Sunday Session: April 25, 2021

Larry Carlton

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

* Catching Up With Laurie Anderson, An Artist Always Ahead Of Her Time (NPR)
* And all that jazz: innovative album covers from the 1950s on – in pictures (The Guardian)
* Jazz Artists Remember Chick Corea (Jazz Times)
* Apple Music Says It Pays One Penny Per Stream — 2-3 Times What Spotify Pays (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Does Spotify pay artists a fair rate? Here’s what musicians, managers and Apple Music have to say (Los Angeles Times)
* Ethan Iverson: From The Bad Plus to Bebop, Bud Powell and Bach (JazzWeekly.com)
* Tony Bennett: A Hero's Journey in Authenticity (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Sonny Simmons and the Backwoods (The Wire)
* Larry Carlton: My Career in Five Songs (Guitar Player)
* UnitedMasters’ Steve Stoute: ‘Record companies’ ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish.’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Chops: Branford Marsalis and Howard Alden on Ghost Performances in Movies (Jazz Times)
* Prince’s go-to synths and drum machine: a career in music tech gear (MusicRadar.com)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Phil Schaap (SFJAZZ.org)
* Why is classical music used in cartoons? (ABC.net.au)
* Tomorrow’s Warriors at 30 - the power behind London’s jazz revival (The Standard)
* 45 Lost Albums We Want To Hear (Stereogum.com)
* International Jazz Day's Global Celebrations Are On, And Again Online (NPR)
* Sounding Out Electronic Music’s Female Pioneers (Metrograph.com)
* Tom Holkenborg: “I think I paid about £15 for my Memorymoog synth - in 1983 you couldn’t give them away” (MusicRadar.com)
* SFJazz hosts inspiring virtual Jazz Masters Tribute Concert (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Recordable and portable: the cassette tape miracle (NewFrame.com)
* Steve Reich: Humans Love to See Other Humans Play Music (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Frank Zappa’s Final American Concert to Be Released as Live Album (Consequence of Sound)
* Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers (The Guardian)

Notes from the Net: More Miles Davis news; a new solo CD from Rick Braun; NEA names 2010 Jazz Masters; and more

Though it's a bit smaller than usual, thanks to some slow news days over the holiday weekend and a still somewhat-gimpy computer here at StLJN HQ, here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Though we've had a couple of Miles Davis-related items already during his birthday week, there's even more, starting with this review from Popdose.com of That's What Happened, a new DVD release of a 1987 Davis concert in Munich with a band featuring Kenny Garrett on sax and flute and go-go/funk master Ricky Weltman on drums.

Courtesy of Miles Davis Online, we also have news of a Miles "50th Anniversary T-Shirt; a brief audio interview Davis did with UK musician and broadcaster Jools Holland; and an essay about The Complete Columbia Recordings: Miles Davis & John Coltrane by Horace Mungin of BlogCritics.com

* Opening the "recent visitors" file, trumpeter Rick Braun (pictured), who was here in April with Jazz Attack at the Ameristar Casino's Bottleneck Blues Bar, will release a new solo CD called All It Takes in July. It's Braun's first solo release in four years.

* To round out this installment of NFTN, we've got some items of general interest to jazz fans. The National Endowment for the Arts has named eight Jazz Masters for 2010, including pianists Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Barron and Cedar Walton, composer/arranger Bill Holman, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, saxophonist Yusef Lateef, singer Annie Ross, and, for his work as a "jazz advocate," producer, manager, critic and educator George Avakian. Congratulations to all the honorees.

* If it's really true that misery loves company, then perhaps St. Louisans who are lamenting this year's "hiatus" of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival will take some small solace in the fact that even the jazz capital of the world is having festival troubles right now, as seen in this New York Times article "New York Loses its Jazz Festival": "Around this time of year, posters for the JVC Jazz Festival would be appearing on the streets of New York, and jazz tourists would be finalizing plans to arrive in the middle of June for two weeks of bragworthy shows. But for the first time in 37 years, there will be no major summer jazz festival in New York. Nor will there be related series in Miami or Chicago, as the concert company behind them is suffering a financial crisis."

* Closing out on a somewhat more hopeful note, if you're an independent musician who'd like to make more money and sell more recordings, you may find some useful information over at Music Think Tank, which seems to have lots of ideas about marketing music in the digital age. You can see a list of some of the site's most popular posts here.

There's still time to see the NEA Jazz Masters online

As Jazz Appreciation Month winds down, you still have a couple of days left to see the special online video program created by the producers of the PBS series Legends of Jazz to honor the National Endowment for the Arts' 2007 Jazz Masters.

The 45-minute program is hosted by Ramsey Lewis, and features profiles of and music from 2007 honorees Frank Wess, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Curtis Fuller (pictured), Phil Woods and Jimmy Scott, plus a special appearance from Nancy Wilson. You can see the entire special online for free here. (If you don't want to watch the entire program, you also can see the individual segments on each Jazz Master by following the links at the bottom of the linked page.)

Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with the NEA Jazz Masters

April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), an annual event created by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History "to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and its importance as an American cultural heritage. In addition, JAM is intended to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz — to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs."

To promote the event, the Smithsonian has once again commissioned a poster of a jazz legend, this year featuring singer Ella Fitzgerald as illustrated by artist Jeffrey Fulvimari. The museum has printed 250,000 posters for free distribution to music and jazz educators, librarians, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide. To request a copy, send an email to jazz@si.edu. You can also download the poster in PDF format.

In addition, to help celebrate this year's JAM, the NEA Jazz Masters program and the producers behind the PBS series Legends of Jazz have collaborated on a video special for the online jazz community that honors the NEA 2007 Jazz Masters. The 45-minute program is hosted by pianist Ramsey Lewis, and features profiles of and music from the 2007 honorees, including saxophonist, arranger and composer Frank Wess, pianist and composer Toshiko Akiyoshi, trombonist Curtis Fuller, saxophonist Phil Woods and singer Jimmy Scott, plus a special appearance from singer Nancy Wilson.

I'd hoped to be able to offer the video as an embed right here on StLJN, but there were some technical issues with the code provided to me, and so for now, you can see the program, either in its entirety or a series of clips focusing on the individual artists, by going here.