The sixth installment of the Virginia Key Grassroots Festival of Music & Dance is scheduled to take place February 21-28, 2017. This year, the event will not only take place on its traditional Key Biscayne home, but will also feature mainland satellite happenings in Wynwood and Midtown, and on North Beach.

Little Feat’s Bill Payne has found a kindred spirit in Magic Music, a top draw on the Colorado festival scene of the 1970s who released their acclaimed debut album in 2016. 

Payne played piano and organ on the band’s self-titled set, which reintroduces material written (but never recorded) by the pioneering band prior to their 1976 breakup. Following a digital and CD release last fall, Magic Music has just issued a vinyl LP.

In a time where the music industry is topsy-turvy, we need artists like Karl Denson more than ever. The multifarious Denson fares innately in different genres, as bandleader or sideman, and paid his dues as a touring musician that came into his own. The San Diego based saxophonist first gained recognition as a member of Lenny Kravitz and quickly soon after broke through in the A-list jazz circuit. His ambitious bop-oriented Chunky Pecan Pie (1994) featured an impressive supporting lineup of Jack DeJohnette & Dave Holland.

For more than two decades, Lettuce have brought a new vitality to classic funk, matching their smooth and soulful grooves with a hip-hop-inspired urgency and mastery of beat. Now, on their fourth studio album Crush, drummer Adam Deitch, guitarists Adam Smirnoff and Eric Krasno, bassist Erick "Jesus" Coomes, keyboardist Neal Evans, saxophonist Ryan Zoidis, and trumpet player Eric Bloom deepen that sound by channeling the sonic freedom and infectious energy of their incendiary live show.