Sunday Session: July 11, 2021

Susie Ibarra

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

* Gatemouth Brown memorialized on the road he traveled, in the town where he lived (Nola.com)
* The Urge to Destroy a Violin (The New Yorker)
* Little Walter’s Song That Changed Everything for the Blues (TheDailyBeast.com)
* The Story of Louis Armstrong’s Final Tape (LouisArmstrongHouse.org)
* More really is more with new Lee Morgan jazz release (Denver Post)
* PAMA calls for “outdated” audio terms such as ‘master/slave’ and ‘male/female’ to be replaced (MusicRadar.com)
* Grand Funk Railroad Feed Off Crowd's Energy At First Concert Back (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* In Memoriam: Rick Laird (NoTreble.com)
* John McLaughlin Discusses Mahavishnu Orchestra, Liberation Time, and More (Jazz Times)
* Norwegian Company Creating Doomsday Vault to Preserve Music Recordings (Consequence.net)
* The Sound of Early Sci-Fi: Samuel Hoffman’s Theremin (Reverb.com)
* Back on the Road! Live Sound Gears Up for Reopening (MixOnline.com)
* Five things to know about Hamid Drake (Vancouver Sun)
* Susie Ibarra: Hybrid Culture (New Music Box)
* John McLaughlin Discusses Mahavishnu Orchestra, Liberation Time, and More (Jazz Times)
* Mulgrew Miller Saw Us Through (AdmissionsProjects.com)
* What People Actually Listen To In 2021 (Music3Point0.com)
* Numbers Don’t Lie: Lilli Lewis Talks Black Presence in Americana (Offbeat)
* Frank Sinatra And Quincy Jones: When The Voice Met The Dude (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Jam & Lewis: “With Prince, we learned to use synthesizers in a very musical way” (MusicRadar.com)
* Tony Scott: How A BeBop Jazz Clarinetist Invented New Age Music (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Legendary Pete Escovedo ready to help jump-start Bay Area jazz scene (San Jose Mercury News)
* Call It Mourning: Mark Ruffin Remembers Gil Scott-Heron on the 10-Year Anniversary of the Poet’s Death (Jazziz)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Sheldon's jazz series for the 2021-22 season is previewed in an article by the St. Louis American's Danielle Brown.

* Merci, Miles! Live at Vienne, featuring previously unrelased recordings of one of Miles Davis' final live shows in the summer of 1991, is out today as a 2-CD set or vinyl double LP.

* The Bosman Twins (pictured) were interviewed on the most recent episode of Hank Thompson's KDHX podcast "Tangazo."

* The Post-Dispatch/STLtoday this week went into their archives to republish photos and a story about the night in 1965 when Frank Sinatra and the "Rat Pack" came to St. Louis to perform in a charity benefit. There's also a video of the event, which can be seen on YouTube.

* Keep Live Alive St. Louis last week announced that they've raised more than $100,000 to help local music industry workers who lost income due to the pandemic.

