Sunday Session: May 17, 2020

Roy Ayers

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

* The Legend of the Moog, the Synth That Changed Music (TheManual.com)
* Initiative to ‘Reopen Every Venue Safely’ Launches in Eight Cities Including Los Angeles, Austin and Portland (Variety)
* The Day the Live Concert Returns (The Atlantic)
* Remembering the Original Knitting Factory (Jazz Times)
* Betty Wright Packed A Career's Worth Of Music Into Her Youthful First Act (NPR)
* "A wasteland": UK's festival scene on verge of permanent collapse (MusicRadar.com)
* We Asked 13 Artists How Spotify's 'Tip Jar' Is Working Out for Them (Vice.com)
* 'I found the roots of electronic music in a cupboard!': the tale of India's lost techno pioneers (The Guardian)
* Lost Roy Ayers Song "Reaching The Highest Pleasure" Surfaces 43 Years Later [Premiere] (OkayPlayer.com)
* How 5 Musicians Over 70 Are Dealing with Life, Loss, and Touring in the Age of Coronavirus (Pitchfork.com)
* Trickster Treat: Bob Dylan's New Song Sounds Awfully Old ... And Familiar (NPR)
* Listen: The Residents and Black Francis Drop Searing Indictment of Trump’s Handling of COVID-19 (Rolling Stone)
 * A History of Synth-Pop in 50 Essential Tracks (TrebleZine.com)
* Those Slick Quarantine Band Performances Are Harder to Pull Off Than You Think (Billboard)
* Antonio Sánchez, Thana Alexa Grow Their Partnership (DownBeat)
* Nourishing New Music with Liquid Music’s Kate Nordstrum (21cm.org)
* Jazz singer Melody Gardot seeks digital orchestra to beat coronavirus blues (Reuters)
* Charlie Parker Takes Flight In Upcoming Graphic Novel, ‘Chasin’ The Bird’ (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: April 28, 2019

Professor Longhair

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest, drawn from StLJN's inboxes, newsfeeds, and assorted other sources:

* Smart speakers: Why your voice is a major battle in music (BBC)
* A Beginner’s Guide to Contemporary Jazz From Japan (Bandcamp.com)
* The ghost of Roy Orbison gets a new partner, Buddy Holly (USA Today)
* Music Plays a Leading Role in New Health Products for Alzheimer's and Dementia (Billboard)
* Spine Tinglers (FutilityCloset.com)
* JALC Gala Traverses the History of Jazz (DownBeat)
* How Angélique Kidjo Brings Out The Africa Of Celia Cruz's Catalog (NPR)
* Roy Ayers Recovering With Family After Being Rushed To Hospital In Portland (OkayPlayer.com)
* Roadburn Festival Conjures Jazz, Psych (DownBeat)
* The Infectious & Sometimes Annoying Appeal of Ice Cream Truck Music (OKWhatever.org)
* Coltrane: The search for a higher state of humanity (The Times Literary Supplement)
* The uncanny valley: does it happen with voices? (Acoustic Engineering)
* The Real Reasons Artists Succeed on Spotify — From a Playlisting Pro (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Five Of Bob Dylan’s Photographers Share Their Best Dylan Stories (Stereogum.com)
* Michael Brecker In Late-1960s Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana Public Media)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Way Forward (Jazz Times)
* Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? (BBC)
* Jazz For Beginners: 20 Essential Albums For An Introductory Guide (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* How Professor Longhair went from record store janitor to patron saint of New Orleans Jazz Fest (New Orleans Advocate)
* Jazz Drummer Joe Chambers On Blue Note: “The Black Musicians’ Label” (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* At 90, jazz great Benny Golson returns to Minnesota: 'I feel maybe 45 or 50' (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
* The Jewish Trumpeter Who Entertained Nazis to Survive the Holocaust (The New Yorker)
* The Lasting Legacy of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Bandcamp.com)
* Elaine Mitchener: Vocal Classics Of The Black Avant Garde playlist (The Wire)
* Craig Harris Finds Inspiration in Muhammad Ali’s Athleticism (DownBeat)
* When Jazz Moved to Chicago (NEH.gov)
* The Dignity of his Sound: Wynton Marsalis talks about the Buddy Bolden movie (Offbeat)
* He played with Springsteen and Sinatra; now Randy Brecker returns to Reading for his 15th Berks Jazz Fest (Reading Eagle)
* Duke Ellington’s melodies carried his message of social justice (TheConversation.com)
* Gilles Peterson on UK Scene, Brownswood, Starting a New Festival (DownBeat)
* A Guide to the Discography of Diamanda Galás, Avant-Garde Oracle (Bandcamp.com)

