Sunday Session: May 16, 2021

Melissa Aldana

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

* Computer World at 40: How Kraftwerk Predicted Our Techno-Utopian Fate (Consequence of Sound)
* Wes Montgomery and friends (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Growth drivers – what comes after streaming (Music Industry Blog)
* Melissa Aldana Signs to Blue Note, Building on the Legacy of Her Saxophone Heroes (WBGO)
* The Weight Of The Ritual: Frank Rynne On The Master Musicians Of Joujouka (TheQuietus.com)
* Vincent Herring: Not the End of the Line (Jazz Times)
* Carla Bley at 85: In Praise and Awe of an Unfettered Genius (WBGO)
* Dave Mason: Feelin’ Alright At 75 (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to Induct Jay-Z, Carole King, Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren and Foo Fighters (Variety)
* Curtis Fuller 1932–2021 (Jazz Times)
* Berlin to officially declare nightclubs as cultural institutions (DJMag.com)
* This man made opera history. Why did I not know him? (The Guardian)
* The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify (Slate.com)
* Pulling Back the Curtain on Alexander Shustorovich, Classical Music's International Man of Mystery (Billboard)
* Family Company Is Thriving Making Turntables For Vinyl Aficionados (Forbes)
* George Grella on Jazz: Is It Safe? (Red Hook Star-Revue)
* Kind of Blue Books: Novels about Jazz Musicians (NeglectedBooks.com)
* How James Brown’s Star Time Revolutionized the Box-Set Game—and Cemented His Legacy (Pitchfork.com)

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: May 26, 2019

Aretha Franklin

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

* "Over the Rainbow" Composer Seeks Pot of Gold from Apple (Forbes.com)
* ‘Fake Artists’ Have Billions of Streams on Spotify. Is Sony Now Playing the Service at Its Own Game? (Rolling Stone)
* Doris Day: Her Jazziest Moment (Jazz Times)
* Aretha in church (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Blue Note boss Don Was: 'Jazz can't become synonymous with pop again' (The Guardian)
* Burnt Sugar Applying Heat for 20 Years (DownBeat)
* Ray Charles - Confessin’ The Blues (FYIMusicNews.ca)
* Scientists create the loudest possible sound (NewAtlas.com)
* Wire Playlist: Free Jazz In Japan, Sounds From The First Decade (The Wire)
* Idagio—the Spotify for Classical Music—Has Changed My Life (Vogue)
* National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2020 NEA Jazz Masters (Arts.gov)
* Kamasi Washington: 'Right now it feels like people are really open to jazz, the freedoms, the abstract side of it' (List.co.uk)
* How Nashville plans to save Music Row, a threatened cultural treasure (Curbed.com)
* The Borderless Music of Antonio Sánchez (DownBeat)
* Pacific Ocean coup: how Ronald Reagan helped bury a Beach Boy at sea (The Guardian)
* How Panic! at the Disco Cornered the Market on Trumpet-Heavy Hits (Variety)
* Flashback: Ornette Coleman Sums Up Solitude on ‘Lonely Woman’ (Rolling Stone)
* Pianist gives concert from vertical piano hanging from construction crane (WPXI)
* 20 Questions for New Artists Sidebar: The Economic Reality of Streaming (MusicTechPolicy.com)
* Repair Of Iconic ’60s Era Synthesizer Turns Into Long, Strange Trip For Engineer (SanFrancisco.CBSLocal.com)
* Resonance Records’ Further Exploration of Wes Montgomery (DownBeat)
* The Shed Attempts to Inject Culture Into Hudson Yards (The New Yorker)
* Flying Lotus and His Grandmother Talk Being in a Family Bound by Music (Pitchfork.com)
* Sofar Sounds house concerts raises $25M, but bands get just $100 (TechCrunch.com)
* ECM At Big Ears: A Boundless Label Meets A Broadminded Festival (NPR)
* Frantic, Distorted, Defiant: When Punk Jazz Upended the Underground (Jazz Times)
* How synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog brought electronic music to the masses (Fast Company)

Sunday Session: March 31, 2019

Matthew Shipp

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:

