Sunday Session: August 8, 2021

Stevie Wonder

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

* Snug Harbor canceling performances due to rising Covid cases (Offbeat)
* Don Marquis, esteemed jazz author and New Orleans Jazz Museum founder, has died at 88 (NOLA.com)
* At Lollapalooza 2021, there's one question hanging over everything (AVClub.com)
* Musical artist Suzanne Ciani feeds deepfake program below Morrison Hall (DailyCal.org)
* Anatomy Of A Bad Gig: Recalling A Show 40 Years Ago Where Virtually Nothing Went Right (ProSoundWeb.com)
* Labels are going to become more like VCs than they probably want to be (Music Industry Blog)
* Study: Consumption of music streaming declined significantly during COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide (EurekAlert.org)
* Alan Rubin: Mr. Fabulous in Every Way (AllAboutJazz.com)
* End of an era: Trumpets owners reminisce after developers buy legendary jazz club (NorthJersey.com)
* NC jazz musician releases album via legendary record label (Durham Herald Sun)
* Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Drops Out of U.S. Tour After Medical Procedure (Rolling Stone)
* Steve Vai reflects on working with Frank Zappa: "If you didn’t have the goods, you didn’t last. Frank expected everybody to rise to the occasion" (Guitar World)
* Interns Turned Engineers Take the Reins at SF’s Historic Different Fur Studios (KQED)
* Eddie Palmieri On Pioneering Latin Jazz & His Blue Note Residency: "We're Talking About The Greatest Jazz Room In The World" (Grammy.com)
* Blues Great Buddy Guy on His ‘American Masters’ Documentary, Hitting the Road Again at 85, and Why the Blues Is Like Golf (Variety)
* As Delta Variant Spreads, Artists and Venues Scramble to Keep Concerts Safe (Yahoo News)
* When Stevie Wonder Blended Funk, Soul And Social Commentary On ‘Innervisions’ (Yahoo News)
* George Harrison’s Son Dhani on the “Pandora’s Box” Process of Remastering All Things Must Pass at 50 (Consequence.net)

Sunday Session: February 28, 2021

Archie Shepp

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

* The music world’s awakening to women and Black composers will be game-changing (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Elliot Mazer, Legendary Producer/Engineer, Dead at 79 (Pro Sound News)
* Stevie Wonder explains why he’s moving to Ghana permanently (RollingOut.com)
* Dave Liebman: Placing Free Jazz and the Avant Garde in Musical and Historical Perspective (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Impulse! Records Makes Plans for 60th Anniversary (Jazz Times)
* No drone unturned: tracing the sound that unites ancient and modern (The Guardian)
* Bands rally to help as jobless roadies turn to food banks (The Guardian)
* Wallace Roney: The Man with the Horn (Jazz Times)
* Fay Victor’s Improvisational ‘Survival Toolkit’ (DownBeat)
* “Thankful for Everything”: A Conversation With Sergio Mendes (Tidal.com)
* Will Matthews: Keepin’ Freddie’s Legacy Alive with The Basie Orchestra (JazzGuitarToday.com)
* Exclusive interview: John Williams on composing for film, his concert work – and the Vienna Philharmonic (Classical-Music.com)
* From John Lennon to The Rolling Stones: Andy Warhol’s 20 greatest album covers (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Archie Shepp on jazz, race and freedom: 'Institutions continue to abuse power' (The Guardian)
* Paula West's "Great American politic" (SFJAZZ.org)
* On Being Black: How Gamble & Huff Turned a Dream into Destiny (Billboard)
* The 50 Greatest Philadelphia International Songs (Billboard)
* Take A Look At The Jazz Legacy Of South Central LA (LAist.com)
* Loss and Grief in the Jazz Community (Jazz Times)
* How the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians Shaped Jazz in the Bay Area (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* A Further Exploration of the Many Sun Ra Albums on Bandcamp (Bandcamp.com)
* JazzTimes 10: Best Ghost Performances by Jazz Musicians in Films (Jazz Times)
* Moving Foward: A Conversation with Marcus Miller (Part One) (PostGenre.org)
* Captain Beefheart: a guide to his best albums (LouderSound.com)
* Vijay Iyer And A New Trio Reflect On The 'Uneasy' Past And Present (NPR)
* Influential: Charles McPherson’s Playlist (KPBS)
* Mapping Jah Wobble’s Interdimensional Dub (Bandcamp.com)
* On a Positive Note, Pandemic Piano Sales Are Booming (KQED)
* ‘Record companies have me on a dartboard’: the man making millions buying classic hits (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: May 10, 2020

