Sunday Session: December 22, 2019

Gerald Cleaver

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

* Mars Williams brings his Albert Ayler Xmas across Europe and back home to Chicago (Chicago Reader)
* Gershon Kingsley, Moog Synthesizer Pioneer, Dies at 97 (Billboard)
* Wayne Shorter Continues to Forge Ahead (DownBeat)
* 'We loved each other': America’s first racially integrated all-girl swing band (The Guardian)
* A small Wisconsin company stored thousands of people’s CDs, then suddenly vanished (TheVerge.com)
* Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Finally Recognizes Woman Who Practically Invented Rock and Roll (Jezebel.com)
* Dave Brubeck’s Legacy Enters a New Era (DownBeat)
* The Siren Sound of the Clash’s ‘London Calling,’ 40 Years Later (TheRinger.com)
* How Many Spotify Streams Do You Need To Live Above The Poverty Line? (HaulixDaily.com)
* Terence Blanchard, American jazz trumpeter weaving opera history (Prothomalo.com)
* Don Was On The Past, Present, And Future Of Blue Note Records (ClashMusic.com)
* On The Scene: Tony Bennett—The Visual Artist (The Aquarian)
* Why Are There No New Christmas Songs? (NPR)
* George Benson: the album that changed my life (Jazzwise)
* Gerald Cleaver Bridges the Divide Between Structure and Freedom (DownBeat)
* Chamber Music America Grants $180,000 to Female-Led Jazz Ensembles (Jazz Times)
* The South African Songbook: Jazz Musicians Who Stayed During Apartheid (NPR)
* Tony Bennett Brings the Holiday Spirit With His Animated Yule Log (Parade)
* A Major Music Distributor Has Stifled Vinyl Sales for Record Stores and Indie Labels, Sources Say (Pitchfork.com)
* 'It's a Total Nightmare': Problems at Direct Shot Distributing Have Made New Vinyl and CDs Scarce (Billboard)
* No Other Love Is the B-Side of the Chicago Gospel Story (Chicago)
* How headphones are changing the sound of music (QZ.com)
* A Bessie Smith Christmas (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: August 27, 2017

DeeDee Bridgewater

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

* How Did Pop Music Get So Slow? (Rolling Stone)
* Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, and One Night in New York City (The New Yorker)
* Where Have All the V Chords Gone? The Decline of ‘Functional’ Harmony in Pop (Soundfly.com)
* Sing Your Heart Out (Tedium.co)
* Monk and Coltrane Return to Vinyl - A Conversation with Producer Nick Phillips (PopMatters.com)
* PODCAST INTERVIEW: Martin Pearson (sound engineer for Swiss Radio and for Keith Jarrett) (London Jazz News)
* The Man-Machine: How bio-hacking can change the future of music (FactMag.com)
* Opinionated and Unpredictable: Louis Armstrong as music critic (Offbeat)
* YouTube Says It Pays $3 for Every 1,000 Views. A Musician Says He’s Making 1/50th of That. (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* As Jazz Fest Looks At 50, What Keeps It Alive? (NPR)
* Jack DeJohnette Recalls Stint in Bill Evans’ Trio (DownBeat)
* Q&A with Dee Dee Bridgewater: Memories of Memphis (DownBeat)
* John Abercrombie, Wry And Exploratory Jazz Guitarist, Dies At 72 (NPR)
* John Abercrombie, Guitarist and Composer, Dies - Inventive guitarist recorded over 60 albums as a leader or co-leader (Jazz Times)
* Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll (NPR)
* The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s (Pitchfork.com)
* Inside One Montreal Music Festival's (Unfortunately Rare) Dedication To Sound (NPR)
* Cécile McLorin Salvant looks for the contradictions in jazz (Los Angeles Times)
* Sounds Great! But It Sounds Very Familiar . . . Where to Draw the Line on Digital Sampling of Sound Recordings? (NOVA.edu)
* Alice Coltrane’s Songs of Bliss (New York Review of Books)
* Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington cross the generational divide at the Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles Times)
* Why Are So Many Bands Surprising Fans With Snail Mail This Year? (Stereogum.com)
* Did Technology Kill Your Local Music Scene? (HypeBot.com)
* Kenny Barron revels in the never-ending jazz journey (San Jose Mercury-News)
* Former Village Voice Editors And Writers Remember Its Outsized Impact On Music (NPR)
* The 50 Greatest Jazz Drummers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Vijay Iyer On Jazz's 'History Of Defiance,' His Influences And Playing In A Sextet (NPR)