Sunday Session: November 8, 2020

Marshall Allen

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

* Rahsaan Roland Kirk: An Alternative Top Ten Albums Guaranteed To Bend Your Head (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Peter Jones (‘This is Bop: Jon Hendricks and the Art of Vocal Jazz’ to be published November 2020) (London Jazz News)
* Nica's Tempo: More Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters (WFIU)
* Houston’s Ku-umba Frank Lacy still a messenger for jazz (Houston Chronicle)
* On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space (NPR)
* Cindy Blackman Santana: This Drummer Got Some (Jazz Times)
* The film exploring the avant-garde female pioneers of electronic music (DazedDigital.com)
* Benson, McBride and Metheny Among Readers Poll Winners (DownBeat)
* John Hollenbeck: Time to Rearrange (Jazz Times)
* Live from Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio Premieres Nov. 14 (Jazz Times)
* Lakecia Benjamin on a Heavy Year, the Healing Power of Music, and Breaking In Jazzfest Berlin (WBGO)
* Brian Blade: A 1970 Artist’s Choice (Jazz Times)
* Adam O’Farrill Is Only Scratching The Surface (DownBeat)
* Irvin Mayfield and Business Partner Ronald Markhamn set to be rearraigned next week (Offbeat)
* Marshall Allen Steers The Sun Ra Arkestra Into The Future (DownBeat)
* Singer, activist, sex machine, addict: the troubled brilliance of Billie Holiday (The Guardian)
* Studio whiz Don Hahn captured magic on the Band’s debut record (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* Elegy for A Side Man: Remembering Cornetist Peter Ecklund (Jazziz)
* Make ‘Y.M.C.A.’ Great Again (Rolling Stone)
* Cándido Camero, A Father Of Latin Jazz, Dies At 99 (NPR)

Sunday Session: September 8, 2019

Hamid Drake

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

* Linda Ronstadt Has Found Another Voice (The New Yorker)
* Charles Lloyd: 'Looking for the one note that can say it all' (Japan Times)
* White Supremacy Tried to Kill Jazz. The Music Triumphed (TruthOut.org)
* Vijay Iyer (Musicality, Wigmore Hall residency, 2019/20) (London Jazz News)
* Drummer Rudy Royston’s Always Listening (DownBeat)
* Michael Brecker Competition Continues Legacy of Generous Musician (Jazz Times)
* The Voice That Shattered Glass (NPR)
* Detroit Jazz Festival Offers a Mixed Bag (DownBeat)
* CBS SF Talks To King Crimson Bassist Tony Levin (CBSLocal.com)
* The Many Requirements Of Hold Music, A Genre For No One (NPR)
* Jimmy Johnson, Muscle Shoals Guitarist Who Backed Soul & Rock Giants, Dead at 76 (Rolling Stone)
* A Decade of Music Is Lost on Your iPod. These Are The Deleted Years. Now Let Us Praise Them (Esquire)
* Brian Blade & Life Cycles: Uncorking The Spirit of Bobby Hutcherson (SFJAZZ.org)
* How Ella Fitzgerald Turned Forgotten Lyrics Into One Of Her Best Performances Ever (NPR)
* Vinyl Is Poised to Outsell CDs For the First Time Since 1986 (Rolling Stone)
* Iggy Pop: 'I've finally got the voice I was supposed to have' (BBC)
* ‘We Always Swing’ To Launch 25th Anniversary Season (DownBeat)
* Music legend Taj Mahal talks music, race and the Rolling Stones (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Delving Into Consciousness: Hamid Drake's Favourite Music (TheQuietus.com)
* Abdullah Ibrahim: Grace Under Pressure (Jazz Times)
* “I Was Always Trying To Get Better”: Sonny Rollins On A Life In Jazz (UDiscoverMusic.com)

