Jazz at Holmes series sets schedule for Fall 2009

The Jazz at Holmes series of free Thursday night concerts at Washington University in St. Louis has announced its schedule for Fall 2009.

The series kicks off with what seem like a couple of odd musical choices: a jazz tribute to Woodstock, led by guitarist and Wash U director of jazz performance William Lenihan and held outside on Brookings Quadrangle on Thursday, September 10; and the rock/funk/hip-hop band Fresh Heir on Thursday, September 17.

Regarding the former, the news release announcing the series' Fall schedule quotes Lenihan as saying, "The connections between rock music and jazz of the era of Woodstock are many, and not just that which the sonic possibilities of electric and electronic musical instruments brought to the stage. Breaking stylistic boundaries, creating new expressions and symbols of musical thought, whether through Coltrane, Hendrix or Dylan, American popular music had freed itself from its commercial limitations, with audiences fully participating in it's creation. Jazz at Holmes Series is celebrating the music in this spirit of performance."

Color me puzzled. While there's really no disputing the points about the music of the 1960s extending sonic possibilities and going beyond commercial limitations, this statement doesn't really make a connection between Woodstock and jazz, nor does it attempt to describe what the music that's going to be played that night will sound like...so at this point, your guess is as good as mine.

As for Fresh Heir, an energetic young group that mixes 1970s-style funk and contemporary hip-hop, their music doesn't seem to contain much of a jazz influence beyond the occasional background riff played by trumpet and tenor sax. While they may be popular with college students, and for all I know they're probably a nice bunch of fellas, to these ears they seem out of place on the Jazz at Holmes series. (That said, if someone can point me to some examples of their music that shows more of a jazz influence than the selections on their MySpace page, I'd be glad to take a listen...)

Here's the complete Jazz at Holmes Fall 2009 schedule:

Thursday, September 10: William Lenihan leads a tribute to Woodstock's 40th anniversary. (Concert to be held outdoors on Brookings Quadrangle.)

Thursday, September 17: Fresh Heir

Thursday, September 24: Utter Chaos performs music of Gerry Mulligan

Thursday, October 1: Clarinetist Scott Alberici plays music of the swing era

Thursday, October 8: William Lenihan leads a Miles Davis tribute recreating music from Birth of the Cool

Thursday, October 22: Trumpeter Danny Campbell and drummer Maurice Carnes

Thursday, October 29: Ptah Williams

Thursday, November 5: Willie Akins Quartet

Thursday, November 12: William Lenihan leads a Miles Davis tribute featuring "Petit Machins" and selections from In a Silent Way

Thursday, December 3: Drummer Steve Davis, Willian Lenihan and friends

Note that with the concert featuring Davis (pictured), the Jazz at Holmes series continues its recent practice of booking at least one touring musician each semester. Davis is the author of six books about playing drums; has performed and recorded with musicians including Bill Evans, Lynne Arriale, Benny Golson, Richie Beirach and John Pattitucci; and served as visiting professor of jazz studies at the Berlin Conservatory of Music. He'll play with a group of St. Louis musicians led by Lenihan, who, with major roles in four of the semester's concerts, will once again be a frequent presence on stage in the series as well as an important one behind the scenes.

All Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public. Holmes Lounge is located in Ridgley Hall, on the west side of Brookings Quadrangle near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. For further information, call Sue Taylor at 314-862-0874 or email staylor@wustl.edu.

#jazzlives Twitter campaign to draw attention, demonstrate support for live jazz

The latest eruption of the recurring "is jazz dying? controversy, prompted in part by a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (see previous posts here and here for more) got veteran jazz journalist Howard Mandel thinking about ways to demonstrate the current vitality and diversity of jazz music.

Last week, Mandel emailed an assortment of jazz journalists and broadcasters, websites, bloggers, and presenters, including yr. humble StLJN editor, saying in part:

"Is the audience for jazz aging and diminishing, as Terry Teachout wrote in the Wall Street Journal recently? I don't believe it and don't think you buy it completely either, despite the NEA's 2008 survey data.

I think that survey overlooked a significant segment of the vital audience for live jazz today, and propose a small social networking experiment, asking tech savvy listeners to tweet #jazzlives, who & where, in 140 characters.

If you're a Twitter user, all you have to do participate is 1) Write in a Tweet WHO you heard and WHERE (venue, locale, whatever fits); and 2) MOST IMPORTANT, be sure to include the hashmark #jazzlives.

EXAMPLE: I heard Vanguard Orch at Tanglewood, super! #jazzlives
EXAMPLE: I heard Hank Jones, solo at Detroit Int JF, mighty fine #jazzlives

Include links to your blog or website in your Tweet if you like, like this --

EXAMPLE: I heard Eubanks 5 be great at Blue Note NYC, full revu at www.HowardMandel.com #jazzlive

That's it. These initial tweets will seed the project by getting the #jazzlives out there and giving us some initial content for our widget. We hope this will build to a noticeable surge. Could we get as many tweets and postings as there were people at Woodstock?

Please note: Tweets with #jazzlives are NOT intended to publicize upcoming events or for comments on recordings you're listening to, but rather for reports on LIVE jazz you've actually heard recently. If you heard it live over the radio, that counts!"

The #jazzlives Twitter campaign got underway this weekend, and you can see some of the tweets so far on the campaign's widget, which has been installed over on the StLJN sidebar and will remain there for as long as seems appropriate. (If you'd like a copy of the widget for your own blog or Web site, you can grab the code here.) Yr. humble editor also will be setting up a Twitter account this coming week, the better to participate in the campaign and also to use the burgeoning tweetosphere as another way to make accessible StLJN's regular content.

Meanwhile, if you have a Twitter account, you can take part immediately by sending a tweet that includes #jazzlives, who you heard most recently, and where (venue and/or locale). (For the Twitter novice: Hashtags like "#jazzlives" are a way of marking keywords or categories in Twitter messages (or "tweets") so that they show up in searches. You can send a tweet from any phone that sends text messages, or use a computer to post from the Twitter website.)

There are a number of potentially Tweetable jazz events in St. Louis over the Labor Day weekend, including the opening of the fall season at Jazz at the Bistro, with clarinetist Scott Alberici and pianist Reggie Thomas; the St. Louis Jazz Club's annual picnic, to be held at Concord Farmer's Club with music from the St. Louis Stompers, the Jazz Club All-Stars and The St. Louis Banjo Club; and even the Big Muddy Blues Festival on Laclede's Landing, which will feature a set from a local all-star group of jazz players on Saturday, the funk/jazz/instrumental R&B of the Oliver Sain Revue on Sunday, and much more.

