StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Peter Martin

This week, we feature a couple of videos with pianist Peter Martin, a St. Louis native who has worked with internationally known jazz musicians such as Dianne Reeves, Chris Botti, Christian McBride and many others. Martin will be playing a free solo concert at 7:00 p.m. next Friday, July 17 in the Saint Louis Art Museum's Grigg Gallery as part of the museum's Art After Five series.

The clip up top is an excerpt from a free performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall earlier this summer that was scheduled at the last minute when Martin's concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at Missouri Botanical Garden was rained out. Martin is joined by fellow St. Louisan Montez Coleman on drums plus Reginald Veal on bass and Victor Goines on saxophones.

Down below, you can see Martin in a 2004 performance at the Jazz Baltica Festival with singer Dianne Reeves, playing "You Go To My Head" with a band that also includes trumpeter Roy Hargrove, bassist James Genus and drummer Greg Hutchinson.

Martin also has his own YouTube channel, which features a mix of travel videos, piano instruction, and some performance clips, including a nice one of him doing a solo performance of "Viva La Vida", a tune from the rock band Coldplay that's also featured on Martin's new solo piano CD Set of Five. Alas, none of those clips can be embedded here, because they're all in widescreen format, which breaks the Blogger layout template, but you can see them all by going here.

Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival set for Saturday, September 19

The ninth annual Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival will take place from noon to 11:00 p.m., Saturday, September 19 along Gore, Allen and Lockwood avenues in the business district of the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves. Admission is free.

Performers on the event's two stages will include Wild, Cool & Swingin', Two Times True, Dogtown Allstars, Soulard Blues Band, the Webster University Faculty Jazz Band, Standard Time, guitarist Matthew Von Doran's trio, the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band, and the St. Louis Jazz & Blues Revue. In addition to the music on stage, the Funky Butt Brass Band will perform while strolling on Lockwood Ave. from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.

For more information, visit www.oldwebsterjazzfestival.com or call 314-961-4656.

Jazz this week: The Cunninghams, Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, St. Louis Ragtimers, Dawn Weber, Erin Bode, and more

Though summer vacation season is officially underway, the next few days will offer St. Louis jazz fans a pretty fair number of musical choices during what's usually a relatively slow time of year.

Tonight, the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (pictured at left), a select ensemble of mostly teenage musicians from the West Coast that's touring the country this summer, stops in St. Louis for a performance at Jazz at the Bistro. The East St. Louis High School Jazz Band will open the show.

There are also a couple of noteworthy free concerts tonight, as trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber plays for the at Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and singer Erin Bode takes the stage for the Whitaker Urban Evenings concert series at St. Louis Place Park, located at St. Louis and Rauschenbach Avenues on the near North Side. Rounding out the musical menu for Thursday is drummer Joe Pastor's trio at the St. Louis Jazz Cafe.

On Friday and Saturday, Jazz at the Bistro will feature keyboardist Reggie Thomas' jazz-organ trio OGD, augmented for the occasion by the great tenor saxophonist Willie Akins, while the St. Louis Jazz Cafe has the Usual Suspects Quartet on Friday and smooth jazz saxophonist Tim Cunningham on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present a concert featuring the St. Louis Ragtimers plus special guest pianist Dr. Dave Majchrzak. Note that while yhis show originally had been announced as playing at one of the SLJC's longtime venues, the Moolah Shrine Center in Maryland Heights, it's been moved to a new location, the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield.

Then on Sunday night, the jazz vocal duo The Cunninghams (pictured at right) , featuring multi-instrumentalist and former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife, singer and pianist Alicia Cunningham, will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Now a resident of Las Vegas, Don Cunningham got his start in the music business in St. Louis' Gaslight Square, and this show is being billed as "Coming Home One Mo' Time," perhaps in recognition of the reduced touring schedule he and Alicia have adopted in recent years after spending the previous couple of decades criss-crossing the U.S., Asia and Europe as headliners of their own show and special guests with the Count Basie Orchestra.

I won't reiterate all of StLJN's previous coverage of the Cunninghams, because, hey, that's what links are for. Suffice it to say that they are fine musicians and old-school entertainers in the best possible sense, the sort of jazz veterans who should be heard and celebrated while the opportunity is still there, so go check 'em out.

