Sunday Session: May 16, 2021

Melissa Aldana

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

* Computer World at 40: How Kraftwerk Predicted Our Techno-Utopian Fate (Consequence of Sound)
* Wes Montgomery and friends (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Growth drivers – what comes after streaming (Music Industry Blog)
* Melissa Aldana Signs to Blue Note, Building on the Legacy of Her Saxophone Heroes (WBGO)
* The Weight Of The Ritual: Frank Rynne On The Master Musicians Of Joujouka (TheQuietus.com)
* Vincent Herring: Not the End of the Line (Jazz Times)
* Carla Bley at 85: In Praise and Awe of an Unfettered Genius (WBGO)
* Dave Mason: Feelin’ Alright At 75 (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to Induct Jay-Z, Carole King, Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren and Foo Fighters (Variety)
* Curtis Fuller 1932–2021 (Jazz Times)
* Berlin to officially declare nightclubs as cultural institutions (DJMag.com)
* This man made opera history. Why did I not know him? (The Guardian)
* The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify (Slate.com)
* Pulling Back the Curtain on Alexander Shustorovich, Classical Music's International Man of Mystery (Billboard)
* Family Company Is Thriving Making Turntables For Vinyl Aficionados (Forbes)
* George Grella on Jazz: Is It Safe? (Red Hook Star-Revue)
* Kind of Blue Books: Novels about Jazz Musicians (NeglectedBooks.com)
* How James Brown’s Star Time Revolutionized the Box-Set Game—and Cemented His Legacy (Pitchfork.com)

Sunday Session: April 18, 2021

Albert "Tootie" Heath

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

* Invention Has A Sound: The story of Mark Twain, a Martin acoustic and the world’s first guitar effect (Guitar)
* The Rhymes And Reasons Behind Re-Recording Your Own Classics (NPR)
* Bob Porter, Eminent Producer, Broadcaster and Writer, and Pillar of WBGO, Has Died at 80 (WBGO)
* Steve Gadd: From Monroe County to Around the World (NYSMusic.com)
* A Guide to the Extensive Musical Legacy of Mills College (Bandcamp.com)
* The Glorious Exclamation Mark: Carla Bley Interviewed (TheQuietus.com)
* Sonny Simmons, Fiercely Independent Alto Saxophonist, Dies at 87 (NPR)
* Interview with Phil Schaap (MaxRaskin.com)
* A philosophy of sound (Aeon.co)
* Inescapable Progression: 10 Jazz Labels You Need To Know In 2021 (Grammy.com)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Albert "Tootie" Heath (SFJAZZ.org)
* Apple Greenlights Louis Armstrong Documentary From Imagine (Variety)
* Matters of Obsession - Brian Eno’s ambient music for times of thinking and healing (DailyMaverick.com)
* Mental Health Takes Center Stage As Pandemic Devastates Nashville's Live Music Scene (NPR)
* Meet the songwriters who told pop stars: 'Don't steal from us' (BBC)
* Is It Possible For an Opera Singer to Break Glass with Their Voice? (WKYC)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Henry Threadgill (SFJAZZ.org)
* Painting Music with Artificial Intelligence (Mathworks.com)
* Why It’s Misleading to Say ‘Apple Music Pays Twice as Much Per Stream as Spotify’ (Variety)
* Joe Lovano: Finding New Adventures (AllAboutJazz.com)