* Jazz in Troubled Times: Watson Professor, WSJ contributor Larry Blumenfeld Riffs on ‘Relevance, Resonance’ of Jazz Culture (Syr.edu)
* Bootsy Collins: The Warner Bros. Era (CultureSonar.com)
* 1918-2018: 20 works that defined a century (Classical-Music.com)
* Michael Wolff’s Miraculous Turn (DownBeat)
* 30 Years of 'Nick of Time': How Bonnie Raitt's 'Underdog Record' Swept the Grammys & Saved Her Career (Billboard)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago on the Past and Future of Their ‘Great Black Music’ (Rolling Stone)
* Carla Bley Plays the Big Band With Her Hands (Westword)
* Pianists Born 100 Years Ago Prove: There's No One Way To Play Jazz (NPR)
* How the music of 1950’s Cuba revolutionized the sound of young Senegal (QZ.com)
* Carla Bley Stretches Out at Big Ears (DownBeat)
* Signature Moves - A brief conversation with underground jazz piano great Matthew Shipp (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* Resonance Records to Release Archival Recordings by Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans (Jazz Times)
* DJs of the Future Don't Spin Records—They Write Code (Wired)
* Big Ears Festival 2019: The Best (Echoes.org)
* The best decade for pop music has been revealed – according to science (NME.com)
* Frank Sinatra And Elvis Presley: When The Chairman Met The King (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Brotherhood of Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez (DownBeat)
* The Eclectic Artistry of Gary Lucas (Van Wyck Gazette)
* How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis (Smithsonian)
* Downtown Music Acquires CD Baby Owner AVL Digital Group (Price Tag: $200 Million) (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* ‘What The F*** Is Happening Right Now’: A Look At ‘The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa’ (Pollstar.com)
* Aaron Diehl: paradox at the piano (Rochester City Newspaper)
* Jazz Guitarist Joe Morris: Enhance the Risk (Premier Guitar)
* Jazz Duo Explores the Intersection of Math and Music (Flagpole)

Sunday Session: January 14, 2018

The Bad Plus

Here's the 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:

* Jazz, but not as you know it (Vice.com)
* Record Bin: How Herbie Hancock subverted jazz traditions and asserted his funk dominance on “Head Hunters” (Nooga.com)
* And Look—She’s a Star! (The Nation)
* Music fans bought a lot of cassettes last year (NME.com)
* Why I Still Buy Music in the Age of Spotify (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Wes Gets Royal Treatment (DownBeat)
* 'Dock Of The Bay' At 50: Why Otis Redding's Biggest Hit Almost Went Unheard (NPR)
* The musical secrets of FAME Studios legend Rick Hall (Birmingham News)
* A Cabaret Star’s Comeback (Wall Street Journal)
* Ice Music: Building Instruments Out Of Water (NPR)
* White Noise Story Generates White Noise on Copyright (IllusionOfMore.com)
* Just How Similar Are Radiohead's 'Creep' and Lana Del Rey's 'Get Free'? (Esquire)
* Inside the Amish town that builds U2, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift's live shows (Wired)
* Funk Carves Out A Groove At The Funk Music Hall Of Fame In Ohio (NPR)
* Mitchell Takes Homage to Winter Jazzfest (DownBeat)
* Why this awful-sounding album is a masterpiece (Vox.com)
* Surprise! The ‘Music Modernization Act’ Prohibits Litigation Against Streaming Services (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* First Listen: The Bad Plus, 'Never Stop II' (NPR)
* Why music venue closures 'make all of our lives poorer' (BBC)
* Lester Bangs Play 'How to Be a Rock Critic' Captures Writer's Wild Spirit (Rolling Stone)
* At Peabody jazz: discrimination allegations, a forced ouster — and new hope (Baltimore Sun)
* ********, ∆, †‡† ... the most unpronounceable band names ever (The Guardian)
* Spotify Is in the Business of Selling You Spotify, Not Music (TrackRecord.net)
* Q&A: Chick Corea on his regrets, Grammys, future plans and more (Creative Loafing - Tampa)
* Portrait Of: Eddie Palmieri (LatinoUSA.org)
* Roy Hargrove’s rousing Showcase residency (DownBeat)
* The “True” Story Of How Brian Eno Invented Ambient Music (OpenCulture.com)
* Chartmania!! I Broke Down Every Song That Reached the Billboard Top 5 in 2017 (Soundfly.com)
* Life’s Work: An Interview with John Adams (Harvard Business Review)
* Dr. Demento, comedic song hero and unsung punk rock legend, gets his due on new album (Los Angeles Times)
* Preservation Hall’s Musical Mission (Garden and Gun)

