Sunday Session: October 27, 2019

Billy Cobham

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

* The strange revival of vinyl records (The Economist)
* A stroke of genius: Guitarist and Brookline native wins MacArthur fellowship (WickedLocal.com)
* Q&A: Herb Alpert (TheaterJones.com)
* Mingus’s Lost String Quartet (London Review of Books)
* In Reversal, WNYC Says New Sounds Will Stay On The Airwaves (Gothamist.com)
* Kinks 1969 epic chimes with Britain’s mood today, says singer Ray Davies (The Guardian)
* The Renaissance of Marilyn Crispell (DownBeat)
* The 2010s: Classical Music's Decade Of Reckoning (NPR)
* Adam Rudolph: The Matrix Reloaded (Jazz Times)
* When the Beatles Walked Offstage: Fifty Years of “Abbey Road” (The New Yorker)
* 'Fresh Air' Marks The Centenary Of The Birth Of Jazz Singer Anita O'Day (NPR)
* Shorter, Salvant and Benson Among DownBeat Readers Poll Winners (DownBeat)
* Come blow your horn: the glory days of Ronnie Scott's jazz club – in pictures (The Guardian)
* How Untitled Goose Game adapted Debussy for its dynamic soundtrack (TheVerge.com)
* The dorky recorder you had in school just got a futuristic remake (CDM.link)
* Billy Cobham: Blowin’ in the Crosswinds (Jazz Times)
* How ‘Moonlight Serenade’ Defined a Generation (Smithsonian)
* Uri Caine Pays Tribute to Octavius Catto (DownBeat)
* Summoning the ghosts of Record Row (Chicago Reader)
* Joe Lovano’s New Septet Echoes the Past, Looks to the Future (DownBeat)
* Jazz Foundation of America Honors Roy Haynes, Raises $475K at Annual Loft Party (DownBeat)
* The Long Journey of Charlie Parker’s Saxophone (Smithsonian)
* The Hissing of Vintage Tapes (Tedium.co)
* What Makes Music Enjoyable? It’s Complex, But Measurable (Forbes.com)
* Nubya Garcia in Full ‘Blume’ (DownBeat)
* How the Internet Archive is Digitizing LPs to Preserve Generations of Audio (Archive.org)
* The “cost of living” in Spotify streams (Alex.Leonard.ie)
* The Necessity of Musical Hallucinations (Nautil.us)
* The Rise and Fall of Hip-Hop's First Godmother: Sugar Hill Records' Sylvia Robinson (Billboard)

Sunday Session: June 16, 2019

George Benson

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

* Anthony Davis Builds Operas From Headlines (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Sweet Charity: Herb Alpert Foundation Celebrates 25th Anniversary (Jazz Times)
* 30th Century Music Now: Mick Houghton Remembers Sun Ra (The Quietus)
* Wonderland Lost (TheRinger.com)
* Music Is YouTube's Most Profitable Category, 'Crucial' to Bottom Line: Study (Billboard)
* Final Bow For The Night Tripper – A Tribute to Dr John (Jazzwise)
* Esperanza Spalding Knows Music Can Heal. Now She Wants to Prove It With Science (The Daily Beast)
* Bright Moments with Gary Bartz (Jazz Times)
* State Department ‘extreme vetting’ says no to traveling musicians (San Francisco Chronicle)
* They Introduced the World to Songs of Slavery. It Almost Broke Them (Topic.com)
* Jeremy Pelt: Sound Sculptor, Museumgoer (DownBeat)
* The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man! (Scientific American)
* Bret Primack on Jazz Video and the Ira Gitler Documentary (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Cuba: While The Politicians Argued, The Musicians Jammed (NPR)
* Dr. John Knew the End Was Near. He Recorded One Final Album (Rolling Stone)
* Recordings by Nirvana, Janet Jackson, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Chuck Berry, and More Destroyed in 2008 Fire (SPIN)
* Big Mood Machine (TheBaffler.com)
* A Long Tail: Don Cherry's Brown Rice Reviewed (The Quietus)
* Melissa Aldana’s Indisputable Command (DownBeat)
* Music of a Sustainable Future: A Conversation with Linda May Han Oh and Fabian Almazan (SFJAZZ.org)
* Mac’s Wild Years (PonderosaStomp.com)
* Our brains appear uniquely tuned for musical pitch (EurekAlert.org)
* New Documentary 'Blue Note: Beyond The Notes' Surpasses Its Purpose (NPR)
* Jazz Drum Great Andrew Cyrille Revels in Collaboration at Lifetime Achievement Show (Rolling Stone)
* Why It’s Finally Time to Get Rid of Music Charts (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Herbie Hancock plays jazz for a more peaceful world (SydneyOperaHouse.com)
* An oral history of the Fender Stratocaster (Guitar.com)
* George Benson Salutes Rock Pioneers Chuck Berry, Fats Domino (DownBeat)
* Everything You Know Is Wrong: Rock & Roll Was Invented In Wildwood, New Jersey! (PleaseKillMe.com)
* What Was The First Rock & Roll Record? Deke Dickerson Says It’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Terence Blanchard Named First Kenny Burrell Chair at UCLA (Jazz Times)
* The Chaotic Magic of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: September 30, 2018