So, jazz fans in and around St. Louis and environs, here's your chance to get out there, hear some live music, and then tell the world via Twitter and #jazzlives. StLJN will have further updates on the #jazzlives campaign as more developments occur...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Three views of Chris Botti

This week, we've got three videos featuring trumpeter Chris Botti, who's returning to St. Louis to perform on Friday, September 18 at the Fox Theatre.

First up is an undated clip of "Streets Ahead," the sort of pop/funk tune that was a mainstay for Botti early in his career. More recently, the trumpeter has turned to jazz standards and the Great American Songbook, resulting in performances like the version of "Someone To Watch Over Me" found in the second embedded window, in which Botti shows off his pleasing tone and ability to interpret a melody.

As Botti has enjoyed more commercial success, he's become involved in bigger-budget projects like his recent PBS special "Chris Botti In Boston," which features a number of guest stars from pop and classical music and premiered in February of this year. The third clip is from that special, and shows Botti and violinist Lucia Micarelli performing a tune called "Emmanuel," which, though it may sound semi- classical, was written in 1970 by the French composer Michel Colombier for his symphonic rock/pop album Wings.

More on the potential sale of KFUO, changes at WSIE

The fate of classical music, jazz, and local St. Louis arts coverage on radio station KFUO (99.1 FM) remains in doubt, as the station's owners consider whether or not to sell.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller has been doing good work on this story since rumors of a possible sale first surfaced back in March of this year. She summarized the current situation in a blog post here:

"The board of directors of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod met last Thursday and Friday. According to Vicki Biggs, the LCMS’s director of public affairs and media relations; the KFUO committee made its presentation on whether to sell its license to Joy FM, a Christian rock station, for $18 million.

“No decision was made,” said Biggs. She said the committee would “continue to do its work,” and is expected to make an announcement toward the end of this week.

Since Joy FM does not have the money, sources say the LCMS would have to finance the sale itself. The station has never been advertised, and the negotiations with Joy FM have been secret.

Some discussions were held between Omaha attorney Kermit Brashear, a member of the LCMS board who is in charge of selling the station, and the Radio Arts Board, but those broke down over what seem to be personality issues. The Arts Board grew out of the Circle of Friends, a philanthropic group which has raised over $800,000 to support KFUO-FM and its programming over the last two years."

(For more, including links to Miller's previous coverage of the story, see this post and this post. )

FOX 2 News reporter Charles Jaco also had a story last weekend about the potential sale, which can be viewed online here, and the Post's editorial page has chimed in with a somewhat wishy-washy editorial here. (By "wishy-washy," I mean that while it is sympathetic to classical music fans who don't want to lose their favorite station, there doesn't seem to be an explicit call for KFUO's owners either to retain the current format or to sell to someone who will.)

St. Louis area jazz fans have an interest what happens because KFUO also is the home of Don Wolff's long-running program "I Love Jazz," which last year began airing Friday nights on the station. As of this writing, there's been no announcement on the ultimate fate of KFUO, but when the news breaks, we'll have something on it here at StLJN.

UPDATE - 5:00 p.m., 8/28/09: The Post has just published a story by Miller headlined "Lutheran Church votes to continue KFUO sale talks" that reads in part:

"No timetable was given, and the special board committee headed by Omaha lawyer Kermit Brashear is charged with pursuing negotiations to "continue the uninterrupted broadcast of the 99.1 classical format in the St. Louis market," according to the announcement, which is posted at lcms.org. But the board also gives Brashear's committee "absolute and sole discretion" for a sale, without further consultation of the full board of directors."

...which would seem to indicate that a sale could be consummated at any time. You can read the whole article here, and the statement about the KFUO sale issued today by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and quoted in the story is here.

Meanwhile, over across the river in Edwardsville, the St. Louis area's only all-jazz station, WSIE (88.7), appears to have laid off all of its local hosts for weekday programming. Rumors regarding possible changes at WSIE have been flying since May, when news leaked that the university had formed a committee to study station operations. In response, WSIE listeners started a Facebook group called "Save 88.7 The Jazz Station," which has grown to more than 1,300 members.

Not long after the Facebook group was formed and StLJN ran the post linked above, the Alestle, the campus newspaper at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, on May 27 published a story by Rosie Githinji with the headline "No News is Good News for WSIE."

The piece quoted university officials as saying they intended to continue the jazz format at WSIE, but also included a rather telling quote from station general manager Frank Akers: "WSIE is one of a few major public stations in the United States without a fund raising staff," Akers said. "While it seems very easy to just get on the air and ask for money, in reality, it takes several fulltime employees, which WSIE does not have, to organize and do the paperwork associated with such fund raising."

Now it appears WSIE is dumping most of its local programming, as longtime air personalities Ross Gentile, EB Stevenson and Bob Pelc all have been removed from the schedule, according to a post by Stevenson on the "Save 88.7" Facebook group. (As this is written, the program guide on the station's Web site still lists all three as hosts of their respective former programs.)

Writing under his real name Eric Bueneman, Stevenson had sounded a glimmer of hope in a posting earlier this summer on the Facebook group's Wall, writing that, while station employees were bring put on unpaid leave, "I am scheduled to return as early as August 24; that date will depend on what the University does."

The post appears to have been removed, but it went on to say that "The station was transferred from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Department of Marketing and Communication on July 13, 2009. There are no plans to change the format at the station; an advisory committee is being formed to see how they can make WSIE an even more effective Jazz station, as well as an effective marketing tool for SIUE, especially their Department of Jazz Studies.

However, another member of the group, Aaron, writing on July 2, found a University spokesperson to be evasive: "The Public Affairs Dept at SIUE had stated that a decision would be made by July 1 about the future of WSIE and whether there'd be a change in format. I just spoke to Beth in that Department. To say that she was evasive would be a gigantic understatement. She said it's up to the Chancellor to make a final decision and that the "Committee" has issued their report to him and he will make a decision based on that report. When I asked her how will we the public know a decision has been made? She said there will be an announcement. I said, "Great! Where can we get that announcement? Newspaper? Internet? TV station?" She said she really doesn't know. "

Then on August 20, Stevenson wrote, "I will not be returning to the air at WSIE, as anticpated, on August 24. Live and local weekday programming will end on August 21 when Bob Pelc does his last show on the station. It appears that Human Resources at SIUE is also keeping GM Frank Akers in the dark about who gets to come back to the station and who doesn't. It appears I may have worked my last shift at WSIE; if SIUE doesn't let me return, I will be retiring from the radio business."

