Sunday Session: October 20, 2019

Nat "King" Cole

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

* Remembering the Weirdest Album Launch Stunts of the 2010s (Pitchfork.com)
* Frank Zappa Marks 50th Anniversary of ‘Hot Rats’ With Massive Reissue (Rolling Stone)
* Jazz legend John Surman on a well-travelled career and why he's angry about Brexit (Irish Examiner)
* “It Was Beyond My Wildest Dreams” Pianist Ahmad Jamal Recalls ‘At The Pershing’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Percussionist Adam Rudolph Crafts a Tapestry of Sounds (DownBeat)
* Diverse Curation Sustains Belgrade Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Art Blakey: Praise the Messenger (Jazz Times)
* Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Reveals 2020 Nominees: Soundgarden, Whitney Houston & More (Billboard)
* Steve Miller cracked the code of 1970s radio. But he’s still raging against the music industry (Washington Post)
* Why Everything Is Getting Louder (The Atlantic)
* What will a music company look like in 2025? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* INTERVIEW: Morton Subotnick And Lillevan (TheQuietus.com)
* Finalists Announced in 8th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition (DownBeat)
* Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights (JStor.org)
* Before & After: Leon Parker (Jazz Times)
* Oscar nom, opera at the Met, a move to L.A.: New Orleans trumpeter Terence Blanchard's big year (NOLA.com)
* What lost photos of Blue Notes say about South Africa’s jazz history (TheConversation.com)
* How ‘Almost Famous’ Foretold the Future of Music Journalism (TheRinger.com)
* The Transformative Power of Nat ‘King’ Cole (DownBeat)
* An actual bear broke into a woman’s house and started playing piano (ClassicFM.com)
* Matana Roberts’s Memphis (ThisIsEarhart.com)
* The Tragic Story of America’s First Black Music Star (Smithsonian)
* ECM Records: Curating A New World Of Music (SFJAZZ.org)
* Ronnie Scott’s at 60 (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Humanity is Not an Algorithm: What We Lose with WNYC’s Cancellation of New Sounds (ICareIfYouListen.com)
* How Liverpool’s first girl band dubbed ‘the female Beatles’ had run-in with John Lennon (Express.co.uk)

Sunday Session: February 21, 2016

James P. Johnson

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

* Music Can’t Last Forever, Not Even on the Internet (Wired)
* Genya Ravan, 'Rock And Roll Refugee,' Has Stories To Fill Two Lifetimes (NPR)
* Bob Dylan Recording New Album at Capitol Records Studios in Hollywood (Billboard)
* New Box Set Shows Off The Twisted Rhythms Of Jazz Pianist James P. Johnson (NPR)
* All Grammy Record of the Year Winners, Ranked: Critics' Picks (Billboard)
* Hammer in Her Hand (Oxford American)
* Grammy Jazz Winners Announced - McBride, Schneider, Scofield and more (Jazz Times)
* Jazz Record Mart closes (Chicago Tribune)
* YouTube content is powering an army of $38 Spotify clones (FactMag.com)
* The Reality of Touring Revenue From Someone Who Has Done It For 32 Years (TheTrichordist.com)
* This Composer Made Music Out of Gravitational Waves (Vice.com)
* Inside the world’s biggest record collection: An interview with Zero Freitas (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Little Hope for Saving Coltrane Church, Last Vestige of SF Jazz District (KQED)
* Famed jazz musician duped out of $500G tells contractor to 'die' (New York Daily News)
* Classic albums given new life at Abbey Road Studios with 'half-speed' vinyl treatment (The Independent UK)
* SoundCloud has lost over $70M in 2 years, board cites “material uncertainties” (ArsTechnica.com)
* How Mozart Unlocked a Galactic Secret (The Daily Beast)
* Detroit Photographer Leni Sinclair Honored - Work includes classic photos of Coltrane, Mingus, many others (Jazz Times)
* Artist's Choice: Fred Hersch on Great Piano Sounds - United by tone and touch (Jazz Times)
* Thundercat, one of Kendrick Lamar's secret weapons on 'To Pimp a Butterfly,' emerges in time for Grammys (Los Angeles Times)
* Drum great Leon Parker reverses vanishing act (San Diego Union-Tribune)
* Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra Brought The Club To Concert Halls (NPR)
* What The Music Industry Could Learn From 1920’s RCA (The Daily Beast)