Jazz
The Weather Station on Toronto’s Avant-Garde Jazz Scene
Kyle Meredith With… The Weather Station Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS The Weather Station mastermind Tamara Lindeman talks with Kyle Meredith about Ignorance, her new LP that finds the folk artist taking on a new beat-driven, piano led set of songs. The Toronto-based songwriter talks about the local avant-garde jazz scene that she includes herself in, writing cinematically, and the complex arrangements that fill out this poppier set. Lindeman also dives into the themes of climate change, truth, trust, and how they intersect with personal statements while speaking on a global scale. She also previews her forthcoming live streaming event. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview s...
Jazz Great Milford Graves Drummed and Lived to the Rhythm of His Heart
There’s a rhythm inside all of us. Not of the sort that makes some people naturally gifted dancers or at least gives them the sense to clap on two and four. It is the irregular, yet constant, beat that resides in our chest. The first sound we become aware of in the womb and, if we are lucky, the last sound we hear before we die. For all his talent as a drummer and percussionist — skills that require a deep-seated feel for rhythm — Milford Graves listened to his heart more closely than any piece of music. During the past few years of his life, which came to an end on Friday January 12th at the age of 79, Graves was working with some biologists in Italy to create a device that would measure the human heartbeat and convert it into a melody. By sending that same sound back into a person’s body...
Jon Batiste on Working with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Pixar’s Soul
Kyle Meredith With… Jon Batiste Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Jon Batiste speaks to Kyle Meredith about his upcoming album, We Are, how he’s branching out, and writing between his gigs at The Late Show and for Pixar’s Soul. The New Orleans raised musician goes in depth about the importance of artistry and what it was like working alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Also included is an interview from last summer, which took place during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs deep into the artist’s work...
Andra Day Refuses to Be Silenced in First Trailer for The United States vs. Billie Holiday: Watch
Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday trailer Billie Holiday’s fame in the ’30s and ’40s threatened the very fabric of racist white America. But it was her popular recording of “Strange Fruit”, a song protesting the lynching of Black people, that officially made Holiday an enemy of the country. In an effort to discredit and silence her, the Federal Department of Narcotics targeted Holiday relentlessly, knowing she’d had a history of drug abuse. That’s the haunting premise of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a new Hulu biopic from director Lee Daniels (Precious) written by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The legendary jazz singer is played by real-life Grammy nominee Andra Day, who embodies Holiday’s brazen outspokenness and magnetism in equal measure, as seen in to...
Pixar on How Personal Experiences Influenced Soul
Soul marks a series of firsts for Pixar. It’s the first film the studio has ever released with a Black protagonist, a music teacher voiced by Jamie Foxx; it’s the studio’s first film with a Black co-director in screenwriter Kemp Powers; and the first Pixar film to go straight to streaming. Due out on Christmas via Disney+, Soul follows Joe Gardner (Foxx), a music teacher whose aspirations of performing jazz come to fruition after he nabs a cushy performing gig with a well-respected group. That is, until he falls to his death. Now, left as a metaphysical soul, Joe endeavors to return to Earth to his body before it’s too late. It’s an imaginative journey that the Emeryville, California-based animation studio brings to life with a startling array of visuals that feel unprecedented. Edito...
R.I.P. Bruce Swedien, Grammy-Winning Engineer of Michael Jackson Albums Dead at 86
Bruce Swedien, the sensitive ear behind classic Michael Jackson albums, has died at 86. According to a Facebook post from his daughter Roberta Swedien, he “passed away peacefully last night.” Via Swedien’s official website, he was born in Minneapolis in 1934. In 1944 his father gifted him a disc recording machine… Please click the link below to read the full article. R.I.P. Bruce Swedien, Grammy-Winning Engineer of Michael Jackson Albums Dead at 86 Wren Graves You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share o...
