Sunday Session: October 18, 2020

Charles McPherson

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

* The Many Instruments of Stanley Crouch, Who Transformed the Entirety of Jazz and Cultural Criticism (Mother Jones)
* Wynton Marsalis Says Cultural Con Jobs Began Long Before Trump (The Daily Beast)
* Late night TV musicians push for parity in pay, health care and residuals (KCRW)
* Alone Together: A Q&A with Pianist Benny Green (SFJAZZ.org)
* Philly’s jazz community improvising to deal with COVID-19 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Visionary who turned down a gig with Miles Davis and pivoted to cardiology (among other pursuits) is subject of Philly ICA show (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* The company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music (TheHustle.co)
* Charles McPherson Straddles The Artistic Fence (DownBeat)
* Stevie Wonder Releases First New Music in 15 Years (Rolling Stone)
* He Helps Folk Musicians Stay Alive (Ozy.com)
* Sheet music sales soar 25% as UK turns to piano practice during Covid lockdown (INews.co.uk)
* Theo Croker Exemplifies This Moment In Jazz (DownBeat)
* Mary Halvorson: New York City and the Pull of the Moon (BarryCleveland.com)
* The Spiritual Power of Pharoah Sanders (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Diana Krall Reflects on Her Creative Process, Her Late Producer, and an Emotive New Album (WBGO)
* 50 Years Ago B.B. King's 'Indianola Mississippi Seeds' Retooled R&B (PopMatters.com)
* An Oral History Of Tom Petty’s Landmark 1994 Album, ‘Wildflowers’ (Uproxx.com)
* Billy Childs Engages The Vastness Of Music (DownBeat)
* A Love Supreme: Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman Santana on Coltrane, Miles and Making Music Together (Jazziz)
* Gearhead: Memories of the Guitorgan (Jazz Times)
* Field Studies: Manfred Eicher, Founder of ECM Records, Picks His Top Five Blue Note Albums (WBGO)
* Field Studies: Don Was, President of Blue Note Records, Picks His Top Five ECM Albums (WBGO)
* Are We Reaching Peak Streaming Subscriptions? (Billboard)
* Michael Cuscuna: In The Vault Playing God (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Tragedy of Stanley Crouch (Counterpunch.org)
* Randy Brecker: Overdue Ovation (Jazz Times)
* “AngelHeaded Hipster”: Hal Willner Does T. Rex (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: March 8, 2020

McCoy Tyner

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

* How The Brain Teases Apart A Song's Words And Music (NPR)
* The jazz icon Sonny Rollins knows life is a solo trip (New York Times)
* Public Enemy Fires Flavor Flav After Bernie Sanders Rally Spat (Rolling Stone)
* Haden Triplets Find Songs’ Simplicity (DownBeat)
* Spotify’s Newest Pitch to Labels and Musicians: Now You Pay Us (Bloomberg.com)
* 'The road will kill you': why older musicians are cancelling tours (The Guardian)
* What the US record industry should fear about its future – and what it deserves to celebrate (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* After 60 Years, Sergio Mendes Is Still Writing Songs 'In The Key Of Joy' (NPR)
* Oscar Peterson’s Africa Suite Comes to Life in Toronto (Jazz Times)
* Nona Hendryx on Paying Tribute to Sun Ra at the Met: 'Afrofuturism Has Always Been' (Billboard)
* The Archive Of Contemporary Music — And Its 3 Million Recordings — Is Leaving NY (NPR)
* The Port-au-Prince Jazz Festival: A Small Triumph in Haiti (DownBeat)
* Soundtrack City: How Nashville is awash in film, game scores (ABC News)
* 'It's hopeful and generous': Thurston Moore's experimental record shop (The Guardian)
* Art Blakey, the Mightiest Mentor (DownBeat)
* Q&A with Rudresh Mahanthappa: A Jazz Festival Grows in Princeton (JAZZIZ)
* Read Universal Music Group Chief Archivist’s Update on Damage From 2008 Fire (Variety)
* Brecker and Rovatti Examine Their ‘Sacred Bond’ (DownBeat)
* In Memoriam: McCoy Tyner (DownBeat)
* McCoy Tyner, Jazz Pianist Who Anchored John Coltrane’s Legendary Quartet, Dead at 81 (Rolling Stone)
* Austin officials cancel South by Southwest festival (Associated Press)
* McCoy Tyner, Groundbreaking Pianist Of 20th Century Jazz, Dies At 81 (NPR)
* Arts & Culture: A Blast from the Past (APS.org)
* ‘Hot Rats’ at 50: How Frank Zappa busted up his band, moved to L.A. and helped invent jazz-rock (Los Angeles Times)
* The 10 most groundbreaking free jazz albums of all time (HappyMag.tv)

