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: May 22, 2016

Dr. Lonnie Smith

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

* He's got four million doo-wop 45s for sale, but browsers beware (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* The Current's 893 Essential Albums (Minnesota Public Radio)
* Just How Good a Singer Was Dean Martin? (The Daily Beast)
* I’ve sold all my CDs. Can I live without those cracked plastic cases of magic and memories? (The Guardian UK)
* Our Hero and His Blues: Celebrating Albert Murray (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* The Taboo of Injury and Disability in Music (Van-Magazine.com)
* Tape recording was introduced 70 years ago today (Recode.net)
* Listen up: James West forever changed the way we hear the world (ArsTechnica.com)
* This Legendary Composer Writes Music for 100-Guitar Ensembles (Esquire)
* Library Of Congress Opens 'Jazz Singers' Exhibition (NPR)
* The Music Industry Buried More Than 150 Startups. Now They Are Left To Dance With The Giants (Medium.com)
* Overdue Ovation for George Lewis - An artistic academic, a soulful technologist (Jazz Times)
* Why a newspaper trashed its own opera review (Washington Post)
* Without Jazz and Blues, There's No Americana (The Atlantic)
* A Blues for Albert Murray (The Nation)
* Interview: Organist & Musician Dr. Lonnie Smith (PBS/The Tavis Smiley Show)
* Rahsaan Roland Kirk Documentary To Be Released May 31 (DownBeat)
* Exclusive Interview: Eddie Palmieri Discusses ‘Harlem River Drive’ + Forthcoming Record (Revive-Music.com)
* Moral Rights for Musicians: A Primer (FutureOfMusic.org)
* Glenn Branca's Really Experimental Music: Why the Composer Is Still Punk After All These Years (Vice.com)
* Theo Croker Brings the Funk to NYC’s Samsung 837 (DownBeat)
* House of Cards - Why Alaskan musicians are singing the blues (Anchorage Press)
* At 80, Carla Bley Keeps Looking Towards The Next Composition (NPR)
* Tony Bennett’s son is new US head of Universal classics and jazz (SlippedDisc.com)
* Miller, Bunnett, Carrington Bring Flair to Mary Lou Williams Festival (DownBeat)
* A Five-Time Grammy Winner Explains Why YouTube are Total Scumbags (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The inside story of when Run‑DMC met Aerosmith and changed music forever (Washington Post)
* Thirteen Prayers: Kamasi Washington's Favourite Albums (The Quietus)
* Interview: Dr. Cornel West & Afro-Cuban Jazz Musician Arturo O’Farrill Explore Music & Activism (Vibe)
* A Hidden Times Square Sound Installation Returns to Full Hum (Hyperallergic.com)
* How Bugs Bunny and ‘Kill the Wabbit’ Inspired a Generation of Opera Stars (Wall Street Journal)

Guitar Festival reviewed in Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller attended three of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival performances this past week, and wrote a review of the three programs for Sunday's paper. You can find it online here.

Glenn Branca featured in Riverfront Times

The Riverfront Times this week has several pieces related to composer Glenn Branca, whose symphony for 100 electric guitars "Hallucination City" was performed last night at The Pageant as part of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival.

There's a feature story about the event here; an extended interview with Branca by the RFT's Roy Kasten here; and a two-part account by guitarist and RFT scribe Ryan Wasoba of what it was like to prepare and play the Branca piece, found here and here.

SLSO, Branca seek guitarists for festival performance

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra still is seeking players to take part in a performance of Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City), a composition by Glenn Branca (pictured) scored for 80 electric guitarists and 20 bass guitarists. The performance will take place at The Pageant in St. Louis on Thursday, November 13 as part of the SLSO's Guitar Festival.

In addition to the concert, prospective participants also must be able to take part in two rehearsals at Powell Hall and a soundcheck at The Pageant. "Compensation is not possible," says the SLSO Web site, "but food and drink will be supplied at all rehearsals and the performance. All musicians will need to be able to read standard staff notation and follow a part measure by measure. For more information, contact glenn@glennbranca.com and you will be sent a detailed info sheet."

To get an idea of what the Branca piece is like, you can see some excerpts from a performance of Symphony No 13: Hallucination City last October in London in the embedded video window below.