Sunday Session: July 4, 2021

Sun Ra

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

* Congressmen Introduce American Music Fairness Act to Compel Radio to Pay Royalties on Recorded Music (Variety)
* Experimental Musicians Turn to Multimedia Art During the COVID-19 Pandemic (TheRoadToSound.com)
* Jon Hassell, avant garde US composer, dies aged 84 (The Guardian)
* How Sun Ra Taught Us to Believe in the Impossible (The New Yorker)
* Anitta, ‘The Girl From Rio,’ on Interpolating the Classic ‘Ipanema’ Melody for a U.S. Pop Breakthrough (Variety)
* Burton Greene, Pioneering Free Jazz Pianist, Dies at 84 (WBGO)
* Zenón Finds Light in Ornette (DownBeat)
* 20-Year-Old Pi Recordings Builds Path from Past to Future (DownBeat)
* The pop star versus the playlist (Vox.com)
* Spotify Executive Calls Artist ‘Entitled’ for Requesting Payment of One Penny Per Stream (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Elk Live promises next-gen remote collaboration: “play music together like you’re in the same room” (MusicRadar.com)
* The Smithsonian Institution to release 129-song anthology of rap music (NME.com)
* Queen are making £100,000 a day from ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ biopic (NME.com)
* Rock sideman Earl Slick: ‘Bowie had gone levels into insanity’ (The Guardian)
* Less Than 5% of Pandemic Relief Funds for Nightlife Venues Have Been Distributed. Owners Fear the Show Might Not Go On (Time)
* “Blue” Gene Tyranny Was Texas’s Greatest Piano Prodigy (Texas Monthly)
* Herbie Hancock’s favourite books of all time (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Nels Cline: "I had no desire to gyrate and hump my amplifier and set my guitar on fire – I wanted to take a modest path" (Guitar World)
* A Conversation with Mr. Ron Carter (BassMusicianMagazine.com)

Sunday Session: April 12, 2020

Ron Carter

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

* Even in the Swinging Sixties, Ray Davies was feeling nostalgic (The Spectator)
* How Professor Bop Paid His Dues: Babs Gonzales (IndianaPublicMedia.org)
* John Edward Hasse Remembers U.S. Rep. John Conyers (Jazz Times)
* Guitarists Fareed Haque And Goran Ivanovic Reconvene After 15 Years (DownBeat)
* An Extraordinary Documentary About the Art of Sun Ra (The New Yorker)
* Chicago’s elder jazz musicians are playing not just for money but for time and yearn to return to the stage (Chicago Tribune)
* Jazz At Lincoln Center, Cultural Institutions Open Up Archives Amid Pandemic (DownBeat)
* Stayin’ alive! How music has fought pandemics for 2,700 years (The Guardian)
* Hal Willner, Music Producer and Longtime ‘SNL’ Music Supervisor, Dead at 64 (Rolling Stone)
* John Prine, Hero Of 'New' Nashville, Dies After Developing COVID-19 Symptoms (NPR)
* John Prine's Songs Saw The Whole Of Us (NPR)
* Onaje Allan Gumbs, Pianist Whose Reach Spanned the Soulful and the Smooth, Dies at 70 (WBGO)
* Kendrick Lamar Thinks Like A Jazz Musician (NPR)
* Ron Carter: A record-breaking jazz legend returns to Tokyo (Japan Times)
* Lakecia Benjamin Pursues a Spiritual Quest (DownBeat)
* Bob Dylan Scores First-Ever No. 1 Song on a Billboard Chart With 'Murder Most Foul' (Billboard)
* Blue Engine Chronicles Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Performances (DownBeat)
* Jazz Artists Raise Concerns Over Coronavirus Cancellations (Jazz Times)
* Best McCoy Tyner Albums: 20 Essentials From The Legendary Pianist (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* People Are Remembering What Music Is Really For (The Atlantic)
* Uri Caine Celebrates the Legacy of Octavius Catto (Jazz Times)
* Roscoe Mitchell reconciles improvisational sources and orchestral means (Chicago Reader)
* Unwinding the mystery of degraded reel-to-reel tapes (Phys.org)
* Nerding Out With Thundercat - On his new album, losing Mac Miller, and the Evangelion dubbing controversy (Vulture.com)
* Shine On Till Tomorrow: The Beatles’ Breakup at 50 (Rolling Stone)
* Bassist Andy González Dies At The Age Of 69 (DownBeat)
* Fenway Park's Organist Gives Fans That Ballpark Sound At Home — And He Takes Requests (NPR)
* Jazz Messengers’ Bassist Jymie Merritt Dies At 93 (DownBeat)
* Jymie Merritt, Bassist Who Brought a Rooted Yet Exploratory Spirit to Post-Bop, Dies at 93 (WBGO)
* The legal underbelly of livestreaming concerts (Water & Music)
* Coronavirus ravages storied New Orleans Mardi Gras group (Associated Press)

