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: June 6, 2021

Anthony Braxton

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

* The Making of Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks" (Reverb.com)
* Chops: Sam Gendel Creates a Distinctive Sax Sound (Jazz Times)
* With 'Zero Grasses,' Jen Shyu Forges Grief into Revelation (WBGO)
* What Music Is Making Movies Tick? Here Are the 12 Biggest Film Sync Licensing Trends of 2021 (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* 47 Years of Music Industry Change — In 47 Seconds or Less (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Interview with Jeff “Tain” Watts (EthanIverson.com)
* From Heliopolis to Saturn: Sun Ra and Egypt (DIYWorldwide.com)
* Man in Black at 50: Johnny Cash’s empathy is needed more than ever (The Guardian)
* Jazz Singer Nnenna Freelon Works Through Grief With New Album And Podcast (NPR)
* After Delays and Snafus, Music Venues Tenuously Seeing Next Steps Toward Relief (Rolling Stone)
* The ‘Big Bang’ in Jazz History (WNYC)
* How SoundScan Changed Everything We Knew About Popular Music (TheRinger.com)
* Riddle Me This: Jazz Artists Remember Arranger Nelson Riddle on His Centennial (Jazziz)
* The Source - Sun Ra and his Arkestra’s Egpytian adventure (The Nation)
* Alice Coltrane Turiya Sings Reissue Announced (Pitchfork.com)
* A Legendary Stand by the Lee Morgan Quintet Finally Sees Full Release, as 'The Complete Live at the Lighthouse' (WBGO)
* As Grants For Shuttered Venues Trickle Out, Many Owners Are Still Waiting (NPR)
* Producer Mitch Easter shares the inside story of R.E.M.’s early recording sessions: “It was glorious. They rehearsed a lot just because they liked to play together“ (MusicRadar.com)
* ‘Songs In A Minor’ at 20: How Alicia Keys' debut album set the tone for contemporary R&B (USA Today)
* Anthony Braxton On The Radiance Of Standards, His Search For Charlie Parker & The Forces That Divide America (Grammy.com)
* Hear Bach's Music Like You've Never Heard It Before: Upside Down (NPR)
* What Is Asian American Music, Really (Pitchfork.com)
* Gary Bartz & Jazz Is Dead (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: April 4, 2021

Sons of Kemet

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

* TONTO synth creator and Steve Wonder collaborator Malcolm Cecil has died, aged 84 (MusicRadar.com)
* Audio cassettes: despite being "a bit rubbish," sales have doubled during the pandemic — here’s why (Salon.com)
* Hardware Store With a Jazzy Past Prepares to End its 95-Year Run (WTTW)
* Sons of Kemet announces new album – Black to the Future (PlanetRadio.co.uk)
* The lavish Moog Sound Studio kits could bring modular synthesis to the masses: “just add headphones” (MusicRadar.com)
* The 100 Greatest Motown Songs (Rolling Stone)
* Stage on the water marks Montreux Jazz Festival's comeback (Reuters.com)
* Archie Shepp :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* Highway Hi-Fi, the Revolutionary Vinyl-In-Your-Car Tech That Failed (AutoEvolution.com)
* Paul Simon Sells Song Catalog to Sony Music Publishing (Variety)
* How To Walk On Water - A Conversation With William Parker (TheQuietus.com)
* Music From Saturn (ImaginaryWorldPodcast.com)
* Chops: Teaching Adults to Play Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Live Music Is About to Get Its Grand Reopening (Medium.com)
* The story of Mahavishnu Orchestra: Devotional, dizzying, and downright revolutionary (LouderSound.com)
* Virtuosos, Voyagers & Visionaries: Five Artists Pushing Jazz Into The Future (Grammy.com)
* What a Wonderful World — the hit that was almost murdered at birth (Financial Times)
* A Beginner’s Guide to Can’s avant-garde rock (TrebleZine.com)
* Ambrose Akinmusire: The man with the horn (Bay State Banner)
* Symphony of a Thousand Millennia (LiteraryReview.co.uk)
* Inside the Barry Harris Method (Jazz Times)

