“‘Who’s Thelonious Martin?’ He’s the soul producer, from Chicago, Illinois”

Courtesy of artists.

When I sit down to talk with Gabriel Hubert (or Hudah, as he prefers to be called), one of the four trumpet players in the eight-piece Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, he is wearing a standard set of black and grey jeans and jacket, an unassuming outfit punctuated by a pair of carefully chosen bright red boots. He speaks with precision and concision on topics like entrepreneurship, education, and how to make a living in the music business. Now, he chooses his words carefully and doesn’t rush into a topic. But when I saw Hudah a week earlier, he was shouting “She makin’ it hot” over and over again onstage with a crowd of other band members over a funk-laced trumpet line.  Continue reading →

Kiran Misra

Jean Deaux, now nineteen years old, began recording music when she was sixteen. After school, she would leave home to “work on a group project,” so she could go record tracks with her friends. These early recordings were low-fidelity and casual—and according to Deaux in our interview, “kind of horrible.” However, upon gaining access to a real studio, one owned by her cousin Saba, her then-hobby of songwriting began to develop into a potentially sustainable career.  Continue reading →

Jenn Phan

Ramon Norwood, known online as Radius Etc., creates hip-hop beats with few to no words, but his presence, both online and in interviews, is effusive.