Sunday Session: July 28, 2019

Antonio Sánchez

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

* Cannonball: A Man of the People (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Curator’s Roundtable (OpenSkyJazz.com)
* The Bohemian Caverns building has a new tenant: restaurant and jazz venue Mama ‘San (CapitalBop.com)
* The ARP 2600 is still one of the most prized synthesizers today, here’s why (MusicTech.net)
* Antonio Sánchez on Touring Political Music and the Latitude ‘Bad Hombre’ has Provided (DownBeat)
* The Spirituality of Jazz at American Baptist College (Tennessee Tribune)
* Kit Downes Strikes a Balance (DownBeat)
* Art Neville, founding member of The Meters and Neville Brothers, has died (Offbeat)
* Experimentation and a Mastery of Music at Funchal Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* New Orleans legend Art Neville, founder of the Meters and Neville Brothers, dies at 81 (NOLA.com)
* Jessye Norman Reflects on Her Jazz Influences, in Conversation with Rhonda Hamilton (WBGO)
* New York City’s Piano Bar Players Spill Their Secrets (InsideHook.com)
* The future of music notation in a digital world (Monash.edu)
* Felix Pastorius Pursues Multiple Paths (DownBeat)
* John Simon's Musical Life: Cheap Thrills, Big Pink & Other Hearsay (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Guitarist Bill Frisell goes solo at the Regattabar in Cambridge (WickedLocal.com)
* Yes, 85 Year Old Bluesman Bobby Rush Still Has It On New LP ‘Sitting On Top Of The Blues’ (INTERVIEW)(GlideMagazine.com)
* WOKE JAZZ: The Fast-Forward Evolution of British Jazz (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Rainbows, Frogs, Dogs, And 'The Muppet Movie' Soundtrack At 40 (NPR)
* The Language I Learned From Cassettes (NPR)
* The Green New Deal: Where Spotify Stands, And Where Artists Wish It Would (NPR)
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band Pilgramage to Cuba (SFJAZZ.org)
* How Long Does It Take to Make a Classic Album? (Pitchfork.com)
* More Complex Than Fame and Fortune: Bob Moog and the Modular Synth Boom (PopMatters.com)
* The Empathy and Interplay of Sullivan Fortner (DownBeat)
* Theo Bleckmann, Joseph Branciforte Investigate the Art of Ambient Improvisation (DownBeat)
* A Conversation with Jazz Legend Ron Carter (WhatsUpNewp.com)
* The Many Threads And Generations Of Chicano Soul, All In One Place (NPR)

Sunday Session: January 6, 2019

Ron Carter

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:

* A Jazz Conversation with Ted Gioia (Jazz Profiles)
* Ron Carter: Still Searching for the Right Notes (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Paul McCartney opens up about Abbey Road, the Beatles' breakup in wide-ranging interview (CBS News)
* The West Coast Jazz Revival (City Journal)
* Jeff Goldblum: Not a Hollywood Square (Jazz Times)
* Helen Sung: Words and Music (Jazz Times)
* These early Louis Armstrong recordings are among the flood of works now in the public domain (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* New Orleans Is Not Coachella: Guest Editorial (Offbeat)
* Herbie Nichols’ Third World (WFIU)
* Jazz Musician Plays Acoustic Guitar While Undergoing Brain Surgery, Helping Doctors Monitor Their Progress (OpenCulture.com)
* The Price, Cost and Value of Digital Music (DownBeat)
* Is this the end of owning music? (BBC)
* Bill Charlap: Life, Love, Songs, and Pianos (Stereophile)
* DJ Art Laboe, 93, spins oldies to link inmates and family (Associated Press)
* Dickey Betts returns to performing following brain surgery (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
* Album Sales Are Dying as Fast as Streaming Services Are Rising (Rolling Stone)
* How Soul Train became the most radical show on American television (DazedDigital.com)
* Blue Note “As Important As The Beatles Or Dylan” Says Don Was (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Bootsy Collins Announces Retirement from Live Bass Playing (NoTreble.com)
* Carlos Santana Announces New EP, Signs to Concord Records (Jambands.com)
* 12 New Jazz Artists to Watch in 2019 (Paste)
* The Jazz Glories of 1959, One Day at a Time: A Conversation with Critic Natalie Weiner (WBGO)
* Green Book Director Peter Farrelly Defends Film Amid Criticism by Don Shirley’s Family (Vanity Fair)
* Spike Lee’s Secret Weapon For 30 Years: ‘BlacKkKlansman’ Composer Terence Blanchard (IndieWire.com)

Sunday Session: May 13, 2018

Professor Longhair

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:

* How Avant-Garde Legend Cecil Taylor Inspired Idris Ackamoor’s Psychedelic Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* Q&A: Former Times critic Robert Hilburn on writing about Paul Simon and the struggle to protect artistry (Los Angeles Times)
* The art of writing the perfect lullaby (QZ.com)
* 1920s to Now: Comparing Tonal Balance in Popular Music (Izotope.com)
* Healdsburg Fest ‘Spiritually’ Important for California  (DownBeat)
* Benny Golson, Matt Wilson, Maria Schneider Are Among the Winners of the JJA Awards (WBGO)
* 'It is a significant moment in the history of the music industry': Air Studios up for sale (Music Week)
* Jazz Giants Take The Stage At The NEA Jazz Masters Listening Party (NPR)
* Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man Brings Ancient Chinese Music To The Present (NPR)
* Johnny Cash's 'At Folsom Prison' at 50: An Oral History (Rolling Stone)
* Why Spotify Will Never Make Money (Fortune)
* TIDAL accused of deliberately faking Kanye West and Beyoncé streaming numbers (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Jazz Conversations — Azar Lawrence (WGBH)
* Do the major labels know something about Spotify that Wall Street doesn’t? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Outsiders Festival a Showcase for Tacuma (DownBeat)
* Blue Note Documentary Screens at Tribeca Film Fest (DownBeat)
* Digital Jukeboxes Are Eroding the Dive-Bar Experience (The Atlantic)
* The Bad Plus: The Band That Never Stops (NPR)
* Bright Moments with Bassist Ron Carter (Jazz Times)
* Kinetic Improvisation - The guitarist Mary Halvorson’s music is exhilarating, unapologetically smart, and unspoiled by phoniness or pretense (The Nation)
* The Still-Burning Piano Genius of Professor Longhair (The New Yorker)
* Whole lotta debt: can Gibson guitars strike a chord again? (The Guardian)
* In Buffalo, hip-hop and jazz have formed a beautiful union (Buffalo News)
* Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Builds on the City’s History (DownBeat)
* [Photo Essay] Jazz Fest 2018: Late Night Ventures (Offbeat)
* Marcus Miller Hosts ASCAP Panel at ‘I Create Music’ Expo (DownBeat)
* iHeartMedia Still Owes Artists $16.4 Million. Now, It Wants to Pay Itself $108 Million in Bonuses (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* R+R=NOW to Release Debut Album in June - All-star sextet led by Robert Glasper blends multiple genres on "Collagically Speaking" (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: January 7, 2018

Ron Carter

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

* A 2017 JT Reader - Selected highlights from the year in JazzTimes (Jazz Times)
* Legendary Jazz Bassist Ron Carter Talks About Music, Recording, and Hi-Fi (Stereophile)
* Long Players: writers on their most cherished albums (NewStatesman.com)
* Wayne Shorter: Artist In Residence At The Detroit Jazz Festival (NPR)
* Lifetime Achievement in Music: The Poet Laureate of Mardi Gras Indians, Monk Boudreaux (Offbeat)
* Iverson Plays Final Show with Bad Plus (DownBeat)
* How a Hit Happens Now (Vulture.com)
* The 'Despacito' effect: The year Latino music broke the charts (NBC)
* Player Pianos and the Commodification of Music (JStor.org)
* Spotify Hit With $1.6 Billion Copyright Lawsuit Over Tom Petty, Weezer, Neil Young Songs (Hollywood Reporter)
* Rick Hall, Producer And Songwriter Who Put Muscle Shoals On The Map, Dead At 85 (NPR)
* Jazz improvisers score high on creativity (Science News)
* In 2018, I want to find new music without using algorithms (TheVerge.com)
* The rebirth of St. John Coltrane church in the Western Addition (TheWesternEdition.com)
* The lost art of music snobbery (The Globe and Mail)
* Matt Wilson – The Ambassador of Unvention (Modern Drummer)
* New Documentary Examines Milford Graves’ Music and Philosophy (DownBeat)
* The Healing Power of Jazz (The New Yorker)
* Producers say record labels are calling projects “mixtapes” to avoid paying them fairly (TheFader.com)
* Fred Hersch: Life, Music, and the Creative Process (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Recording Studios are not Dying (Pro Sound News)
* Pop tunes are welcome in the movies, directors say, as long as it's in service of the plot (Los Angeles Times)
* How Women Shaped The Legacy Of Nashville’s Oldest And Most Celebrated Venue, The Ryman Auditorium (Uproxx.com)
* theartsdesk Q&A: Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (TheArtsDesk.com)
* Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and the Road to West Side Story (Vanity Fair)
* The Alabama Recording Studios Where Music Was Never Segregated (ZocaloPublicSquare.org)
* US Label Cuneiform stops all new releases for 2018 (London Jazz News)
* YouTube’s Unlikely Peacemaker Has a Plan to Make Musicians Rich (Bloomberg.com)

Sunday Session: November 19, 2017

Grover Washington Jr.

