Sunday Session: November 8, 2020

Marshall Allen

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

* Rahsaan Roland Kirk: An Alternative Top Ten Albums Guaranteed To Bend Your Head (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Peter Jones (‘This is Bop: Jon Hendricks and the Art of Vocal Jazz’ to be published November 2020) (London Jazz News)
* Nica's Tempo: More Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters (WFIU)
* Houston’s Ku-umba Frank Lacy still a messenger for jazz (Houston Chronicle)
* On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space (NPR)
* Cindy Blackman Santana: This Drummer Got Some (Jazz Times)
* The film exploring the avant-garde female pioneers of electronic music (DazedDigital.com)
* Benson, McBride and Metheny Among Readers Poll Winners (DownBeat)
* John Hollenbeck: Time to Rearrange (Jazz Times)
* Live from Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio Premieres Nov. 14 (Jazz Times)
* Lakecia Benjamin on a Heavy Year, the Healing Power of Music, and Breaking In Jazzfest Berlin (WBGO)
* Brian Blade: A 1970 Artist’s Choice (Jazz Times)
* Adam O’Farrill Is Only Scratching The Surface (DownBeat)
* Irvin Mayfield and Business Partner Ronald Markhamn set to be rearraigned next week (Offbeat)
* Marshall Allen Steers The Sun Ra Arkestra Into The Future (DownBeat)
* Singer, activist, sex machine, addict: the troubled brilliance of Billie Holiday (The Guardian)
* Studio whiz Don Hahn captured magic on the Band’s debut record (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* Elegy for A Side Man: Remembering Cornetist Peter Ecklund (Jazziz)
* Make ‘Y.M.C.A.’ Great Again (Rolling Stone)
* Cándido Camero, A Father Of Latin Jazz, Dies At 99 (NPR)

Sunday Session: October 4, 2020

Dorothy Ashby

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

* The Stanley Crouch I Knew (New York Review of Books)
* Cecil Taylor and his Mendota Players – Snapshots. By Paul Ruppa (The Wire)
* Captain Beefheart’s ’10 commandments of guitar playing’ (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Deep algebra for deep beats: The beautiful sounds of musical programming (Ars Technica)
* Wire Playlist: Musician-Owned Record Labels In Jazz In The 1970s (The Wire)
* Dorothy Ashby: Pioneering Jazz Harpist (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Death and Rebirth of the Rock Saxophone (TrebleZine.com)
* In Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, An Overlooked Institution of Moog Music (Bandcamp.com)
* John Hollenbeck Takes Back Recordings And Forges Ahead (DownBeat)
* What It’s Like to Be Black in Indie Music (Pitchfork.com)
* New Dave Brubeck Releases in Fall Pipeline (Jazz Times)
* ‘The Story I’m Telling’: An Interview with Archie Shepp (New York Review of Books)
* Sharel Cassity Is ‘Fearless’ Amid Recovery (DownBeat)
* North Philly activist, poet, and musician Moor Mother on her free jazz musical, Afrofuturism, and Patti LaBelle (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Antidote to Isolation - Vijay Iyer On How Music Reconnects Us In A Socially Distant World (Steinway.com)
* “This is more than an annoying blip.” Aaron Liddard’s perspective on the future of the music industry (London Jazz News)
* Arlo Guthrie on His Dad, Protesting, and “Alice’s Restaurant” (UnderTheRadarMag.com)
* Wire Playlist: Tashi Dorji (The Wire)
* The Futility of Rolling Stone’s Best-Albums List (The New Yorker)
* A Deep Dive into John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' by His Biographer, Lewis Porter (Pt. 3) (WBGO)
* Harlem of the West: San Francisco's Fillmore District (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Maria Schneider: A Tale Of Two Worlds (Jazz Times)
* The Canterbury Scene: How A Bunch of Bookish Bohemians Became The Monty Pythons of Prog (UDiscoverMusic.com) * JT Video Premiere: The Love Letter Sessions by Jimmy Heath (Jazz Times)
* The True Poet of Jazz (City-Journal.org)

