Russell Gunn
The online magazine Slate had an interesting article by David Adler this past week about the influence of hip-hop sonics and production techniques on contemporary jazz. Appropriately, East St. Louis native Russell Gunn was named in the piece as one of the artists who has successfully combined the two genres. (U.City's Nelly also rates a brief mention for his crossover to pop stardom)...Vocalist Jane Monheit, a popular attraction in St. Louis whose most recent performance here was at the Sheldon earlier this month, talks about her new holiday CD here...Guitarist Bill Frisell, who also played the Sheldon this fall, is offering some previously unreleased live tracks for (paid) download. Get the details here...And completing the troika of Sheldon-related items, pianist Marcus Roberts, who will play the hall with his trio on Saturday, January 28, talks about blindness, Coltrane, Berlin and more in this interview.
If you're interested in the Miles Davis DVD Electric Miles, you can check out a recent review here...And if you're thinking about going to see pianist Ahmad Jamal when he plays Jazz at the Bistro early next year, check out this brief item from Mark Evanier, a television and comics writer and one of my favorite bloggers, who saw Jamal's show in LA and loved it....Speaking of reviews, this roundup of five recent jazz books, published in The Nation and written by David Yaffe, is a good read in itself. The books reviewed are Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has It Moved to a New Address) by Stuart Nicholson; Crossovers: Essays on Race, Music, and American Culture by John Szwed; Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend by Michael Dregni; Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe's Reinvention of Jazz by Mike Heffley; and Jazz on the River by William Howland Kenney.
Albert Ayler once titled a composition and album Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe, and it turns out that there may actually be some scientific proof for the avant-saxman's assertion, as detailed in this article on sound therapy from the New York Times...And last but not least, All About Jazz has a fascinating and candid interview with the man who first recorded Ayler, ESP-Disk founder and proprietor Bernard Stollman.
(edited 11/25/05 to fix a typo)
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