Joe Jackson has announced new concert dates in advance of his forthcoming Duke Ellington tribute album The Duke, due June 26, 2012 from Razor and Tie. We’re also streaming an advance song, “I’m Beginning to See the Light” — CLICK HERE!

Following the well-received release last year of a two-song benefit single as WhoCares, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan have announced a pending 2012 full-length album filled with rarities, b-sides and studio jams.

Charles “Skip” Pitts, one of the architects of soul, R&B, and funk guitar and a member of the Bo-Keys, has passed away at the age of 65. Pitts is best known for creating two of the signature guitar riffs of all time: The Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing” and the wah-wah on Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft.”

About three years ago I received a CD called Real And Imagined by jazz pianist and composer Kait Dunton, which came out of nowhere and just blew me away.

New Music Monday focuses this week on fresh stuff from the likes of Arturo Sandoval, Dee Snider, Glenn Frey, Mary Halvorson, Iron Maiden’s Paul Di’Anno, Paul Thorn and Trevor Rabin

Dear Diz doesn’t aim for the relentlessly daring intellect of Dizzy Gillespie’s small-band bebop sides, so much as the boisterous amiability associated with his globetrotting latter-day period

Josh Homme’s band thankfully picked up where 2002′s exquisitely fun Songs For The Deaf left off, ignoring the dreadfully boring Lullabies To Paralyze that emerged in between the two. Just count that one as growing pains from Homme kicking bassist Nick Oliveri out of the band following Songs. Vulgaris, happily, indulges in the same goofy time-traveling sound that the band [...]

That this is W.C. Handy Award-winning bluesman Paul Rishell’s first acoustic recording will come as something of a surprise, so deep is his grasp, so complete is his commitment. That it’s his first solo effort in nearly two decades is more confusing still.

For all of the fun that skips its way through The River, there’s an equal amount of pathos and the very real weight of adult responsibilities.