Sunday Session: August 23, 2020

Charlie Parker

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

* Don’t Give Up: An Interview with John Hollenbeck (Night After Night)
* Music zooms into nursing homes (Limelight)
* Dickey Betts on the real Allman Brothers Band stories behind the film ‘Almost Famous’ (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
* Ornette Coleman: The Territory And The Adventure (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Two Maria Schneiders (The Nation)
* 2020 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Roscoe Mitchell (SFJAZZ.org)
* Now’s the Time for the Charlie Parker Centennial (Jazz Times)
* Steve Grossman, Saxophonist And Post-Coltrane Leading Light, Dead At 69 (NPR)
* The Strange World Of... Hawkwind (The Quietus)
* The History of ESP-Disk’ (Jazz Times)
* Archie Shepp Bridges Jazz, Hip-Hop On New Recording (DownBeat)
* Time’s Arrow Flies through 500 Years of Classical Music, Physicists Say (Scientific American)
* And in the End (Rolling Stone)
* Chris Dingman Wants To Help Others Find ‘Peace’ (DownBeat)
* What Store Stickers On Old Records Reveal About History Of Mexican American Music (NPR)
* 2020 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Music Director Terri Lyne Carrington (SFJAZZ.org)
* We Insist!: Jazz and Racial Injustice (Jazz Times)
* The Latest from Jazz Icon Charles Tolliver Reflects His 50-Plus Years in Music (Bandcamp.com)
* A mushroom-related brush with mortality: how John Cage fell for fungi (The Guardian)
* The Tiny Desk Guide To Rare And Amazing Instruments (NPR)
* Have a First Taste of 'The Lost Berlin Tapes,' Which Casts Ella Fitzgerald As a Returning Hero (WBGO)
* Remembering Santa Cruz Jazz Great Don McCaslin (Good Times)
* David Sancious on His Journey From the E Street Band to Tours With Sting, Peter Gabriel (Rolling Stone)

Interview with John Hollenbeck of the Claudia Quintet now online

The Claudia Quintet is in St. Louis to perform tonight in a concert at 560 Music Center presented by New Music Circle. Last week, I was able to chat with the band's drummer and leader John Hollenbeck about their music and their latest album, What Is The Beautiful?, and you can read the article that came from that conversation online here at the Riverfront Times' RFT Music Blog.

Larry Ochs and Kihnoua to play Wednesday, March 28 at Kranzberg Arts Center

New Music Circle has announced that saxophonist Larry Ochs will be bringing his group Kihnoua (pictured, above left) to St. Louis for a performance at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 28 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

In addition to Ochs, the group features Scott Amendola on drums and electronics and Dohee Lee on vocals, plus bassist Trevor Dunn, who will be a special guest on their St. Louis date.

Kihnoua's sound is described as "music that intermingles the very new thoughts, sounds and structures of jazz (or perhaps better said as “Western improvised music”) with influences from very ancient sounds of Korea and from other folk-music/ blues influences of Asia, Africa and the USA."

Tickets for Larry Ochs and Kihnouha are $15 for general admission, $7 for students/artists with a valid ID, and can be purchased online at NMC's website or at the door.

NMC also has announced that singer Theo Bleckmann (pictured, below left) will be performing with drummer John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet at their previously scheduled concert on Friday, March 2 at 560 Music Center.

Bleckmann perhaps is best known for his 15 years with composer Meredith Monk's ensemble, but he also has released a series of critically acclaimed solo recordings and has collaborated with musicians and composers including Laurie Anderson, Uri Caine, Philip Glass, Sheila Jordan, Phil Kline, David Lang, Kirk Nurock, Ben Monder, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He's a promising addition to what already was shaping up to be one this spring's most intriguing creative music shows.

Tickets for the Claudia Quintet concert also are priced at $15 and $7, and can be purchased from NMC's website or at the door.