Sunday Session: January 5, 2020

John Coltrane

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

* Prospecting for Musical Ghosts Along Lost Highways and Byways (Texas Highways)
* Five music-tech forecasts that misfired in 2019 (Patreon.com)
* Why Philip Glass was still driving a cab in his 30s (PRI.org)
* ‘The Hot Rats Sessions’ offers a window into how Frank Zappa used a recording studio (DangerousMinds.net)
* Sacred Blue: Jazz Goes To Church In the 1960s (Indiana Public Media)
* Jeremy Pelt Digs into the Canon (DownBeat)
* John Coltrane Talks About the Sacred Meaning of Music in the Human Experience: Listen to One of His Final Interviews (1966) (OpenCulture.com)
* In Memoriam: Jazz Artists We Lost in 2019 (JAZZIZ)
* Neil Innes: Monty Python songwriter dies aged 75 (BBC)
* With state Polka Hall of Fame in its death throes, can polka music itself be far behind? (Green Bay Press Gazette)
* Dee Alexander Interprets Billie Holiday on Delmark Outing (DownBeat)
* Linda Shaver-Gleason: Exit Interview with a Public Musicologist (NationalSawdust.org)
* The History of the Fisheye Photo Album Cover (OpenCulture.com)
* The Decade in Rock That Rock Fans Hated (Jezebel)
* Storied North Carolina Festival Offers Vibrant Jazz Jams (DownBeat)
* Bass legend Carol Kaye blasts ‘Mrs. Maisel’ homage as ‘slander’ (New York Post)
* Beijing unveils plans to become ‘international music capital’ in 5 years (InkstoneNews.com)
* Why We Keep Sending Music to Extraterrestrials (Slate)
* Saxophonist Melissa Aldana on Her First Grammy Nod, and Her Album 'Visions' (WBGO)
* Jack Sheldon 1931-2019 (Jazz Times)
* The Curved Air of Tomeka Reid (JazzDaGama.com)
* Geometry sings the blues in Indian-American mathematician's radical new music system (FirstPost.com)
* Lost in muzak: how ambient became cool (The Guardian)

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)

Jazz St. Louis polling fans on potential Bistro bookings

Once again this year, Jazz St. Louis is looking for input from local jazz fans regarding who they'd like to see booked next season at Jazz at the Bistro. Interested individuals may offer their opinions by responding to a survey on the Jazz St. Louis Web site.

Musicians listed in the poll as under consideration for the Bistro's 2010-11 season include Patricia Barber, Bill Charlap, Stefon Harris, Lionel Loueke, Russell Malone, Gretchen Parlato, Jeremy Pelt, Chris Potter, Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding (pictured) and Tierney Sutton.

Jazz St. Louis also is accepting "write-in" suggestions on their Facebook fan page and, presumably, via other means such as email, postal mail and in person as well. Many of the artists in this year's survey have played the Bistro at least once before, with the exceptions including Loueke, Parlato, Potter and Scott. JSL usually announces the next season's lineup for the Bistro in the latter part of May.

MAXJAZZ releasing new CD from Jeremy Pelt

The St. Louis-based record label MAXJAZZ has set July 15 as the release date for the latest CD from trumpet player Jeremy Pelt. Entitled November, the CD was recorded live to two-track and features Pelt's original compositions for an all-acoustic ensemble that includes saxophonist J.D. Allen, pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Pelt has recorded three previous CDs for MAXJAZZ and has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Rising Star award on trumpet in DownBeat magazine's annual Critic's Poll and the Young Composers.Award from ASCAP. When not leading his own bands, Pelt also plays with groups such as the Cannonball Adderly Legacy Band, led by drummer Louis Hayes, and the Wayne Shorter Big Band. Among many other upcoming gigs, Pelt and his Quintet will perform in October at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Three MAXJAZZ releases nominated for 2008 International Jazz Awards

Three CDs released over the past year by the St. Louis-based label MAXJAZZ have been nominated for 2008 International Jazz Awards.

