It's spring, and while birds are gathering material for their springtime nests, little kids have been out hunting Easter eggs, and the St. Louis Cardinals search for a couple of healthy starting pitchers, yr. humble editor has been doing the hunt-and-gather thing all over the Internet, collecting items of interest about musicians from St. Louis, coming attractions, recent visitors, and so on:* First, someone's actually come up with a new twist on the well-worn notion of a tribute to Miles Davis, as NYC's Town Hall will host the world premiere of "Miles From India: Celebrating the Works of Miles Davis" on Friday, May 9. The concert and a forthcoming two-CD set will feature an ensemble of Davis alumni and Indian classical and jazz musicians reinterpreting compositions associated with the trumpeter, including “All Blues," “Spanish Key," “So What," and “Jean Pierre." Also on the Miles front: From OperaToday.com, of all places, a review of of the recent book Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post-Bop; and from the NY Times Book Review, a brief review of The Miles Davis Reader.
* Catching up with some other famous St. Louisans, we learned that Clark Terry will perform with the Kansas City Youth Jazz Orchestra on May 3 and 4 at Unity Temple in downtown KC. Terry also has a new big band record with drummer Louis Bellson, Louie & Clark Expedition 2, reviewed by Jack Bowers for AllAboutJazz.com here.
* Saxophonists and former St. Louisans Greg Osby and Oliver Lake are each the subject of a volume in a new series of 12 books called "Photonality", in which photographer T.E. Priemon "uses the medium of jazz music integrated with the properties of photography to create visual music compositions."
* Speaking of Lake, here's another review of his recently reissued CD Zaki. Also, Lake's band Trio 3, with bassist Reggie Workman, drummer Andrew Cyrille and special guest pianist Geri Allen, did a weekend at NYC's Jazz Standard earlier this month.
* Meanwhile, saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person recently performed at Edinboro University in Erie, PA
* Verve has just reissued Oliver Nelson's Fantabulous, a 1964 session recorded in Chicago featuring Nelson, Phil Woods and Jerome Richardson on saxophones, plus trumpeters Snooky Young and Art Hoyle, bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Grady Tate. Nelson fans also may want to grab this free download of the song "The Meeting" from his 1961 album Screamin' the Blues.
* Saxophonist John Zorn , who once studied at Webster University, has another new CD release called The Dreamers, and has been doing a series of performances on the East Coast, reviewed here, here and here. DowntownMusic.net also has some recent Zorn photos. (Scroll down and click to see them.).
* St. Louis natives Jack Kent (flugelhorn, keyboards) and Ray Kennedy (piano) will perform for Seton Hall University’s Jazz‘n the Hall series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, April 1.
* Turning to recent visitors, trumpeter Terell Stafford, who just played at Jazz at the Bistro earlier this month, opened for Wayne Shorter at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia
* Another recent visitor to the Bistro, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, was interviewed about creativity and collaboration for the Baltimore online magazine The Urbanite.
* And The Bad Plus, who were at the Bistro in January, were profiled in Philadelphia Daily News, and had a recent performance in New Zealand reviewed by the paper there.
* West Coast jazz blogger LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs has photos and a review of a recent performance by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Marsalis and the JalCO were in St. Louis in February to play the Sheldon Concert Hall. Downs also just did a radio interview with pianist and MAXJAZZ recording artist Mulgrew Miller, which should be showing up soon online in MP3 format here.
* Jazz.com has a new interview with singer Karrin Allyson (pictured), who just came out with a new CD of Brazilian music. Allyson will be in St. Louis in May to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.
* Jazz-fusion band The Yellowjackets, with St. Louis native Marcus Baylor on drums, also will be in St. Louis in May to play the Bistro. Then they'll move on to play June 15 (Fathers Day) at the OC Pavilion.
* Finally, a couple of items that have been making their way around the blogosphere, but are worth checking out if you haven't seen them yet. First, check out this snark-filled look at the record industry's 20 biggest, stupidest mistakes over the years.
* And last but not least, scientists have found that during performance, jazz musicians unconsciously switch off regions of the brain involved in self-censorship, and fire up the area linked to self-expression. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they played a specially-designed keyboard:
"The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, Limb suggests. The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.
“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says (professor Charles) Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”"
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