Jazz at the Bistro reorganizing?

The end of the year means trying to tie up loose ends, and that includes going through some accumulated mail, including annual December fund-raising appeals from various local not-for-profit organizations. Most are fairly run-of-the-mill, urging recipients to make a donation and get one more tax deduction before year's end. But this year's letter from Jazz at the Bistro, mailed earlier this month under the signature of executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford, includes what would seem to be a fairly significant piece of news:

"We will soon reveal our new name, Jazz St. Louis, which will better communicate the depth and breadth of our educational and concert programming. The Jazz at the Bistro concert series will continue as before. Within our new image Jazz at the Bistro will be a specific part of a diverse program, encompassing innovative community partnerships, education initiatives and high-quaity performances. Jazz St. Louis will be unlike any other organization in the region."

This brings up several questions, not the least of which is, "Wasn't there already an organization called Jazz St. Louis?" Yes, there was such a group, run by a woman named JoAnn Collins, that produced jazz events in St. Louis for a number of years. Collins no longer lives here, and the organization has been dormant for some time now. However, in the course of researching this story, a former board member of the old Jazz St. Louis has indicated to me that there have been discussions between Collins and the Bistro organization to secure rights to the name.

Calls to the Bistro's publicist to confirm this, and ask more questions, have so far gone unreturned. That's not a big shock, considering it's the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, but it means that any official response won't come until next week.

In the meantime, the reasons for the name change and its potential consequences are worth considering. One possible reason would be to simply reflect the current reality that the organization is already more than just a concert series, as demonstrated by workshops featuring visiting musicians, the formation of an all-star student ensemble, and this past summer's collaboration with Washington University on a three-week workshop showing secondary school teachers how to incorporate jazz into their curricula.

Another reason would be to lay groundwork for future expansion, such as presenting events in venues other than the Bistro space in Grand Center. However, Bradford already helps program the US Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival, and it doesn't seem like existing concert venues such as the Sheldon, Roberts Orpheum, Touhill or Pageant would need outside help to present jazz acts.

There are, of course, other halls that don't currently present jazz, but at least in theory, could. For example, the Grandel Square Theater, home to the St. Louis Black Repertory Company and just a couple of blocks from the Bistro, has presented a cabaret series in the past, and is currently underutilized, as the Black Rep only performs for about seven months out of the year. It could easily be used as a concert venue for certain types of acts, if someone with the necessary time, money and connections were inclined to pursue it.

This is, I should note, pure speculation on my part, just one of many theoretical possibilities. So exactly what will the newly constituted Jazz St. Louis be doing, and where will they be doing it? Stay tuned to this space, as there's obviously lots more to this story that could have a significant impact on the local jazz scene. I'll be following up on this next week, and will bring you the latest scoop as I get it.

In a related note, while searching the Bistro Web site for any more info on this topic, I found that they've added a a weblog and message board to their site. The blog entries from early in the 05-06 season are focused on the various acts playing the club, but more recent entries seem mostly concerned with fundraising, including an announcement that JATB will have a 10th anniversary fundraiser with music by Steve Tyrell at the Roberts Orpheum Theater on Saturday, April 8, 2006.

The most recent blog entry is from the first week of December, and the message board has, so far, generated little traffic, so I think there's still some untapped potential there. Still, it's good to see JATB is at least trying some new ways to communicate with their audience, and it will be interesting to see what they do with these online tools as time progresses.