StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Fontella Bass and the Cinematic Orchestra, plus Bobby Watson in "Cowtown Riff"

While this week's videos both have a St. Louis connection, both are something a little different than the usual live performance clips featured here. First up is the music video for "All That You Give," the 2002 collaboration between the Cinematic Orchestra and St. Louis singer Fontella Bass. The song was a fair-sized hit in the UK and Europe, and five years later, the group is releasing a new CD, once again featuring Bass' vocals.

The second video clip is called "Cowtown Riff," and it's from an experimental student documentary featuring saxophonist Bobby Watson, the former Jazz Messenger who teaches at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Watson will be in St. Louis in April for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, and in this clip, he talks about jazz in Kansas City.

Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival will feature Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, Bobby Watson, Mike Metheny and Steve Wiest

The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, which will take place this year from Wednesday, April 18 through Saturday, April 21, has announced its 2007 lineup of guest artists, including Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, saxophonist Bobby Watson (pictured), trumpeter Mike Metheny and trombonist Steve Wiest.

The festival is presented by the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Jazz St. Louis, and will include clinics and workshops for student musicians, as well as a night of guest artist performances at Jazz at the Bistro and two concerts at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

It all starts on Wednesday, April 18, when members of the UMSL jazz faculty will appear with Watson, Metheny and Wiest for two shows at Jazz at the Bistro. Then the action shifts to the TouPAC, where on Friday, April 20, Watson, Metheny, and Wiest will perform in concert with the UMSL Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Jim Widner. The festival then wraps up on Saturday, April 21 with a concert by Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band.

For more information about Wednesday’s performance, visit the Jazz St. Louis Web site. For more about Friday and Saturday's concerts, see the TouPAC web site.

Below, you'll find a couple of embedded videos featuring Goodwin and the Big Phat Band. The first shows them backing singer Dianne Reeves on Goodwin's arrangement of "Too Close For Comfort," and the second is a promotional video for the band's recent CD/DVD "The Phat Pack".

PBS program to feature Clark Terry

St. Louis native Clark Terry (pictured) will be one of the featured performers on next week's episode of the PBS program In Performance at the White House, airing locally on KETC-Channel 9 at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4

The kickoff episode for the show's 14th season is billed a salute to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and features the trumpet legend along with Anita Baker, Nnenna Freelon, Lisa Henry and saxophonist Bobby Watson. The show will be replayed on Channel 9 at 1:00 a.m. Friday, April 6 and again at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 8.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you can't get enough o' that YouTube online-music-video goodness, be sure to check out StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds. There's a new music video every day, from a variety of genres including jazz, blues, funk, soul, classic rock, prog rock and experimental.

Recent videos have included clips of Wilson Pickett, Billie Holiday, the Fireworks Ensemble performing Zappa's "G-Spot Tornado," Santana, Thelonious Monk, Jaco Pastorius with the Gil Evans Orchestra, Gentle Giant, Blood Sweat & Tears, Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars, Jon Hendricks, Miles Davis, Brian Auger and the Trinity, Dexter Gordon, Axiom featuring Bootsy Collins, Kool & the Gang, and John Lurie and Nana Vasconcelos, plus a six-part BBC documentary on Harry Partch. To see all this, plus much more, click on over and visit Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Next year's coming attractions include Bennett, Gazarek

In a recent post about Tony Bennett's upcoming appearance in St. Louis at a benefit for the American Liver Foundation, it was noted that only a relatively small number of fans would be able to attend, and further hoped that Bennett would soon make an appearance here in a larger venue with less stratospheric ticket prices.

Well, ask and ye shall receive, for it's now showing up on Pollstar that the singer has scheduled a concert on October 27, 2007 at the Fox Theatre. True, most shows at the Fox command a relatively steep ticket price, but even so, Bennett's show probably won't cost anything near the $500 a head they're getting for those benefit tickets, and given that the FOX holds several thousand people, it means a lot more folks will have a chance to see the show. No word yet as to when tickets go on sale, but watch this space for further updates.

The latest news from Pollstar also gives us another glimpse at what Jazz St. Louis has planned for the 2007-08 Jazz at the Bistro season, as it indicates that singer Sara Gazarek (pictured) has been booked to play a four-night stand at the club February 13-16, 2008.

It's a little surprising that a relatively new perfomer like Gazarek would get a four-night run, as she seems like a prime candidate for a "Discovery Series" two-nighter. But name recognition aside, Gazarek is a real talent and it's good to see her getting a shot in our city's showcase room. To my knowledge, she's only played St. Louis once before, performing at Finale in October 2005, not long after the release of her first CD. I wrote a Critic's Pick for the RFT about that gig which summed up my impressions of her and the CD, and you can read it online here.

As always, we must remind you that Pollstar's information has a tendency to change, and shows announced there should not be considered confirmed until officially announced by the venue or presenter.

Thomas Memorial Scholarship concert to be held Friday, April 6

The second annual concert to benefit the Leon and Curtis Thomas Memorial Scholarship Fund will be held at 8 p.m. Friday, April 6 at the East St. Louis High School Auditorium, 6901 State St.

The concert and scholarships honor the memories of singer Leon Thomas, an East St. Louis native who performed with Count Basie, Santana, Pharoah Sanders, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and others, and his brother Curtis, a community activist. The money raised goes to scholarships for college-bound students from East St. Louis High School, the alma mater of both Leon and Curtis Thomas.

Featured performers at this year's show will include pianist Reggie Thomas, tenor saxophonist Willie Akins, drummer Steve Tatum, trombonist Kevin Ward, bassist Ben Wheeler, tenor saxophonist James Warfield Jr. and singer Gloria Brand. East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene B. Redmond, an English professor at Sourthern Illinois University -Edwardsville and a high school classmate of the Thomas brothers, will serve as master of ceremonies, and Sherman Fowler will also read poetry.

Tax deductible tickets for the concert are $20 and may be purchased by contacting Harvey Jackson c/o Jackson & Associates, 4800 State St, East St. Louis, Illinois 62205-1355; or by by calling Harvey Jackson at 618-274-0928 or Earl Jackson at 618-910-2687.

Metheny interview now online

Pat Metheny (pictured) will be in St. Louis next Wednesday, April 4, to play the Sheldon Concert Hall with pianist Brad Mehldau, and Post-Dispatch freelancer Dan Durchholz has an interview with the guitarist in today's paper. Read it online here.

BAG II announce spring concerts

The Black Arts Guild aka BAG II has announced a series of free performances this spring at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site. From their news release:

As promised BAG II (Black Arts Guild) has confirmed its lineup and proudly presents the spring season April 6 – June 20th with a dynamic lineup of creative artists – mark your calendars now!

Friday, April 6th: The Group* featuring Thomasina Clarke- the spontaNubian/vocals
Friday, April 20th: Poetry Month Celebration – host Shirley LeFlore
Saturday, May 12th: The Group featuring poet Michael Castro
Saturday, May 26th: The Group featuring Ariel Kenyatta, tenor saxophone
Friday, June 1st: The Group and an exhibit of visual art featuring paintings and collages
Saturday, June 30th: The Group and Open Mike – Express Yourself Night!

