Sunday Session: November 19, 2017

Grover Washington Jr.

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

* How Roy DeCarava�s jazz photographs captured the soul of Harlem and influenced a generation (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Remembering, With Fondness, the �Worst Orchestra in the World� (AtlasObscura.com)
* Legendary music venue My Father�s Place reopening on Long Island after 30 years (Newsday)
* Pay-Per-Beat: Inside the Underground Market Shaping Soundcloud Rap (Vice.com)
* Ron Lessard Is a Noise Music Hero (Vice.com)
* Renaissance Man: The Story of Hermeto Pascoal�s Great Lost Album, �Viajando Com O Som� (Bandcamp.com)
* �Whisperpop�: why stars are choosing breathy intensity over vocal paint-stripping (The Guardian)
* Spatial audio is the most exciting thing to happen to pop music since stereo (ArsTechnica.com)
* A Bottle In Front Of Me: The Strange World Of... Tom Waits (TheQuietus.com)
* Hide And Seek - For a while, hidden tracks were everywhere, especially during the CD era. But thanks to streaming music, there�s nowhere to put them. Is that good or bad? (Tedium.co)
* The concert was about unity; the message was all Russian (Washington Post)
* Hip Hop Named as the Most Popular Music Genre in the US (MagneticMag.com)
* The Body in Question: Herbie Hancock in Concert (CommonReader.WUSTL.edu)
* The New Golden Age Of Jazz (Lnwy.co)
* How Basin Street Records Has Been Giving New Orleans Jazz Music a Home For 20 Years (Billboard)
* Steve Winwood On World Cafe (NPR)
* Influential Jazz and Classical Label ECM Records Releasing Entire Catalogue to Streaming Outlets (SPIN)
* Free improvisation: still the ultimate in underground music? (The Guardian)
* Nicole Mitchell on the lasting legacies of AACM architect Muhal Richard Abrams (The Wire)
* An abandoned pre-WWII Hasidic synagogue gets a second life as a kosher jazz club (Times of Israel)
* With $70M from Alphabet, UnitedMasters replaces record labels (TechCrunch.com)
* How Grover Washington Jr. Defined And Transcended 'Smooth Jazz' (NPR)
* Bassist Ron Carter On His Life With Jazz (WNYC)
* Venezuela's Uprooted Musicians: Bands Struggle to Survive (Rolling Stone)
* The cosmic messenger: How Karlheinz Stockhausen shaped contemporary electronic music (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Field Notes: GoGo Penguin�s �Koyaanisqatsi� in Brooklyn (Jazz Times)
* Jazz and Classical Treasures from the Digitized Catalogue of ECM Records (The New Yorker)
* Ben Riley, a Jazz Drummer Who Made Accompaniment His Art, Has Died at 84 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: November 12, 2017

John McLaughlin

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

* Let's face the facts: Facebook controls classical music (OvergrownPath.com)
* Arts Critics Are Disappearing From Newspapers. Or, Wait, Is That The Good News? (ArtAndSeek.org)
* A Hard Day's Night: Solving a Beatles mystery with mathematics (ABC.net.au)
* Essential Solos: 40 Great Improvisations (Jazz Times)
* Van Morrison Announces New Album 'Versatile' (Rolling Stone)
* Field Notes: John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring in NYC - Thinking about a jazz-guitar icon�s U.S. farewell tour (Jazz Times)
* Joni Mitchell Talks Exes, Addictions and Music in Candid, All-Access Biography (Rolling Stone)
* The demons and obsessions of jazz genius Thelonious Monk (The Guardian)
* Critic bashing - Defending the Music Media (Atavist.com)
* Blue Note Records Unveils a New Subscription Boxed Set Series, Blue Note Review (WBGO)
* The Strange World Of... Linda Sharrock (TheQuietus.com)
* The rise of �three-car garage rock� (Curbed.com)
* Why the indie band never dies: fake breakups, permanent adolescence and cash comebacks (The Guardian)
* Bill Frisell Receives Honorary Degree and Is Subject of Film (Jazz Times)
* I went to see La Monte Young playing in his New York loft, and you should do the same (Medium.com)
* 'Only 17th-century industrial bluegrass will do': your favourite weird records (The Guardian)
* 'Their DNA is forever ingrained in the keys' - Roman Rabinovich on playing composers' own pianos (TheArtsDesk.com)
* After Six Decades in the Vault, 'Ella at Zardi's' Brings New Shine to Ella Fitzgerald's Centennial (WBGO)
* Malleable Structures: An Interview with Tyshawn Sorey (Atavist.com)
* How Concert Ticket Prices Vary Across the U.S. (Wanderu.com)
* The Many Faces of Jazz Today: The Big Picture (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Return of the Top 40 Troubadour: How Singer-Songwriters Reclaimed Pop Radio (Billboard)
* Pat Metheny: Driving Forces (AllAboutJazz.com)
* �In five seconds my life changed. I was worse than the worst jazz snob� (Irish Times)
* A Jazz Centennial of a Seamier Sort: The End of Storyville, As Remembered Through the Ages (WBGO)
* Paul Buckmaster, Essential Arranger for David Bowie and Elton John, Dead at 71 (Rolling Stone)
* Meet Rufus Harley, the First Jazz Bagpiper (AtlasObscura.com)
* Herbie Hancock: �I like to discover new rules so I can break them� (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: October 8, 2017