Stevie Wonder

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

* Shut In Due to Pandemic, Cuba Opens a Window to the World With Music (Billboard)
* Richie Cole, Esteemed Alto Saxophonist and a Keeper of the Bebop Flame, Has Died at 72 (WBGO)
* Levon Helm’s spirit remains in barn that bears his name (PBS)
* INTERVIEW: Dr. Michael White, the musician who ventures deep into NOLA jazz history (HollywoodSoapbox.com)
* Battered by coronavirus, L.A.'s legendary recording studios prep for a post-shutdown ‘resurgence’ (Los Angeles Times)
* Richie Cole 1948 – 2020 (Jazz Times)
* Bass Magazine Lockdown Check-In With Trevor Dunn (BassMagazine.com)
* The Making of Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, and Mingus - The Steve Katz Interview (JoniMitchell.com)
* Nelson George on Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions" (1973) (Simplecast.com)
* Afrobeat: An Alternative Top Ten (AllAboutJazz.com)
* New Orleans Mourns the Loss of Ellis Marsalis: ‘We Were All His Children’ (The Daily Beast)
* Kurt Elling & Danilo Pérez Share the Secrets of Collaboration (Jazz Times)
* ‘Black Coffee’: Peggy Lee’s “Darker Exploration Of Love” (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* What Will The Future Of Concerts Look Like After The Pandemic? (WBUR)
* ‘It’s a Clusterf-ck’: Musicians Struggle to Get Pandemic Assistance (Rolling Stone)
* Dave Liebman Manifests The Elements (DownBeat)
* New Orleans Music Documentary Set for Home Release Via Local Theaters (Variety)
* Kraftwerk Co-Founder Florian Schneider Dies at Age 73 (Billboard)
* Chicago jazz club owners ponder when to reopen, and how (Chicago Tribune)
* Laurie Anderson: where to start in her back catalogue (The Guardian)
* Hillard 'Sweet Pea' Atkinson, Legendary Vocalist With Was (Not Was), Dies at 74 (Billboard)
* Stevie Wonder turns 70: 7 memorable moments in the music icon’s life (New York Post)
* Without Federal Aid, More than 1,000 U.S. Music Venues Are in Danger of Closing (Rolling Stone)
* How Florian Schneider and Kraftwerk influenced five decades of music (BBC)
* The Vintage Vibe of Robert Cray (DownBeat)
* What is the value of exposure when exposure is all there is? (Music Industry Blog)
* Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87 (Rolling Stone)
* 'He hit us like a bolt of lightning': stars pay tribute to Little Richard (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: July 7, 2019

Duke Ellington

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

* Mo’ Fess: Professor Longhair’s band brings the magic back (Offbeat)
* Fight The Power: The Most Provocative Song Ever (BBC)
* The Lighthouse celebrates 70th year as bastion of jazz in Hermosa Beach (The Beach Reporter)
* Remembering American Roots Inspiration Delaney Bramlett (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Ivan Conti’s Been Combining Jazz, Rock, Samba for Decade (DownBeat)
* Suzanne Ciani Gets Loud at the Library (Pro Sound News)
* Epidemic Sound raises $20M at a $370M valuation for its soundtrack music discovery and licensing platform (TechCrunch.com)
* The story of Duke Ellington’s Anatomy of a Murder score (Little White Lies)
* Rick Lawn: The Evolution of Big Band Sounds in America (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Spotify ends direct music uploads for indie artists (Engadget.com)
* Jazz Community Takes Action for Kenny Burrell (Jazz Times)
* Jimmie Vaughan: Emperor of Tone (Premier Guitar)
* Gibson Guitar Declares Shift In IP Enforcement After Most Recent Public Backlash (TechDirt.com)
* Stevie Wonder has ongoing medical issue but remains in 'great spirits,' friends say (Detroit Free Press)
* Stevie Wonder Announces Plans for Kidney Transplant Surgery: 'I Have a Donor, It’s All Good' (People)
* How music about space became music about drugs (MIT Technology Review)
* Dr. John: A Pianist’s Remembrance (Jazz Times)
* JazzTimes 10: Very Late Duke Ellington Albums (Jazz Times)
* João Gilberto, a pioneer of bossa nova, has died at 88 (CNN)