* The Group features Zimbabwe Nkenya/Bass & Mbira; Jerome “Jay Dubz” Williams/ Saxophones, and Glen “Papa” Wright/ drums.

All events are from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Scott Joplin House Rosebud Cafe, 2658 Delmar Blvd , St. Louis and admission is free.

Zimbabwe Nkenya is back in the St. Louis area following a 20-year career in New York and the southwest where he became known as New Mexico ’s foremost jazz bassist. Glenn ‘Papa’ Wright tours throughout the country as an artist-in-residence presenting percussion and multi-media performance work for school and community audiences. J-Dubbs is one of the St. Louis area’s premiere saxophonists, long known for his ability to produce the big sound and tone, with a blues edge and beyond...

...Shirley Leflore is considered to be the queen mother of performance poetry in St. Louis. From her work with BAG in the 1960’s and 70’s Shirley went on to present her work at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, on tour in Europe, and as a successful performance artist on the New York scene. Shirley is putting together a line-up of stellar poets that will truly honor and celebrate National Poetry Month. Included will be a reunion reading by Blue-Mashibini, a duo active in St. Louis in the early 1980’s, reunited and in the process of putting together a collection of their work for print.

For more information call Scott Joplin House at 314-340-5790; Thomasina Clarke at 314-535-8824; or email: bag_blackartistsgroup@yahoo.com

Jazz this week: John Scofield Trio, Dr. John, Ann Hampton Callaway and more

Guitarist John Scofield brings his trio (pictured) to St. Louis for a four-night run at Jazz at the Bistro, with two sets per night beginning tonight and continuing through Saturday. Scofield ranks among the top jazz guitarists working today, and he's been a fairly frequent visitor to St. Louis, performing here most recently last December with Medeski, Martin and Wood at the now-defunct Misssissippi Nights.

While Scofield's quartets and larger groups have tended to be more structured and often, more funk-oriented, his playing in a trio format is expansive and unpredictable, especially when he's working with Bill Stewart on drums and the estimable Steve Swallow on electric bass. That's not to say that Scofield won't bring the funk - it's too much a part of his concept for him to avoid it completely - but without a keyboard or second guitar playing chords behind him, or another front-line soloist to support, he's got more room to roam, and the trio format also allows for a more elastic approach from the rhythm section as well.

You can hear a concert by Scofield, Stewart and Swallow recorded in 2005 in Australia, in RealAudio or Windows media format here; for more, see the embedded video at the bottom of this post, which features some audience-member footage of them playing "Over Big Top" in 2004 at the JVC Jazz Festival in NYC.

Speaking of funk, famed New Orleans pianist/vocalist Dr. John is playing at the Argosy Alton Casino on Friday and Saturday, but if you don't already have tickets, you may be out of luck, as both shows are billed as "sold out." I don't know if the good Dr. balked at doing two shows a night, an occasional practice for touring acts playing at the former Alton Belle, but given his popularity in these parts, I'd bet he could have sold out at least one more show, maybe two.

Another singer and pianist, Ann Hampton Callaway, is also in St. Louis this weekend, performing Friday and Saturday nights with the Gateway Men's Chorus in a benefit show called Dreamboys at the Roberts Orpheum Theater. From the description , this production sounds like it emphasizes Callaway's Broadway-style singing skills rather that her more intimate, swinging cabaret style, but since she has a substantial fan base in St. Louis, it is duly noted here anyway.

Other notable performances this weekend: On Thursday night, pianist Carolbeth True brings her trio to Cookie's Jazz and More, while singer Jeanne Trevor performs at Brandt's; and on Saturday, singer Anita Rosamond returns to Finale Music and Dining with "Cabaret - My Way" while trumpeter Randy Holmes and his Quintet stage a tribute to Duke Ellington at Cookie's.

As always, there's more, so please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar for an expanded list of this week's gigs.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. No attachments, please.)

April is Jazz Appreciation Month

Did you know that April is officially Jazz Appreciation Month, as declared by no less an authority than The Smithsonian Institution?

Neither did I, but thanks to some nameless-yet-thoughtful government employee who sent me an email addressed to "Dear Friend of Jazz," I've learned that "Jazz Appreciation Month (or JAM), a cultural initiative led by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, is intended to draw public attention to the glories of jazz as both an historical and a living treasure. The idea is to encourage musicians, concert halls, schools, colleges, museums, libraries, and public broadcasters to offer special programs on jazz every April."

The Smithsonian got involved in jazz back in the early 1970s, when the multi-LP set The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz became an unexpected best-seller. These days, "The Smithsonian operates the world’s most comprehensive set of jazz programs–it collects jazz artifacts, documents, recordings, and oral histories; curates exhibitions and traveling exhibitions; operates its own big band, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra; publishes books and recordings on jazz; offers fellowships for research in its collections; and offers concerts, educational workshops, master classes, lectures, seminars, and symposia. Launching JAM is consistent with the Smithsonian’s 30-year record of leadership in jazz."

So far, I'm not aware of any specific plans by St. Louis institutions to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month, but if any are announced, StLJN will have word for you right here. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian Web site has more information on local jazz societies and events in other parts of the country, as well as more information on JAM as well as some other jazz resources. There's also a poster (pictured), featuring an image of Louis Armstrong by artist LeRoy Neiman, available for download as a .pdf file.

Mel Bay Records to release Vignola Plays Gershwin

St. Louis-based Mel Bay Records has yet another jazz guitar CD scheduled for release on April 17.

Vignola plays Gershwin showcases veteran guitarist Frank Vignola interpreting the music of George Gershwin. The CD features 14 of the composer’s most popular tunes, all recorded on July 21, 2006 at Music Masters Recording Studio in St. Louis. Vignola was joined on the recording by Joe Ascione on drums, Tom Kennedy on bass and Corey Christiansen on guitar.

Shapiro grades "American Idol"

The Boston Herald recently asked Jan Shapiro, the St. Louis native who heads the vocal jazz program at Berklee College of Music, to watch an episode of "American Idol" and comment on what she saw. Even if you're not a fan of the popular reality/talent show, Shapiro's critique is entertaining and even instructive, and you can read it online here.

Shapiro will be in St. Louis on Thursday, April 5 to do a free concert as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series and promote her recent self-released CD, Back To Basics.

(Edited 3/26/07 to correct the date of Shapiro's St. Louis concert.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: John Scofield does "Cissy Strut," plus Louis Armstrong's "Basin Street Blues"

Both of this week's featured videos tie in to shows that will be happening in St. Louis next week. The first clip shows guitarist John Scofield, who will be performing at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday through Saturday. He'll be playing in a trio setting next week, but this clip shows him in a quartet with Dennis Chambers on drums, Jim Beard on keyboards and Gary Grainger on bass, working out on a version of the Meters' funk classic "Cissy Strut".

