Recent posts: podcast

Delving eagerly into the 2025 NAMM Show schedule, as an unabashed lover of classic and modern blues and jazz, I remained intent to connect with guitarists who wear their influences on every note played. It didn’t take long to land on Chant Duplantier’s name. Growing up in Louisiana, a state known the world over as the birthplace of jazz and an important culture-shaping hub for soul and blues, Chant’s family informed his early love of legends like Buddy Guy, Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters. As he progressed his guitar playing into adulthood, artists like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Prince, George Benson and Django Reinhardt joined the influence arsenal. Listening to Chant play live like he does in this clip below, the inspiration shows.

Weeks after the Grammy Museum’s lauded “Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit” opening, the celebratory mood continued with one of its exhibit’s contributors Chuck D being featured on a panel highlighting the latest Amazon Audible docuseries ‘Can You Dig It?’. On a busy downtown LA Tuesday night with The Lakers playing down the block, casual fan and hip-hop purist museum members alike gathered to hear more about the 1970’s Burning Bronx’s Ghetto Brothers’ Black Benjie’s gang murder backstory, leading to a peaceful culmination of Kool Herc’s historic 1520 Sedgwick Ave’s house party hip-hop birth.