Sunday Session: March 7, 2021

Eddie Henderson

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

* Two-Thirds of New York City’s Arts and Culture Jobs Are Gone (Bloomberg.com)
* Rock, Race, and History: A Conversation with Vernon Reid (Line6.com)
* 25 essential jazz songs that trace the quintessential American artform through history (USA Today)
* How We’ll Be Able to Hear Live Music This Summer (Curbed.com)
* 'Sisters With Transistors': Pioneers Of Electronic Music (NPR)
* Charlie Parker, KC Jazz legend, to receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (KSHB)
* The sound of music in veterinary medicine (DVM360.com)
* Escalator Over the Hill, by Carla Bley (MusicAficionado.blog)
* Eddie Henderson: Bright Moments (Jazz Times)
* 50 Years Later, Why Marvin Gaye's Seminal Album 'What's Going On' Endures (WBUR)
* Ralph Peterson Jr. 1962–2021 (Jazz Times)
* Recording Andra Day as Billie Holiday Was an Exercise in ‘Surround’ Sound (Variety)
* The Greatness of Nina Simone: Listen to Our Podcast on the Legendary Singer (Rolling Stone)
* Without support, freelance musicians will continue falling into hardship (BigIssue.com)
* Tulane University jazz archive gets new name and expanded mission (Tulane.edu)
* Music Streaming: Is It a Level Playing Field? (CompetitionPolicyInternational.com)
* Jazz legend, after house partially collapses, gets help from philanthropist, neighbors (WHYY)
* The Jazz Pianist Using a Computer Program to Play with Other Musicians in Quarantine (The New Yorker)
* On João Gilberto (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* Jimmy “Duck” Holmes: “People think of blues as hard times and sadness, they don’t look at the soul behind it” (Down At The Crossroads)
* The Checkout: Saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins on the Quest for an Overwhelming Sound (WBGO)
* The patterns are already there: remembering Milford Graves (The Wire)
* To boo or not to boo: Catcalls are the musical audience’s tool of last resort (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Hasaan Ibn Ali: Lost Album Found, New Chapter Opened (Jazz Times)
* New Compilation Of Old Tunes Is 'An Alternate History Of The World's Music' (NPR)
* Saving Birdland—and Jazz History (The New Yorker)
* Backup Singer Dolette McDonald on Her Years With Talking Heads, the Police, and Don Henley (Rolling Stone)
* Soul Superhero - The massive life and tragic death of King Curtis (WaxPoetics.com)
* David Crosby on dinner with Joni, Phoebe Bridgers and the 50th anniversary of his haunted solo debut (Los Angeles Times)

Sunday Session: August 4, 2019

Nina Simone

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

* Rising numbers of younger fans spark a UK jazz renaissance (The Guardian)
* Hello, Brave New World! (NPR)
* Patrice Rushen’s Journey Through Jazz, Popular Music and Hollywood (DownBeat)
* Concord Jazz Festival celebrates 50 years as champion of jazz vocals (San Francisco Chronicle)
* 'The Black Messiah' And The Legacy Of Cannonball Adderley (NPR)
* “Give me a blues song, tell the world what’s wrong...” (Majorca Daily Bulletin)
* Mammoth concert grand piano unveiled to public in Latvia (Deutsche Welle)
* Lauren Sevian Working Beyond ‘Bliss’ (DownBeat)
* Carla Bley: “I’m trying to be normal, to sound totally classical, but I fail.” (Qwest.tv)
* In a globalized world, music fragments take unexpected roads (Associated Press)
* Concord Jazz Fest 2019: Celebrating an empire that grew out of car dealership (San Jose Mercury News)
* Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Is Under Threat. This Campaign Aims to Save It (Smithsonian)
* Exclusive video interview: Don Was talks about Blue Note Records (Jazzwise)
* Shabaka Hutchings at the ‘Peak of Intensity’ (DownBeat)
* Artist Spotlight: Lionel Loueke (Jazz Times)
* Saalfelden Festival Offers Good Vibes (DownBeat)
* Surviving Woodstock (The New Yorker)
* Shabaka Hutchings - The Future of Afrofuturism (SFJAZZ.org)
* We’ve Got A File On You: Bruce Hornsby (Stereogum.com)
* It’s Bootsy, baby: The funk legend sits down with PW ahead of his charity appearance in West Philly (Philadelphia Weekly)
* Randy Newman Finds a New Audience, Again (TheRinger.com)
* Cassettes Are Back, and It’s Not About the Music (Bloomberg.com)
* Why is it so hard to keep an orchestra afloat? The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is not alone in its woes (Baltimore Sun)
* ‘It’s a knife fight.’ Here’s how 3 orchestras facing the same problems as the Baltimore Symphony bounced back (Baltimore Sun)
* A superstar jazz musician in Ethiopia, then a D.C. cab driver, now ready for Newport Jazz Festival (Newport Daily News)
* Young volunteers assist in Coltrane home rehab (Long Island Business News)

Sunday Session: March 31, 2019

Matthew Shipp

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:

* Jazz in Troubled Times: Watson Professor, WSJ contributor Larry Blumenfeld Riffs on ‘Relevance, Resonance’ of Jazz Culture (Syr.edu)
* Bootsy Collins: The Warner Bros. Era (CultureSonar.com)
* 1918-2018: 20 works that defined a century (Classical-Music.com)
* Michael Wolff’s Miraculous Turn (DownBeat)
* 30 Years of 'Nick of Time': How Bonnie Raitt's 'Underdog Record' Swept the Grammys & Saved Her Career (Billboard)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago on the Past and Future of Their ‘Great Black Music’ (Rolling Stone)
* Carla Bley Plays the Big Band With Her Hands (Westword)
* Pianists Born 100 Years Ago Prove: There's No One Way To Play Jazz (NPR)
* How the music of 1950’s Cuba revolutionized the sound of young Senegal (QZ.com)
* Carla Bley Stretches Out at Big Ears (DownBeat)
* Signature Moves - A brief conversation with underground jazz piano great Matthew Shipp (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* Resonance Records to Release Archival Recordings by Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans (Jazz Times)
* DJs of the Future Don't Spin Records—They Write Code (Wired)
* Big Ears Festival 2019: The Best (Echoes.org)
* The best decade for pop music has been revealed – according to science (NME.com)
* Frank Sinatra And Elvis Presley: When The Chairman Met The King (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Brotherhood of Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez (DownBeat)
* The Eclectic Artistry of Gary Lucas (Van Wyck Gazette)
* How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis (Smithsonian)
* Downtown Music Acquires CD Baby Owner AVL Digital Group (Price Tag: $200 Million) (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* ‘What The F*** Is Happening Right Now’: A Look At ‘The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa’ (Pollstar.com)
* Aaron Diehl: paradox at the piano (Rochester City Newspaper)
* Jazz Guitarist Joe Morris: Enhance the Risk (Premier Guitar)
* Jazz Duo Explores the Intersection of Math and Music (Flagpole)

Sunday Session: May 27, 2018

Bennie Maupin

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:

* Bird's just a word but if you own a jazz bar it can land you in strife (The Age)
* How the Music Industry Messed Up Legal Streaming the First Time Around (Vice.com)
* It’s OK To Like Free Jazz (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Flow is Everything: Composer Henry Threadgill Dishes the 'Dirt' and More on The Checkout (WBGO)
* 'We Kept The Music Going': Bernard Purdie On Drumming For Aretha And More (NPR)
* ‘There will be a number one song that’s 100% AI-written’ (Musically.com)
* Carla Bley Extravaganza (EthanIverson.com)
* Frank Vignola: Given the Gift of Life (Jazz Times)
* Bennie Maupin Said No to Miles Davis and Survived in Jazz (Westword)
* Reggie Lucas, Guitarist And Producer Of Madonna's Debut, Has Died (WBGO)
* How did music become so unimportant? (GetIntoThis.co.uk)
* Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis says rap and hip-hop are ‘more damaging than a statue of Robert E. Lee’ (Washington Post)
* Jazz Musician Wynton Marsalis Claims Hip Hop Is "More Damaging Than A Statue Of Robert E. Lee" (HipHopDX.com)
* The Beatles' Esher Demos: The Lost Basement Tapes That Became the White Album (Rolling Stone)
* The 50 Best Jazz Bassists Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Sony in $2.3 billion deal for EMI, becomes world's biggest music publisher (Reuters.com)
* Dissonant Intervals & Bittersweet Symphonies: Music’s Past, Present & Future (Medium.com)
* Guitars Are Getting More Popular. So Why Do We Think They’re Dying? (Rolling Stone)
* Looking Back, and Now Forward, As Delmark Records Faces a Crossroads (WBGO)
* Why Are Pop Stars Trying to Be Performance Artists? (The New Yorker)
* Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow Accused by Fired Staffer of Funneling Funds From MusiCares Charity (Billboard)
* Bach at the Burger King (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* The Father of Gospel Music Wanted to Be a Secular Star (Christianity Today)
* What's That Building? The Sunset Cafe Mural (WBEZ)
* Letter From Saint Petersburg - In 2018, International Jazz Day brings the beyond-politics cultural diplomacy of the U.N. to Russia (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: May 20, 2018

Shabaka Hutchings

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:

* New Orleans Celebrates Itself at Jazz Fest (Jazz Times)
* A Lifetime of Carla Bley (The New Yorker)
* Blanchard's trumpet sounds a call of protest (Minnesota Public Radio)
* Matt Marks, Versatile Composer And Musician, Dies At 38 (NPR)
* Guitarist & Composer Glenn Branca Dies at 69 (Billboard)
* Wynton Marsalis & Ethan Iverson: A Conversation on Jazz & Race (Jazz Times)
* Inside Cumbia's New Wave: How Raymix, Becky G Are Updating a Classic Genre (Rolling Stone)
* New Orleans Festival Hosts Generations (DownBeat)
* Spelman College Quietly Eliminates One Of The Country's Few Jazz Programs For Women (WBGO)
* 'The Jazz Ambassadors': When Dizzy and Satchmo Diplomacy Swung the Cold War (PopMatters.com)
* Checking In With Bob Ciano (NostalgiaKing.com)
* 'Isn't This Amazing?': Brian Eno's Boundless Curiosity (Rolling Stone)
* JazzFest Bonn Tinged by Air of Classical (DownBeat)
* The World of Cecil Taylor (New York Review of Books)
* Now TIDAL is accused of failing to pay record labels on time (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Interview \\ Shabaka Hutchings on taking up space and his account on an unjust police arrest (EZHMag.com)
* YouTube Expanding Music Credits on Videos (Pitchfork.com)
* Why Psychological Analysis Shows We're Right To Worry For Musicians' Mental Health (TheQuietus.com)
* Dweezil Zappa Shares ‘Good News’ Post About Resolving Family Issues (Jambase.com)
* What Artists Get Wrong With Their Vinyl Releases: A Conversation with Masterdisk’s Scott Hull (Reverb.com)
* First Listen: Joshua Redman, 'Still Dreaming' (NPR)
* Someone called 911, but this man’s maple instrument wasn’t a gun. It was a bassoon (Springfield News Sun)
* Mojos Working: A History Of Recorded Blues (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Cecil Taylor (1929-2018), Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka (Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets)
* Pianist Ahmad Jamal charted a new popularity for jazz (Wax Poetics)
* Reggie Lucas, Miles Davis Guitarist and Madonna Producer, Dead at 65 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: July 31, 2016

Johnny Hodges

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Jane Monheit: Beyond Ella (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* Live: Famoudou Don Moye & Hartmut Geerken - A historic free-improv set in Berlin (Jazz Times)
* The Linguistics of My Next Band Name (JStor.org)
* Why is new classical music left to wither and die? (The Telegraph UK)
* New Ensembles, Inspired Pairings Animate Umbria Jazz Fest (DownBeat)
* Johnny Hodges - The Timeless Artistry of a Great Ellingtonian (New England Public Radio)
* Record Labels Need a Change of Culture in the ‘Dashboard Era’ of the Music Industry (Medium.com)
* The mystery of the phantom Billboard hit, “Ready ‘N’ Steady,” is finally solved (AV Club)
* Pitchfork Fest, a Bastion of Rock and Pop, Opens Doors to Jazz (DownBeat)
* Dave Douglas review – jolting backbeats and hip-hop highjinks (The Guardian UK)
* Born to Be Blue: Ethan Hawke on the fast life and mysterious death of Chet Baker (The Guardian UK)
* Inside The Playlist Factory (Buzzfeed.com)
* Free-Improv Players Soar During Astral Spirits Showcase (DownBeat)
* Why Beijing Is (Still) A Great City For Jazz Music (Forbes)
* How Being a Music Journalist Made Me Wind Up in a Psychiatric Hospital (Vice.com)
* Charles Davis obituary (The Guardian UK)
* Rock, racism and rebel music: 1970s Britain through a photographer’s lens (HuckMagazine.com)
* Brian Eno Explains the Loss of Humanity in Modern Music (OpenCulture.com)
* Remembering Marni Nixon, the Invisible Voice of ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘West Side Story,’ and ‘The King and I’ (The Daily Beast)
* The leading manufacturer of music boxes for ice cream trucks calls Minnesota home (TheCurrent.org)
* THE BLURT JAZZ DESK: Sonny Rollins (BlurtOnline.com)
* Carla Bley: Shoe Leather, Mystery & Moxie (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Behind the Lens: A Deep Dive into the New Frank Zappa Doc ‘Eat That Question’ (Vice.com)
* How the pop video got weird again (The Guardian UK)
* David Bowie’s Blackstar Band Announces New Album, Shares “A Small Plot of Land” Cover (Pitchfork)
* This 1960 Jazz Film Shaped Concert Documentaries as We Know Them (Vice.com)