Sunday Session: August 18, 2019

Brian Blade

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

* Bob Wilber 1928 – 2019 (Jazz Times)
* 7 Questions With Catherine Russell (VailJazz.org)
* Live Review: 46th Umbria Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* San Antonio jazz great Jim Cullum Jr. dies (MySanAntonio.com)
* 5 minutes alone - George Benson: “A guy said, ‘I could get you a job with Fats Domino’. I said, ‘I am not ready for that’” (MusicRadar.com)
* Chuck Berry’s Family, Famous Fans Remember Guitarist in New Documentary Trailer (Rolling Stone)
* Santana Returns to Woodstock and Revisits “Smooth” (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Concrete Science Fiction Riot: Why Do We Ignore The 70s French Underground? (TheQuietus.com)
* In ’61, Stan Getz at His ‘Most Aggressive’ (DownBeat)
* Imagine Documentaries Trumpets Partnership With Louis Armstrong Foundation On Definitive Icon Movie (Deadline)
* You Don’t Have to Be Rich (To Commission New Music) (Limelight)
* Leave No Good Idea Behind: Millennial Composers Embrace a Cosmopolitan Style (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Ted Dunbar: Teacher Man to Nile Rodgers, Kevin Eubanks, and Many Others (Jazz Times)
* Fine Tuning: The Art Of Guitar Making (KALW)
* Britain’s jazz scene is in full swing (The Spectator)
* Hackers Can Turn Everyday Speakers Into Acoustic Cyberweapons (Wired)
* Brian Blade Leads ‘Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration’ (DownBeat)
* Rhythmo’s BeatBox is a cardboard drum machine (MusicTech.net)
* A Lost Album From John Coltrane Is Found, With Thanks To A French-Canadian Director (NPR)
* Inside the home of a queen: Aretha Franklin's mansion hits market for $1.2 million (MLive.com)
* Thousands of Unseen Blue Note Photos Online Now (Jazz Times)
* The Do's & Don'ts of Sample Clearances (Spotify.com)
* Herbie Hancock gears up for his newest music and joins Kamasi Washington at Northerly Island (Chicago Tribune)

Jazz this week: Donny McCaslin; Lea Bertucci & Sarah Davachi; Brian Blade & John Patitucci in "Winter Jazz Festival"; and more

Though the weather forecast for this weekend is looking a bit dicey, the calendar of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis provides a number of good reasons to get out of the house, including the return engagement of a top tenor saxophonist; a double-bill of experimental composer-performers making their local debuts; and a benefit event featuring a stellar lineup of touring and local musicians.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 16
Saxophonist Donny McCaslin returns for the first of five nights of performances continuing through Sunday at Jazz St. Louis.

McCaslin (pictured, top left) in October released his latest album Blow, which features the same band he led  accompanying David Bowie on Bowie's final album Blackstar, plus guest vocalists.

The recording has earned generally positive reviews, with Rolling Stone's Hank Steamer praising the band's choice to "step boldly into hybrid, tough-to-classify musical terrain, grafting their trademark sleek, emotive electrojazz onto lush, proggy art rock."

Though McCaslin will have a different lineup of musicians in St. Louis,  it seems likely that he'll include at least some of the material from Blow in his sets here, which should provide some interesting opportunities for contrast with the recorded versions of those tunes.

Also on Wednesday, pianist Jim Hegarty leads a trio at Evangeline's, and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features multi-instrumentalist TJ Muller and friends at The Stage at KDHX, the weekly jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor and his band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, January 17
Saxophonist Tim Cunningham brings his smooth jazz and R&B sounds to The Laugh Lounge STL, and guitarist Vincent Varvel leads a trio at The Dark Room.

Friday, January 18
Singer Erin Bode performs for the first of two nights at the Emerald Room at The Monocle; trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a quartet at Evangeline's; and the Second Generation Swing Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, 
January 19
New Music Circle presents electronic musician and composer Sarah Davachi and saxophonist and composer Lea Bertucci (pictured, bottom left) performing in separate sets at Link Auction Galleries in the Central West End.