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: January 17, 2021

Kenny Garrett

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

* Alan Pasqua, the go-to keyboard wiz for jazz and rock legends, on Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana and Peter Erskine (San Diego Union Tribune)
* From Chuck Berry to Muddy Waters: 15 of Keith Richards’ favourite songs (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* The Insular Jazz of Lockdown Rediscovers a Pioneering Sounds of the Past (PopMatters.com)
* Geri Allen and ‘The Printmakers’ (1985) – by Rick Simpson (London Jazz News)
* Punk rocker Adam Ant lived in Pikeville, Tennessee, and left boxes of stuff behind (Chatanooga Times Free Press)
* Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Live Music Could Be Back This Fall (Stereogum.com)
* A Q&A with saxophonist Kenny Garrett (SFJAZZ.org)
* Equal At Last? Women In Jazz, By The Numbers (NPR)
* Charles Lloyd’s Dynamic Pandemic Year (DownBeat)
* ‘Like many African American musicians, Sun Ra fantasised about Africa,’ says writer Joseph Ghosn (TheAfricaReport.com)
* 2020: A Jazz Reckoning (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Capitol Studios Shutters Its Mastering Division (Variety)
* Marion Brown's musical portrait of Georgia (BitterSoutherner.com)
* Let it rain: Bobby Few 1935–2021 (The Wire)
* Sony takes wraps off secret Unreal Engine project, unveils new subsidiary: Sony Immersive Music Studios (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* LIFE AS A COSMOPOLITAN: GIRLS GONE GO-GO, NYC, 1977-‘82 (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Howard Johnson 1941–2021 (Jazz Times)
* In A Cultural Landscape Beset With Loss, This Community Music Studio Is Expanding (WBUR)
* Two Coltrane Classics Reimagined, 21st Century Electric Style (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* DON VAN VLIET AND FRANK ZAPPA: TWO PEAS IN A MISSHAPEN POD (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Teodross Avery Recruits Stellar Cast To Salute Monk (DownBeat)
* O brothers: drummers Brian and Brady Blade (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
* Sylvie Courvoisier Is a Serious Player (Jazz Times)
* John Coltrane, Out Of Obscurity (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: December 6, 2020

Wes Montgomery

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

* Adrift in Cosmic Quarantine: Randy Newman Turns 77 (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* Don't go breaking my art: it's time to axe the mood-ruining, bar-scrambling interval (The Guardian)
* Joni Mitchell’s Youthful Artistry (The New Yorker)
* Nadine Shah Says She Can’t Pay Rent Despite Having More Than 100,000 Spotify Monthly Listeners (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Kassa Overall: A Different Kind of Fusion (Jazz Times)
* JT 50: The History of JazzTimes (Jazz Times)
* Peter Guralnick Is 'Looking To Get Lost' In The Stories Of American Music Icons (NPR)
* John Coltrane's favorite composition was the love song he wrote for his first wife, Naima (Daily Kos)
* Halsey Accuses the Recording Academy of Demanding Bribes for Grammy Nominations and Awards (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Sparkling Sounds and Bright Ideas For the Jazz Lover in Your Life (WBGO)
* New York’s Jazz Standard Announces Permanent Closure (DownBeat)
* The Cultural Impact of the Technics SL-1200 Turntable, Then and Now (Discogs.com)
* How Prince Built a Madhouse (Jazz Times)
* New Documentary 'Billie' Explores Mysteries Of Billie Holiday And Her Biographer (WBGO)
* I Remember the Jazz Standard (Medium.com)
* Spotify could be working on an AI ‘plagiarism detector’ that tells you if your songs are original (MusicRadar.com)
* ‘The music business isn’t really a place for truth-tellers’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Strictly dropped us after we asked to be paid, say musicians (The Guardian)
* Musicians reimagine Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind” to Encourage Voters (Offbeat)
* Wes Montgomery documentary will include the guitarist's unearthed home movies (Indianapolis Star)
* Musicians from every country form Earth Orchestra to record unique song (Reuters)
* When Sun Ra Went to Egypt in 1971: See Film & Hear Recordings from the Legendary Afrofuturist’s First Visit to Cairo (OpenCulture.com)
* Pat Metheny’s Cinematic Vision (DownBeat)
* Billie Holiday Documentary Chronicles Two Lives (DownBeat)
* What Do We Overlook About Dave Brubeck on His 100th Birthday? Authors, Musicians, and Family Members Reflect (Discogs.com)
* Gary Lucas and Nona Hendryx on the World of Captain Beefheart (PopMatters.com)
* And in the End (Rolling Stone)
* Behind the Overdog: Jazz United Takes a Closer Look at the 2021 Grammy Nominations (WBGO)
* #Wrapped and Sold (TheBaffler.com)