Down under, the second video shows the great Louis Armstrong, who will be the subject of a tribute concert on Tuesday morning at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of their "Coffee Concerts' series. Trumpeter Bob Ceccarini and pianist Pat Joyce will play a number of favorite tunes associated with Armstrong, maybe even including the one shown here, the old New Orleans standard "Basin Street Blues". This version was filmed in 1959 in Germany.

Dirty Dozen Brass Band headed for Harrah's on Thursday, June 7

This just in: New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band has scheduled a performance in St. Louis on Thursday, June 7 at the VooDoo Lounge located in Harrah's St. Louis Casino.

While this event isn't yet listed on Harrah's Web site, it is showing up on Pollstar, JamBase and other online resources for tour schedule information, and at least one online ticket broker seems to already be taking orders.

Pollstar predicts piano performances

If for some reason you're interested in, but can't attend, the upcoming shows by Brad Mehldau (at the Sheldon with Pat Metheny on Wednesday, April 4) and/or Ahmad Jamal (at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, April 25 through Saturday, April 28), it looks like you'll get another chance to hear both men play St. Louis in 2008.

That's because the oracular online entity known as Pollstar has recently revealed that Mehldau now is scheduled to play the Bistro from April 9 - 11, 2008, and Jamal is set to perform at the Sheldon on January 26, 2008. In semi-related news, blues pianist/vocalist Marcia Ball also will be making a return trip to St. Louis next year, to play at the Sheldon on January 11.

These bookings are, as best I can tell, the first public inklings of next year's season schedules at both venues, and thus should be taken with the appropriate measure of skepticism until officially announced.

Still, this kind of back-and-forth between the Bistro and the Sheldon is not at all unprecedented, as jazz performers including Jane Monheit, Freddie Cole, John Pizzarelli and Joey DeFrancesco have appeared at both venues in recent years. I suppose these sorts of recurring bookings are good news for the fans of those particular musicians, and both Mehldau and Jamal are artists who warrant continued attention.

However, artistic quality and/or audience demand notwithstanding, our local not-for-profit presenters' propensity to go back to the same wells is something of a disappointment for those of us who would like to see them embrace as much musical variety and risk-taking as possible. There are, as mentioned before in this space, many prominent jazz musicians who haven't played St. Louis in years, or in some cases, at all. Here's hoping that when the Sheldon and Jazz St. Louis announce their full 2007-2008 schedules, we'll hear at least some of those names, too.

UPDATE - 1:23 p.m., 3/22/07: While I was writing this post, another Pollstar alert came in, revealing that the Sheldon has scheduled a date for San Francisco-based traditional jazz/swing revivalists Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers on November 7, 2007. So, for those of you who are now keeping score, that's one act for the 2007-08 season that, while they may be playing an older style of music, will be something new for St. Louis concertgoers.

52nd City to explore St. Louis' "Sound"

Aficionados of audio esoterica may want to keep an ear out for the next issue of 52nd City, the quarterly St. Louis arts magazine run by Andrea Avery, Thomas Crone and Stefene Russell. That's because this time the magazine, which organizes each issue around a single topic, will actually be a CD, themed "Sound".

The CD will feature an eclectic mix of contributions from performers drawn from St. Louis' music, art and literary communities, albeit with something of a lean toward the white, South Side hipster set. "The piece overall, is a mix of music, experimental noise assemblages, spoken word, the one interview and a piece of a live "radio play," says Crone (via email).

Saxophonist Dave Stone appears twice - once as part of "a long sound collage by Eric Hall," also featuring Jeremy Brantlinger, Fred Friction, Brett Underwood, Jeremy Kannapell, Sunyatta Marshall, Jason Hutto and Derek Mosely; and again backing poet K. Curtis Lyle on "Nut Check". "Also of note is a Josh Weinstein recording of Ornette Coleman, which is an interview on the notion of Sound, which runs about five minutes," adds Crone.

Other contributors include KWMU reporter Tom Weber, doing a spoken word piece; Tony Renner's latest ambient music project, Learn, Artist; Cloister; Julie Dill; Cold War; Robert Goetz; the Mad Art Radio Hour; Heidi Dean; James Weber Jr.; MC401(k); Aaron Belz; and the Private Sector.

52nd City is throwing a release party for the "Sound" issue from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 14 at the Royale, 3132 S. Kingshighway. The event is free, and copies of the CD will be on sale for $8. After that, you can order one through the magazine's Web site, or pick up a copy at Vintage Vinyl, Euclid Records, Dunaway Books, Left Bank Books, Subterranean Books or various other independent retailers and businesses around town.

Denise Thimes headed to NYC for gigs with Clark Terry

St. Louis singer Denise Thimes is headed to New York City to perform next Tuesday through Saturday at the well-known jazz spot the Blue Note with trumpeter and fellow St. Louis native Clark Terry and saxophonist James Moody. The Post-Dipatch's Kevin Johnson devotes a good portion of today's column to Thimes' trip; read it here.

The piece also mentions that Terry will be the special guest star this year at Thimes' annual Mother's Day show at the Sheldon Concert Hall, which will be held on Sunday, May 13. (No word as to when tickets for that event go on sale, but when they do, they'll presumably be offered, as in the past, by Metrotix, the Sheldon's usual vendor.) Finally, Thimes also is set to open for singer Tony Bennett when he performs at the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis for an American Liver Association benefit on Saturday, June 23.

Tony Bennett to perform in St. Louis on Saturday, June 23

Legendary singer Tony Bennett, who has delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years with his mix of jazz, pop and the Great American Songbook, is coming to St. Louis to headline a benefit for the Missouri/Kansas Chapter of the American Liver Foundation on Saturday, June 23.

The event will be held in the Khorassan Ballroom of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, and tickets, as you might expect, are quite expensive: $500 each, with the total sale limited to 1,000 tix. The ticket price includes an Italian-themed, four-course meal and open bar. For more information, you can contact the American Liver Foundation by calling (314) 352-7377 or by email at missouri (at) liverfoundation (dot) org.

I've always enjoyed Bennett's singing, and, to echo Saturday Night Live's loving parody of the man's own sunny sentiments, it's great that he's coming to St. Louis to raise money for a great cause. It's just too bad the show is priced so far beyond the means of the average music fan, but I guess quella è vita.

Webster students cover concerts by Trevor, Karpowicz

The latest issue of the Webster University student newspaper, the Journal, has a couple of articles covering recent jazz events with a campus connection.

You can read an account of Jeanne Trevor's concert with the Webster Symphony Orchestra, held last Sunday, here, and a piece on saxophonist Mike Karpowicz's Monday night concert here.

While reading, keep in mind that these articles are written by students still learning their craft. Still, this passage from the second piece is absurd enough to be kind of funny:

"Adjunct music professor Dave Black played the guitar and the jazz guitar. Though the instruments have different names, Black said there is no difference in the sound. "Style doesn't dictate the structure of the instrument; it's the way you play it," Black said."