* Trio Da Paz and Joe Locke's Live at Jazz Baltica is nominated for Outstanding Brazilian Jazz Performance in a Duo or Group/Instrumental.

* Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and his band WiRED's release Shock Value: Live at Smoke is up for an award in the category of Outstanding Performance of a New Artist – Vocal/Duo or Group/Instrumental.

* Trumpeter Terell Stafford's Taking Chances: Live at the Dakota is nominated for Outstanding Performance in a Live Album.

Intended as an annual event, the IJA makes its debut this year with a gala ceremony to be held Sunday, June 29 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The show will be hosted by actor/comedian D.L. Hughley, and recorded for future broadcast. Nominees were based on Soundscan’s top jazz sellers, and will honor jazz in categories including Contemporary/Smooth, Traditional, Swing, Latin, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Fusion and Dixieland.

MAXJAZZ to release new Jeremy Pelt CD

The St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label will release a new CD from trumpeter Jeremy Pelt next week. Shock Value features Pelt and his electric ensemble WiRED recorded live at the NYC club Smoke, and goes on sale next Tuesday.

Find out more by checking out the MAXJAZZ "E-card" for the CD here.

Notes from the Net: Blanton remembered, Waverly Seven featured, New Orleans musicians recovering, and more

For your Monday reading pleasure, it's StLJN's weekly compendium of brief items of interest from around the Web:

* Bassist Jimmy Blanton (pictured), who lived and worked in St. Louis for a couple of years just before he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, was remembered on the anniversary of his death in a brief article at AllAboutJazz.com.

* Performers at the fifth annual Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) will include Jeremy Pelt, who has recorded for the St. Louis label MAXJAZZ and played Jazz at the Bistro last season.

* Speaking of the Bistro, the new band Waverly Seven will play there from November 28 - December 1, and the NYC news station NY1 has a feature story about them and their first CD, an appreciation of the music of Bobby Darin.

* Pianist Jason Moran, who's playing the Bistro next year from January 30 through February 2, will be among the many participants in the "Following Monk" festival to be held this fall at Duke University.

* Guitarist John Scofield, a frequent visitor to St. Louis in recent years, has a new CD, This Meets That, on a new label, EmArcy.

* Last but certainly not least, an article from the New York Times examines how working musicians in New Orleans are trying to rebuild their lives and careers. Meanwhile, the Musicians Village project, built by Habitat for Humanity and championed by Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr., is getting its first residents.

Down Beat trumpet issue features St. Louis connections

The June 2007 issue of Down Beat focuses largely on jazz trumpeters, and as you might expect given St. Louis' record of producing notable brassmen, there are several local connections mentioned in the magazine:

* St. Louis native Keyon Harrold is one of the young trumpet players briefly profiled in an article titled "25 For The Future":

""As people get better and more defined at what they do, everybody knows everybody, and the world gets smaller," Keyon Harrold said. "I used to do gigs with Common and Wynton Marsalis would be there and sit in."

Now a Harlem resident, Harrold, 26, took telephone lessons from Marsalis in his teens when he was playing club gigs in his home town of St. Louis. At the New School he studied with Charles Tolliver, who gave him a feature on "Hit The Spot" on his big band record With Love.

Harrold pays the rent producing for and playing with the likes of 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Erykah Badu. On the jazz side he gigs with the likes of Tolliver and Billy Harper. "I played with Bobby Short and did a tour with Snoop Dogg the same week," Harrold said."

* Also included are excerpts from the magazine's first interviews with jazz trumpet legends, including a 1950 chat with Miles Davis.

* And finally, Jeremy Pelt, who has recorded for the St. Louis based label MAXJAZZ and performed earlier this year at Jazz at the Bistro, is pictured on the cover and is the subject of one of the month's main feature articles.

Alas, except for a few excerpts and archival stuff, DB's content is not available online, so if you want to read more you'll have to get the magazine, on sale now.