Sunday Session: July 18, 2021

Juini Booth

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

* Rhodes returns: iconic electric piano brand is back with the promise of new keyboards (MusicRadar.com)
* ‘There is no fear’: how a cold-war tour inspired Pakistan’s progressive jazz scene (The Guardian)
* Miles Copeland Shares Tales Of The Police, The Go-Go’s And I.R.S. Records In His New Memoir (Forbes.com)
* The Good Doctor: An Interview With Eugene Chadbourne (TheQuietus.com)
* 'It's Fan Fiction For Music': Why Deepfake Vocals of Music Legends Are on the Rise (Billboard)
* Artist’s Choice: Gregory Porter Cooks Up Some Gumbo (Jazz Times)
* Immerse yourself in the Muscle Shoals Sound in northwest Alabama (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
* Bley, Corea, Schneider Top Critics Poll (DownBeat)
* A Conversation with Jackie McLean (AllAboutJazz.com)
* John McLaughlin Summons the Spirit of His Muses on a New Album, 'Liberation Time' (WBGO)
* The Leopolis Jazz Fest: Back in the (Ex)-U.S.S.R. (Jazz Times)
* The world's most endangered sound (BBC)
* High-profile Cuban musicians show rare public support to protesters (The Guardian)
* Over 66% of all music listening in the US is now of catalog records, rather than new releases (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Re-Revising 'The History Of Jazz' (NPR)
* Arthur “Juini” Booth 1948–2021 (Jazz Times)
* Kamasi Washington is composing a ballet, writing a graphic novel, and returning to the Hollywood Bowl this weekend (KCRW)
* The Sly Stone mystery: why ‘the JD Salinger of Soul’ disappeared (Yahoo.com)
* A Conversation with Amiri Baraka (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Five Records Made With Invented Instruments (Bandcamp.com)
* The New Wave in Jazz, at 60: Jazz United Considers the Legacy of Impulse Records (WBGO)

Sunday Session: May 9, 2021

Gary Bartz

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

* Why stars should think twice before calling out their critics (The Guardian)
* Vin Diesel, Arthur Russell and Me (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Earliest Jazz Fest tapes discovered after 20-year quest: Historic performances are heard again (NOLA.com)
* Freda Payne: Coming Back to Jazz (Jazz Times)
* T.S. Monk Talks Activism, Jazz, 80s Funk And Keeping His Father’s Legacy Alive (Black Enterprise)
* In the Groove with Joshua Redman: A Conversation With the Acclaimed Jazz Artist (BMI.com)
* Is CD-quality music streaming about to go mainstream? (TechHive.com)
* The Brilliant Stupidity of Robert Palmer’s 1986 No. 1 Hit, ‘Addicted to Love’ (Variety)
* The Song That Sold America to a Generation of Asian Immigrants (The Atlantic)
* How the Internet Archive Has Digitized More than 250,000 78 R.P.M. Records: See the Painstaking Process Up-Close (OpenCulture.com)
* Gary Bartz At 80: On Jazz Is Dead, Miles Davis And Why Improvisation Is A Dirty Word (AllAboutJazz.com)
* How Norman Granz Revolutionized Jazz for Social Justice (Smithsonian)
* Listening In: Leni Stern, High-Flying Bird (BrooklynRail.org)
* Los Lobos Detail New Covers Album ‘Native Sons’ & Share Singles (Jambase.com)
* The Case Against the Eagles (TheRinger.com)
* Gregory Porter Gets Cooking Beyond the Bandstand with a New Show, The PorterHouse (WBGO)
* Skerik Talks About the New Album From Garage A Trois, and the Hope of Post-Pandemic Touring (WBGO)
* Camille Thurman: Before & After (Jazz Times)
* Herbie Hancock reveals details of new album (PlanetRadio.co.uk)
* Aaron Neville announces official retirement (Offbeat)
* Live Nation Weathers Rough Quarter as Concert Business Slowly Rumbles Back to Life (Variety)
* Tower of Power Celebrates 50 Years Together (Jazz Times)
* Inside look: How the freewheeling Alex Chilton, Hi Rhythm collaboration happened (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* How Billy Gibbons Wrote ZZ Top's “La Grange“ (Guitar Player)
* Mary Halvorson: Melt the Frame (Stereophile)
* Lloyd Price, R&B Pioneer Known as ‘Mr. Personality,’ Dies at 88 (Variety)
* The Lost Recordings Of Hasaan Ibn Ali Reveal A Legend Just Getting Started (NPR)

