That's a lovely photo of Dolly Parton on the cover – and the issue's got a very personal tale of the way that Dolly's music influenced the life of one writer! And as usual, the issue's got the nicely diverse array of cultural forces – the artwork of Fred Tomaselli (with plenty of cool images of his reworkings of New York Times front pages), the compositions of Tyondai Braxton, a long interview with Octavia Butler, the acoustic Powers/Rolin duet, global instrument maestro Peter Larson, an unpublished interview with The Clean, a look at the visual art of Clean drummer Hamish Robert Kilgour, on tour with Crazy Doberman, Portland's Neo Boys, a farewell to Tom Verlaine, and lots lots more – all in full color throughout. Magazine

A really fantastic issue of this wonderful jazz magazine – and one that features great articles on two legendary record labels – 70s spiritual powerhouse Black Jazz Records, and the legendary South African imprint As-Shams! There's plenty more greatness too – a fond farewell to Pharoah Sanders, a look at the really compelling Nyege Nyege Festival, another chapter on jazz joints in Tokyo, the art of Saturn Records, genius of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith – and more on Carl Stone, Alina Bzhezhinska, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, and Thomas Nordmark too. As always, the presentation is fantastic – heavy, book-style, and with beautiful images throughout – 128 pages, and worth every penny! Magazine

The mighty Prince is on the cover this time around – heralding a series of well-penned articles inside, including pieces by Ann Powers and Greil Marcus! There's plenty more too – as the issue is overflowing with other cool topics – including a look at the Helter Stupid fiasco in the career of Negativland, Brooklyn hip hopper Paula Perry, LA harpist Mary Lattimore, women at Factory Records, UK comic Stewart Lee, Boston's High Risk Group from the 80s, a comic on the tune "Lee Remick" by the Go-Betweens, and the artwork of Marcel Duchamp, remixed! As always, the presentation is great – full color throughout, and a lot more contents than ads. Magazine