Given that music and media communications are two of Webster's most prominent departments, you'd think there would have been someone more knowledgeable - an editor, a faculty advisor, another student with more hands-on experience playing music - who would have spotted this as obvious gibberish and either edited or deleted it. Kind of makes you wonder just what those Webster students are getting for their tuition money...

Craig Hultgren at Focal Point this Sunday, March 25

Cellist Craig Hultgren, who incorporates modern classical music, improvisation, electronics and extended sound-producing techniques into his work, is coming to St. Louis for a solo concert sponsored by New Music Circle at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday, March 25 at the Focal Point, 2720 Sutton in Maplewood. (That's roughly a block south of Manchester.)

Hultgren, who hails from Birmingham, AL, has been a champion of new work for the cello, commissioning and/or premiering more than 50 new new compositions for the instrument over the course of his career. According to NMC's email, "Sunday's program will include works by Mario Davidovsky, William Price, Orlando Jacinto García, Robert Scott Thompson, Mikel Kuehn, and Marc LeMay." The program will also include an improvised work with computer processing and a "video component".

Readers with longish memories may recall that this show was announced last fall as part of New Music Circle's season, but with the location TBA. Today's email from NMC was the first word StLJN has had of it since then - hence, the regrettably tardy nature of our coverage.

Had I been thinking/remembering a little harder when writing yesterday's weekly highlights post, I would have included Hultgren's show. His last St. Louis appearance was in the mid-Nineties when I was administering the NMC concert series, and I found him to be a mensch as well as a very interesting musician. Recommended.

Jazz thie week: SF Jazz Collective, Nancy Kelly, Joe Friedman/Neal Smith Quartet, BAG II, JSL benefit, and more

The highlights post is a little early this week, mostly to call your attention to the SF Jazz Collective, who come to St. Louis to perform Wednesday and Thursday night at Jazz at the Bistro.

An all-star aggregation sponsored by the San Francisco presenting organization SF Jazz and directed by saxophonist Joshua Redman, the Collective (pictured) combines original music with aspects of a repertory band, exploring the work of a different jazz great each year. This year's tour is focused on the music of Thelonious Monk, and the word so far seems very positive. Check out these two reviews of the tour's opening date in San Francisco, and for more more, see these interviews with trumpeter Dave Douglas and the rhythm section of drummer Eric Harland and bassist Matt Penman. StLJN also recently showcased some YouTubage of Douglas and Redman performing with their own bands; see it here.

This may be the last time to hear this particular configuration of musicians, because as mentioned in the press coverage linked above, the Collective will undergo some significant personnel changes after this tour. Redman's going on sabbatical, and will be replaced as music director by saxophonist Joe Lovano. Lovano will take over for the group's summer tour of European festivals and continue at least throuhgh 2010. Meanwhile, vibist Bobby Hutcherson wants to reduce his touring schedule, so Stefon Harris will be filling the band's mallet percussion chair this summer and possibly beyond.

Fortunately, Hutcherson and Redman are still on board for the band's St. Louis dates, along with Douglas, Harland and Penman, plus pianist Renee Rosnes, trombonist Andre Hayward and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon.

It should be noted that this is also the week of the annual benefit gala for Jazz St. Louis, JATB's parent organization. This year's event is being held Friday, March 23 at the Hilton at the Ballpark and features entertainment from the Neville Brothers, who stepped in when previously announced headliner Al Jarreau headed off to tour South Africa and Australia.

With tickets priced at $300 and $500 each - the packages include dinner, drinks and various other amenities - this is not exactly an impulse purchase for most people, but if you'd like to go and haven't reserved a spot yet, I suspect JSL can still accomodate and will be happy to have you. This is their big fundraiser of the year, and a chance to show your support for the organization that is most consistently active in bringing big-name jazz musicians to St. Louis. For more information or to purchase a ticket, call JSL director of development Melissa Jones at 314-289-4037 or email her at melissa (at) jazzstl (dot) org.

While the JSL gala means the Bistro will be dark on Friday and Saturday, Finale Music and Dining will take up any potential slack with the St. Louis debuts of a couple of touring jazz acts this weekend. On Friday night, singer Nancy Kelly checks in for two shows, and on Saturday, it's the Joe Friedman/Neal Smith Quintet, here to promote guitarist and St. Louis native Friedman's first solo CD, Cup O' Joe. (For a taste of Kelly's vocalizing, see this video post from a while back.)

Other noteworthy shows this week include tonight's all-percussion concert featuring the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble and members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, and two free concerts on Friday - one by the Black Arts Guild/BAG II at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site featuring Zimbabwe Nkenya, Jerome "J-Dubbs" Williams and Glen "Papa" Wright, and the other featuring the Carolbeth True Trio performing at the St. Louis Art Museum's Griggs Gallery.

That's about all there's time to discuss today, but make no mistake, there's plenty more jazz and creative music to be heard in St. Louis this week, and, as always, you can see a more comprehensive list of gigs by visiting the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. No attachments, please.)

Brett Stamps featured in News-Democrat

Over the weekend, the Belleville News-Democrat ran a feature by staff writer Teri Maddox about trombonist Brett Stamps, who heads the jazz program at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and recently released his first solo CD. Check out the article here.

Harry Connick Jr. reviewed

Today's Post-Dispatch has a review by Terry Perkins of Saturday's Harry Connick Jr. concert at the Fox Theatre. Read it online here.

Post piece previews percussion presentation

This weekend's Post-Dispatch has a story by classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller previewing Tuesday's all-percussion concert featuring the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble and members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Read it online here.

(Edited after posting to add tags.)

Owsley to discuss St. Louis jazz history at Sheldon on March 27

Local jazz historian and radio personality Dennis Owsley will give a gallery talk on the history of St. Louis jazz at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 27 at the Sheldon Art Galleries. Owsley, who serves as host of KWMU's Sunday night Jazz Unlimited program, is the author of City of Gabriels, a book about St. Lous jazz history released last year by Reedy Press.

His talk is presented in conjunction with the Galleries' current exhibition on local jazz history, which runs through August 25, and will focus on St. Louis' Black Artists Group, the organization that helped launch the careers of musicians such as Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett and many others. The event is free and open to the publc.

Benson, Lewis, Sanchez to headline abbreviated 2007 jazz festival

In an apparent artistic retrenchment paralleling the event's financial and scheduling difficulties, guitarist George Benson, pianist Ramsey Lewis and percussionist Poncho Sanchez (pictured) will be the headliners and only national acts to appear at the 2007 edition of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which this year has been reduced to a one-day event that will be held Saturday, June 2 in Clayton's Shaw Park.