Sunday Session: September 13, 2020

Gary Peacock

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

* 'Masses of performers are still grounded': pianist Sophia Rahman on a UK music scene in crisis (TheArtsDesk.com)
* Sonny Rollins at 90: A Guided Tour of the Saxophone Colossus on Record, By Decade (WBGO)
* How a musician locks onto a rhythm, according to science (BigThink.com)
* Gary Peacock, A Jazz Bassist Always Ahead Of His Time, Dies At 85 (NPR)
* Rollins '57: Sonny Rollins Takes The Lead (WFIU)
* How Keith Richards is Spending His Quarantine (Rolling Stone)
* Paused Jazz Venues Hit a Low Note and Warn Music Could Soon Stop (TheCity.nyc)
* In Newport, A Quiet August And The Virus’ Financial Fallout (DownBeat)
* Gary Peacock 1935–2020 (Jazz Times)
* Former Baltimore house of jazz legend Cab Calloway demolished despite activists’ push (Baltimore Sun)
* How Jimmy Carter (Literally) Rocked the Presidency (Rolling Stone)
* Silver Apples synth pioneer Simeon Coxe dies aged 82 (The Guardian)
* Silver Apples' Simeon Coxe: visionary who saw music's electronic future (The Guardian)
* A Final Bow From Hal Willner, The Producer With The Golden Rolodex (NPR)
* Interview: Gregory Porter on the loss of his brother to Covid and his new album (The Scotsman)
* Understanding Bird (Tidal.com)
* Lifetime Achievement: Doug Hammond’s Kaleidoscopic Jazz, Funk, and Blues (Bandcamp.com)
* Remembering Lenny Breau, jazz’s most inventive guitarist (LiveMint.com)
* Charles Tolliver: Before & After (Jazz Times)
* Kool & the Gang Co-Founder Ronald ‘Khalis’ Bell Dead at 68 (Rolling Stone)
* A Former Spotify Exec Explains Why Artists Get Paid So Little on Streaming (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* A Deep Dive into John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' by His Biographer Lewis Porter (Pt. 2) (WBGO)
* Sparks Of Wonder, Discovery Propel Rising Stars (DownBeat)
* In Newport, A Quiet August And The Virus’ Financial Fallout (DownBeat)
* Alice Coltrane: A Partial Primer (River Cities Reader)
* Ornette Coleman: An Outsider Cracks the Egg (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Black Women Jazz Artists Are Using Virtual Spaces To Speak On Race, Gender (DownBeat)
* My Conversation with Gary Peacock (AllAboutJazz.com)
* 1% of Artists Generate 90% of All Music Streams, Latest Data Shows (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Nina Simone's childhood home is now permanently protected (CNN)

Sunday Session: August 30, 2020

Gregory Porter

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

* The Day Louis Armstrong Lost His Color: A Short Story (Jazz Times)
* A Tale Of Two Ecosystems: On Bandcamp, Spotify And The Wide-Open Future (NPR)
* Give & Take with Musician Sonny Rollins (Tricycle.org)
* Charli Persip, Virtuoso Drummer Who Cut a Swath Through Modern Jazz, Is Dead at 91 (WBGO)
* Steely Dan Engineer Finds Lost ‘Second Arrangement’ Tapes (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* 100 Reasons We Love Charlie Parker For His 100th Birthday (Discogs.com)
* The Best Batch Yet? Captain Beefheart's Doc At The Radar Station Revisited (TheQuietus.com)
* Vinyl sales rock on in spite of Covid-19 (QZ.com)
* Ambrose Akinmusire’s Pure Pursuit Of Sound (DownBeat)
* Billy Childs Reveals the Influences on His Album Acceptance (Jazz Times)
* ‘64% musicians considering leaving the music profession’ – survey (London Jazz News)
* Charlie Parker, the Birth of Bebop, and America’s Greatest Recording Session (Jazz Times)
* The Very Serious Art of Writing Music for Very Funny Cartoons (InsideHook.com)
* Dan Penn talks back (Offbeat)
* 50 Years Later, Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios Is Still An Artistic Haven (NPR)
* Oneness of JuJu’s Afrocentric and Avant-Garde Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* Despite Streaming, US Recorded Music Revenues Still Down 50% From 1999 Peaks (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Terri Lyne Carrington Runs On Determination (DownBeat)
* Bird Lives! A Charlie Parker Centennial, With Strings Attached (NPR)
* Gregory Porter sings of love, but unspeakable grief and the scars of racism lie just beneath (Los Angeles Times)
* Roots in the Archive: Test Pressings Help Keep Robert Johnson’s Songs Alive (NoDepression.com)* The 25 greatest basslines of all time (MusicRadar.com)
* How Charlie Parker Defined the Sound and Substance of Bebop Jazz (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: July 26, 2020

