Sunday Session: October 25, 2020

Keith Jarrett

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

* Ronnie's review – fascinating story of the fabled Soho jazz club (TheArtsDesk.com)
* 5 Questions to Tyshawn Sorey (composer, multi-instrumentalist) (ICareIfYouListen.com)
* Met Opera’s musicians haven’t been paid since April. Now, a third have left New York (ClassicFM.com)
* Master Jazz Drummer Rodney Green on Jason Moran, Charlie Haden and Purgatory Perceptions (WhiteHotMagazine.com)
* With COVID-19 stimulus stalled, L.A. clubs face doomsday scenario: ‘We’re in the deep end, drowning’ (Los Angeles Times)
* Earl Freeman: Poems and Drawings (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* Louis Armstrong and Comedy Part 2: “Always a Showman!” 1922-1933 (LouisArmstrongHouse.org)
* Jazz Educators Step Up to Face COVID-19’s Challenges (Jazz Times)
* The Genius Of… Super Session by Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (Guitar)
* Toshinori Kondo, Trailblazing Modern Trumpeter, Dies At 71 (NPR)
* Acid, nudity and sci-fi nightmares: why Hawkwind were the radicals of 1970s rock (The Guardian)
* Pianist Keith Jarrett unlikely to perform again after two strokes (The Guardian)
* National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2021 NEA Jazz Masters (Arts.gov)
* Nubya Garcia Injects Fresh Energy Into The UK Jazz Scene (DownBeat)
* A Cultural History of the Cranked Snare Drum (Full-Stop.net)
* Analog Africa: digging deeper into forgotten corners of global groove (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Inside Bob Dylan’s Lost Interviews and Unseen Letters (Rolling Stone)
* Slo-mo artistry of a sax genius (Sydney Morning Herald)
* Little Richard Made Millions. It All Went to His Label (Vice.com)
* Jazz singer Kurt Elling moves back home to Chicago: ‘It was always a question of when was going to be right’ (Chicago Tribune)
* “You Need Both Sides of the Coin to Feel Like There is Substance:” An Interview with Nubya Garcia (PassionWeiss.com)
* With The Specter Of Winter Looming, Venues Explore Paths Forward (DownBeat)
* A Guide to the Music of Archie Shepp, Who Kept Jazz Vitally Political (Bandcamp.com)
* Jazz Clubs Are in Crisis (Jazz Times)
* Cindy Blackman Santana Blends Music, Spiritual Approaches (DownBeat)
* As Keith Jarrett Closes a Chapter, Jazz United Reflects on His Monumental Solo Piano Career (WBGO)
* Five Songs That Exemplify the Musical Legacy of Pharoah Sanders (WDET)
* Canadian musician Angie C just used a brainwave-reader to play the monster analogue synth TONTO with her mind (MusicRadar.com)

Sunday Session: March 5, 2017

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

* We Are The Robots: Is the future of music artificial? (FactMag.com)
* Sun Records Studio: 18 Musical Milestones (Rolling Stone)
* Dot Time Records Discovers Previously Unreleased Armstrong Recordings (DownBeat)
* The fight to preserve King Records’ legacy (Cincinnati Enquirer)
* It’s a Synthesizer. It’s a Violin. It’s a Modulin (HackADay.com)
* Grammy-winning jazz superstar Gary Burton to play final concerts in March, then retire (Miami Herald)
* KCSM jazz station cuts programming (SFGate.com)
* Veteran jazzmen played with the greats (NorthJersey.com)
* Philly jazz greats celebrate publication of new book (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Is vinyl Detroit's latest growth industry? (Detroit Metro Times)
* The Keith Jarrett Phenomenon (The Nation)
* How Raphael Saadiq is quietly keeping R&B on film, TV and the radio (KPCC)
* Lou Reed's Archives Acquired By New York Public Library For The Performing Arts (Billboard)
* Inside Lou Reed's Revelatory New Public Archive (Rolling Stone)
* UMG Alone Earns $4.5 Million a Day from Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Saving Nina Simone’s Birthplace as an Act of Art and Politics (New York Times)
* Sending Off Nat Hentoff, With Memories and Jazz (Village Voice)
* Linda Oh Pursues New Direction on Forthcoming Album (DownBeat)
* Soundcloud Tells Guy It Needs To Kill His Account Of 8 Years Because Someone Else Trademarked His Name (TechDirt.com)
* The Internet Is Silencing Artists, According To An Artist On The Internet (TechDirt.com)
* Ride the Feedback: A Brief History of Guitar Distortion (Vice.com)
* John Hammond: The Lost Interview (Part 1: Signing Aretha and Dylan) (BestClassicBands.com)
* 9 Artists Carrying the Torch for Cosmic Jazz (Pitchfork.com)
* How A Contract Clause Led To A Fight Between Musicians And Austin's Biggest Event (NPR)
* Misha Mengelberg, Influential Dutch Pianist-Composer Behind the ICP Orchestra, Dies at 81 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: February 19, 2017