Antonio Sanchez

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

* Trane of No-Thought: How Meditation Inspired Jazz Great John Coltrane (LionsRoar.com)
* Jazz and Communism? The Perfect Oxymoron - Paquito D�Rivera considers the implications of International Jazz Day 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66 (Rolling Stone)
* An Appreciation of Tom Petty: Rock�s Superstar Everyman (Variety)
* Free Falling with Tom Petty (The New Yorker)
* Tom Petty's final interview: There was supposed to have been so much more (Los Angeles Times)
* Judd Apatow Revives Mainstream, Bob Shad's Independent Record Label (WBGO)
* Nextbop Interviews Kendrick Scott (NextBop.com)
* The Meaning of Soul Music According to Raphael Saadiq (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: Ashley Kahn on Thelonious Monk's Legacy (Keyboard)
* Antonio S�nchez Brings Electronics and Politics To 'Bad Hombre' (NPR)
* Herbie Hancock: Why he thinks the audience is a member of his band (Philly.com)* A New Model for Paying Musicians a Living Wage? (East Bay Express)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Kamasi Washington on the Music That Made Him a Jazz Colossus (Pitchfork.com)
* Why British DJs From the �60s and �70s Kept Their Best Records Secret (AtlasObscura.com)
* The Philosophy & Music of Devo, the Avant-Garde Art Project Dedicated to Revealing the Truth About De-Evolution (Open Culture.com)
* Puerto Rico's 'Singing Newspapers' (NPR)
* The Unknowable Joni Mitchell (The Atlantic)
* Live Sound Processing and Improvisation (New Music Box)
* Mike Stern: Playing Through the Pain (Jazz Times)
* Photos: New York Hot Jazz Festival at the McKittrick Hotel - Cyrille Aim�e, Bria Skonberg, Anat Cohen and more swing the fest's fifth edition (Jazz Times)
* European Jazz Conference 2017 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Speed of sound � how Spotify killed the long intro (The Guardian)
* After year of silence, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra ready to move on without founder Irvin Mayfield (New Orleans Advocate)
* I Wrote a Hit Song With Justin Bieber. Want to See My Royalties? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Beats? How Blade Runner impacted electronic music (FactMag.com)
* Kate Bush, Radiohead, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Nominated For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (NPR)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago Celebrates 50 Years Of Channeling And Challenging History (NPR)
* Jazz Drummer Alvin Queen Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Dropped Charges From 50 Years Ago (Billboard)
* On the Cultural Specificity of Symphony Orchestras (CreateEquity.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 Vald�s, 'Familia: Tribute To Bebo & Chico' (NPR)
* Meet the Ace of Cups, the Haight�s (Almost) Forgotten All-Girl Band (KQED)

Jazz this week: Herbie Hancock, Louis Armstrong Festival, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the return of one of the most important living jazz musicians for one night only, a two-night tribute to the first superstar soloist in jazz, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Thursday, 
August 10
Keyboardist Herbie Hancock will perform in a concert presented by Jazz St. Louis at Powell Hall.

With a new album reportedly in the works, Hancock (pictured) also has a new addition to his live band, with saxophonist/keyboardist Terrace Martin joining guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist James Genus and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta in the group.