Charles Tolliver

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

* After The All-Stars: Live At The Lighthouse 1960-1972 (WFIU)
* Of “St. James Infirmary” and COVID-19 (Jazz Times)
* Wynton Marsalis On The Future Of New York City (Gothamist.com)
* Emitt Rhodes, RIP (BrooklynVegan.com)
* Soft Machine today (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Charles Tolliver: Blowing Down The Walls Of Trump’s Jericho (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Electric Sitars of the Psychedelic Era (Reverb.com)
* Setbacks Are Not Defeats For James Carter, Regina Carter (DownBeat)
* The Force Is Still Strong with John Williams (The New Yorker)
* The Man They Called ‘Trane’, Remembering A Jazz Giant (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Muddy Waters’ Former Chicago Home to Be Converted Into Museum (Rolling Stone)
* Q magazine's demise signals the end of the old music press (The Guardian)
* The Shifting Technique Of Kurt Rosenwinkel (DownBeat)
* Vocalist Annie Ross Dies At 89 (DownBeat)
* Sing into the funnel please: inside the Covid-19 lab hoping to declare singing safe (The Guardian)
* A Genre of Myths: A Jazz Reading List (Longreads.com)
* Annie Ross 1930–2020 (Jazz Times)
* Back To Square One, Uh, Phase Two (Offbeat)
* Lift Every Voice And Sing: Twenty Rousing #BlackLivesMatter Albums (AllAboutJazz.com)
* From a funk band to The Rex to Downbeat magazine. Jazz pianist Kris Davis won’t be pigeonholed (Toronto Star)
* Trane of No-Thought: How Meditation Inspired Jazz Great John Coltrane (LionsRoar.com)
* Gregory Porter To Perform For Launch Of NASA’S Mars 2020 Mission (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Annie Ross, Mid-Century Jazz Icon, Dead At 89 (NPR)
* The Newport Rebels and Jazz as Protest (JStor.org)
* The Golden Age: A Newport Jazz Festival Special (NPR)
* Composer Maria Schneider Returns, With A Reckoning, On 'Data Lords' (WBGO)
* Self-Determined, Then and Now: A Focus on Charles Tolliver (WBGO)
* In Conversation: Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, and Terrace Martin Invite You to Their Dinner Party (FloodMagazine.com)
* We Bet You Miss Weddings. America's Greatest Wedding Band Does Too (GQ)
* ‘Sex Machine’ at 50: Bootsy Collins Recalls ‘Twilight Zone’ Origins of Funky James Brown Hit (Rolling Stone)
* How Long Can New Orleans Survive Without Live Music? (Slate.com)

Items re-ordered 8/1/20 to fix a display issue.

Sunday Session: June 28, 2020

Sun Ra Arkestra

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

* On identifying ragas, and how the intoxicating and often frustrating challenge for a lay listener can become an obsession (FirstPost.com)
* B.B. King and Eric Clapton’s ‘Riding with the King’ album like working with ‘blues royalty’ for Nathan East (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Bettye LaVette on Why She’s Singing ‘Strange Fruit’ Now (Rolling Stone)
* ‘He Made the World Bigger’: Inside John Zorn’s Jazz-Metal Multiverse (Rolling Stone)
* Watch Paul McCartney Play Trumpet With Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* Charles Lloyd: “The thing is I want to share the music. I’m still on a mission and it can’t happen – this is plague time…” (Jazzwise)
* Sun Ra Arkestra Announce First Album in 20 Years (Rolling Stone)
* Drummer Sherrie Maricle On The 3D Jazz Trio And Developing DIVA (DownBeat)
* How Jazz Is Coping with COVID-19 (Jazz Times)
* Henry Grimes and Giuseppi Logan: Parallel Lives (Jazz Times)
* Montreal unlikely to rename Metro station after Oscar Peterson, despite petition (CBC)
* The Jazz Gallery, Which Built a Vibrant Online Community, Opens the Door to a Livestream (WBGO)
* Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and 9th Wonder Form Supergroup Dinner Party, Share New Song “Freeze Tag”: Listen (Pitchfork.com)
* Music For the Movement on Jazz United (WBGO)
* Where did that love go? (Jazz Journal)
* Gregory Porter and Don Was: Before & After (Jazz Times)
* The Stranger-Than-Fiction Secret History of Prog-Rock Icon Rick Wakeman (Vanity Fair)
* Good vibrations: how Bandcamp became the heroes of streaming (The Guardian)
* Societal Reckoning Over Racism Encompasses The Jazz Community (DownBeat)
* Henry Kaiser, Mike Baggetta and the New “Live” (GuitarModerne.com)
* Whit Dickey :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence (NPR)
* The history of the West Coast Get Down, LA’s jazz giants (DazedDigital.com)
* The Story Behind the Greatest Bob Dylan Parody of All Time (GQ)
* The Turtles run with the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ concept on their brilliant 1968 LP, ‘Battle of the Bands’ (DangerousMinds.net)

