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... brief news ...
Lewis Porter discusses how singer Billie Holiday took part in the arrangements of the songs she performed, "that is, the format, stops and starts, tempo(s), beginnings and endings" (Playback with Lewis Porter). In the second instalment of the series, Porter focuses on the influence of Louis Armstrong on Lady Day, as exemplified in her version of "Them Their Eyes" (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Giovanni Russonello asks musicians, critics and scholars about where jazz is today and hears back from Terri Lyne Carrington (singling out Kassa Overall, Sonny Rollins (JD Allen), Marcus J. Moore (Luke Stewart), Theo Croker (DOMi & JD Beck), Billy Hart (Immanuel Wilkins), Giovanni Russonello (Nicole Mitchell), Melanie Charles (The RH Factor), Ayana Contreras (Jahari Massamba Unit), David Renard (Natural Information Society), Joshua Redman (Gerald Clayton), Kris Davis (Craig Taborn), Wadada Leo Smith (Sylvie Courvoisier), and Tomeka Reid (Jeff Parker) (New York Times).
Stefan Hochgesand accompanies keyboardist and sound designer Simon Stockhausen to the dress rehearsal for his new project Transformed Acoustix (Berliner Zeitung). --- Andy Cush looks at the art of DOMi and JD Beck, Spilly Cave, Dwayne Thomas Jr., MonoNeon, Louis Cole, as examples of "jazz for the post-internet age" – or... "are they playing jazz at all?" (Pitchfork).
The founder of the German ECM label, Manfred Eicher, will be honored with the Bayerischer Staatspreis (Bavarian State Award) for his lifetime achievement in music (Süddeutsche Zeitung). --- Thomas Bird talks to Thai saxophonist Pharadon Phonamnuai about his career as a musician and club owner in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand (South China Morning Post). --- Sandhya Mendonca talks to Indian flautist Rajeev Raja (Deccan Herald).
Nate Chinen comments on the 65th Grammys at which vocalist Samara Joy was celebrated as Best New Artist (The Gig). --- Seth Colter Walls talks to pianist Jason Moran about his latest album "From the Dancehall to the Battlefield", about his research into the music of James Reese Europe, about how his reading of Europe's music points into more contemporary directions like to Henry Threadgill or Pauline Oliveros, as well as about how when playing "All of No Man's Land Is Ours" he imagines, "What do enslaved people think about what 'no man's land' means?" (New York Times). Joshua Myers listens to Jason Moran's album as well (Capitol Bop).
Lewis Porter discovers a recommendation letter written by producer Nesuhi Ertegun for saxophonist Ornette Coleman who had applied for a position in Mobilization for Youth, a federal program started in 1962 to reduce juvenile delinquency through cultural, athletic, social and recreational activities (Playback with Lewis Porter). Lewis Porter also discovers a previously unknown 12 minute silent film footage of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy from New York's Birdland in February 1962 (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Wolfgang Glas talks to German saxophonist Axel Kühn about the album "Bird Lives" which he recorded as member of SWR Big Band, arranged by John Beasley, that just received a Grammy award (Aichacher Zeitung).
Jacob Uitti looks at some children of jazz greats who achieved their own careers: Vince Wilburn Jr. and Erin Davis (sons of Miles Davis), Jasper Armstrong Marsalis (Wynton Marsalis), Ravi Coltrane (John Coltrane), China Moses (Dee Dee Bridgewater), Lisa Simone (Nina Simone), Nas (Olu Dara), and Art Porter Jr. (Art Porter Sr.) (American Songwriter). --- John Lewis hears German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann at Café Oto in London (The Guardian).
Imanuel Marcus looks at examples of Jewish jazz musicians, focusing on trombonist Peter Herbolzheimer, guitarist Coco Schumann, flutist Herbie Mann, pianist Ben Sidran, and saxophonist Kenny G (Jüdische Allgemeine). --- The former Ellington Hotel in Berlin will become the Femina Palast, an office building plus entertainment quarters, recreating a long history of the building which housed a famous dance hall in the 1920s, the jazz club Badewanne after the war, and the dance club Dschungel in the late 1970s (Tageskarte).
Ethan Iverson remembers composer Johnny Mandel by focusing on some of his less familiar songs from the film scores for "Harper" and "Point Blank" (Transitional Technology). --- Scott Simon talks to 108-years-old Edith Renfrow Smith about living in Chicago from when she graduated college, about working as a teacher, as well as about being neighbors with the Hancocks, whose two-year-old son Herbie Hancock used to play with her daughter of the same age (NPR). |