As always, these are just some of the notable performances happening over the next several days; for more listings of jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Beacon article spotlights local cabaret scene

An article written by Terry Perkins for the Saint Louis Beacon local news site takes a look at our town's cabaret offerings, covering the work of promoter Jim Dolan's Cabaret St. Louis organization at the new Kranzberg Arts Center at Grand and Olive, as well as an upcoming local conference for cabaret singers. You can read the whole piece online here.

Greg Worzel launches new label with debut CD from teen singer

Via email, keyboardist Greg Worzel tells StLJN that he's launching a new independent jazz label called Prospect Records. Based in the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, MO, the new imprint will make its debut with Like Someone In Love, the first recording from 17-year-old vocalist Emily Nicole (pictured).

Worzel has worked previously with singer Anita Rosamond and produced her CD Timeless. He's also the producer of Nicole's debut, which will be introduced at a CD release party that will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. next Wednesday, July 15 at Jive and Wail, 6101 Mid Rivers Mall Dr. in St. Peters.

Nicole's singing experience to date includes musical theater productions at Francis Howell HS in St. Charles, performances with the Patt Holt Singers choral group, and a featured spot with Worzel's Rhythm of the Nite band. Audio samples from Like Someone In Love are available on her (rather minimal at present) Web site.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Ray Charles sings "America The Beautiful"

Absent any major breaking news, yr. humble StLJN editor will be on a brief vacation from posting this holiday weekend.

Should you find yourself jonesing badly for fresh content over the next two days, remember that the StLJN sidebar - that's the column over on the right-hand side, for those who don't speak bloggish - has a new Daily Download and feature stories from AllAboutJazz.com every day, plus an extensive list of links to many other noteworthy jazz sites. You can also check out our Bloglines page for a bunch of continuously updated jazz-related news feeds, or visit StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds and take in some of the hundreds of cool music videos there.

Here's hoping you have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day weekend...

Notes from the Net: Jimmy Wilkins profiled; Rollins, Elling and Botti on the road; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Starting with some Miles Davis-related items, it seems that the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Davis' Kind of Blue continues without pause, as KoB drummer Jimmy Cobb's all-star So What band played at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY this past weekend as part of an extensive touring schedule.

Also, here's a review of the new reissue of Davis' Sketches of Spain, written for PopMatters.com by Sean Murphy. For more Miles-related news and links, as always we exhort you to visit Jeffrey Hyatt's fine site Miles Davis Online, which recently has spotlighted some rarely-seen photos of the trumpeter alongside interviews with the photographers who shot the pics.

* The late trumpeter and St. Louis native Lester Bowie's 1981 album The Great Pretender was the subject of a recent "Listening Party" post on NPR's A Blog Supreme.

* Here's a recent feature story from the Las Vegas Sun about St. Louis native, trombonist and bandleader Jimmy Wilkins (pictured), a veteran of the Count Basie Orchestra who now lives in Vegas.

* And here's a rediscovered vintage 1999 audio interview of saxophonist, composer and one-time Webster University student John Zorn by Chris Comer.

* Former St. Louisan Bob Koester was profiled last week in the New York Times on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of his Delmark Records label. Koester also owns Chicago's Jazz Record Mart.

* Turning to news of recent visitors to St. Louis, it took Jazz St. Louis three tries to get trumpeter Terence Blanchard here to St. Louis this past season - Blanchard's twice-rescheduled week at Jazz at the Bistro finally happened in May - but the trumpeter isn't always quite so hard to get. Thanks to a gap in their tour schedule, he and his band were able to travel to Canada to play a last minute gig at the Ottawa Jazz Festival on just two days' notice after promoters secured a last-minute grant from the Canadian government.

* Singer Tony Bennett is helping to open a new location for the Frank Sinatra School fo the Arts in his hometown of Astoria, Queens. Bennett was in St. Louis in May to play the Fox Theatre.

* Banjo player Bela Fleck took his Africa Project to Caramoor International Music Festival in Connecticut this past week. The tour was in St. Louis in April at the Sheldon Concert Hall

* Turning to news of coming attractions, saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins is playing this week at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. Rollins will be in St. Louis in September to play a Jazz St. Louis-sponsored show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Meanwhile, trumpeter Chris Botti is playing at LA's Greek Theatre this weekend. Botti also will be here in September, at the Fox.

