Jazz this week: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ann Hampton Callaway, Eric Person, Frank Catalano, Frank Rosaly, and more

You might say this week's menu of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis has a sort of Noah's Ark vibe to it. The performances are coming in pairs, including two female vocalists, two versatile saxophonists, and two shows with an experimental/free improv bent.

It all gets started on Thursday, when Chicago percussionist Frank Rosaly does a solo show of music from his new recording Milkwork at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Rosaly uses both acoustic and electric instruments, touches on a wide variety of genres, and also incorporates free improvisation and unconventional techniques into his pieces. You can see a brief interview with Rosaly and hear some of his music in the embedded video window at the bottom of this post.

If you're in the mood for something a bit more mainstream, that same evening clarinetist Scott Alberici will perform some straight-ahead swing in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

On Friday, singer Ann Hampton Callaway headlines the "Queens of Jazz" event at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, with St. Louis' own Denise Thimes opening the show. You can see some video samples of Callaway in action in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, Chicago saxophonist Frank Catalano opens a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. Known as a high-energy player who can swing hard or go outside if the situation warrants it, Catalano played in St. Louis last September for the now-defunct Tuesday night jazz series at the Gramophone, and then was invited to make his Bistro debut this year. To see a couple of videos of Catalano, check out this post.

On Saturday evening, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater kicks off the 2009-10 jazz series at the Sheldon Concert Hall with a program paying tribute to Billie Holiday. (You can see a couple of videos of Bridgewater in the above noted "dueling divas" post here.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person (pictured) returns home for the first time since 2007 for a gig at the Ambassador. Person will be playing songs from his most recent CD Rhythm Edge as well as his upcoming release The Grand Illusion, backed by the Midwest edition of his band Meta-Four with Bryan Harrison (keyboards), John King (bass) and Kevin Kelley (drums).

That same evening, keyboardist and composer James Hegarty performs at the Kranzberg Arts Center in a concert presented by New Music Circle. Hegarty's performance, called "eXscapement," is a collaboration with his artist daughter Anna that was inspired by their recent trip to Japan.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday morning the Sheldon starts their season series of Coffee Concerts with a George Gershwin tribute by singer Debby Lennon and pianist Carolbeth True. (There's another performance on Wednesday morning, too.)

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(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.)

Tatsu Aoki to play free concert on Friday, November 27 at Saint Louis Art Museum

Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Tatsu Aoki (pictured), who blends traditional Japanese music, jazz and experimental sounds, is coming to St. Louis to play a free concert at 7:00 p.m. Friday, November 27 in the Saint Louis Art Museum's Grigg Gallery.

Aoki, who plays bass, taiko drums, and shamisen (a three-stringed Japanese lute), was born in Tokyo but has lived in Chicago since 1977. He has worked with musicians such as Art Ensemble of Chicago members Malachi Favors, Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye, pipa player Wu Man, and saxophonist Fred Anderson. Aoki also is a filmmaker who teaches film production and history courses at the Art Institute of Chicago, and a noted advocate for Chicago's Asian-American community. You can see a short interview with Aoki and an excerpt from one of his shamisen performances in the embedded video window below.

Aoki's concert is part of the Museum's free Art After 5 series, and is presented in conjunction with the new fall exhibit "Five Centuries of Japanese Screens: Masterpieces from the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago."

Washington University concert to explore chance via music from Cage, Riley

Musicians and dancers affiliated with Washington University will explore the use of chance in contemporary music in a concert at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 7 at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave. in University City.

The concert program will begin with "Music of Changes Book IV: New York, December 13," a piece for solo piano composed by John Cage by consulting the I Ching, as performed by pianist Peter Henderson. Next on the program will be "The Oracle," an improvisation featuring guitarist William Lenihan, percussionist Henry Claude, cellist Tracy Andreotti and dancers Mary-Jean Cowell, David Marchant and Ting Ting Chang.

The program will conclude with a performance of Terry Riley's "In C" by an ensemble including Claude, Lenihan and Andreotti, plus cellist Elizabeth Macdonald, guitarist Vince Varvel, pianist Amanda Kirkpatrick, saxophonist Adrianne Honnold, violist Laura Reycraft, and clarinetist Dana Hotle.

The performance is held in conjunction with the current "Chance Aesthetics" exhibit at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and will preceded by introductory remarks by Meredith Malone, assistant curator of the Kemper Art Museum, who organized the Chance Aesthetics exhibition; and Bruce Durazzi, assistant professor of music theory.

Admission is free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow the concert in the Music Center's Ballroom Theatre. For more information, call 314-935-5566.

Notes from the Net: A free Miles Davis download; a Lester Bowie tribute; the "death" of jazz, continued; 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.

* Let's start with our usual helping of Miles Davis-related news - specifically, some more details about the upcoming 70-CD set reissue of all of Davis' albums on Columbia/Sony.

Next up, the blog Hidden Track has a free download of a previously unissued set by Davis' late 1960s "Lost Quintet," with Chick Corea (keyboards), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass) and Wayne Shorter (saxophones). The recording was made November 9, 1969 in Rotterdam for Radio Netherlands, and contains versions of "Directions," "Bitches Brew," "Sanctuary" and "Masqualero."

In other Davis-related news, the UK classical music blog Overgrown Path has an interesting post about the new book by Richard Williams, The Blue Moment: Miles Davis and The Remaking of Modern Music; Davis' former bassist and producer Marcus Miller did a tribute to the trumpeter over the weekend at the Indianapolis Jazz Festival; and, via the always useful Miles Davis Online, there's news of an exhibition devoted to Davis at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. It's organized into rooms dedicated to various periods in Miles’ life, from his upbringing in East St. Louis all the way to the retrospective concert he did at La Villette in Paris a few weeks before his death

* Turning to news of other St. Louisans past and present, Baikida Carroll is among the trumpeters appearing at this years Festival Of New Trumpet music (FONT) in NYC.

* Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the James Carter Quartet and saxophonist Fred Ho will pay tribute to the late trumpeter and St. Louis native Lester Bowie in a concert on Friday, October 9 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

* Trumpet player, singer and St. Louis native Jeremy Davenport, who now holds down the house gig at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, recently joined some of the hotel's employees to help rebuild homes in Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish. Davenport will return to his hometown in November for a Thanksgiving weekend gig at Jazz at the Bistro.

