Reviews of Jeff Beck concert, Larry Johnson CD now online

Just a quick note about a couple of reviews of interest:

Guitarist Jeff Beck was in St. Louis last night to perform at the Fox Theatre, and Dan Duchholz reviewed the show for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can read the review online here.

Also, St. Louis saxophonist Larry Johnson's debut CD Circles was reviewed recently for AllAboutJazz.com by Nicholas F. Mondello, who called it "an enjoyable effort by a very talented saxophone artist." You can read the full review here.

Jazz this week: Count Basie Orchestra, John Patitucci, Jeff Beck, Curtis Roads & Bryan O'Reilly, Steve Tyrell, and more

It's going to be another busy weekend for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with shows on tap ranging from classic big-band swing to experimental electronics, along with several stops in between. Let's go to the highlights:

Starting tonight, bassist John Patitucci (pictured) leads his trio for two sets per night through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Considered one of the top bass players in jazz since the mid-1980s, Patitucci has played St. Louis before, most recently as part of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival in the fall of 2008, but the chance to see him up close and leading his own band undoubtedly will bring out legions of fellow bass players and music students, so advance reservations are suggested.

On Thursday, guitarist Jeff Beck brings his current tour to the Fox Theatre. While I don't care for some of the material Beck chooses to do, and wish he'd spar a bit more with his band instead of just using them as a backdrop, there's no denying the man's skills. Since it's the first time he's been to St. Louis is something like 15 years, expect a packed house.

On Friday, there are three noteworthy free concerts featuring St. Louis-based musicians. Over at Washington University, bassist Tom Kennedy and guitarist William Lenihan will co-lead a group in a free performance at the Danforth Center. Meanwhile, that same evening keyboardist Jim Hegarty, bassist Willem von Hombracht and drummer Kyle Honeycutt will give a free performance at Three Sinks Gallery in Webster Groves in conjunction with the opening of a show of paintings by Firmin Puricelli. Also on Friday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran, bassist Bob Deboo and drummer Steve Davis will play a free show at the Broadway Bean coffeehouse in the Carondelet neighborhood.

On Saturday morning, former St. Louisan Bob Koester, proprietor of Chicago's Delmark Records label and Jazz Record Mart, will speak about Delmark's history at the Sheldon Art Galleries. For more on Koester, see this post.

Then on Saturday evening, the Count Basie Orchestra, which features former East St. Louisan Tony Suggs on piano, will perform at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom for the university's "Arts & Issues" series. Though the Basie band certainly needs no extended introduction here, StLJN had some choice 1960s video footage of them a post last Saturday, which serves as a pretty good primer on their sound and style.

Also on Saturday, singer Steve Tyrell will appear at the Sheldon Concert Hall in a show that's been sold out for at least a couple of weeks now. (If you're really desperate to get a ticket, I suppose you could go to the Sheldon and hope someone cancels and turns their tix back in to the box office. Otherwise, given the Sheldon's propensity for re-booking acts that do well there, you can take solace in knowing that it likely won't be long until Tyrell is back again.)

For something completely different on Saturday, check out electronic composer Curtis Roads and multi-media artist and musician Brian O'Reilly, who will perform "Flicker Tone Pulse" at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park's Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts.

Presented by New Music Circle, the performance will consist of "a set of new electronic compositions with visual accompaniment. These works explore a multiscale approach to composition, and are designed to be spatialized live by the composer, with simultaneous video projection on multiple screens." Roads is considered a leading practitioner of granular synthesis, and you can find out more about him and his techniques in a video profile done a couple of years ago for a Dell Computers promotion, available in three parts here, here and here.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(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.)

Jazz St. Louis announces summer schedule for Jazz at the Bistro

Jazz St. Louis has announce the summer 2010 schedule for Jazz at the Bistro, and it's a lineup filled with return appearances and weighted toward singers, with vocalists filling four of the nine summer weekends the Bistro will be open.

There also will be a couple of less-familiar faces, as smooth jazz saxophonist Tim Cunningham will play the club in June for the first time in recent memory, and the up-and-coming trumpeter Keyon Harrold (pictured) will make his Bistro debut as a leader with a CD release event in July.

Here's the schedule:

Friday, June 4 & Saturday, June 5: Brian Owens
Friday, June 11 Saturday, June 12: Denise Thimes
Friday, June 18 & Saturday, June 19: Tim Cunningham
Friday, June 25 & Saturday, June 26: Kim Massie
Thursday, July 1 - Saturday, July 3: Erin Bode CD release event
Friday, July 9 & Saturday, July 10: Good 4 the Soul
Friday, July 16 & Saturday, July 17: Reggie Thomas Trio
Friday, July 23 & Saturday, July 24: Legacy Jazz Quintet
Friday, July 30 & Saturday, July 31: Keyon Harrold Quartet CD release event

In addition to the CD release events for Bode and Harrold, two other shows will have themes, with Reggie Thomas playing the music of Duke Ellington and the Legacy Jazz Quintet playing "the music of the Harlem Renaissance," which I guess could mean just about any jazz recorded in New York during the 1920s and 1930s.

