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: April 19, 2020

Henry Grimes

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

* These are the musicians being listened to more (and less) during the pandemic (QZ.com)
* A Titan of Tumbao: Remembering Latin Jazz Bassist and Bandleader Andy González (WBGO)
* Lockdown learning: How a techno-head got into Beethoven (The Guardian)
* Why Do We Even Listen to New Music? (Pitchfork.com)
* Live Concerts Won’t Return Until “Fall 2021 at the Earliest,” Health Expert Warns (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Just Play - Ruminations on the themes of McCoy Tyner’s life on the occasion of his passing (TheNewInquiry.com)
* Coronavirus: Healthcare expert predicts concerts and festivals will not return until autumn 2021 (NME.com)
* Band Practice at Home Alone, Together: How JamKazam Became an Essential App Amid Self-Isolation (Billboard)
* Charles Lloyd Offers A Respite From Life’s Countless Dilemmas (DownBeat)
* Ticketmaster Slammed by US Congresswoman: ‘Worst Customer Service In Any Industry’ (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Hands Off: A 100th Anniversary Guide to Theremin Music (Bandcamp.com)
* Pandemic Complicates Nashville's Already Fragile Studio Business: 'We're Dealing In This Unknown' (Billboard)
* Behind The Scenes: Mixing Monitors On A Late-Night TV Show (ProSoundWeb.com)
* Lightning Strikes Twice: Songs Topping the Billboard Hot 100 Twice (MusicTimes.com)
* For Asian-American Jazz Artists, The Pandemic Uncovers Deep Wounds (DownBeat)
* The Morbid Comforts of Pandemic Playlists (Pitchfork.com)
* Tenor badness: Benny Golson, last legend of bebop (The Spectator)
* Ryo Kawasaki, Jazz Fusion Guitarist and Guitar Synth Inventor, Dies at 73 (Billboard)
* Lee Konitz, Alto Saxophonist Who Exemplified Jazz's Imperative to Make It New, Is Dead at 92 (WBGO)
* Exhibiting Wit And Chops Until The End, Saxophonist Lee Konitz Dies At 92 (DownBeat)
* John Prine: The Last Days and Beautiful Life of an American Original (Rolling Stone)
* A Touring-Dependent Genre Feels the Pain: ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues’ (Billboard)
* Music to his ears: How Jackie Robinson’s love of jazz helped civil rights movement (TheUndefeated.com)
* Van Dyke Parks’ existential awakening: ‘This is a time for reimagining’ (Los Angeles Times)
* Giuseppi Logan, Free-Jazz Multireedist Who Returned Once From Oblivion, Has Died at 84 (WBGO)
* Henry Grimes, Bassist of Avant-Garde Pedigree and a Storied Return, Dies of COVID-19 at 84 (WBGO)
* You Have a TikTok Hit! Now, Quick — Change the Title (Rolling Stone)
* Delfeayo Marsalis Is A Merchant Of Joy (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: June 19, 2016

Henry Grimes

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

* Sound in the City (Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique)
* Stax Records and the Making of Blaxploitation Soundtracks (Ebony)
* Music distributor lays off 'dozens' of employees, keeps CDs from labels (Portland Oregonian)
* Publishers: can we work together? (KateRomano.co.uk)
* The Devil's Horn asks: is the saxophone cursed? (Georgia Straight)
* Grimes Celebrates Lifetime of Achievement at Vision Festival 21 (DownBeat)
* Digital Music Era Ushers In New Rights for Veteran Studio Musicians (BusinessWire.com)
* From YouTube to the blockchain: how music and tech are colliding in 2016 (The Guardian UK)
* The Last Word: Donald Fagen on Right-Wing Paranoia, Steely Dan's Future (Rolling Stone)
* Music titan ‘Chips’ Moman is dead at 79 (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Musician ‘kicked off’ United Airlines flight for attempting to stow her violin safely (TheStrad.com)
* 2017 NEA Jazz Masters Announced (Jazz Times)
* Music in the age of the algorithm (FT.com)
* Thirty years later, Green Mill owner Dave Jemilo thrives at his jazz club (Chicago Tribune)
* How to remake a Blue Note jazz album – in pictures (The Guardian UK)
* Behind the Scenes Photos of NYC's Steinway Piano Factory (AtlasObscura.com)
* Boomer Rock Icons Are Back, and Their Albums Aren’t Bad (Vulture.com)
* The Soulful Crossover of Kamasi Washington (Jazz Times)
* Recording Academy Embraces Streaming with Changes to Grammy Rules (Billboard)
* Apple's Brain Trust -- Iovine, Reznor, Cue and Kondrk -- on Streaming's New World Order and Why 'We All Should Be' Worried (Billboard)
* Why it matters that AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award is going to 'Star Wars' composer John Williams (Los Angeles Times)
* Morris 'Moe' Jennings, studio drummer at Chess Records, dies at 77 (Chicago Tribune)
* Jazz Icon Charles Lloyd on Memphis, The Elixirs Of Gotham, and Bob Dylan (WBGO)
* Bernie Worrell’s Wife Shares Update On Legendary Keyboardist’s Health (JamBase.com)
* Kamasi Washington's Father Helped Mold Him into a Jazz Master (Vice.com)
* Two unreleased Frank Zappa albums will emerge from the vaults this July (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Jazz Drummer Matt Wilson's 'Big Happy Family' Is Heartfelt And Harmonious (NPR)
* You Don’t Know the Real Beatles Until You’ve Heard Sgt. Pepper’s in Mono (New York Observer)
* Catching Up With Ken Vandermark (Jazz Times)
* Upgrading a Traditional Javanese Instrument to Run on an Algorithm (Hyperallergic.com)
* The Secret Life of Foley (Vimeo.com)
* Appreciative Hart Spotlighted at Healdsburg Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* A Twist in the Zappa vs. Zappa Spat (New York Times)