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* How Roy DeCarava’s jazz photographs captured the soul of Harlem and influenced a generation (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Remembering, With Fondness, the ‘Worst Orchestra in the World’ (AtlasObscura.com)
* Legendary music venue My Father’s Place reopening on Long Island after 30 years (Newsday)
* Pay-Per-Beat: Inside the Underground Market Shaping Soundcloud Rap (Vice.com)
* Ron Lessard Is a Noise Music Hero (Vice.com)
* Renaissance Man: The Story of Hermeto Pascoal’s Great Lost Album, “Viajando Com O Som” (Bandcamp.com)
* ‘Whisperpop’: why stars are choosing breathy intensity over vocal paint-stripping (The Guardian)
* Spatial audio is the most exciting thing to happen to pop music since stereo (ArsTechnica.com)
* A Bottle In Front Of Me: The Strange World Of... Tom Waits (TheQuietus.com)
* Hide And Seek - For a while, hidden tracks were everywhere, especially during the CD era. But thanks to streaming music, there’s nowhere to put them. Is that good or bad? (Tedium.co)
* The concert was about unity; the message was all Russian (Washington Post)
* Hip Hop Named as the Most Popular Music Genre in the US (MagneticMag.com)
* The Body in Question: Herbie Hancock in Concert (CommonReader.WUSTL.edu)
* The New Golden Age Of Jazz (Lnwy.co)
* How Basin Street Records Has Been Giving New Orleans Jazz Music a Home For 20 Years (Billboard)
* Steve Winwood On World Cafe (NPR)
* Influential Jazz and Classical Label ECM Records Releasing Entire Catalogue to Streaming Outlets (SPIN)
* Free improvisation: still the ultimate in underground music? (The Guardian)
* Nicole Mitchell on the lasting legacies of AACM architect Muhal Richard Abrams (The Wire)
* An abandoned pre-WWII Hasidic synagogue gets a second life as a kosher jazz club (Times of Israel)
* With $70M from Alphabet, UnitedMasters replaces record labels (TechCrunch.com)
* How Grover Washington Jr. Defined And Transcended 'Smooth Jazz' (NPR)
* Bassist Ron Carter On His Life With Jazz (WNYC)
* Venezuela's Uprooted Musicians: Bands Struggle to Survive (Rolling Stone)
* The cosmic messenger: How Karlheinz Stockhausen shaped contemporary electronic music (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Field Notes: GoGo Penguin’s “Koyaanisqatsi” in Brooklyn (Jazz Times)
* Jazz and Classical Treasures from the Digitized Catalogue of ECM Records (The New Yorker)
* Ben Riley, a Jazz Drummer Who Made Accompaniment His Art, Has Died at 84 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: September 4, 2016

Ron Carter

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

* Corea Extends 75th Birthday World Tour, Announces New Dates (DownBeat)
* Hancock, Shorter, Santana Bring Mega Mash-Up to Hollywood Bowl (DownBeat)
* Apple Threatens Legal Action Against Digital Music News for Frank Ocean Coverage (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Famed jazz bassist Ron Carter picks 10 faves from his 2,200 recordings (Detroit Free Press)
* Ron Carter: Changing lives of bassists one song at a time (Detroit Free Press)
* Why Dropping Music on Friday Is Pivotal (Hint: It’s Not Sales) (Wired)
* Don't believe the hype about human music curators (BusinessInsider.com)
* After 30 Albums and 3 Recent Prizes, a Jazzman Flirts With the Mainstream (New York Times)
* Jewish Guitar God Mike Bloomfield’s Blues (TabletMag.com)
* New Research Reveals National, State, and Regional Facts about Arts Participation (Arts.gov)
* Guitarist Sharp & Actor Buscemi Team Up for Burroughs Tribute (DownBeat)
* Forgotten Heroes: Sonny Sharrock’ s Footprints on the Moon (Premier Guitar)
* Seven unlikely stars who scored big with Stax songs (BBC)
* Juan Gabriel was a songwriter who knew how to channel the struggles of modern life and the hurt of the wounded (Los Angeles Times)
* Upcoming John Coltrane Doc To Be Narrated By Denzel Washington (OkayPlayer.com)
* Interview: Pulitzer Prize Winner Henry Threadgill (WBGO)
* Musicians’ Union Publish New Airline Cabin Policy Rating System (TheViolinChannel.com)
* DJ Shadow Will Be Selling Off His Record Collection in L.A. Next Weekend (LA Weekly)
* The Evolution Of Afropunk (Forbes)
* Moments in Music: the Lost Art of Music Manifestos (Landr.com)

Miles on Monday: A report from the Miles Davis Jazz Festival, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* Last Saturday's Miles Davis Jazz Festival in Alton, IL is the subject of a report in the Alton Telegraph.

* SFJAZZ profiled three of Davis' ex-sidemen who will be paying tribute to their former boss with the band Miles Electric at this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival.

* Another former Davis colleague, bassist Ron Carter, was interviewed by WBGO about a number of subjects, including his time with the famed trumpeter.

* The Montreux Jazz Festival has revamped their website, with new features such as pages devoted specifically to prominent artists who have played there over the years, including Davis.

* The New York Post has more about the apartment in Davis' old NYC townhouse that's now on the market for $495,000.

* Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead is still making news, as the actor/director was interviewed about the movie before its opening in Australia by the Sydney Morning Herald, which called his work "an Oscar waiting to happen."

* Meanwhile, Roberto Schaefer, who was director of photography on Miles Ahead, was interviewed about his work on the movie by Filmmaker magazine.

