StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2011 jazz preview, part three

This week, we offer the third and final installment of our video overview of the fall 2011 schedule of touring jazz and creative music performers coming to St. Louis. (Part one can be seen here, and part two is here.)

On Friday, October 28, New Music Circle will present a concert at the Kranzberg Arts Center featuring music composed by James Mobberley and Paul Rudy, both of whom are associated with the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

In the video embed window up above, you can see and hear Mobberly's piece "Caution to the Winds" for piano and tape, recorded in 2008 in the Netherlands by pianist Kristina Sandulova. In the first window down below, you can find an excerpt from Rudy's performance, including both live and pre-recorded material, in 2009 at the Galileo 400th Anniversary event at the American Academy in Rome, Italy.

That same weekend, the Clayton Brothers Quintet will be in town on Saturday, October 29 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be a single full-length performance video featuring the CBQ anywhere on the 'net, so the only available option for providing a taste of their music is a promotional clip, which combines still photos with a studio recording of the song "Brother to Brother" and is seen in the third embed window.

Below that, you'll find a video of guitarist John Scofield, who be in town with his jazz quartet to play Wednesday, November 2 through Saturday, November 5 at Jazz at the Bistro. The quartet, which offers a relatively straight-ahead jazz sound compared to Scofield's more funk-oriented projects, also includes bassist Ben Street, drummer Bill Stewart and pianist Michael Eckroth. This clip shows them playing "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" at a concert on September 8, 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

That same weekend, Jazz St. Louis will present singer Dianne Reeves and pianist Ahmad Jamal, sharing the bill but performing separately, in a concert Sunday, November 6 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Reeves can be seen in the next embedded window, performing "Goodbye" at the 2010 North Sea Jazz Festival 2010 with a band that includes her longtime pianist and musical director, St. Louis' own Peter Martin. Below that, you can check out Jamal leading his quartet through a rendition of his signature tune "Poinciana" in October, 2009 at l'Espace Carpeaux at Courbevoie, France.

After that, singer Kurt Elling will be the next major touring jazz act in town, playing Wednesday, November 16 through Saturday November 19 at the Bistro. This clip of Elling features him singing Stevie Wonder's "Golden Lady" In November 2009 at the New Morning in Paris, joined by his trio - Laurence Hobgood (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass) and Otis Brown III (drums) - plus special guest Ernie Watts on tenor sax.

A couple of weeks later, the veteran pianist Ramsey Lewis will make his debut at the Bistro, performing there Wednesday, November 30 through Saturday, December 3 with his Electric Band. You can see them here playing Lewis' late-1970s hit "Sun Goddess," in a video taken from a performance in August 2011 at Duc de Lombards in Paris.

Next up is a clip of composer, violinist and multimedia artist Tony Conrad, who will be in St. Louis on Saturday, December 3 for a performance presented by New Music Circle at the White Flag Projects gallery. This particular video is an excerpt from a solo performance by Conrad in 2009 at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a clip of saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby, who's coming back home to play Wednesday, December 14 through Saturday, December 17 at the Bistro. The video shows the first part of a performance of Osby's composition "Vertical Hold" by an ensemble that featured Osby on alto sax, with Steve Laspina (bass), Marc Copland (piano), Melissa Aldana (tenor sax) and Kendrick Scott (drums).