Sunday Session: September 1, 2019

Johnny Hodges

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Before & After: Miguel Zenón (Jazz Times)
* Inside the Jazz Household of Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran (Vogue)
* Music Charts Reflect The Changing Pace Of Culture And Society, Scientists Say (Forbes.com)
* Standing Grand gives concert sound while saving space (NewAtlas.com)
* The Survival of Iggy Pop (The New Yorker)
* Artist Spotlight: Theo Croker (Jazz Times)
* Roscoe Mitchell Returns (Chicago)
* Are Opening Acts Becoming A Thing Of The Past? (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* Jazzmeia Horn is Steeped Tradition, Yet Fully Planted in the Present (DownBeat)
* 89 year-old piano legend Ahmad Jamal announces first solo album (JazzFM.com)
* Do vintage electric guitars really sound better with age? (Guitar)
* Improviser Evan Parker on the ‘Weight of Tradition’ and Staying in Motion (DownBeat)
* Charlie Parker Fest Captures A Bit of Bird’s Freewheeling Spirit (DownBeat)
* After Katrina, a priceless musical archive was thought lost. It showed up in Torrance (Los Angeles Times)
* Benny Carter vs. Johnny Hodges: Who Was Better? (Jazz Times)
* Moor Mother preaches Afrofuturist techno-gospel on Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes (FactMag.com)
* See Inside Jazz Great Dave Brubeck's Groovy Connecticut Home (Town and Country)
* What Ever Happened To The Pop Song Fade-Out? (WPR)
* Nile Rodgers On Writing Smash Hits And Reworking David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' (NPR)
* Delmark Records Focused on ‘a New Era’ of Creativity (DownBeat)
* Christian Sands & the Legacy of Erroll Garner (Jazz Times)
* 50 years on, soul music legend Don Bryant is getting the success he deserves (TheNational.ae)
* Haynes family: a slice of Roxbury history (Bay State Banner)
* Inside Steinway Piano’s secret underground vault (Fast Company)
* Saxophonist Dave Rempis builds a band with the stamina for deep dives (Chicago Reader)
* A Bird’s Life: How Charlie Parker Changed The Course Of Jazz History (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Why Art Pepper’s Straight Life is still the most harrowing jazz memoir ever (Jazz Times)
* Santana's Debut Album Turns 50 Years Old (NPR)
* Jazz Is a Music of Perseverance Against Racism and Capitalism (TruthOut.org)
* The coming death of just about every rock legend (The Week)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz documentary film festival, part 3

As we head into the dog days of summer, things still are relatively quiet on the touring-acts-coming-to-St. Louis-soon front, and so this week, StLJN offers a third installment of this year's online mini-festival of documentary films of interest to jazz fans. 

First up via the video embed above is Earl "Fatha" Hines, a documentary about the pianist made in 1975 for Britain's ITV television channel. Filmed mostly after hours at the Blues Alley nightclub in Washington DC, it was described at the time by the International Herald Tribune as "the greatest jazz film ever made."

After the jump, you can see Inside Out In The Open, subtitled "An Expressionist Journey Into The World Known As Free Jazz." Made in 2008 by producer/director Alan Roth, it features performance footage and interviews with creative musicians including the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Joseph Jarman, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, trumpeter and former St. Louisan Baikida Carroll, and many more.

That's followed by three films offering biographies of individual musicians: Mal: A Portrait Of Mal Waldron, a 1997 documentary about the New York pianist; Jim Hall: A Life In Progress, the story of one of the most highly esteemed guitarists in jazz; and The Allen Toussaint Touch, a 2006 BBC documentary about the New Orleans pianist, songwriter and producer.

The final film today is The Land Where the Blues Began, a 1979 documentary by historian, musicologist, and folklorist Alan Lomax that traces the origins of the blues and helps explain how it is foundational for jazz, rock, country, soul, and American music in general.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Sunday Session: December 6, 2015

Amina Claudine Myers

 For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StlJN's inbox:

* An Unexpected Reason for the Cassette Revival (NightFlight.com)
* Are these the last days of British bands touring America? (LouderThanWar.com)
* 100 Years Of Billy Strayhorn, Emotional Architect Of Song (NPR)
* Dweezil Zappa: Roots and Branches (Premier Guitar)
* Photos: Celebrating Billy Strayhorn on the A Train (Wall Street Journal)
* Obituary: Allen Toussaint (Offbeat)
* Download 30-gigs of lost cassettes from the 80s underground (FactMag.com)
* This Saxophonist Spends His MacArthur "Genius Grant" on Mentoring Young Jazz Musicians (LA Weekly)
* After 300 Years Of Evolution, Has The Piano Reached Acoustic Perfection? (Gizmodo.com)
* Thom Yorke Compares YouTube and Google to Nazis (FlavorWire.com)
* Stream a Free 65-Hour Playlist of John Cage Music and Discover the Full Scope of His Avant-Garde Compositions (OpenCulture.com)
* Interview: Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste (Offbeat)
* From NPR Music, Two Jazz Performances That Wrestle With Race And Policing (NPR)
* Making one album a year is no longer enough (unless you're Adele) (The Guardian UK)
* Wayne Horvitz: The Pianist And The Poet (NPR)
* Amina Claudine Myers, Evolving Song (Clocktower.org)
* Ennio Morricone: 'The Hateful Eight is like no western you have ever seen before' (The Telegraph UK)
* Maria Schneider on The Thompson Fields (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Indie Classical Music? It Exists, And One Nashville Tech Startup Is Trying To Save It (Nashville Public Radio)
* Are Artist Collaborations Making Genres Obsolete? (Medium.com)
* World's first computer-generated musical to debut in London (The Guardian UK)
* Bob Dylan's Setlists Aren't A-Changin' (LiveNationTV)
* Billboard Women in Music 'Legend' Loretta Lynn: 'Call Me Your No. 1 You-Know-What-Kind-Of Stirrer" (Billboard)
* Review: Josef Woodard’s Charles Lloyd: A Wild, Blatant Truth (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: November 29, 2015

Mary Halvorson

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StlJN's inbox:

* The Langston Hughes Project, Barbican, review: Ice-T reinvents himself (The Telegraph UK)
* Why rap should share a stage with poetry and jazz (TheConversation.com)
* The Inside Story of David Bowie's Stunning New Album, 'Blackstar' (Rolling Stone)
* What do you get the collector who has everything? How about Ringo Starr’s ‘White Album’ No.0000001? (Dangerous Minds)
* Guitar Trailblazer Mary Halvorson Turns Jazz on Its Head (Rolling Stone)
* Maceo Parker: 98% Funky Stuff (SFJazz.org)
* INTERVIEW: David Amram (CD Box Set David Amram’s Classic American Film Scores 1956-2016 and UK appearances Nov 29 to Dec 3) (LondonJazzNews.com)
* How a Kid Running an Obscure Music Forum Became the Target Of the UK's Biggest Ever Piracy Case (Vice.com)
* What I Learned About The Record Industry By Carsharing With A Millenial (MusicThinkTank.com)
* Watch as Allen Toussaint gets the jazz funeral treatment he richly deserved (AV Club)
* Jazz Guitar Great Bucky Pizzarelli Recovering From Stroke (Jazz Times)
* Moran, Threadgill Lead Tribute to Cecil Taylor in Harlem (DownBeat)
* Interstellar Overdrive: A Heavy Music Fan’s Guide to Forgotten Synth Icons (Vice.com)
* How Kickstarter Helped a 60s Legend Preserve a Piece of Rock History (Vanity Fair)
* Manfred Eicher: the man who made ECM on working with Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich and Arvo Part (Irish Times)
* Train Songs, Freedom, The Blues and Country Music (UDiscoverMusic.com)

Sunday Session: November 15, 2015

Allen Toussaint

Pour a cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage, butter your toast and/or put a schmear on your bagel, and take a bit of Sunday morning to read some of the music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox recently:

* Kamasi Washington: After touring with Snoop Dogg, could he be jazz's next superstar? (The Independent UK)
* Centennial celebration gives Pittsburgh-bred composer Strayhorn his due (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
* Wynton Marsalis: trumpeting controversial ideas of classicism (The Guardian UK)
* Hidden treasures of a remote record shop (BBC)
* Stockholm Jazz Festival 2015 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* 10 Questions for Musician Maria Schneider (TheArtsDesk.com)
* Bob Dylan and the “Hot Hand” (The New Yorker)
* Inside the World’s Biggest Jazz Record Store (GearPatrol.com)
* The Art Of The 'Clean Version' (NPR)
* Derek Trucks on What He Learned From Allman Brothers (Rolling Stone)
* Influential songwriter, producer Allen Toussaint has died (WWLTV.com)
* Pianist Allen Toussaint dies at 77 (DownBeat)
* Allen Toussaint’s Proudest Moment Is The Avant-Garde Soul Opera Nobody Heard (Trunkworthy.com)
* These Millennials Are Shaking Up the Jazz World (Vanity Fair)
* Users of Music, from Tech Giants to Fans, Need More Incentive to Fix a Broken Market: Op-Ed (Billboard)
* Musicians Struggle To Buy Insurance In A City That Thrives On Music (NPR)
* Free Agent of Sound - An Interview with Rob Mazurek (PopMatters.com)
* An interview with Survival Unit III (The Free Jazz Collective)
* Rudresh Mahanthappa Named United States Artists Fellow (Jazz Times)
* Mostly Other People Do The Killing Rocks the Boat in Brooklyn (DownBeat)
* Millennials push 2015 vinyl sales to 26-year high in US (NME.com)
* America’s Last Great CD Dealer Doesn’t Care If You Think CDs Are Dead (FlavorWire.com)
* Prince: ‘I was right about the internet – tell me a musician who’s got rich off it’ (The Guardian UK)
* So What Is Post-Internet Music, Anyway? (Vice.com)