* Singer Kurt Elling also is north of the border this week, performing at the Edmonton International Jazz Festival. For a limited time AOL Music is streaming Elling's new CD Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman for free. Released June 23 on Concord Jazz, it features saxophonist Ernie Watts, The Laurence Hobgood Trio and the string quartet ETHEL accompanying Elling. You can stream the album here. Elling will perform the Hartman/Coltrane material here in December at Jazz at the Bistro, with St. Louis' own Willie Akins taking Watts' part.

* Finally, from the "general interest" files, no doubt there's been plenty of gloomy news in the jazz world recently, from the cancellation of festivals this year in New York, St. Louis, and lots of other places to Jazz Times magazine's recent suspension of publication. However, veteran critic Josef Woodard, writing in the Santa Barbara Independent, remains optimistic about the resiliency of the music and the people who play and listen to it: "Jazz retains its status as America’s greatest indigenous art form and the 20th century’s great musical invention, but the music and its facilitating institutions are facing ominous forces...(snip)...The bright side of this sobering downturn is that jazz is a survivor...Jazz will out, but those of us who need it may have to go some extra miles to satisfy our needs. It won’t be the first time."

* And, in a demonstration of Woodard's point about jazz representing the very best of the United States of America, Jazz at Lincoln Center is now accepting band applications for the 2009-2010 Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program. American music groups specializing in jazz, urban/hip hop and other American roots music including bluegrass, blues, Cajun, country, gospel and zydeco are invited to apply. Over the past four years, 108 musicians from 28 ensembles have toured with the program, visiting 97 countries on five continents. The program, now in its fifth year, is a collaboration with The U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Applications are due by Aug. 10.

Jazz this week: Support your local jazz musicians

The Independence Day weekend is not usually a busy time for touring jazz acts visiting St. Louis, and that's true again this year. However, if you've got an urge to hear some jazz over the next few days amidst the flurry of backyard cookouts, fireworks displays, and similar seasonal activities, you can check out one or more of these performances featuring some of St. Louis' fine local musicians:

Tonight, Dizzy Atmosphere (pictured) will bring their blend of string-band swing and Gypsy jazz to the Missouri Botanical Garden in a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival.

Due to the holiday weekend, there's no Jazz at Holmes concert this Thursday, and Jazz at the Bistro is dark this weekend, too. However, it's business as usual at the St. Louis Jazz Cafe, which will present pianist James Matthews' trio on Thursday night, Good 4 The Soul on Friday, Trio Tres Bien on Saturday, and the Dave Becherer Trio for Sunday brunch.

Of course, there are a number of recurring weekly gigs around town that are worth hearing, starting tonight with guitarist John Farrar's Park Avenue Jazz at Hammerstone's and pianist Ptah Williams at Riddle's. On Thursday, you can check out singer Gene Lynn at Sasha's on Shaw, and on Friday saxophonist Dave Stone continues his long running engagement at Mangia Italiano.

Since Saturday is the big holiday, I'm not sure if saxophonist Willie Akins will be doing his regular weekly performance that evening at Spruill's, and the club's infrequently updated Web site is little help; best to call ahead if you're thinking of going. Last but not least, on Sunday you can check out trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Mark Friedrich at Jimmy's Cafe on The Park for brunch, and the St. Louis New Jazz X-Tet will play their usual Sunday night show at Riddle's. Looking beyond the weekend, there's a free show by saxophonist Bennett Wood at The Gramophone on Tuesday.

As always, you can find more listings of jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond by visiting the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Harris-Stowe State University to present jazz concert on August 29

Harris-Stowe State University will present a jazz concert to benefit its Wolff Jazz Institute at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, August 29 in the Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Administration Building's Main Auditorium.

The concert will feature an ensemble fronted by trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, tenor saxophonist Houston Person, and trumpeter Randy Sandke, with a rhythm section of drummer and vibraphone player Chuck Redd, pianist Rossano Sportiello, bassist and singer Nicki Parrott and drummer Eddie Locke, as well as St. Louisans Jim Widner on bass and Denise Thimes on vocals.

