Sunday Session: May 10, 2020

Stevie Wonder

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

* Shut In Due to Pandemic, Cuba Opens a Window to the World With Music (Billboard)
* Richie Cole, Esteemed Alto Saxophonist and a Keeper of the Bebop Flame, Has Died at 72 (WBGO)
* Levon Helm’s spirit remains in barn that bears his name (PBS)
* INTERVIEW: Dr. Michael White, the musician who ventures deep into NOLA jazz history (HollywoodSoapbox.com)
* Battered by coronavirus, L.A.'s legendary recording studios prep for a post-shutdown ‘resurgence’ (Los Angeles Times)
* Richie Cole 1948 – 2020 (Jazz Times)
* Bass Magazine Lockdown Check-In With Trevor Dunn (BassMagazine.com)
* The Making of Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, and Mingus - The Steve Katz Interview (JoniMitchell.com)
* Nelson George on Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" (1973) (Simplecast.com)
* Afrobeat: An Alternative Top Ten (AllAboutJazz.com)
* New Orleans Mourns the Loss of Ellis Marsalis: ‘We Were All His Children’ (The Daily Beast)
* Kurt Elling & Danilo Pérez Share the Secrets of Collaboration (Jazz Times)
* ‘Black Coffee’: Peggy Lee’s “Darker Exploration Of Love” (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* What Will The Future Of Concerts Look Like After The Pandemic? (WBUR)
* ‘It’s a Clusterf-ck’: Musicians Struggle to Get Pandemic Assistance (Rolling Stone)
* Dave Liebman Manifests The Elements (DownBeat)
* New Orleans Music Documentary Set for Home Release Via Local Theaters (Variety)
* Kraftwerk Co-Founder Florian Schneider Dies at Age 73 (Billboard)
* Chicago jazz club owners ponder when to reopen, and how (Chicago Tribune)
* Laurie Anderson: where to start in her back catalogue (The Guardian)
* Hillard 'Sweet Pea' Atkinson, Legendary Vocalist With Was (Not Was), Dies at 74 (Billboard)
* Stevie Wonder turns 70: 7 memorable moments in the music icon’s life (New York Post)
* Without Federal Aid, More than 1,000 U.S. Music Venues Are in Danger of Closing (Rolling Stone)
* How Florian Schneider and Kraftwerk influenced five decades of music (BBC)
* The Vintage Vibe of Robert Cray (DownBeat)
* What is the value of exposure when exposure is all there is? (Music Industry Blog)
* Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87 (Rolling Stone)
* 'He hit us like a bolt of lightning': stars pay tribute to Little Richard (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: April 5, 2020

Wallace Roney

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

* Out of the Blues: Reflections on the 1960s Revival (Acoustic Guitar)
* What Bob Dylan Is Doing in “Murder Most Foul” (The New Yorker)
* The making of King Crimson's Starless And Bible Black (LouderSound.com)
* Mahler versus Slowthai! - what happened when our pop and classical critics traded jobs? (The Guardian)
* What happens to musicians when all the gigs stop? (The Undefeated.com)
* Robert Glasper On Nu Deco Collab, Crossing Over, Blue Note NYC, Surprise Sets With Dave Chappelle & More [Interview] (LiveForLiveMusic.com)
* Stefon Harris — Vibraphonist, Educator, Thinker — Teaches Empathy From The Bandstand (NPR)
* Van Morrison in lockdown: ‘I am trying to get back into writing songs’ (The Independent)
* Why Astrud Gilberto Is So Much More Than ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Wallace Roney, Intrepid Jazz Trumpeter, Dies From COVID-19 Complications At 59 (NPR)
* The blistering cosmic music of The Black Unity Trio (The Wire)
* Reinventing the Sound of Protest (The Nation)
* Jazz and the Vinyl Renaissance (Jazz Times)
* Here’s Every Painstaking Step That Goes Into Making a Steinway & Sons Grand Piano (RobbReport.com)
* More Jazz Added to National Recording Registry (Jazz Times)
* In Memoriam: Ellis Marsalis (1934–2020) (DownBeat)
* Ellis Marsalis, New Orleans Jazz Patriarch, Dies at 85 (Billboard)
* Pianist and Educator Ellis Marsalis Dies at 85 (Keyboard)
* Branford Marsalis Pays Tribute to His Late Father, Ellis Marsalis Jr. (Billboard)
* Legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli dies at 94 (NJArts.net)
* Bucky Pizzarelli, Jazz Guitarist And Prolific Session Musician, Dead At 94 (NPR)
* Remembering Bucky Pizzarelli (DownBeat)
* From Big Pink to Whitney’s Dream House: Here’s What It’s Like to Live in a Pop Star’s Former Home (Rolling Stone)
* Lakecia Benjamin Pursues a Spiritual Quest (DownBeat)
* Downsizing Is Good at Winter NAMM 2020 (Jazz Times)
* The Revolutionary Free Jazz of Irreversible Entanglements (Bandcamp.com)
* ‘Lean On Me,’ ‘Lovely Day’ singer Bill Withers dies at 81 (Associated Press)
* A Moment to Rethink How We Support Music (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: January 12, 2020

James "Blood" Ulmer

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

* ECM at 50 (The Blue Moment)
* How To Like Jazz, For The Uninitiated (NPR)
* Buenos Aires International Jazz Fest survives fiscal crisis (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Berklee Surveys 10 Careers In Music And How Much Money You Can Make (Hypebot.com)
* The Hacker History Of Music Technologies (HackADay.com)
* Chris Lightcap: Two Become One (Jazz Times)
* Seeing Terrence Malick films through his use of music. His composers share what they know (Los Angeles Times)
* Philadelphia's Sigma Sound: The Studio Where Bowie Found His Soul (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Bill Frisell: New Ideas in Old Songs (Stereophile)
* Doors drummer John Densmore: ‘It took me years to forgive Jim Morrison' (The Guardian)
* Mark Stryker, Author of 'Jazz From Detroit,' on a City "Punching Way Over Our Weight Class" (WBGO)
* Roots Amid Chaos: Darcy James Argue Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* The Endless Potential Of The Pedal Steel Guitar, An Odd Duck By Any Measure (NPR)
* Guitar god James ‘Blood’ Ulmer recalls when Soho was a garment district (New York Post)
* Dr. Barry Harris to Receive Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award (Jazz Times)
* The Man Who’s Spending $1 Billion to Own Every Pop Song (Medium.com)
* End of an era: Pianist Ellis Marsalis retires from his 30-year gig at Snug Harbor (NOLA.com)
* How London’s Young Jazz Musicians Are Revitalizing the Artform (HypeBeast.com)
* “Chuck Berry lived to play live music. It was his absolute joy”: Charles Berry Jr on his father’s guitars, music and legacy (Guitar.com)
* Adam Rudolph: Ragmala and Prototypical Music (AllAboutJazz.com)
* How Music Copyright Lawsuits Are Scaring Away New Hits (Rolling Stone)
* Rush drummer Neil Peart dies at age 67 (Jazz.FM)
* Prince: Requiem for a bass hero (Guitar World)
* California’s new gig worker law is disrupting the music industry and threatening all performing arts (CalMatters.org)