Sunday Session: November 15, 2020

Herbie Hancock

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

* Lakecia Benjamin: The future of jazz is now (Bay State Banner)
* What’s in a Name? (Jazz Times)
* Forgotten protest icon Odetta Holmes lives on in modern Black Americana (ScalawagMagazine.org)
* Live Nation expects that “shows at scale” will return next summer (NME.com)
* Review of Jazzfest Berlin 2020 (London Jazz News)
* Sun Ra's Cosmic Keys (Reverb.com)
* Tomeka Reid Looks For Challenging Situations (DownBeat)
* Sleeping Giants: The Brief Reign and Brilliant Legacy of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi Band (WBGO)
* Alone Together: A Q&A with Tabla Master Zakir Hussain (SFJAZZ.org)
* Mayfield and Markham Plead Guilty in a Plea Deal (Offbeat)
* 50 Years Later: The Surprising Memphis Roots of “Led Zeppelin III.” (MemphisMagazine.com)
* Israeli researchers create AI capable of writing personalized jazz solos (Jerusalem Post)
* Alfredo Rodríguez Deploys Abundant Technique (DownBeat)
* 'It's the screams of the damned!' The eerie AI world of deepfake music (The Guardian)
* Shabaka Hutchings - The Future of Afrofuturism (SFJAZZ.org)
* For The Rolling Stones’ 60th Anniversary, Keith Richards Says “The Plans Are to Still Actually All Be Alive” (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Guitarist Steve Hunter on His Journey From ‘Berlin’ to ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ (Rolling Stone)
* Emerging Opera Singers Now Pay for Online Auditions. Are Companies Watching Them? (MiddleClassArtist.com)
* Joel Ross Doesn’t ‘Do The Obvious Thing’ (DownBeat)
* Meet the guardians of the world’s earliest musical recordings (Los Angeles Times)
* Volcanic drummer and MacArthur ‘genius grant’ winner Tyshawn Sorey premieres new work with Seattle Symphony (Seattle Times)
* Sonny Rollins on Jazz as a Music of Freedom (LitHub.com)
* A Brief Guide to the Shape of “Jazz Rap” Today (Bandcamp.com)
* Bassist Eric Revis Revels In Curiosity, Versatility (DownBeat)
* The Experimental Edge of the “New Weird South” (Bandcamp.com)
* Christian Sands Relies On Adaptability (DownBeat)
* State of Play: the rise of in-game concerts (DJMag.com)
* Ronnie Scott understood that for some people music is the only outlet – so he opened a club (New Statesman)
* Seated gigs, no moshing and 'brutally exhausting' sets: the strange new world of live music (The Guardian)
* How Ticketmaster Plans to Check Your Vaccine Status for Concerts: Exclusive (Billboard)
* Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Big Breaks - What’s Behind Orpheus Classical? (Atavist.com)
* Andrew White, Prolific Multi-Instrumentalist, Scholar and Washington, D.C. Legend, Dies at 78 (WBGO)
* Electrophone: the Victorian-era gadget that was a precursor to live-streaming (TheConversation.com)