Sunday Session: June 5, 2016

Billy Hart

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Gary Numan Thinks The Music Industry's Collapse Is A Beautiful Thing (Fast Company)
* TV is the new radio: 'Empire,' 'Vinyl' and late night talk shows provide wall-to-wall music (Los Angeles Times)
* The British pop talent crash: where have all the new acts gone? (The Guardian UK)
* Lost in Time: The Forgotten Bill Evans Trio Album (Jazz Times)
* On Music and Torture (Van Magazine)
* Exclusive Interview: Cameron Graves talks new record ‘Planetary Prince’ (Revive-Music.com)
* Carla Bley: The Girl Who Cried Champagne (Keyboard)
* The Epic - Kamasi Washington’s brand of ecstatic jazz is bringing a whole new audience to the genre. How’d he do it? (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Interview with Houston Person (Do The Math)
* Kraftwerk Lose Copyright Case in German High Court (Rolling Stone)
* Prophets of Rage: Inside New RATM, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill Supergroup (Rolling Stone)
* Zorn Recruits Star Collaborators for Eclectic FIMAV Showcase (DownBeat)
* Controversy: A Recap of the copyright issues surrounding Prince’s estate (CreativeCommons.org)
* Rahsaan Roland Kirk Is the Blind Jazz Great You've Never Heard Of (Esquire)
* Billy Hart, Honored in Healdsburg, Picks His Five Most Important Recordings (KQED)
* The True Story Of The Fake Zombies, The Strangest Con In Rock History (Buzzfeed.com)
* Jeremy Steig, Jazz Flutist, Dies at 73 (New York Times)
* All Music Can Be Categorized by Just Three Attributes (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* It Sounds Like YouTube Is Changing the Way People Listen to Music (New York)
* Sell, Stream, Syndicate Or Sing: How The World’s Top Pop Stars Make Their Money (ValueWalk.com)
* Sara Gazarek and Josh Nelson open up for new duo album ‘Dream In The Blue’ (AXS.com)
* Stephon Alexander Explores Intersection of Jazz & Physics (DownBeat)
* Roger Daltrey: There's no music industry anymore, why would we make an album? (TeamRock.com)
* All You Need Is Love review: a glorious reminder of how pop docs used to be (The Guardian UK)
* Boomers, youngsters fuel surging vinyl record sales (USA Today)
* The Soulful Crossover of Kamasi Washington (Jazz Times)
* How Tyondai Braxton Subverts and Destroys His Own Music (The Atlantic)
* Women guitar makers scratched from Gibson history (MichiganRadio.org)
* The Ken Peplowski Interview (Jazz Times)
* Interview with Sonny Rollins, Musical and Spiritual Autodidact (Ethnomusicology Review)
* Whatever happened to Bobbie Gentry? In search of country music’s great vanished star (Washington Post)
* What is shop music doing to your brain? (BBC)
* Bergamo Jazz Fest Highlights Collective Artistry on a Global Scale (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: September 6, 2015

Marshall Allen

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

* Yale Students Campaign for All That Jazz (New York Times)
* God and jazz at Yale (The Rest Is Noise)
* Watch a 1986 TV story on house music, plus too many documentaries (CreateDigitalMusic.com)
* Contemporary Opera: Pleasing Both Connoisseurs and the Masses? (WQXR)
* Sarah Vaughan to Appear on U.S. Postage Stamp in 2016 (Jazz Times)
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Ben Jaffe Remembers Hurricane Katrina Ten Years Later (Relix)
* Biography of Charles Lloyd by Josef Woodard to be published in September 2015 (JazzCorner.com)
* Smith, Watts, Bey Extend Bird’s Legacy at Charlie Parker Fest (DownBeat)
* Is Copyright Duration Too Long? (Arts Law Journal)
* Noise Uprising - The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution (PopMatters)
* Nashville's Cheatin' Heart: Why Country Music Has Been Obsessed With Adultery for the Last Century (Atlas Obscura)
* Billboard Music Executive Survey: Top Brass Weigh In On the Artists They Covet Most, Taylor Swift and More (Billboard)
* How long can go-go keep going? (Washington Post)
* Maria Schneider on her hometown of Windom, leading the band and working with David Bowie (MinnPost.com)
* Original 1890s Manuscript of “Happy Birthday” Found In a Filing Cabinet (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Carla Bley conducts the Charlie Haden Jazz Liberation Music Orchestra at the Detroit Jazz Festival (Detroit Metro Times)
* Are Movie Theaters the New Music Venue?(LiveNationTV.com)
* The Last Audio Cassette Factory (Bloomberg News)
* How Record Labels Conspired To Kill Off Public Domain Beatles Music In Canada (TechDirt.com)
* Washington Lives Up to Hype in Howard Theatre Performance (DownBeat)
* The piano: Keys of the future (Washington Post)
* White Noise Wackiness (Pro Sound News)
* “Where can you go if you’re in a box?”: Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra interviewed (FactMag.com)