In the past, the two-day version of the event had mixed crossover performers with more musically substantive jazz acts such as saxophonist Joe Lovano, the Dave Holland Big Band, Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Dave Douglas Quintet. Last year's festival, while lacking a major headliner playing straight-ahead jazz, fielded an entertaining lineup topped by St. Louis native David Sanborn, and drew the best crowds in five years.

Unfortunately, it looks like with the loss of an apparently diminished role for former lead sponsor US Bank and the inability to find a suitable replacement, the situation has deteriorated to the point where all that's being offered is a bill that might make a nice summer evening smooth-jazz package at Riverport/UMB Pavilion/whatever-they're-calling-it-these-days. It's not that Benson, Lewis and Sanchez are bad musicians, or lack entertainment value - heck, I own records by all three, and paid cash money to see Benson in concert back in the day. But to book three acts that represent only a tiny fraction of what's going on in jazz today and then call it a festival pretty much makes a mockery of the concept.

As for the local acts announced so far, singers Kim Massie and Jeanne Trevor are both reliable performers with good fan followings, and although both are skilled entertainers, neither could be called particularly adventurous. Somewhat more likely to deliver something novel are trombonist Lamar Harris, a repeat booking from 2006; Latin-jazz group SL Son; or the SIU-Edwardsville Big Band, which presumably may have a few faculty guest stars salted in amongst the student players.

Meanwhile, under the category of "WTF?" bookings, there's the Collin Community College Jazz Band, which apparently will be coming all the way from the jazz hotbed of Plano, Texas for the gig, and, in what seems almost like a purposeful insult to St. Louis musicians who have to work for a living, another group that shall go unnamed here but who are most notable for being fronted by an amateur singer whose wealthy husband is a generous donor to many local arts organizations, including the StLJ&HF.

The Post-Dispatch article by pop critic Kevin Johnson announcing the festival lineup contains a number of attempts by organizers to put the best possible face on things, but the arguments advanced seem unpersuasive:

"Cynthia Prost of Cultural Festivals emphasizes that even though the festival will be one day, the music will not suffer. The event will open three hours earlier than usual to welcome more acts."

In fact, this year will feature fewer hours of music and fewer bands and musicians in total than in the past. So, except for there being less of it, the music won't suffer?

"Whenever you get three performers of this stature on the same stage on the same weekend, it's a tremendous value for anyone who loves jazz."

Unless you happen to be someone who loves traditional jazz, bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, fusion, avant-garde or one of the other styles once again unrepresented in this year's festival lineup, in which case: not so much.

And finally, after a passage about the difficulties negotiating with the city of Clayton for the use of Shaw Park:

"Prost says the new date also is better because the weather probably won't be as hot. It also puts more time between the jazz festival and Fair St. Louis, and it gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

The notion that a jazz festival ought to or does compete for crowds with an event like Fair St. Louis seems profoundly misguided. But let's read that last clause again, because therein lies, as Frank Zappa used to say, the crux of the biscuit: "gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

It's hard not to take that as tacit confirmation of what many in the local jazz community have long suspected: namely, that this event was created not by or for people who truly enjoy and understand jazz, but rather to provide the staff of Cultural Festivals with gainful employment between Art Fairs.

I could go on for several more paragraphs about how the 2007 festival is falling short of what it's been in the past, what it could or should be, what's offered in other cities of comparable size and/or historic musical importance, and what St. Louis deserves. But frankly, I'm loathe to expend all that effort once again writing about an event seemingly relegated by its own organizers to a position of little importance.

Since the mission here is to cover as much local jazz-related news as possible, StLJN will undoubedly revisit the subject again as June 2 draws near, but for now, use the comments to share your thoughts. Are you excited about seeing Benson, Lewis and/or Sanchez? Or are you as underwhelmed by this lineup as yr. humble editor? Does St. Louis deserve a bigger, better, hipper jazz festival? If so, should it be run by an organization dedicated to presenting music, rather than as an afterthought by a group whose primary purpose is unrelated to jazz? The floor is open.

UPDATE - 11:30 a.m., 3/17/06: I see from perusing the festival's newly updated Web site that US Bank is still involved as a sponsor, though their billing has moved from above the title of the event to below it. The original version of this post said they were no longer a sponsor. I regret the error, and have corrected it.

Still, related questions remain. The difference between being above the title and below can be anywhere from a few thousand dollars to, in the case of very large events, millions. If US Bank's new billing is indicative of a reduced financial committment, then it follows that a reduced budget would be one reason for the cutbacks in this year's festival. That's not one of the reasons for shrinking the event mentioned in the Post article. On the other hand, if US Bank and the other sponsors are paying the same as before, where's the financial need to cut back the festival? And wouldn't they be getting less for their money when the event runs one day instead of two?

(Edited after posting to correct the spelling of "Poncho," edited again correct information about festival sponsorship, and edited again to fix some typos. Man, I hate it when a screed goes awry.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: The SF Jazz Collective's Josh Redman and Dave Douglas

This week, let's take a look at a couple of musicians who will be in St. Louis next Wednesday and Thursday to perform at Jazz at the Bistro with the SF Jazz Collective.

The first video features saxophonist Joshua Redman, who serves as the artistic director of the SF Jazz organization. It's a performance clip of Redman fronting his electric band Elastic, with Sam Yahel on organ and Brian Blade on drums, on a version of the tune "Jazz Crimes."

The other two clips - a single performance split into two parts due to YouTube's time limits on user uploads - spotlight trumpeter Dave Douglas, who's making his first tour with the Collective this year after replacing trumpeter Nicolas Payton in the lineup. This video is of Douglas' own quintet in a show last October in Belgrade, with Uri Caine on Rhodes electric piano, James Genus on bass, Clarence Penn on drums and Donny McCaslin on tenor sax.

Alas, there seems to be no video of the Collective itself readily available on any of the online sharing services, but the SF Jazz Web site does offer a very short performance clip recorded in February, which can be launched from the home page via a pop-up window, or downloaded in .mov format here.

Review: Dave Holland Quintet at Jazz at the Bistro

As one of the most critically acclaimed small ensembles in jazz, the Dave Holland Quintet is remarkable not for its virtuoso players or cleverly designed, thought-provoking original compositions, although it certainly has both of those in ample amounts. No, what makes Holland’s band really stand out is the group’s cohesion, developed over years of working together. Their performance during the second set on March 15, 2007 at Jazz at the Bistro was a vivid demonstration of the potential power of a true working band, an entity that’s become increasingly rare in a time when so many jazz projects seem to be all-star one-offs, tribute albums, or groups full of young apprentices backing a famous leader.

What came from the Bistro bandstand on Thursday night was a spirited conversation among equals. As a bassist, Holland has been considered an important musician since he emerged in the late 1960s as a member of Miles Davis' band, and he’s gotten even better over the years, playing with a big sound, rock-solid time and fast reflexes. Holland may have made his name playing music variously labeled “avant garde” or “experimental,” but what can be overlooked sometimes is that he’s also a great groove player. During this set, Holland kept the music firmly anchored, which in turn freed drummer Nate Smith to mix in textural effects, double- and half-time feels, and a lot of other embellishments that, in lesser hands, might have disrupted the flow, but in this case added another layer of interest. Although Smith is the most recent addition to the Quintet lineup, having replaced Billy Kilson last year, he drove the band with absolute authority, showing off some very impressive chops in the process.