Stevenson confirmed his departure from the station and SIU-E in a discussion board post today.

So what's really happening at WSIE? Is the station simply going to put more syndicated programs in the time slots formerly occupied by local hosts? Or is this a prelude to a more drastic change of some sort, like a format flip? This definitely seems to merit further inquiry, so please stay tuned in the coming days as yr. humble StLJN editor attempts to ferret out a bit more information.

Jazz this week: "A Night of Jazz Greats" with Clark Terry; Eastern Blok; free outdoor concerts; and more

Vacation season is winding down, and there are a number of noteworthy jazz and creative music performances over the next few days in St. Louis, including several free concerts. Let's take a look at the shows in chronological order:

Tonight, saxophonist Willie Akins and his group will give a free concert as part of a city-sponsored series at O'Fallon Park.

On Friday evening, the Chicago-based ensemble Eastern Blok will perform in the Saint Louis Art Museum's Grigg Gallery in a free show that's part of the Museum’s "Art After 5" series. That same night, Jazz St. Louis is holding a fundraiser spotlighting the work of local artist Russell Kraus at Jazz at the Bistro.

The biggest event of the weekend is on Saturday, when "A Night of Jazz Greats" comes to Harris-Stowe State University. The concert, which benefits the Wolff Jazz Institute at Harris-Stowe, will feature trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry (pictured) along with an all-star band including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, tenor saxophonist Houston Person, trumpeter Randy Sandke, drummer and vibes player Chuck Redd, pianist Rossano Sportiello, bassist and singer Nicki Parrott, and drummer Eddie Locke, as well as St. Louisans Jim Widner on bass and Denise Thimes on vocals. For more on the event, Clark Terry, and the other musicians who will be performing, see these two posts.

Also on Saturday, there's a triple bill of electronic and experimental music at Open Lot, 1310 South 18th Street, featuring two acts from southern California - the cello and electronics duo Pedestrian Deposit and solo ambient electronics performer Infinite Body (aka Kyle Parker) - plus St. Louis electronic musician Joe Raglani, who, after getting his equipment stolen on tour earlier this year, has assembled a new arsenal of machines.

Update - 8;30 p.m., 8/27/09: Just got an email from Open Lot saying that Infinite Body will not be performing, so Saturday night's bill now includes Pedestrian Deposit; "power drone" group Earn (aka Privy Seals); St. Louis' The Lonely Procession; and "if you're lucky, a collaboration between RAGLANI (St. Louis) and TREETOPS!"

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday the Missouri History Museum's Twilight Tuesdays series features a free outdoor concert from singer Denise Thimes.

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar. However, note that if you look more a couple weeks into the future, you'll see that last week's promised mega-update of the calendar has yet to happen. There are several reasons for for the delay which will become clear in the very near future, but in the meantime, please be patient and know that there is indeed work going on to bring you an improved and up-to-date calendar of St. Louis jazz events.

Emmy nomination in hand, Don Wolff's I Love Jazz is ready for a second season on HEC-TV

An episode of the HEC-TV series I Love Jazz, hosted by longtime St. Louis DJ and jazz advocate Don Wolff, has been nominated for a local Emmy Award in the category of "Special Event Coverage (other than news or sports) Live or Edited" by the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The nominated episode, "I Love Jazz Live," was a combined production of I Love Jazz and HEC-TV LIVE and originally was cablecast last October from the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on the campus of Washington University.

Using the Museum's then-current "Birth of the Cool" exhibit as a jumping-off point, the episode explored the interactions of jazz music, art and architecture during the 1950s via an interview with Michael Murawski of the Kemper Museum and music from an ensemble led by guitarist and Wash U faculty member William Lenihan. As host, Wolff shares the Emmy nomination with John Baker (Producer/Director), Kim Sturm (Technical Director), Dennis Riggs (Executive Producer), Tim Gore (Producer/Co-Host) and Madeline Dames (Associate Producer).

NATAS Mid-America is one of 19 regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and includes television markets in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois, plus neighboring cities in Kentucky, Iowa and Louisiana. This year's Emmy winners will be announced at a banquet to be held Saturday, October 3 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown.

In addition to the Emmy nomination, I Love Jazz recently received four Telly awards, which recognize local, regional, and cable television programs and commercials; video and film productions; and work created for the Web. The "I Love Jazz Live" episode won two Silver Telly awards (the competition's top honor) in the categories of Cultural and Live Event, while an earlier episode featuring singer Jeanne Trevor and Dave Venn won Silver Tellys in the Cultural and Entertainment categories.

Associate producer Madeline Dames said I Love Jazz will kick off its second season on Thursday, September 3 with a program featuring pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True and pianist/singer Curt Landes.

Other episodes in the new season will feature singer Denise Thimes (pictured with Don Wolff), taped in June at the Sheldon Concert Hall; guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli, who was recorded in April at the Touhill Performing Arts Center; and performances from "A Night of Jazz Greats," the benefit concert for the Wolff Jazz Institute featuring Clark Terry and an all-star band that will be held this coming Saturday at Harris-Stowe State University.

In addition, Dames said the I Love Jazz team also has produced another program called A Conversation with... that features an hour-long interview between Wolff and pianist Peter Martin. This show, recorded last summer at Jazz at the Bistro, also will premiere during September.

I Love Jazz can be seen on HEC-TV at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays and 8:00 a.m. Saturdays; HEC-TV is found on Channel 26 on Charter Cable and Channel 99 on AT&T's U-Verse network. Episodes of the program also can be downloaded for free by visiting http://www.hectv.org/ or from Apple's iTunes U. (Look under the "Beyond University" tab, then go to "H" for HEC-TV).

Regarding the latter, Dames said that I Love Jazz is the HEC-TV program most frequently downloaded from iTunes. In July, the show was featured in the "Hot News Headlines" section of the home page at Apple.com, resulting in more than 47,000 Web visitors and more than 15,000 free downloads of I Love Jazz episodes and its companion curriculum.

(Edited after posting to fix a typo.)

New book by Kevin Belford chronicles pre-WWII history of St. Louis blues

St. Louis artist and author Kevin Belford, who has made local musicians a frequent subject of his work over the course of his career, has a new book coming out that chronicles St. Louis blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s.

Issued by St. Louis-based Virginia Publishing, Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St. Louis is a coffee-table book recounting the stories and songs of legends including Peetie Wheatstraw, Henry Townsend, St. Louis Bessie and many other pre-World War II era performers.

