Dyana Williams is a Philly music legend. Actually, she’s a music legend everywhere, but if you’re from Philly (and we are), you not only know the name, you know the vibes. Arriving in Philadelphia after deejaying in her native New York and Washington D.C., where she was known for a time as “Ebony Moonbeams,” Williams established the popular radio show “Love on the Menu” for radio station WDAS and later Soulful Sundays for Classix 107.9. The latter show lasting for 12 years before signing off for the last time in 2020. 

Thavius Beck’s story started in Minneapolis and led him to California, into the Golden age of Los Angeles’ underground Hip-Hop culture through legendary venues like The Good Life, Project Blowed and Low End Theory. Emerging as a respected producer, emcee and electronic music performer, Thavius continued to walk the road laid out for him by his creativity, following it to Brooklyn and a new role as a teacher, now professor at the prestigious Berklee NYC campus. In honor of the release of his latest album, Untitled: Volume 1, we spoke with Thavius about his journey through music, the similarities between electronic composition and time travel, and the beauties of creating when there’s nothing left to prove.

Lara Downes, whose star currently shines in the world of classical music as one of its most innovative figures and most energetic activists, discusses the inspiration behind her latest work, Reflections: Scott Joplin Reconsidered. A modern reflection on Joplin’s musical legacy, we discuss the importance of cultural memory and how the music of Scott Joplin continues to speak to us all more than a century later.

Have you ever had one of those days? A terrible day, right in the middle of everything being bad, when you can’t remember how good it used to be and can’t imagine it ever being that good again? And then something happens, someone happens, they do or say something that cuts through all the bad, and they didn’t even know what they’d done? With music and song, Greg Banks has been that person to break through on more than one occasion. We know, because he did it for us.