Sunday Session: December 10, 2017

Sunny Murray

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

* Who can fill the role of Tom Lehrer today? (The Economist)
* Pete Escovedo: Rhythms of Life (Jazz Times)
* Paul McCartney�s Lost Experimental Christmas Album That He Made For The Beatles Has Surfaced Online (Uproxx.com)
* Spotify Attorney Estimates the Service Infringed 300,000 Songs in Settlement Hearing (SPIN)
* Why Sun Ra Matters (Philadephia Jazz Project)
* The Problem with Muzak - Spotify�s bid to remodel an industry (The Baffler)
* The Chief of Entertainers - Trumpet virtuoso Dizzy Gillespie was a jazz prophet, a musical genius, and a scatterbrained whirlwind (TheAmericanScholar.org)
* Electrifying Photos of Cuba's Thriving Music Scene (Vice.com)
* Louis Armstrong�s home in Queens is now a museum (Curbed.com)
* Historic Austin Music Venue Is Being Sold on eBay (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Lloyd Price's Personality: Long Live The Real King! (JazzWeekly.com)
* David Bowie Sang For Devo, and Mark Mothersbaugh Might Have the Tapes (BedfordAndBowery.com)
* How I Got 10,000 Spotify Plays For a Totally Fake Song (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Last.fm Was the Only Music Social Network That Made Sense (Vice.com)
* Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins on Retiring His Sax, His Legacy, and the Secret to Life (Vulture.com)
* Quincy Jones is about to launch the 'Netflix of jazz' (Mashable.com)
* Next Wave Forever: John Cale at Seventy-Five (The New Yorker)
* New Jimi Hendrix LP Unearths 10 Previously Unheard Recordings (Rolling Stone)
* Inside the Shady World of the Musical Hologram (Vice.com)
* The Legacy of Buddy Rich (Jazz Times)
* This Kenyan drummer is fighting to make more space for women in percussion (TED.com)
* Eric Clapton Talks Addiction, Cream's Brilliance, the Future of the Guitar (Rolling Stone)
* RIP: Sunny Murray, pioneering free jazz drummer (TinyMixTapes.com)
* Drummer Sunny Murray Dies at 81 (Jazz Times)
* Enacting Change in the Performing Arts World Begins with Changing the Conservatory Culture (AmericansForTheArts.org)
* David Sedaris: Songs for My Father - A conversation with the best-selling author and humorist on his lifelong love of jazz (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: October 15, 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:

* Black Musicians on Being Boxed in by R&B and Rap Expectations: �We Fit in So Many Things� (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: A coworking space for musicians, and artists as startups (CDM.link)
* Composer Philip Glass Says Scoring Jane Goodall Doc Was 'Challenge': Interview (Billboard)
* Magic in the method: The Art Ensemble of Chicago live in New York (Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches)
* How Karaoke Secretly Became a Major Driver of Innovation (Vice.com)
* Homages and Tributes for the Thelonious Monk Centennial, But No Competition (For Now) (WBGO)
* 10 Things You Didn't Know About Thelonious Monk, by His Son T.S. Monk (Jazz.org)
* Think of Thelonious Monk (The New Yorker)
* A Century Of Song: Monk At 100 (SFJAZZ.org)
* After Midnight: Thelonious Monk At 100 (NPR)
* The Met and the Philharmonic Look Backward (The New Yorker)
* An Interview With Louis Armstrong House�s Research Director, Ricky Riccardi (Offbeat)
* Grady Tate, Prodigious Jazz Drummer And Noted Vocalist, Dies At 85 (NPR)
* Drummer and Singer Grady Tate Dies (Jazz Times)
* Tyshawn Sorey, A Musical Shapeshifter, Wins MacArthur 'Genius' Prize (NPR)
* The Man Who Forgot He Was a Rap Legend (GQ)
* Hallelujah! The Songs We Should Retire (NPR)
* Live Review: October Revolution of Jazz & Contemporary Music (Jazz Times)
* The Boston Public Library Owns 200,000 Vinyl Records � And It�s Putting Them All Online (WBUR)
* Will Recent Court Rulings Endanger the Future of Biopics and Documentaries? (Hollywood Reporter)
* Can Atlanta Become the Music Industry's Next Business Hub? (Billboard)
* Fear and the Future of Live Music (PSmag.com)
* In Detroit, Artists Rebuild with the City or Get Squeezed Out (Paste)
* How Dan Deacon Collaborated With Rats To Make His Latest Film Score (NPR)
* Human speech, jazz and whale song (PHYS.org)
* The Devaluation of Music: It�s Worse Than You Think (Medium.com)
* Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares (OvergrownPath.com)