Sunday Session: December 25, 2016

Stevie Wonder

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

* The 84-Year-Old Grandmother Who Fronts D.C.'s Coolest House Band (NPR)
* Chops: Deft Poetry - Kurt Elling, Laurence Hobgood and Roy Nathanson on blending jazz with verse (Jazz Times)
* For Mavis Staples, The Music Of The Civil Rights Era Couldn't Be More Relevant Today (NPR)
* Discovering the Savory Collection (OpenSkyJazz.com)
* 'A True Legend': Bob Krasnow's Legacy Celebrated by Colleagues (Billboard)
* Nina Simone to Be Honored With the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award (Variety)
* Deep-Learning Machine Listens to Bach, Then Writes Its Own Music in the Same Style (Technology Review)
* 9 U.K. Artists Making Jazz Feel Brand New (TheFader.com)
* Motown’s True Visionaries (The New Yorker)
* Love’s in Need of Love Today - Introducing Wonder Week, a toast to Stevie’s greatness (Slate.com)
* Chuck Berry Invented the Idea of Rock and Roll (Vulture.com)
* Dispatches From The War On Marching Bands (Deadspin.com)
* 'Rogue One' Composer on Filling John Williams' Shoes, Pleasing Marvel Franchise Fans (Hollywood Reporter)
* How the Vince Guaraldi Trio's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Became the Soundtrack of the Holidays (Vice.com)
* Interview: Robert Glasper (Keyboard)
* Jazz Caliente: Teaching The Tradition (KNKX)
* The Mariachi Men of Yugoslavia (RoadsAndKingdoms.com)

Sunday Session: October 2, 2016

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

* TV and Film Music Supervisors Are Killing Real Songwriting (LA Weekly)
* The greatest record sleeves – as chosen by the designers (The Guardian UK)
* Hill & Trumpet Peers Offer Captivating Set at FONT (DownBeat)
* INTERVIEW: Mark Wingfield (Specialist Mixing and Mastering Service for Jazz at Heron Island Studio) (London Jazz News)
* Female Composers in Games Industry See Gender-Based Pay Penalty, New Study Finds (Billboard)
* When jazz stopped being cool (CNN)
* The Story of AllMusic, the Internet’s Largest, Most Influential Music Database (Vice.com)
* Listen to this AI-composed song in the style of The Beatles (DigitalTrends.com)
* Vienna’s Vegetable Orchestra is more than just a memorable gimmick (AV Club)
* From Audio, To 3D Printed Sculpture, And Back Again (HackADay.com)
* Hyde Park Jazz Fest Offers Diverse, Progressive Program (DownBeat)
* 1966 Vs. 1971: When 'Rock 'n' Roll' Became 'Rock,' And What We Lost (NPR)
* How Seasick Steve turned out to be Session Man Steve (The Guardian UK)
* Scofield Gets ‘A Little Bit Country’ for New Jazz Album (DownBeat)
* Inside Stevie Wonder's Epic Magnum Opus 'Songs in the Key of Life' (Rolling Stone)
* Hear, kitty kitty: With ‘Music for Cats,’ is a new industry born? (Charleston Post and Courier)
* Cuba: While The Politicians Argued, The Musicians Jammed (NPR)
* Mutate, don’t stagnate: Mark Mothersbaugh in conversation (Detroit Metro Times)
* All 88 Diamond-Certified Albums Ranked From Worst to Best: Critic's Take (Billboard)
* The Fight Over Prince’s Estate Continues to Be a Purple-Tinged Nightmare (Vulture.com)
* Martin Scorsese: When Muddy Waters met my Last Waltz (The Guardian UK)
* Newlywed Composer Christopher Rouse On His Encoded Musical Love Letters (NPR)