The product of years of research, the book is illustrated with Belford's original paintings, plus vintage photographs and other material he unearthed during his digging. As a bonus, there's also an accompanying CD of rare recordings of St. Louis blues legends, produced by former St. Louisan Bob Koester's label Delmark Records.

Devil at the Confluence is scheduled for official release in September, and Belford will be doing a number of promotional events, the most ambitious of which would seem to be a one-night-only showing of the paintings from the book, to be held from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 on Friday, September 11 at Mad Art Gallery.

Other planned events include a signing at the Big Muddy Blues Festival downtown over Labor Day weekend; another at Webster Records during the Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival on Saturday, September 19; and two more later in the month at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups and the Blues City Deli. For more info, check out the blog Belford has set up in conjunction with the book's release.

Known among local music fans for his posters of St. Louis jazz legends and blues performers, Belford has worked as a freelance illustrator doing advertising, corporate art, and editorial illustration for books and for print media such as The Sporting News, the St Louis Post Dispatch, St Louis magazine, and the Riverfront Times. His previous books include The Ballpark Book (for The Sporting News) and the children's books Amazing Arthur Ashe, Spirit Of A Champion and Twist Of Fate-The Miracle Horse Of Longmeadow Ranch.

History Museum schedules fall Twilight Tuesdays concerts

The Missouri History Museum has announced the musical lineup for their fall 2009 Twilight Tuesdays series of free outdoor concerts, and there are three shows featuring artists of potential interest to jazz fans.

The New Orleans-style funk/R&B combo Gumbohead will kick off the fall series this Tuesday, August 25, with singer Denise Thimes performing the following week on Tuesday, September 1. The Legacy Jazz Quintet also will appear in the series, reprising their tribute to Miles Davis' album Kind of Blue on Tuesday, September 22.

Non-jazz performances will include the Rhythm Rockers (September 8), Dr. Zhivegas (September 15), the Fabulous Motown Review (September 29) and Boogie Chyld (October 6).

All concerts are free and open to the public, and take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. outside the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Listeners are encouraged to bring their own lawn chair and/or blanket. In the event of inclement weather, concerts will be rescheduled to a later date. For more information, you can call the Twilight Tuesdays hotline after 3:00 p.m. on concert days at 800-916-8212.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Previewing "A Night of Jazz Greats"

This week, let's look at video clips featuring some of the musicians who will be in St. Louis next Saturday, August 29 to perform in "A Night of Jazz Greats" at Harris-Stowe State University.

The concert, a benefit for the Wolff Jazz Institute at Harris-Stowe, will be headlined by St. Louis native Clark Terry and emceed by Don Wolff, for whom the Wolff Jazz Institute is named. Joining Terry on stage will be an all-star group of musicians from all around the country, plus St. Louis' own Jim Widner on bass and Denise Thimes on vocals.

Fittingly, given his stature as hometown hero and elder statesman of the group, Terry was featured solo in this space last week. Today's parade of clips will give you looks at all but one of the visitors who will be joining him on stage next Saturday. From the top, you can see:

* Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon soloing on the Ellington/Tizol standard "Caravan", in a performance at the "Trombone Summit" in 2007 at the Dakota in Minneapolis;

* Tenor saxophonist Houston Person, performing "Since I Fell For You' with the David Leonhardt Trio in a outdoor concert recorded in August, 2008;

* Trumpeter Randy Sandke, performing with the New York All Stars and showing his trad chops and authentic feel on "My Pretty Girl" at the 2008 Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in Davenport, IA;

* Drummer and vibes player Chuck Redd, playing with his pianist brother Robert Redd and bassist Tommy Cecil at the Montpelier Arts Center in Vermont;

* Pianist Rossano Sportiello, with a hyper-caffeinated rendition of "After You've Gone" from the 2007 Jazz Ascona Festival;

* And bassist and singer Nicki Parrott performing "I Don't Know Enough About You" with drummer Chuck Braman's trio (featuring Art Hirahara on piano) at Sweet Rhythm in NYC.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any performance footage featuring drummer Eddie Locke, though you can see a short clip of him talking about some of the influences on his drumming here.

Jazz St. Louis podcast features interview with Sonny Rollins

Jazz St. Louis has just put online a new interview in their ongoing series of podcasts, one that featurs a conversation between legendary tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford.

Rollins is coming to St. Louis for a concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis on Saturday, September 19 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. You can download the 24-minute podcast or listen to an online stream here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's time once again for a wholly gratuitous plug for StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, which features a different online music video every day, drawn from genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock and experimental.

Recent posts have contained clips featuring John Zorn's Electric Masada, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, Cassandra Wilson, Jimmy Smith, Koko Taylor, Cannonball Adderley, Stevie Wonder, Bill Frisell, Archie Shepp, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tower of Power, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Charles Mingus, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Buddy Guy, McCoy Tyner and Gary Bartz, Joey DeFrancesco, Diamanda Galas and John Paul Jones, Curtis Mayfield, Pharoah Sanders, and Bill Evans.

You can see them all, plus hundreds more from the archives, by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Jazz this week: Special "dog days" edition

It's the dog days of August here in St. Louis, and so we've got at least one more comparatively slow weekend in store before jazz concert and club activity begins to ramp up again. Next weekend brings "A Night of Jazz Greats" to Harris Stowe State University; Jazz at the Bistro resumes Labor Day weekend with clarinetist Scott Alberici, and after that, we're into September, with a number of shows scheduled that have already stirred up lots of interest, including Sonny Rollins at the Touhill and Chris Botti at the Fox.

But let's get back to this weekend. With many summer series wrapped up, fall series yet to begin, and no touring performers of note scheduled here for a few days, it's a good time to check out one or more of the recurring weekly gigs around town, like Dave Stone's Friday night hit at Mangia Italiano, Willie Akins' long running Saturday matinee at Spruill's, or the New St. Louis Jazz X-Tet's regular Sunday night session at Riddle's. You'll find all of these and a bunch more recurring gigs featuring local musicians listed on the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

Note: If you should encounter a minor glitch in calendar operations, it may be because yr. humble editor will be taking advantage of this relative lull in jazz concert action over the next several days to update the calendar with all the fall-season schedule information received so far here at StLJN HQ. In the meantime, as always, if you're wondering what's going on with a particular venue or musician, you can always check out their site directly by following the links over on the sidebar.

Once the calendar mega-update is complete, I hope next week to have not only the regular weekly highlights post, but also another post with a sort of preview/overview of upcoming jazz and creative music for the entire fall season. Stay tuned.

Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club meeting set for Tuesday, September 8

Jazz St. Louis has scheduled the next meeting of its CD Listening Club for 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 8 at Borders, 1919 S. Brentwood Blvd in Brentwood.

The featured CD for September will be Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus, which will be played in its entirety and discussed by JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and celebrity guest Glenn Zimmerman, meteorologist for St. Louis Fox affiliate KTVI (Channel 2). Rollins is scheduled to perform in St. Louis on Saturday, September 19 in a concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Admission to the CD Listening Club is free, but because space is limited, those interested in participating are asked to reserve a spot in advance by calling Kedra Tolson at 314-289-4034.

(Edited 8/20/09 to fix an incorrect date.)

Notes from the Net: Kind of Bloop and other Miles Davis tributes; Oliver Lake on NPR; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* This past Monday, August 17, marked the 50th anniversary of the actual release date of Miles Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue, and so there's been more anniversary coverage in the press of the sort that we've been seeing off and on all year. Over at the online magazine Slate, they've got a video piece by Kim Gittleson about the best and worst uses of Kind of Blue in the movies, and Fred Kaplan has written an article with audio samples called "Kind of Blue: Why the best-selling jazz album of all time is so great."

I enjoy Kaplan's writing, and he's usually pretty savvy, as demonstrated in yjr linked piece by his noting the influence of the late George Russell's theories of modes and harmony on pianist Bill Evans and Davis himself. But Kaplan otherwise stumbles on the technical stuff, and gets at least one thing badly, howlingly wrong when he writes of the song "All Blues":

"It has the same feel as the other blues tunes,­­ but listen closely: The horns, blowing harmony in the background, are playing the same notes in each bar; they're not shifting them to follow the chord changes; there are no chord changes. It sounds (hence the album's title) kind of blue."

Now, all you musicians know that "All Blues" does indeed have chord changes; in fact, it's a slight variant of the basic 12-bar blues progression, played as a jazz waltz in the key of G. Also, the horn harmony Kaplan mentions does in fact change (albeit only slightly) with the tune's chord progression. The commenters over at Slate's forum are beating up on Kaplan for this and various other music theory-related gaffes in the piece. Even so, it's an interesting read, and the audio samples are a welcome addition.

Elsewhere on the Miles Davis front, you may recall that back in May, we told you about a forthcoming tribute album called Kind of Bloop, which would feature songs from Kind of Blue done in the low-fi electronic music style known as "8-bit" or "chiptune." Well, Kind of Bloop (pictured) was released this week; you can now hear audio samples over on the project's official site here, and read an interview, done by blogger Kevin Nguyen, with some of the people responsible for the kind-of- bloopage here.

Also, Marc Myers of JazzWax reviews new the new reissue of the 1950s sessions featuring Davis and Sonny Rollins here; and the Jazz Institute of Chicago just featured former a Davis sideman in a concert called “Sketches of Brazil: Robert Irving III's Orchestral Homage to Miles and Gil," presented last week at the pavilion in Millennium Park. In conjunction with the concert, the Chicago Cultural Center hosted a panel called “50 Years from Sketches of Spain to Sketches of Brazil: A Symposium on the legacy of Miles Davis & Gil Evans" moderated by guitarist Fareed Haque and featuring Irving, Wallace Roney, Vince Wilburn Jr. (nephew of Miles Davis), Miles Evans (son of Gil Evans) and others.

Lastly on the Miles Davis beat, the sports site Fanhouse had a moderately amusing short this past week called "Miles Davis vs. Darius Miles, " described thusly: "During the NBA's slow days of summer, Mirror Mirror examines the connections between hoops stars and similarly-named figures of historical note." Hard to understand how they missed that both men grew up in East St. Louis, though.

* Turning to news of other former St. Louisans, saxophonist Oliver Lake's Organ Quintet was featured recently on NPR's JazzSet program. The broadcast of a 2007 show recorded at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC features a version of the band with Lake, his sons Gene on drums and DJ Jahi Sundance on turntables, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, and organist Jared Gold. A slightly different lineup, featuring Oliver Lake and trumpeter and East St. louis native Russell Gunn, will play at Jazz at the Bistro this December 16-19.

* Another famous alto sax player from St. Louis, David Sanborn, is headlining the Amelia Island Jazz Festival near Jacksonville, FL this weekend.

* Pianist Tom McDermott, another St. Louis expat now making his home in New Orleans, was the subject of a very nice feature story this past week in the New Mexico alt-weekly Alibi.

* Opening the "frequent visitors" file, guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, who will be back at the Bistro next April, is the subject of the latest "Jazz Perspectives" podcast interview over at the Web site Jazz Corner. You can grab the .mp3 file directly here.

* Pianist Cyrus Chestnut, another Bistro favorite who's also returning to St. Louis next April for a gig at the Sheldon Concert Hall, is featured in the new episode of the online multimedia music series "Jazz It Up."

* And one of StLJN's sentimental faves, singer Tony Bennett, who performed at the Fox Theatre here in May, just played the historic Newport Jazz Festival; here's a review of the show written by Rick Massimo of the Providence (RI) Journal.

* Finally, the recent "death of jazz" piece from the Wall Street Journal (linked and commented upon, with skepticism, here) continues to generate responses from jazz musicians, critics and journalists. Pianist/composer and broadcaster Ramsey Lewis chipped in his .02 with a letter to the WSJ's editors, noting that jazz is "too important to be allowed to slip into obscurity" and suggesting possible remedies ranging from a different approach to concert billings to changes in musicians' dress and demeanor.

Meanwhile, Rifftides' Doug Ramsey observes that "the de-emphasis and, in many cases, elimination, of arts education in public schools has done enormous damage to audience-building for music, literature, theatre and the visual arts. There are many more contributing factors, including the spread of instant communication with the result that young people are conditioned to instant gratification rather than slow, deep appreciation. That is a worldwide cultural and societal problem."

Most recently, the New York Times' Nate Chinen has an article that makes some good points about the difficulty of labeling genre-blurring styles, examines young audiences for jazz in NYC, and offers some information about previous versions of the NEA study cited in the WSJ article.

MFLA seeks donations of musical instruments, cash

The good folks of Music for Lifelong Achievement (MFLA) are just about ready to launch their annual drive to collect donated musical instruments, which will be held this year from September 11 to October 11.