Sunday Session: January 19, 2020

Gregory Porter

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

* Beatles' Abbey Road tops US bestselling vinyl LPs of the 2010s (The Guardian)
* Gary Clark Jr.: "Music is my religion" (CBS News)
* Jason Moran is making jazz history. Don’t miss it.  (Washington Post)
* “If You’re in the Song, Keep on Playing”: An Interview With Pharoah Sanders (The New Yorker)
* Jonathan Kreisberg: A Spirit Captured in Constant Motion (AllAboutJazz.com)
* A music artist says Apple Music pays her 4 times what Spotify does per stream, and it shows how wildly royalty payments can vary between services (Business Insider)
* The Sound and Myth of Charlie Parker at 100 (DownBeat)
* Jazz singer Gregory Porter is an ex-lineman with a blues-infused soul (TheUndefeated.com)
* Umbria Goes Pop (DownBeat)
* The Past Year, And Decade, In Music Listening: Video Rules, The Boy's Club Remains (NPR)
* New remastered Charlie Parker box set coming this February (JazzFM.com)
* Spotlight: Capitol Records Architect Louis Naidorf Sets the Record Straight on Myth of Tower's Iconic Design (Billboard)
* How Chicago Label International Anthem Is Rewriting the Rules of Jazz (Pitchfork)
* For Its Fifth Collection, Newvelle Issues Material From Staaf, Douglas (DownBeat)
* Telstar: The Song, And The Future That Never Was (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Alex Winter’s Frank Zappa Doc ‘Zappa’ Premieres at South by Southwest (Rolling Stone)
* Watch a Video For "Revival," the Lead Single From Gregory Porter's Forthcoming Album (WBGO)
* New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Announces 2020 Lineup (Jazz Times)
* Jazz pianist Kris Davis on pushing the boundaries of the piano (CBC Radio)
* Andrew Cyrille Lays His Declaration of Musical Independence on UT (Austin Chronicle)
* Inspired by John Cage, an Italian Collector Commissioned Leading Artists to Transform Pianos Into Weird and Wonderful Sculptures—See Them Here (ArtNet.com)

Sunday Session: August 4, 2019

Nina Simone

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

* Rising numbers of younger fans spark a UK jazz renaissance (The Guardian)
* Hello, Brave New World! (NPR)
* Patrice Rushen’s Journey Through Jazz, Popular Music and Hollywood (DownBeat)
* Concord Jazz Festival celebrates 50 years as champion of jazz vocals (San Francisco Chronicle)
* 'The Black Messiah' And The Legacy Of Cannonball Adderley (NPR)
* “Give me a blues song, tell the world what’s wrong...” (Majorca Daily Bulletin)
* Mammoth concert grand piano unveiled to public in Latvia (Deutsche Welle)
* Lauren Sevian Working Beyond ‘Bliss’ (DownBeat)
* Carla Bley: “I’m trying to be normal, to sound totally classical, but I fail.” (Qwest.tv)
* In a globalized world, music fragments take unexpected roads (Associated Press)
* Concord Jazz Fest 2019: Celebrating an empire that grew out of car dealership (San Jose Mercury News)
* Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Is Under Threat. This Campaign Aims to Save It (Smithsonian)
* Exclusive video interview: Don Was talks about Blue Note Records (Jazzwise)
* Shabaka Hutchings at the ‘Peak of Intensity’ (DownBeat)
* Artist Spotlight: Lionel Loueke (Jazz Times)
* Saalfelden Festival Offers Good Vibes (DownBeat)
* Surviving Woodstock (The New Yorker)
* Shabaka Hutchings - The Future of Afrofuturism (SFJAZZ.org)
* We’ve Got A File On You: Bruce Hornsby (Stereogum.com)
* It’s Bootsy, baby: The funk legend sits down with PW ahead of his charity appearance in West Philly (Philadelphia Weekly)
* Randy Newman Finds a New Audience, Again (TheRinger.com)
* Cassettes Are Back, and It’s Not About the Music (Bloomberg.com)
* Why is it so hard to keep an orchestra afloat? The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is not alone in its woes (Baltimore Sun)
* ‘It’s a knife fight.’ Here’s how 3 orchestras facing the same problems as the Baltimore Symphony bounced back (Baltimore Sun)
* A superstar jazz musician in Ethiopia, then a D.C. cab driver, now ready for Newport Jazz Festival (Newport Daily News)
* Young volunteers assist in Coltrane home rehab (Long Island Business News)

Sunday Session: August 19, 2018

Aretha Franklin

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:

* How Much Does It REALLY Cost To Be A Classical Musician? (Ludwig-Van.com)
* Live Review: 45th Umbria Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Review: Warsaw Summer Jazz Days (Jazz Journal)
* A Listener’s Guide to “Loud Jazz” (Jazz Times)
* Chicago Jazz Festival to Mark 40th Anniversary (DownBeat)
* Jazz In The 21st Century Is All About 'Playing Changes' (NPR)
* “You Haven’t Done Enough To Be The Way You Are.” Robert Glasper Speaks On Lauryn Hill’s Mistreatment of Artists (MadameNoire.com)
* Top 10 Moments of the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* The American guitar industry is making a serious comeback (Yahoo.com)
* Warner Music Buying Uproxx Is a Depressing Look Into the Music Industry’s Monolithic Future (SPIN)
* We Shall Overcome publisher handed $352,000 legal bill after song declared public domain (CompleteMusicUpdate.com)
* Ronnie Foster's "Mystic Brew" (SFJAZZ.org)
* Inhabiting Sound: Matana Roberts Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* A Miraculous Field Recording: The Guitar Playing of Joseph Spence (The New Yorker)
* 'It's a code for living': Gregory Porter and José James on the music of their heroes (Los Angeles Times)
* Nate Chinen on ’70s and ’80s Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Jimmy Page and the Grouses of the Holy (GQ)
* When Music Was Bigger Than Life: Sonny Rollins in New York City (TownTopics.com)
* Why Are Record Companies Dumping Their Spotify Stock? (NoVA.edu)
* Thank god for the return of the generation gap in pop (The Spectator)
* In Memoriam: Aretha Franklin (DownBeat)
* Aretha Franklin Was America's Truest Voice (NPR)
* 'She doesn't just move you, she shakes you': all-star tributes to Aretha Franklin (The Guardian)
* Aretha Franklin, a 'performer without peers' (Detroit News)
* How Aretha Franklin’s Jazz Beginnings Predicted Her Genre-Transcending Career (Rolling Stone)
* Tyshawn Sorey Travels Further Out on New Works (DownBeat)
* "The Sleeping Bear" Awakens: The Revival of the Hammond B-3 Organ (SFJAZZ.org)
* Musicians only received 12% of the music industry’s $43 billion revenue in 2017 (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* William Parker’s Late-Career Bloom (The Nation)
* Pop Songs in English, Written by Native Speakers of Swedish (The Paris Review)
* Ulysses Owens’ Delivers Poignant Messages on Freedom (DownBeat)
* Prince Estate and Sony Release 23 Long-Unavailable Albums Digitally (Variety)
* This Black Woman Was Once the Biggest Star in Jazz. Here’s Why You’ve Never Heard of Her (Narrative.ly)

Sunday Session: August 5, 2018

Gregory Porter

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:

* Sax player Charles Lloyd, Newport Jazz Festival’s artist-in-residence, is a ‘bluesman on a spiritual path’ (Providence Journal)
* A jazz legend’s Philadelphia home fading away (WHYY)
* Jazz.FM workers say the CEO harassed them. Now, they’re accused of plotting a coup (Toronto Star)
* The Top 10 Jazz Album Covers of All Time (Jazz Times)
* Where are musicians making money these days? On the road — and that’s about it (GlobalNews.ca)
* Why young people have fallen in love with jazz (The Telegraph)
* Lost Neil Young, Joni Mitchell Concert Recordings From 1968 Unearthed (Rolling Stone)
* Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko Dies at 76 (Jazz Times)
* Tomasz Stanko, A Trumpeter Whose Music Spoke To Freedom, Has Died (NPR)
* Gregory Porter: Soul Connections (SFJAZZ.org)
* Jazz and Pop Worlds Collide in Molde (DownBeat)
* How we made Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild (The Guardian)
* Berkeley’s famed Fantasy Studios set to close in September (SFGate.com)
* French Media Giant Vivendi Announces Plans To Sell As Much As Half Of Universal Music (NPR)
* Watch out Billboard: Variety and Rolling Stone owner buys into Nielsen rival BuzzAngle for ‘aggressive’ music charts push (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Bettye Lavette: Soul Survivor (Rolling Stone)
* The Alphabet Of Dewey Johnson 1939–2018 (The Wire)
* What’s Behind the New Jazz Resurgence? (Rolling Stone)
* The Rolling Stones curate album of inspirational blues classics (NME.com)
* Are Record Labels Facing an A&R Crisis? (Music Industry Blog)
* Reclaiming The Rhyme: How Black Women and Latinas Have Reshaped Pop Music (NPR)
* How Carol Kaye Became the Most Prolific Session Musician in History (OpenCulture.com)
* Broken Time - “Nardis” and the Curious History of a Jazz Obsession (The Believer)
* BeatCaffeine’s 100 Best Jazz-Funk Songs (BeatCaffeine.com)
* As Umbria Jazz Marks 45 Years, as Quincy, Iverson Evolve (DownBeat)
* Alan Braufman, Cooper-Moore, and Nabil Ayers: Return to the Valley (NationalSawdust.org)
* Work, Money Worries Leave Many Musicians Singing the Blues (UTexas.edu)
* Newport Festivals Sign 25-Year Agreement (Jazz Times)
* How Steely Dan Went Through Seven Guitarists and Dozens of Hours of Tape to Get the Perfect Guitar Solo on “Peg” (OpenCulture.com)