Sunday Session: June 21, 2020

Pee Wee Ellis

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

* British Jazz Pianist Keith Tippett Dies at 72 (DownBeat)
* Keith Tippett (1947 -2020) (FreeJazzBlog.org)
* Saved from Irrelevance: Sinatra’s Comeback Led to the Pop LP and the Concept Album (MagellanTV.com)
* Pandemic-Era Insights From Chick Corea, Christian McBride, Brandee Younger And More (DownBeat)
* NAMM Announces Plans To Hold 2021 Trade Show (DownBeat)
* ‘Live From Here With Chris Thile’ Canceled Because of COVID-19 Pandemic (Rolling Stone)
* Pee Wee Ellis: ‘America was built on slavery and exploitation – but change is coming’ (The Independent)
* UK government criticised for “unworkable” advice on reopening music venues (NME.com)
* Could Music Companies Help Black Artists By Adjusting Old Record Deals? (Rolling Stone)
* The Ascent of JLCO’s Marcus Printup (DownBeat)
* Criss Cross Jazz Is Back to Business (Jazz Times)
* On John Coltrane’s “Alabama” (The Paris Review)
* Matthew Shipp’s Steady Diet Of Improv And Hard News (DownBeat)
* Samora Pinderhughes is Hopeful About Our 'Black Spring,' But Wary About the Road Ahead (WBGO)
* For Vijay Iyer, A Livestream From The Village Vanguard is Another Opportunity to Speak Out (WBGO)
* Carmine Street Guitars: tuning up with New York’s finest plank-spankers (The Guardian)
* Now, About The Bad Name I Gave My Band (NPR)
* Experiment without Inhibition: A Celebration of Anthony Braxton (River Cities Reader)
* How The Jazzworld Is Indelibly Tied To The Travel Industry (DownBeat)
* The roots album that never got made (AfricasACountry.com)
* ‘Da 5 Bloods’ Composer Terence Blanchard on That Opening Scene and His Relationship with Spike Lee (Collider.com)
* Aaron Parks Brings Talk Talk, Brian Eno, and More to His Free-Roaming Jazz Songs (Bandcamp.com)
* Play It Forward: Lakecia Benjamin Sings Through Her Saxophone (NPR)
* Opinion: Black Protest Is Music. Learning The Melody Isn't Enough (NPR)
* Suites, shoots and leaves: Spanish opera house reopens with concert for plants (The Guardian)
* Live Nation Wants Artists to Take Pay Cuts and Cancelation Burdens for Shows in 2021 (Rolling Stone)
* Mr. Elegant: Jimmy Cobb Reconsidered (Jazz Times)
* The Fate of James Brown's Fortune Turns Thanks to a Most Unusual Court Decision (Hollywood Reporter)
* A Guide to Soul Jazz, Which Used Black Music History to Speak to the Present and to Build the Future (Bandcamp.com)
* The Subtlety Of Norah Jones (DownBeat)
* Thelonious Monk’s unlikely Palo Alto High show becomes thrilling live album (San Francisco Chronicle)
* The Juneteenth Jazz Jamboree (WFIU)
* A Look Back at TV’s Stars of Jazz (Jazz Times)
* High Culture Brought Low (Vulture.com)
* 10 Books Highlighting the History of Racial Injustice and Resistance in Jazz (WBGO)
* Quincy Jones Launches Initiative to Bring Jazz, Blues and Gospel Awareness Into Schools (Variety)

Sunday Session: December 29, 2019

Red Garland

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

* Blue Note’s Tone Poet Vinyl Reissue Series Will Continue in 2020 (Jazz Times)
* Free jazz veteran Yosuke Yamashita marks 50 years of his trio's 'reckless' playing (Japan Times)
* Frank Sinatra: A Son of Immigrants Sings America's Heart (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Vince Gill: "I reached the point where I said, ‘I’m just going to play what’s necessary’" (Guitar World)
* Artistry, Inc.: Jazzmeia Horn’s Personal Creativity Corporation (Jazz Times)
* The Jazz Magi of Carnegie Hall (The-American-Interest.com)
* Fifty Years of Worship at the Church of John Coltrane (The New Yorker)
* Local Drummer ‘Stateside Mouthpiece’ for New Buddy Rich Bio (Jewish Exponent)
* 'Jazz Night In America' Remembers Artists We Lost In 2019 (NPR)
* Arturo O’Farrill – Family, Jazz and the Music of Cuba, Revisited (JazzWithAnAccent.com)
* The Banjo: An unusual voice in the story of New Orleans music (Offbeat)
* James Carter, Dave Liebman and The Westerlies on Uncommon Ensembles (DownBeat)
* 'An Einstein among Neanderthals': the tragic prince of LA counterculture (The Guardian)
* Red Garland: Graceful and Bluesy (Jazz Profiles)
* To everything there is a season (8tracks.com)
* What Makes a Junius Paul-ism? (Chicago)
* Music City DC- Remembering ‘Jazz Samba’: The birth of the Brazilian cool (Fairfax County Times)

