Hailee Steinfeld and Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners” (2025). Opening at a plantation under the sweltering sun in Clarksdale, Mississippi, “Sinners” also begins with the idea of overcoming suffering through the liberatory impulse of the blues. (Warner Bros. Pictures) By SALAMISHAH TILLET “Sinners” arrived at a time when Hollywood needed it the most. Amid a maelstrom of videos generated by artificial intelligence, uncertain mergers, budget cutbacks, wildfires and runaway product

“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” By ALISSA WILKINSON Concert films can serve many purposes — extending a brand, surfacing footage of a historical moment, pulling cash from fans’ pockets — but at their best, they make you feel like you’re at, well, a concert. “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” (in theaters) has a gimmicky title, but thankfully its director, Baz Luhrmann, did not make a gimmicky concert film. This is a fun movie and a revealing one, too. Four years ago, Luhrmann

Phil Collins performs in New York on June 23, 2010. (Chad Batka/The New York Times) By EMMANUEL MORGAN Phil Collins, Wu-Tang Clan, Shakira and Luther Vandross are among the first-time nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced Wednesday. This year’s nominees also include Jeff Buckley, Lauryn Hill, New Edition and INXS. The list of nominated artists and bands, who become eligible 25 years after their first recording, continues the influx of rap acts since the first hi

Neil Sedaka at home in Manhattan before a concert on May 4, 2004, with an Andy Warhol painting of him. (Ruby Washington/The New York Times) By PETER APPLEBOME Neil Sedaka, who went from classical music prodigy to precocious songwriter to teenage idol to pop music fixture in a celebrated career that spanned seven decades, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 86. His son, Marc, said Sedaka, who lived in West Hollywood, had been taken to a hospital earlier Friday and died there. H

Soprano Laura Miah Ramos (Facebook via lauramiah) “Parents on porches: rock and rock. From damp strings morning glories hang their ancient faces.” – “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” by James Agee By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR This Saturday’s Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) concert may feel a bit like deja vu. After all, the long-planned classical concert with the cryptic title of “Paulus” just might have a few music lovers scratching their heads. Who is Paulus to ha

LP cover for “Cosa Nuestra” by Willie Colón (1969) (Wikipedia) By SANDRA E. GARCÍA (An Appraisal) Every genre has its bad guy, villain, heel. In the world of salsa, that dark genius was Willie Colón, who died Saturday at the age of 75. His predilection for playing the antagonist came across in a variety of ways. The titles of his music albums: 1967’s “El Malo,” which translates to “The Bad Guy”; 1973’s “Lo Mato — Si No Compra Este LP,” or “I’ll Kill Him — If You Don’t Buy Thi

By GLENN KENNY At one point in this film about protean musician Billy Preston, drummer and producer Bill Maxwell says, “Billy didn’t just have perfect pitch, he had perfect anticipation.” Meaning Preston could play a tune through with the other musicians after hearing only a few chords. And “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It,” a sometimes mind-blowing documentary directed by Paris Barclay, doesn’t ask you to take Maxwell’s word for it. The movie has abundant archi

“One Battle After Another” which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won the best film honors at this year’s EE British Academy Film Awards. By ALEX MARSHALL “One Battle After Another” won the best film honors at this year’s EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The movie, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor, took home six awards at Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, commonly known as the BAFTAs. Its awards included best director,

Photo credits, counterclockwise from upper right: Wikipedia, Discogs, Wikipedia/Fania Records By ED MORALES The music that the world now knows as salsa would probably not exist if not for the vision of Willie Colón. While Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta had been plying the two-trombone sound for years, Colón made the instrument central to his band, and the instrument’s ornery, sarcastic, yet often uplifting sound defined not only salsa’s break from the Cuban tradition, but the N

Willie Colón plays a tribute concert to Ismael Miranda, in New York on June 8, 2009. Colón, a trombonist, singer and bandleader whose driving energy and mischievous bad-boy image helped make him a luminary of New York City music, and whose 1978 collaboration with Rubén Blades, “Siembra,” was one of the top-selling salsa albums of all time, died on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. He was 75. (Chad Batka/The New York Times) By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR and ADAM BERNSTEIN Willie Colón, a tr