Sunday Session: April 23, 2017

Matana Roberts

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

* Philip Glass on Listening (and Composing) at 80 (Sonos.com)
* “It wasn’t until I experienced a great amount of pain at one time in my life that I really understood what the blues were about:” An Interview with Matana Roberts (WTJU)
* Forgotten audio formats: The flexi disc (ArsTechnica.com)
* Alice Coltrane’s Devotional Music (The New Yorker)
* A Year On, Few Answers From Probe Into Prince's Death (Billboard)
* Rejuvenating contemporary classical music (The Economist)
* Newest Two Time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Greg Rolie (Santana/Journey) Talks Past & Present (INTERVIEW) (GlideMagazine.com)
* E Street Band Bassist Garry Tallent Gears Up for First Solo Tour, Talks Bruce Springsteen & Chuck Berry (Billboard)
* Allan Holdsworth, Guitarist Revered in Both Jazz and Prog-Rock Circles, Dies at 70 (WBGO)
* Jimmy Webb on John Lennon's Lost Weekend, Writing for Frank Sinatra (Rolling Stone)
* Online music is about to experience another MySpace moment (MusicXTechXFuture.com)
* Are Music Festival Lineups Getting Worse? (Pitchfork.com)
* Concert Review: 2017 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute - Is this the last one? Trump's FY2018 budget proposal eliminates the NEA (Jazz Times)
* 'Jazz Is The Mother Of Hip-Hop': How Sampling Connects Genres (NPR)
* Jazz singer Gregory Porter is an ex-lineman with a blues-infused soul (TheUndefeated.com)
* Shorter, Bridgewater, Kamasi To Headline Detroit Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Wayne Shorter, "The Newark Flash," Recalls His Formative Years in the Ironbound and Beyond (WBGO)
* Songwriters ‘More Heavily Regulated Than Pharmaceutical Companies’ and Other Takeaways From ASCAP Expo (Variety)
* How Music on TV Actually Works, According to ‘The Leftovers’ and ‘FNL’ Music Supervisor (Pitchfork.com)
* New Orleans Jazz: Expanding the Tradition (Wall Street Journal)
* Vinyl fantasy: Is the record boom bad for new music? (FactMag.com)
* History of Muzak: Where Did All The Elevator Music Go? (WQXR)
* Those Timeless Tunes of the 1940s, ’60s, and ’80s (PSmag.com)
* Surface Noise (The Paris Review)
* Sylvia Moy, Motown songwriter who wrote hits for Stevie Wonder, dies at 78 (Los Angeles Times)

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)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Writing for DownBeat, Terry Perkins reported on last week's reunion of former members of the Black Artists Group for a discussion and performance at Jazz at the Bistro.

* The reunion of former BAG members included saxophonist Oliver Lake, who's now playing with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille as Trio 3 at NYC's Village Vanguard through Saturday.  

Lake also was named this week as co-recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund to support the development and staging of Interruption!, a live performance piece for 14-piece ensemble with music by Rob Reddy and a libretto written and performed by Lake.

* Two St. Louis musicians, drummer Emanuel Harrold and bassist Jahmal Nichols, can be heard on the new album from singer Gregory Porter, which NPR made available online this week for a "First Listen."

* Guitarist Todd Mosby is featured on the latest episode of the podcast A Concert Pitch. Mosby will play music from his new album On Eagle Mountain on Saturday night at Focal Point.

* The Black Rep's production of Twisted Melodies, a play about singer/songwriter, pianist and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway's battle with mental illness, was reviewed by Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American and by HEC-TV's Two On The Aisle. The one-man show by Kelvin Roston Jr. (pictured) closes this Sunday, May 1.

* A proposal from The 442s was one of three selected for Forest Park's new artist-is-residence program.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's annual "Go List" issue has named Jazz St. Louis' Ferring Jazz Bistro as the "Best Place to Hear Jazz."

* Saxquest has posted to Facebook a photo album from saxophonist David Liebman's appearance there last Saturday.