* One notable new critic of Miles Ahead did emerge last week, as comedian, author, activist, and St. Louis Dick Gregory weighed in with a statement and video criticizing Cheadle's approach to Davis' story.

* As for the music associated with the film, pianist Robert Glasper's remix/tribute album Everything's Beautiful was reviewed by Rolling Stone even as members of Davis' family attended a release party for the recording; and the film's soundtrack (pictured) was reviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Geno Thackara.

Miles on Monday: Paul Buckmaster on arranging for Miles Davis, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* The newly reissued box set of Davis’ The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection is now on sale.

The set (pictured) includes a total of 11 10" vinyl LPs reproduced with their original cover art and liner notes, plus a 16-page booklet with photos and new notes by Ashley Kahn, and a collectible print of a painting by Davis.

You can read Pitchfork's review of the box set here.

* Paul Buckmaster did an interview with Southern California Public Radio in which the noted arranger talks about his work with Miles Davis, Elton John, David Bowie, and more.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold talked with Philadelphia radio station WRTI about his work on the music for Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead, and the film was reviewed in the Jamaica Observer.

* Bassist Ron Carter, a member of Davis' famed 1960s quintet, presented a concert this past weekend in NYC honoring the upcoming 90th anniversary of Davis' birth.

Sunday Session: March 6, 2016

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

* Ginger Baker Cancels Tour Due to 'Serious Heart Problems' (Rolling Stone)
* Mavis Staples’ HBO doc hits relevant Civil Rights notes (Arts Journal)
* Resonance Records Presents LARRY YOUNG - IN PARIS: THE ORTF RECORDINGS With Never-Before-Released Tracks by The Jazz Organist And Pianist (JazzCorner.com)
* Content ID and the Rise of the Machines (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
* Is Jazz The Brand (Offbeat)
* Kamasi Washington Presents Jazz-Rock Spectacle in New York (DownBeat)
* Today’s best country music songwriter is a Twitter bot (Dangerous Minds)
* Sun Ra's Voice On Earth (WELD)
* Is the Album Review Dead? (Vice.com)
* Swing Vote: What Would the Presidential Election Sound Like as Jazz? (The Atlantic)
* Jazz Legend Archie Shepp Reflects On John Coltrane’s Quest For Musical Freedom (Consequence of Sound)
* Ron Carter Named Artist-in-Residence at Detroit Jazz Fest (Jazz Times)
* Why is China’s music market still so small? (Quartz.com)
* Jean-Paul Sartre on How American Jazz Lets You Experience Existentialist Freedom & Transcendence (OpenCulture.com)
* Sarah Vaughan forever stamp to be unveiled in Newark (New York Amsterdam News)
* How One Museum Is Fighting To Preserve The History Of Recorded Sound (Fast Company)
* Music is getting worse, unless of course it isn’t (CreateDigitalMusic.com)
* How Ahmad Jamal’s The Awakening became a hip hop sample goldmine (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Blanchard’s Incisive Jazz Opera Packs Powerful Punch (DownBeat)
* Nina Simone Estate Slams Biopic Star Zoe Saldana (Rolling Stone)
* How Steely Dan Returned to Form by Remaining 'Two Against Nature' (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* Shuggie Otis plays guitar (Financial Times)
* Gary Clark Jr: Blues Brother (Wax Poetics)

Sunday Session: January 24, 2016

Ron Carter

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

* Ten Pianists reflect on the enduring influence of Paul Bley (Notes on Jazz)
* Prototype Festival shows opera houses one path to new work (Washington Post)
* NYC Winter Jazzfest 2016 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The New Thing: 5 Artists to Watch From Winter Jazzfest 2016 (Billboard)
* What We Loved At Winter Jazzfest 2016 (NPR)
* Revolutionary Recording Techniques Are Bringing Bach Back (Vice.com)
* New Orleans Jazz Fest Lineup Announced (Jazz Times)
* What Will the Sound of Jazz Be in 2016? (The Atlantic)
* Free Improvisation as Experience & Self-Disclosure (Artidolia.com)
* Washington, Porter, Kneebody To Headline Newport Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Canadian pianist Paul Bley played pivotal role in birth of free jazz (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* Spooner Oldham: Lord Loves A Session Man (American Songwriter)
* Stanley Jordan: “My Spirit Transcends Gender” - The guitarist speaks out about freedom and authenticity (Jazz Times)
* Chano Pozo: Legacy of the Ultimate Rumbero (SFJAZZ.org)
* Ron Carter earns world record as the most recorded jazz bassist in history (GuinnessWorldRecords.com)
* An Interview With Cécile McLorin Salvant - From Monk Competition winner to Grammy nominee (Jazz Times)
* The Grateful Dead Literary-Industrial Complex Is A Long, Strange Trip All Its Own (Deadspin.com)
* Old music is outselling new music for the first time in history (ChartAttack.com)
* Kamasi Washington’s Giant Step (New York Times)
* Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Orchestra Reneges on Promise to Pay Back Library Foundation (Offbeat)
* Jaco! The Story Behind Robert Trujillo's Intense New Documentary (Bass Player)
* Q&A: John Cale On Memorializing Lou Reed & Re-Making Music For A New Society (Stereogum)
* NYC Winter Jazzfest 2016: Comprehensive Coverage - "Jazz is not dead, but back with a vengeance" (Jazz Times)
* David Bowie: 7 Wild Quotes From the 'Station to Station' Era (Rolling Stone)
* Dan Wilson Talks John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory (TheTalkhouse.com)

SIUE, St. Louis Jazz Club to present Essentially Ellington Regional Festival on Friday, March 27

The jazz studies program at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and the St. Louis Jazz Club are teaming up to present the Essentially Ellington Regional Festival on Friday, March 27 at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus.