Sunday Session: September 27, 2015

Mary Lou Williams

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (Oxford American)
* Coltrane “A Love Supreme Complete Masters” to Be Released - Impulse!/Verve to issue 2- and 3-CD editions (Jazz Times)
* A Hidden Hero of Jazz (The New Yorker)
* Play It Again (for the First Time) (The New Yorker)
* Is Stevie Wonder Cheating a Dead Man? (Daily Beast)
* To the barricades! Why rhythm is the heartbeat of revolution (The Guardian UK)
* Bar-Kays trumpeter Ben Cauley dies (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Panoramical will change the way you conceive of sound (Boing Boing)
* From the Club to the Cathedral: Revisiting Duke Ellington’s Controversial ‘Sacred Concert’ (KQED)
* Why looking at music from a tech and business perspective makes no sense (FactMag.com)
* Kamasi Washington On World Cafe (NPR)
* The EDM Ennio Morricone - How Junkie XL went from making junior varsity electronica to blowing cinematic minds with his scores for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘Black Mass’ (Grantland)
* London, Meader, Pramuk & Ross Showcase Vocalese at Historic Birdland Summit (DownBeat)
* Jaco Pastorius Documentary Set to Premiere Nov. 27 (Jazz Times)
* Inside Bob Dylan's Massive New Sixties Bootleg Series Trove (Rolling Stone)
* What Critics Want (21cm.org)
* Music Coverage Endangered as Writers From USA Today, Times-Picayune, New York Daily News Exit (Billboard)
* 9 Behind-the-Scenes Stories From Darlene Love, the Greatest Backup Singer Ever (Vulture.com)
* Gigantic wooden megaphones amplify the sounds of the forest in Estonia (Inhabitat.com)
* Snarky Puppy: the latest supergroup ripping up the genre rulebook (Irish Times)
* The Secret Jewish History of Joni Mitchell (Forward.com)
* Soul Set Free: The Lost Legacy Of David Ruffin (Trunkworthy.com)
* Louie Pérez and Los Lobos: Still howlin' after all these years (KPCC)
* First Fusion: Jazz-Rock Before Bitches Brew (WFIU)
* Music Heals: MedRhythms Uses Music To Treat Traumatic Brain Injury (Forbes)
* A Brief History of Scratching (FactMag.com)
* The Coltrane Home in Dix Hills (The Paris Review)

Sunday Session: August 30, 2015

Michael White

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* The Soulful Genius of Stevie Wonder: How ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ Changed Music Forever (The Daily Beast)
* “It’s not just a party, it’s our life”: Jazz musicians led the way back to the city after Katrina — but what is this “new” New Orleans? (Salon.com)
* Dr. Michael White lost everything in Hurricane Katrina except what mattered most: New Orleans jazz (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* It Was New Orleans’ Musicians—Not Its Politicians—Who Saved The City Post-Katrina (The Daily Beast)
* Review: Jason Moran in Edinburgh (Jazz Journal UK)
* The invisible instrument: the theremin (The Guardian UK)
* Electronic Sturm und Atonal Drang in Berlin (Counterpunch)
* Music, paid fairly (Medium.com)
* The One Real Problem With Rolling Stone's 'Greatest Songwriters Of All Time' (NPR)
* How Can Frank Zappa's Colorful Life Possibly Fit in a Documentary? (Rolling Stone)
* ‘For Those Who Are, Still’ Review: Jazz Bassist William Parker Expands His Vision (Wall Street Journal)
* Hackers Are Sabotaging My Spotify Playlists With Awful Ambient Music (Vice.com)
* Inaugural Rhodes Fest Celebrates Great American Keyboard (DownBeat)
* Carlos Santana Talks Reuniting Santana IV, New Band With Wayne Shorter & Herbie Hancock (Billboard)
* The Birthplace of American Music Has Been Handed Over to Real-Estate Speculators (Alternet)
* Kamasi Washington Talks Jazz in the 21st Century (The Talk House)
* Complete edition of John Cage's Diary to be published (The Wire UK)
* How Flying Lotus Built Brainfeeder, His Spiritual Little Empire (TheFader.com)
* How The 'Kung Fu Fighting' Melody Came To Represent Asia (NPR)
* A memorial for Paul Jeffrey, Duke's late jazz champion (Indy Week)
* George Walker: the great American composer you've never heard of (The Guardian UK)

Jazz St. Louis schedules free Community Concert on Wednesday, February 10

Keyboardist Reggie Thomas (pictured) and his group will join forces with the East St. Louis Senior High School Jazz Band for a free concert in February celebrating Black History Month and the music of Stevie Wonder.

The event will be presented by Jazz St. Louis as part of its Whitaker Community Concerts series, and will take place at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 10 at East St. Louis Senior High School, 4901 State Street.

Thomas also will be featured at JSL's next CD Listening Club meeting on Tuesday, February 9, discussing Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life.

(Edited 2/3/10 to correct the date of the CD Listening Club meeting.)

Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club to meet Tuesday, February 9

Jazz St. Louis has scheduled the next meeting of its CD Listening Club for 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 9 at Borders, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd. in Brentwood.

The featured CD for the February meeting will be Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life (pictured), the influential 1976 double-LP set that included many songs since covered by jazz musicians as well as "Contusion," Wonder's own foray into a jazz-fusion sound. The discussion will be led by pianist/organist and educator Reggie Thomas, who's one of the top keyboard players in town and teaches at SIUE.

Meetings of the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club are free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-289-4037.