Sunday Session: November 8, 2020

Marshall Allen

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

* Rahsaan Roland Kirk: An Alternative Top Ten Albums Guaranteed To Bend Your Head (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Peter Jones (‘This is Bop: Jon Hendricks and the Art of Vocal Jazz’ to be published November 2020) (London Jazz News)
* Nica's Tempo: More Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters (WFIU)
* Houston’s Ku-umba Frank Lacy still a messenger for jazz (Houston Chronicle)
* On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space (NPR)
* Cindy Blackman Santana: This Drummer Got Some (Jazz Times)
* The film exploring the avant-garde female pioneers of electronic music (DazedDigital.com)
* Benson, McBride and Metheny Among Readers Poll Winners (DownBeat)
* John Hollenbeck: Time to Rearrange (Jazz Times)
* Live from Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio Premieres Nov. 14 (Jazz Times)
* Lakecia Benjamin on a Heavy Year, the Healing Power of Music, and Breaking In Jazzfest Berlin (WBGO)
* Brian Blade: A 1970 Artist’s Choice (Jazz Times)
* Adam O’Farrill Is Only Scratching The Surface (DownBeat)
* Irvin Mayfield and Business Partner Ronald Markhamn set to be rearraigned next week (Offbeat)
* Marshall Allen Steers The Sun Ra Arkestra Into The Future (DownBeat)
* Singer, activist, sex machine, addict: the troubled brilliance of Billie Holiday (The Guardian)
* Studio whiz Don Hahn captured magic on the Band’s debut record (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* Elegy for A Side Man: Remembering Cornetist Peter Ecklund (Jazziz)
* Make ‘Y.M.C.A.’ Great Again (Rolling Stone)
* Cándido Camero, A Father Of Latin Jazz, Dies At 99 (NPR)

Sunday Session: November 1, 2020

Sun Ra Arkestra

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

* Artist Feature: Hasan Shahid and the Return of Al-Fatihah (JazzRightNow.com)
* Happy 80th Eddie Henderson! (London Jazz News)
* How the Shure SM57 became an industry standard microphone – from presidential duties to pop (MusicRadar.com)
* Joni Mitchell: 'I'm a fool for love. I make the same mistake over and over' (The Guardian)
* EXCLUSIVE: John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain and Shankar Mahadevan Discuss Music, Legacy and Beyond (RollingStoneIndia.com)
* On Performing Fluxus in 2020 (New Music Box)
* Jeff Hamilton, Drummer’s Drummer (Jazz Times)
* This Year’s Model Elvis Costello is back with his 31st (or so) studio album. But don’t look for any consolation from him. (Vulture.com)
* Sun Ra Arkestra :: Swirling (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* A No. 1 Song Written by a Solitary Songwriter Is Becoming a Thing of the Past (Billboard)
* Lost interviews hold new Bob Dylan insights (Chicago Sun-Times)
* “We’re Just a House Band on the Titanic”: A Conversation With Devo’s Gerald Casale (Tidal.com)
* Shabaka Hutchings Lets The Tape Roll (DownBeat)
* Angel Bat Dawid, Musician and Myth Scientist, Shares Her Story and Takes a Righteous Stand (WBGO)
* The Sun Ra Arkestra Is Swirling Through Space (Jazz Times)
* A Conversation with Peter Guralnick About His Latest Book, ‘Looking To Get Lost’ (American Songwriter)
* B.B. King Estate Announces Official Biopic, Clears Up Wendell Pierce Confusion (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)
* The 30 greatest synth players of all time: keyboard wizards, programming gurus and sound design legends (MusicRadar.com)
* Makaya McCraven Refracts The World Around Him (DownBeat)
* What’s in a Name? (Jazz Times)
* New Charlie Parker Vinyl Box Set, ‘The Mercury & Clef 10-Inch LP Collection’ Set For Release (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* How do the best horror scores scare the crap out of us with just a few notes? (AV Club)
* 80 years ago today: the Benny Goodman-Count Basie Octet (Jazz on the Record)
* Historic Labels: An Enlightening Sonic Window to the Past (WQXR)

