Saturday, September 01, 2007

StLJN Saturday at the Movies:
Marty Ehrlich live in Bruges,
plus some vintage Defunkt





This week, our video spotlight shines on two more native St. Louisans with ties to the original Black Artists Group. Saxophonist and clarinetist Marty Ehrlich was still a teenager when he took part in BAG's workshops for young musicians; since then, he's gone on to have a busy career as a performer, recording artist and composer, based now in New York but playing all over the world.

The two clips on top are excerpted from a concert that took place in January, 2006 in Bruges, Belgium, and show Ehrlich in a quartet format with pianist James Weidman, bassist Brad Jones and drummer Allison Miller.

Down below, we have some footage of trombonist/vocalist Joseph Bowie and his band Defunkt, recorded in 1983 for a British television show. The younger brother of trumpeter Lester Bowie, Joseph Bowie formed Defunkt after moving to New York in the late 1970s. He took BAG's notion of mixing free jazz and funk, cranked it up to 10 and ran with it, helping to define a sound that some dubbed "punk funk".

Defunkt and Bowie are seen here performing one of their best-known early tunes, "Avoid The Funk," along with "Mind Control," which was composed by trumpeter John Mulkerin but not officialy recorded until 1986. Joseph Bowie continues to gig, mostly in Europe, with the current version of the group.

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