Sunday Session: April 11, 2021

Esperenza Spalding

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

* The life and tragic death of Lee Morgan: “He was a young man, already older than his years, thrilled with his talent and the wonders of the world around him” (Jazzwise)
* Islands in the Stream (American Prospect)
* 10 tracks by Herbie Hancock I can’t do without… by Jon Opstad (London Jazz News)
* Brian Bromberg Continues his Journey into the Eclectic (Jazz Times)
* Quincy Jones On Bebop, Jazz And His Streaming Venture, Qwest TV (Forbes)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert to Take Place Virtually April 22, 2021 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Marion Brown's Musical Portrait of Georgia (The Bitter Southerner)
* 'Our music was born in hard times': How Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra keeps playing (Asbury Park Press)
* On "Let Me Tell You 'Bout It," JD Allen Discusses His New Creative Zeal, and a Solo Sax Album on the Horizon (WBGO)
* Morris 'B.B.' Dickerson, Founding Member of War, Dies at 71 (Billboard)
* From History to Biographies, Here Are the Best Books About Jazz (Billboard)
* Listening for baselines beyond anthropophony: An interview with Bernie Krause by D. Ferrett (AllAroundSound-Bloomsbury.com)
* Healing, grace and enlightenment: How Pharoah Sanders and Floating Points made a spiritual album for the dark ages (The Independent)
* Exit/In: Inside the Last-Ditch Effort to Save Nashville’s Legendary Music Club (Rolling Stone)
* How Tangerine Dream conquered the UK charts in the 70s (LouderSound.com)
* Warren Wolf: A Before & After Listening Session (Jazz Times)
* World-Class Trombonist Andre Hayward's Spiritual Journey (Austin Chronicle)
* Play It Forward: Angel Bat Dawid Knows How To Deliver Emotion Through Song (NPR)
* 2021 NEA JAZZ MASTERS: A Q&A with music director Miguel ZenÓn (SFJAZZ.org)
* Pino Palladino, pop's greatest bassist: 'I felt like a performing monkey!' (The Guardian)
* Meet the Man Recreating Ancient Musical Instruments Lost to Time (AtlasObscura.com)
* Inside the Dirty Business of Hit Songwriting (Variety)
* Flipping Alone: An Oral History of Record Stores During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Consequence of Sound)
* Esperanza Spalding’s New Songwrights Apothecary Lab Is the Music Therapy We Need Now (Vogue)
* The Treatment - Terence Blanchard: ‘Da 5 Bloods’
* ‘It has never been more pertinent’ – Margaret Atwood on the chilling genius of Laurie Anderson’s Big Science (The Guardian)
* Merry Clayton Bares Her 'Beautiful Scars' (NPR)
* The Film That Jazz Deserves (The New Yorker)
* 36 of America’s Best Independent Music Venues on Surviving and What’s Next (Pitchfork.com)
* Trevor Dunn: “It’s in my personality to sit back and groove with the drummer – I took to bass immediately“ (Guitar World)
* Live Music Should Be More Accessible For Disabled Fans (Vice.com)

Sunday Session: June 16, 2019

George Benson

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

* Anthony Davis Builds Operas From Headlines (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Sweet Charity: Herb Alpert Foundation Celebrates 25th Anniversary (Jazz Times)
* 30th Century Music Now: Mick Houghton Remembers Sun Ra (The Quietus)
* Wonderland Lost (TheRinger.com)
* Music Is YouTube's Most Profitable Category, 'Crucial' to Bottom Line: Study (Billboard)
* Final Bow For The Night Tripper – A Tribute to Dr John (Jazzwise)
* Esperanza Spalding Knows Music Can Heal. Now She Wants to Prove It With Science (The Daily Beast)
* Bright Moments with Gary Bartz (Jazz Times)
* State Department ‘extreme vetting’ says no to traveling musicians (San Francisco Chronicle)
* They Introduced the World to Songs of Slavery. It Almost Broke Them (Topic.com)
* Jeremy Pelt: Sound Sculptor, Museumgoer (DownBeat)
* The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man! (Scientific American)
* Bret Primack on Jazz Video and the Ira Gitler Documentary (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Cuba: While The Politicians Argued, The Musicians Jammed (NPR)
* Dr. John Knew the End Was Near. He Recorded One Final Album (Rolling Stone)
* Recordings by Nirvana, Janet Jackson, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Chuck Berry, and More Destroyed in 2008 Fire (SPIN)
* Big Mood Machine (TheBaffler.com)
* A Long Tail: Don Cherry's Brown Rice Reviewed (The Quietus)
* Melissa Aldana’s Indisputable Command (DownBeat)
* Music of a Sustainable Future: A Conversation with Linda May Han Oh and Fabian Almazan (SFJAZZ.org)
* Mac’s Wild Years (PonderosaStomp.com)
* Our brains appear uniquely tuned for musical pitch (EurekAlert.org)
* New Documentary 'Blue Note: Beyond The Notes' Surpasses Its Purpose (NPR)
* Jazz Drum Great Andrew Cyrille Revels in Collaboration at Lifetime Achievement Show (Rolling Stone)
* Why It’s Finally Time to Get Rid of Music Charts (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Herbie Hancock plays jazz for a more peaceful world (SydneyOperaHouse.com)
* An oral history of the Fender Stratocaster (Guitar.com)
* George Benson Salutes Rock Pioneers Chuck Berry, Fats Domino (DownBeat)
* Everything You Know Is Wrong: Rock & Roll Was Invented In Wildwood, New Jersey! (PleaseKillMe.com)
* What Was The First Rock & Roll Record? Deke Dickerson Says It’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Terence Blanchard Named First Kenny Burrell Chair at UCLA (Jazz Times)
* The Chaotic Magic of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: December 9, 2018

