Clark Terry: Dapper as a young man, and still stylin' at age 80
It's been a couple of weeks since our last roundup of news items from across the Net and around the world, and so there's lots to report, starting with the news that Miles Davis' Cellar Door Sessions 1970 box set made it onto the Billboard jazz charts in its first week of release...On a related note, adding to our previous collection of Cellar Door reviews, here's a brief review from Oakland's East Bay Express (their equivalent of the RFT), and an article by famed critic Ed Ward for Paste magazine, in which he draws some comparisons between the Miles set and the recent Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home...And for more Miles miscellany, here's another review of the recent book Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis, written by Phillip Freeman; a brief but fairly well-written biographical article that, for reasons I can't quite fathom, recently appeared in a Welsh newspaper; and an account by actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman of his pre-fame encounter with Miles.
Turning to news about some other St. Louis hometown heroes, the seemingly tireless Clark Terry is keeping busy as usual, gigging in Boston and preparing to receive yet another honorary degree in May...The late Oliver Nelson will soon be remembered with a new box set from Mosaic Records. The set will feature "big band recordings for Verve, Argo and Impulse, some of which were issued under Leonard Feather's name or as the Jazz Interactions Orchestra. It will also contain all the sessions that he arranged with big band instrumentation for Shirley Scott and Pee Wee Russell on Impulse and for Jimmy Smith on Verve." And saxophonist Richie Cole recently paid tribute to the late arranger/composer/alto player with "Remember Oliver Nelson", still available as a free download from All About Jazz....John Zorn, who studied at Webster University in the 1970s, is returning to the Midwest in February to do a concert in Chicago with his group Masada...And former Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin, known as a champion of living composers when he served here, discusses new music and more in this interview with the New Music Box webzine.
Following up a couple of stories covered earlier in this space, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that saxophonist Michael Brecker got his stem cell transplant, thanks to his teenage daughter, and is expected to survive his bout with a rare blood disorder. The bad news? Some displaced New Orleans musicians may not be returning home after Hurricane Katrina - some because they lack the financial means, and others by choice. Cyrill Neville of the Neville Brothers is in the latter category, and he explains why here.
From the "Recent Visitors and Coming Attractions" file: The BBC has some free music from guitarist Bill Frisell (and others as well) recorded live at the BBC Radio 3 London Jazz Festival. Frisell played the Sheldon last September...Meanwhile, Maynard Ferguson, who appeared at Finale in November and will return to play a show in Belleville this spring, is filling in on some dates for former Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen...Trumpeter Nicholas Payton will be at Jazz at the Bistro next week, and you can read a bit about his current. tour here...Patricia Barber is due to perform at the Bistro in March, and you can read an enthusastic review of one of her recent Chicago shows here; "In an era when most female jazz vocalists still are cooing love songs drenched in nostalgia, a few are searching for something fresh to say. None may be probing more deeply into the meaning of life and humanity than Chicago singer-pianist Patricia Barber, who over the weekend offered a preview of an artistically ambitious, potentially revelatory song cycle."...Ann Hampton Callaway, also a pianist and singer but with a very different style, will follow Barber at the Bistro. She'll have a new album out in the spring, but she's previewing some of the tracks in her current live show....Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, coming to the Pageant for April Fool's Day, will release their new CD The Hidden Land on Valentine's Day...Also on February 14, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, set to headline the Sheldon's annual gala in April, will perform a special concert in New York....Smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, who will perform at the TouPAC on March 3, will have a PBS special and accompanying DVD coming out later the same month.
Finally, turning to the topic of year-end best-of lists, St. Louis-based label MAXJAZZ was lauded in the SFGate.com's year-end jazz wrap-up for documenting Bay Area artists Jessica Williams and Denny Zeitlin...All About Jazz has collected a bunch more 2005 year-end jazz lists here...And LA Weekly has an interesting list of 2005's best experimental and "outsider music" releases here.
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