MFLA is a not-for-profit organization based at the Sheldon Concert Hall that seeks donations of used and new musical instruments, then donates the instruments to school and community music programs serving disadvantaged young people. MFLA also raises funds for instrument repair and musical accessories. From the news release:

"Throughout the drive, all St. Louis-area Starbucks stores will serve as drop-off locations for used and new musical instruments. The donated instruments will then be repaired and distributed to local schools and community music programs serving aspiring music students who otherwise would not be able to afford an instrument. Over the past five years, MFLA/Starbucks instrument drives have collected over 500 instruments which have been recycled to St. Louis City and County school districts and a variety of community music programs.

You can help in two ways. If you have a used musical instrument, you can donate it at any local Starbucks location, including St. Charles, O’Fallon and the Metro East. In addition to a tax-deduction for the value of the instrument donated, you will also receive a coupon for a free Starbucks beverage! If you don’t have an instrument to donate, your cash donation will help pay for necessary repairs of donated instruments, as well as accessories such as strings, reeds and sheet music."

For more information or to make a donation, call The Sheldon at 314-533-9900 or visit www.supportmfla.org. MFLA will provide a thank you letter to serve as a tax deduction receipt for the value of the instruments or funds donated.

(Edited 9/2/09 to fix a typo.)

Fundraising events to combine jazz, visual art

Two St. Louis not-for-profit presenters have announced upcoming fundraising events involving jazz and the visual arts.

Jazz St. Louis will present a meet-and-greet and art sale with artist Russell Kraus on Friday, August 28 at Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave. The 91-year-old Kraus is a St. Louisan who's known both as a graphic designer - he created the famous red and white logo for Budweiser - and for his work in posters, jewelry, mosaics, and paintings.

Kraus will be showing and selling about 30 of his works at the event, which begins with a private reception at 7:00 p.m. and opens to the public at 8:00 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Jazz St. Louis' education programs. To RSVP, call Melissa Jones at 314-289-4037 or send email to melissa@jazzstl.

Meanwhile, the Sheldon has scheduled "ArtSounds: Blues & Bling," described as "an exciting interactive music and art event" for 7:00 p.m. Thursday, November 19 at the Sheldon Art Galleries.

The event will feature the premiere of "a new blues-based composition by Sheldon Executive Director and composer Paul Reuter, performed by acclaimed jazz and blues singer Kim Massie," as well as cocktails, hors d’ouevres and dessert. Upper level patrons also will receive a commemorative limited-edition signed bottle of wine with label design by Berlin artist Jessika Miekeley.

Tickets for the Sheldon's "ArtSounds" event range in price from $75 to $500, and can be purchased by calling Lauren Schwartz at 314-533-9900, ext. 17. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Sheldon Art Galleries' educational programs.

(Edited 8/25/09 to fix typos.)

Board of directors to debate KFUO sale this week

"The board of directors of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will debate selling radio station KFUO-FM when it meets this week, with the fate of classical music broadcasting in St. Louis hanging in the balance," begins the story by Sarah Bryan Miller in this Sunday's edition of the Post-Dispatch.

"The leading candidate to buy KFUO (99.1 FM) appears to be Joy FM, a listener-supported Christian contemporary station," the story continues. "A sale to Joy would rebuff a group of local civic leaders who raised money to buy the station and keep it playing classical music...The church committee charged with studying a sale will meet this week, before the full board's regular quarterly meeting Thursday."

While the sale and conversion of KFUO to another format would indeed be a mortal blow to classical music broadcasting in the St. Louis area, local jazz fans have an interest in the status quo, too. That's because KFUO also is the home of longtime St. Louis DJ and jazz advocate Don Wolff's "I Love Jazz" program, which moved to Fridays on KFUO last year after a long run on Saturday nights on KMOX (1120 AM).

Though she neglects to mention Wolff's program, Miller's article otherwise does a good job of chronicling the reactions and viewpoints of many of the interested parties, including the Lutheran Church, which owns KFUO; the St. Louis Symphony, which has a contract with KFUO to broadcast certain concerts; and the group of classical music supporters who are trying to purchase the station with the intent of preserving the current format. Read the whole thing here.

UPDATE - 11:00 p.m., 8/17/09: Since filing the story linked above, Miller has added a couple of blog entries on the KFUO situation: one with a reader poll, and another with some audio files of the prospective purchasers discussing their plans.

(Edited 8/18/09 to fix some formatting problems.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Clark Terry

This week's videos feature the great trumpeter and flugelhorn player Clark Terry, a St. Louis native who (health permitting) will be coming home at the end of the month to headline "A Night of Jazz Greats" on Saturday, August 29 at Harris-Stowe State University.

The concert, which benefits the Wolff Jazz Institute at Harris-Stowe, will feature Terry along with an all-star band including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, tenor saxophonist Houston Person, trumpeter Randy Sandke, drummer and vibes player Chuck Redd, pianist Rossano Sportiello, bassist and singer Nicki Parrott, and drummer Eddie Locke, as well as St. Louisans Jim Widner on bass and Denise Thimes on vocals.

Today's clips showcase Terry in three different musical contexts. First up is a duo performance of the Duke Ellington standard "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" with bassist Red Mitchell - especially appropriate since Terry spent much of the 1950s with the Ellington big band.

After leaving Ellington, Terry went on to become the first African-American staff musician at NBC, spending another decade as a member of the Tonight Show orchestra. The second clip features a return appearance on the show circa 1980, for which Terry, encouraged as always by the jazz-loving Johnny Carson, played a couple of uptempo spotlight numbers with the band.

Last but not least is a rendition of one of Terry's signature songs, "Mumbles," taken from his 2007 appearance on PBS' Legends of Jazz. Even if you've heard him do it many times, it's still almost impossible not to crack a smile at Terry's mush-mouthed scat singing.

Though the 88-year-old Terry has suffered some well-publicized health problems, spending time in the hospital last year for heart surgery and again early in 2009 for an infected finger, the latest reports have him on the mend. Here's hoping his health is good enough to enable him to make the trip to St. Louis. Long may he mumble!

UPDATE - 3:00 p.m., 8/21/09: Got an email from Don Wolff, who relayed the good news that Clark Terry is well, has been cleared to travel to St. Louis, and has confirmed that he'll be at Harris Stowe State University to perform on August 29.

Eastern Blok to play free concert on Friday, August 28 at Saint Louis Art Museum

The "pan-cultural ensemble" Eastern Blok (pictured) is returning to St. Louis to play a free concert at 7:00 p.m. Friday, August 28 in the Saint Louis Art Museum's Grigg Gallery. The performance is part of the Museum’s "Art After 5" series, which features free concerts from solo and ensemble musicians on the fourth Friday of each month.