Sunday Session: October 11, 2020

Cécile McLorin Salvant

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

* Javon Jackson: Finding Uplift in the Guiding Tradition of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Etymology of "Jazz": A Cautionary Word About Digital Sources (HNN.us)
* Lost In The Vaults: The Joys Of Collecting Jazz Records (TheLondonEconomic.com)
* Jazz Musician Lettering (ReaganRay.com)
* Azar Lawrence Has Paid His Dues...Two Times (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Hank Mobley's 'Soul Station' At 60: How The Tenor Saxophonist's Mellow Masterpiece Inspires Jazz Musicians In 2020 (Grammy.com)
* 19 things I’d tell people contemplating starting a record label (after running one for 19 years) (TheCreativeIndependent.com)
* Ambrose Akinmusire: Blues for 2020 (Jazz Times)
* Pay-for-Play Was Banned From Radio - But Texts Reveal It May Still Be Thriving (Rolling Stone)
* Cecile McLorin Salvant Earns a Prestigious New Accolade: the 2020 MacArthur "Genius Grant" (WBGO)
* ‘How Does It Feel To Be Free?’ (DownBeat)
* Chaos, cash and Caligulan excess: How Emerson, Lake & Palmer made Brain Salad Surgery (LouderSound.com)
* The Keystone Connections Of Fabian Almazan (DownBeat)
* Cindy Blackman Santana, a drum dynamo in jazz and rock, riffs on music, her all-star new album and famous husband (Columbus Dispatch)
* 'You're left to rot if you speak up': the abuse faced by female roadies (The Guardian)
* Melissa Aldana’s Expansive Playing Leads Trio Through Central Park Gig (DownBeat)
* A Guide to Sun Ra on Film (Pitchfork.com)
* Joe Satriani Talks How Guitar Teacher Treated Him When He Was a Kid: 'He Was Completely Blind & He Wore Only Leotards' (Ultimate Guitar)
* Lakecia Benjamin’s Boundless Sensibility On Display (DownBeat)
* Willie Nelson, Interpreter of the Great American Songbook (Texas Monthly)
* 100 Reasons We Love Yusef Lateef for His 100th Birthday (Discogs.com)
* From Bandstand to Social Justice: How Jazz Remains 'America's Classical Music' (KCET)
* A Multicultural Tribute to Yusef Lateef on His Centennial (VIDEO) (Jazz Times)
* Ella Fitzgerald, Come Harvest Time: Jazz United Fondly Reappraises the First Lady of Song (WBGO)
* Denver’s Ron Miles debuts on Blue Note label with “Rainbow Sign” (Denver Post)
* Sun Ra Arkestra's Knoel Scott On New Album 'Swirling,' Sun Ra's Legacy & Music As A Healing Force (Grammy.com)

Sunday Session: August 16, 2020

Nubya Garcia

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

* Billy Childs Reveals the Influences on His Album Acceptance (Jazz Times)
* Orchestras are totally safe. Just stay away from the flute player (Wired)
* Ben Sidran: The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma (Nardis) (Jazz Times)
* Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal dies: Chicago’s longest-running jazz impresario presented Charlie Parker and other greats (Chicago Tribune)
* 2020 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Dorthaan Kirk (SFJAZZ.org)
* David Crosby Remembers Jerry Garcia: ‘He Did Not Play for Money — He Was Chasing the Notes’ (Variety)
* The Alchemical Brothers: Brian Eno & Roger Eno Interviewed (TheQuietus.com)
* Bill Frisell On His New Trio Album, Missing Hal Willner & How COVID-19 Robbed Jazz Of Its Rapport (Grammy.com)
* Is Singing Together Safe In The Era Of Coronavirus? Not Really, Experts Say (NPR)
* Nubya Garcia On Identity, Accessibility And Independence (DownBeat)
* The Radical Legacy of Erroll Garner (Jazz Times)
* Austin leads the way to policies for reopening music venues (Offbeat)
* Venues and crew signal 'red alert' for live music and theatre (BBC)
* The Road to Dollywood (Jezebel.com)
* Sun Ra Shines Over Cafe Nine (New Haven Independent)
* Could Aloha be the low-latency app that finally makes virtual band rehearsals a reality? (MusicRadar.com)
* Ranking the best and worst years in music history (NewsChannelNebraska.com)
* Artists Clobbered By COVID-19, With 2.7 Million Creative Job Losses In The United States, Study Finds (Forbes.com)
* Fridays at Five A Talk with Snarky Puppy's Michael League (SFJAZZ.org)
* Craig Taborn by Camille Norment (BombMagazine.org)
* Film Review: “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” — A Contrarian View (ArtsFuse.org)
* RZA Wrote a New Jingle for Ice Cream Trucks to Replace ‘Turkey in the Straw’ (Rolling Stone)
* Dolly Parton Steers Her Empire Through the Pandemic — and Keeps It Growing (Billboard)
* Joey DeFrancesco Expands His Skill Set (DownBeat)
* Are Livestreams Now Music’s Primary Format and Artist Revenue Stream? (Hypebot.com)
* Joe Segal, Owner Of Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, Dies At 94 (DownBeat)
* Sonic Politics - Sound is Power (TheBattleground.eu)
* A Guide to the Music of Cecil Taylor, the Pianist Who Helped Invent Avant-Garde Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* The year the music might die: British clubs face closure (Associated Press)
* Remembering Helen Jones Woods (1923–2020) (Jazz Times)
* How a Movie Score Is Really Made — According to a Top Hollywood Director (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* 'I feel like I'm failing at life': the terrible plight of music event staff (The Guardian)
* Kamasi Washington Breaks Down His Process to Score ‘Becoming’ (Variety)

