music

STORIES

Our stories are all about the interesting people, places and things in Maplewood.

Read some here or page through our online issues.

FROM RUN-D.M.C. TO MAYIM BIALIK by Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Nov 26, 20216 min read

FROM RUN-D.M.C. TO MAYIM BIALIK by Donny Levit

Dr. Mike finds inspiration in his hardcore band life It all started about two decades ago when a Craigslist ad caught the eye of Mike...

OHEB SHALOM WELCOMES NEW CLERGY TEAM by Malia Rulon Herman

ellencdonker

Oct 1, 20214 min read

OHEB SHALOM WELCOMES NEW CLERGY TEAM by Malia Rulon Herman

It’s all-female, but that’s beside the point Congregants of Oheb Shalom, a Conservative Jewish temple in South Orange, gathered this...

THE HARLEM CULTURAL FESTIVAL GETS NOTICED DECADES LATER IN QUESTLOVE'S “SUMMER OF SOUL” Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Oct 1, 20217 min read

THE HARLEM CULTURAL FESTIVAL GETS NOTICED DECADES LATER IN QUESTLOVE'S “SUMMER OF SOUL” Donny Levit

Maplewood’s Lizzy McGlynn helps guide the film’s context August 15, 1969. You may not be able to remember the date, but you certainly...

MY VINYL LIFE WITH THE STEREO KIDS By Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Aug 13, 20213 min read

MY VINYL LIFE WITH THE STEREO KIDS By Donny Levit

After too many months of online learning, here’s how our family went analogue again I admit this sounds like a plot point right out of a...

ellencdonker

Aug 13, 20216 min read

SOLVING A CONUNDRUM By Sara Courtney

A CHS student collaboration creates a video-game hit When Wesley Sappington got the idea to create a video game, he did what any budding...

FROM DIZZY GILLESPIE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN, JOHN LEE IS A SOUTH ORANGE JAZZ ALL-STAR By Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Jun 11, 20217 min read

FROM DIZZY GILLESPIE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN, JOHN LEE IS A SOUTH ORANGE JAZZ ALL-STAR By Donny Levit

The bass player and Grammy-winning producer knows how to play it local Let’s take a moment to revisit Thursday, February 27, 2020. John...

ellencdonker

Jun 11, 20214 min read

A HOME FOR ALL SEASONS By Tia Swanson

While the pandemic raged, houses of faith reached out to their most vulnerable members In the months before the pandemic, Ben Hack, who...

MARK MURPHY'S MUSIC SCHOOL! LIVE! FROM THE BASEMENT! by Sara Courtney

ellencdonker

Aug 14, 20206 min read

MARK MURPHY'S MUSIC SCHOOL! LIVE! FROM THE BASEMENT! by Sara Courtney

The shutdown made them bored. The music kept them connected. Just a few months ago, before masks and hand sanitizer and the words “remote...

GETTING LOST IN THE PANDEMIC SUPERMARKET by Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Jun 19, 20203 min read

GETTING LOST IN THE PANDEMIC SUPERMARKET by Donny Levit

My first COVID-19 shopping spree sets the pace Shopping list. Check. Shopping bags. Check. Travel-size bottle of hand sanitizer. Check....

EVER HEARD OF DJANGO? by Donny Levit Photography by Julia Maloof Verderosa

ellencdonker

May 1, 20204 min read

EVER HEARD OF DJANGO? by Donny Levit Photography by Julia Maloof Verderosa

Guitarist Stéphane Wrembel will make you a devotee At first listen, classical piano, Pink Floyd, and gypsy jazz possess vastly different...

THE FULL SCORE ON A BROADWAY COMPOSER by Donny Levit

ellencdonker

Nov 21, 20196 min read

THE FULL SCORE ON A BROADWAY COMPOSER by Donny Levit

Maplewood’s Russ Kaplan creates music and musicians He’s a quadruple threat: a Broadway composer with several new projects in the works,...

A GLORIOUS COLLISION OF IDEAS by Elaine Durbach

ellencdonker

Oct 3, 20195 min read

A GLORIOUS COLLISION OF IDEAS by Elaine Durbach

The SouthNEXT Festival celebrates different views. Right up there in Angela Kariotis’s website title you can see her aim:...

donny levit

Jun 11, 20195 min read

LISTEN UP! MAPLEWOOD IS RADIO-SILENT NO LONGER by Donny Levit

It all started out with a radio boom box and a Barbie disco record player.

STRUMMIN' ON THE OLD WASHTUB CELLO by Ellen Kahaner

ellencdonker

Mar 8, 20194 min read

STRUMMIN' ON THE OLD WASHTUB CELLO by Ellen Kahaner

Could a metal washtub do more than hold wet laundry? Imagine a gourd the size of a bowling ball or an old metal washtub – the sort meant...