Based in Chicago, Eastern Blok "blends classical and jazz music with the rich folkloric traditions of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia." The group, which last performed in St. Louis in November 2007 at Pop's Blue Moon, includes guitarist Goran Ivanovic, saxophonist and flute player Doug Rosenberg, bassist Matthew Ulery and drummer Michael Caskey. Ivanovic also has played here before as a solo act, at the now-closed Finale Music and Dining in Clayton. You can see and hear Eastern Blok performing a song called "Gates to the Unknown" in the embedded video window below.

For more information about the "Art After 5" series or the Saint Louis Art Museum, call 314-721-0072 or visit www.slam.org.

SLSO will "Swing, Swing, Swing" on Friday, October 9

Via a post by classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller on the Post-Dispatch's Culture Club blog: The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will perform the music of Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, and Glenn Miller at an “SLSO Presents:” concert called “Swing, Swing, Swing” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9 at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 N. Grand Blvd.

Victor Vanacore (pictured) will be the guest conductor for the evening, and members of the A Tall Order dance company also will perform at the concert. Tickets are $20 to $75 and can be purchased online at www.slso.org, by phone at 314-534-1700, or in person at the Powell Hall box office.

United Way raising funds with Erin Bode performance, auction of tickets to Jazz at the Bistro

Singer Erin Bode (pictured) will be the featured entertainment at a charity event benefiting the United Way to be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Saturday, August 29 at Chandler Hill Vineyards, 596 Defiance Road in Defiance, MO (about 15 minutes west of Chesterfield.)

"Chocolate, Wine and All That Jazz" will kick off the fall campaign for the United Way's Tri-County Division, which serves St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties. In addition to music from Bode and her band, the event will feature wine and chocolate tastings and hors d'oeuvres.

Tickets are $55 per person or $100 per couple and can be purchased online at www.stl.unitedway.org or by calling 636-939-3300. All tickets must be purchased in advance. and only 300 tickets will be sold. (United Way also will be accepting donations of non-perishable food items from attendees at the event.)

On a related note, the United Way is selling a package of four tickets to Jazz at the Bistro as part of its annual online auction, which this year runs through August 20. The four tickets have an "estimated market value" of $160, and can be used for any performance between now and May 31, 2010. For more details on the Jazz at the Bistro ticket package or to place your bid, go here. To see all the items in this year's United Way online auction, go here.

The United Way funds nearly 200 health and human service agencies located throughout a 16-county area in Missouri and Illinois, serving a total of more than one million people in our community.

Funky Butt Brass Band releases debut CD

The Funky Butt Brass Band has self-released their debut CD, Cut The Body Loose.

The disc (pictured) has 14 tracks, including two originals from the St. Louis-based sextet, spanning "trad jazz to Chicago blues to down-and-dirty funk that'll make your backbone slip -- plus a few aural surprises."

Cut Your Body Loose currently is on sale at the band's gigs, or tracks can be downloaded at www.digstation.com. The FBBB also plans to make the CD available for download and mail order at CDBaby in the near future. In the meantime, you can hear some samples via the audio player on the home page of the Funky Butt Brass Band's Web site.

City sponsoring free jazz concerts Wednesdays in O'Fallon Park

This just in: The City of St. Louis is sponsoring a four-week series of free Wednesday night jazz concerts at O'Fallon Park. Alas, StLJN is a little late to this one, as the series kicked off last night with a performance by the Bosman Twins, but there are still three shows left to go.

On Wednesday, August 19, the featured performers will be the Jeff Anderson Quartet with singer Edie Bee., followed by concerts from saxophonist Willie Akins' group on Wednesday, August 26, and singer Denise Thimes (pictured) on Wednesday, September 2.

The concerts start at 6:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. O'Fallon Park is located at the intersection of West Florissant and Harris in north St. Louis

Jazz this week: Hamiet Bluiett opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doran and Corey Christiansen at The Gramophone; and more

Though we're still in what's generally the slow season of the year for jazz in St. Louis, there are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this week featuring nationally known musicians with ties to the St. Louis area.

On Friday, the highly acclaimed baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett, who was born and still lives in Brooklyn, IL, opens the new venue Robbie's House of Jazz (in the former Cookie's Jazz and More location at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster Groves), accompanied by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar (pictured) and bassist Curtis Lundy.

The Bluiett-El'Zabar-Lundy ensemble also will perform at the club again on Saturday night, and both evenings should be nice opportunities to hear three world-class musicians adept at playing both inside and outside the changes up close in an intimate setting. For a bit more about Robbie's House of Jazz and its owners Dorothy and Robert Edwards, see this post from last week.

Also notable is the show next Tuesday at The Gramophone, when guitarists Matthew Von Doran, who moved to St. Louis a couple of years ago, and Corey Christiansen, a former St. Louisan, will team up for a duo performance, backed by bassist Bob Deboo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt. As mentioned in this post announcing the show, Von Doran and Christiansen are good friends, and the combination of their personal rapport and contrasting styles - the former leaning toward fusion, the latter tending more traditional - should make for some entertaining listening.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit 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. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Edison Theatre offering online presale of tickets for Ovations series

Washington University's Edison Theatre is offering a special online pre-sale of single tickets for shows in its 2009-10 Ovations series. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, August 17, but can be purchased online now by going here and entering the promotion code OVATIONS9.

In addition to theatre and dance, the Edison's 2009-10 season will include concerts by percussion ensemble ScrapArtsMusic, Latin/jazz group Tiempo Libre, and Abraham Inc., a funk/jazz/hip-hop/klezmer group featuring clarinetist David Krakauer, trombonist Fred Wesley, and DJ Josh Dolgin (aka SOCALLED).

Notes from the Net: A tribute to Miles Davis and Gil Evans; new CDs from Terence Blanchard and John Patitucci; plus news, reviews, interviews & more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* A group including former Miles Davis drummer Jimmy Cobb, Gil Evans' son Miles Evans, Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Howard Johnson and Peter Erskine recently gathered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles for "Miles Davis/Gil Evans: Still Ahead" a concert paying tribute to Davis' and Evans' collaboration on the albums Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead and Porgy and Bess. Here are reviews of the show from Variety and the Los Angeles Times

For more Davis-related reviews, see this piece from AllAboutJazz.com's John Kelman on the recently issued DVD That's What Happened: Miles in Germany 1987, and this post from Rifftides' Doug Ramsey reviewing new CDs, including the recent reissue compilation of Davis' and Sonny Rollins' 1950s sessions.

