jason hirschhorn's @MusicREDEF: 09/27/2022 - Reflections on Jaimie Branch & Pharoah Sanders, Streaming v. Discovery, Michelle Branch, Alex G, Shygirl...

I'm always trying to make something that might sound bad sound beautiful in some way. Open in browser Tuesday September 27, 2022 Pharoah Sanders in 1989. (Peter Symes/Redferns/Getty Images) quote of the day "I'm always trying to make something that might sound bad sound beautiful in some way." - Pharoah Sanders, 1940 – 2022 rantnrave:// Day of Shouting/Blasting Rosh Hashanah, which ends today, is a time of reflection, repentance, renewal and, not least, celebration, and I could hardly think of a more fitting way to observe it this year than to spend Monday night at a Brooklyn celebration of the life of JAIMIE BRANCH, the great jazz (plus) trumpeter (plus) whose music embodied all those things and much more, and whose loss has yet to fully register or make sense. This was a service to account not for a calendar year but for a life force that can help push us toward the next one. SCOTTIE MCNIECE, co-founder of her label, INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM, told us her music was "spiritual warfare for the benefit of humanity." As there should be at any Rosh Hashanah service, there were tears and laughter and eating and drinking and sermonizing and storytelling and, of course, music. While no ram's horns were in evidence, there were trumpets and saxophones, a more than worthy substitute. Where I grew up, the rituals mattered, but the spirit of the rituals mattered more. This was that. There was dancing. There was communal humming. There was a group singalong of Branch's "LOVE SONG" (..."for a**holes and clowns"). And like all good High Holiday services, it started long before I arrived, with a second line through her Brooklyn neighborhood, and continued long after I left. Each ending leading—as long as you put in the work—to a new beginning. Shana tova. Spirit Guide An old acquaintance I ran into Monday mentioned that the first time he saw Jaimie Branch was at New York's LE POISSON ROUGE, on a bill with the great free jazz saxophonist PHAROAH SANDERS. A reminder of connections across time and spiritual planes. Sanders is gone now, too, leaving behind masterworks (not always universally loved) including BLACK UNITY and "THE CREATOR HAS A MASTER PLAN" and an immense hole in our collective space. You won't see a single obituary or remembrance that doesn't have the word "spiritual" in it. Until the end, the Washington Post's CHRIS RICHARDS wrote, Sanders entered every performance "his gait unforgettably heavy, his posture hunched,as if his world-changing music was something he carried around on his back. Then he'd find his place under the lights and start blowing bravura phrases through his saxophone until Earth's gravity started to loosen." Documentaries, Now Director JEFF ZIMBALIST's 11 MINUTES, a four-part documentary series about the mass shootings at the ROUTE 91 HARVEST festival in Las Vegas in 2017, premieres today on Paramount+... SACHA GERVASI's hilarious and beautiful 2008 doc ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, about heavy metal perseverance and the brotherly love of lifelong bandmates, returns to theaters today. Etc Etc Etc An A-plus SUPER BOWL pick... SPOTIFY's white supremacist problem... How a film and TV composer's song was co-opted by QAnon and the former president. Rest in Peace JIM POST, who was half of '60s one-hit wonder Friend & Lover and wrote the one hit, "Reach Out of the Darkness"... Scottish DJ/producer JAMIE ROY... Manchester DJ/producer STU ALLAN... Piledriver lead singer GORD KIRCHIN... '70s and '80s R&B singer VERNON BURCH, whose "Get Up" was famously sampled in Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart"... Dallas rapper BFG STRAAP and Memphis rapper LOTTA CASH DESTO, who were murdered, respectively, in South Dallas and Houston. They're at least the 20th and 21st rappers murdered in the US in 2022; Lotta Cash Desto is the first woman. - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator karma The Guardian Has streaming made it harder to discover new music? By Alexis Petridis Services such as Spotify and Apple Music give us access to the entire history of popular songs. But has that access made us lazy listeners? And could TikTok or TV really help us rediscover our passion for discovery? The Guardian 'There's endless choice, but you're not listening': fans quitting Spotify to save their love of music By Liz Pelly Former streaming service subscribers on why they have ditched mod cons for MP3s, CDs and other DIY music formats. Vulture Pharoah Sanders Found His Voice in New York City By Marcus J. Moore He arrived broke, homeless, and with little more than his saxophone, and left the unofficial leader of the spiritual-jazz movement. The New Yorker RETRO READ: "If You're in the Song, Keep on Playing": An Interview With Pharoah Sanders By Nathaniel Friedman The legendary