Sunday Session: September 11, 2016

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

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

* Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air (Pitchfork)
* The Many Lives of "The House of the Rising Sun" (MusicAficionado.com)
* Does the Music Business Need Musicianship? (TheSmartSet.com)
* The streaming music war is getting ugly (Money/CNN)
* New Rahsaan Roland Kirk Documentary - “The Case of the Three Sided Dream” goes inside the multi-instrumentalist's artistic brilliance (Jazz Times)
* Saxophonist Benny Golson, an “elder statesman of jazz” (WHYY)
* Pat Martino honors Wes Montgomery - The Indy Jazz Fest artist tells the story of his friendship with the Indy great (NUVO.net)
* Pinball machine featuring the Stones, Elton John, The Who, AC/DC, KISS and many more (DangerousMinds.net)
* Tracing the Rock and Roll Race Problem (Pitchfork)
* Q&A with Steve Gadd: Leader Disc Documents Hometown Concert (DownBeat)
* How Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar Reflected Black Lives Matter (Vulture.com)
* An Interview with Trumpeter Randy Brecker (NotesOnJazz.blogspot.de)
* Before & After With Fred Hersch - The pianist-composer on Jarrett, singers, the “Vanguard sound” and more (Jazz Times)
* The Bad Plus Tests Jazz’s Boundaries by Exploding the Art of the Cover Song (Observer.com)
* Black Classical - History of Spiritual Jazz (NTS.live)
* Projecting Trends: Do Streaming Services Now Compete with Labels? (SynchTank.com)
* Willie Bobo: An Appreciation And A New Album (NPR)
* Careless whisker: Universal to release album for cats (The Guardian UK)
* Angela Davis: Nina Simone's music was so much more than the soundtrack to a movement (The Mail and Globe NZ)
* The Beat Don’t Stop - How “The Get Down” and “Atlanta” break down hip-hop’s past and future (The New Republic)
* 15 samplers that shaped modern music – and the musicians who use them (FactMag.com)
* A photographer’s incredible journey in 1960 to capture jazz in America (Washington Post)
* 5 audiophile myths, totally busted (CNET.com)

Sunday Session: May 10, 2015

Wes Montgomery

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

* In music today, it’s all or nothing – rich at the top or languishing forlornly at the bottom (The New Statesman)
* 40 favorite photos from the 2015 New Orleans Jazz Fest (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* A New Jazz Suite For Head, Shoulders. Knees, And Toes (NPR)
* 'Buena Vista Social Club' Documentary Sequel Begins Filming This Summer (Rolling Stone)
* AACM Members Unite in Chicago To Celebrate 50th Anniversary (DownBeat)
* Mazzy Star Batman (Paris Review)
* Long-Unheard Harlem Renaissance Opera Coming in June (New York Times)
* "Jazz detective" Zev Feldman talks brand new Wes Montgomery release (NUVO News)
* Solos Under Siege: Country Radio Combats 'Bored' Listeners By Cutting Guitar Parts (Billboard)
* 'Has It Come To This?': A Rational Conversation About Music In Museums (NPR)
* The Most Popular Keys of All Music on Spotify (Spotify)
* Study: New Music Discovery Stops at Age 33 (The Takeaway)
* Is B.B. King Being Held Hostage by His Manager? (The Daily Beast)
* Pressed to the Edge: Why vinyl hype is destroying the record (Fact)
* The Birth of Loop (Prepared Guitar)
* Did a Jazzman Bilk Big Easy’s Libraries? (The Daily Beast)