* NYC's New Languages festival includes a tribute to former St. Louisan Julius Hemphill from his friend and admirer, saxophonist Tim Berne. Read about it in this article from the Wall Street Journal's Martin Johnson.

* From the "coming attractions" file, saxophonist Kenny Garrett (pictured) is featured in the latest episode of the online TV show Jazz it Up! Garrett, who will be in St. Louis in October to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, was filmed during a gig at NYC's Iridium. (Bonus St. Louis content: The episode also features the vocal group Take 6 with interpretations of songs from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.)

* Singer, pianist and songwriter Nellie McKay, who will be here in November to perform for Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Arts Center, has a new CD called Normal As Blueberry Pie - A Tribute To Doris Day

* A recent gig by singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli recreating his Radio Deluxe program live on stage is reviewed here by R. J. Deluke for All About Jazz.com. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis in April at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Finally, let's wrap up with a few more items loosely related to the latest outbreak of the recurring "is jazz dead?" meme.

One thing to keep in mind about the whole controversy is that there is a great of subjectivity involved. Case in point: In a recent post on his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog, veteran jazz journalist and Chicago native Howard Mandel sang the praises of the current scene in his hometown, calling it "the best American city for jazz."

The very same week, an unbylined piece headlined "Chicago Jazz Scene" on AllAboutJazz.com offered a much gloomier view, citing the closings of the Jazz Showcase and Hot House clubs, the cancellation of the jazz studies program at Northwestern University, and the elimination of jazz from radio station WPEZ (91.5 FM). "These are truly dark days for the first truly American art form. We hope for better days ahead," it concludes, before segueing to a fairly extensive listing of venues and upcoming shows. Maybe it all really does depends on your perspective...

(Digressing for a moment on the general subject of jazz clubs, here's an entertaining feature story written by Michael Pronko for Japan Times about what is alleged to be the smallest jazz club in the world, Tokyo's Hot House. )

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the USA, "the jazz-club circuit is shrinking. Increasingly, jazz is presented at arts centers and universities," notes the Wall Steet Journal's Larry Blumenfeld in a piece recounting the growth of Jazz at Lincoln Center into an institution with a $38 million annual budget. While some might see this as decidedly a good thing for jazz, not everyone agrees:

"Five years ago, some feared that machine would swallow a chunk of the New York jazz scene. That hasn't been the case. "They make our business even better," said Lorraine Gordon, whose Village Vanguard celebrates its 75th year in 2010. "It creates a positive attitude and it educates people. I think it's an asset...

Within the jazz industry, some are troubled by Mr. (Wynton) Marsalis's dominance in that arena. "What if all that funding was spread across the entire spectrum of jazz," asked Scott Southard, whose International Music Network specializes in jazz, "instead of concentrated in one spot?" Then again, some credit Mr. Marsalis with engendering such support. For Randall Kline, who heads the San Francisco-based SFJazz, "Jazz at Lincoln Center was important in establishing legitimacy. Before, there were no models for jazz in the institutional world."

One observer who's particularly skeptical of the JALC model is Chris Rich, who blogs at Brilliant Corners, A Boston Jazz Blog, and calls the WSJ piece "a typical rationalization of a begging incrementalism where if you are a first rate suck up and career player or some hallowed jazz geezer ready for your boat ride across the Styx you'll get a shot of some of that 38 million bucks they blow each year on this funerary stuff."

In a series of scathing, yet often funny posts, Rich mocks Marsalis and a number of other well-known jazz figures, while lamenting that much of the money that goes to large institutions ends up getting spent to maintain and enhance their prestige and their physical facilities - some refer to this as "the edifice complex" - and to preserve the past, instead of being used to pay musicians and composers to create the future.

So, could that $38 million possibly do more if it were spread around instead of concentrated in one spot? Sure, but the problem is that the corporations and foundations who supply much of that sweet, sweet funding generally prefer to deal with institutions, which they perceive to be stable and relatively accountable, rather than individual artists, who are often seen as difficult and unreliable. The notion of hundreds of smaller presenters fostering musical innovation all over the country certainly is appealing; I'm just not how to get there from our present reality. Please feel free to offer your thoughts, observations and/or rants in the comments...

(Edited 9/30/09 to fix a garbled sentence.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Dig these dueling divas

Next week will be another busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and among the visitors to our fair city will be two well-known female vocalists, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Ann Hampton Callaway.

Callaway will be in town on Friday night at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to sing at the kickoff event for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, while Bridgewater will perform her tribute to Billie Holiday on Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall. While the two divas won't actually be dueling in person - yr. humble editor's fondness for alliterative headlines notwithstanding - we do have an opportunity to compare and contrast samples of their work right here.

Up top, you can see both women swinging, as Bridgewater sings "Shiny Stockings" with the Italian Big Band and Callaway revisits the famous Ella Fitzgerald arrangement of "How High The Moon" with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Down below, it's ballad time from the same two gigs, with Bridgewater crooning "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and Callaway singing "Body and Soul".

Robbie's schedules "Rapology" with Troupe, Bell & Burrage, plus shows from Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, Bobby Watson

Robbie's House of Jazz has announced some additions to their upcoming schedule.

On Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, the club will present "Rapology," featuring a spoken word performance from poet Quincy Troupe with music from two St. Louis expats, guitarist Kelvyn Bell and drummer Ronnie Burrage, who will come back home for the gig. They'll perform sets at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., with tickets priced at $20.

On Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7, Chicago-based percussionist Kahil El'Zabar will bring his own group, the Ritual Trio, to Robbie's, having already played the club's "soft opening" with saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett back in August.

Then on Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5, saxophonist Bobby Watson (pictured), a veteran of drummer Art Blakey's band as well as many other high-profile gigs, will make the trip across the state from Kansas City to perform.

(There's no word yet on ticket prices for El'Zabar or Watson, but I'd expect something in the same general range as the Troupe/Bell/Burrage show.)

In other related news, Robbie's will feature the Robert Edwards Big Band every Thursday beginning in October, and the club's Web site is now online.

Nu-Art Series to present Eddie Henderson on Saturday, October 17 at Luna Bar

This just in: The Nu-Art Series will present trumpeter Eddie Henderson (pictured) in a performance on Saturday, October 17 at Luna Bar, 13 Maryland Plaza in the Central West End.

