Sunday Session: October 18, 2020

Charles McPherson

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

* The Many Instruments of Stanley Crouch, Who Transformed the Entirety of Jazz and Cultural Criticism (Mother Jones)
* Wynton Marsalis Says Cultural Con Jobs Began Long Before Trump (The Daily Beast)
* Late night TV musicians push for parity in pay, health care and residuals (KCRW)
* Alone Together: A Q&A with Pianist Benny Green (SFJAZZ.org)
* Philly’s jazz community improvising to deal with COVID-19 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Visionary who turned down a gig with Miles Davis and pivoted to cardiology (among other pursuits) is subject of Philly ICA show (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* The company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music (TheHustle.co)
* Charles McPherson Straddles The Artistic Fence (DownBeat)
* Stevie Wonder Releases First New Music in 15 Years (Rolling Stone)
* He Helps Folk Musicians Stay Alive (Ozy.com)
* Sheet music sales soar 25% as UK turns to piano practice during Covid lockdown (INews.co.uk)
* Theo Croker Exemplifies This Moment In Jazz (DownBeat)
* Mary Halvorson: New York City and the Pull of the Moon (BarryCleveland.com)
* The Spiritual Power of Pharoah Sanders (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Diana Krall Reflects on Her Creative Process, Her Late Producer, and an Emotive New Album (WBGO)
* 50 Years Ago B.B. King's 'Indianola Mississippi Seeds' Retooled R&B (PopMatters.com)
* An Oral History Of Tom Petty’s Landmark 1994 Album, ‘Wildflowers’ (Uproxx.com)
* Billy Childs Engages The Vastness Of Music (DownBeat)
* A Love Supreme: Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman Santana on Coltrane, Miles and Making Music Together (Jazziz)
* Gearhead: Memories of the Guitorgan (Jazz Times)
* Field Studies: Manfred Eicher, Founder of ECM Records, Picks His Top Five Blue Note Albums (WBGO)
* Field Studies: Don Was, President of Blue Note Records, Picks His Top Five ECM Albums (WBGO)
* Are We Reaching Peak Streaming Subscriptions? (Billboard)
* Michael Cuscuna: In The Vault Playing God (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Tragedy of Stanley Crouch (Counterpunch.org)
* Randy Brecker: Overdue Ovation (Jazz Times)
* “AngelHeaded Hipster”: Hal Willner Does T. Rex (The New Yorker)

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: April 12, 2020

Ron Carter

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

* Even in the Swinging Sixties, Ray Davies was feeling nostalgic (The Spectator)
* How Professor Bop Paid His Dues: Babs Gonzales (IndianaPublicMedia.org)
* John Edward Hasse Remembers U.S. Rep. John Conyers (Jazz Times)
* Guitarists Fareed Haque And Goran Ivanovic Reconvene After 15 Years (DownBeat)
* An Extraordinary Documentary About the Art of Sun Ra (The New Yorker)
* Chicago’s elder jazz musicians are playing not just for money but for time and yearn to return to the stage (Chicago Tribune)
* Jazz At Lincoln Center, Cultural Institutions Open Up Archives Amid Pandemic (DownBeat)
* Stayin’ alive! How music has fought pandemics for 2,700 years (The Guardian)
* Hal Willner, Music Producer and Longtime ‘SNL’ Music Supervisor, Dead at 64 (Rolling Stone)
* John Prine, Hero Of 'New' Nashville, Dies After Developing COVID-19 Symptoms (NPR)
* John Prine's Songs Saw The Whole Of Us (NPR)
* Onaje Allan Gumbs, Pianist Whose Reach Spanned the Soulful and the Smooth, Dies at 70 (WBGO)
* Kendrick Lamar Thinks Like A Jazz Musician (NPR)
* Ron Carter: A record-breaking jazz legend returns to Tokyo (Japan Times)
* Lakecia Benjamin Pursues a Spiritual Quest (DownBeat)
* Bob Dylan Scores First-Ever No. 1 Song on a Billboard Chart With 'Murder Most Foul' (Billboard)
* Blue Engine Chronicles Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Performances (DownBeat)
* Jazz Artists Raise Concerns Over Coronavirus Cancellations (Jazz Times)
* Best McCoy Tyner Albums: 20 Essentials From The Legendary Pianist (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* People Are Remembering What Music Is Really For (The Atlantic)
* Uri Caine Celebrates the Legacy of Octavius Catto (Jazz Times)
* Roscoe Mitchell reconciles improvisational sources and orchestral means (Chicago Reader)
* Unwinding the mystery of degraded reel-to-reel tapes (Phys.org)
* Nerding Out With Thundercat - On his new album, losing Mac Miller, and the Evangelion dubbing controversy (Vulture.com)
* Shine On Till Tomorrow: The Beatles’ Breakup at 50 (Rolling Stone)
* Bassist Andy González Dies At The Age Of 69 (DownBeat)
* Fenway Park's Organist Gives Fans That Ballpark Sound At Home — And He Takes Requests (NPR)
* Jazz Messengers’ Bassist Jymie Merritt Dies At 93 (DownBeat)
* Jymie Merritt, Bassist Who Brought a Rooted Yet Exploratory Spirit to Post-Bop, Dies at 93 (WBGO)
* The legal underbelly of livestreaming concerts (Water & Music)
* Coronavirus ravages storied New Orleans Mardi Gras group (Associated Press)