Horace Tapscott

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:

* Trane ’63: A Classic, A Challenge, A Change (WFIU)
* 10 Classic Vocal Jazz Duets (Jazz Times)
* The Absence Of Alice Coltrane – Reflections On Spiritual Eternal (TheQuietus.com)
* George Freeman still swinging hard — at 91 (Chicago Tribune)
* AudioFiles: The Controversy Over MQA (Jazz Times)
* Five Electronic Digital Instruments That Are Changing Music (Berklee.edu)
* SiriusXM buying Pandora Media in $3.5 billion deal (Associated Press)
* Terence Blanchard: Music, Social Justice and Raising Awareness About Violence Against Black People (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Pat Metheny still brings a unique voice to jazz guitar (Wisconsin Gazette)
* Interview with Cooper-Moore: My thinking is that intellect and emotion are part of what makes up the “Soul”: New video 2018, Photos (JazzBluesNews.space)
* Earning the Songs of Bill Withers (Jazz Times)
* Out of Dance, the Distinct Groove of Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf (DownBeat)
* Watch Paul Simon deliver an emotional farewell to fans during his last ever concert (NME.com)
* The Legend of Horace Tapscott and His Arkestra on Nimbus West Records (Bandcamp.com)
* The Smithsonian Robot Pepper Can Create Music from Visual Art. Now You Can Hear the Creepy Sample Tracks. (Washingtonian)
* A Brief History of Guitar Distortion: From Early Experiments to Happy Accidents to Classic Effects Pedals (OpenCulture.com)
* Streaming now accounts for 75 percent of music industry revenue (TheVerge.com)
* Tiny Desk Concert: Cécile McLorin Salvant (NPR)
* Wayne Shorter: Other Worlds (Jazz Times)
* ‘Love Is Here To Stay’: The Eternal Power Of Tony Bennett And Diana Krall (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Crosscultural Significance of Ornette Coleman (Jazz Times)
* Jazz isn’t dead: it’s just moved to new venues (TheConversation.com)
* Forgotten Giants: Willie Dixon - The Poet Laureate of Chess Records (Paste)
* Cosmic composers: how scientists helped reinvent Holst's Planets suite (The Guardian)
* Sony Music Faces Class Action Litigation for Allegedly Withholding Streaming Royalties (DigitalMusicnews.com)
* Q&A: Bridgette Wimberly tells the story of the Atlanta Opera’s “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” (ArtsATL.com)
* Bruce Iglauer Memoir Tells Story Of Blues Staple Alligator Records (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Sound Off: The Sonic Circuits Festival's Enduring Legacy (Washington City Paper)
* Herb Alpert Remembers Hugh Masekela (Afropop.org)
* Tia Fuller: The Brilliance of a Diamond (DownBeat)
* Sun Ra’s Afrofuturistic Album Covers (Flashbak.com)
* Branford Marsalis speaks his mind on music and politics, and he’s not holding back (Charlotte News-Observer)
* 40 years after Are We Not Men? we’re just now starting to get Devo (AVClub.com)
* Otis Rush, Seminal Chicago Blues Guitarist, Dead at 84 (Rolling Stone)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keyboardist and Metro East native David Garfield (pictured) was featured in the "Lessons" section of Keyboard magazine.

* Singer Denise Thimes appeared on BBC Newsday to talk about the late Aretha Franklin.

* Trumpet player Keyon Harrold's appearance at the upcoming LouFest was previewed in an article in Alive magazine.

* Regional Arts Commission will present a free workshop on how to apply for one of their Artists Support Grants next Tuesday, August 28 at RAC headquarters. Applications for the next round of the grants, which range from $500 to $3,000, are due by Thursday, September 20.

* The Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill reports that 2720 Cherokee has closed. The venue, which hosted the likes of Moon Hooch, Fareed Haque, Garaj Mahal, and Marco Benevento as well as a variety of acts playing rock, reggae, hip-hop, and more, presented its last show on August 4.

* A "pop-up" exhibit of artwork by trumpeter Herb Alpert, presented in conjunction with his recent concert at the Grandel Theatre, was the subject of a feature in St. Louis magazine.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Veteran drummer Gary Sykes, who currently plays with pianist Ptah Williams' trio, the STL Free Jazz Collective, and others, continues to face some serious health issues, most recently making a trip this week to St. Mary's Hospital to have two stents installed.

While Sykes said in a Facebook post that he's feeling better post-surgery, the GoFundMe page to raise money to help with expenses while he's unable to work is still active. Find out more and, if you wish, donate here.

* Singer Valerie Kirchhoff and pianist Ethan Leinwand of Miss Jubilee (pictured) were guests on a recent episode of Rock Paper Podcast.

