Lobbying "Live on the Levee"

In addition to the items mentioned int he previous post, this past weekend's Post also contained an announcement about the 2008 dates for the free Live on the Levee concert series held downtown on the riverfront.

Sponsoring organization Celebrate St. Louis will present a concert on the Arch grounds on July 4 as part of Fair St. Louis, followed another concert under the Live on the Levee banner on July 5 and more shows on the weekends of July 11-12, July 18-19, July 25-26, and Aug. 1-2.

As regular readers may recall, the Live on The Levee concert series has been the cause of some consternation and/or chagrin here at StLJN. Those who want the back story in full form can check out these previous posts, but the nutshell version of my argument is that while attendance has been good, Live on the Levee has failed to capitalize on the positive artistic precedents set in 2004 by its immediate predecessor Riversplash. Moreover, while the quality of the acts booked for Live on the Levee has been adequate-to-good, the series' organizers have ignored the city's most historically important and influential musical styles - jazz, blues and, in recent history, hip-hop - and, by extension, have snubbed the fans of those styles and, arguably, St. Louis' large African-American population.

I bring all this up again because, according to their Web site, the Celebrate St. Louis organization is solicting input from the community as to what bands we'd like to see booked for this year's Live on the Levee concert series.

So, dear reader, if you'd like to see some jazz and blues incorporated into Live on the Levee, or if you have specific artists in mind, take a couple of minutes to send them an email at info@celebratestlouis.org. As usual, yr. humble editor suggests that such missives will be best received if they are concise and civil.

While there's no telling how much, if at all, such public input will weigh in the organizers' decision-making process, it certainly can't hurt to voice support for the idea that a concert series celebrating St. Louis ought to incorporate some of the music most closely associated with our town.