Clyde Stubblefield

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

* Why Music Ownership Matters (TheSmartSet.com)
* Vocalist Al Jarreau Dies at 76 (Jazz Times)
* The Great Al Jarreau, An Appreciation (with Rare Photos) (EurWeb.com)
* Black Classical: Composers and Conductors Who Shaped Music History (WQXR)
* Scofield, Nash, Collier Win Big at Grammys (DownBeat)
* The Audiographa Project Captures the Compositions of Music (Design-Milk.com)
* Christoph Cox on The History of Sound Art, Full Lecture (SonicField.org)
* Doctor Who composer Delia Derbyshire’s archive to be digitized (FactMag.com)
* 'Game Of Thrones' Composer Ramin Djawadi On Melodies That Stick (NPR)
* Keith Jarrett: Alone in a Crowded Room (Jazz Times)
* Jarrett’s Profoundly Emotional Excursion at Carnegie Hall (DownBeat)
* Why happy music makes you do bad things (BBC)
* 'Respect' Wasn't A Feminist Anthem Until Aretha Franklin Made It One (NPR)
* Bill Evans on meeting Miles (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Drum Legend Jack DeJohnette Returns to Austin (Austin Chronicle)
* Master blaster: the woman making Björk, Aphex Twin and Eno sound so good (The Guardian)
* The Man Who Broke Ticketmaster (Vice.com)
* Sound and Space: Our Acoustic Perception of the World (TheEpochTimes.com)
* Ohio Players Founder, Junie Morrison, Dead At 62 (OkayPlayer.com)
* Free Jazz Pianist Muhal Richard Abrams Brings 70 Years Of Sounds To Wesleyan (Hartford Courant)
* A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music (Pitchfork.com)
* Indian Secrets: Old and new Mardi Gras Indian traditions face off (Offbeat)
* Mick Jagger wrote a 'masterpiece' memoir that has never been published (The Guardian)
* All-Star Band Hudson To Release Album, Tour North America (DownBeat)
* The Thinning of Big Mama (Oxford American)
* Q&A with Matthew Shipp: On Home Turf (DownBeat)
* Moog are the music makers: Inside the small town factory that builds the world’s best-loved synths (FactMag.com)
* Clyde Stubblefield, James Brown's 'Funky Drummer,' Dead at 73 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: February 14, 2016

Thad Jones

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StLJN's inbox:

* Jazz Record Mart Owner Reaches Deal to Sell All His Records, Closing Soon (DNAInfo.com)
* After Seven Years, Maxwell Will Release The Sequel To ‘BLACKsummers’night’ This Year (Vibe)
* Thad Jones: 50 years of big band jazz in present tense (Detroit Free Press)
* Jazz Night In America At The DC Jazz Loft (NPR)
* 5 Production Lessons from Dave Stewart’s New Autobiography (Pro Sound News)
* The .00005¢ Handshake: More Reasons Why No Talent Buyer Cares About Streaming (MusicTechPolicy)
* Brian Eno and David Byrne’s cultural appropriation – 35 years of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Get Into This)
* Why Branford Marsalis is the man (Blavity.com)
* Mark Mullins of Bonerama Keeps Trombones Hummin’ & Rockin’ (INTERVIEW) (Glide Magazine)
* The Sound Of Film To Come: how jazz fell in love with the movies (The Guardian UK)
* How skateboarders and jazz musicians make the same moves (KnightFoundation.org)
* Jarrett Thrills the Faithful at Sold-Out Carnegie Hall (DownBeat)
* Five reasons why SoundCloud might be doomed (FactMag.com)
* The Creative Imperative and FONT Music - Dave Douglas’ “Solo” presentation at the 2016 Jazz Connect Conference (Jazz Times)
* The International Electronic Music Association and the Cassette Underground (Percorsi Musicali)
* Coltrane Church Says It’s Under Threat of Being Priced Out of San Francisco (KQED)
* Interview: Bassist/Producer Bill Laswell (SFSonic.com)
* How “Vinyl" and Lee Ranaldo Turned a Lost ’70s Act Into TV's Next Great Fictional Band (Pitchfork)
* Leading independent record shop shuns Record Store Day (TheVinylFactory.com)

Music Education Monday: A workshop with saxophonist Dewey Redman

Today for Music Education Monday, you can take in a workshop with saxophonist Dewey Redman, the late Texas tenor man known for his big, bluesy tone, his associations with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett, and these days, for being the father of saxophonist Joshua Redman.

The elder Redman, who died in 2006, was born in 1931 in Fort Worth and went to high school with Ornette Coleman, forming a friendship that would last a lifetime. He played in Coleman's band from 1968 to 1972, and later started the group Old And New Dreams with fellow Coleman alumni Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell, releasing four albums of music influenced by their former employer.

Redman was much more than just a Coleman disciple, though, putting out a dozen albums under his own name, and a dozen more with Jarrett, recorded during the 1970s when he was a member of the pianist's "American Quartet." He also also performed and recorded with Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian, Pat Metheny, and numerous other jazz musicians active during the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1993, Redman went back to Texas to conduct a workshop with students at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to record the event on video. You can see that video of Redman's workshop, presented in three parts, after the jump.