* The Dark Room has begun live-streaming video of performances on their Facebook page, and archiving the streamed videos on a new YouTube channel.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed about his musical influences by Jamie Cullum for BBC Radio Two's "Take Five."

* Get It How You Live, the new album by trumpeter Russell Gunn's Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, was reviewed by DownBeat magazine.

* Guitarist Nels Cline was interviewed about his show tonight at Delmar Hall by the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson. (Link is to Google cache.)

* Also in the Post, Tower of Power saxophonist and bandleader Emilio Castillo was interviewed by P-D freelancer Daniel Durchholz. (Link is to Google cache.) TOP performs this Saturday, August 11 at River City Casino.

* Grant Green Jr. talks about his dad, St. Louis-born guitarist Grant Green, on the latest episode of the web series The Pace Report.

* Trumpeter and philanthropist Herb Alpert was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio. While Alpert's concert with his wife, singer Lani Hall, on Sunday, August 19 at the Grandel Theatre already is sold out, some of his visual art will be on display at the Grandel from Friday, August 17 through Sunday, August 19.

An opening reception will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, August 17. The public also can view Alpert's abstract mixed-media paintings and large and small-scale bronze sculptures from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 18, and from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 19 before the concert and for 30 minutes after the show.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Steward Family Foundation, already a major benefactor of Jazz St. Louis, will give a total of $1.3 million over four years to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to establish the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies at UMSL.

Funds from the gift will be used to help with student recruitment and to support scholarships, artists-in-residence, travel to advance jazz education and performance, and UMSL’s summer jazz camp.

* Get It How You Live, the new release from trumpeter Russell Gunn's Royal Krunk Orchestra (pictured), has been out for a week, and reviews are coming in, so far including positive notices from NextBop.com and Smooth-Jazz.de.

* Gunn also was the subject of a recent feature story on ArtsATL.com

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold's performance at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival was reviewed by the city's daily newspaper The Scotsman.

* Jazz/fusion band Koplant No has released a music video for their song "Knock Knock Ghost." The clip features dancer Belicia Beck of MADCO moving through spooky surroundings at the old Lemp Brewery complex.

* The recent performance of Bob Wetzel and Craig Becker's cabaret show "A Fine Bromance" at the Kranzberg Arts Center was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Miles Davis' son Erin Davis wrote an article about his relationship with his dad for Fatherly.com.

* According to a report from the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson, trumpeter Herb Alpert's show on August 19 at the Grandel Theatre is sold out. (Link paywalled for non-subscribers)

* Also in the Post, Johnson interviewed Boney James in advance of the saxophonist's performance for the Gateway Jazz Festival this Saturday at Chesterfield Amphitheater. (Link paywalled for non-subscribers.)

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall to perform Sunday, August 19 at Grandel Theatre

Trumpeter Herb Alpert and his wife, singer Lani Hall (pictured), are coming to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, August 19 at the Grandel Theatre.

Alpert has been a significant force in the music business for more than 50 years, leading the 1960s pop instrumental group Tijuana Brass, founding A&M Records, and enjoying a long career as a solo artist and producer. Hall first come to public attention as the lead singer for Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, and has enjoyed success as soloist and with her husband.

Their current live show includes "an eclectic mix of American standards, Brazilian jazz, some Beatles, some classic Tijuana Brass & Brazil '66 songs and a number of other surprises." A selection of Alpert’s sculptures & paintings, curated by Chip Tom of the Heather James Gallery, will be on display before and after the concert in the Grandel's Grand Hall.

Tickets for the concert are priced from $28 to $35 and are on sale now via Metrotix.

Sunday Session: May 3, 2015

Esperanza Spalding

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

* The World Music Education of Philip Glass (NPR)
* Can Club Owners Make Musicians Play for Free? (The Daily Beast)
* How did Eddie Bo die? Six years later, the piano legend's son still wonders (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Selling the Blues - To draw tourists, the Mississippi Delta plays on its musical heritage (Al Jazeera)
* Spalding Combines Music, Theater, Poetry, Dance for New Production (DownBeat)
* Musicians Guild Sues Warner Bros, MGM, Paramount Over Film Scores (Hollywood Reporter)
* Why We Should Teach Music History Backwards (Smithsonian)
* Wadada Leo Smith Celebrates 50 Years of AACM with New York Residency (DownBeat)
* Steve Coleman, a Jazz Outlier, Rides a Wave of Acclaim (New York Times)
* How (not) to behave: Manners and the classical music audience (Washington Post)
* 2015 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony & Concert (Arts.gov)
* 50-plus recipes from New Orleans Jazz Fest vendors, musicians and chefs (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Herb Alpert talks music, Tijuana, more (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Louis Armstrong, the Real Ambassador (New York Times)
* How the Rich Stole Jazz Music (The Daily Beast)
* Concord to Reissue 15-CD Thelonious Monk Riverside Box Set (Jazz Times)