Trombonist Robin Eubanks and saxophonist Chris Potter are both longtime members of the Quintet, and over the last decade, both have developed reputations that place them among the top tier of players on their respective instruments. Eubanks built a nice solo on the opener, “Last Minute Man,” and also shone with an extended workout on his own composition “Full Circle,” forging ahead with gusto through the winding chord changes while Holland and Smith worked variations on a funky 6/8 beat that, at one point, sounded a bit like the Weather Report classic “Boogie Woogie Waltz”. Potter delivered some nice asides and obbligatos throughout the set, finally getting an extended solo on the closer “Free For All,” and he made the most of it with a tenor ride that suggested the influence of masters like Trane, Sonny and Michael Brecker without directly aping any of them.

Mallet percussionist Steve Nelson’s marimba and vibes provided the harmonic foundation for the soloists, as well as percussive counterpoint to the drums, and the use of these instruments where most bands would deploy piano or guitar helps give the Holland Quintet a distinctive sound. Nelson (pictured) was featured this set on his own composition, “Amator Silenti,” which began as a noirish ballad in the genre of Monk’s “Round Midnight”. Contrasting fleet solo lines with tart, ringing chords, Nelson started the tune on marimba, then moved to vibes. He was supported at first by deep tones from Holland and some fine brushwork from Smith, who then kicked it into an uptempo swing feel, with Eubanks and Potter soloing simultaneously and Holland’s walking bass urging them all on. The group interplay was outstanding throughout the set, with plenty of dynamics and the sort of spontaneous, momentary discursions that happen only when a group of musicians really know and trust each other.

Another thing that makes these guys fun to watch is that, although they take the music seriously, they were clearly having a good time, too, with lots of eye contact among them all and the leader grinning frequently when pleased by something he heard. Holland also injected an unexpected note of levity into the proceedings when, unable to read his chart for “Full Circle,” he delayed the song first to send Potter upstairs to look for his glasses, then to borrow a pair of readers offered by an audience member, all while cracking jokes about not having memorized the tune yet. It was a charming reminder that while he and his colleagues may be world-class musicians, they’ve also got human frailties and foibles

It’s too bad the economics of the jazz business these days seem to work against the long-term stability of small ensembles, because the music could use many more bands with the collective spirit, skill and musical integrity of the Dave Holland Quintet. If you’re any kind of fan of modern jazz, you've got until tomorrow to get down to the Bistro and check them out before they leave town.

Cincy Post columnist Clooney eats up "Peanuts"

It's always good to see St. Louis musicians making a good impression on audiences away from home, and so in that spirit, check out this recent column in the Cincinnati Post by Nick Clooney, a well-known journalist and TV personality in the "Queen City" who's also the brother of the late singer Rosemary Clooney and the father of actor George Clooney.

It seems Clooney recently caught St. Louis' own Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum in concert in Hawaii, and felt the veteran singer/pianist/saxophonist simply blew away the better-known names on stage that night. He writes about it in a piece titled ""Peanuts" was the gem of the evening," and you can read it here. When he's not on the road, "Peanuts" Whalum continues to perform at Brandt's every other Thursday.

BAG II returns to Scott Joplin House for concert on March 23

Bassist/composer/mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya emails with news that B.A.G. II (Black Arts Guild) will be presenting another concert at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, 2658 Delmar, at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 23.

The event will showcase music from Nkenya, percussionist Glen “Papa” Wright and saxophonist Jerome "J-Dubbs" Williams, and it's free and open to the public. For more information, you can call 314-340-5790 or send email to bag_blackartistsgroup (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Jazz this week: Dave Holland Quintet, Jimmy Cobb, Harry Connick Jr. and more

With spring in the air and St. Patrick's Day coming up, it's not just a great time to be Irish - it's also a fine week to be a jazz fan in St. Louis, with three major names in the jazz world performing in town and several other interesting events going on as well.

Let’s take the headliners in chronological order of shows, starting with the Dave Holland Quintet, who will be playing at Jazz at the Bistro for two sets a night starting tonight and running through Saturday. Holland, who broke into the big time in the late 1960s as a member of Miles Davis’ band, has gone on to become one of the most important bassists, bandleaders and composers in jazz. He also leads a very accomplished and critically acclaimed band, making this gig stand out as a potential highlight of the year. For a preview of Holland’s Bistro appearance, go here, and to see all of StLJN’s previous coverage of Holland, go here.

As fate would have it, another jazz legend known for performing with Miles Davis is also in town this week. Of course, drummer Jimmy Cobb has played with many other giants of the music, but I’m sure his work on Miles’ Kind of Blue is bound to come up when he speaks Thursday afternoon at an open forum/discussion on the SIU-Edwardsville campus. That night, Cobb will give a free concert on campus, playing with some of the local pros from the SIU-E jazz faculty. For more about his talk and the performance, see this post.

The third headliner is singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. (pictured), who’s bringing his big band to the Fox Theatre on Saturday night as part of a tour supporting two recently released CDs devoted to the music of his hometown, New Orleans.

While I can take or leave him as an actor and/or crooner, Connick is at his best as a pianist, bandleader and advocate for New Orleans music and culture, and it seems as if the format for this show will allow him ample opportunity to showcase his considerable skills in those areas. Connick also hires good players, including St. Louis native Neal Caine, who’s been a mainstay on bass for Connick’s large ensemble over the last ten years or so. Given Connick’s crossover popularity, I’m sure the Fox has sold a lot of tickets for this show, but as of this morning, there still seem to be ducats available via their official source, Metrotix, as well as the inevitable high-markup offerings from various brokers.

UPDATE - 8:04 a.m., 3/15/07: The always astute Daniel Durchholz has an article in today's Post-Dispatch about Connick's recent New Orleans-themed CDs, making the case that the pianist's post-Katrina advocacy for his hometown has given his work additional gravitas. Read the whole thing here.

While these three musicians are justifiably the focus of much attention this week, there are, as mentioned above, some other noteworthy events of interest to St. Louis jazz fans. On Thursday, saxophonist Chip McNeil, who teaches jazz up at the University of Illinois’s Champaign/Urbana campus, comes to town to play two shows at Finale Music and Dining. McNeil has worked extensively with Maynard Ferguson’s band as well as many others, and currently gigs and records with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in addition to teaching.