Sunday Session: November 24, 2019

Hazel Scott

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

* Who’s Fighting for Racial Equity in Classical Music? (21cm.org)
* Asleep at the Wheel Plot 50th Anniversary Album, Reunion Shows (Rolling Stone)
* Pat Metheny back with epic new album From This Place - Track Preview (Jazzwise)
* Above the World: Manhattan in June with Lee (AzureMilesRecords.com)
* Flying teapots and electric Camembert: the story of Gong, prog's trippiest band (The Guardian)
* Why You’ve Never Heard of One Of the Jazz Industry’s Royalty — Hazel Scott (Medium.com)
* Roy DeCarava: The Sounds He Saw (Jazz Times)
* In Praise of the Greatest Trombone Part in Broadway History (Slate)
* Guimarães Jazz Fest Doesn’t Play It Safe (DownBeat)
* A Deluxe Reissue of the Band’s Cozy Self-Titled LP (Has Surely Come) (Rolling Stone)
* Bossa Nova for the World - Sergio Mendes interview (SFJazz.com)
* Is there a Blackout at WBGO? (NJ.com)
* Grammy Awards Nominations: The Complete List (Variety)
* Artist in Residence (GuernicaMag.com)
* Dave Douglas Refines His Political Message with ‘ENGAGE’ (DownBeat)
* Learning from greats, teaching others, Kenny Barron is a guardian of jazz (Charleston Post and Courier)
* What happens to the brain when jazz musicians improvise? (Futurity.org)
* Why I Didn’t Give My Music to the Oxford American (Oxford American)
* The Flute In Jazz: Window On World Music (Jazz Journal)
* Leonard Cohen And Harry Nilsson Are Releasing New Albums, Whether They Like It Or Not (NPR)
* A Toast To 'My Way,' America's Anthem Of Self-Determination (NPR)
* The True Story of Erroll Garner, the First Artist to Sue a Major Label and Win (Variety)
* Gregg Rolie Looks Back on His Days With Santana, Journey, and Ringo Starr (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: June 2, 2019

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest, drawn from StLJN's inboxes, newsfeeds, and assorted other sources:

* The Dreamers and John Daversa: Message, Intention, Purpose (DownBeat)
* CBS Sued Over 'Andy Griffith Show' Theme Song (Hollywood Reporter)
* Lisa Coleman: “Prince would just use a preset and then brighten the f**k out of it!” (MusicRadar.com)
* Lee Ranaldo Discusses His Return to Improv Music with New Album 'Lee Ranaldo / Jim Jarmusch / Marc Urselli / Balázs Pándi' (Exclaim.ca)
* Kendrick Scott at the ‘Height of Optimism’ (DownBeat)
* Antonio Salieri’s Revenge (The New Yorker)
* Why Do Employers Lowball Creatives? A New Study Has Answers (KQED)
* King Weir (GQ)
* Jazz Currents Surge Along the Rhine (DownBeat)
* After a Scandal, the New Orleans Jazz Market Rises Again (New York Times)
* Carlos Santana on Celebrating 'Supernatural' and Returning to Woodstock: 'We're Better Than the First Time' (Billboard)
* The Lives of John Coltrane & Billie Holiday Are Now Told in Two Graphic Novels (OpenCulture.com)
* Steinway & Sons Has a Secret ‘Vault’ for Its Most Exclusive Pianos. Here’s What’s Inside (RobbReport.com)
* The Egging of Frank Sinatra (Medium.com)
* Tower of Power at 50: What Is Hip? (Jazz Journal)
* 'Two Wings: The Music Of Black America In Migration' Celebrates Journey Millions Took (WBGO)
* Bright Moments: Ron Carter – Looking Back with the Bass Icon (Jazz Times)
* DC's go-go sound becomes anti-gentrification battle cry (Associated Press)
* Metadata is the biggest little problem plaguing the music industry (TheVerge.com)
* Minnesota blues hero Tony Glover, an influence on Dylan and the Stones, dies at 79 (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
* This Is Where I Live: A Q&A With William Bell (SFJAZZ.org)
* Singer Leon Redbone Dies at 69 (Variety)
* "Dead Sound": The Grateful Dead and the evolution of modern concert sound (CBS News)
* Linda May Han Oh Reaches Across the Musical Spectrum (DownBeat)
* The Record Industry Expects a Windfall. Where Will the Money Go? (Pitchfork.com)
* Chops: David Binney on Why Musicians May Not Need a Bite of the Big Apple (Jazz Times)
* The Baltimore Symphony in the Twilight Zone (SongOfTheLarkBlog.com)
* How Bossa Nova Is Infiltrating Rap and R&B (Rolling Stone)
* Dr. Lonnie Smith Meets the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw at Birdland (DownBeat)
* Apple Is Finally Killing iTunes (Rolling Stone)

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)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Denise Thimes, who just moved to Chicago but is back in St. Louis this weekend to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, got a warm welcome to the Windy City, courtesy of what can only be described as a rave review from the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich for her shows last weekend at Winter's Jazz Club downtown.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor and singer Jean Baylor of The Baylor Project were interviewed in advance of their appearance next week at Jazz at the Bistro by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Message to Our Folks, the book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago written by bassist and Washington University professor Paul Steinbeck and released last year by the University of Chicago Press, has been translated into Italian as Grande Musica Nera. Published by Quodlibet, the Italian edition (pictured) is being celebrated this week with a book release event at the Bergamo Jazz Festival.