Also on Saturday, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade headline the "Winter Jazz Festival" at the Grandel Theatre. The event also will feature performances by Bach to the Future, violinist Tracy Silverman, guitarist Dave Black, keyboardists Jay Oliver, Mo Egeston, and Ptah Williams,  drummer Lucrezio de Seta, and multi-instrumentalist William Lenihan, with proceeds benefiting the Dillon International adoption agency.

Sunday, January 20
Singer and guitarist Tommy Halloran plays for brunch at The Dark Room, and the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Annie and the Fur Trappers in a matinee performance at the Moolah Shrine Center.

Monday, January 21
Guitarist Tom Byrne leads a quartet in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Tuesday, January 22
Singer and bassist Janet Evra will play a "Notes From Home" concert at The Sheldon.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Sunday Session: July 15, 2018

Brian Blade

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* 'You can't judge a generation's taste': making Now That’s What I Call Music (The Guardian)
* Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band Leaves Michael Bourne Mouth Agape in Montreal (WBGO)
* Kamasi Washington, the wisest man on Earth (TheFader.com)
* How did Irvin Mayfield, the man with the golden trumpet, end up in the poorhouse? (New Orleans Advocate)
* The Adventurous World of Brazilian Experimental Music (Bandcamp.com)
* MIT Develops AI That Can Isolate and Edit the Individual Instruments in a Song (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* An AI system for editing music in videos (MIT.edu)
* ‘Skyrockets in flight/Afternoon delight’: The story behind Starland Vocal Band’s one big hit (Washington Post)
* In Istanbul, a Display of National Music Culture (DownBeat)
* NEA Announces 2019 Jazz Masters (Jazz Times)
* Coltrane, Kamasi and the art of looking both directions at once (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Synths may be spared worst of US trade war – for now (CDM.link)
* Global Notation: a new notation system for world music (Sheffield.ac.uk)
* The Jazz Pianist Who Made One Masterpiece And Disappeared (VinylMePlease.com)
* Before Björk, There Was the Last Incan Princess (MessyNessyChic.com)
* How Ads Get Away with *Almost* Plagiarizing Existing Music (Vice.com)
* 10 Essential One-Track Albums (TrebleZine.com)
* “A Band At The Top Of Their Game”: Ravi Coltrane Talks John’s “Classic Quartet” (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* New $50,000 prize in improvised music gives its first awards to Joe McPhee and Susan Alcorn (Chicago Reader)
* Ellis Marsalis Jazz Piano Competition Winners Announced (Jazz Times)
* The GroundUP Festival Brings Even More Heat to Miami, on Jazz Night in America (WBGO)
* Who Is Benefitting From the Nostalgic Vintage Releases in African Music? (OkayAfrica.com)
* The Sonic Arts Union’s Handmade Electronic Music, 1966-1976 (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker (Chicago Reader)
* A Conversation with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Jung Hee Choi (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)

