StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2013 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part 3 of our video preview offering samples of some of the touring jazz and creative musicians who will be coming to St. Louis during the first part of 2013. (Part 1 of the preview is here and part 2 is here.)

Most of the musicians spotlighted in this week's installment may need little introduction to St. Louis jazz fans, as they've all played here at some point in the recent past, some multiple times.

For example, the bassist John Clayton and his son, pianist Gerald Clayton played here as part of the Clayton Brothers Quintet (co-fronted by John's saxophone-playing brother Jeff Clayton) in April 2010 at  Jazz at the Bistro and again in October 2011 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

They're coming back to play as a duo from Wednesday, March 13 through Saturday, March 16 at the Bistro, and though online footage of just the two of them is scarce, we did manage to find the undated clip embedded up above, which features them together playing a medium-slow blues at the 2009 Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy.

The second clip, embedded just below the text, features another duo, pianist Chick Corea and banjo player Béla Fleck. Corea was here most recently with Return to Forever in August 2011 at the Fox Theatre, while Fleck appeared with the reunited original Flecktones lineup in March of this year at the Sheldon.

They'll be playing together in a concert presented by Jazz St. Louis on Saturday, March 23 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Here you can see them in a clip from 2008, performing "Sunset Road" from their 2007 collaborative album The Enchantment. (It was shot by an audience member, so the video quality is a bit shaky, but the audio is good enough.)

Next, it's pianist Joe Sample, who will lead a trio starting Wednesday March 27 through Saturday, March 30 at Jazz at the Bistro. Sample and singer Randy Crawford performed in 2008 at the now-defunct St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and Sample also was here with the reunited Jazz Crusaders in June 2011 at the Touhill. This clip shows him playing "Old Places, Old Faces" with Jay Anderson on bass and Lenny Castro on drums

Trumpet fans and players should relish the combination of Jon Faddis, Terell Stafford and Sean Jones, who will join forces to play on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6 at Jazz at the Bistro. It'll be a rare chance to see these three top trumpeters together on one stage, and all three have headlined their own gigs here in the past few years.

Faddis played St. Louis in 2009 at the Touhill for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival and again with pianist Cyrus Chestnut in 2011 at the Bistro; Jones headlined at the Bistro in April 2009 and again May 2011, and also did a one-nighter there with Stefon Harris this April as part of the 2012 GSLJF. (You can check out StLJN's previous video features on Jones here and here.)

For his part, Stafford led his own quartet in a week of dates at the Bistro in October (and was the subject then of his own video showcase post). He also played the club in March of this year with drummer Matt Wilson's band Arts and Crafts.

Stafford is shown with Wilson below in today's final clip, but before we get to that, there's Faddis playing "Autumn Leaves" from a 2011 concert paying tribute to Miles Davis at the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. Below that, you can see Jones working out on "I'll Remember April" in an undated video recorded at Gregory's Jazz in Rome, Italy.

Singer Marlena Shaw is next on the calendar, as she'll be in town the following week to perform Wednesday, April 10 through Saturday, April 13 at Jazz at the Bistro. Shaw last played the club in May 2010, and had been scheduled to return in the spring of 2012, but postponed and was rescheduled for 2013. Here, you can see her performing "Feel Like Making Love" in March 2010 at New Morning in Paris, France. 

We close out today's video preview with clips featuring clarinetist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson, who will be paired for a gig to open the 2013 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival on Thursday, April 18 at Jazz at the Bistro. Cohen made her St. Louis debut as a leader in February of this year at the Bistro, and also played the club in 2007 with Waverly Seven; Wilson was here most recently in March for a week-long educational residency with Jazz St. Louis that culminated in a two-night stand with his band Arts and Crafts at the Bistro.

The video of Cohen shows her and her quartet - Jason Lindner on piano, Joe Martin on bass, and Daniel Freedman on drums - playing "As Rosas Nao Falam" from her most recent album Claroscuro. It was filmed in June 2012 at at the Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington D.C..

Today's final clip was recorded during Wilson's last visit to St. Louis, when he and Arts and Crafts (with Stafford on trumpet) also did an in-store performance and clinic at Saxquest. Here, you can see them at Saxquest playing "Beija-Flor" by Brazilian samba singer Nelson Cavaquinho, from their 2001 debut album. Then Wilson talks for a bit before they play his original composition "In Touch With Dewey", first recorded on the 2007 album The Scenic Route.

Next week in this space, the plan is to have more about singer Gregory Porter, who will open 2013 at Jazz at the Bistro, with the fourth and final part of StLJN's winter/spring 2013 jazz preview set for two weeks from today. Stay tuned...















(Edited 12/26/12 to fix a typo and a formatting problem.)