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In the world of music, there are certain places and instruments that people tend to gravitate to. Many want to be the lead singer, up there on the microphone, belting out their lyrics. Others want to be the lead guitarist, shredding skillful solos. Drums are also a popular option, wild people on the kits. 

It’s not often, though, people want to grow up to be bass players. What does a bass do? Why not just play guitar? Can you solo with the bass? Indeed, the instrument is a bit mysterious. But in another way, it’s also the most important instrument in a band. It’s the cornerstone, says bassist Darryl Jones, that touches aspects of melody, harmony, and rhythm. It’s the linchpin that bridges all three. For Jones, who has long toured with The Rolling Stones and played with everyone from Madonna to Sting to Miles Davis, the bass is creative bliss. This is the subject matter of the new documentary, Darryl Jones: In The Blood, which is set to release this fall (October 7).

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Bay Area-born percussionist, songwriter, and performer Sheila Escovedo, known better by her stage name Sheila E., is living proof of the value of diversity when it comes to one’s upbringing and creative output. The versatile, prolific artist has collaborated with just about every big name under the sun, from Prince and Tito Puente to Hans Zimmer, Carlos Santana, and Beyoncé and she says, she owes this fact to growing up with every style of music being played in her home from a young age. Indeed, Sheila says, music was swirling around her even before she left her mother’s womb. She learned Latin Jazz at a young age before even studying classical violin. Later, she became more than proficient in rock music. She has salsa and gospel albums in the works, set to drop later this year, and she’s a legendary icon amongst just about everyone who’s held a beat or hummed a melody. But what this amounts to most, is that Sheila understands how to fit in with any song. It’s all about space, she says, and figuring out what not to play as much as choosing which notes or beats to strike.  

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Music is a personal matter. Your favorite songs, the tracks that make your heart pump and your soul swell, may not do anything for anyone else. They may just be your own sense of pride or salvation. But music can also be passed down through the generations, too. Vinyl records, a favorite bootleg live performance, can be handed from adult family members to kids, and while individual songs or refrains may not stick to each person who indulges them, there is a good chance that, between kin, something will be loved in common. And for the outstanding musical duo of twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin, that reality occurred early in their lives.  

The two were born to young parents, who were 21 and 22 years old when the twins came into the world. So, of course, music was everywhere in the household, as is the case for many young couples. There was dancing and lip-syncing by all, including the kids. And this early introduction sparked something in the twins, who later ventured out on the road after high school, signed with Neil Young’s record label, and have since gone on to earn accolades out the wazoo. Tegan and Sara recently shared the release of their new LP, Crybaby (out in October), their second release of 2022 (Still Jealous came out earlier that year), the world is as open as ever to them. Sometimes it even resembles a luxurious “buffet.” 

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One syllable and you know it’s John Fogerty. His voice utters a note, a refrain and it comes out like lightning striking gravel. “Bad Moon Rising.” “Proud Mary.” “Fortunate Son.” These are just a sample of the songs that, thanks to Fogerty’s voice, have landed in the musical lexicon in the United States and abroad. These are the sinews and bones that make up a legendary body of work. And as it does for many legends before and since Fogerty, the magical journey of creation began even before he could speak—even before he was born in Berkeley, California, in 1945.

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Musician Harry Connick Jr. started young. That’s not always the case, of course, for every legendary songwriter and performer, but it was so for the New Orleans-born crooner. For as anyone who has ever visited the Crescent City knows, the bayou births songs. Melodies are in the ether. Rhythms emanate from the cobblestone streets. This is the world that Connick Jr. came into as a young person, and he took it just about as early as humanly possible. In New Orleans, anyone who is interested in music has immediate access to some of the greatest versions of it around, especially live performances. Artists roam the streets with instruments in tow, capable of playing and passing a hat at any moment. But for Connick Jr., his education, in a way, began even before that. Before he was born, his parents owned a record store. It was tradition for them to have albums playing in the house seemingly at all times. So, Connick Jr. began to play his own songs beginning at 3 years old.

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