So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's weekly wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Lauren Parks, president of the House of Miles in East St. Louis, was interviewed for a Belleville News Democrat article about local culture in ESL.

* Asleep at the Wheel's concert last Friday at the Fox Theatre was reviewed by Dan Durchholz for the Post-Dispatch. The Post also published a gallery of photos from the gig.

* Also in the Post-Dispatch, Kevin Johnson reports on bassist Jahmal Nichols scoring a documentary that aired on PBS. There's also a brief video accompanying the story.

* Still in the Post, Kevin Johnson interviewed singer Robert Nelson about this Saturday's Juneteenth show at Blue Strawberry, and there's a video with that story, too.

* The Riverfront Times reports that the Way Out Club, a fixture of south city nightlife and alternative music for 27 years, will close permanently next month.

* A 1976 interview of saxophonist Julius Hemphill on the public radio program "Fresh Air" was resurfaced this week by pianist Ethan Iverson, who offered his commentary on the talk via Twitter.

* Marcus Baylor and Jean Baylor of the Baylor Project (pictured) were the featured guests this week on radio station WBGO's online video talk show "The Pulse."

Sunday Session: April 25, 2021

Larry Carlton

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

* Catching Up With Laurie Anderson, An Artist Always Ahead Of Her Time (NPR)
* And all that jazz: innovative album covers from the 1950s on – in pictures (The Guardian)
* Jazz Artists Remember Chick Corea (Jazz Times)
* Apple Music Says It Pays One Penny Per Stream — 2-3 Times What Spotify Pays (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Does Spotify pay artists a fair rate? Here’s what musicians, managers and Apple Music have to say (Los Angeles Times)
* Ethan Iverson: From The Bad Plus to Bebop, Bud Powell and Bach (JazzWeekly.com)
* Tony Bennett: A Hero's Journey in Authenticity (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Sonny Simmons and the Backwoods (The Wire)
* Larry Carlton: My Career in Five Songs (Guitar Player)
* UnitedMasters’ Steve Stoute: ‘Record companies’ ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish.’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Chops: Branford Marsalis and Howard Alden on Ghost Performances in Movies (Jazz Times)
* Prince’s go-to synths and drum machine: a career in music tech gear (MusicRadar.com)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Phil Schaap (SFJAZZ.org)
* Why is classical music used in cartoons? (ABC.net.au)
* Tomorrow’s Warriors at 30 - the power behind London’s jazz revival (The Standard)
* 45 Lost Albums We Want To Hear (Stereogum.com)
* International Jazz Day's Global Celebrations Are On, And Again Online (NPR)
* Sounding Out Electronic Music’s Female Pioneers (Metrograph.com)
* Tom Holkenborg: “I think I paid about £15 for my Memorymoog synth - in 1983 you couldn’t give them away” (MusicRadar.com)
* SFJazz hosts inspiring virtual Jazz Masters Tribute Concert (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Recordable and portable: the cassette tape miracle (NewFrame.com)
* Steve Reich: Humans Love to See Other Humans Play Music (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Frank Zappa’s Final American Concert to Be Released as Live Album (Consequence of Sound)
* Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: November 25, 2018

Ambrose Akinmusire

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:

* Billy Harper charges up Church Of Sound (Jazzwise)
* REVIEW: Ethan and the British Composers at Kings Place (2018 EFG LJF) (London Jazz News)
* Alice Coltrane’s Ashram Lost in California Wildfires (Pitchfork.com)
* Why the Hideout is vital to Chicago’s music scene (Chicago Tribune)
* Blood on the Tracks: Canonizing Bob Dylan’s Human Opus (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Joshua Redman keeps Old and New Dreams alive (Vancouver Sun)
* Spinal Tap to reunite, will presumably be billed above puppet show this time (AV Club)
* Jazz great 'Sweet Papa’ Lou Donaldson’s has sports memories to treasure (New York Daily News)
* This Tiny Record Player Plays Oreo Cookies…Kinda (Food and Wine)
* More Evidence That Trained Musicians Are Superior Thinkers (Pacific Standard)
* This is the story of how Africa and slavery have influenced Brazilian music (RedBull.com)
* How Brainfeeder Leads The Charge For Esoteric Funk, Hip-Hop, Pop, & Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* How a small Philadelphia record company gave an Oscar contender its sound (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Live Review: 2018 JazzMi Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* Laurin Talese Wins Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition (Jazz Times)
* Ambrose Akinmusire’s Jazz of Pure Possibility (The Nation)
* The Largest Sun Ra Retrospective Yet is Hidden on the Top Floor of the Portland Art Musuem (Willamette Week)
* What is All the Fuss About? Kenny Barron Takes Years of Experience and Plays in the Moment (VoiceOfOC.org)
* Robert Glasper On How To Get More Young People Into Jazz (NPR)
* Legendary Jazz Guitarist Explains Why ‘The Beatles’ Are Better Than ‘Rolling Stones’ (MetalheadZone.com)
* The Invisible Hit Parade: How Unofficial Recordings Have Flowered in the 21st Century (Wired)
* The History of Play-A-Long (and More) (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: September 9, 2018