Some tickets for the concert still remained on sale as of end of business on Wednesday, but if you haven't gotten seats yet and want to go, you'll probably want to call ahead rather than just walk up to the box office.

To promote his St. Louis show, Hancock did brief interviews with St. Louis magazine's Erin Williams, St. Louis Public Radio's David Cazares, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. Also, you can see some videos spanning Hancock's 50+ years in the music business in this StLJN post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Thursday night, bassist and singer Tonina Saputo leads a quartet at The Dark Room, and guitarist Dave Black and singer Tony Vivano will perform at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, August 11
The second annual "Louis Armstrong Festival of St. Louis" will be presented for the first of two nights at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, featuring music associated with Armstrong performed by a band featuring trumpeters Randy Holmes and Robert Souza, trombonist Brett Stamps, clarinetist Scott Alberici, pianist Mary Ann Schulte, drummer Kevin Gianino, bassist Bob Lowe and guitarist/banjoist Dan Stevens. 

You can see StLJN's video tribute to the 116th anniversary of Armstrong's birth in this post from last Saturday.  

Also on Friday, guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Glen Smith will duet at Parkside Grille in Ballwin, and the Ambassadors of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, August 12 
Guitarist Stuart Johnson will play a matinee show at The Shaved Duck, and then on Saturday evening, Dizzy Atmosphere will perform for the "Garden of Glass" event at Missouri Botanical Garden, singer Joe Mancuso returns to Bartolino's South and trumpeter Jim Manley is back at One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar.

Sunday, August 13
Miss Jubilee returns for the weekly jazz brunch at Evangeline's, Red Lehr and the Rivermen will play a matinee for the St. Louis Jazz Club at the DoubleTree Hotel in Westport, and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will perform at Mount Pleasant Winery.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* New Music Circle will raise money for their upcoming 59th season with "an evening of drinks and DJs" from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 22 at Tick Tock Tavern, 3459 Magnolia Ave in the Tower Grove East neighborhood.

The free event will include raffles for prizes including CDs, LPs, and tickets to upcoming NMC concerts; and a preview of the upcoming season schedule.  Proceeds from drinks purchased during the event will go to support NMC.

* Speaking of season previews, Jazz St. Louis will (re)introduce their upcoming season with a free "preview party" event at 6:00 p.m. next Tuesday, August 8 at Jazz at the Bistro.

JSL's Gene Dobbs Bradford and Bob Bennett will offer their insights into the artist selection and planning process for the year, and complimentary hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. Space is limited, so they're asking those who want to attend to RSVP by emailing boxoffice@jazzstl.org or calling 314-571-6000 by tomorrow (Friday, August 4).

* Also from Jazz St. Louis, their monthly book club will resume for the 2017-18 season on Tuesday, September 12 with a discussion of Dorothy Baker's novel Young Man with a Horn.

The group, which is facilitated by Washington University professor Gerald Early, meets on the second Tuesday of each month in the first floor lounge at Jazz St. Louis headquarters, 3536 Washington Ave. There's no charge for membership, and meetings are free to attend. For more details, including the list of books that will be discussed this season, go here.

* In advance of his concert next Thursday, August 10 at Powell Hall, keyboardist Herbie Hancock (pictured) answered some questions from the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Keyboardist/bandleader and writer Kevin Mitchell was profiled by the St. Louis County Arts blog

* Also new from the St. Louis County Arts blog: a brief feature story on the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra.

* Music Record Shop in Grand Center was the subject of a feature story on KSDK-TV's local newscast.

* There's still time to vote in DownBeat magazine's 82nd annual readers poll by casting your online ballot here.  Results of the poll will be published in the mag's December issue.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: 50 years of Herbie Hancock

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring keyboardist Herbie Hancock, who will be back in St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by Jazz St Louis on Thursday, August 10 at Powell Hall.

Hancock has been at the forefront of jazz for more than half a century, first coming to wide public attention in the mid-1960s as a member of Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet." Striking out on his own at the turn of the 1970s, Hancock has managed to have considerable commercial success - most notably with his 1973 album HeadHunters, which remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time - while keeping his artistic credibility.