* Jazz Times is offering readers a chance to win a free copy of the soon-to-be-released CD box set Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Final Tour. You can enter the drawing for the giveaway here.

On a related note, NYC radio station WBGO last week previewed a live version of Davis' "So What" from the set as part of their weekly online feature "Take Five."

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, rapper Q-Tip will star as the trumpeter in a staged reading of My Funny Valentine, a new play by Nelson George about "a day in the life of the jazz giant."  The reading happens this coming Monday, March 26 at Joe's Pub in NYC.

* Trumpeter Freddie Hendrix will play the part originally conceived for the late Hugh Masekela when pianist Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya present “Jazz Epistles - The Story in Concert” on Saturday, April 14 at The Sheldon. Hendrix's resume ranges from work with jazz artists including saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, the Count Basie Orchestra and the Christian McBride Big Band, to backing up singers such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys.

* St. Louis has what might be called a cameo role in the promotional campaign for Standing Room Only, a forthcoming collection of previously unreleased performances by singer Frank Sinatra that will come out in May as a 3-CD set and in digital formats from Capitol/Universal Music Enterprises.

To promote the release, the label has posted online a clip of Sinatra singing “Fly Me To The Moon” with the Count Basie Orchestra recorded in 1965 at Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. Although the performance is not included in Standing Room Only, which collects shows from 1966 at the Sands in Las Vegas, 1974 at The Spectrum in Philadephia, and 1987 at Reunion Area in Dallas, you can watch the video here.

Sunday Session: July 23, 2017

John Coltrane

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

* This conch shell trumpet would be heard far and wide in the ancient world (Science)
* Portrait of a jazz player: Remembering John Coltrane (Greensboro News-Record)
* John Coltrane: Beyond the Holy Mountain (Jazzwise)
* Marking the Death of John Coltrane, Through the Poetry of Amiri Baraka (WBGO)
* John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' Is Still a Masterpiece After 50 Years (Newsweek)
* Alice Coltrane: “The Gifts God Gave Him” (Jazz Times)
* The John Coltrane Record That Made Modern Music (GQ)
* Where To Start... John Coltrane - Celebrating the work of a saxophone and spiritual giant (ClashMusic.com)
* Spotify Is Accused Of Creating Fake Artists — But What Is A Fake Artist? (NPR)
* Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival "Big Band Spectacular" 2017, Part 1-4 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* In New Orleans, There's A Piece Of Music History Around Every Corner (NPR)
* SoundCloud tries to allay fears, but streaming needs a business model (CDM.link)
* On a scale of Monkees-to-Gorillaz, how should we evaluate fictional music? (Washington Post)
* Take a Cruise With Music’s Uncoolest People (TheDailyBeast.com)
* Can't Prog Rock Get Any Respect Around Here? (NPR)
* Fireside Chat: Wadada Leo Smith (RedBullRadio.com)
* 'It's like a Miles Davis trumpet solo': 'Swinging' birds are caught singing off-beat like jazz musicians (Daily Mail)
* Bill Laswell: Four Strings, Zero Limits (Premier Guitar)
* REPORT: Val Wilmer - The Wire Salon at Cafe Oto (London Jazz News)
* A Water Tank Turned Music Venue (The New Yorker)
* These super cool pictures show Frank Sinatra at his best in 1960s Miami (Timeline.com)
* Thelonious Monk's surreally strange and spartan genius gets its due (The Guardian)
* UCSD jazz haters prompt Brian Ross to move on (San Diego Reader)
* The Poetics of Jazz (The Nation)
* The Nels Cline Show (ForGuitarPlayersOnly.com)
* Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock Tells Us How He Wound Up In the Sci-Fi Epic 'Valerian' (Thrillist.com)
* Art Ensemble of Chicago Reunites in Norway (DownBeat)
* The 75 Moments That Defined the Decade in Music (So Far) (Billboard)
* 'Here Come The Girls'... Again (NPR)
* Editorial: Kansas City government can’t keep bailing out American Jazz Museum (Kansas City Star)
* Welcome to Moonlight Rollerway, Where Nothing Has Changed Since 1956 (Narrative.ly)