Dexter Gordon

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:

* All-too-easy listening - The music industry sells classical as soothing background music — robbing a great art of its power (Washington Post)
* Marcus Strickland Harnesses Power of Vocalists, Organ on Latest Album (DownBeat)
* The Multiple Personalities of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Jeff Simon: Is posthumous jazz a problem or a glorious resurrection? (Buffalo News)
* Wynton Marsalis: Jazz And Holiday Music Go Together Like Holly And Ivy (HoustonPublicMedia.org)
* Esperanza Spalding says goodbye to song-driven shows (Washington Post)
* It’s official: Galactic has purchased Tipitina’s (Offbeat)
* This Thing Never Stops: Roscoe Mitchell and Phillip Greenlief in Conversation (SFMOMA.org)
* Jazz Is Dance Music Again (Rolling Stone)
* The Life Force of Esperanza Spalding (OfficeMagazine.net)
* The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition Has a Winner (WBGO)
* Classical Hands: Composer Kris Bowers on Scoring ‘Green Book,’ Teaching Mahershala Ali Piano, Seeing His Hands On Screen (Pollstar)
* The good fight: Jan Ramsey keeps music journalism alive in New Orleans (Columbia Journalism Review)
* St. Nick: The Long, Strange and Wonderful Career of Nick Lowe (Rolling Stone)
* Interview: Milford Graves (Modern Drummer)
* Can We Get to That (Oxford American)
* Indie Labels Now Account for 39.9% of the Global Recorded Music Market (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Dexter Gordon Biography 'Sophisticated Giant' Chronicles a Jazz Life (Billboard)
* The Unclassifiable, Unstreamable Eighties Albums of Annette Peacock (The New Yorker)
* Sachal Vasandani Celebrates the American Songbook (Jazz Times)
* At 80, Saxophonist Charles Lloyd Finds Enlightenment in the Groove (NPR)
* Jazz legend Herbie Hancock becomes first musician to receive Ben Franklin Medal (WHYY)
* Hi Records star and instrumental hitmaker Ace Cannon dead at 84 (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Selling Vintage Records in Tokyo (LongReads.com)
* Covering both sides: Catherine Russell and John Pizzarelli (Santa Fe New Mexican)
* Playing the theory of relativity: Sunny Murray in Europe 1968–72 (The Wire)
* Daversa, Salvant, Mehldau Nominated for Grammy Awards (DownBeat)
* 'Fight The Power': A Tale Of 2 Anthems (With The Same Name) (NPR)
* Feds allege wider cover-up by Irvin Mayfield, Ronald Markham in New Orleans Library Foundation scandal (New Orleans Advocate)

Sunday Session: October 21, 2018

Maria Schneider

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:

* Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell and John Scofield, guitar greats all, discuss their mutual admiration society (San Diego Union-Tribune)
* Review: Dave Holland and Chris Potter (Jazz Journal)
* Paul Simon: Fathers, Sons, Troubled Water (New York Review of Books)
* Jaimie Branch on “Brass Chillers” (Jazz Times)
* Zorn to Secrecy (ArtAndMusicMagazine.com)
* Experts aim to finally solve plane war mystery of famed big band leader Glenn Miller (South China Morning Post)
* Maria Schneider: The star of the show (Irish Examiner)
* Alan Broadbent: Intimate Reflections on a Passion for Jazz (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Jazznojazz Fest Celebrates 20 Years (DownBeat)
* A Mingus discovery (TheBlueMoment.com)
* New Music by Five Composers Behind the Drums, From Tyshawn Sorey to Allison Miller (WBGO)
* Four Electronic Artists Reflect on the Influence of Composer Laurie Spiegel (Bandcamp.com)
* Ben Wendel Takes ‘The Seasons’ from Video Project to Album (DownBeat)
* Loss of small music venues is handing control of culture to robots, MPs told (ArtsProfessional.co.uk)
* Big Bands Reign Supreme at Angrajazz (DownBeat)
* Esperanza Spalding announces ’12 Little Spells’ tour, shares 10th track (Brooklyn Vegan)
* Copyright and the Jazz Musician (Jazz Times)
* New Stax Box Set Details a Fraught 1968 (DownBeat)
* To Hat and To Hold (ArtForum.com)
* The Horace Silver Quintet drummer Roger Humphries reflects on his storied life in jazz (WaxPoetics.com)
* Rubén Blades Swings Big Band Jazz And Rumba On New Album (NPR)
* Naxos Joins eMusic Exodus Over Non-Payment (Hypebot.com)
* Joshua Abrams Discusses Solo Bass and the Spirit of Music (DownBeat)
* What Small, Diverse Music Venues Mean to New York City (CityLab.com)
* Ambassadors for Motown sound seek more of it in hometown (Associated Press)
* Tiny Desk Concert: Alfredo Rodríguez (NPR)
* Is the Cover Making a Recovery? (Slate.com)
* The New American Songbook (Slate.com)
* Lou Reed's Archive Holds Six Hundred Hours Of Mostly Unreleased Audio, And Other Revelations From His Archivist (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Q&A with Ingrid Jensen: Leading from Within (Jazziz)