Henderson, a licensed psychiatrist as well as a musician, is known for his work with Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Art Blakey and others. Influenced early in his career by Miles Davis (who was a family friend) and Clifford Brown, Henderson first came to wide public attention as part of Hancock's pre-Headhunters sextet Mwandishi.

He also made several fusion recordings of his own in the 1970s, but in recent years, Henderson has returned to playing acoustic music, with an emphasis on hard bop. He's also taken part in several tributes to Davis, and even recorded a CD titled So What? back in 2002. For more about Henderson, check out this feature story written by AllAboutJazz.com's R.J. DeLuke.

Nu-Art's George Sams said that Henderson will be backed on his date here by a St. Louis rhythm section including pianist Ptah Williams and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw. He's scheduled to do two sets between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., and tickets will be $25 at the door.

Denise Thimes featured on KSDK's "Today in St. Louis"

St. Louis singer Denise Thimes was the subject of a feature on Thursday morning's edition of Today in St. Louis, which airs starting at 5:00 a.m weekdays on local NBC affiliate KSDK. You can read the story by KSDK's Heidi Glaus and see a streaming video here.

(Edited after posting in an attempt to fix some formatting problems with the post footer.)

Joey DeFrancesco, Alyssa Graham switch 2010 dates at Jazz at the Bistro

Jazz St. Louis has announced another change in the season schedule for Jazz at the Bistro. From the letter sent out to subscribers:

"Due to scheduling conflicts, Joey DeFrancesco has been forced to reschedule his dates for March of 2010. To make things easier for everyone, we have switched his dates with those of Alyssa Graham. The new dates will be:

Alyssa Graham: March 3 - 6, 2010
Joey DeFrancesco: March 31 - April 3, 2010

This will not affect our Series One, Three or Four subscribers, as both shows are in your series. For others of you who have purchased tickets to one or both shows, those tickets are now good for the new dates of each artist. If you unable to make the newly scheduled dates, you may return your tickets to the point of purchase for a full refund.

We sincerely hope that this will be the last schedule change we have this season and appreciate everyone's patience as we try to accommodate both our patrons and our artists."

JSL's Bob Bennett tells StLJN that the scheduling conflict arose when DeFrancesco, considered one of the top organ players in jazz, agreed to be part of saxophonist David Sanborn's band for a tour next year. Some of Sanborn's dates overlapped DeFrancesco's scheduled stint at the Bistro, prompting the switch with Graham (pictured), a singer who will be making her Bistro debut.

Jazz this week: Mulgrew Miller, Rasul Siddik, Tortoise, Dave Black, and more

Though this week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis isn't quite as jam-packed as last week's, there are still a number of notable performances happening over the next few days that are worthy of your attention. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the very fine pianist Mulgrew Miller opens a four-night run that continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Miller was the subject of one of the very first concert reviews on StLJN four and half years ago, and his work since then continues to impress. Miller's gig also is a celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label, for which the pianist has recorded his five most recent CDs. For some video samples of Miller in action, see this post.

On Thursday evening, the quartet Utter Chaos, which draws inspiration from the pianoless Gerry Mulligan-Bob Brookmeyer combos of the 1950s, will do a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Then on Friday, acoustic guitarist Jack Rose performs at Open Lot, 1310 South 18th Street. Rose plays "a unique brand of blues, folk, ragtime and raga, all the while experimenting with guitar tunings and frequently reinterpreting and rerecording his earlier compositions." Drummer Danny McClain and saxophonist Dave Stone will open the show with a duo improv set.

On Saturday evening, the Nu-Art Series presents trumpeter and St. Louis expat Rasul Siddik (pictured) and his quartet in a performance at Luna Bar in the Central West End.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Dave Black will perform a concert of original music at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

On Tuesday, the Chicago-based instrumental "post-rock" band Tortoise comes to town to perform at the rock club the Firebird, located at 2706 Olive downtown.

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(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.)

Jazz St. Louis to present the music of Herbie Hancock at CD Listening Club, Whitaker Community Concert

Jazz St. Louis will feature the music of Herbie Hancock in two upcoming programs that were announced this week.

The next meeting of JSL's CD Listening Club will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13 at Borders Books and Music, 1519 S. Brentwood, and will focus on Hancock's album Maiden Voyage, a critical and commercial breakthrough for the pianist and composer as he was establishing his solo career in the 1960s.

JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and Dr. Gerald Early, Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis, will lead the discussion. The CD Listening Club is free and open to the public, but those interested in attending are asked to reserve a place by calling Kedra Tolson at 314-289-4034.

The next evening, pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson and his band will perform a tribute to Hancock for JSL's first Whitaker Community Concert of the fall season. The concert is free and open to the public, and will take place at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 14 at the Community Music School of Webster University, 535 Garden Avenue in Webster Groves.

Arch City Chronicle story says sale of KFUO will happen in October

The Arch City Chronicle has posted a story by media columnist Frank Absher citing "very reliable sources" who say that the sale of radio station KFUO (99.1 FM) will be announced officially in October.

KFUO's current owners, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, want to sell the station to raise money. The prospective buyers, listener-supported station Joy FM, currently broadcast on 94.1 FM and 97.7 FM, two less-powerful signals located on the outskirts of the St. Louis metro area. Their plan is to bring the Christian contemporary music format currently airing on those stations to the KFUO frequency.

Classical music fans, fearful of losing the only radio station in St. Louis that plays their favorite music, have opposed the sale, and a group of supporters of the current KFUO format even made a counter-offer to buy the station. That offer was rejected, and last month the LCMS board of directors gave its representative the authority to complete a sale without further board action.

Somewhere in there, it also came out that that the proposed deal requires the LCMS to finance the purchase price, because Joy FM doesn't have the necessary cash. (You can read more of the back story here, here and here.) Deal structure notwithstanding, local jazz fans also have an interest in the potential sale, because KFUO also has been the home to longtime jazz radio personality Don Wolff's program I Love Jazz since May of 2008.

Absher's piece, titled "Why So Secretive About The KFUO-FM Sale?" also raises questions about the financial aspects of the deal:

"Why, you may wonder, is everything being done so quietly? After all, no information has been forthcoming on this since word came out the church was pursuing a rather irresponsible (from a business perspective) deal with a group that already has a couple Christian music stations in the market but doesn't have enough money to buy KFUO-FM...(snip)

...In fact, it's possible a couple of very influential folks within the LCMS have let the board members know the push by two of them to sell the station and finance the sale was as stupid as it appeared. In fact, the purported buyer didn't have access to enough money to pay the amount it had bid. Red flag, anyone?