Today, StLJN celebrates Hancock's musical legacy with videos of his performances spanning more than 50 years and including some of his most popular tunes. The first clip up top is from Hancock's time with Miles Davis, and shows a performance of Davis' "All Blues" recorded October 11, 1964 at the Teatro dell'Arte in Milan, Italy. Along with Davis and Hancock, that's Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.

After the jump, you can see "You'll Know When You Get There," recorded in 1971 in Molde, Norway by the ensemble commonly known as the "Mwandishi" band (after Hancock's album of the same name from that year), with Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), Bennie Maupin (soprano sax, flute, bass clarinet), Buster Williams (bass), and Billy Hart (drums).

Next, it's a full set of the Headhunters, performing their eponymous album in November 1974 at Musikladen in Bremen, Germany, with Hancock, Maupin, Paul Jackson (electric bass), Bill Summers (percussion) and Mike Clark (drums).

The fourth clip features a 1988 performance of one of Hancock's most famous compositions, "Maiden Voyage," recorded in Hamburg, Germany with Hancock, Buster Williams, Al Foster on drums, and on alto sax, St. Louis' own Greg Osby.

The penultimate video is a version of "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" recorded in 2005 in Tokyo by the all-star version of the Headhunters that toured on a limited basis that year, with Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto sax, Lionel Loueke and Wah Wah Waton on guitars, Marcus Miller on bass, and Munyungo Jackson on percussion.

Finally, you can check out a clip of Hancock's longtime concert staple "Actual Proof" recorded just three weeks ago at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with his current touring band, featuring Loueke on guitar, James Genus on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, and rising star Terrace Martin on saxophone and additional keyboards.

For more about Herbie Hancock's current musical direction and tour, check out his interview on NPR from last August, and Terrace Martin's DownBeat interview from last fall in which he talks about working with Hancock.

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

Sunday Session: July 23, 2017

John Coltrane

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

* This conch shell trumpet would be heard far and wide in the ancient world (Science)
* Portrait of a jazz player: Remembering John Coltrane (Greensboro News-Record)
* John Coltrane: Beyond the Holy Mountain (Jazzwise)
* Marking the Death of John Coltrane, Through the Poetry of Amiri Baraka (WBGO)
* John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' Is Still a Masterpiece After 50 Years (Newsweek)
* Alice Coltrane: �The Gifts God Gave Him� (Jazz Times)
* The John Coltrane Record That Made Modern Music (GQ)
* Where To Start... John Coltrane - Celebrating the work of a saxophone and spiritual giant (ClashMusic.com)
* Spotify Is Accused Of Creating Fake Artists � But What Is A Fake Artist? (NPR)
* Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival "Big Band Spectacular" 2017, Part 1-4 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* In New Orleans, There's A Piece Of Music History Around Every Corner (NPR)
* SoundCloud tries to allay fears, but streaming needs a business model (CDM.link)
* On a scale of Monkees-to-Gorillaz, how should we evaluate fictional music? (Washington Post)
* Take a Cruise With Music�s Uncoolest People (TheDailyBeast.com)
* Can't Prog Rock Get Any Respect Around Here? (NPR)
* Fireside Chat: Wadada Leo Smith (RedBullRadio.com)
* 'It's like a Miles Davis trumpet solo': 'Swinging' birds are caught singing off-beat like jazz musicians (Daily Mail)
* Bill Laswell: Four Strings, Zero Limits (Premier Guitar)
* REPORT: Val Wilmer - The Wire Salon at Cafe Oto (London Jazz News)
* A Water Tank Turned Music Venue (The New Yorker)
* These super cool pictures show Frank Sinatra at his best in 1960s Miami (Timeline.com)
* Thelonious Monk's surreally strange and spartan genius gets its due (The Guardian)
* UCSD jazz haters prompt Brian Ross to move on (San Diego Reader)
* The Poetics of Jazz (The Nation)
* The Nels Cline Show (ForGuitarPlayersOnly.com)
* Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock Tells Us How He Wound Up In the Sci-Fi Epic 'Valerian' (Thrillist.com)
* Art Ensemble of Chicago Reunites in Norway (DownBeat)
* The 75 Moments That Defined the Decade in Music (So Far) (Billboard)
* 'Here Come The Girls'... Again (NPR)
* Editorial: Kansas City government can�t keep bailing out American Jazz Museum (Kansas City Star)
* Welcome to Moonlight Rollerway, Where Nothing Has Changed Since 1956 (Narrative.ly)