Randy Weston

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:

* Curious questions: Do dogs like listening to music? (CountryLife.co.uk)
* Billy Childs’ Storied Past (NUVO)
* Little Feat – Sky, Heaven and California Up Ahead! (FYIMusicNews.ca)
* East Meets East - Nathan + Noah (Yumpu.com)
* 'My Spike Lee Joints': 'BlacKkKlansman' Composer Terence Blanchard on Working With the Director for Nearly 30 Years (Billboard)
* Washboards: The laundry tool that is music to the ears (CBS News)
* The Lost Mingus Tapes (Qwest.tv)
* “Lost” 1973 Live Charles Mingus Recording Set for Release (Jazz Times)
* Anthony Braxton’s Big Ideas: Why ‘Forces in Motion’ Is an Essential American Music Book (Rolling Stone)
* 'Art shouldn’t be weaponised': the atonal concert championing Berlin's homeless (The Guardian)
* Introducing Humbolt, The World’s First ‘Ethical’ Streaming Music Service (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The Top Uses of John Coltrane Songs in Movies or TV (TVOvermind.com)
* Randy Weston Dies at 92 (Jazz Times)
* Pianist Randy Weston, An Eloquent Spokesman For Jazz's Bond with African Culture, Dies at 92 (WBGO)
* Amid Stormy Skies, Detroit Jazz Fest Honors Geri Allen (DownBeat)
* Let Them Play: Ethan Iverson Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* A hard Brexit will smash the British music industry, experts warn (Gigwise.com)
* Alan Braufman: A Valley Worth Searching (Jazz Times)
* City’s Cultural Capital on Full Display at Chicago Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* William Parker: Other Dimensions (Bass Player)
* Wayne Kramer On World Cafe (NPR)
* Paul Simon Says 'I'm Finished' Writing Music (NPR)
* Rod Argent -The Zombies' Co-Founder on The Beatles, Chick Corea, and His Love for the Piano (Keyboard)
* 'Quincy' Trailer Highlights Life and Career of Quincy Jones: Watch (Billboard)
* This artificial intelligence app wants to make beautiful music with you (Fast Company)
* Apple Music to Publish Its Own Top Music Charts (Rolling Stone)
* His Sh*t’s F***ed Up: The Complicated Legacy of Warren Zevon (TheRinger.com)
* Nolatet: Raising a Bigger Dust Cloud (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: March 25, 2018

Sun Ra

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:

* Chick Corea remains perpetually active: "I don't know what 'retire' means." (San Diego Union Tribune)
* ‘Keeping The Blues Alive’: Watch Exclusive Interview With Muddy Waters’ Daughter (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Streaming is easy but I don't want idiots listening to my favourite albums (The Guardian)
* Q&A with Ethan Iverson (BlueWallStudio.com)
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Sharing the Passion for Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Buell Neidlinger 1936-2018 (TheBlueMoment.com)
* At 80, Charles Lloyd Continues to Explore (DownBeat)
* A Message Behind the Music: Jazz and Social Justice (SFJazz.org)
* Milford Graves: Full Mantis (4Columns.org)
* Marian McPartland: A Centennial Celebration (NPR)
* How We Reverse Engineered the Cuban “Sonic Weapon” Attack (IEEE.org)
* Artist’s Choice Playlist: Steve Jordan on Masters of Swing & Groove (Jazz Times)
* How Today's Blockbuster Soundtracks Are Launching New Artists to Stardom (Rolling Stone)
* The 25 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time (Rolling Stone)
* These Women Make A Living By Singing at People's Funerals (Vice.com)
* How The Sound Of Country Music Changed (NPR)
* Afrofuturist and Jazz Pioneer Sun Ra’s Legendary Indianapolis Concert (Nuvo.net)
* U.S. Music Industry Hits Highest Revenue Mark in a Decade, Fueled by Paid Subscriptions (Billboard)
* Guitar Center’s $1 billion in debt reveals this truth about musical tastes (Los Angeles Daily News)
* Will Spotify Eat the Music Industry? (Motley Fool)
* In Tennessee, music is being made deep below Earth's surface (Rock Hill Herald)
* At Lawrence Jam Sessions, An Unusual Instrument Lets Everyone Make Music Together (KCUR)
* Jane Bunnett And Maqueque: The New Queens of Afro-Cuban Jazz (NPR)
* Brain Damage Saved His Music (Nautil.us)
* ‘I realised that no-one in the music business knew what they were doing’(MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)

Sunday Session: January 7, 2018

Ron Carter

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

* A 2017 JT Reader - Selected highlights from the year in JazzTimes (Jazz Times)
* Legendary Jazz Bassist Ron Carter Talks About Music, Recording, and Hi-Fi (Stereophile)
* Long Players: writers on their most cherished albums (NewStatesman.com)
* Wayne Shorter: Artist In Residence At The Detroit Jazz Festival (NPR)
* Lifetime Achievement in Music: The Poet Laureate of Mardi Gras Indians, Monk Boudreaux (Offbeat)
* Iverson Plays Final Show with Bad Plus (DownBeat)
* How a Hit Happens Now (Vulture.com)
* The 'Despacito' effect: The year Latino music broke the charts (NBC)
* Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music (JStor.org)
* Spotify Hit With $1.6 Billion Copyright Lawsuit Over Tom Petty, Weezer, Neil Young Songs (Hollywood Reporter)
* Rick Hall, Producer And Songwriter Who Put Muscle Shoals On The Map, Dead At 85 (NPR)
* Jazz improvisers score high on creativity (Science News)
* In 2018, I want to find new music without using algorithms (TheVerge.com)
* The rebirth of St. John Coltrane church in the Western Addition (TheWesternEdition.com)
* The lost art of music snobbery (The Globe and Mail)
* Matt Wilson – The Ambassador of Unvention (Modern Drummer)
* New Documentary Examines Milford Graves’ Music and Philosophy (DownBeat)
* The Healing Power of Jazz (The New Yorker)
* Producers say record labels are calling projects “mixtapes” to avoid paying them fairly (TheFader.com)
* Fred Hersch: Life, Music, and the Creative Process (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Recording Studios are not Dying (Pro Sound News)
* Pop tunes are welcome in the movies, directors say, as long as it's in service of the plot (Los Angeles Times)
* How Women Shaped The Legacy Of Nashville’s Oldest And Most Celebrated Venue, The Ryman Auditorium (Uproxx.com)
* theartsdesk Q&A: Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (TheArtsDesk.com)
* Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and the Road to West Side Story (Vanity Fair)
* The Alabama Recording Studios Where Music Was Never Segregated (ZocaloPublicSquare.org)
* US Label Cuneiform stops all new releases for 2018 (London Jazz News)
* YouTube’s Unlikely Peacemaker Has a Plan to Make Musicians Rich (Bloomberg.com)

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)