Sunday Session: October 14, 2018

Esperanza Spalding

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:

* BBC 'to make classical music archive available' (BBC)
* Quincy Jones, From A to Z (Rolling Stone)
* From Studio to Screen: Becoming a Composer (FactMag.com)
* Roy Orbison hologram concert in L.A. invites awe and debate (Los Angeles Times)
* Barcelona’s Jazz Festival Thrives at 50 (DownBeat)
* Visualizing 40 Years of Music Industry Sales (VisualCapitalist.com)
* Women Run the Show at Monterey Jazz Fest (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Louis Armstrong's unseen artifacts almost ready for public view (AMNY.com)
* Radiohead, the Cure, Rage, Janet Jackson Nominated for Rock Hall of Fame 2019 (Pitchfork)
* Esperanza Spalding Casts First of “12 Little Spells” Online (Jazz Times)
* Shelved: Bill Evans’ Loose Blues (LongReads.com)
* “Automation Divine”: Early Computer Music and the Selling of the Cold War (New Music Box)
* Ahmad Jamal at 88: Still playing hard and on his way to Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
* A Labor of Love Supreme: Saving John Coltrane's Home Studio (Pro Sound News)
* Elvis Costello Explains His Great New Album, ‘Look Now’ (Rolling Stone)
* Into the Vault: Erroll Garner Uncovered (NPR)
* Key Music Modernization Act Proponents Disinvited to White House Signing Ceremony (Billboard)
* Marc Ribot Leads a Musical Army Protesting Against Trump (The Daily Beast)
* Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac for kicking him out (Associated Press)
* Famed jazz saxophonist accused of sexual misconduct by former protégé now suing for defamation (New York Daily News)
* Ben Wendel Takes ‘The Seasons’ from Video Project to Album (DownBeat)
* Tony Bennett & Diana Krall: They Like a Gershwin Tune (Jazz Times)
* Berklee to Launch Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice (Jazz Times)
* Maxine Gordon Ended Up Married to the Music (Publishers Weekly)
* The Unearthing of Thelonious Monk’s Lost Live Classic (Bandcamp.com)

Sunday Session: September 2, 2018

Wadada Leo Smith

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:

* Meet the Company Preparing to Be the Last CD Distributor Standing (Billboard)
* The 100 Best Selling Albums of All Time (Updated for 2018) (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The World’s Greatest Living Jazz Composer Celebrates His Eighty-fifth Birthday (The New Yorker)
* ‘Go’: How Dexter Gordon Raced Into The Jazz History Books (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Esperanza Spalding Is The 21st Century's Jazz Genius (NPR)
* Walking to New Orleans: Davell Crawford's Tribute to Fats Domino (WNYC)
* Wadada Leo Smith's Defiant And Fearless Elegy For Emmett Till (In 360° VR) (NPR)
* Aretha Franklin Finally Gets Credit for the Term She Popularized (The Atlantic)
* Bob Dylan’s 2018 Setlists Are Starting to Get Interesting (Rolling Stone)
* 10 Afro-Latino Bands You Need to Check Out (OkayAfrica.com)
* Setting the Tempo (Slate)
* Alice Coltrane Concluded Trilogy with ‘Lord Of Lords’ (DownBeat)
* Flutist Nicole Mitchell uses music to map a possible paradise (Chicago Reader)
* 24-Carat Black Were Sampled by Pusha-T, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, JAY-Z—And They’re Still Broke (Pitchfork.com)
* New Orleans at 300: In Search of Jazz (Something Else)
* Hacking and 3D printing the future of violins, in a growing community (CDM.link)
* 'We're Not Just Bebop': Birdland Searches For Fresh Audiences With New 100-Seat Theater (Billboard)
* From musician to physician: Why medical schools are recruiting for musical ability (CBC)
* Bland on Blonde: why the old rock music canon is finished (The Guardian)
* “It Was Us Against Those Guys”: The Women Who Transformed Rolling Stone in the Mid-70s (Vanity Fair)
* Jazz's 'musical value is nil' (1918): An editorial we regret (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Show Tunes - Instead of selling albums, the music industry today sells fandom (RealLifeMag.com)
* Mondo Jazz Ep. 38: Aretha in Jazz & New Releases (AllAboutJazz.com)
* History of American Protest Music: Which Side Are You On? (LongReads.com)
* Pianist Randy Weston, An Eloquent Spokesman For Jazz's Bond with African Culture, Dies at 92 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: April 15, 2018

Nina Simone

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:

* The British jazz explosion: meet the musicians rewriting the rulebook (The Guardian)
* Monika Herzig’s SHEroes Addresses Gender in Jazz (DownBeat)
* Why Hip-Hop Is Taking Center Stage On Netflix's Original Music Programming (Forbes.com)
* At Tiny Telephone music studio, recording to tape is not a metaphor (KALW)
* MATA at 20 (New Music Box)
* How Drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath Learned to Play Jazz (Westword)
* Philadelphia native James Mtume returns to celebrate 35th anniversary of ‘Juicy Fruit’ (New Pittsburgh Courier)
* Jimmie Vaughan’s B-3 Vibe (Jazz Times)
* The Deceptively Accessible Music of Cecil Taylor (The Atlantic)
* Illuminating Cecil Taylor with Pianist Jason Moran, on The Checkout (WBGO)
* Turning The Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women (As Chosen By You) (NPR)
* “All at Full Fullness”: Remembering Cecil Taylor - Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Matthew Shipp and Wadada Leo Smith pay tribute to an avant-jazz icon (Jazz Times)
* All That Jazz: A #JazzAppreciationMonth Podcast Round-up (Arts.gov)
* Music Publishers Win Major Copyright Fight Over Streaming of Legendary Rock Concerts (Hollywood Reporter)
* Composer Tyondai Braxton: 'I'm at war with myself. That's what the piece sounds like' (The Guardian)
* Spotify could kill Jazz, Soul and Classical music. Really. (SoulTracks.com)
* Q&A with Al Di Meola: In a Good Place (DownBeat)
* The New Jazz Torchbearer: Kamasi Washington on His Musical Message (Rolling Stone)
* Cecil Taylor and the Art of Noise (The New Yorker)
* The Revolutionary Genius of Cecil Taylor (The New Yorker)
* The British Guitar Embargo: When Brits Were Banned from Buying American (Reverb.com)
* How Nina Simone Captivated a New Generation (Rolling Stone)
* In Memoriam: Cecil Taylor (DownBeat)
* ‘It’s an insane project’: Toronto resident documenting city’s live-music history through posters (The Globe and Mail)
* Esperanza Spalding: Redefining Production - The bassist, composer and bandleader on her innovative recent "pop-up" album, "Exposure" (Jazz Times)
* How Musicians Are Using Field Recordings to Capture the Politics of Place (Pitchfork.com)
* ‘A Singular Sound, A Singular Force’: Artists Remember Jazz Great Cecil Taylor (BedfordAndBowery.com)
* Saxophonist Kamasi Washington Announces New Album 'Heaven and Earth' With Two Teaser Videos (NextBop.com)
* Hitting Reboot: Manhattan Transfer (DownBeat)
* American orchestras: Revamping the model, or embracing the obvious? (Washington Post)

Sunday Session: September 24, 2017

Trombone Shorty

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Not Just Jazz: Inside Concord Music's Buying Spree (Billboard)
* Forget Carnegie Hall. Musicians rush to rural Colorado to play the Tank (Los Angeles Times)
* Have we reached peak Hans Zimmer? (The Guardian)
* How Fela Kuti Drummer Tony Allen Rediscovered His Jazz Roots (Rolling Stone)
* Marcus Miller: The Multi-Faceted Musician (Jazz Times)
* Monterey Jazz Festival 2017: Story of Some Grooves (Jazz Times)
* ‘Cash Me Outside’ Girl Signing Marks The Official Split of the Music Industry (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* We Are Never Getting Back Together: How Avoiding a Reunion Can Secure a Band’s Legacy (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Ravi Coltrane brings ‘Love Supreme’ to SFJazz (San Jose Mercury News)
* Why the star of California Symphony’s next concert looks like vacuum cleaner (San Jose Mercury News)
* Mary Hallock Greenewalt’s Illuminated Music (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound (Pitchfork.com)
* Remembering Grant Hart, 1961-2017 (City Pages)
* Concord Music Buys Savoy Label Group, Adding Jazz Recordings From Coltrane, Davis And Parker: Exclusive (Billboard)
* Harmonies That Welcomed Imagination—Remembering John Abercrombie (1944-2017) (New Music Box)
* Songs Of Discomposure: Quietus Writers Pick Their Most Disturbing Pieces Of Music (TheQuietus.com)
* Ann Richards: Dreams Have a Way of Fading (Jazz Times)
* Trombone Shorty Is Big On New Orleans, Music Education & Rap (Grammy.com)
* The 50 Best Jazz Singers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 'An All-Around Musician': Steely Dan Guitarists Share Their Experiences of Working With Walter Becker (Billboard)
* Genres Blur & Swirl in Monterey’s ‘Big Tent’ (DownBeat)
* The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains (NPR)
* Notes from the Custerdome: A Jazz Appreciation of Steely Dan (New Music Box)
* Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: The Inspiration(s) Behind John Coltrane's "Impressions" (WBGO)
* A Frank Zappa Hologram Is Going on Tour (Guitar World)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Ageless Corea & Gadd Dazzle at Blue Note in NYC (DownBeat)
* Pete Turner, Photographer with an Eye for Color and an Ear For Jazz, Dies at 83 (WBGO)
* Soul Singer Charles Bradley Dies at 68 (Billboard)
* Charles Bradley Remembered: A Great Soul Man Who Found the Light in Darkness (Billboard)