And, via The Miles Davis Movie, we learn that actor Don Cheadle said during a recent press appearance at ComicCon in San Diego that he still hopes to do the proposed Hollywood biopic of Davis.

* The group Trio 3, which includes saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, this year has issued two CDs , At This Time and Berne Concert; you can read a new review of both albums, written by Clifford Allen for AllAboutJazz.com, here.

* Saxophonist/composer (and onetime Webster U. student) John Zorn's Tzadik label has several new releases this month, including one by Zorn himself called O'o.

* Trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who was in St. Louis in May to play at Jazz at the Bistro, has signed with Concord Jazz and is releasing a new CD, Choices

* Bassist John Patitucci (pictured) who will play the Bistro next spring, also has released a new CD on Concord. You can read a review of Patitucci's Remembrance from the UK Independent here, and hear audio streams of sample tracks here and here.

* Bassist Christian McBride, who's also coming to the Bistro for a four-night run in November, recently was interviewed on The Jazz Session podcast. Rifftides' Ramsey also has a take on McBride's new CD Kind of Brown here.

* The Bad Plus' pianist Ethan Iverson and basssit Reid Anderson recently teamed with avant-bop drummer Paul Motian for some dates at NYC's Village Vanguard, reviewed by the New York Times' Nate Chinen here. The Bad Plus will return to St. Louis in January to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

*Lastly, the Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout has gotten some attention in the jazz blogosphere and elsewhere for a recent article entitled "Can Jazz Be Saved?" that draws some gloomy conclusions based on the National Endowment for the Arts’ latest Survey of ­Public Participation in the Arts. Fortunately, in an entry on his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog, the ever wise Howard Mandel already has refuted most of the rather tired arguments contained in the piece, noting that critics have been trying to write obituaries for jazz for at least 60 years now.

What struck me about Teachout's article is that he just now seems to be noticing that much ongoing jazz activity has moved from the commercial sphere associated with popular music into the not-for-profit world of concert halls, universities, and arts presenters, a trend that's been ongoing for decades. His principal prescription - that jazz musicians need to embrace the Internet and new media to build a new, younger audience - isn't particularly original either, although he's not wrong about it. All in all, I'd say Teachout's article seems notable more for simply having appeared in a high-profile media outlet than for the quality of the thinking and/or argument contained therein.

(Edited after posting to correct a typo and revise a reference to AllAboutJazz.com.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Catching up with the "Saxophone Colossus"

Today's video showcase spotlights the great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who's coming to town to perform in a concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis on Saturday, September 19 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

There's lots of Rollins video material available online, including many vintage clips as well as a bunch of recent interviews and short documentary-style pieces, many of them done for Rollins by Bret Primack, aka the Jazz Video Guy. You can see those pieces by following the links to Rollins' and Primack's respective sites; for the purposes of this post, we'll concentrate on some relatively recent performance footage, the better to give a taste of what the tenor titan's concert here may be like.

On top, we have Rollins playing one of his most famous compositions, the calypso-flavored "St. Thomas," in a performance from October 2008 at a music festival in Brazil. There's a lot of room ambiance in the audio for this clip, but it's listenable enough, and it gives a nice visual perspective on the interactions of Rollins and his band members.

Next up is a Rollins unaccompanied solo rendition of "In a Sentimental Mood," recorded in 2007 in Brussels. Finally, there's a clip with some excerpts from Rollins' performance last August at the JVC Jazz Festival; the tunes excerpted include the title track from his most recent CD, Sonny, Please, along with "Someday I'll Find You" and "Global Warming."

Corey Christiansen, Matthew Von Doran to perform at The Gramophone on Tuesday, August 18

This just in: In another welcome development during this relatively slow time of year for live jazz in St. Louis, guitarists Corey Christiansen (pictured) and Matthew Von Doran will team up for a performance at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18 at The Gramophone.

Christiansen and Von Doran are old pals who have worked together before; in fact, Von Doran bought and now resides in the Webster Groves house that Christiansen vacated when he left St. Louis to move back to Utah in the fall of 2007. Tickets for their August 18 performance, which also will include bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt, will be $5 at the door.

Unfortunately, this will be the last Tuesday night of jazz music at The Gramophone for now, as the club has ended the Tuesday night series of free shows that it co-presented with Jazz St. Louis. "We tried for almost 18 months and just could not get people out on Tuesday, even for free," said co-owner Andrew "Roo" Yawitz via email. "I hope to continue to feature jazz at The Gramophone, just not as a weekly event." For now, the club will be closed on Tuesdays except for touring acts and local special events like the Von Doran/Christiansen show. Regular business hours at The Gramophone will continue from 8:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.

(Edited after posting to add the last two sentences. Edited again on 8/11/09 to add the correct bass player and drummer for the show.)

Robbie's House of Jazz to open Friday, August 14 with Hamiet Bluiett

The corner storefront at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster Groves once known as Cookie's Jazz and More is getting a second life as a jazz club starting next weekend.

Robbie's House of Jazz, operated by Dorothy and Robert Edwards, will have a "soft opening" this weekend for friends, family and neighboring businesses, and will open to the public on Friday, August 14 and Saturday, August 15 with performances by baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett (pictured). Dorothy Edwards says the club also will have a grand opening celebration sometime after Labor Day.

Robert Edwards, a trombonist who's now retired from a career as band director at Normandy High School, will book the music for the club, while his spouse serves as owner/manager. Edwards' ensemble will provide music for the soft opening, and once things are up and running, plans are to feature musicians such as saxophonist Ron Carter, trumpeter Melton Mustafa, singers Denise Thimes, Larry Hamilton and Mae Wheeler, and pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson.

Dorothy Edwards says while they've redecorated with new paint, drapes and pictures, they've
kept the space in the same basic configuration as when it was Cookie's, which closed in December 2008. As was the case with Cookie's, the club's liquor license is for beer and wine only, augmented by a menu including coffee, tea, juices, soft drinks and appetizers. Ms. Edwards says that in addition to featuring jazz on Fridays and Saturdays, they plan to book occasional shows during the week and also to make the space available for business and community meetings and fundraisers.

Hamiet Bluiett will perform starting at 8:15 p.m. on Friday, August 14 and Saturday, August 15. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling 314-968-5556. Robbie's House of Jazz - which is named after Dorothy Edwards' jazz-loving mother, and not, as some might guess, a nickname for her husband - has a Web site in the works, but not yet online; when it goes up, we'll have the link for you right here.