Absher notes the recent $14 million sale of Boston's classical music station WCRB (99.5 FM) to public broadcaster WGBH as both an indicator of potential value and an example of a sale transaction done right, then goes on to say:

"Meanwhile, most members of the Lutheran Church are completely unaware of the business that is being conducted involving assets owned by the synod - assets that have been supported by money the church members gave to the synod. They're going to be very surprised and angry when this deal involving their money is announced."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller links to Absher's piece, noting:

"The MoSyn will have to finance the $18 million sale itself, thereby getting out of the radio business (none of my sources seriously expect the all-religious AM station to be kept going for long once the FM side is sold) and into the financing business instead. Joy also has a balloon note for $600,000 to meet in a little more than a year, for the purchase of its two present “rimshot” stations."

Miller's piece also features some skeptical comments from a couple of readers, best summed up so far by the remark, "This deal stinks like a month-old mackerel." Answering one commenter's question about why the LCMS seems to want to make a deal that offers seemingly less-than-optimal terms, Miller replies that it is her "understanding is that it’s about a determination to sell the station to self-defined “Christians,” as opposed to what one MoSyn blogger called “Jews, atheists, Unitarians and Episcopalians.

She continues, "There’s also a serious reverse snobbery and overt hostility to the fine arts (and the kind of people who like them) to be found in some quarters, like the indignant-but-anonymous posters who constantly refer to KFUO’s listeners as “rich” and its playlist as “pop classical.” Given that it’s the only station on the dial in this market that plays that genre, and given what I know about the listenership, I don’t understand the hostility - but there it is."

Ultimately, any sale of KFUO would have to approved by the Federal Communications Commission, where it conceivably could be challenged as being not "in the public interest."

As noted here before, the St. Louis metro area currently has 11 stations offering some form of Christian religious or spiritual programming, and one - KFUO - playing classical music. So there's certainly an argument to be made that the public could be better served by keeping KFUO in its current format, thereby maintaining a diversity of local programming and ensuring the free availability of classical music to all, rich and poor, over the publicly-owned airwaves. Will someone step up to make that argument, and would the FCC actually give it serious consideration? Stay tuned...

Jazz Education Network to hold first conference next May in St. Louis

The Jazz Education Network (JEN) has announced that the organization will hold its first-ever conference from May 20 - 22, 2010 at the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL).

JEN is a not-for-profit organization of music teachers, musicians, students and others formed in 2008 not long after the collapse of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Their Web site says the group is "dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences." St. Louisan Jim Widner, the bassist, bandleader and noted jazz educator who directs the jazz studies program at UMSL, was elected to JEN's first board of directors this past summer.

Registration is now open for the conference in St. Louis, and JEN also is soliciting suggestions and ideas for conference programming on its online member forum. For more information about membership in JEN or to register for the conference, you can visit their Web site.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's time once again for one of those gratuitous plugs for StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, which features a different online music video every day, drawn from genres including jazz, blues, soul, fuink classic rock, prog rock and experimental.

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been video clips featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Ornette Coleman, Cassandra Wilson, Jimmy Smith, Muddy Waters, Cannonball Adderley, Stevie Wonder, Bill Frisell, Andrew Hill, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Tower of Power, Capatin Beefheart and the Magic Band, and Klaus Doldinger & Passport.

A similarly eclectic selection is served up fresh seven days a week, or you can check out all the videos listed above, plus hundreds more choice clips, via the archives at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/

Sonny Rollins concert reviewed in Post-Dispatch

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins was in St. Louis on Saturday to play at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sent Calvin Wilson to review the show. You can read Wilson's piece online here.

UPDATE, 9/24/09, 12:00 p.m.: This week's St. Louis American also has a review of the Rollins concert written by K. Curtis Lyle. You can read it online here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Remembering Luther Thomas

This week, let's look at four video clips featuring the late Luther Thomas, who passed away last week at the age of 59. The saxophonist and St. Louis native lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, and all of four of these clips were recorded there.

The first video was made at the Christiania Jazz Club during the Copenhagen Jazz Fest in July, 2008. It features Thomas fronting a quartet in a freebop style, with Nils Davidsen on bass, Jeppe Gram on drums and Mikkel Mark on piano. Thomas plays with impressive energy and agility here, his sound both reminiscent of and distinct from that of fellow former St. Louisans Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill.

Lake and Hemphill were the two top alto players in town when Thomas was coming up, and it's interesting to contrast, compare and consider how each of the three men concocted his own particular mixture of R&B grease, bop-derived chromatic abstraction and pure sound-for-sound's sake.

The second clip is also from the 2008 Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and features Thomas in a seemingly unlikely but ultimately inspired pairing with Eugene Chadbourne, playing the banjo in his singular style. Davidsen on electric bass and drummer Kresten Osgood provide some relatively low key support, skittering around in the background, but the real interest here is the interaction between Chadbourne and Thomas.

By the end of the segment, the former's sharply picked high notes and harmonics and the latter's high-pitched squeals seem to be converging on the same timbre from opposite directions. Thomas must have dug the way this show turned out, because he posted eight videos from it to his YouTube channel; look for the clips titled "GangstaJazz Eugene Chadbourne Luther Thomas Kresten Osgood Nils Davidsen".

The third video is a short duet between Thomas and vibraphonist Khan Jamal, also recorded the Christiania Jazz Club in 2008. It's titled "ODE4OBAMA," and while it's not entirely clear if the audio processing of Thomas' sax is present in the source material, or some sort of artifact of the video and/or compression, it gives his playing an ethereal quality that matches up well with the vibes.

The fourth clip features what Thomas called his Dizzazz Quintet, and seems best described by his own annotation: "This is MY personal blend and what I TRULY think that I sound like: an OliverLake LesterBowie Dolemite NiggahsWithAnAttitude LesterYoung SunRa TyroneDavis MartinLutherKing RoscoeMitchell & PTBarnum..." While I'll leave it to you, the reader, to decide whether or not this particular video lives up to that rather hyperbolic description, there's no doubt that Luther Thomas was a distinctive musician who will be missed.