Sunday Session: August 28, 2016

Wadada Leo Smith

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

* Reimagining Josephine Baker's Music in the Era of Black Lives Matter (New York Times)
* Is Sleep Music a Real Genre? (The Daily Beast)
* How Bad Urban Planning Led To The Birth Of A Billion-Dollar Genre (TheFader.com)
* Harmonica Virtuoso Toots Thielemans Dies at 94 (DownBeat)
* “Champeta is liberation”: The indestructible sound system culture of Afro-Colombia (FactMag.com)
* Zorn & Collaborators Hold Court in Engaging Vanguard Residency (DownBeat)
* Remembering Lou Pearlman: The Ponzi Schemer Who Spawned the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC & More (Billboard)
* A Visual History of Rock and Roll, Room by Empty Room (The New Yorker)
* How Sam Phillips Invented the Sound of Rock and Roll (Popular Mechanics)
* Grandmaster Flash on ‘The Get Down’ and how he used science to pioneer DJ techniques (Washington Post)
* ‘Sunday Night at the Vanguard’ by Fred Hersch Review - Looking at the special bond between a club and a composer (Wall Street Journal)
* Photography Book Documents Young Sinatra in New York (DownBeat)
* Divine disco: the beatific sub-genre that delivered sermons on the dancefloor (The Guardian UK)
* Why Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else in the world (QZ.com)
* Sample Clearance Expert Pat “The Detective” Shannahan is The Avalanches’ Secret Weapon - The behind-the-scenes force for records by the Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Beck and more on 20 years of tracking down samples (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* See the Photographs That Captured the Icons of Jazz (TIME)
* Wadada Leo Smith Celebrates National Parks with Double Album (DownBeat)
* Legendary Jazz Recording Engineer Rudy Van Gelder Dies at 91 (DownBeat)
* Postscript: Rudy Van Gelder (1924-2016), Modern Jazz’s Listener of Genius (The New Yorker)
* Herb Alpert Foundation to donate $10.1 million to LACC — making studies for music majors tuition-free (Los Angeles Times)
* Watch Dr. John Praise James Booker's Piano Genius (Rolling Stone)
* Angelo Badalamenti Reveals How He and David Lynch Composed the Twin Peaks‘ “Love Theme” (OpenCulture.com)
* Keeping the Blues Alive (Smithsonian)
* The Ballad of Big Freedia: How the New Orleans Bounce Icon Was Betrayed By Her City’s Housing Crisis (Pitchfork.com)

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: December 13, 2015

George Duke

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

* Oscar Peterson To Be Honored with New Box Set, Concert, Reproducing Piano (Down Beat)
* Need Music For A Video? Jukedeck’s AI Composer Makes Cheap, Custom Soundtracks (TechCrunch.com)
* Bagels And Bongos: The Jewish-Latin Music Connection (Houston Public Media)
* A Photojournalist’s Most Prolific Period, Set to Jazz (Newsweek)
* Four Women: The Enduring Influence of Nina Simone (Jazz Times)
* Ringo Starr's Personal 'White Album' Sells for World Record $790,000 (Rolling Stone)
* Ten things I learned as a tour manager (London Jazz News)
* What Data Tells us about the 2015-16 Orchestra Season (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra)
* Turmoil in the Weird Karaoke Market (Priceonomics.com)
* How Casio accidentally started reggae's digital revolution (Engadget.com)
* The Velvet Underground in California (The New Yorker)
* The man behind the “Hamilton” sound: Hidden Beatles references, the “hip-hop horse” sample and why if “it’s all computerized, there’s no heart to it” (Salon.com)
* Scofield, Schneider, Alexander Nominated for Grammy Awards (Down Beat)
* It’s Jazz, Charlie Brown: The Vince Guaraldi Story (WFIU)
* 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' at 50: The Making of a Classic Soundtrack (Rolling Stone)
* Box Set Review: George Duke — The Era Will Prevail (Part One) (Musoscribe.com)
* The business of the blues isn't what it once was (Marketplace.org)
* Fourplay Celebrates Twenty-Five Years Together (DownBeat)
* 10 ways that Frank Sinatra changed the world (USA Today)
* Walk-Up Revolution: Royce Clayton's Pitch to Change MLB At-Bat Music (Rolling Stone)
* When Are People Going To Stop Proclaiming The Death of the CD? (FutureOfMusic.org)