Also worth noting are some locals who are headlining special concerts over the next several days. On Sunday, longtime St. Louis favorite Jeanne Trevor will sing with the Webster Symphony Orchestra in a performance at the Community Music School in University City, and on Monday night, saxophonist Mike Karpowicz will lead his group in a performance at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Going even farther beyond the weekend, on Tuesday night the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble will join Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director David Robertson and SLSO percussionists John Kasica and Tom Stubbs for an all-percussion concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, performing “music from Africa, Cuba, Burma, Bulgaria and the United States.” NPE leader/co-founder Henry Claude is a very creative and resourceful musician, as are his colleagues in the group, and it’s good to see NPE getting a high-profile showcase like this. I just wish they’d perform a bit more often.

That’s certainly a lot of music to absorb in a few days, but if you’d like to know what else is coming up in St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, where you’ll find an extensive list of concerts, club dates and more.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. No attachments, please.)

More on the Live on the Levee lineup

Yesterday's post about the proposed lineup for this year's Live on the Levee concert series has prompted a few comments, and though I've been able to read them all, Blogger is still timing out when I try to post a comment myself. So, I thought I'd use this post to respond to those of you who have taken the time to share your thoughts.

Steve Pick, who many St. Louisans will know as a longtime local music journalist, DJ and record-store employee, and who's also been a good friend to this site, writes in part:

Dean, I think you're right, though I suspect the cause may have to do with who is booking the music. I know the people who worked on the Riverfest [sic] series, and they are interested in a wide variety of musical genres, and aware of a wide variety of audiences. I suspect the current people are limited by their own areas of musical taste.

Yes, when one compares the Riversplash series to Live on the Levee, there are clearly two different sensibilities at work, which raises a couple of points.

First, if Live on the Levee had not been promoted as a successor to Riversplash, my expectations probably would have been a lot lower - heck, I might not have even bothered to post on the subject. But since the current organizers explicitly made the comparison, I think it's fair to judge them by comparing their work to what has gone before. So far, the most significant thing that the two series seem to have in common is the riverfront location.

Second, since the folks who booked Riversplash did what seems to have been almost universally recognized as a good job, why weren't they retained to run the Live on the Levee series as well? If anyone out there knows, please share.

Next, to the fans of Los Lonely Boys who have come here via a link from an LLB fan message board: Welcome, please feel free to look around (and even put your feet up and stay a while if you want), and thank you for sharing your views in a positive, non-vitriolic way.

As I suggested in the original post, I actually like some of what I've heard from the brothers Garza, though I think their songwriting skills currently are not as advanced as their instrumental and vocal prowess. Still, I'll concede that they are capable of drawing a crowd and putting on an entertaining show.

But, as commenter Roo suggests, my point was not to disparage the musical quality of any of the acts mentioned, but rather that, taken as a whole, the proposed lineup for Live on the Levee doesn't reflect the diversity of St. Louis' population or our city's own musical culture and history. I'm not foolish enough to think that such a concert series will conform 100% to my own personal tastes, but to hold these shows in a city with a majority African-American population and not book any jazz, blues, soul, funk or hip-hop just seems wrong to me.

Finally, I like Roo's idea of a concert pairing an older bluesman with a younger hip-hop performer. Combining musicians from different genres that appeal to different age groups can be tricky, but it's the kind of creative thinking I wish the Live on the Levee organizers were doing.

Thanks to all who have commented so far, and please feel free to add more thoughts on the subject if you've got 'em.

UPDATE, 3/13/07, 10:30 p.m. - Since commenters on the previous Live on the Levee post now seem to be leaving messages without actually reading either the post or the linked article, things are getting pretty far off topic. So, I've shut down the comments there in hopes of getting any further discussion back on track here instead.

Los Lonely Boys fans, please note: I get that you like LLB a lot, even if I don't quite share your level of enthusiasm. And folks in St. Louis do know what they sound like - they've received plenty of radio airplay, have been on national television numerous times, and have performed here already a couple of times since their first album was released. Also, Live on the Levee is a free outdoor concert series, as in "free and open to the public," so LLB's ability to deliver value for the ticket dollar is not really relevant in this case.

If you have more comments actually relating to the subject at hand - the overall makeup of the Live on the Levee concert series lineup, and whether or not it reflects the racial diversity of our community and the musical interests of all St. Louisans - please feel free to make them here, in the comments section for this post.

However, if you're just going to post another drive-by message saying how great you think Los Lonely Boys are, and how St. Louis would love them if we just gave them a chance, save your keystrokes. That message has already been received and understood, and there's no need to pile on, OK? Thanks!

(Edited after posting to fix a couple of typos and clarify a sentence.)

Jan Shapiro releases new CD, will perform in St. Louis on April 5

Jazz singer Jan Shapiro, a St. Louis native who heads the vocal jazz program at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, has released a new CD titled Back to Basics, and will return to her old hometown on Thursday, April 5 for a free performance as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series.

Before moving East, Shapiro studied at St. Louis Institute of Music, gigged all around the country using the Gateway City as a base and taught at Fontbonne and SIU-E. She's been at Berklee for more than 20 years, overseeing a dramatic expansion in vocal studies since becoming department chair in 1997.

Back to Basics features Shapiro's interpretations of works by classic songwriters such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Irving Berlin. It was recorded in Boston last year with an ensemble including her Berklee colleagues Tim Ray on piano, guitarist John Baboian, bassist John Repucci, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. It's available for purchase through CDBaby.

UPDATE - 8:15 a.m., 3/15/07: After receiving an email from a reader saying that Shapiro's CD had actually been out for several months, I asked her publicist Terri Hinke about it. Here's what happened: Back to Basics was recorded in May 2006, pressed in October and received what might be termed a "soft" release before the end of the year, without wide distribution but with some local St. Louis airplay on WSIE and on Don Wolff's jazz show on KMOX.

So, if you listen to jazz radio in St. Louis and think you may have heard something from the CD already, you may be right. What's going on now is that Back to Basics is being promoted actively to radio and the press, and Shapiro's schedule now permits some gigs to support the release. The use of word "new" thus may be a slight exaggeration, but it should also be noted that this isn't that unusual, either, especially with self-released works from artists who may have limited time and money for promotion. Thanks to Ms. Hinke for a prompt response, and now (as radio's Paul Harvey might say) you know the rest of the story.

Drum legend Jimmy Cobb to speak, perform at SIU-E this Thursday

Legendary jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member of the ensemble that recorded Miles Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, will be in the St. Louis area this Thursday, March 15 to speak and perform in a free concert on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Cobb will take part in a open forum/discussion starting at 12:30 p.m. in the Dunham Hall Theater at SIU-E, and then that night, he'll perform at 7:00 p.m. in the same place with an ensemble drawn from the university's music faculty, including Reggie Thomas (piano), Rick Haydon (guitar), Tom Kennedy (bass), Jason Swagler (alto sax), Brett Stamps (trombone) and Zeb Briskovich (bass). Both events are free and open to the public.

Thanks to Phil Dunlap for the news tip.

(Edited after posting to correct the time of the evening concert.)

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you're a regular reader of this site, you probably know by now that not too much time can elapse without another post promoting StLJN's sibling site, the music video blog Heliocentric Worlds.