Tortoise to perform at the Firebird on Tuesday, September 29

The Chicago-based instrumental "post-rock" band Tortoise (pictured), whose members are also involved in their hometown's sprawling improvised music scene, is coming to St. Louis* on Tuesday, September 29 to perform at the Firebird, 2706 Olive, just west of Jefferson.

Together since 1990, the members of Tortoise have developed a sound that incorporates influences from jazz and alt-rock to techno and dub, and as a result have attracted an equally diverse fan base, ranging from young people who frequent rock venues like the Firebird to older fans of jazz and electronic music. They're touring to support their latest CD Beacons of Ancestorship, which came out in June.

Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and the show, which includes opening act Prefuse 73, starts at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $18 (plus a $2 service charge) and can be purchased here.

Ann Hampton Callaway to perform Friday, October 2 at the Contemporary Art Museum

Singer, pianist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway (pictured) is returning to St. Louis to perform on Friday, October 2, 2009 at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd in Grand Center.

The event, entitled "Queens of Jazz," will serve as a kick-off for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, which begins the next day and continues through October 14 with events in various locations around town. St. Louis' own Denise Thimes will open the show at 7:30 p.m., with Callaway taking the stage at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets are $50.00 for general admission and $100.00 for a VIP package that includes a pre-concert reception with Thimes and a post-concert, off-site dessert reception with Callaway. To purchase tickets, call 314-678-0500.

(Edited after posting.)

Jazz this week: Sonny Rollins, Chris Botti, Trio 3, Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival, St. Louis Rivermen, and more

There's lots going on in St. Louis over the next few days, as it's the busiest weekend of the fall so far for jazz and creative music. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, local funk/hip-hop band Fresh Heir does a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

On Friday, trumpeter Chris Botti returns to town to perform at the Fox Theatre, making good on a date that was postponed from last year. (You can read a brief preview of Botti's show that I wrote for the Riverfront Times here.)

Also on Friday, drummer Stan Hale's new group debuts at Robbie's House of Jazz, featuring Hale, bassist David Certain, saxophonist Ben Reece, singer Renee Smith, and yr. humble StLJN editor on keyboards. We'll be playing a mix of straight-ahead and soul/jazz with occasional Latin touches.

Saturday features three major events worthy of your time and attention, starting with the long-anticipated performance by saxophone legend Sonny Rollins (pictured) in a concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. For more about Rollins, check out StLJN's previous coverage here, and also this short preview piece from this week's Riverfront Times.

Also on Saturday, the Nu-Art Series presents Trio 3 with Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille at Luna Bar in the Central West End. For more about Trio 3, see these two posts, as well as this recent interview done with Lake before a solo gig in Sacramento, CA.

As if choosing between those two shows wasn't enough of a dilemma, Saturday is also the day of this year's Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival, a free, all-day event held in the business district near Lockwood and Gore in Webster Groves.

Jazz acts in this year's lineup include Two Times True, with pianist Carolbeth True; Standard Time, with guitarist Rick Haydon, singer Mardra Thomas and pianist Reggie Thomas; the Matthew Von Doran Trio; Webster University Faculty Jazz Band; Webster Groves High School Jazz Band; Wild, Cool & Swingin'; and the Funky Butt Brass Band. There's also the St. Louis Jazz & Blues Revue, a group assembled for the festival that includes Anita Rosamond (vocals, keyboard), Rich McDonough (guitar), Jesse Gannon (keyboard, vocals), Phil Burton (bass, vocals), Joe Meyer (drums), Lew Winer III (saxophones, vocals) and Rob Endicott (trumpet, flugelhorn). The Revue will pay tribute to St. Louis musical legends including Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Fontella Bass, Ike & Tina Turner, Jimmy Forrest and Albert King.

Also note that just down the street from the festival's Allen Avenue stage, the Robert Edwards Big Band will hold forth Saturday evening at Robbie's House of Jazz. For more about the new club and Edwards' big band, see this piece I did for the Riverfront Times "A to Z" music blog.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Rivermen in a concert of traditional New Orleans style jazz at at the Panorama Banquet Room of Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday guitarist Todd Mosby will give a free concert and clinic at the Music Center of Kirkwood. (See this post for details.)

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(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.)

(Edited 9/18/09 to fix a typo and add tags.)

A Jazz Heaven returns to the Kranzberg Arts Center on Sunday, October 11

Following a sold-out debut performance in August, singer Wendy Gordon will stage a revamped version of her cabaret show A Jazz Heaven at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, October 11 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 S. Grand.

A Jazz Heaven tells the story of a meeting between singers Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at New York's Savoy Ballroom, through songs made famous by each singer, Gordon's original poetry, and live music from a three-piece ensemble.

The new version of the show includes some script revisions and dialog changes, some new songs, and a new cast member: longtime St. Louis favorite Jeanne Trevor (pictured), who will play the role of Ella Fitzgerald. Gordon will reprise her role as Billie Holiday, joined by Adrian Bowers as Miles Davis and Edie B as the narrator. The musicians for the production once again will be Jeff Anderson, playing saxophone and bass and taking the role of Charlie Parker; Marty Morrison, playing drums and portraying Chick Webb; and Arthur Toney on keyboards.

Tickets for A Jazz Heaven are $25 and are available in advance by calling 314-838-9198. Since the Kranzberg only seats 80 people, and the previous show sold out, advance reservations are suggested. However, if any tickets remain at show time, they'll be available for sale at the door.

Erin Bode to headline SIUE Friends of Music benefit on Sunday, October 25

Singer Erin Bode will headline this year's benefit gala for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Friends of Music organization, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 25 in the theater of SIUE’s Dunham Hall.

Tickets are $35, but can be had for just $30 if purchased by September 25. For an additional $15, concert-goers can attend a champagne reception with Bode before the event and will have special reserved seating during the concert. (Reserved seating is limited.)

The price of a ticket includes a $20 gift to the SIUE Friends of Music, which may be considered a tax-deductible contribution. The Friends of Music is a volunteer organization that supports the SIUE Department of Music; proceeds from this event will go to their endowment and scholarship funds for talented SIUE music students.

For reservations or more information, call the SIUE Department of Music at 618-650-3900, or toll-free from St. Louis at 888-328-5168, ext. 3900.

Todd Mosby to give free concert/clinic on Tuesday, September 22

Guitarist Todd Mosby (pictured) has announced he'll be presenting a free concert and clinic at 6:00 p.m. next Tuesday, September 22 at the Music Center of Kirkwood, 113 W. Jefferson.

