Meet the musicians struggling to keep North Philadelphia’s jazz scene alive.   It was odd that Henry Tirfe, a saxophone-wielding house bandleader, listed Art Blakey, the prolific, Pittsburgh-based jazz drummer who led The Jazz Messengers for 35 years, as one of his main influences. ”I mean, Art Blakey was very intense,” says Tirfe, “even with the soft songs, you know?” And when it came time for the 24-year-old West Philadelphia native to solo, it was like a runner sprinting off the starting line: harmonies jumped off his tenor saxophone as the artist made his presence known in the dimly-lit SOUTH jazz kitchen, an unassuming southern-style jazz restaurant at the corner…

This barbershop owner is turning his turbulent past into fuel to create better futures for boys in North Philly.   Talib Abdul Mujib, owner of 1617 Barber Shop & Beauty Salon, has been hustling since he was a kid. Mujib spent much of his youth, which was split between Camden and Philadelphia, selling drugs on the street and experiencing firsthand the tension and violence between black men and law enforcement. “A lot of my friends got lost in that war,” he says. “A lot of friends lost their minds in that war. A lot of my friends were incarcerated against that war. And understand, it was a war. Against us…