Sunday Session: June 24, 2018

Eric Dolphy

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Back in Swing: The Secret Subculture of Jazz Cafes (Japan Forward)
* The home of timeless music (CNet.com)
* George Clinton: ‘If people don’t like funk, it’s just the wrong time for them’ (The Guardian)
* Lorraine Gordon, 1922 — 2018 (EthanIverson.com)
* How Herbie Hancock Charted New Territory With ‘Empyrean Isles’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* This simple robot offers more cowbell (TechCrunch.com)
* Rutgers Acquires Count Basie Collection (Jazz Times)
* Gregg Allman's Son Devon Talks Carrying on the Family Legacy (Rolling Stone)
* Herbie Hancock Looks Back on Work with Indy Jazz Legends (Nuvo.net)
* Warner to Launch Elektra Music Group as Standalone Company (Variety)
* Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Named National Treasure (Pitchfork)
* 16 Years Late, $13B Short, but Optimistic: Where Growth Will Take the Music Biz (Redef.com)
* The Sound Of Silence: Female Composers At The Symphony (NPR)
* Eric Dolphy: Gone In The Air (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Systems Two Recording, A Prolific and Pivotal Studio in Brooklyn, Quietly Closes Its Doors (WBGO)
* Arturo Sandoval Features Pharrell, Grande and More on ‘Ultimate Duets’ (DownBeat)
* Clatskanie native Nate Wooley translated musical passion into thriving New York career (TDN.com)
* Revered Drummer Brian Blade Draws a Through-Line from Jazz to Gospel (KQED)
* Archaeologists Just Sifted Through the Woodstock '69 Festival Field (Billboard)
* Brötzmann Reflects on ‘Machine Gun’ as it Hits 50th Anniversary (DownBeat)
* Jazz Commentary: Greg Hopkins Big Band at Ryles — Whither Big Bands? (ArtsFuse.org)
* Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music (NPR)
* A Lot of Energy—Remembering Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) (New Music Box)
* Meet the Italian composer who conducts the world’s biggest all-robot orchestra (KXXV)
* The Axe Murderer Who Loved Jazz (WBUR)
* Can You Measure How Good a Song Is? (New Republic)

Jazz this week: J.D. Parran & George Sams, "New World Harmonica Jazz," Chapter:SOUL, Chick Corea Trio, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers some early summer eclecticism, including a homecoming performance by one of our city's exemplars of the avant-garde; a couple of free, multi-venue festivals featuring a variety of local talent; sold-out shows featuring two touring pianists, and, as the saying goes, much, much more. Let's go the the highlights...

Wednesday, June 15
Saxophonist Doug Lawrence leads a quartet in a free show at Saxquest; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and bassist Bob Deboo will have some special guests for his weekly performance and jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center, including drummer Matt Wilson, vibraphonist Peter Schlamb, and saxophonist Adam Larson.

Thursday, June 16
The esteemed multi-instrumentalist and St. Louis native J.D. Parran (pictured, top left) will be back home from NYC for a visit, joining forces with trumpeter George Sams and other free improvisers for a performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts; the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra plays at Jazz at the Bistro; and The 442s will celebrate the release of their latest album RELAY with a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Friday, June 17
Grand Center's "Music at the Intersection" series returns for the second year, kicking off with an assortment of local funk, soul and hip-hop performers paying tribute to Prince at various venues in the district, including Good 4 The Soul at the Ferring Jazz Bistro and Fresh Heir at the Curtain Call Lounge, next to the Fox Theater.

Also on Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band plays a free outdoor concert at Edwardsville City Park; the St. Louis Big Band performs at St. Peter's United Church of Christ, and singer Chuck Flowers takes the stage at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Saturday, June 18
Starting on Saturday afternoon and continuing through the evening, the Riverfront Times will present their annual RFT Music Showcase, featuring more than 90 acts at nine venues in the Grove district.

While the lineup emphasizes rock and hip-hop, there are some performers of potential interest to StLJN readers, especially at Handlebar, which over the course of the day will host sets from singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing, saxophonist Dave Stone's trio, the Vernacular String Trio, Animal Children, and electronic musician Eric Hall.

Also on Saturday afternoon, singer Wendy L. Gordon will present a matinee performance at J&C BBQ and Blues.

Saturday night, the 12-year-old piano phenom Joey Alexander will play a one-nighter at Jazz at the Bistro. Both sets are sold out, but Jazz St. Louis is advising anyone still interested in tickets to check with the JSL box office on Friday and/or Saturday for cancellations and returns.

Elsewhere around town, pianist Carolbeth True and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman (pictured, center left) will reunite to revisit music from their collaborative album New World Harmonica Jazz at the Kranzberg Arts Center; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Venice Cafe; and Wack-A-Doo performs at Evangeline's.

Sunday, June 19
The Jazz Edge Orchestra will present a concert version of the musical Five Guys Named Moe, featuring songs made famous by saxophonist and singer Louis Jordan, in a matinee at the Sun Theater in Grand Center.