Sunday Session: October 25, 2015

Hugh Masekela

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

* Tubby Hayes: British jazz’s forgotten genius is being rediscovered, thanks to fans including Martin Freeman (The Independent UK)
* Review - Echoes of a master fill a tribute to Charlie Haden at CalArts (Los Angeles Times)
* The New Explosion of Bootleg Vinyl (Pitchfork)
* Classical music isn't a secret society unless we allow it to be (The Guardian UK)
* How to get a gig as a game music composer (SoundOnSound.com)
* These Portraits of Southern Blues Musicians Prove That Blues Is Not Dead (Time)
* What’s wrong with the classical concert experience in the 21st century? (Gramophone)
* The Vision Festival: From Upstart to Institution (Jazz Times)
* What’s That Sound? It’s Tough to Tell (New York Times)
* 3 Cohens, Masekela Celebrate Heritage at South Africa’s Joy of Jazz Fest (DownBeat)
* Meet Composer Caroline Shaw, Kanye West’s New Pulitzer Prize-Winning Collaborator (Pitchfork)
* Videogames are helping to keep the symphony orchestra afloat (KillScreenDaily.com)
* “We did it, Mom!”: Frank Zappa’s Roxy The Movie Premieres in LA (Relix.com)
* When Iggy Pop can’t live off his art, what chance do the rest have? (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* NEA Announces Recipients of Jazz Masters Award (DownBeat)
* Vocalist Mark Murphy Dies at 83 (Jazz Times)
* Independent Musicians Find Unexpected Rewards in Streaming (New York Times)
* Why Everyone Wants To Record 'Live At The Village Vanguard' (NPR)
* Rudresh Mahanthappa’s tribute to Charlie Parker soars (Washington Post)
* Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”: The Full Story (Vanity Fair)
* Giving United Sound, Detroit's other landmark music studio, its due (ModelDMedia.com)
* Incredibly Strange Music: The Untold Story of Asphodel Records (FactMag.com)
* The Life And Death Of Tower Records, Revisited (NPR)
* Midnight In The Drum Machine Of Good And Evil (NPR)
* Music Download Site eMusic Gets Acquired Again, This Time By Israeli Media Startup TriPlay (TechCrunch.com)
* The Outrageous Auction Prices of Vintage Blue Note Vinyl Records (Collecting Blue Note Records)

Sunday Session: October 18, 2015

Jack DeJohnette

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

* RCA Records' Peter Edge and Tom Corson on Why the Label Downsized and its Place in Sony's Big Picture (Q&A) (Hollywood Reporter)
* Rob Mazurek: Sound Affects (Jazz Times)
* The Inside Story Behind the Making of Frank Sinatra's Ambitious and Wacky 1980 Three-Disc Album, 'Trilogy' (Billboard)
* Russia’s wedding playlist: 7 must-have hits (Russia Beyond The Headlines)
* Is ‘Artisanal’ Music the Next New Thing? (The Daily Beast)
* Monk Institute Vocal Competition Semi-Finalists Announced - Finals set for Nov 14-15 in L.A. (Jazz Times)
* The Devaluation of Music: It’s Worse Than You Think (Medium.com)
* Two-Thirds of U.S. Homes Stream Audio Over Broadband, With Amazon in a Surprising Lead (Billboard)
* Review: Sun Ra And His Arkestra - To Those Of Earth... And Other Worlds (The Quietus)
* Legacy to Release 4-CD Live Weather Report Box (Jazz Times)
* Elling To Salute Sinatra in NYC (DownBeat)
* Harry Connick Jr. Syndicated Daytime Show Set for Fall 2016 (Billboard)
* An Ancient Indonesian Music Tradition Gets an Electronic Update (Hyperallergic.com)
* Digital Orphans: The Massive Cultural Black Hole On Our Horizon (TechDirt.com)
* DeJohnette, Coltrane, Garrison Forge Deep Bond in Brooklyn (DownBeat)
* Postage Stamps from Bhutan That Double as Playable Vinyl Records (OpenCulture.com)
* Jazz-playing robot will provide insight into how computers communicate with humans (University of Illinois)
* Documenting the women of LA's 70s rock scene (Vice.com)
* What Does Minecraft for Music Look Like? (Medium.com)
* The unrest is silence: why ‘classical’ music traditions are under threat (The Guardian UK)