Sunday Session: August 9, 2020

Bobby Watson

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

* Give & Take with Musician Sonny Rollins (Tricycle.org)
* Kevin Whitehead: Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film (Oxford University Press) (Jazz Times)
* All Hail King Shabaka! A Preternaturally Talented Artist Shifts Gears (Pollstar)
* Sheila Jordan: A Visit With the Jazz Child (Syncopated Times)
* Georgia Anne Muldrow Makes an Eddie Harris Playlist (Jazz Times)
* Looking for Jazz Uplift Under Lockdown (ZocaloPublicSquare.org)
* Steve Swallow, A little outside the ordinary (Jazz in Europe)
* The Changing Nature of Protest in Jazz (Jazz Times)
* 2020 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Reggie Workman (SFJAZZ.org)
* Sun Ra Shines Over Cafe Nine (New Haven Independent)
* An Unexpected Casualty of COVID-19? The Quality of Sound in Livestream Performances (Variety)
* Newport Jazz Festival Makes a Four-Pronged Pivot (Jazz Times)
* How Hawkwind's First Voyage Helped Spearhead Space Rock 50 Years Ago (PopMatters.com)
* Dame Shirley Bassey to release first new album in five years (BBC)
* Have sax, will travel: Joshua Redman talks jazz, pandemic, Boston then and now (Bay State Banner)
* Our Views: Congress shouldn't let the music die (New Orleans Advocate)
* John Coltrane’s Giant Steps Gets 60th Anniversary Reissue (Pitchfork)
* COVID-19 hit major labels much harder than it did Spotify (Music Industry Blog)
* The Modern All-Stars: A Newport Jazz Festival Special (NPR)
* Writer Don Marquis' jazz-loving life in New Orleans comes to a close, with one last dance (NOLA.com)
* A Majority of House Lawmakers Say Musicians Shouldn’t Get Paid for Radio Plays (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Bobby Watson Pins Down The Blues (DownBeat)
* Chops: Mark Dresser and Michael Dessen Play Telematic Music (Jazz Times)
* Elvis Presley’s Sessions With Nashville Cats Compiled on New ‘From Elvis in Nashville’ Set (Rolling Stone)
* Forgotten Heroes: Clarence White (Premier Guitar)
* Interview with William Hooker (The Free Jazz Collective)
* Midcentury Time Capsule: Inside Louis Armstrong’s Former Residence (Architizer.com)