Also on Sunday, the recently formed New Orleans funk band Chapter:SOUL (pictured, lower left), which is fronted by saxophonist Calvin Johnson Jr. and features sousaphonist Kirk Joseph of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, will make their St. Louis debut with an early evening show at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Monday, June 20
Singer Dean Christopher and company return with their "Rat Pack and More" show to One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.

Tuesday, June 21
Pianist Chick Corea's trio with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade will perform for the first of two sold-out nights at Jazz at the Bistro. As with the Joey Alexander performance, at this point any available tickets will be due to returns or cancellations, and prospective buyers are being advised to check with the Jazz St. Louis box office. In the meantime, you can sample a few performances by Corea, McBride and Blade on video by checking out this post from last Saturday.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Up close with the Chick Corea Trio

This week, let's take a look at some video of the Chick Corea Trio with Christian McBride and Brian Blade, who will be in St. Louis to perform on Tuesday, June 21 and Wednesday, June 22 at Jazz at the Bistro.

While all three musicians have played St. Louis before on multiple occasions with other groups, this will be their first performance here together. Corea, McBride and Blade made their debut as a trio in 2010 with tours of the US and Japan, and in 2013 released Trilogy, a three-CD set mixing original material and standards that was recorded live on tour all over the world. It was generally well-received by fans and critics, and wound up winning two Grammy Awards in 2014, for Best Jazz Instrumental Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for Corea's work on his song "Fingerprints."

The elder statesman of the group at age 75, Corea has been considered one of the top pianists in jazz for a half-century now. Meanwhile, though they're a generation younger at 44 and 45 respectively, both McBride and Blade are established bandleaders and recording artists with their own fan bases, which no doubt has helped broaden the trio's appeal.

Given the high profiles of all three members, most of their performances have been at festivals, concert halls, and theaters, but in St. Louis, listeners will have a chance to check them out up close in the relatively intimate confines of the 220-seat Bistro.

To give you an idea of what to expect, here's a collection of mostly fan-made videos of the trio recorded at various performances over the past four years. While the video quality ranges from pretty good to just barely OK, they all have listenable audio and more important, all should help convey something of the experience of being within a few yards - or in some cases, just a few feet - of the performance.

For starters, you can check out two relatively recent clips from a show in September 2016 at SFJAZZ in San Francisco. The first, up above this paragraph, is a version of "Fingerprints," and the second, after the jump, is an update on Corea's tune "Armando's Rhumba."

The other four clips are all from 2012, starting with an excerpt of a performance of Miles Davis' "All Blues" from the London Jazz Festival in November of that year.

After that, you can see the trio playing Thelonious Monk's "Work" at a concert in Maribor, Slovinia; an excerpt from another show featuring some free form impvov in Zürich, Switzerland; and last but not least, a jam session at the Tbilisi Jazz Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia (the former Soviet republic, not the US state) in which Corea shares the piano bench with Georgian keyboardist Beka Gochiashvili, who recently has toured with Corea's longtime colleague, bassist Stanley Clarke.