In an email promoting the event, Mosby promises to "reveal my personal Mysteries of Music 101" to "all students, hackers, curiosity seekers, music lovers and teachers of all levels. My unique, streamlined and simplified approach to playing popular, finger style and pick style guitar over any tune using 8 universal chords will be presented. "

"If you or anyone you know needs a little tweaking in the song performance department, please come," he continues. "I have a honed and fun method of teaching that will guarantee improvement and expansion. A first run self published manual of these concepts will be sold at the clinic followed by a short performance afterwards." For more information, phone 314-965-4818 or visit Mosby's Web site.

ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival coming to St. Louis on Tuesday, November 24

ROCKPILE is coming to St. Louis. No, not the late 1970s/early 1980s rock band with Dave Edmonds, Nick Lowe, Terry Williams and Billy Bremner - it's the ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival, a collaboration between traveling and local performers that will take place at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 24 in the performance space at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar.

ROCKPILE is the brainchild of poet, musician, and essayist David Meltzer (pictured) and Michael Rothenberg, a poet, songwriter and editor of Big Bridge Press. Inspired by "the tradition of the troubadour" and "the spirit of improvisation and collaboration," Meltzer and Rothenberg are traveling to eight U.S. cities to perform poetry, composed on the road, with local musicians in each city.

St. Louis will be the seventh stop of the ROCKPILE tour, which also will have visited New York City, Chicago and New Orleans before wrapping up in San Francisco. Meltzer and Rothenberg are documenting the tour online at http://www.bigbridge.org/rockpile/ with daily performance clips, journal excerpts, interviews, video and audio files.

Performers in St. Louis will include musicians Zimbabwe Nkenya (bass, mbira), Dave Black (guitar) and Bob Malone (piano), plus poets Michael Franklin, Shirley LeFlore, Michael Castro, K. Curtis Lyle, David Jackson, Alexander Balogh, Sean Arnold, Terri Carrion, Howard Schwartz, and Philip Gounis.

Admission is to the St. Louis ROCKPILE performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-863‐5811 or visit the ROCKPILE Web site.

Gene Dobbs Bradford wins leadership award from St. Louis Business Journal

Jazz St. Louis executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford has been named as one of this year's winners of a St. Louis Business Journal Inclusive Leadership Award. The awards recognize persons from minority ethnic backgrounds who are making a significant mark on the St. Louis community.

Bradford is one of 25 individuals representing business, government, education and not-for-profit organizations who will receive the award this year. The group will be recognized at an luncheon on Thursday, September 17 at the Chase Park Plaza. You can get more information and see a complete list of winners here.

Sheldon jazz concerts to feature pre-show talks from Dennis Owsley

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced that jazz DJ, historian and photographer Dennis Owsley will present a series of pre-concert talks before each performance in their 2009-2010 jazz series. The talks will begin at 7:10 p.m. before each 8:00 p.m. concert, and are "designed to introduce new audiences to jazz and deepen the impact of the touring artists’ appearances."

The Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series concert dates, performers and lecture topics will be:

Saturday, October 3 - Dee Dee Bridgewater - "The Triumph of Billie Holiday"
Saturday, November 7 - Nicholas Payton - "The New Orleans and St. Louis Trumpet Tradition”
Saturday, January 23 - Eliane Elias - “The Lure of Latin Jazz"
Saturday, April 10 - Cyrus Chestnut - "Jazz Piano Giants"
Saturday, May 1 - Steve Tyrell - "The Great American Songbook"

Owsley's talks are funded through a new Mid-America Arts Alliance grant to support “Community Engagement with Touring Artists” (CETA). The grant will also fund visits by Owsley to visit three towns (yet to be selected) in Missouri and Illinois to give talks on jazz to community groups.

WKCR to broadcast tribute to Luther Thomas at noon today

Jazz journalist and DJ Charles Blass emailed with news that WKCR (89.9 FM), the public radio station affiliated with NYC's Columbia University, will broadcast a memorial and tribute to the late saxophonist and St. Louis native Luther Thomas from noon to 9:00 p.m. (Eastern time) today, Tuesday, September 15. Guests will include On Ka'a Davis, William "Spaceman" Patterson and Georgia Thomas.

You can listen to WKCR's online audio stream here. For more about Luther Thomas, who died last week at age 59, please see this post.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Three views of Trio 3

The news that Trio 3 will be playing St. Louis next week offers a welcome excuse to look at some video clips of the group, which includes St. Louis native Oliver Lake on saxophones along with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Their performance is being presented by the Nu-Art Series on Saturday, September 19 at Luna Bar, which is next to Bar Italia at 13 Maryland Plaza in the Central West End.

Of course, many, if not most, St. Louis jazz fans already know Lake, and he's made it back home several times in recent years to perform, both on his own and with the World Saxophone Quartet.

However, he's never played here with Trio 3, though the group has been together nearly 20 years. Moreover, while Workman and Cyrille both have had long, varied and distinguished careers, neither has an extensive history of performing in St. Louis. (Nu-Art's George Sams told me that Workman has played here at least once before, in the late 1960s with Bobby Hutcherson. As for Cyrille, as best as can be determined, this may be his debut performance in St. Louis.) So the chance to see and hear these guys, both individually and collectively, is something of a rare occurrence.

Today's first video is an excerpt from a 2005 performance in Montclair, NJ, where Lake now resides. The location is obviously a church, but otherwise is unspecified. There's no indication of a song title either, but the piece does show off Workman's big sound, Lake's plaintive tone and nimble riffing and Cyrille's polyrhythmic approach to the drums.

The second clip is from the other side of the world, recorded during the group's performance in 2008 at the Taichung Jazz Festival in Taiwan. Workman once again gets a fat sound, and once things get rolling both Lake and Cyrille are considerably more aggressive than in the first video.

The third and final clip is a segment from the New Jersey public television program State of the Arts. It features some performance footage of Trio 3 at NYC's Sweet Rhythm, but it's mostly a biographical interview with Lake, in which he talks about his career and music; starting out in St. Louis; how he got together with Workman and Cyrille; and more.

Luther Thomas 1950-2009

Citing a broadcast by the NYC public radio station WKCR, NPR's A Blog Supreme has posted an item saying that saxophonist Luther Thomas has died.