Since the last time we engaged in such blatant self-promotion, HW has featured video clips by Soft Machine, Ellery Eskelin, Sonny Rollins and Don Cherry, Herbie Hancock and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Earth Wind & Fire, Zawinul Syndicate, Grover Washington Jr., Fred Frith and Evelyn Glennie, John McLaughlin and Joey DeFrancesco, Butterfield Blues Band, John Coltrane and Stan Getz, Dave Liebman, Ohio Players, the Clarke/Duke Project and more.

You can still see all of these, plus a different music video a day, every day, by visiting Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com

Another year of missed opportunity for Live on the Levee concert series

What do mayonnaise, a snowstorm, the painted exterior of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC, and the proposed lineup for this summer’s Live On The Levee concert series in St. Louis have in common? If you guessed, “They’re all pretty darn white,” go to the head of the class.

Although the roster of acts booked for series hasn’t been officially announced yet, a story in this weekend’s Post-Dispatch revealed who’s been booked so far, and if you’re a fan of jazz, blues, or St. Louis’ indigenous musical culture in general, the list is a disappointment.

You may recall that the Live on the Levee series, officially presented by an organization called Celebrate St. Louis, originally was announced as a successor to the well-received Riversplash concert series held on the riverfront in 2004. Riversplash included such acts as Branford Marsalis, Medeski Martin and Wood, B.B.King, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Taj Mahal, Steel Pulse and Los Lobos, prompting hopes that Live on the Levee would offer a similar mix of musical styles.

Instead, when the specific lineup was announced, it was a bunch of mid-tier alt-rock bands who hadn’t had any hits for a while and some classic rock bands usually found on the state-fair-and-rib-fest circuit. Later, neo-soul/folkie India Arie and 1980s funksters Morris Day and the Time and Cameo were added, providing just enough blackness to stave off potential complaints that the series’ booking policy was straight-up racist. But fans who had hoped for a mix of music that would reflect a broader cross-section of styles, and perhaps even acknowledge the city’s own musical heritage, were left disappointed.

Contrary to my predictions, the Live on the Levee series did succeed in drawing crowds downtown, and apparently the organizers have taken that as validation to continue in the same direction for 2007. The acts mentioned in the Post story include 1980s pop star Cindy Lauper, country-rock vocalist Emmylou Harris, indie folk-rock singer Ani DiFranco and, in what will apparently be one of this year’s sops to token ethnicity, Los Lonely Boys, the Texas blues-rock band comprised of three Mexican-American brothers.

Now, I have actually enjoyed at least some of the work of all of these artists, so my objections are not necessarily to the musical quality of the acts, but to the stylistic and ethnic diversity of the overall lineup. Where are the musicians that would appeal to the St. Louis area’s large African-American population, tap into its sizeable contingent of fans (of all races) of jazz, blues and other roots music, or that would acknowledge the city’s own musical history? And, to revisit another sore subject, where are the hip-hop artists? St. Louis has produced a number of hitmaking hip-hop acts in recent years, and a show featuring Nelly, Chingy, J-Kwon or other local performers would seem likely to draw a big crowd.

Of course, a large portion of that crowd would likely be young black people, and perhaps the powers-that-be are afraid of that. Hip-hop shows do have something of a reputation for violence, but media hype to the contrary, I’m not convinced that the overall documented incidence of bad behavior is any greater that what you’d find at many other concerts, sporting events, or similar large gatherings of people. The vast majority of people who attend any concert just want to have a good time, and with proper security and crowd control measures in place, there’s no reason why hip-hop should not be part of something like Live on the Levee.

As for jazz and blues, both would tend to attract racially mixed, slightly older crowds – people with money to spend, and who are not, for the most part, at all likely to cause any sort of disruption or public nuisance. If one of the purposes of the concert series is to attract people back downtown, one would think that this would be a desireable audience, especially for a city seeking to shed public perceptions of decay and racial problems.

I’d like to give the organizers the benefit of the doubt, and believe that, rather than being intentionally racist, they are merely operating from a unfortunately limited frame of personal and musical reference. But benign intentions don't excuse a bad result, and for a large public event like this, it’s not enough just to book groups that will draw a crowd, any crowd. The promoters have an obligation to address the interests of the entire community, and in that respect, it looks like Live on the Levee once again is failing music lovers in St. Louis.

I'd like to know what readers think about this. Is the lack of diversity in the Live on the Levee series a legitimate concern, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill here? Please feel free to use the comments to share your thoughts.

(Edited after posting to clean up a couple of typos.)

Dave Holland interview now online

Bassist Dave Holland is bring his Quintet to St. Louis next week for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, and the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson has an interview with him in this weekend's paper; read the online version here.

Holland's band is generally acknowledged as one of most consistently creative small groups working in jazz roday, and given the quality of their work and the attention they've received, most of their gigs these days are in a concert setting. Being able to see them up close in a relatively intimate space like the Bistro is a treat, and one would imagine that having the chance to feel out the room and develop the music over several nights is a welcome development for the musicians, too.

I had a chance to talk with Holland for an article in the Riverfront Times when he brought his big band to St. Louis back in 2003 to play the St. Louis Jazz Festival in Shaw Park. He was a good interview - smart, thoughtful, forthright, and down to earth - and provided interesting information about his approach to composing and arranging. As often happens, due to the inevitable space limitations of print, I had more good stuff than I could use; however, with the caveat that the personnel in his group has changed a bit since then, the piece still holds up pretty well. It's online here.

Site news: Blogger migration, the neverending story of

In the ongoing saga of this site's conversion to the new Blogger, things are still a bit rough. OK, more that "a bit". Posts inexplicably disappear during editing; the service times out or fails to respond in the middle of sessions, and I haven't been able to comment at all.

So, let me use this space to offer a tip of the StLJN cap to commenter Ninja, who points us toward a free download of a track from the upcoming Cinematic Orchestra release featuring St. Louis' own Fontella Bass; and to commenter jocks, who identfies the compositions featured in last week's Greg Osby video clip. Thanks for sharing your info, and I'm sorry I haven't been able to respond in a more timely way. Make no mistake - I like getting comments here, and would welcome more of them.

As for the migration debacle, it's looking more and more like the only way to solve the problem may be to deploy a new/different computer with a clean install of Firefox and Windows as the primary machine for working on this site. In the meantime, I'll continue regular posting to whatever extent is possible under current conditions.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Miles Davis performs "Footprints" and "Jean Pierre"

It's been a while since we've had any video clips featuring Miles Davis, so today's offering will remedy that situation with two videos from two distinct periods in the trumpeter's career.

The first clip is a version of the Wayne Shorter composition "Footprints", recorded live in New York City in 1968. The band is Miles' classic quintet of the 1960s, featuring Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums).

The second video is of a performance of "Jean Pierre," the deceptively simple funk tune that was one of Davis' concert staples during the last years of his life. There wasn't much information included with the clip, but best guess is that it's from the late 1980s.