Sunday Session: March 24, 2019

Kahil El'Zabar

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* What Happens if Google Buys the World’s Biggest Music Company? (Rolling Stone)
* Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (Jazz Journal)
* Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes review – pristine doc of tonal clarity (The Guardian)
* Dick Dale, godfather of surf guitar, dies aged 81 (The Guardian)
* Nat King Cole Still Remains 'One Of The Great Gifts Of Nature' 100 Years Later (NPR)
* Myspace lost all the music its users uploaded between 2003 and 2015 (Boing Boing)
* Verve Celebrates Norman Granz’s Vision (DownBeat)
* ‘It Was A Social Revolution’: The Turkish Embassy’s Surprising Role In Desegregating D.C. Jazz (WAMU)
* Lionel Loueke’s Winding Musical Journey (Jazz Times)
* On the Road With Jacob Collier (Mother Jones)
* Avant garde jazz and black rights activism in 1960s Cleveland, Ohio: an interview with Mutawaf A Shaheed (The Wire)
* Andre Williams: farewell to R&B's raunchiest raconteur (The Guardian)
* Bacon fat, corn liquor, and tail feathers: remembering R&B legend Andre Williams (Chicago Reader)
* Dick Dale, the Inventor of Surf Rock, Was a Lebanese-American Kid from Boston (The New Yorker)
* Class Struggle at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Jacobin)
* “Music Is A Portal”: Sophie Huber On Blue Note Documentary ‘Beyond The Notes’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Brian Auger: Bridging the gap (Jazz Journal)
* Here are some of the weirdest musical instrument ideas from NAMM (Create Digital Music)
* E.J. Strickland – A warrior for peace (Jazz in Europe)
* ‘Contours’: How Sam Rivers Hit New Heights Of Creativity (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Boz Scaggs Premieres 'Little Miss Night and Day' Video, Talks Next Moves (Billboard)
* History Disappeared When Myspace Lost 12 Years of Music, and It Will Happen Again (Pitchfork.com)
* Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies Acquires Chico O'Farrill Music & Archives (Billboard)
* Kahil El’Zabar on the Expansiveness of Music History (DownBeat)
* Bright Moments with William Parker (Jazz Times)
* "It identifies what I believe from here": Sam Moore reflects on his hit "Soul Man" (CBS News)
* What Does A New Orleans Music Industry Actually Mean? Guest Editorial (Offbeat)
* Interview: Factory Manager Forrest White on the Truth Behind "Fender Fiction" (Reverb.com)
* Rosanne Cash Opens Up About Her #MeToo Experiences -- And How The Industry Can Avoid Further 'Collateral Damage' (Billboard)
* Chet Baker’s Singing: A Cultural Shift (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Adonis Rose: To Swing Toussaint (Jazz Times)

April is Jazz Appreciation Month

It's almost time once again for Jazz Appreciation Month, the annual celebration of jazz music sponsored every April by the Smithsonian Institution.

Now in its 17th year, Jazz Appreciation Month (or JAM) was created "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."

This year, JAM "celebrates the relationship between jazz and justice by looking beyond the music to the dynamic ways jazz has played a transformative role in social justice, musician's rights, and equality since its birth in America."

To tell this story, for the first time JAM will not feature a musician, but instead highlight "one of the most influential non-musicians in jazz history," producer Norman Granz, who "devoted his life to civil rights and equality - within the music industry and beyond. Through numerous record labels and his iconic touring show, Jazz at the Philharmonic, he helped propel many jazz musicians to greatness." You can learn more about Granz at the Smithsonian's website.

At the end of the month, jazz fans worldwide also will celebrate the seventh annual International Jazz Day on Monday, April 30. Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Jazz Day is designed to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe.

The "global host city" for 2018 is Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, and though there will be an all-star International Jazz Day concert, no plans have been announced yet regarding a broadcast or webcast of that show. There also will be hundreds of related events taking place in cities all over the world (though, alas, there are none scheduled here in Missouri).

In the meantime, if you can't wait to get started, the Smithsonian offers a list of "ways to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month," and has produced a poster (pictured) honoring Granz and six musicians - bassist Charles Mingus, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane - whose careers intersected in some way with the producer and impresario.

The second in a three-year series featuring a triptych of artwork by LeRoy Neiman, the 2018 posters are distributed for free to schools, libraries, music and jazz educators, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide, and anyone can request  a copy here. You also can see and download commemorative posters from the previous 16 years of JAM here.