Funded by a grant from the Jazz Club and co-produced by NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival includes a full day of performances and workshops involving high school jazz ensembles from around the St. Louis metro area, culminating in a public concert at 7:30 p.m. featuring the participating bands, clinicians, and the SIUE Concert Jazz Band.

The visiting clinicians for the event will include saxophonist Ron Carter (pictured), former director of jazz studies at NIU, as well as former Count Basie Orchestra drummer Dennis Mackrel, trumpeter Derrick Gardner; tuba player Bob Stewart; and bassist Jeff Campbell. Participating musicians from the SIUE jazz faculty will include guitarist and jazz studies director Rick Haydon, trombonist Brett Stamps, saxophonist Jason Swagler, trumpeter Garrett Schmidt, pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson, and drummer Miles Vandiver.

Tickets for the concert are $12 for general admission, $9 for seniors and under 18, and free to SIUE students with valid student ID.

Miles on Monday: 50 years of E.S.P.

For this week's "Miles on Monday," we look back at a recording that marked another historic turn in Davis' career. It was fifty years ago this month that the trumpeter made E.S.P., the first album by what often is referred to as his "second great quintet."

As recounted in this space a couple of weeks ago, Davis had worked with saxophonist Wayne Shorter for the first time a couple of years earlier on the sessions that yielded "Blue Xmas" for a holiday compilations album that Columbia Records was putting together.

While he also had worked with the group's other members on previous occasions, the sessions for E.S.P. on January 21, 22 and 23, 1965 were the first time Davis, Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drum phenom Tony Williams, then just 19 years old but already a veteran of two years in the band, would record together. Over the next four years, this quintet would be acclaimed widely as one of the best small groups in jazz, and their influence continues to be felt into the present day.

Although E.S.P. featured all original compositions by members of the quintet, Davis' "Agitation" is the only one known to have been performed live. The title track and "Iris" were written by Shorter, who would become an important composer for the quintet on subsequent albums. Davis and Carter co-wrote "Eighty-One" and "Mood," and the bassist also contributed a solo composition, "R.J.", while Hancock chipped in with "Little One."

You can hear E.S.P. in its entirety via the embedded playlist in the first video window below. In the second, you can see a live version of "Agitation," recorded on November 7, 1967 in Germany.

Music Education Monday: All about that bass

For this week's Music Education Monday, we're getting down low with some bass-related videos and links, starting with "Story of the Bass," an brief but entertaining video history of the instrument, courtesy of bassist Michael Thurber and Collective Cadenza, an NYC group that creates "musical video experiments."

Below that, you'll find a video of a master class with Ron Carter, touted as the most-recorded jazz bassist in history and a major figure in the music since he first came to wide attention as a member of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet.

The class was presented in 2011 to students at Loyola University in New Orleans, and while Carter may be speaking specifically about bass playing, a lot of what he says about music and being a musician applies to any instrument.

Of course, musicians don't learn by YouTube videos alone, and though a lot of sites offering online tips or music lessons function essentially as promotions designed to up-sell method books, private lessons, CDs, DVDs and the like, there are some that offer some substance, too.

One is Berklee College of Music's Berklee Shares site, which has a variety of free educational materials for various instruments, including a page devoted to bass lessons and tips that seems to merit more than a cursory look.

Also worth digging into is the "Tips" section of CarolKaye.com, the personal site of the famed session bassist. While it's not especially well-organized or indexed, there's a wealth of detailed material there in Kaye's responses to questions from students and fans.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Last Saturday's concert by bassist Ron Carter's Golden Striker trio at the Touhill Performing Arts Center was reviewed here by Calvin Wilson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In conjunction with his performance for the Greater St. Louis jazz Festival, Carter also was interviewed by Don Wolff for his "I Love Jazz" program and by radio station WSIE (MP3 file).

* WSIE also got an interview with singer Vanessa Rubin before her performance at SIUE on Monday.

* Post-Dispatch gossip columnist Deb Peterson did a Q&A session last week with saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.

* Singer Erin Bode will be the musical guest on A Prairie Home Companion when the public radio program broadcasts live from the Fox Theatre on Saturday, April 30. The program airs from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturdays on local NPR affiliate KMWU (90.7 FM)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Bassist Ron Carter, in town to play the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival tomorrow night at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, was interviewed by the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson.