Famed trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry also will be on the bill if his health permits, said Don Wolff, who hosts the long-running local radio program "I Love Jazz" on KFUO (99.1 FM) and for whom the Wolff Jazz Institute is named.

Tickets for the show are $30 for floor seats, $20 for balcony seats, and $10 for students, and go on sale this Wednesday via Metrotix.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Remembering Oliver Nelson

The nearly ubiquitous Miles Davis notwithstanding, which jazz musician from the St. Louis area has been heard by the most people throughout the world? It's probably impossible to measure something like that with any degree of exactitude, but one certainly can make an informed guess.

Any short list would have to include trumpeter Clark Terry, famed for nearly seven decades as a high-profile jazz soloist and recording artist, member of the Ellington and Basie big bands, and veteran of television and session work; and saxophonist David Sanborn, who has had a very popular career as a solo artist, as well as being one of the most recorded session players of his era and the host of various radio and television programs.

Another, more unexpected contender for the title would have to be saxophonist, arranger and composer Oliver Nelson, who packed a lot of music into his all-too-brief 43 years on planet Earth. Born in St. Louis on June 4, 1932, Nelson was working with local bands by age 15 and joined saxophonist Louis Jordan's big band at 18, playing alto sax and arranging.

After serving in the Marine Corps and attending Washington University in St. Louis and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Nelson moved to New York, where he established himself as a soloist, bandleader and arranger/composer. His big breakthrough came with the album The Blues and the Abstract Truth, which featured his tune "Stolen Moments," now a standard played by musicians everywhere.

Nelson went on to record many big-band albums and to work as an arranger for a number of well-known jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Hodges, Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich and Jimmy Smith. In 1967, he moved to Los Angeles, where, along with his old pal Quincy Jones, he became one of the first African-American composers to get significant amounts of work scoring television and films.

Nelson wrote music for hugely popular TV shows such as Ironside, Night Gallery, Columbo, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, reaching tens of millions of people every week. He also wrote the score for the film Death of a Gunfighter, arranged Gato Barbieri's music for the movie Last Tango in Paris, and produced and arranged popular music for singers including Nancy Wilson, James Brown, the Temptations, and Diana Ross.

Tragically, Nelson died of a heart attack on October 28, 1975. Given the vast quantity and generally high quality of the music he wrote during his short life, one can't help but wonder how much more he could have accomplished had he lived longer.

Even so, Nelson's legacy is quite impressive - his recordings still hold up well today; his film and TV music remains emblematic of its era; and "Stolen Moments" likely will continue to be played forever. Moreover, the path he helped to pave in Hollywood has been well-utilized by subsequent generations of musicians; for example, it's hard to imagine someone like Terence Blanchard getting the chance to write all those film scores absent the pioneering work of Nelson and Jones.

Today, as a tribute to this under-appreciated St. Louis jazz great, we've got three videos of Nelson performing and conducting a big band. The first clip shows Nelson's own ensemble performing his composition "Swiss Suite." The multi-part tune features a young Gato Barbieri taking the first solo on tenor sax, followed by Nelson on alto.

The clip is undated, but the album that included "Swiss Suite" originally came out in 1971, and the dress and hairstyles of the musicians suggest that this was recorded around that same time or shortly thereafter. (Note that while the video quality on this one is a little grungy, the audio is fine.)

Down below are two videos of Nelson and the multi-national Berlin Dream Band performing Nelson's arrangements for a TV program recorded in Berlin in 1970. The first tune, "Black Brown and Beautiful," also features Nelson as the soloist, while the second, "Milestones" has solos by Leo Wright and Klaus Marmulla on altos and Rolf Roemer on tenor.

Pollstar: Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra returning to The Sheldon in March

The online tour information service Pollstar has added a listing showing a performance by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Marsalis and the JaLCO (pictured) were in St. Louis most recently in February 2008 to perform at The Sheldon's benefit gala, which usually happens sometime in late winter or early spring.

It seems entirely plausible that they might be booked for a return appearance in 2010 at the same venue; however, listings on Pollstar should be considered unconfirmed until officially announced by the venue and/or presenter.

Still, a look at the band's tour schedule shows the St. Louis date scheduled between concerts in Germantown, TN and Minneapolis, MN as part of a tour that begins March 1 and continues through the end of the month, so I'd say this one looks likely to happen. StLJN will have more details as they become available.