The St. Louis native and former Black Artists Group member (pictured) has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark for a number of years, and at this point there don't seem to be any obituaries or other fresh news stories about him anywhere online, in either English or Danish.

There are two other sources that confirm the news of his death, though. First is Thomas' Wikipedia page, which now says "Luther Thomas was born on the 23rd of June 1950 and passed away on Tuesday 8th of September 2009." Also, Thomas' MySpace page shows a number of messages posted over the last three days with condolences and/or remembrances, including notes from musical colleagues and family members.

Thomas' discography includes the cult favorite Funky Donkey, a archetypal example of the way St. Louis musicians of the late 1960s and 1970s mixed funk and free jazz.

Fronting the slightly more commercial funk band Dizzazz, Thomas had a semi-hit single in 1981 with the songs "Nervous Breakdown/Six Months In Reform School." He also recorded with Defunkt and James Chance (aka James White) and the Contortions, and was a co-leader of the Human Arts Ensemble, whose out-of-print album Junk Trap was recently posted for free downloading on the music sharing blog Music Hertz.

You can see some video of Thomas playing and talking on his YouTube channel here. Thomas is also pictured and discussed in this article about the early 1980s scene at NYC's Squat Theatre, which served as a performing venue for Defunkt, Chance and similar punk-funk artists.

Our condolences and sympathies go out to Thomas' family, friends and colleagues.

(Edited 9/14/09 to insert the correct link to Thomas' YouTube channel.)

New podcast from Jazz St. Louis features interview with Mulgrew Miller

Jazz St. Louis has just put online another one of their ongoing series of podcast interviews. The latest installment features a conversation with pianist Mulgrew Miller, who will be in St. Louis from Wednesday, September 23 through Saturday, September 26 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.
You can download the podcast or listen to an audio stream here. (To check out some video clips of Miller in action, see this post from last Saturday.)

Jazz this week: A jazz tribute to Woodstock; music at the St. Louis Art Fair; a new book about the St. Louis blues; and more

While this weekend in St. Louis offers no shows featuring big name jazz musicians - think of it as a chance to save up a bit for next weekend's concerts by Sonny Rollins, Trio 3 and/or Chris Botti - there are still some jazz-related events over the next few days that may merit your attention. Here's a look at some highlights:

Tonight, the fall series of free weekly Jazz at Holmes concerts at Washington University begins with guitarist William Lenihan leading "a jazz tribute to Woodstock" outdoors on the Brookings Quadrangle.

Presumably, it's not a concert featuring jazz versions of songs that were played at Woodstock and/or written by musicians who performed there, or they would have just described it as such. (You can read Wash U's rather uninformative blurb on the show, and my initial reaction to it, here. ) Still, with a lineup of very capable musicians including Lenihan, Jason Swagler (who's listed in the show's promotional email as playing guitar, rather than his more usual alto sax), pianist Ptah Williams, drummer Kyle Hunnicutt, percussionist Henry Claude, and bassist Zeb Briskovich, there's certainly plenty of potential for some good music, even if the concept is a bit vague.

On Friday, St. Louis artist and writer Kevin Belford will be at Mad Art Gallery, signing copies of his new book Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St. Louis and showing his original paintings of St. Louis blues musicians that illustrate the tome. The free event also will include a performance from singer/guitarist Tom Hall, vintage film footage of St. Louis blues legends, and a spin of the book's companion CD. .

Friday night is also the beginning of the official "grand opening" weekend for Robbie's House of Jazz, which is located in the old Cookie's Jazz and More space at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster Groves. The featured performers this weekend will be the 16-piece Robert Edwards Big Band, which delves into a variety of big band jazz styles and includes trombonist Lamar Harris and pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson among its members. (For more about Robbie's, see this previous post. I've also got a new post about the club scheduled to go online today at the Riverfront Times music blog, A to Z; when it goes live, I'll post a link here.)

The annual St. Louis Art Fair also gets underway on Friday, but there's not much music of interest to jazz fans until Saturday, when the event will feature performances from the Funky Butt Brass Band and the Sheldon Jazz Quintet, comprised of Rick Haydon (guitar), Mardra Thomas (vocals), Reggie Thomas (piano), Miles Vandiver (drums) and Zeb Briskovich (bass).

Jazz St. Louis executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford's band the Blues Inquisition also will perform on Saturday, and Sunday's musicians of interest include pianist Monika Herzig's group, and trumpeter/vocalist Dawn Weber (pictured) and her band Electro Funk Assembly.

On Sunday, there will be a benefit performance for singer Elaine Donahue from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups, 700 S. Broadway. Performers will include Willie Akins, Marty Abdullah and members of the Soulard Blues Band, Denise Thimes, Skeet Rogers, the Bosman Twins, Mae Wheeler, Jeanne Trevor, Roland Johnson, Wendy Gordon, Marsha Evans, Eugene Johnson, Renee Smith and more. All proceeds will go to medical and living expenses for Donahue, who has been fighting cancer and has been unable to work as a singer or at her day job in the treasurer’s office for the city of East St. Louis. In addition to leading her own group, Donahue has worked with Akins, pianist Ed Nicholson’s trio, and many others.

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(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.)

(Edited 9/10/09 to fix problems with tags & add additional tags. Edited again on 9/11/09 to restore a paragraph accidentally dropped during the editing process.)

Notes from the Net: A Miles Davis mega-set; Jimmy Forrest remembered; 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.

What with the time demands of the recent site re-design, keeping up with breaking news, and doing some actual paying work in there somewhere, it's been nearly three weeks since our last installment of NftN, and in that time a bunch of Miles Davis-related links have piled up, so let's start there:

* The 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue continues to inspire all sorts of essays, retrospectives and critical assessments. Recent examples include this essay on how KoB shaped 50 years of music, written by John Fordham of the UK newspaper the Guardian; and The Blue Moment: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music, a new book written by Richard Williams and published by Faber & Faber, reviewed here by Sholto Byrnes for the New Statesman. Byrnes' bottom line: "Williams makes an elegant and expansive argument for an album that I, for one, could not bear to be parted from and have returned to frequently in the 20 or so years since I first heard it. Make way on the shelf; this latest book on jazz's great "Prince of Darkness" has earned its place."