* Tomorrow also is Record Store Day, a celebration of independent record stores across the nation, and here in St. Louis, several participating local music retailers will feature live music, in-store DJs, special limited-edition releases and more. The P-D's Kevin Johnson has an extensive rundown on the day's activities here.

Also note that as part of the festivities, yr. humble StLJN editor will be the guest DJ from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday at Vintage Vinyl in University City, spinning jazz, blues and who knows what else. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and check it out...

* Dennis Owsley's latest blog post for St. Louis magazine is up, and it's a love letter to Jazz at the Bistro.

* Reader M Wallgren writes with the news that's there's now a Facebook page devoted to St. Louis drummer Elijah "Lige" Shaw. Shaw was a mainstay in the popular local traditional jazz band of tuba player Singleton Palmer; helped desegregate the local musicians union; and backed many touring jazz musicians during their visits to St. Louis.

* Lastly, condolences to the family and friends of Dorothy Gleason, who died last Friday at age 80. With her late husband Roy, Gleason owned and ran Webster Records for more than 40 years. Visitation will be at Gerber Funeral Home in Webster Groves from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. this Saturday, April 16, with a memorial service to follow at 4:00 p.m.

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Yellowjackets, Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Del McCoury Band, Vanessa Rubin, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of touring musicians and groups performing here over the next several days in styles ranging from traditional New Orleans jazz to big band to fusion to free improv. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the electric jazz/fusion group Yellowjackets returns to St. Louis to open a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. The 'Jackets have been regular visitors to St. Louis, though this will be their first time here since former drummer Will Kennedy returned to the fold last year to replace St. Louis native Marcus Baylor, who spent ten years with them. Given their substantial local fan base, they should draw a good-sized crowd even with everything else going on this week, so advance reservations definitely are recommended.

Also tonight, the highly anticipated tour featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and bluegrass star Del McCoury's band comes to the Family Arena. (The show originally was scheduled for last fall, then postponed until this week.) If you're curious as to what this combination of roots music talent sounds like, the collaborative CD American Legacies featuring both groups has just been released this week, and you can listen to it stream online for free here. Local music freelancer Dan Duchholz also wrote a nice preview story about the show for the Post-Dispatch, and you can read that online here.

Rounding out tonight's musical offerings is percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, who will organize and perform with a "Gong Orchestra" comprised of local improvising musicians at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Nakatani also will teach a free master class on improvisation and extended percussion techniques at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon at LNAC.

Tomorrow night, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University wraps up its spring 2011 series with the music of the Crusaders performed by a group billed as Scratch (which is the title of one of the Crusaders 1970s recordings.) Oddly, JaH has released no information about the specific lineup of players, other than the so-vague-as-to-be-useless description of "some of St. Louis' best musicians," so there's not much more to say about this show.

Update, 10:50 a.m., 4/14/11 - Just got a Facebook invite to the Scratch gig from one of the musicians involved, and it looks like the band is made up mostly of musicians associated in some way with SIUE: Ben Reece (tenor sax), Cody Henry (trombone), Phil Ring (guitar), Adaron "Pops" Jackson (keyboards), Nick Jost (bass) and Miles Vandiver (drums).

Also on Thursday, Simon Shaheen will play at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom. Shaheen, a Palestinian-American oud and violin player and composer who mixes Arabic music with Western sounds and has performed with Bill Laswell, Henry Threadgill and the Klezmatics, is appearing as part of SIUE's Arts and Issues series.

On Friday, the public portion of the 2011 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival begins with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra playing at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Descended from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, the VJO has been a Monday night fixture at NYC's Village Vanguard for more than 40 years, serving as a proving ground for several generations of players and arrangers. The UMSL Jazz Ensemble will open the festival's shows on both Friday and Saturday, and they'll by joined onstage by the legendary Clark Terry, who, though no longer able to play trumpet due to health issues, will pick up the mic to sing his famously mushmouthed blues "Mumbles."

Also on Friday, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio will hold forth at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

The GSLJF continues on Saturday as bassist Ron Carter (pictured) returns to St. Louis for the first time since the mid-1980s to perform at the TouPAC. One of the most recorded and most influential bassists of the past 50 years, Carter will play with his Golden Striker trio, featuring pianist Mulgrew Miller and guitarist Russell Malone. For more about them and the VJO, and some video samples of both groups, please see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, New Music Circle present the premiere of its Laptop Orchestra Project at the William A. Kerr Foundation, which is at 21 O'Fallon St on the riverfront, just north of Laclede's Landing. The event will feature musicians Jim Hegarty, Steven Thomas, Joseph Potthoff, James S. Hegarty and Thomas Zirkle using laptop computers to perform improvised works and original compositions, as well as pieces by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which originated the laptop ensemble concept.

On Sunday, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead his group in an early evening performance at Second Baptist Church for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series, and the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, directed by saxophonist Ronald Carter, will perform at Robbie's.

Robbie's web site this week also added a note that trumpeter Randy Brecker will appear a guest artist with the NIU band, but StLJN has been unable to verify that information as of this writing.

