I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through.
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Monday - February 22, 2021
Max Roach in Amserdam, Feb. 26, 1984.
(Frans Schellekens/Redferns/Getty Images)
quote of the day
I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through.
Max Roach, 1960
rantnrave://
Culture Canceled

It's hardly a surprise that concerts and festivals continue to be canceled as the shape of 2021 starts coming into focus—"I’m hopeful for the fourth quarter, but I’m less hopeful for the summer now," IRVING AZOFF told Rolling Stone last week—but does it seem a little weird that some promoters still aren't offering refunds for their canceled events?

It was weird enough in 2020, but promoters and ticketing companies could hardly be blamed for not being prepared for the cancellation of a year's worth of live entertainment. Some were in a position to refund everything; others would have been wiped out. Understandable. But a year has passed, some events are on their second cancellation, and you could hardly blame fans for being a little less willing to go along this time around.

Like, say, ULTRA, now officially canceled for the second year in a row. A lineup had never been announced but dates were set and all those unrefunded tickets from 2020 were going to be good for the 2021 fest. Now it appears ticketholders will have a choice of using their 2020 ducats in either 2022 or 2023, which is to say, they'll have a choice of whether to extend their interest-free loan to Ultra organizers to two years or three years. And that's assuming they'll even be in a position to travel to Miami on a specific week a year or two from now. Does the average music fan would have any way of knowing that?

The fest was sued in a class action last time; that case is now in arbitration. How could it not be prepared this time? If you're booking an event in 2022, you've had a year, at least, to consider the logistics and repercussions of booking anything in the Covid era. If your customers' money wasn't somewhere near the top of that consideration, what message are you sending?

Here, My Dear

Is the inevitable result of suing NAPSTER in 2000 that your internet livestreams will automatically be overdubbed with random 8-bit instrumentals in 2021, or is the internet quick to innovate and slow to adapt, or is this what METALLICA actually sounds like these days?... A good Twitter thread about great divorce albums, for no particular reason... Add SHOWTIME's three-part SUPERVILLAIN: THE MAKING OF TEKASHI 6IX9INE, which premiered Sunday night (all three episodes are available on demand), to the fast-growing field of Tekashi 6ix9ine literature. Including podcasts, there are now more Tekashi documentaries than there are Tekashi albums... Another good Twitter thread: The creation of the DAFT PUNK helmets... Protests in Spain continued for a sixth night Sunday over the jailing of rapper PABLO HASÉL, who was convicted for "glorification of terrorism" in lyrics and social media posts.

Rest in Peace

Serbian pop singer DJORDJE BALASEVIC... Nigerian highlife artist/producer PA CHRIS AJILO... DOUGLAS GRIGSBY, an R&B session bassist and longtime TEENA MARIE music director... CORNELIA VERTENSTEIN, a Holocaust survivor who taught piano for 80 years.

Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator
we insist!
Bloomberg
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by Lucas Shaw
The music tools startup has just raised $55 million and is valued at close to $500 million.
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Country music's race problem became a hot topic in early February, but the roots of racial injustice in the industry go much deeper. Two Nashville writers unpack the history and recent responses.
Variety
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Hypebot
Music APIs are exactly what the industry needs -- Here's why
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While the music industry demonstrated an impressive ability to bounce back thanks to its early adoption of streaming, keeping that momentum going will require a streamlining of the process through which tech companies get permission to license music.
Pollstar
Dionne Harmon On How The First Black-Produced Super Bowl Halftime Show Came Together
by Geoff Walker
Including Zoom calls with 130 people.
The Guardian
Angry words: rapper's jailing exposes Spain's free speech faultlines
by Victor Lloret and Julius Purcell
Violent protests over treatment of Pablo Hasél are forcing government to confront laws and the judiciary.
rantnrave:// The fact that they can have festivals at all is quite the humblebrag.
The Conversation
Without visiting headliners, can local artists save Australian festivals?
by Asher Warren
While big and small events on the 2021 arts calendar are still shifting or disappearing altogether, a sharper local focus could save the day.
Music Tectonics
How 'Unmixing' Will Shape the Future of Music with Audionamix on Stitcher
by Tristra Newyear Yeager, Ellie McNeil and Cory Sims
When tech tools let you play with a song’s component stems, the soundtrack of your life is no longer passive. In this episode, learn how Audionamix’s AI-powered source separation tools unbake the musical cake.
Slate
Why De La Soul Went on Teen Titans Go! to Fight to Get Their Music Back
by Nitish Pahwa
The latest front in the hip-hop pioneers’ copyright battle: a superhero cartoon.
freedom now suite
rave:// Those interview tapes!
Curbed
An Upper East Side Apartment Full of Rock-and-Roll Memories
by Annie Schlechter
Music journalist Lisa Robinson has lived in this rental, where she’s kept an archive of her interview tapes, for 45 years.
Janet Jackson
The Making Of Control (35th Anniversary Edition)
by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
In honor of the 35th anniversary of Control, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis discuss the making of the iconic album that shifted history and created a movement.
The Daily Beast
Inside the Melodious Mind of Raphael Saadiq
by Christopher A. Daniel
With a Golden Globe-nominated song in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” and scoring everything from “Insecure” to “Lovecraft Country,” the superproducer is everywhere.
Complex
Why So Many Rappers Are Getting Into Cryptocurrency
by Andre Gee
Everyone from Ghostface Killah to Lil Yachty to Logic are getting into cryptocurrency. But what is it, exactly? And what rappers are getting involved?
The Quietus
Electric Dreams: Why There's More To Synths Than The Keyboard
by Oli Freke
For half a century, synthesizer design has been dominated by the piano keyboard, but things could have gone another way. Author of a new book for Velocity Press called Synthesizer Evolution, Oli Freke takes a look at some of the roads not taken by electronic music.
The Guardian
'You could call the show Love Will Tear Us Apart': Russell T Davies on the music of 'It's a Sin'
by Alim Kheraj
The series creator and director Peter Hoar on the uncoolest anthems of the 80s, being given the nod by Kate Bush and how a soundtrack can make or break a story.
NME
European promoters say Brexit touring mess is 'quite worrying' and that 'effort should come from the UK'
by Andrew Trendell
European gig bookers have spoken out about the potential impact of the ongoing Brexit touring row and what the UK government should do.
Variety
How the Rage of Stevie Wonder’s ‘You Haven’t Done Nothin’’ Helped Shape the Politics of Hip-Hop
by Jeremy Helligar
The 24-year-old Wonder did what few other superstars of the era had been willing – or interested – in doing in a single aimed at the top of the charts. He didn’t just criticize the system in this anti-establishment protest song; he raged against the machine and thoroughly annihilated it.
The New York Times
To Express the Sound of a Country’s Soul, He Invented New Instruments
by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
The Guatemalan composer, inventor and writer Joaquín Orellana’s creations are the subject of the Americas Society exhibition “The Spine of Music.”
KQED
How Hip-Hop Led To Studying the Bay Area’s AIDS Epidemic
by Pendarvis Harshaw
What can hip-hop teach us about the HIV/ AIDS epidemic? Professor Antoine Johnson is on the path to finding out.
what we’re into
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"Good Days"
SZA
YouTube
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"Drivers License"
Saturday Night Live
"I need to hear that frickin' bridge again."
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