Sunday Session: March 13, 2016

Larry Young

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

* The Music Startup Meltdown (Medium.com)
* First Listen Live: Esperanza Spalding, 'Emily's D+Evolution' (NPR)
* 10 Chinese Cassette Labels Leading A Tape Resurgence (ElectronicBeats.net)
* ‘Eye Conductor’ Helps the Physically Disabled Write Music With Facial Movements (Vice.com)
* Interview: Trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah Discusses Involvement with Sun Ra Arkestra, Arts Direction at Sistas’ Place (JazzRightNow.com)
* Conversations With Post World War II Pioneers of Electronic Music (MusicCentre.ca)
* Wayne Shorter & Herbie Hancock Pen an Open Letter to the Next Generation of Artists (NestHQ.com)
* Larry Young’s Self-Questioning Jazz (The New Yorker)
* Why This Popular Designer Is Devoted to Promoting Album Covers on Instagram (Adweek)
* A Collection of Sun Ra’s Business Cards from the 1950s: They’re Out of This World (OpenCulture.com)
* New Book Showcases Forgotten Photojournalist’s Work (DownBeat)
* Legendary Producer George Martin, Dead at 90 (Pro Sound News)
* Why 'Fifth Beatle' Doesn't Do George Martin Justice (Rolling Stone)
* How George Martin's studio tricks and innovations changed pop music (Los Angeles Times)
* Brazilian Percussionist Naná Vasconcelos Dies at 71 (Jazz Times)
* Eight Rising Female Instrumentalists (SFJazz.org)
* What will you miss about CDs? (AV Club)
* Kendrick Lamar's go-to saxophonist Kamasi Washington talks modern jazz (Entertainment Weekly)
* Porter Debuts Music from New Blue Note Album (DownBeat)
* Say “Hello” to the Era of the One-Word Song Title (Priceonomics.com)
* Death of the jukebox: Fighting for bar music's soul amid TouchTunes' takeover (City Pages)
* Google are giving away experiments to teach music and code (CreateDigitalMusic.com)
* Record Store Day 2016: This Year's Highlights from Bowie to Bieber (Newsweek)
* McBride To Become Next Artistic Director of Newport Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Mapping the Sounds of Greek Byzantine Churches: How Researchers Are Creating “Museums of Lost Sound” (OpenCulture.com)
* Jazz Great Ernestine Anderson Dies (Seattle Times)
* Music Licensing Shop Harry Fox Agency Appears To Be Scrambling To Fix Its Failure To Properly License Songs (TechDirt.com)
* Review: BCN Impro Festival, Barcelona (Jazz Journal)
* Closing Time: Why More Bands Need to Say Farewell (Consequence of Sound)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* One of singer of singer Cyrille Aimée's performances last week at Jazz at the Bistro was reviewed for DownBeat magazine by St. Louis writer Terry Perkins.

* Writing for the Post-Dispatch a couple of days later, Perkins then covered singer Gregory Porter's show on Saturday at the Touhill, an event also reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Saxophonist Jim Stevens (pictured) announced this week via Facebook that he, drummer James Jackson and bassist John King will go to Jakarta, Indonesia the first week of March to perform with guitarist Larry Coryell and keyboardist and former St. Louisan David Garfield at the Java Jazz Festival.

Described as "one of the largest jazz festivals in the world and arguably the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere," the event also will feature performances this year from Chris Botti with Sting, the jazz-fusion band Yellowjackets, singers Patti Austin and Kurt Elling, saxophonist Candy Dulfer, and more.

* Multi-instrumentalist Adam Maness of The 442s (and several other bands) has joined pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio Network as "creative content manager." The firm produces and sells online video music lessons featuring Martin, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, guitarist Romero Lubambo, and others.

* In an interview with San Francisco Classical Voice, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard talked about developing and premiering his opera Champion in St Louis with support from Opera Theatre St. Louis and Jazz St. Louis. A new production of Champion being mounted this month by SFJAZZ and Opera Parallèle features a revised orchestration for fewer musicians.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts will present a workshop on crowdfunding for artists at 7:00 p.m. this coming Monday, February 15 at the Regional Arts Commission. Attendees will hear from the author of a book on crowdfunding, a panel of artists who have used crowdfunding, and an attorney who will talk about related legal issues. Admission is $10 in advance; $15 at the door.

Jazz this week: Cyrille Aimée, Gregory Porter, Branford Marsalis, Jeff Barnhart, and more

Although the official celebrations during Mardi Gras week in St. Louis typically don't offer much for jazz fans, leaning heavily on rock cover/tribute bands and DJs, this year the concert calendar countdown to Fat Tuesday just happens to feature several noteworthy touring jazz headliners, plus an assortment of shows from local performers. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 3
Singer Cyrille Aimée makes her St. Louis debut in the first of four nights continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Born in France and working in the US for much of the last decade, the 31-year old Aimée (pictured, top left) has musical roots in Gypsy jazz and swing, but also deploys some very non-traditional techniques, like using a looping pedal to create one-woman acapella arrangements in real time.