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

Sunday Session: December 20, 2015

Brian Blade

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

* Why Sly Stone still can't collect royalties from his classic songs (Los Angeles Times)
* Frank Sinatra’s Drummer Tells the Story of His Final Concert (Vanity Fair)
* 'World-class' $7.5-million jazz hub set for Wayne State (Detroit Free Press)
* Prayers for Richard (Oxford American)
* Classic Rock Radio at 30: The Songs Change, So Does the Vibe Remain the Same? (Billboard)
* Jazz Musician Herbie Hancock Added to Luc Besson’s ‘Valerian’ Cast; Nothing Impossible (ScreenCrush.com)
* My 13-Year Mission to Save Jazz Photography (Medium.com)
* The Inventor of Auto-Tune (Priceonomics.com)
* Green Rooms Is a Hotel Specifically Designed for Musicians (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Why I've Fallen Out of Love With Shopping for Vinyl (LA Weekly)
* Weezer's Bizarre Copyright Crackdown on 'Hash Pipe' (Vice.com)
* “Ornette at Prince Street”: A Glimpse from the Archives (Point of Departure)
* Grateful Dead Bio-Series in Development at Amazon (Rolling Stone)
* David Bowie Fulfills His Jazz Dream (NPR)
* ‘Baker Street’: The Mystery of Rock's Greatest Sax Riff (The Atlantic)
* Not in a Shy Way: Sizing up the Sinatra legacy, one hundred years on (BookForum)
* Film Review: ‘Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story’ (Variety)
* Spirit of jazz, soul of a man - Fellowship Band leader Brian Blade on playing with Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter and the Hallelujah Train (Colorado Springs Independent)
* Beijing bebop: Once scorned, jazz is suddenly thriving in the Chinese capital (CNN)
* Our culture loves music. Too bad our economy doesn’t value it. (Washington Post)
* A Jazz Raconteur’s Parting Words (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: August 9, 2015

Brian Blade

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Robert Glasper Will Make You Listen to More Jazz (Vice)
* NYC’s famous Music Row is about to be a ghost town (New York Post)
* At 78 and with myriad health issues, surf-rock legend Dick Dale plays through the pain (Pittsburgh City Paper)
* Open the Music Industry’s Black Box (New York Times)
* Buddy Guy: 'I Worry About The Future Of Blues Music' (NPR)
* With His "65-92" Concert, Kamasi Washington Looked Back on the Music of the Watts and Rodney King Riots (LA Weekly)
* Live Review: Kamasi Washington at Seattle’s Neumos (7/30) (Consequence of Sound)
* These mics capture sounds from the edge of human hearing – and beyond (CreateDigitalMusic.com)
* Newport Jazz Festival 2015 Day 1 Highlights: Snarky Puppy, Chris Potter, Ambrose Akinmusire & More (Billboard)
* Newport Jazz Festival 2015 Day 2 Highlights: Jonathan Batiste, Jose James, Jack DeJohnette & More (Billboard)
* Have We Reached Peak Vinyl? (Stereogum)
* DARPA hired a jazz musician to jam with their artificially intelligent software (Tech Insider)
* Newport Jazz lineup left no gaps unbridged (Boston Globe)
* Review: The 2015 Newport Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* Hemingway Showcases Amazing Versatility During Stone Residency (DownBeat)
* Jazz iconoclast Steve Coleman on the ancient bedrock of human creativity (Chicago Reader)
* An Interview With the Most in Demand Drummer - Brian Blade (Cash Box Canada)
* Is streaming a threat to music? Not if musicians have anything to do with it (Los Angeles Times)
* The Band, The Capitol Albums 1968-1977 - album review: Pioneering rockers who changed the course of popular music (The Independent UK)
* Strong Bookings Illustrate Why Newport Retains Vaunted Stature (DownBeat)
* Blind Willie Johnson: The Soul of a Man (Arts & Labor)

Sunday Session: February 1, 2015

Matthew Shipp

For your Sunday reading enjoyment and edification, here are some noteworthy items encountered during the past week about jazz, creative music, and more:

* Who Killed the Great American Songbook? (The Atlantic)
* Matthew Shipp Talks Herbie Hancock’s Memoir Possibilities, and Not Dying for Your Art (The Talkhouse)
* Sorry, Bjork: Album Leaks Are Just Part of the Process Now (Diffuser)
* When Pop Broke Up With Jazz (NPR)
* Bo Dollis' career inextricably bound to New Orleans Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Manna for fans: the history of the hidden track in music (The Guardian UK)
* Get Ready For Classic Songs Of The 50s & 60s To Disappear From Internet Streaming Thanks To Copyright Lawsuits (TechDirt.com)
* The Death of Music Sales - If CDs are "dead," so is iTunes. (The Atlantic)
* Are these 3D printed instruments the future? (ClassicFM.com)
* The Story of AllMusic, Which Predates the World Wide Web (Vice.com)
* Brian Blade Excels in Multiple Roles at Panama Jazz Festival (Down Beat)
* Bone music: the Soviet bootleg records pressed on x-rays (The Guardian UK)
* Synths of the father: Making some noise at NAMM 2015 (The Register UK)
* Copyright Law Is Eating Away At Our Cultural History: And It's Time To Fix That (TechDirt.com)
* Our Point Of View At Le Poisson Rouge (NPR)
* Louis Armstrong’s Desert Island Discs appearance found by BBC (The Guardian UK)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A few minutes with Billy Childs