Tickets will be priced at $15 for Tim Cunningham and for the Legacy Jazz Quartet, and $20 for all the other performances. Tickets go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 11, and can be purchased via Metrotix or by calling the Jazz St. Louis box office at 314-289-4030.

(Edited after posting to fix a typo.)

Guitars and Saxes returning to The Pageant on Friday, August 13

According to an article published today on smoothjazznetwork.com, the long-running Guitars and Saxes package tour is taking to the road again in the summer of 2010, and the itinerary includes a stop on Friday, August 13 at The Pageant in St. Louis.

The 16th annual Guitars and Saxes tour will feature guitarists Peter White and Jeff Golub and saxophonists Kirk Whalum (pictured) and Gerald Albright, all of whom are veterans of previous editions of the tour. The 2010 tour begins May 15 in Sacramento, CA and continues through September.

There's been no official announcement of the show yet from The Pageant, but when there's news of ticket prices and the on-sale date, we'll have it for you here.

StLJN turns five

Though it may be somewhat difficult to believe, it was five years ago today that St. Louis Jazz Notes first went online. If you subscribe to the notion that "Internet years" are the equivalent of "dog years," that makes this site roughly 35 years old. Either way, StLJN is one of the more long-lived outposts of the jazz blogosphere, and I'm glad to have made it this far.

Thanks once again to all the readers, commenters, musicians, music students and educators, presenters, club owners, publicists, tipsters, media people, record label employees and others who have taken an interest in the site over the years. I appreciate your time and attention, and hope to never take it for granted.

If you have any "birthday" wishes, or anything else vaguely related that you'd like to say, the comments are, as usual, open.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The legacy of Count Basie

With the Count Basie Orchestra set to appear in the St. Louis area next weekend, this seems like the perfect opportunity to present some vintage video of Basie and his band. The present-day Basie Orchestra, currently under the direction of trombonist Bill Hughes and featuring St. Louis native Tony Suggs on piano, will play Saturday, May 1 at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom for the University's "Arts And Issues" series.

The band still plays a number of the charts you'll see performed in today's videos, which are from a broadcast done for the BBC back in 1965 (broken into five parts so as not to exceed the maximum length allowed by YouTube).

It's interesting to consider that at the time this was shot, the British Invasion was the biggest thing in popular music here in the U.S., and big band music already was considered somewhat old-fashioned. Yet the audience of Brits watching the performance obviously dig Basie and his crew, applauding enthusiastically for every number and cheering long and loud for moments like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' tenor sax feature on "Jumpin' At The Woodside" and Rufus "Speedy" Jones' thunderous drum solo on "Whirly Bird." Forty-five years later, the performance still impresses, aided by some good sound and crisp camerawork and direction.

The Basie band of this era was stocked to the proverbial gills with choice soloists including Davis and fellow saxophonists Eric Dixon and Marshall Royal, trombonist Al Grey and trumpeter Al Aarons, and armed with a thick book of tunes that ranged all the way from the riff-based blues of their early Kansas City days to the modern arrangements crafted for them in 1950s and 1960s by Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones, Frank Foster and others. The Count himself is in fine form here, too, contributing several tasteful piano solos and directing the orchestra with characteristic aplomb.

Here's a clip-by-clip list of the featured songs:
Part 1: "All of Me," "Flight of the Foo Birds" and "The Midnight Sun Never Sets"
Part 2: "Blues for Eileen" and "Jumpin' At The Woodside"
Part 3: "I Need to Be Be'd With" and "April In Paris"
Part 4: "Whirly Bird"
Part 5: "Li'l Darlin'" and "One O'Clock Jump"

Though Count Basie passed away in 1984, the band has continued in more-or-less uninterrupted fashion under a succession of musical directors, keeping these classic arrangements alive for new generations and also making new recordings, the most recent of which was 2009's Swinging, Singing, Playing on the Mack Avenue label.

Tickets now on sale for JEN Conference concerts

Single tickets are now on sale for the three evening concerts that will be presented as part of the first-ever Jazz Education Network Conference, which takes place Thursday, May 20 through Saturday, May 22 in St. Louis.

All three concerts, as well various other conference events, will be presented at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The show on the evening of Thursday, May 20 will feature the Brubeck Institute Quintet; the Caswell Sisters; the JEN All-Stars, hosted by bassist John Clayton; and the Army Blues “Pershing’s Own,” directed by CW5 Charles Vollherbst.

Then on Friday, May 21, it's the acappella vocal sextet Sixth Wave; bassist Rufus Reid (pictured) and his Out Front Trio; and the University of Missouri - St. Louis Big Band, directed by Jim Widner with special guests percussionist Ruben Alvarez, vibraphonist Stefon Harris and trumpeter Wayne Bergeron.

The concert on Saturday, May 22 features the Hannes Sigfridsson Trio, a group of young musicians from Sweden; a duo set from trumpeter Marvin Stamm and pianist Bill Mays; singer Rosana Eckert & Friends, with pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Lou Fischer, drummer Ndugu Chancler and percussionist Gary Eckert; and the Clayton Brothers Quintet, featuring bassist John Clayton, his brother Jeff Clayton on alto sax and his son Gerald Clayton on piano, plus trumpeter Terell Stafford and drummer Obed Calvaire.