Sunday Session: September 17, 2017

Linda May Han Oh

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Mapping The Vast Influence Of Holger Czukay, Alchemist Of Krautrock Legends Can (NPR)
* Lisa Fischer: From Back to Front (Jazz Times)
* What Would the Next Golden Record Carry? (The Atlantic)
* A Conversation with Mark Turner / Ben Ratliff (MusicAndLiterature.org)
* Walter Becker, Glenn Frey, and a Sobering Realization About Dad Rock (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Designing a world of immersive sound (Rochester.edu)
* The Music Industry Bands Together to Finally Get Paid Online (Wired)
* Bokanté: Blues & Roots (Jazz Times)
* Esperanza Spalding's 'Exposure': A Creative Marathon, Live In The Studio (NPR)
* A New Mural Rising to Honor John Coltrane (WRTI)
* Tokyo Jazz Joints: Capturing An Old Love Story (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Blue Note All-Stars Present Their ‘Point Of View’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Toronto: Eric Clapton on Rock Music Now: "Maybe the Guitar Is Over" (Hollywood Reporter)
* Photos: Chicago Jazz Festival 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Inside the Americana Genre's Identity Crisis (Rolling Stone)
* Ambitious Rhode Island music fest ends in chaos (Boston Globe)
* Norah Jones' NYC Residency Reveals the Best Contradictions of the Singer/Songwriter's Career (Paste)
* The Most Expensive Music of Today Is Recorded on Mediums from the Past (Robb Report)
* The Right Music Can Change How Your Date Sees You, Say Scientists (Inverse.com)
* These are the biggest pop songs to sample classical music in the last 25 years (ClassicFM.com)
* Interview: Linda May Han Oh (Monterey County Weekly)
* Sun Ra in Sin City (LaphamsQuarterly.com)
* 38th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Musicals back in vogue, and business, as genre lights up Broadway and TV (The Guardian)
* Musician Fred Hersch Recounts A Life 'In And Out Of Jazz' In His New Memoir (NPR)

Sunday Session: September 10, 2017

Art Tatum

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Steely Dan Guitarist Walter Becker Dies at 67 (DownBeat)
* EWS: Walter Becker (1950-2017) R.I.P. (London Jazz News)
* Walter Becker Was A Master Of Musical Understatement (NPR)
* Vijay Iyer On Jazz's 'History Of Defiance,' His Influences And Playing In A Sextet (NPR)
* Gunter Hampel at 80: Still Ahead of Time (JazzDaGama.com)
* Every Night Perfect (Popular Mechanics)
* The Rise And Fall Of Tower Records (Flashbak.com)
* Wadada Leo Smith's Defiant And Fearless Elegy For Emmett Till (In 360˚ VR) (WBGO)
* Roscoe Mitchell, Who Helped Invent New Chicago Jazz Sound, Comes Home (Chicago magazine)
* Chicago Jazz Fest Shines Spotlight on Hometown Talent (DownBeat)
* Holger Czukay, sampling pioneer and co-founder of Can, has died at age 79 (FactMag.com)
* Holger Czukay obituary (The Guardian)
* Tower Of Power Singer Rick Stevens Dies (Pollstar.com)
* BassDrumBone and the New Haven Jazz Renaissance (AllAboutJazz.com)
* In Praise of Art Tatum, Stealth Radical in the Jazz Piano Pantheon (WBGO)
* Looking back at 20 years of neglected promise at 18th and Vine — and forward to 2020 (Pitch Weekly)
* Ella Fitzgerald Sings With London Symphony Orchestra On New Album (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Berklee To Turn A Legendary Recording Studio Into Its New York City Home Base (WBUR)
* Jimmy’s Blues (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* A Nation of Tinkerers: How a Canadian University Shaped Electronic Music in North America (Vice.com)
* The World’s Largest Music Publishers Just Declared War on Spotify — In No Uncertain Terms (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* We Talked to People at the Largest Free Jazz Festival on the Planet (Vice.com)
* Iggy Pop: Croon & Destroy - From his Stooges days to a surprising recent collaboration, the punk pioneer discusses his jazz past (Jazz Times)
* World’s oldest jazz band in Shanghai a rare constant amid China’s breakneck modernisation (South China Morning Post)
* Should Spotify Try to Become the 'Netflix Of Music'? Not So Fast (Billboard)
* 'Germans Love Their CDs': Universal Music Exec on How Germany's Music Market Is Transforming 'Differently' (Billboard)
* Two Years Later, Is New Music Friday Doing Its Job? (Forbes)
* What if you used synthesizers to emulate nature and reality? (CDM.link)
* Why Esperanza Spalding Is the Most Audacious Innovator in Jazz (Time)
* How We Can Support the World’s Rich Musical Diversity (Smithsonian)
* Review: Detroit Jazz Festival 2017 - Artist-in-residence Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and others impress at this outstanding free fest in the Motor City (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: September 3, 2017