This week, let's spend a few minutes with some videos of pianist Billy Childs, who will be in St. Louis next week to play Wednesday, October 3 through Saturday, October 6 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although the gig is billed as the Billy Childs Quartet, the group - which includes alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade - is positioned as more of a cooperative effort than a typical leader/sidemen scenario. And though they've worked together before on a very limited basis, playing in Los Angeles and at the Blue Note in Tokyo back in March, there seems to be no online video footage of them playing together.

So instead, we're focusing on the nominal leader, who may be a bit under the radar of many music fans despite his numerous accomplishments. Childs, 55, grew up in Los Angeles and studied music at USC. He worked briefly with trombonist J. J. Johnson while still in college, then joined Freddie Hubbard's band from 1978 to 1984.

Since then, in addition to leading his own bands, Childs has performed and/or recorded with Dianne Reeves, Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Daniels, Bobby Hutcherson, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Harrison, and others. In recent years, he's also worked regularly with Chris Botti, playing in St. Louis with the trumpeter several times.

Drawing on his background in classical music, Childs has written arrangements for Botti, Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Gladys Knight, Michael Bublé, David Foster, Phil Ramone, Claudia Acuña, and others. He's also penned many commissioned pieces for a variety of ensembles, ranging from string quartet to full orchestra, and in 2009 received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

In 2000 Childs arranged, orchestrated and conducted Dianne Reeves' album The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, which won a 2002 Grammy award for "best jazz vocal CD." Childs also has won three Grammy Awards on his own, in 2006 (for "best instrumental composition" and "best arrangement accompanying a vocalist") and again in 2011 for "best instrumental composition."

He made his first album as a leader for Windham Hill Jazz in 1988 and since has recorded for several labels, including GRP, Shanachie and Metropolitan. Childs' most recent recordings for ArtistShare, Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010), combine jazz and classical elements.

Today's first clip up above, recorded late last year at Duc des Lombards in Paris, conveys some of the flavor of those two recent records, as Childs leads a sextet that include Blade on drums as well as Tim Garland (saxophones), Carol Robbins (harp), Larry Koonse (guitar) and Hamilton Price (bass).

Down below, you can see Childs with Price and drummer Gerry Gibbs, showing off some keyboard pyrotechnics on Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" in a clip recorded in 2007 at Steamers Jazz Cafe in Fullerton, CA. Below that, there's a video interview with Childs in four parts, recorded in 2009 for a Detroit-based program called eFactor.

For more about Billy Childs, check out his episode of NPR's "Piano Jazz", recorded in 2006.

Pollstar: Brian Blade coming to the Touhill in February, 2010

The online tour information service Pollstar has added a listing showing a performance by drummer Brian Blade on Friday, February 12, 2010 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis' Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Most recently, Blade has been a member of saxophonist Wayne Shorter's quartet, and in addition to leading his own bands, he has performed and recorded with many other well known jazz and rock musicians, including Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, Joni Mitchell, Bill Frisell, Ellis Marsalis, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois and Bob Dylan. Blade's latest CD, Mama Rosa, changes things up a bit, spotlighting his talents as a singer, guitarist and songwriter.

As always, listings on Pollstar should be considered unconfirmed until officially announced by the presenter and/or venue. The Touhill's Web site says that season subscriptions will go on sale June 22.