Notes from the Net: Martin's "Big River" reviewed, Lake and Osby in the news, Holland interviewed, and more

Last time I did a "Notes from the Net" post, I expressed the hope that future installments would be more frequent and a bit shorter. Fast forward four weeks, and not only has that hope remained unrealized, the files are overflowing with news tidbits about various musicians who are from St. Louis, are coming to St. Louis, or have recently been to St. Louis. So, let's get on with it:

Dark Magus, a new biography of Miles Davis written by his eldest son Gregory Davis, has just been released...The Village Voice's Francis Davis reviews the new Joe Lovano CD, which features a suite of music based on Miles' Birth of the Cool, here...NYC club Mo Pitkin's has resumed "Miles Mondays," featuring listening sessions devoted to the late trumpeter's music...Saxophonist Oliver Lake, who will be in St. Louis next week when the World Saxophone Quartet performs at Jazz at the Bistro, recently did a benefit concert in Pittsburgh...Meanwhile, fellow alto saxophonist and former St. Louisan Greg Osby (pictured), who also will be part of the WSQ lineup during their upcoming St. Louis run, is doing a concert based on his new duet CD with drummer Andrew Cyrille...And speaking of alto players from St. Louis, David Sanborn was one of the headliners at the recent Music City Jazz Blues and Heritage Festival in Nashville. The event was curated by saxophonist Kirk Whalum, nephew of our town's Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum.

Pianist Peter Martin took his New Orleans-themed "Big River" concert, which debuted here in St. Louis last year, to Chicago this past weekend and earned a favorable review from the Chicago Tribune...New CDs on St. Louis based Mel Bay Records from guitarists Vic Juris and Dave Stryker are reviewed here...Bassist Darin Gray will perform at John Zorn's NYC improv and new music hot spot The Stone in November...And Zorn, who once studied at Webster University, is in the news as well - he recently staged a mini-festival in NYC featuring all the various incarnations of his Masada band, and last week was named a recipient of one of the so-called "genius grants" from the MacArthur Foundation. Violinist Regina Carter, who will perform in St. Louis next spring at Jazz at the Bistro, also received one of this year's MacArthur grants.

Next, we've got news, reviews and interviews involving a number of musicians who either have performed here recently, or will be playing here soon...First off, there's a nice All About Jazz interview with Dave Holland here. and a bit about a Toronto performance by the bassist and his quintet here...Pianist Mulgrew Miller was part of a recent tribute to Rahsaan Roland Kirk in NYC...Also performing recently in NYC was pianist/singer Ann Hampton Callaway; read a review of the show here, and an interview with her here.. And yet another NYC concert series will present father and son guitarists Bucky and John Pizzarelli, as well as a tribute to saxophonist Lou Donaldson featuring pianist Cyrus Chestnut. The elder Pizzarelli also has a new DVD, reviewed here...Guitarist John Scofield has a new trio CD with organist Larry Goldings and drummer Jack DeJohnette, reviewed here...Carmel, California's Leroy "The Jazzcat" Downs recently interviewed singer Kurt Elling for KRML radio; you can hear an .mp3 version of the conversation here...Singer Freddy Cole will play Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at NYC's Lincoln Center next month...The Bad Plus, coming to St. Louis in January for a week at Jazz at the Bistro have been performing all over; here are reviews of recent shows in NYC and Miami...And if you're going to hire a smooth jazz musician to help celebrate the opening of a new department store, I suppose the nattily attired Chris Botti would be a logical choice.

Finally, be sure to check out Terry Perkins' latest Gateway Grooves column over at All About Jazz, in which our esteemed colleague Mr. Perkins offers his take on upcoming St. Louis jazz shows (and sends some linkage StLJN's way, for which we are duly grateful)...And those with a penchant for exotic instruments may enjoy a look at the Virtual Instrument Museum, a very cool online resource with photos, descriptions and sound samples of all sort of musicial instruments, past and present, from around the world.