capacity for storytelling. The record cover--eye candy for the music lover--speaks a language rooted in the environment and era of the music itself. And, more intimately, a record can create a profound sense of analogy with its owner, and it's this relationship that we share.

Preface by Brian DiGenti and introduction by Dave Tompkins. The Wax Poetics team handpicked twenty albums apiece, 240 albums in all, twelve chapters: editor-in-chief Andre Torres; editor Brian DiGenti; contributing editors Matt Rogers, Andrew "DJ Monk One" Mason, Dante Carfagna, and J. P. Jones; contributing photo editor Brian "B+" Cross; contributing writers Jeff "Chairman" Mao, Oliver Wang, Robbie Busch, and Dave Tompkins; and label head Amir Abdullah.

With bright colors for summer heat, Wax Poetics 29 blasts into the funky avant-garde with Herbie Hancock and his Mwandishi band, written by producer Kirk Degiorgio. Mark Skillz returns with another old-school hip-hop cover feature: Spoonie Gee lit up the streets with his tales of gritty realism. Get your Waxpoetics at Boundless NY.