Sunday Session: July 19, 2020

Matthew Shipp

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

* Terence Blanchard Addresses The Past Through Work With Spike Lee And Preps For Brighter Future (DownBeat)
* Sun Ra: ‘I’m Everything and Nothing’ (New York Review of Books)
* A Trademark Attorney Explains Why the Former Lady Antebellum Is Suing the Black Singer Lady A (Slate)
* Better late than never: the story of Beverly "Guitar" Watkins (LouderSound.com)
* The Strange World Of... Sun Ra (TheQuietus.com)
* Britain’s choirs are facing oblivion (The Spectator)
* Rick Wakeman on his top 5 synths: “I suddenly had an instrument that could give the guitar a run for its money” (MusicRadar.com)
* Gary Lucas: "The guitar is like an extension of my nervous system - I try to play what I feel and transmit it" (Guitar World)
* Bill Frisell Is a Rambler in Quarantine (Jazz Times)
* Session Legend Harvey Brooks Publishes Memoir, “A View From The Bottom” (NoTreble.com)
* MATTHEW SHIPP with George Grella (BrooklynRail.org)
* Most Births at a Concert?! The Wildest Records Ever Written Into the Music History Books (EOnline.com)
* Eddie Gale 1941–2020 (Jazz Times)
* The Galaxy-Expanding, Peace-Loving Trumpet Of Eddie Gale: Hear The Essentials (NPR)
* Playing Music Together Online Is Not As Simple As It Seems (NPR)
* And all that jazz! Bram Dijkstra’s invaluable record collection to be donated to SDSU (Del Mar Times)
* A New Album Turns The Sound Of Endangered Birds Into Electronic Music (NPR)
* NEA Jazz Masters Ceremony Moves Online To Honor Kirk, McFerrin, Mitchell, Workman (DownBeat)
* How Kendrick Lamar, Marvin Gaye and ‘Black genius’ inspired a jazz/hip-hop supergroup (Los Angeles Times)
* A History of Music Supervision in Advertising (SynchTank.com)
* A Deep Dive into John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' by His Biographer, Lewis Porter (Pt. 1) (WBGO)
* Don’t Expect to See Concerts Before 2022, Top Touring Exec Marc Geiger Says (Variety)
* The future of Tipitina's is uncertain: By fall, 'we're going to be in a really tough spot' (NOLA.com)* Discover the Sacred Afro-Cuban Chants That Are Celia Cruz's First-Known Recordings (Billboard)
* Ambrose Akinmusire – Every Calloused Moment (ZoneOut.com)
* Mike Clark, the Oakland Groove behind Herbie, Chet and Charlie Brown (Jazz Journal)

Sunday Session: July 5, 2020

Freddy Cole

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

* John Scofield Honors Steve Swallow on New Album (Jazz Times)
* Revisiting the lost recording of Pink Floyd jamming with jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli on ‘Wish You Were Here’ (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Identifying a melody by studying a musician’s body language (News.MIT.edu)
* Freddy Cole, Singer Who Eluded the Shadow of His Brother Nat "King" Cole, Has Died at 88 (WBGO)
* How Jazz Is Coping with COVID-19 (Jazz Times)
* Pixar’s Upcoming “Soul” May Have a Problem: No Actual Soul Music, Most of the Artists Included So Far Are White (ShowBiz411.com)
* Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard Talk Scoring to Picture on ‘Da 5 Bloods’ (Watch) (Variety)
* In conversation with saxophonist Kamasi Washington (Bay State Banner)
* Making Music With Brain Waves And Heartbeats (AEON.co)
* Making A New Kind Of Scene: New York City's Five Spot (WFIU)
* Societal Reckoning Over Racism Encompasses The Jazz Community (DownBeat)
* Jacques Coursil 1938–2020 (The Wire)
* The car radio turns 90 this year. Here’s how it all came about (AJournalOfMusicalThings.com)
* 48 Hours With Backpack Jazz Producer Kassa Overall (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
* Who in their right mind would go to a "herd immunity" music festival? (Mic.com)
* Full Spectrum: Derrick Hodge Sees Endless Possibilities In Music (DownBeat)
* Reflections on unlocking live music by Tony Dudley-Evans (London Jazz News)
* Thurston Moore: Into the Out World (Jazz Times)
* The Kosmische Path Less Traveled: Nine Krautrock Rarities to Know (Bandcamp.com)
* Can the music take flight again? (Financial Times)
* Eddie Henderson On Maturity And Revisiting Bop Standards (DownBeat)
* The Short and Curious Life of Wade Legge (Buffalo Rising)
* Experiment Without Inhibition: A Celebration of Anthony Braxton (River Cities Reader)
* Impulse! Records: An Alternative Top 20 Zeitgeist Seizing Albums (AllAboutJazz.com)
* A Conversation with Zappa, Vol. 1 (American Songwriter)
* An encounter with Keith Tippett (The Wire)
* With YouTube Music, Google is holding my speakers for ransom (Ars Technica)
* Georgia Anne Muldrow Finds ‘The Sound Of Mixed Emotions’ (DownBeat)
* The Summer Of ’70: What Was It Good For? Absolutely…American Top 40 (RadioInsight.com)
* Musicians and Composers Respond to a Chaotic Moment (The New Yorker)
* Plunge into the world of Sun Ra and the Outer Space Visual Communicator (CDM.link)
* Five Black Jazzworld Figures Detail How Racism Impacts The Industry (DownBeat)