Sunday Session: September 3, 2017

Thelonious Monk

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

* Elvis Presley’s Archivist on the Heartbreak of Tapes Trashed by RCA, Scouring the South for Lost Recordings (Variety)
* Esperanza Spalding’s Pop Culture Loves (Smithsonian)
* Tin Men and the Telephone: the jazz band you control with a smartphone (The Guardian)
* Review: The Mingus Prom (Jazz Journal)
* The Devo De-Evolution Of Golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez (WBUR)
* Close Encounters of the 4th Kind with the Sun Ra Arkestra in San Francisco (PopMatters.com)
* Pharaoh’s Den, the Sun Ra-themed grocery store in Philadelphia (DangerousMinds.net)
* Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Whole New Vista (Jazz Times)
* Hancock-Washington Double Bill Rocks the Hollywood Bowl (DownBeat)
* INTERVIEW: Marilyn Mazur (London Jazz News)
* Review: Oslo Jazz Festival 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Sean Jones: The Spirit Calling (DownBeat)
* Woody Shaw Takes on “’Round Midnight,” the Trumpeter’s Supreme Challenge (The New Yorker)
* The Omnivorous Mind of Pamela Z (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Where's the Best Seat in the Concert Hall? (WQXR)
* The South Side’s Last Remaining Jazz Landmarks (Chicago magazine)
* Rock ’N’ Roll: America’s Midlife Crisis (Talkhouse.com)
* Pop music is rejecting the piano. Why? (The Economist)
* ‘The Simpsons’ Composer Alf Clausen Fired (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)
* Review: Jazz re:freshed Live at Nublu in NYC (Jazz Times)
* Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says (Variety)
* How we made Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" (The Guardian)
* Stevie Wonder Reflects On Motown, God And Prince (NPR)
* Off Minor Prophet: Thelonious Monk at 100 (Think Christian)
* Son of Jazz Great Thelonious Monk Sues California Brewery (USNews.com)
* Hudson: Upstate New York’s Supergroup (Jazz Times)
* From Jazz Clubs to Classrooms (The Nation)
* Revitalization project honors jazz great, Toledo native Art Tatum (Toledo Blade)
* Kirk Knuffke’s Time: The Story of Some of the Year’s Best Jazz (Village Voice)
* Avant-garde elder Roscoe Mitchell celebrates 50 years of Nessa Records (Chicago Reader)
* Quincy Jones Looks Back on the Making of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' (Rolling Stone)
* A Brand You Can Trust? Record Nerds’ 20 Favorite Labels From the 20th Century (Variety)
* Jazz trumpeter Hino attacks schoolboy drummer (The Asahi Shimbun)
* First Listen: Arturo O'Farrill & Chucho Valdés, 'Familia: Tribute To Bebo & Chico' (NPR)
* Meet the Ace of Cups, the Haight’s (Almost) Forgotten All-Girl Band (KQED)

Roy Ayers in St. Louis this Sunday, November 4 (plus some miscellaneous rumor control)

As regular readers know, I try to keep an eye on the visitor logs for this site to get a sense of what brings people here, and sometimes the search terms visitors are using can be my first clue that something's happening.

So, when I saw several searches for "Roy Ayers" and "St. Louis" pop up in the logs over the past couple of days, I did a little searching of my own. The vibraphonist's own site had no tour info at all, and the usually reliable Pollstar showed only dates in the Boston area this Friday and Saturday and a 10-day stint in London at the end of the year.

After a little more digging, I found out that Metrotix is indeed advertising an appearance by Ayers at 8 p.m. this Sunday, November 4 at a venue called Lights On Broadway, located at 8344 N. Broadway in the Baden neighborhood of north St. Louis.

I couldn't find a Web site for Lights On Broadway, but from some other stuff I've found on the Web, it appears to be some sort of conference center/private party facility. Tickets are $35 and $40, plus service charge, and though Metrotix is no longer selling them on the Web, their event page for the show says you can still purchase the ducats in person at Metrotix outlets or at the door.

I've also noticed a number of searches recently for "Zappa Plays Zappa" and "St. Louis." While ZPZ was here in December 2006 to perform at The Pageant, according to the tour info page on their Web site, the closest they're getting to St. Louis in 2007 is Kansas City, where they'll play the Ameristar Casino next Saturday, November 10. Rest assured, Zappa fans, that if ZPZ should announce another St. Louis appearance at some point, the news will be given prominent play in this space.

Finally, this seems like as good a place as any to update a story about which many rumors have flown but little solid information has been made public - namely, the online request made back in August by singer Erin Bode, who asked fans to make contributions to a legal fund. That request, made by email with Bode's monthly gig schedule, and also on her erinbode.com home page, has now disappeared completely from her Web site. Similarly, a blog entry that had been on her MySpace page and made reference to said fundraising appeal also seems to be gone.

So what's going on? Has the singer resolved her potential legal difficulties (which my sources suggested were related to a desire to split with her record label MAXJAZZ)?

I don't know, but if anyone else reading this does, please email me at stljazznotes @ yahoo . com. (Don't forget to remove the extra spaces in the email address.) Also, if any StLJN readers gave money to Bode's legal fund and have received subsequent communications from Bode or another representative, please share your experiences with the rest of us, either publicly in the comments or, if you wish to remain anonymous, via email to the address indicated above.