Thelonious Monk

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Elvis Presley’s Archivist on the Heartbreak of Tapes Trashed by RCA, Scouring the South for Lost Recordings (Variety)
* Esperanza Spalding’s Pop Culture Loves (Smithsonian)
* Tin Men and the Telephone: the jazz band you control with a smartphone (The Guardian)
* Review: The Mingus Prom (Jazz Journal)
* The Devo De-Evolution Of Golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez (WBUR)
* Close Encounters of the 4th Kind with the Sun Ra Arkestra in San Francisco (PopMatters.com)
* Pharaoh’s Den, the Sun Ra-themed grocery store in Philadelphia (DangerousMinds.net)
* Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Whole New Vista (Jazz Times)
* Hancock-Washington Double Bill Rocks the Hollywood Bowl (DownBeat)
* INTERVIEW: Marilyn Mazur (London Jazz News)
* Review: Oslo Jazz Festival 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Sean Jones: The Spirit Calling (DownBeat)
* Woody Shaw Takes on “’Round Midnight,” the Trumpeter’s Supreme Challenge (The New Yorker)
* The Omnivorous Mind of Pamela Z (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Where's the Best Seat in the Concert Hall? (WQXR)
* The South Side’s Last Remaining Jazz Landmarks (Chicago magazine)
* Rock ’N’ Roll: America’s Midlife Crisis (Talkhouse.com)
* Pop music is rejecting the piano. Why? (The Economist)
* ‘The Simpsons’ Composer Alf Clausen Fired (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)
* Review: Jazz re:freshed Live at Nublu in NYC (Jazz Times)
* Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says (Variety)
* How we made Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" (The Guardian)
* Stevie Wonder Reflects On Motown, God And Prince (NPR)
* Off Minor Prophet: Thelonious Monk at 100 (Think Christian)
* Son of Jazz Great Thelonious Monk Sues California Brewery (USNews.com)
* Hudson: Upstate New York’s Supergroup (Jazz Times)
* From Jazz Clubs to Classrooms (The Nation)
* Revitalization project honors jazz great, Toledo native Art Tatum (Toledo Blade)
* Kirk Knuffke’s Time: The Story of Some of the Year’s Best Jazz (Village Voice)
* Avant-garde elder Roscoe Mitchell celebrates 50 years of Nessa Records (Chicago Reader)
* Quincy Jones Looks Back on the Making of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' (Rolling Stone)
* A Brand You Can Trust? Record Nerds’ 20 Favorite Labels From the 20th Century (Variety)
* Jazz trumpeter Hino attacks schoolboy drummer (The Asahi Shimbun)
* First Listen: Arturo O'Farrill & Chucho Valdés, 'Familia: Tribute To Bebo & Chico' (NPR)
* Meet the Ace of Cups, the Haight’s (Almost) Forgotten All-Girl Band (KQED)

Sunday Session: July 16, 2017

Tony Allen

Here's the weekly roundup of various music-related items of interest that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Stream-ripping is 'fastest growing' music piracy (BBC)
* Record Rendezvous: Cleveland cradle of rock 'n' roll sits empty, awaits new life (photos) (Cleveland.com)
* Mulatu Astatke’s “Ethiopia” Is A Love Letter To His Homeland (Bandcamp.com)
* Here’s what happened the last time audio producers got better data (NiemanLab.org)
* Ornette Coleman Takes Flight Again, in Music and Film, This Week at Lincoln Center (WBGO)
* Esperanza Spalding: Jazz Musician, Grammy Award Winner and Now Museum Curator (Smithsonian)
* Kansas City's American Jazz Museum Should Belong To The Entire City, Officials Say (KCUR)
* Lady Gaga's Trumpet Player on 'Insane' Gig With Stevie Wonder, Rose Bar Residency & 'Making It' in NYC (Billboard)
* No Heroes: Lester Bangs on Stage (NoSuchThingAsWas.com)
* Producers Rejoice: Legal Sampling Is Now As Easy As Online Shopping (Video) (AmbrosiaForHeads.com)
* Newark Sings a New Tune on Road To Revival (Wall Street Journal)
* Original Dixie Dregs Announce Reunion (NoTreble.com)
* 6 Nina Simone Songs Brilliantly Sampled by Rappers (Pitchfork.com)
* Spotify denies it’s playlisting fake artists. So why are all these fake artists on its playlists? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* So… who’s actually behind Spotify’s fake artists? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Why Spotify’s fake artists problem is an Epidemic. Literally. (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* A Lot of Noise on Spotify (IllusionOfMore.com)
* Women of Jazz: Stream a Playlist of 91 Recordings by Great Female Jazz Musicians (OpenCulture.com)
* This Woman Has Engineered Pop’s Biggest Recent Hits, from ‘Melodrama’ to ‘1989’ (Vice.com)
* For Chamber Music in Silicon Valley, Hoodies and Haydn Don’t Mix (KQED)
* The Crate Crisis: How the Used Vinyl Market is Changing (GetItOnVinyl.com)
* Is the threat of a copyright lawsuit stifling music? (BBC)
* NEW AGE: jazz in 2017 (M-Magazine.com)
* Diminuendo: Is Classical Music Journalism Fading to Silence? (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Afrobeat Drummer Allen’s Quartet Pays Tribute to Blakey at Poisson Rouge (DownBeat)
* What Can Listening to Nature Teach Us? (EarthEasy.com)
* Mary Halvorson Pushes Jazz Guitar Into New Territory (Village Voice)
* SoundCloud sinks as leaks say layoffs buy little time (TechCrunch.com)
* The avant-garde jazz of Griot Galaxy (Detroit Metro Times)
* Rochester Jazz Fest Emphasizes Jazz at the Fascinating Fringes (DownBeat)
* Bria Skonberg: 5 songs that changed my life (CBCMusic.ca)
* 'A Pocketful Of Blues': Charles Lloyd On 'Passin' Thru' (NPR)
* Photos: 2017 North Sea Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Ethan Iverson: Addition through Subtraction (DownBeat)
* Power of the Mind: You Can Play This Instrument Using Just Your Thoughts (Newsweek)
* Van Morrison will salute his blues heroes on new album, 'Roll With the Punches' (Los Angeles Times)
* Robert Mugge’s 1986 film Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus to be rereleased (The Wire)
* The Emergence of A New Black Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Text (BrooklynRail.org)
* Vijay Iyer: Taking Stock of the Ojai Music Festival Experience (TheLogJournal.com)
* The Story Behind the Surge in Vinyl Film Soundtracks (Paste)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Eight jazz newsmakers of 2016