Sunday Session: September 11, 2016

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

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

* Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air (Pitchfork)
* The Many Lives of "The House of the Rising Sun" (MusicAficionado.com)
* Does the Music Business Need Musicianship? (TheSmartSet.com)
* The streaming music war is getting ugly (Money/CNN)
* New Rahsaan Roland Kirk Documentary - “The Case of the Three Sided Dream” goes inside the multi-instrumentalist's artistic brilliance (Jazz Times)
* Saxophonist Benny Golson, an “elder statesman of jazz” (WHYY)
* Pat Martino honors Wes Montgomery - The Indy Jazz Fest artist tells the story of his friendship with the Indy great (NUVO.net)
* Pinball machine featuring the Stones, Elton John, The Who, AC/DC, KISS and many more (DangerousMinds.net)
* Tracing the Rock and Roll Race Problem (Pitchfork)
* Q&A with Steve Gadd: Leader Disc Documents Hometown Concert (DownBeat)
* How Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar Reflected Black Lives Matter (Vulture.com)
* An Interview with Trumpeter Randy Brecker (NotesOnJazz.blogspot.de)
* Before & After With Fred Hersch - The pianist-composer on Jarrett, singers, the “Vanguard sound” and more (Jazz Times)
* The Bad Plus Tests Jazz’s Boundaries by Exploding the Art of the Cover Song (Observer.com)
* Black Classical - History of Spiritual Jazz (NTS.live)
* Projecting Trends: Do Streaming Services Now Compete with Labels? (SynchTank.com)
* Willie Bobo: An Appreciation And A New Album (NPR)
* Careless whisker: Universal to release album for cats (The Guardian UK)
* Angela Davis: Nina Simone's music was so much more than the soundtrack to a movement (The Mail and Globe NZ)
* The Beat Don’t Stop - How “The Get Down” and “Atlanta” break down hip-hop’s past and future (The New Republic)
* 15 samplers that shaped modern music – and the musicians who use them (FactMag.com)
* A photographer’s incredible journey in 1960 to capture jazz in America (Washington Post)
* 5 audiophile myths, totally busted (CNET.com)

Jazz this week: Mwata Bowden, a David Sanborn tribute, "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60," Alarm Will Sound, and more

Events have conspired to make this week's preview of jazz and creative music shows in and around St. Louis both rather terse and somewhat behind schedule. so let's go straight to the highlights....

Tonight, multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, performs a free concert with bassist Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. For more about Bowden and some video samples of him performing, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and The Freedom plays smooth jazz and fusion at The Engine Room.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jim Stevens teams up with jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 the Soul for the first of two nights in which they "Play the Music of David Sanborn" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode provides the musical entertainment for "Heart 2 Heart," a benefit for the organization Education 4 All, Inc, at Gallery 400 on Washington Ave; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald returns to Jazz on Broadway; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and the Lindenwood University Jazz Band, with special guest soloist Marshall Gilkes on trombone, will wrap up the first-ever Lindenwood University Jazz Festival with a performance at the Scheidegger Center for the Arts on campus.

On Saturday, singer Joe Mancuso and pianist Adam Maness will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Coleman Hughes Project performs at The Rustic Goat; and husband-and-wife cabaret performers Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts will reprise their show "Swing Into Spring" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show, having been postponed due to bad weather twice already this year, will present their first show of 2014 at the usual location, the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway. Also on Sunday afternoon, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" tribute show, which has been touring for the past two months, arrives at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The ensemble (pictured) features St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, along with clarinetist/saxophonist and music director Anat Cohen, singer Karrin Allyson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Also on Sunday evening, singer Steve Lippia will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" at Powell Symphony Hall.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School building on campus; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound resumes their St. Louis season at a new venue, performing music from Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Steve Reich at The Pageant. For more details, check out this preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 3

This week, it's an extra-large part three of StLJN's video preview of jazz musicians and bands coming to St. Louis in the first part of 2014. (In case you missed them, here's part one and part two.)

Today's first clip features singer Marissa Mulder, who will make her St. Louis debut as one of the headliners of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, performing "The Songs of Tom Waits" from Thursday, February 27 through Saturday, March 1 at the Gaslight Theater. In this clip, Mulder can be seen singing "Day After Tomorrow," written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan, during a show in March of this year at the Metropolitan Room in NYC.

Down below, the next video shows off trumpeter Sean Jones playing his song "Transitions" at the 2011 Detroit Jazz Festival. Jones will return to St. Louis once again this spring to play Wednesday, March 5 through Saturday March 8 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The third video features another act that's visited St. Louis frequently in recent years, the New Orleans funk/jazz group Galactic. They'll be back on Thursday, March 6 to play at The Pageant, but in the meantime, you can watch their entire set from this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Below that, the fourth clip present another of the visiting headliners for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, singer/actress Emily Bergl, whose performances of "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" from Thursday, March 13 through Saturday, March 15 at the Gaslight Theater will be her first here in St. Louis. Bergl, an acclaimed musical theater performer who also had a recurring role on ABC's Desperate Housewives, is seen here singing "42nd Street" at the Cicada Club in Los Angeles.

In the fifth video window, you can see an NPR Music "Tiny Desk Concert" featuring alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who will be making his St. Louis debut Wednesday, March 19 through Saturday, March 22 at Jazz at the Bistro. Mahanthappa, who leads several different ensembles, is seen here performing "Killer" and "Playing With Stones" with guitarist Rez Abbasi, bassist Rich Brown, and drummer Rudy Royston.

The last five clips all relate to a single concert, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" ensemble that will play the final date of a 17-city tour on Sunday, March 30 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The group includes St. Louis' own Peter Martin (who should be quite familiar to regular StLJN readers by now) as pianist, and will be directed by clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen, who was featured in this space last year when she and her quartet played a week at the Bistro.

Also taking part will be singer and Kansas City native Karrin Allyson, seen here performing "The Shadow of Your Smile" with her quartet; trumpeter Randy Brecker, who in his clip is playing "Round Midnight" in a 2011 performance with Washington DC's Jazz Academy Orchestra; and guitarist Mark Whitfield, offering his version of "In a Sentimental Mood" this part June at the JazzAscona festival in Switzerland (with some help from bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Troy Davis).

Providing the foundation for the band will be bassist Larry Grenadier, who is seen in the ninth video soloing at a clinic in June of this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and drummer Clarence Penn, who's featured in today's tenth and final clip playing a solo in 2010 at the Blue Note club in Poznań, Poland.

Look for part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview here next week.