It's been nearly two weeks since the last installment of "Notes From the Net," and so there's a heapin' helpin' of news items concerning St. Louis musicians, recent visitors, old favorites and coming attractions just waiting to be read and enjoyed. Let's go:* Blogcritics reviewed the new Miles Davis box set, The Complete On The Corner Sessions.
* Saxophonist Oliver Lake will be performing at the Lake George Jazz Festival in upstate New York.
* Another former St. Louisan, saxophonist Greg Osby, will be playing at Chicago's Green Mill this weekend. Osby also will be among the performers at an upcoming tribute concert for the late pianist Andrew Hill.
* Rudder, a cooperative electric jazz band that includes saxophonist and Webster University graduate Chris Cheek (pictured), is heading out on tour this fall. (No St. Louis date, though.)
* From AllAboutJazz.com, a review of guitarist and St. Louis native Joe Friedman's debut CD Cup O' Joe.
* Turning to the "recent visitors and old favorites" file: While in St. Louis last month to play the Fox Theatre, singer and pianist Diana Krall gave an interview to a newspaper in Greece. Meanwhile, Krall's erstwhile tourmate, trumpeter Chris Botti, recently was interviewed by the Ashland (OR) Herald-Dispatch.
* Blogcritics also had a review of guitarist John Scofield's new CD This Meets That.
* SoCal-based DJ and blogger Leroy "The Jazzcat" Downs recently got to go in the studio to observe a session with singer Dianne Reeves (who performed earlier this year at Wasington University's Edison Theater) and chat with some of the participants, including Reeves, George Duke, Russell Malone, Geoff Keezer and Reuben Rogers. You can listen to an .mp3 file of the conversation here.
* Seguing to the "coming attractions" file, the New York Times had a review of a Fred Hersch/Ethan Iverson piano duet at NYC's Jazz Standard. Hersch, who played at the Sheldon earlier this year, did a week-long series of duets with various pianists including Brad Mehldau and Kenny Barron. Iverson will be in St. Louis in January with The Bad Plus for a return engagement at Jazz at the Bistro, where both Mehldau and Barron performed earlier this year.
* Pianist Michael Wolff, the former bandleader for TV host Arsenio Hall who's playing the Sheldon Concert Hall in February, has a new trio recording, Jazz Jazz Jazz.
* The Greenville (SC) News had a feature story on saxophonist Victor Goines and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Goines, Wynton Marsalis, and the rest of the LCJO also will play the Sheldon in February.
* Village Voice jazz critic Francis Davis gave a mixed review to Waverly Seven's Bobby Darin tribute CD, Yo, Bobby. The group will be in St. Louis in November to play Jazz at the Bistro.
* From the "miscellaneous items of interest" file: Another issue of veteran jazz critic Bill Shoemaker's fine e-zine Point of Departure is now online.
* And finally, the Wall Street Journal had a nice profile of jazz discographer Tom Lord, whose research has yielded a lot of interesting info, including what must be the definitive list of the most-recorded jazz songs:
"Mr. Lord's database shows 1,675 versions of "Body and Soul," making it the most recorded melody in jazz history. New Zealand disc jockey John Joyce used Mr. Lord's latest CD-ROM to break out a list of songs logging more than 500 recordings.
He found 70 in all, 12 of which surpassed 1,000 versions. Following "Body and Soul" are "St. Louis Blues" (1,628), "Summertime" (1,358), "Sweet Georgia Brown" (1,302), "Take the A Train" (1,201) and "Round Midnight" (1,184)."
2 comments:
Terrific site! I can't believe I didn't see it until yesterday. My son studied a bit with Mr. Bluiett in the Metro High improv classes, which was a great experience. I need to read through all of your information, which will take a while. Do you list middle and high school jazz band concerts? There have been some great ones in the past few years alone. I'll send you all of the scheduling info I find, in case you want it.
Best wishes, and a link to you from my St. Louis-based blog, Jim http://nearlynothingbutnovels.blogspot.com/
A pity: Summertime is by far the most performed and recorded song of the ones mentioned here. The Summertime Connection (an internatonal group of collectors of recordings of Summertime) knows a 23 March 2009 8.55 gmt of 27,935 performances of which 20,430 have been recorded. Of these TSC has 14,585 full recordings in its collection.
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