And if you're curious to know more about Dewey Redman, he was the subject of an award-winning documentary film, Dewey Time: The Sound of A Giant, released in 2001. You can see that film in its entirety in the fourth video embed below...

Sunday Session: July 5, 2015

Charles Mingus

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

* Matthew Shipp unveils new trio with upcoming release The Conduct of Jazz (Something Else)
* Ornette Coleman and a Joyful Funeral (The New Yorker)
* Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Sorting out the Billie Holiday centennial onslaught (Jazz Times)
* The Next Generation of 3D-Printed Musical Instruments Are Worthy of a Star Trek Movie (Classical Lite)
* The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus (WFIU)
* The Singer and the Song (Ronan Guilfoyle)
* BMG Acquires Catalog of Verse Music, Includes Songs of Nina Simone, J. Lo (Billboard)
* How Jazzman Robert Glasper Won Over the Hip-Hop Heads (Mother Jones)
* The Exit Interview: I Spent 12 Years in the Blue Man Group (Atlas Obscura)
* If SoundCloud Goes Under, Music Will Change for the Worse (Mic.com)
* Apple Music first impressions: something borrowed, something new (The Verge)
* Meet Brian Wilson's Secret Weapon: Darian Sahanaja (Rolling Stone)
* The Care and Feeding of Songwriters: Why “Art for Art’s Sake” Could Have An Unfortunate Future (Pro Sound News)
* How Do You Teach A Robot Feelings? Make It Sing Opera (Vice.com)
* Terry Riley, a Founder of Minimalism, Turns 80 (Studio 360)
* The Con Man Who Invented American Popular Music (Radio Silence)
* Digital Watch: Apple Music Conflict Highlights the Problem of Free Music (Radio Survivor)
* Did Nielsen Kill The Radio Star? (FiveThirtyEight.com)
* Minimalist Composer La Monte Young on His Life and Immeasurable Influence (Vulture)
* Quincy Jones: Honey, we have no music industry (Fortune)
* Does The Death Of Album Revenue Spell The End For Rock Stars As We Know Them? (SeatSmart.com)
* Deep Soul - How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory (The Telegraph UK)
* John Luther Adams: a force of nature (The Guardian UK)
* Cassette Revolution: Why 1980s Tape Tech Is Still Making Noise in Our Digital World (Collector's Weekly)
* Ringo's no joke. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him (The Spectator UK)
* NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums Of 2015 (So Far) (NPR)
* Fife and drum: Keeping the Mississippi rhythm alive (BBC)

Sunday Session: February 8, 2015

Henry Threadgill

For your Sunday reading enjoyment and edification, here are some noteworthy items encountered during the past week about jazz, creative music, and more:

* John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' Is Still a Masterpiece After 50 Years (Newsweek)
* Matt Wilson, on finding consolation in jazz (Ottawa Citizen)
* When Musicians Unintentionally Steal (Pacific Standard)
* Two-Letter Domain Change Lands Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Middle of Heated Debate, V.P. André Guess Weighs In (ClassicalLite.com)
* Concert: The Bad Plus at Berklee Performance Center - Trio performs Ornette Coleman’s “Science Fiction” with special guests (Jazz Times)
* Inside The Awesome Synth Lair Of Mark Mothersbaugh (Synthtopia.com)
* Racism and Jazz Mythology (Brilliant Corners, A Boston Jazz Blog)
* Legendary Bassist Carol Kaye on Joe Cocker and What's Wrong With Today's Singers (Examiner.com)
* Composing the Future: A Talk With Jazz Titan Henry Threadgill (KQED)
* The Netflix of Vinyl: How VNYL actually works (Consequence of Sound)
* New Frequencies Fest brings cutting-edge performers to Bay Area (Contra Costa Times)
* Why Americans Hate Instrumental Music (Ultimate-Guitar.com)
* The End of Guitar Center (Eric Garland)
* The Noise And How To Bring It: Hank Shocklee Interviewed (The Quietus)
* A Striking Exception - A record label proves successful by bucking commercial trends (Wall Street Journal)
* Jazz Searches For The New Land: Yusef Lateef's Jazz ’Round The World (The Wire)
* Yes, Major Record Labels Are Keeping Nearly All The Money They Get From Spotify, Rather Than Giving It To Artists (TechDirt)
* The Next Important Jazz Singer - A Brief Interview with Sara Gazarek (Medium)
* The Bill Evans Legacy (Wall Street Journal)
* The '90s Alliance Between Blue Note and Hip-Hop (Wondering Sound)
* Kind Of Weird: How The Köln Concert Made Keith Jarrett A Pop Star (The Concourse/Deadspin)
* Gentrification versus Jazzification: Birdland nightclub grows vision to spark jazz district (KALW)
* Bleckmann, Vandermark Generate Sparks at Winter Jazzfest (DownBeat)
* Labels, not Spotify, are screwing over artists and breaking the music industry. Here’s how to fix it. (Pando Daily)
* Big Shake-Up to Music Licensing Regime Embraced by U.S. Copyright Office (Hollywood Reporter)