Sunday Session: October 4. 2015

Phil Woods

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

* Frank Sinatra's Radio Broadcasts Unearthed for Reissue (Rolling Stone)
* Saxophonist Phil Woods Dies at 83 (DownBeat)
* Shhh! New Orleans Takes Steps to Turn Down the Music (Reuters)
* Interview: Harry Gregson-Williams talks his score for The Martian (FlickeringMyth.com)
* The Hit Charade - An algorithm might create a playlist you enjoy, but don’t mistake that for creativity (Technology Review)
* For Jukebox Salesman, Collecting Records Isn't Just A Job: It's A Hobby, Too (NPR)
* Life on Mars: The Surviving Members of the Earliest No Wave Band Talk Muggings, Warhol, and 1977 (Vice.com)
* The New Payola: Chart-Rigging and Scams in the EDM Bubble (Vice.com)
* A look back at the 58th Monterey Jazz Fest (SFGate.com)
* Gary Clark Jr on being the 'chosen one' and getting phone calls from Beyoncé (The Guardian UK)
* The Night That John Coltrane Played Seattle and Launched a Movement (Seattle Weekly)
* Muhal Richard Abrams interview (DialogueTalk.org)
* Crusaders Saxophonist Wilton Felder Dies at 75 (Jazz Times)
* Akinmusire Debuts Poignant Multimedia Project at Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Chucho Valdés Brings Irakere Revival Tour to U.S. (Billboard)
* Terry Riley: 'I haven’t felt nailed down to anything' (The Guardian UK)
* How Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ Kicked Off the Streaming Revolution (Grantland)

Music Education Monday: Vocal tips from Kurt Elling and Frank Sinatra, and more

This week for "Music Education Monday," here are some free resources for aspiring jazz vocalists.

If you're just getting started, the website JazzSingers.com offers a good overview of the history of jazz singing and its most important practitioners, and includes a lot of potentially useful links.

For example, that's where yr. humble editor found the text for Tips On Popular Singing, a instructional book published in 1941 that's credited to none other than Frank Sinatra, "in collaboration with his vocal teacher John Quinlan."

While it's doubtful that the young version of Ol' Blue Eyes spent too many hours sweating over a hot manuscript, the involvement of his teacher presumably means that the book's contents bear at least some relationship to what Sinatra was doing at the time. For another perspective, Australian singer Tom Benjamin acknowledges the Sinatra/Quinlan book as a training method, then offers his own take via an essay in PDF form called "How to Sound Like Sinatra."

Here in the present day, Kurt Elling is one of the most acclaimed singers in jazz, and after the jump, you can see a video of an excerpt from a master class he did in 2011 at the North Sea Jazz Festival, in which he talks about what it takes to be a jazz singer.

That's followed by another short video, produced in 2012 by Jazz Times magazine, in which Elling (pictured) talks about his early years as a jazz vocalist, his teachers and mentors, and some of his favorites from the Great American Songbook.

The third clip, "Vocal Improv and Warm Ups for Jazz Singers," is part of a series of short instructional videos produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, and features singer Marion Cowings demonstrating vocal warm-up exercises and discussing "how to use the words and melody of a song to inspire your improvised vocal solo."

Last but not least, in today's fourth and final video, Dennis DiBlasio, best known for his stint as baritone saxophonist and music director with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson's big band, presents some very practical tips on scat singing that could be used by just about any musician or singer, regardless of technical ability or experience level.

Coincidentally, singer and educator Michele Weir has written a short essay with musical examples called "Fearless Vocal Improvisation" that ties in to some of what DiBlasio talks about, and you can download a PDF copy here.

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

"Sinatra at 100" to play July 23 through August 9 at Kranzberg Arts Center

The St. Louis Big Band and singer Joe Scalzitti will present "Sinatra at 100," a show paying tribute to the centenary of Frank Sinatra's birth, starting Thursday, July 23 and continuing through Sunday, August 9 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Incorporating tunes such as "New York, New York," "Come Fly With Me," "Fly Me To The Moon," "Night & Day," "Blue Skies," and more, the show tracks the singer's career chronologically, starting with his early hits and continuing through the performances at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas that helped make Sinatra (pictured) and his "Rat Pack" pals into showbiz icons.