M. Ward Announces Billie Holiday Tribute Album Think of Spring, Shares “For Heaven’s Sake”: Stream
M. Ward, photo by Holly Andres M. Ward released his latest album, Migration Stories, back in April of this year. Now, he’s already set to return with more new music — well, new takes on old music, at least. Ward has announced a Billie Holiday tribute album called Think of Spring, due out December 11th via ANTI-. The collection is a reimagining of the majority of Holiday’s 1958 record Lady in Satin, along with the classic “All the Way”. Ward previously performed all the Lady in Satin tracks during a Los Angeles show in 2018. That concert was done with a quartet, but for Think of Spring, he deconstructed the songs for acoustic guitar using alternative tunings and recorded mostly to an analog Tascom four-track. “I first heard Lady in Satin in a mega-shopping mall somewhere in San Francisco,” ...
Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, 9th Wonder Serve Up New Dinner Party Album Dessert: Stream
Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper (photo by Philip Cosores), Robert Glasper (photo by Todd Copper) Over the summer, Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder cooked up their self-titled debut album as Dinner Party. But the jazz-funk supergroup isn’t quite done feasting: Dinner Party are back at the table to serve up a new dish titled Dessert. As its name suggests, this project is closely tied to the tasty meal that was Dinner Party; it features all seven tracks of that first album, but reworked with the help of new guest “chefs” Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, Bilal, Tank and the Bangas, Cordae, and Rapsody. Buddy, Punch, and Alex Isley also jump in the musical kitchen to lend a helping hand. Phoelix, who sang on the original debut LP, still has vocals throu...
Millie Bobby Brown Wants to Play Amy Winehouse in Biopic: “She Is an Icon”
Millie Bobby Brown (photo via Instagram/@milliebobbybrown) and Amy Winehouse (photo courtesy of the artist’s estate) Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown has revealed that she “would love to play” Amy Winehouse in a biopic. During an interview with Netflix Latinoámerica in support of her new movie Enola Holmes, in which she portrays Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, Brown was asked which historical figure she would like to bring to life next. Her response was almost immediate: “I wouldn’t say she’s historical, but I would love to play Amy Winehouse.” “I personally think she is like an icon to R&B, blues, and basically the whole culture of music,” Brown continued. “I just love her music and I really was impacted by her whole story. I always say that I would love to play her.” Br...
John Coltrane’s Giant Steps Receives 60th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition: Stream
John Coltrane’s classic 1960 album Giant Steps has been reissued in a new super deluxe edition. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. Before his untimely death at the age of 40, Coltrane established a reputation as, if not the very best saxophone player in the world, then certainly the flashiest. His virtuosic collaborations with Miles Davis produced some of the most beloved jazz music of any era, including Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’, Steamin’. and a strong contender for the most perfect piece of art ever created, Kind of Blue. Giant Steps came one year after Blue, and it established Trane as a ferocious solo artist in his own right. Giant Steps: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is available as either a double-CD or double-vinyl package, a...
Unheard Thelonious Monk High School Performance from 1968 Finally Surfaces: Stream
A previously unreleased Thelonious Monk live recording from October 1968 is finally seeing light today through Impulse! Records and Legacy Recordings. The album captures Monk and his all-star quartet — Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), Larry Gales (bass), and Ben Riley (drums) — performing a concert at a local high school in Palo Alto, California. According to a press release, the concert was organized by 16-year-old student named Danny Scher, and was recorded by the school’s janitor. The tape was stowed away in Scher’s attic for years and was only recently rediscovered. T.S. Monk, the son of Thelonious and founder of the Thelonious Monk Institute, called the performance “one of the best live recordings I’ve ever heard by Thelonious.” He added, “I wasn’t even aware of my dad playing a high school...
Celebrate Peanuts’ 70th Anniversary with New Vinyl of A Charlie Brown Christmas
In our house, the period from November 1st to January 2nd is affectionately known as Vince Guaraldi Trio Season. Guaraldi’s iconic jazz score to A Charlie Brown Christmas celebrates its 55th anniversary this year, even as the Peanuts comic strip marks 70 years of existence. Craft Recordings is heralding these nice round numbers with a special one-time vinyl pressing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, available September 25th. This first Charlie Brown soundtrack is already one of the best-selling jazz album in history, trailing only Miles Davis and Kind of Blue. It’s been released in multiple forms over the years, and the big draw of the new edition is the not-quite-3D lenticular album cover. Featuring a classic illustration by Charles Schulz, the artwork shows Charlie, Lucy, and ...