Peter Martin, Lamar Harris to perform free concerts at Saint Louis Art Museum

Pianist Peter Martin (pictured) and trombonist/producer Lamar Harris will each play a free concert during July at the Saint Louis Art Museum during July as part of the Museum's Art After 5 series.

Martin, who has worked with internationally known jazz performers such as Dianne Reeves, Chris Botti and Christian McBride, will perform at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 17 in the Museum's Grigg Gallery.

Harris will play with his groups the L and Groove Therapy at 7:00 p.m. Friday, July 24 outside on the Museum grounds. If the weather's bad, Harris' concert will move inside to the Grigg Gallery.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is celebrating a century of free admission in 2009 with a month-long series of events in July. For more details and a complete schedule of events, call 314-721-0072 or visit www.slam.org.

Jim Widner receives award from Down Beat magazine

Bassist, bandleader and educator Jim Widner (pictured), who directs the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is featured in the June edition of Down Beat magazine.

The issue spotlights the mag's 32nd annual Student Music Awards, and Widner is one of just three recipients nationwide of an Achievement Award for jazz education. (Alas, DB doesn't put most of their content online, so there's no link to the story about Widner.)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's gossip columnist Deb Peterson even took note of the honor with a short item today, which you can read online here.

The Sheldon, Cardinals Care teaching young baseball players about jazz

Once again this year the Sheldon Concert Hall and the St. Louis Cardinals' Cardinals Care charity are teaming up to teach a new generation of potential fans and players about the connections between two great American pastimes: jazz and baseball.

The two organizations are sponsoring free educational jazz concerts featuring the Jeff Anderson Quartet for kids participating in the "Redbird Rookies" program, starting at 7:00 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, June 24 and again at the same time tomorrow at the Sheldon, 3648 Washington Boulevard.

Kids attending the concerts will receive a free CD, Red Hot St. Louis Jazz, that features tracks recorded by local jazz musicians such as Willie Akins, Carolbeth True, Reggie and Mardra Thomas, Ptah Williams, Rick Haydon, Erin Bode, Kim Portnoy, Montez Coleman and more. A few lucky youngsters also will get the chance to try out their scat-singing skills live on stage with the band.

The "Redbird Rookies" program was started in 2004 to allow kids to play baseball free of charge; it provides donated equipment and uniforms as well training for volunteer coaches and parents that emphasizes the character-building aspects of sports.

Jazz this week: Todd Mosby, Legacy Jazz Quintet, Funky Butt Brass Band, a Jazz St. Louis benefit, and more

There's only time for a very short post this week, so here, in abbreviated form, are some of the jazz and creative music performances worth checking out over the next few days in St. Louis:

Tonight, guitarist Todd Mosby and his group will do a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and tomorrow night, the summer Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert by the Legacy Jazz Quintet.

Also on Thursday, Jazz St. Louis has a benefit event at SOL Lounge, 4241 Lindell Blvd, with music from the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble, singer Kim Massie and, in his moonlighting capacity as a blues harmonica player, JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and the Blues Inquisition.

On Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro to open a two-night stand, and singer Erin Bode performs out west at the new restaurant Seasons St. Louis, which took over the space in Chesterfield formerly occupied by Peppertini's. Back downtown, the St. Louis Jazz Cafe has guitarist Chris Burchett and his trio on Friday, Trio Tres Bien and Danita Mumphard on Saturday, and the Usual Suspects duo for Sunday brunch.

As always, this only covers a few of the more notable performances happening over the next several days; for more listings of jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

What's been going on lately at StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds?

Well, recent posts have featured music videos starring Gato Barbieri, the O'Jays, Fats Domino, Average White Band, Eddie Harris & Les McCann, Ella Fitzgerald, Taj Mahal, Billy Cobham, Stevie Wonder, Junior Wells, Henry Threadgill and His Very Very Circus, Emerson Lake & Palmer, the Crusaders, Derek Bailey & Tony Oxley, the Dave Holland Quintet, Al Green, Sonny Rollins and Wilson Pickett.

There's a different video clip posted every day, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, funk, soul, classic rock, prog rock and experimental. It's a veritable "College of Musical Knowledge" in online video form, and you can see all the artists mentioned above, plus hundreds more clips from the archives, by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com