Update - 8:30 p.m., 4/13/11: The itinerary on Brecker's website shows Sunday, April 17 as the final day of a five-performance tour with the NIU Jazz Ensemble, but identifies the venue as the Sheldon Concert Hall. The Sheldon's website makes no mention of the show, so it would appear that Robbie's somehow wound up as a substitute venue, and Brecker will indeed be there.

Update - 10:50 p.m., 4/13/11: Just heard from Dorothy Edwards, the co-owner/general manager of Robbie's, who confirmed that Randy Brecker will be in the house on Sunday night. Spread the word...

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer Vanessa Rubin will be at SIUE for two free events sponsored by the university's Singer's Society. She'll lead a master class for vocalists at 3:00 p.m., then perform in concert that night with the SIUE Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Both events are open to the public, and will take place at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus.

Also on Monday, pianist Peter Martin and singer Erin Bode are performing at Roberts Orpheum Theater as part of benefit kicking off St. Louis Design Week 2011; and the Sessions Big Band returns to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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.)

(Edited after posting to add info about Clark Terry's appearance and to fix a couple of typos. Updated to include more details on Randy Brecker's appearance with the NIU Jazz Ensemble.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival 2011

This week, let's take a look at the headliners for next weekend's Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The GSLJF begins Thursday with adjudicated performances by middle school and high school jazz ensembles from around the area, along with workshops and clinics for the student musicians.

Those activities continue during the day on Friday and Saturday, but the main attraction for most listeners will be the concerts featuring the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on Friday night and bassist Ron Carter's Golden Striker trio on Saturday night. The UMSL Big Band - directed, as is the festival itself, by bassist Jim Widner - will open both shows.

That common element notwithstanding, the two nights certainly offer plenty of musical contrast, with the intimate, chamber jazz of Carter, guitarist Russell Malone and pianist Mulgrew Miller offset by the expansive big band sound of the VJO.

Carter (not to be confused with saxophonist and educator Ronald Carter) perhaps is still best known for his work in the 1960s with Miles Davis, but he's also one of the most-recorded and most influential jazz bassists of the past 50 years. Miller and Malone, both a generation younger than Carter, excel at the kind of straight-ahead, swinging jazz that is the trio's meat and potatoes. Both men also have a local connection, having recorded fine CDs as leaders for the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is the present-day incarnation of the big band originally started in 1965 by trumpeter/arranger Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis. Though both founders now are deceased, the VJO continues to be a Monday night staple at NYC's Village Vanguard and a significant showcase for both players and arrangers.

Up above, you can see Carter, Malone and Miller in a video shot from the audience at their performance last month in Kassel, Germany. Down below, you'll find another clip from the same show. The videos are just one static shot, occasionally obscured by audience members walking in front of the camera, but the sound is good and the footage is the most recent available. For more on what to expect from the Golden Striker trio, check out this review of their London show last week from the London Jazz blog.

Next, we've got some clips of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra that also happen to have a connection to Missouri. The first is taken from the VJO's performance two years ago at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Missouri. They're playing the first part of trombonist, arranger, composer and Kansas City native Bob Brookmeyer's "Suite for Three," which was commissioned for the occasion.

Down below that, you can see and hear the VJO playing "St. Louis Blues," at the 2008 Hague Jazz Festival. The performance is split into two parts, and the chart is a good demonstration of how much a talented arranger and big band can wring from a well-known standard. For more VJO on video, check out their YouTube channel, and then look here.

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Ron Carter to headline 2011 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival

The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival has announced that the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (pictured at left) and bassist Ron Carter will be the featured performers for the 2011 GSLJF, which will be held Thursday, April 14 through Saturday, April 16 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

The VJO will headline the concert on Friday, April 15 at the TouPAC, and Carter's trio with pianist Mulgrew Miller and guitarist Russell Malone will be featured on Saturday, April 16. The University of Missouri-St. Louis Big Band, headed by bassist and GSLJF artistic director Jim Widner, will serve as opening act for both concerts. As in years past, the Festival's first day on Thursday will be dedicated to adjudications of participating student bands.

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra originally was formed in the mid-1960s by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis, and has maintained a Monday-night residency at the Village Vanguard for more than 40 years. Originally named after its co-founders, the band became the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra when Jones moved to Denmark in 1978. Since the death of Lewis in 1990, it's been known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, with saxophonist Dick Oatts serving as artistic director and pianist Jim McNeely as principal composer/arranger.

Carter (pictured at right), who's now 73, first came to fame as a member of Miles Davis' classic 1960s quintet. He has appeared on more than 2,500 albums, including many well-known dates for the Blue Note and CTI labels, making him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history. Carter has worked with a veritable "who's who" of jazz musicians of the last half-century, and also has occasionally ventured into other genres, doing everything from playing classical music on bass and cello to recording with performers such as Gil Scott-Heron and A Tribe Called Quest.

Tickets for the performances by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the Ron Carter Trio at the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival range in price from $10 to $35, and are on sale now via the Touhill Performing Arts Center's website and box office.