Opening week performances will take place at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 23; 8:00 p.m. Friday, July 24; and at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26. The run continues with shows at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 30; 8:00 p.m. Friday, July 31; and at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Sunday, August 2. The final week's performances will be at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Saturday, August 8 and 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Sunday, August 9.

Tickets for "Sinatra at 100" are priced at $34, and are on sale now via Brown Paper Tickets.

Sunday Session: April 12, 2015

Charles Lloyd

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

* Afrofuturism on film: five of the best (The Guardian UK)
* The best and oddest science-inspired music (BBC)
* Rare Footage of Duke Ellington Highlights When Jazz and Baseball Were in Perfect Harmony (Smithsonian)
* Philip Glass On Legacy: 'The Future ... It's All Around Us' (NPR)
* Carol Kaye at 80 (BBC)
* Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream parts with his 25,000-piece record collection (Minnesota Public Radio)
* THX Just Remade the Deep Note Sound to be More Awesome (CreateDigitalMusic.com)
* The Science of a Piezoelectric Violin (PhysicsCentral.com)
* Frank Sinatra Is Chairman of the Board From Here to Eternity (The Daily Beast)
* VIDEO: Sinatra in the Studio (Pro Sound News)
* Have all the good songs been written? (NPR)
* Smithsonian receives $2.5M to expand jazz programs at museum (Washington Post)
* Billie Holiday's centenary: a life in pictures (The Guardian UK)
* Robert Johnson: rare new photograph of delta blues king authenticated after eight years (The Guardian UK)
* Farewell, Doug Sax (Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Music Production Blog)
* Charles Lloyd, Jazz Master, Questing Still (New York Times)

Sunday Session: February 15, 2015

Billie Holiday

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

* You're Not Weird for Preferring the Live Version (Pacific Standard)
* Bird Of A Feather: Rudresh Mahanthappa On Learning From Charlie Parker (NPR)
* Glasper, Q-Tip Celebrate Blue Note 75th Anniversary at Capitol Records in Los Angeles (Down Beat)
* 50 Years of the AACM Celebrated in NYC Concerts (Jazz Times)
* Grammy-Nominated Mastering Engineer Emily Lazar on 2,000 Records, Women in Music & Pranking Audio Stores (Billboard)
* Jack White’s Guacamole Meets Van Halen’s M&Ms (Guitar Player)
* New Models: The State of Music Commissioning (21CM.org)
* Can’t See the Trees for the Forest at the 2015 Grammys (New Music Box)
* Remembering Bobby “Blue” Bland (Texas Monthly)
* Bill Evans' Kind of Blue Notes (JazzWax)
* FACT: Pandora Only Pays Songwriters 4% Of Revenues (Hypebot)
* Kurt Elling talks tackling Frank Sinatra: Portland Jazz Festival 2015 (Portland Oregonian)
* Gamers, Musicians Unite for SFJAZZ Bowl on Super Sunday (Down Beat)
* New Billie Holiday Collection Coming From Legacy - 20-track set covers 1935-45 (Jazz Times)
* The Stacks: Billie Holiday: Jazz’s Aching Songbird (The Daily Beast)

April is Jazz Appreciation Month

If it's almost April, that means it's about time once again for Jazz Appreciation Month, the annual celebration of jazz music sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.

Now in its 11th year, Jazz Appreciation Month (or JAM) was created "to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and its importance as an American cultural heritage. In addition, JAM is intended to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz—to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs."

The theme of this year's celebration is “Jazz Crossing Borders & Cultures,” and the programming and materials distributed by the Smithsonian will "highlight why jazz artists are respected worldwide for their roles in advancing freedom, creativity, and unity through jazz music and the civic action and dialogues their music often sparks, making jazz men and women among America’s greatest cultural ambassadors."

For those who can't visit the museum in Washington DC, the Smithsonian offers a list of "112 ways to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month," and once again has produced a poster honoring a famous musician.

This year's JAM poster (pictured) features singer Frank Sinatra, whose 1945 recording of "The House I Live In" is cited as an example of how music can "promote respect for others as an ideal of American freedom and civic pride." The poster is based on a painting of Sinatra by artist Leroy Nieman that previously was used as the cover for the singer's 1993 album Duets. The Smithsonian distributes the posters for free to schools, libraries, music and jazz educators, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide. To request a copy, write jazz@si.edu.

Also, anyone can download a copy of the 2012 poster in .pdf format here, and see and download the commemorative posters from the previous 10 years here.