Sunday Session: April 16, 2017

Ella Fitzgerald

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

* The Bad Plus Has Big News: Some Subtraction, Some Addition, For a Whole New Sum (WBGO)
* 14 Artists Proving Black Americana Is Real (Paste)
* A History of Puerto Rican Salsa (Afropop.org)
* The Paradigm Shifts of Album Artwork (NYUNews.com)
* A Gathering of Orchestras in D.C. (The New Yorker)
* Why Music Services Are Wasting Time Recommending New Music (Forbes)
* Brent Assink Maneuvered the S.F Symphony Through the Early 21st Century. Here is What He Learned (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Chuck Berry Laid to Rest at All-Star St. Louis Memorial (Rolling Stone)
* Marshall Chess on Chuck Berry's Funeral: The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton Should Have Been There (Billboard)
* How Bang On A Can Rejuvenated New York’s Improvisational Spirit (Bandcamp.com)
* John Coltrane Draws a Picture Illustrating the Mathematics of Music (OpenCulture.com)
* Three Jazz Artists Harmoniously and Creatively Blending Arabic and Western Music (Soundfly.com)
* Guitarist J. Geils found dead in Groton home (Boston Globe)
* Skilled But Shy Musician Jay Geils Remembered As Setting The Bar For Rock 'N' Roll (WBUR)
* Sax linked to Martin Luther King Jr.'s last words hidden in Memphis closet (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Five Things You Probably Didn't Know About Les Paul (MusicAficionado.com)
* Frank Kimbrough: A Dark, Rainy Sunday in May (Jazz Times)
* Reassessing Ella: 'The First Lady of Song' at 100 (Chicago Tribune)
* America’s “Secret Sonic Weapon” Against Communism (MessyNessyChic.com)
* I couldn’t tell that this was a robot singing Duke Ellington’s signature song (QZ.com)
* The Big Man with the Big Sound–Remembering Arthur Blythe (1940-2017) (New Music Box)
* Barry ‘Frosty’ Smith, renowned Austin drummer, dies after long illness (Austin360.com)
* Hear Jazz Supergroup Hudson Cover Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' (Rolling Stone)
* Q&A: Shabaka Hutchings - The rising sax star on Pharoah Sanders, jazz’s African roots, the London scene and more (Jazz Times)
* Art Talk with Guitarist Mary Halvorson (arts.gov)

Sunday Session: March 12, 2017

Terence Blanchard

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

* Recording with David Bowie left a mark on jazz sax player Donny McCaslin (Washington Post)
* How sound effects are really made (BBC)
* Was this Cambridge's greatest ever music gig? (Cambridge News)
* Are living room gigs the future of live music? (BBC)
* How Rock ‘n’ Roll History Was Made—and Nearly Forgotten—in Dallas (DMagazine.com)
* The Inspiration Behind ‘Roundabout,’ the 1972 Hit Song by Yes (Wall Street Journal)
* Eddie Palmieri: Celebrating 80 Years (DownBeat)
* Interview with Robert Glasper (EthanIverson.com)
* On Iverson on Glasper (Pause): Everyone Wants Everything, Even If It's Different (Nextbop.com)
* Sexism From Two Leading Jazz Artists Draws Anger — And Presents An Opportunity (NPR)
* The Strange World Of... Annette Peacock (TheQuietus.com)
* The Survivalists: Mosaic and Newvelle Records (Stereophile)
* Dave Valentin, Virtuoso Flutist with a Foundation in Latin-Jazz, Dies at 64 (WBGO)
* Owner of Wolfgang’s Vault in legal battle over streaming rights (The Guardian)
* The Queen of Soul Receives a Multi-Artist Tribute at Carnegie Hall With 'The Music of Aretha Franklin' (Billboard)
* An obituary: The National Endowment for the Arts, 52, of unnatural causes (The Hill)
* These '70s Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians Blew Freely, Fiercely, and Reverently (PopMatters.com)
* Blanchard’s Opera “Champion” Triumphs in East Coast Debut (DownBeat)
* How A Contract Clause Led To A Fight Between Musicians And Austin's Biggest Event (NPR)
* After Public Battle, SXSW Apologizes And Pledges To Change Its Artist Contract (NPR)
* Italian Band Soviet Soviet Denied Entry To The U.S., Jailed And Then Deported (NPR)
* How Weird Al Yankovic Removed the Misogyny of ‘Blurred Lines’ by Adding Grammar Lessons (Vulture.com)
* Forget High Fidelity: How women are reclaiming record stores (MixMag.net)

Ethan Iverson interviews Gerald Early

When he's not playing piano with The Bad Plus, Ethan Iverson has developed a reputation for doing some interesting interviews with jazz musicians for his blog Do The Math, and he's just published a conversation with St. Louis' own Gerald Early (pictured), the Washington University professor who frequently writes and speaks about jazz, popular music and African-American culture.

You can read Iverson's chat with Dr. Early here.