In other Davis-related news, the Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble did a tribute to Davis' Birth of the Cool last month at Lucid Lounge; The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson examined the influence of saxophonist Lester Young on Davis as part of a 10-part series of posts on the band's blog marking the 100th anniversary of Young's birth; and Blogcritics.com has another review - this one penned by a writer identified only as "The Other Chad" - of the recent reissue of Davis' 1950s sessions with Sonny Rollins.

And while we're on the subject of Miles Davis reissues: Sony is releasing a gigantic boxed set of CDs of all the music the trumpeter recorded for his longtime label Columbia Records. The 71-disc(!) set is called Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection and will be released on November 10. It includes all 52 albums Davis recorded for Columbia, which fill a total of 70 CDs, plus a DVD called Live in Europe that is being released for the first time. The CDs will come packaged in miniature reproductions of LP sleeves, and the set includes a 250-page book about Davis. The price: $369.68, or about $5 a disc, and available exclusively available through Amazon.com.

And speaking of Columbia Records, Rolling Stone has photos of Davis along with shots of the label's various rock stars in a spread commemorating the work of longtime Columbia Records photographer Don Hunstein.

Lastly from the Davis files: Kind of Bloop, the recent tribute to Kind of Blue done in the "8-bit" style of electronic music, has apparently found its way into the mainstream, as indicated by this short piece from that perennial bastion of conventional thinking, Time magazine.

* Turning to news of other former St. Louisans, the late saxophonist Julius Hemphill was featured in a recent post on NPR's A Blog Supreme.

* Pianist and St. Louisan-turned-New Orleans resident Tom McDermott, who was touring out west this summer, was featured in the local paper before a show in Casper, Wyoming.

* Arranger Roy Phillipe told JazzWax's Marc Myers a story about saxophonist Jimmy Forrest (pictured) - St. Louis native, big band veteran and composer of "Night Train" - and his tenure with the great bandleader and pianist Count Basie.

* Here's a review of The Crucible, the new CD from saxophonist John Zorn's ensemble Moonchild, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Mark Corroto.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who will be in St. Louis next Saturday for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, turns 79 today, and is duly celebrated by Rifftides' Doug Ramsey.

* Here's a long feature about bassist John Patitucci's new CD Remembrance, written for AllAboutJazz.com by R.J. DeLuke. Patitucci was here last fall for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival, and will be back in St. Louis next April to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

*And here's a review of saxophonist James Carter's new CD Heaven on Earth, written by the prolific Tim Niland for his blog Jazz and Blues Reviews. Carter's new disc is an electrified set, with guests including John Medeski on organ and Christian McBride on bass. Both McBride and Carter will play the Bistro this season - the former in November, the latter in May.

* While we're on the subject of the Bistro, a recording of one of guitarist Charlie Hunter's sets there in January has made its way to archive.org in high-quality FLAC format.

* Finally, by way of following up on a couple of stories covered before in this space, Broadway producer Rocco Landesman - nephew of Fran and Jay Landesman, who ran the famed Crystal Palace nightclub in St. Louis' Gaslight Square district - has taken over as the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts. The extroverted and sometimes controversial Landesman promises to push for more funding for the NEA, and wants to restore the agency's program of grants for individual artists, which was shut down in the early 1990s after censorious types raised alarms over NEA funding of certain artists and institutions who presented works containing sexual, political and/or religious themes and imagery.

* The latest iteration of the "Can jazz be saved?" debate (covered previously here, here, and here) continues, with some interesting comments from listeners of public radio station WNYC here; a thoughtful manifesto from trumpeter Dave Douglas here, and an update from journalist Howard Mandel on the #jazzlives Twitter campaign here.

(Edited 9/11/09 to replace linked photo with one stored on Blogger.)

Nu-Art Series to present concerts by Trio 3, Rasul Siddik

The Nu-Art Series, run by trumpeter, gallery owner and former arts administrator George Sams out of his Metropolitan Gallery downtown, is kicking off its fall 2009 season this month with two concerts featuring former St. Louisans who have earned international acclaim in the jazz world.

The group Trio 3, featuring saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake (pictured), bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, will perform on Saturday, September 19. The following week, trumpeter Rasul Siddik returns home to the Gateway City to headline a concert on Saturday, September 26.

Both performances will take place from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Luna Bar, 13 Maryland Plaza in the Central West End. (Luna Bar is serving as a temporary home for the Nu-Art Series while storm damage to the Metropolitan Gallery building at 2926 Locust is being repaired. Pending the completion of construction, Sams says he hopes to resume regular operations at the gallery in October.) Tickets for each show will be $25.00 at the door.

Lake is well known to St. Louis listeners as a member of St. Louis' Black Artists Group (BAG), co-founder of the World Saxophone Quartet, and as a solo artist whose own music has run the gamut from free jazz to R&B to bop to reggae.

His work with Trio 3 represents an equal collaboration with two genuine heavyweights of the jazz world. Workman has performed or recorded with many of the notable jazz musicians of the past five decades, including landmark albums with John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor, while Cyrille is considered one of the most important and innovative drummers to emerge from the free jazz movement of the 1960s, working with Taylor, Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, and others.

As an added bonus, St. Louis trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, another BAG veteran, is scheduled to open the show with a solo version of his performance piece "Ritualistic Revival."

Though younger than Lake, Siddik also was affiliated BAG with as an up-and-coming musician. He has worked with many notable jazz performers, including Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill and David Murray, and now splits his time between NYC and Paris. For his St. Louis performance, Siddik will bring along his frequent collaborator, pianist Katy Roberts, with bassist Darryl Mixon and drummer Gary Sykes added from the local ranks to complete the band.

Both of these concerts are certainly welcome additions to the fall schedule of jazz performances here in St. Louis, but, being a nosy reporter, I had to ask Sams why he booked Trio 3 on the same night of Sonny Rollins' highly anticipated performance at the Touhill Performing Arts Center (and, for that matter, the Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival).

He explained that the show had been in the works for a year now, and September 19 was the only date Trio 3 had available. Sams added that he thought the two concerts would appeal to "different crowds." Here's hoping that he's right about that, or at least that there are enough local jazz fans willing and able to shell out their hard-earned cash to support both shows.

UPDATE - 11:00 p.m., 9/11/09: K. Curtis Lyle has more on Lake, Trio 3 and Siddik in an article for this week's St. Louis American, found online here.

(Edited after posting to fix typos.)