Sunday Session: June 28, 2020

Sun Ra Arkestra

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

* On identifying ragas, and how the intoxicating and often frustrating challenge for a lay listener can become an obsession (FirstPost.com)
* B.B. King and Eric Clapton’s ‘Riding with the King’ album like working with ‘blues royalty’ for Nathan East (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Bettye LaVette on Why She’s Singing ‘Strange Fruit’ Now (Rolling Stone)
* ‘He Made the World Bigger’: Inside John Zorn’s Jazz-Metal Multiverse (Rolling Stone)
* Watch Paul McCartney Play Trumpet With Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* Charles Lloyd: “The thing is I want to share the music. I’m still on a mission and it can’t happen – this is plague time…” (Jazzwise)
* Sun Ra Arkestra Announce First Album in 20 Years (Rolling Stone)
* Drummer Sherrie Maricle On The 3D Jazz Trio And Developing DIVA (DownBeat)
* How Jazz Is Coping with COVID-19 (Jazz Times)
* Henry Grimes and Giuseppi Logan: Parallel Lives (Jazz Times)
* Montreal unlikely to rename Metro station after Oscar Peterson, despite petition (CBC)
* The Jazz Gallery, Which Built a Vibrant Online Community, Opens the Door to a Livestream (WBGO)
* Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and 9th Wonder Form Supergroup Dinner Party, Share New Song “Freeze Tag”: Listen (Pitchfork.com)
* Music For the Movement on Jazz United (WBGO)
* Where did that love go? (Jazz Journal)
* Gregory Porter and Don Was: Before & After (Jazz Times)
* The Stranger-Than-Fiction Secret History of Prog-Rock Icon Rick Wakeman (Vanity Fair)
* Good vibrations: how Bandcamp became the heroes of streaming (The Guardian)
* Societal Reckoning Over Racism Encompasses The Jazz Community (DownBeat)
* Henry Kaiser, Mike Baggetta and the New “Live” (GuitarModerne.com)
* Whit Dickey :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence (NPR)
* The history of the West Coast Get Down, LA’s jazz giants (DazedDigital.com)
* The Story Behind the Greatest Bob Dylan Parody of All Time (GQ)
* The Turtles run with the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ concept on their brilliant 1968 LP, ‘Battle of the Bands’ (DangerousMinds.net)

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)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A jazz film mini-festival (shutdown edition)

With live music still shut down for the foreseeable future, this week we revisit an idea used in this space occasionally during the slow weeks of summer, and offer up a mini-festival of six feature-length films about jazz. 

The first film, embedded up above, is 1959, The Year That Changed Jazz, a 2009 documentary originally aired on the BBC. It uses archival performances and interviews to look at developments in jazz as reflected in four historically significant albums released that year by Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Ornette Coleman.

After the jump, you can see A Great Day In Harlem, an Academy Award-nominated documentary released in 1994 that tells the story of the iconic 1958 photo of dozens of jazz greats taken on a Harlem stoop.

Next up is Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968, a documentary by filmmaker Thomas Reichman that captures the bassist and composer at a particularly tumultuous time, including some infamous footage of Mingus being evicted from his New York City apartment.

After that, it's keyboardist, bandleader, composer and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial Sun Ra in an extended cut of Space is the Place, a 1972 film that DownBeat described as "a sci-fi trip through the East Bay during the 1970s with Sun Ra in the lead."

The penultimate video is Thelonius Monk: An American Composer, a 1993 documentary that includes archival footage and various jazz greats discussing Monk and his enduring influence on jazz.

Last but not least, it's Herbie Hancock - Possibilities a 2006 "making of" documentary about Hancock's album of the same name, featuring guest performers drawn from rock, pop, hip-hop, and more.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...