Sonny Rollins Interview

Here’s a wonderful interview done recently with jazz legend and music giant Sonny Rollins.

Sonny’s life, music career, and other topics are discussed.

Click below to listen to the interview:

https://www.soundsvisualradio.com/podcast/sounds-visual-radio-episode-76-sonny-rollins/

50 Must-Read Music Books

Some great books on this list that are worth checking out.

I would add these as well:

Miles Davis Autobiogrphy

Jazz and Justice – Gerald Horne

A Cure for Gravity – Joe Jackson

Fight The Power – Chuck D

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original – Robin D.G. Kelley

The Ballad of Joe Strummer – Chris Salewicz

Click below to read the entire article:

https://www.albumism.com/lists/50-must-read-music-books

THE 15 BEST R&B/SOUL ALBUMS OF 2021

I’ve been listening to Yola’s new album nonstop. Another classic from this fantastic artist.

From Pop Matters

Click below to read the entire article:

https://www.popmatters.com/best-rnb-soul-albums-2021

Top Jazz Albums of 2021 – Jazz Times

Jazz Times’ excellent, as usual, picks of the best jazz albums of the year. So great to see the Pharoah Sanders album ranked high on the list. A different sound but a daring and powerful work by this living legend.

Click below to read the entire article:

:https://jazztimes.com/features/lists/year-in-review-top-40-jazz-albums-2021/

Song of the Day

Dusty Springfield – Just a Little Lovin’

Fire Music

I think that this film, without having seen it yet, is an important historical document and contribution towards honoring and preserving the legacy of an incredible body of work created by many brilliant innovative artists.

Fire music, in my view, is a much better term to describe the music commonly known as “free jazz”.

This music, in large part, was maligned and savaged by the so called experts of the time.

As a general rule, I trust the artist not the critic.

Alot of time has passed but I think the music has finally received the respect and acclaim it has always deserved and secured an important, rightful place in the history of jazz.

I did not see her name on the list of musicians featured but I really hope that Alice Coltrane was included in the film. Otherwise, it would be a huge mistake, because she is a pioneer of this music and made some of its greatest albums.

JOHN COLTRANE AND THE ESSENCE OF 1961

The legendary saxophonist and his performances at the Village Vanguard represented the many possibilities of what lay ahead

By Ben RatliffNovember 3, 2021 at 9:42 a.m. EDT

Last month the John Coltrane section in your streaming libraries acquired a new item: a recording of “A Love Supreme,” the entire suite, from Seattle’s Penthouse jazz club in 1965. Superb and imposing, it satisfies an understandable desire to see Coltrane, and that particular work, as a kind of monument or icon. It has the ring of the last word. It presides; it has authority;it moves slowly and heavily and comes to a stately ending.

So much of American culture for so long has been based on great works. Maybe it’s a question of standards or simply a measure of saving time. The questions often come down to: Who owns the crown? (One of the posthumous Coltrane reissue projects, from the 1990s, was titled “The Heavyweight Champion.”) Or: Tell me why John Coltrane matters, fast. Give me one work, or one record! Don’t overwhelm me!

Click below to read the entire article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/11/03/john-coltrane-village-vanguard-1961/

Music Video of the Week

Peter Gabriel – Biko

Bill Evans on Kind Of Blue

A fantastic interview with Bill Evans in which he discusses the making of Kind Of Blue, Miles Davis’s musicianship and musical influences.

Also, Evans provides an inside look at the inner workings of the band that created one of the most influential and greatest jazz albums of all time.

Click here to listen to the interview

New Bill Evans Album

This is very exciting news. Previously unreleased Bill Evans Trio recordings from 1969 shows in London.  As with other great artists, whenever unreleased music is discovered, it is a treasure and its release date an event. In the case of a musical genius like Bill Evans, this is a worldwide event.

Counting down the days……

JazzTimes is honored to present the premiere of “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” as performed by the Bill Evans Trio featuring bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell at Ronnie Scott’s legendary London jazz club in December 1969. This track, along with 17 other previously unreleased recordings made during that London engagement, will appear on an upcoming album, Evans in England: Live at Ronnie Scott’s, to be issued by Resonance Records first as a limited two-LP on Apr. 13, Record Store Day, and then as a two-CD/digital release on Apr. 19.

Click here to read entire article