As regular readers know, this space frequently is used to preview shows from touring jazz and creative music performers coming to St. Louis. But with a relative paucity of acts visiting here in the next several weeks, today's video showcase offers something a little different: a look back at some of jazz performers who have been making news during the first half of 2016, starting with trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold.

Harrold has gotten good notices and a lot of publicity this year for his work on the soundtrack of Miles Ahead, actor/director Don Cheadle's film about Miles Davis that was released in April. The first video up above features a full set of Harrold's own music, as performed at Revive Music's recent tenth anniversary celebration in NYC and captured on video by Boiler Room.

After the jump, the first video features pianist Robert Glasper, who's also been in the news a lot this year thanks to his involvement in Miles Ahead. Glasper wrote five new compositions for the film's soundtrack, and last month also released Everything's Beautiful, a tribute/remix album using samples from the Miles Davis catalog. The clip is an interview with Glasper, in which he talks about his work on Miles Ahead, his musical relationships with hip-hop performers such as The Roots and the late J Dilla, and more.

Next up is saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill, who in April won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for music for his work "In For A Penny, In For A Pound," written for his ensemble Zooid.

The first video of Threadgill features a brief interview with him conducted in January by Frank Oteri of New Music USA. That's followed by a full 75-minute Zooid performance, recorded in October 2013 at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

The next two clips feature two more winners of major awards this year, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, who this past week were among the latest group of veteran musicians, jazz advocates, and others to be named Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Although Bridgewater, Smith, and the other winners won't actually receive their awards until 2017, you can celebrate now by enjoying a full set of Bridgewater, recorded live at the 2013 Jazzaldia festival in San Sebastian, Spain, followed by the good Doctor's version of Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover," as performed earlier this year with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Kendrick Scott at Kente Arts Alliance in Pittsburgh, PA.

(If you'd like to hear more, both Bridgewater and Smith have been the subjects of previous Saturday video posts. StLJN looked at Bridgewater's current collaboration with trumpeter Irvin Mayfield in this post from March of this year, and paid visits to Dr. Smith in 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2015.)

Smith's latest album Evolution was released by Blue Note in January, and based on the critical reception, seems likely to end up on a fair number of year-end "best of" lists. Two other performers who released muc-talked-about albums in the first half of 2016 were bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding and singer Cyrille Aimée.

Spalding picked up an electric bass, a new look and a new theatrical persona for her album Emily's D+Evolution, which went in what NPR Music called "a louder, proggier, weirder funk-rock direction." You can see and hear that direction in today's seventh clip, a full performance recorded by NPR and WFUV in March of this year at BRIC in NYC.

For those who tastes run more toward the traditional, that's followed by a clip of Spalding's appearance at this year's International Jazz Day celebration held on April 30 at the White House, in which she performed a swinging version of "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" for the President, First Lady, and assembled guests.

As for Aimée, her album Let's Get Lost was released in February to good notices, and audiences around the country seem to be responding enthusiastically to her updated take on Gypsy jazz  You can see her singing much of the material from that album in today's penultimate clip, recorded in February at WNYC in New York.

Last, but certainly not least, you can check out some music from saxophonist Kamasi Washington, whose sprawling three-CD debut album The Epic was one of the best-reviewed records of last year.

Washington's star has continued to rise quickly in 2016, as he's gotten major press coverage from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, and many other mainstream media outlets, and has been touring to enthusiastic and often sold-out houses.. Today's final clip is a concert version of The Epic, recorded last August for NPR's "Jazz Night In America".

