75 year old Detroit jazz musician Bobby Battle, known to many jazz fans as the longtime drummer with Arthur Blythe and frequent collaborator of Don Pullen's, passed away from heart failure today, as confirmed to the Amoeblog by his daughter Eboness Battle. Born on January 8th, 1944 Battle passed away at midday in Detroit’s Sinai-Grace Hospital where he’d been recuperating from surgery since last week. 

An ever active recording and performing jazz artist in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Battle had retired in the last decade. He leaves behind a rich legacy that includes his extensive work with Arthur Blythe spanning two decades.  As well as his collaborations with Blythe and Pullen the hard working drummer’s career also included recording and performing with numerous other artists dating back to his formative years in the 60's when he relocated from Michigan to New York City to soon after play with Pharoah Sanders and Roland Kirk. The numerous other artists he worked alongside during his career included Charles Mingus, Sun Ra and Sarah Vaughan. Battle's diverse career also included working with such non jazz artists as Brook Benton and The Mighty Sparrow.

DJs and vinyl collectors scroll down to see latest top five hip-hop album vinyl reissues at Amoeba Music where yesterday at the Hollywood store DJ Shadow was in the house. The longtime NorCal turntablist/producer, whose latest album Our Pathetic Age 2LP/vinyl (also avail as 2CD) was released on Friday last via via Nas' Mass Appeal record label, was at the Hollywood Amoeba yesterday evening doing a meet-and-greet that included signing albums and taking photos with fans. Note that for a limited time there are DJ Shadow autographed copies of Our Pathetic Age 2LP available from Amoeba.

Above are a few of the pics of artist born Josh Davis meeting SoCal fans that were posted to Amoeba’s Twitter where you can see more photos from yesterday. Then tomorrow (Nov 22) at 8pm at the LA area Amoeba Music, as part of the ongoing weekly guest DJ “Rotations” series, will be longtime DC club DJ Delroy Cornick who built his rep for spinning deep house, underground disco and dance pop remixes. More info here.

Three years following Leonard Cohen’s November 2016 passing at age 82, interest in the Canadian poet/author/singer/songwriter has continued to steadily grow with his legacy getting stronger with each passing year. Current proof of this lies in the popularity of the recently closed five month “Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything” exhibit at NYC’s Jewish Museum, anticipation for the upcoming new Cohen album Thanks For The Dance on CD and LP/vinyl (Nov 22nd), and wide interest in this weekend’s San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival (SFLCF).

With headliners Conspiracy of Beards plus fellow Cohen inspired acts Ali & The Thieves and Kugelplex, the SFLCF will take place on November 8th, 9th and 10th at the Swedish American Hall and Cafe Du Nord  that share the same building on Market Street but with separate entrances. TIX + INFO.

#1: Apollo Brown  Sincerely, Detroit (Mello Music)

#2: Homeboy Sandman Dusty (Mello Music)

#3: L'Orange & Jeremiah Jae Complicate Your Life With Violence Vinyl LP  (Mello Music Group) (also avail on CD)

#4: Big Shug The Diamond Report  (Brick Records)

#5: Billy Woods Terror Management (backwoodz)

Brand new release in the Amoeba new arrivials this week, via the unstoppable independent hip-hop label Mello Music, is Detroit producer Apollo Brown’s excellent new full-length Sincerely, Detroit. A hip-hop homage to the producer’s hometown, the one hour and 19 minute new album is a Detroit centric, compilation-like album as much as a single artist release. The talent-packed 79 minute album’s 21 tracks feature a long list of guest collaborators from Detroit, acting as yet another reminder of just how much incredible hip-hop talent the Motor City has given and continues to give the world!  Artists joining Apollo Brown include elZHI, Slum Village, Phat Kat, Guilty Simpson, Chris Orrick and Clear Soul Forces. Among the too many great tracks to mention are the upliftingly soulful "God Help Me (feat. Black Milk, Ketchphraze & DJ Los)" and "The Backbone (feat. Guilty Simpson, Fat Ray & Melanie Rutherford)" (scroll down to see the song's accompanying music video).  Order Sincerely, Detroit  HERE.