saxophonist on buying his first horn, playing with John Coltrane, and searching for the right sound. Music Business Worldwide J.P Morgan just wrote a glowing endorsement of Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Here's why By Tim Ingham The investment giant just gave a thundering vote of confidence in HSF's business, following a recent flurry of business media scrutiny. Las Vegas Review-Journal 'Why?': Route 91 Harvest slayings investigated in new doc, '11 Minutes' By Jason Bracelin After falling down three times, she realized the cowboy boots had to go. Her life depended on it. It's hard to run for safety in heels, especially when the ground has grown perilously slick from all the spilled Bud Lights and Cokes. Rolling Stone I Arrived at Route 91 as a Reporter. I Left as a Survivor of a Mass Shooting By Mark Gray "I don't think any of us want our calling card to be Route 91, but it can be inescapable at times," writes Mark Gray, who came under fire while on assignment in Las Vegas in 2017 The Washington Post Michelle Branch and millennials, the unbreakable bond By Emily Yahr She got arrested for slapping her allegedly unfaithful husband. (Charges were quickly dropped.) Her fans always have her back. Billboard Tour Cancellations Go Viral -- Why the Risk May Be Too Great for Some Acts By Steve Knopper "A lot of bands -- it could be pretty devastating for their financial picture" to cancel a tour, says one band manager. "We would survive. We're one of the lucky ones." The Lot Radio Bird Songs for Breezy with Piotr Orlov, Aquiles Navarro, and guests 09 - 16 - 2022 By Dada Strain, Piotr Orlov and Aquiles Navarro For Jaimie Branch. thembi Slate How NYC's Lincoln Center is Aiming to Be More Welcoming to More People By Isaac Butler, Karen Han and Shanta Thake "Institutional structures around live performance have done a lot of harm in keeping people out." The New York Times How Much Would You Pay to Hear Great Music? By Zachary Woolfe With ticket prices for performing arts rising, could fresh approaches like pay-what-you-can increase access and foster more adventurous programming? CBS Sunday Morning Wynonna Judd on her mother Naomi Judd's death: I'm "incredibly angry" By Lee Cowan In her first interview since the death last spring of her mother, Wynonna Judd talks about anger, grief, and her determination to forge ahead on a Judds tour announced only weeks before her mom died. Billboard Why Warner Music's Incoming CEO Makes Sense for a New Era By Glenn Peoples "He's got a global perspective [and] understands the concept of the long tail and its potential to be monetized." Money 4 Nothing Damon Krukowski on Unions, Streaming, and Musical Labor By Saxon Baird, Sam Backer and Damon Krukowski You might know Damon Krukowski from the groundbreaking indy band Galaxie 500. Or from his podcast, "Ways of Hearing" or his excellent newsletter.  More recently, however, he's put on another hat, as an influential rabble rouser for Union of Musicians and Allied Workers. The Ringer The Search for a Unified Theory of Alex G By Eric Ducker The prolific Philadelphia songwriter returns with a new album. Is it too polished? Is it too weird? Or maybe it's just all about dogs. British GQ Shygirl is a new romantic By Tara Joshi With lyrics like "Daddy raised a wild one, Daddy raised a fiend" over freaky, left-field sounds, Shygirl has played with a provocative persona. But with her new album, "Nymph," she's ready to unfurl some layers and show a more vulnerable side. Los Angeles Times 50 years ago, Roxy Music invented rock's future. Now they're taking a well-deserved bow By Hanif Abdurraqib The art-rock pioneers play the Kia Forum on Wednesday, part of their first U.S. tour in two decades. 'Time flies when you're having fun,' says Bryan Ferry. TorrentFreak YouTubers Lose Brains Over 'Night of The Living Dead' Copyright Claims By Andy Maxwell YouTubers who upload public domain classic Night of the Living Dead are currently surrounded by Content ID claims. No one hears their screams. The Washington Post How a Trump soundtrack became a QAnon phenomenon By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer A song's journey from a Trump video to online forums and back to Trump rallies shows the melding of the MAGA and QAnon movements. The New York Times Belle, Sebastian and Me By Claire Dederer Following the world's twee-est band down the Pacific Coast after a divorce and the death of a parent. Black Music and Black Muses An Elegy for Pharoah Sanders By Harmony Holiday Fear not Man. what we're into Music of the day "The Creator Has a Master Plan" Pharoah Sanders Video of the day "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" Sacha Gervasi Back! in theaters today. Music | Media SUBSCRIBE Suggest a link "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" Jason Hirschhorn CEO & Chief Curator HOME | ABOUT | SETS | PRESS Redef Group Inc. LA - NY - Everywhere Copyright ©2021 UNSUBSCRIBE or MANAGE MY SUBSCRIPTION