Sunday Session: October 1, 2017

Bud Powell

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

* Why Do Orchestras Seem to Play Behind the Beat? (WQXR)
* How jazz is becoming the sound of resistance once again (Salon.com)
* Patti LaBelle: New Jazz Attitude (Jazz Times)
* An introduction to Jon Hassell in 10 records (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Giving peace a chance? Music can drive us apart as much as it unites (TheConversation.com)
* Reminiscing with Latin-jazz legend Eddie Palmieri (Jazz Times)
* From Louis Armstrong to the N.F.L.: Ungrateful as the New Uppity (The New Yorker)
* Labels And Artists Lending A Hand To Those Affected By Natural Disasters (NPR)
* Meet Jason DeMarco, The Reason Adult Swim�s Music Is So Good (Pitchfork.com)
* A Century Of Song: Monk At 100 (SFJAZZ.org)
* Playlist of the Lambs: psychopaths may have distinct musical preferences (The Guardian)
* Frank Zappa�s 1977 Halloween residency to be released as 158-track costume box set (ConsequenceOfSound.com)
* 70s boombox makes comeback, attracts new generation (KyodoNews.com)
* Was the Blues Born on a Vaudeville Stage? (PopMatters.com)
* Spotify Is Paying $2.77 Million a Month In Rent for Its World Trade Center Offices (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* How Facebook Is Trying to Avoid a Public Relations Disaster with Songwriters (TheStreet.com)
* Bizarre footage shows trumpet-playing bear travelling in motorcyclist's sidecar while sitting at traffic lights (The Mirror)
* America's Small Cities Are Betting Their Second Act on Festivals (Jezebel.com)
* New York Hot Jazz Festival Electrifies McKittrick Hotel (DownBeat)
* The Summer of Yoko Ono Ends with Shrieks and Screams (Smithsonian)
* Bud Powell Revisited (NEPR.net)
* Coltrane�s Hidden Gems: A Seeker�s Guide (EstheticLens.com)
* A Walk Through The Avant-Garde World of �Art Rap� Music (Bandcamp.com)
* Hugh Hefner's Big Contributions to Jazz (WBGO)
* Technician of the Sacred - Three recent books demonstrate that John Cage is overdue for a populist revival (Utne.com)
* Ostrava Days, Brooklyn Nights - On Hypocrisy and Insularity in New Music (Atavist.com)
* Linda Ronstadt: 'I don�t like any of my albums' (The Guardian)
* Culture Clubs: A History of the U.S. Jazz Clubs, Part I: New Orleans and Chicago (AllAboutJazz.com)
* How Instagram Became The Music Industry�s Secret Weapon (Fast Company)
* A Guide to U.K. Jazz in 2017 (Bandcamp.com)
* Q&A: John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring (Jazz Times)
* Which Two Songs Are the First to Be Encoded Into the Fabric of Life? (AtlasObscura.com)

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)
* C�cile 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)

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Happy birthday, Louis Armstrong!

This week, StLJN is celebrating the legacy of the iconic trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong with some vintage videos, for a couple of reasons.

First, yesterday (Friday, August 4) was the 116th anniversary of Armstrong's birth. During his lifetime, he claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900, but years after after his death, researchers uncovered information showing that Armstrong's true date of birth was in fact August 4, 1901. As a result, fans now celebrate on both days.

Second, there's an Armstrong-related event coming up next week in St. Louis, as a band led by trumpeter Randy Holmes will be presenting the second annual "Louis Armstrong Festival of St. Louis" next Friday, August 11 and Saturday, August 12 at the Webster Groves Concert Hall.

Holmes will be joined by fellow trumpeter Robert Souza, Brett Stamps (trombone), Scott Alberici (clarinet), Mary Ann Schulte (piano), Kevin Gianino (drums), Bob Lowe (bass) and Dan Stevens (banjo, guitar) for two nights of performances of music associated with Armstrong.

To commemorate both occasions, here's a selection of Armstrong videos, starting up above with a 1964 show from Australia that recently surfaced online.

Continuing after the jump with some "editor's picks" of personal favorites, the second video represents one of Armstrong's earliest filmed appearances, as he performed "I Cover The Waterfront", "Dinah" and "Tiger Rag" in 1933 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

That's followed by performances of "Up A Lazy River," "Old Rockin' Chair," and "When The Saints Go Marching In" from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, as filmed for the popular documentary Jazz on A Summer's Day.

Below that, there's a clip from 1959 that may be the only footage of Armstrong in the recording studio, re-discovered and made available last year by the Louis Armstrong House Museum, the official repository of the trumpeter's archives and keepers of his legacy. It was shot while Armstrong was recording the album Satchmo Plays King Oliver, and shows him and the band recording the master take of "I Ain't Got Nobody," plus silent footage of them listening to the playback.

The penultimate video is from 1962, and was made as an episode of "Goodyear Jazz Concert," a series of short films for television produced by the Goodyear tire company. Since it originally was shot on 35mm film and recorded in stereo, it offers a more high fidelity look and sound than a lot of the available video of Armstrong.

The final clip features Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson teaming up to perform "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" at the 1970 Newport Jazz Festival.

For more about Louis Armstrong, check out the Louis Armstrong House Museum official site, Armstrong's page at RedHotJazz.com and the tribute site Satchmo.net. For an historic appreciation of his musical and cultural significance, there's also "The Artistry of 'Pops': Louis Armstrong at 100", a presentation put together back in 2000 by the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University that features trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and critic Stanley Crouch.

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