You can read more about her and her just-released album Let's Get Lost in the preview story written by Calvin Wilson for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday, and see and hear her in action in StLJN's Saturday video post from a couple of weeks ago.

Thursday, February 4
The Funky Butt Brass Band, one of the few jazz or jazz-related local acts that does get extra work at Carnival time, will play an early evening "Mardi Gras Party" at the Blues City Deli.

Around the time that's wrapping up, pianist Ken Kehner, singer and saxophonist Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris will be kicking off this semester's Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University, and singer Ken Haller will be doing an encore of his popular cabaret performance "The TV Show" at The Monocle.

Also on Thursday, trumpeter Jim Manley will be working his weekly gig at Momo's Greek Restaurant; pianist Ptah Williams and guitarist Eric Slaughter return to their regular spot The Dark Room after taking off to play the Bistro last week; and traditional jazz and swing band The Gaslight Squares will perform at Thaxton Speakeasy.

Friday, February 5
The Saint Boogie Brass Band will headline "The People Party Gras M@squerade Ball on Cherokee" at 2720 Cherokee; saxophonist Christopher McBride will be in from Chicago to lead a trio at Cigar Inn; saxophonist Jay Hutson and Da Wolvez perform at Evangeline's; and the Ambassadors of Swing will play for dancers the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, February 6
To hear some jazz, funk and/or R&B after the big parade on Saturday, your best bet downtown may be the Old Rock House's Mardi Gras Parade Day celebration featuring the Funky Butt Brass Band and Al Holliday & the East Side Rhythm Band.

However, the most-anticipated local jazz event on Saturday would have to be the return to St. Louis of singer Gregory Porter for the first time in three years for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

When Porter (pictured, center left) was here last back in 2013, he was just starting to enjoy some crossover success. Since then, he's released a Grammy winning album and, as his audience has continued to grow, moved up to headline at bigger venues and major festivals.

He's also now employing two St. Louis musicians - drummer Emanuel Harrold (brother of trumpeter Keyon Harrold) and bassist Jahmal Nichols - in his band, which should make for a lively homecoming feel at the Touhill. You can read more about Porter's successes, and see some of his recent performances, in last week's Saturday video post.

Sunday, February 7
For those not committed to Super Bowl Sunday, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present the versatile pianist Jeff Barnhart, a skilled player in ragtime, stride and more modern styles, in a concert at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

Monday, February 8
While a three-night, Monday-through-Wednesday booking isn't the usual for Jazz at the Bistro, Jazz St. Louis understandably was willing to change things up a bit to secure the services of saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his quartet, who have proven to be both a good draw and of high musical quality for years now.

Marsalis (pictured, lower left) and pianist Joey Calderazzo played a duo show at the Sheldon back in January 2012, but given that it's been even longer since the saxophonist did a full-band show here, demand for tickets should be substantial. The good news is that while seats for Marsalis' 7:30 sets may be hard to come by at this point, tickets for the 9:30 performances may be more available for shows early in the week than they would be on a weekend. Regardless, advance reservations are recommended.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The return of Gregory Porter

This week, let's check out some videos featuring singer Gregory Porter, who's returning to St. Louis for the first time since January 2013 for a concert presented by Jazz St. Louis on Saturday, February 6 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

A lot has happened in Porter's career in the three years since he made his St. Louis debut at Jazz at the Bistro, including international touring, headlining gigs at major festivals, multiple appearances on US and UK television, and a Grammy Award for his album Liquid Spirit, which came out in the fall of 2013 and already has been reissued in a "deluxe" edition.

As a result of all this attention, Porter now is playing theaters like the 1600-seat Touhill instead of smaller, more intimate venues like the Bistro. But as you'll see in today's videos showcasing much of the material from Liquid Spirit, he's kept his concert presentation substantially the same, still backed by a four-piece band that currently includes two St. Louisans, drummer Emanuel Harrold and bassist Jahmal Nichols.

In the first clip up above, you can see Porter singing "Water Under Bridges" from Liquid Spirit at this past summer's Glastonbury Festival in England.

After the jump, there's a clip of him performing "No Love Dying" in 2013 on CBS This Morning, followed by a video of Porter and pianist Chip Crawford visiting the studios of the UK's Jazz FM in January 2014 to do "Hey Laura" and Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free".

The fourth clip is a full episode of the web video series "Live@Home" from 2014, featuring Porter and band doing four songs, plus some brief interview segments.

The fifth and sixth clips are both full shows from 2014, from Warsaw Summer Jazz Days in Poland and the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands.

For more about what Gregory Porter's been up to since his last visit to St. Louis, read his interview from March of last year with the UK newspaper The Telegraph; his interview with the BBC, done around the same time; and this feature from the UK magazine MOJO.

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