Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Notes from the Net: Miles Davis' Blue Moment; Clark Terry honored in KC; 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:

* Starting with some Miles Davis news, "We Want Miles," the exhibit about the trumpeter's life and work first staged last year in Paris, has now opened in Montreal. We Want Miles also is the name of a new book, written by French jazz critic Vincent Bessières and just published here in the US, that includes photographs, handwritten musical scores, album covers, posters, and other visual material from the exhibit. (You can see some of the photos from the Miles-as-fashion-icon section of the book and exhibit here).

Another new book about Davis, The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music by Richard Williams, was featured recently on NPR. For good measure, here's another review of the tome, from Baltimore City Paper's Michaelangelo Matos.

Finally, we move from literature to libations, with news that the brewers at Dogfish Ale have commemorated the fortieth anniversary of Davis' album Bitches Brew with a special craft beer.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry (pictured) was honored by the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City a couple of weekends ago, accepting an award and performing briefly as part of a concert of Duke Ellington music. Bill Brownlee, proprietor of the KC jazz blog Plastic Sax, reviewed the concert for the Kansas City Star here. Meanwhile, our town's Dawn DeBlaze of DeBlaze & Associates was there too, enjoying the proceedings and shooting photos, including the one of Terry accepting his award from AJM CEO Greg Carroll that she has graciously provided to StLJN to accompany this post.

* And while we're on the subject of St. Louis trumpet players, the Lester Bowie tribute presented last year by the San Francisco organization Other Minds can now be heard online. The concert was organized by Bowie's daughter Sukari Ivester, and featured Bowie's Art Ensemble colleagues Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones and Famoudou Don Moye on drums, plus trumpeter Corey Wilkes, saxophonist James Carter (who's in St. Louis this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro), trombonist Frank Lacy, pianist Jon Jang and bassist Peter Barshay.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, DowntownMusic.net has photos of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Hamid Drake , taken at their NYC performance on the same tour that brought them to St. Louis' Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center last month. (Scroll down the page to see the pix.) After wrapping the duo tour, Brötzmann has since headed down under to play the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in Australia.

* Before playing the Touhill Performing Arts Center last Saturday, guitarist Pat Metheny took his Orchestrion home to Kansas City for a concert at the Uptown Theater, and Bill Brownlee reviewed the show for the Star here.

* Here's another review of drummer Stanton Moore's new CD Groove Alchemy, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Doug Collette. Moore and his band Galactic were in St. Louis most recently in February at The Pageant.

* The Clayton Brothers are giving fans an inside look at the production of their next album via the Internet, with rehearsal pictures, videos, interviews, sheet music and more. You can hear bassist John Clayton talk about the development of “Terrell's Tune" here. The Claytons played Jazz at the Bistro in April, and will be back in St. Louis later this month for the Jazz Education Network conference.

* Also performing at the JEN Conference will be bassist Rufus Reid, who has a new trio CD and also guests on the latest disc from Sweden's Norrbotten Big Band. Here's a review of both CDs, written by J. Hunter for AllAboutJazz.com, plus another review of the trio CD by frequent AAJ contributor Pico.

* Saxophonist Kirk Whalum will be one of the headliners at the 31st Detroit International Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend, performing music from Everything is Everything, his forthcoming tribute to singer, songwriter, keyboard player and St. Louis native Donny Hathaway that will be released in September. Whalum will be in St. Louis with this year's Guitars and Saxes tour in August to play The Pageant.

* Singer Michael Buble, who's performing in St. Louis on June 25 at the Scottrade Center, was one of the top winners at the Juno Awards, the annual Canadian music award ceremony held last month.

* Here's another review of guitarist John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension's new CD To The One , written for AllAboutJazz.com by Ian Patterson. McLaughlin will bring the fusion quartet to the Sheldon Concert Hall in November. McLaughlin also now has an official iPhone App, created by his record label Abstract Logix. You can get it for free by going to the App Store on your iPhone and searching for "John McLaughlin."

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