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

Sunday Session: May 29, 2016

Charlie Parker

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

* Bobby McFerrin cancels 2016 tour (JazzFM.com)
* READ an Excerpt from ‘Small Town Talk,’ a History of Woodstock in the Wild Years (AcousticGuitar.com)
* Rock music is dead, says Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea (The Guardian UK)
* Dave Davies explains how he REALLY got the raw guitar sound on The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ (DangerousMinds.net)
* An Underground Supper Club Where Music Moves The Menu (NPR)
* Major Label CEO Confirms That ‘Playlist Payola’ Is a Real Thing (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Moers Festival Provides Jazz Artists an Opportunity to Branch Out (DownBeat)
* Jazz, soul, blues musicians reveal surprising pre-show rituals (AXS.com)
* To Really Appreciate Louis Armstrong's Trumpet, You Gotta Play it. Just Ask Wynton Marsalis (Smithsonian)
* Esperanza Spalding Scores, Stars in Short Film Gaze: Watch (Pitchfork)
* Researchers Are Digitizing Ancient Monk Chants Into a Massive Database (Vice.com)
* Eagle Rock to Release “Paco & John: Live at Montreux 1987” - Previously unreleased gem features acoustic mastery from Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin (Jazz Times)
* Moogfest 2016: A Futurism Weighted With History and Trepidation (The Atlantic)
* YouTube Users Are Reinventing The Way We Classify Music (Vocativ.com)
* Moogfest: Techno-Optimism and the Wide, Wide World of Weird Music (Billboard)
* Unheard Bird Features Dozens of Unreleased Charlie Parker Tracks (DownBeat)
* The Story Behind the Planet's Most Influential Road Map of "Weird Music" (LA Weekly)
* Why I give a hoot for competing dead jazz musician movies (The Guardian UK)
* What causes a song to be banned? (BBC)
* ​Who Really Invented the Electric Guitar? (Popular Mechanics)
* Average Annual Salary for a Spotify Employee: $168,747 (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Sax great Donny McCaslin expresses grief, gratitude over Bowie (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Jazz legend Wayne Shorter takes fans to unexpected places (Chicago Tribune)
* The Inevitable, Intergalactic Awkwardness of Time Capsules (Atlas Obscura)
* Brötzmann Reveals Expansive Range at Chicago Museum Show (DownBeat)
* B.B. King's Estate War: 15 Kids, 15 Moms and a "Totally Haywire" Fight (Hollywood Reporter)
* How the Toronto Symphony Orchestra uses graphic design to guide its audiences though its music (Creative Review.co.uk)
* George Lewis Leads Parade of Experimental Artists at FIMAV (DownBeat)
* Is Pop the Future of Jazz? (The Daily Beast)
* Rhys Chatham endows drone with dimension at SPACE Gallery (Portland Press-Herald)

Sunday Session: May 1, 2016

Eddie Palmieri

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

* Jazz Fest Day 2: Whatever Happened to Rosie? (Offbeat)
* Before & After with Trevor Dunn - Listening wide, from A to Zappa (Jazz Times)
* New Music From Professor Longhair, Who Taught New Orleans How to Play The Piano (The Daily Beast)
* Artist backlash over YouTube’s royalty payments grows noisier (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Esperanza Spalding: Character Study (Jazz Times)
* How we made Laurie Anderson's O Superman (The Guardian UK)
* That Time I Opened Tower Records Early So Prince Could Shop (NBC)
* The oral history of Eddie Palmieri’s Harlem River Drive (WaxPoetics.com)
* How Jazz Saved Hip-Hop Again (Playboy)
* Photo Album: Highlights of the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest–Part 1 (DownBeat)
* 13 Cartoon Portraits of Legendary Blues Artists (Mother Jones)
* Classical music page-turners turn the page into the modern era (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* 'James Brown: Live At The Apollo Vol. 4' Is A Marvelous And Mysterious Time Capsule (NPR)
* Jazz Foundation of America Loft Party - The Cookers, Kahil El'Zabar and more (Jazz Times)
* After The Album: How Playlists Are Re-Defining Listening (MusicIndustryBlog)
* Beyond 'Mrs. Jones': Billy Paul's Music You Might Not Have Heard (NPR)
* Revisiting Loma Records, the L.A. Soul Label That Launched Ike and Tina Turner (LA Weekly)
* The Inside Story on Designing Prince's Paisley Park: Exclusive (Billboard)
* The Unbelievable True Story of the Wrecking Crew’s Max Bennett (Observer.com)
* Phil Kives, K-Tel International founder, dies at 87 (CBC)
* Sonny Rollins: “John Coltrane Was Like A Preacher” (Mojo)
* Photo Highlights of the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest (DownBeat)
* Anat Cohen Tentet Brings Retro Sound and Ebullient Spirit to Jazz Standard (DownBeat)
* The Blur of Music Discovery (Disquiet.com)
* Gregory Porter review – jazz chameleon finds countless ways to seduce (The Guardian UK)
* FootPrince - The jazz side of Prince (Jazz Times)
* Dweezil Zappa Changes Name of Zappa Plays Zappa Due to Sibling Disputes (Relix.com)
* Jazz Fest Day 4: What a Difference a Week Makes (Offbeat)
* Jazz Record Mart founder opens new store (Chicago Tribune)
* The great disappearing venues disaster (CentreForLondon.org)
* Stuck on repeat: why we love repetition in music (The Guardian UK)
* Radiohead's corporate empire: inside the band's dollars and cents (The Guardian UK)