Tickets (or in the conference's parlance, "registrations") for each evening concert are $30, and can be purchased online here (Thursday), here (Friday) and here (Saturday). Those who register for the entire conference or purchase a one-day pass get their tickets as part of the package; for more information on conference registrations, go here.

Two spring/summer concert series announce schedules

The schedules have been announced for the Missouri History Museum's spring Twilight Tuesdays and for the fourth annual Whitaker Urban Evenings series, and while neither has much in the way of straight-ahead jazz, both will offer some concerts of potential interest to jazz fans in the St. Louis area.

The Twilight Tuesdays series starts next Tuesday, April 27 with R&B vocal group L.L.C., and will include shows from the Latin band El Caribe Tropical (May 4), singer Anita Rosamond (May 18, pictured), and the Sinatra Songbook featuring the Steve Schankman Orchestra (May 25). The free concerts take place starting at 6:30 p.m. each Tuesday through June 8 on the front lawn of the History Museum in Forest Park. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the History Museum's website.

Meanwhile, the Whitaker Urban Evening Series, which happens at St. Louis Place Park, Rauschenbach Avenue and St. Louis Avenue, has a lineup that will include singer Kim Massie (June 10), Brazilian music group Samba Bom (June 17) and the Funky Butt Brass Band (July 8). Performances will begin at 7:00 p.m. Thursdays starting with Massie's June 10 show and continuing through July 15. Admission is free; for more information and a complete schedule, visit the website of series co-sponsors Grace Hill.

Jazz this week: Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake, Daryl Sherman, Erin Bode and more

After a jam-packed calendar of offerings last week, this weekend offers a bit more breathing room for St. Louis fans of jazz and creative music. Still, there are several events worth noting, so let's go right to the highlights:

For starters, it's the final weekend for the Black Rep's production of the Louis Jordan musical Five Guys Named Moe, which is playing through Sunday at the Grandel Theatre. The production was directed by Black Rep founder Ron Himes and stars Drummond Crenshaw, Sean Walton, Gary Vincent, Herman Gordon, Horace E. Smith and Anthony Tarvin, Jr, with Charles Creath as musical director.

If you like Jordan's music, or have any interest in the musical period when swing was morphing into jump blues and rock 'n roll, Five Guys... is good fun and, as usual with the Black Rep's musical productions, there are some killer singers in the cast.

On Thursday, singer and pianist Daryl Sherman plays at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan. Sherman is well-known in NYC's cabaret venues, particularly for her 15-year gig at the Waldorf Hotel, where she played a piano once owned by Cole Porter.

Her show "Lounging At The Waldorf" spotlights material written by Johnny Mercer, along with a few of Porter's songs. Bassist Dave Troncoso will back Sherman, with Don Wolff as MC. The Presenters Dolan also have two cabaret shows this weekend at the Kranzberg featuring St. Louis singers, with Alice Kinsella performing on Friday night and Robert Breig on Saturday.

On Friday and Saturday, singer Erin Bode returns to Jazz at the Bistro. Bode, who's rumored to have a new CD recorded and ready for release sometime soon, is always a good draw at the Bistro, so advance reservations are suggested.

On Sunday, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Hamid Drake (pictured) will perform at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Brötzmann, who's originally from Germany, has been a significant figure on the European and North American free improv scenes for nearly 40 years now; Drake first gained prominence with Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, but now also plays around the world with a variety of free improv and jazz performers.

Their current duo tour is said to be the first such series of shows in a decade. Their concert at the LNAC would seem to be a must-hear for fans of free jazz, improv, noise, avant garde and experimental music, but, given Brötzmann's uncompromising approach and often-harsh sonorities, it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday the Genesis Jazz Project plays a free show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(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.)

Glendale Jazz Festival scheduled for Friday, May 28

The city of Glendale will present the eleventh annual Glendale Jazz Festival from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday, May 28 on the lower parking lot of the Glendale City Hall complex, 424 N. Sappington Rd.

Performers will include the St. Louis Stompers (pictured) and Terry Thompson's Swing Alive Band, with jazz broadcaster Don Wolff serving as MC. Admission is free, and local vendors will be selling food and beverages on site.

For more information, contact Glendale City Hall at 314-965-3600.

Bob Koester to speak Saturday, May 1 at the Sheldon Art Galleries

Bob Koester, a former St. Louisan who owns the Delmark Records label and Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, will speak on the history of Delmark in St. Louis at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, May 1 at the Sheldon Art Galleries.

Delmark, which is one of the most long-lived and well-respected independent jazz and blues labels currently in operation, was founded by Koester in St. Louis in 1953. A native of Wichita, KS, Koester originally came here to study at St. Louis University, where he sold records out of his dorm room, and later opened a small shop not far from campus. In 1958, Koester and the Delmark operation moved to Chicago, where the label has documented many of the city's significant jazz and blues musicians.

Koester's talk will take place in the Sheldon's History of Jazz Gallery, and is free and open to the public. The current exhibit in the gallery, "Legends of St. Louis Blues," continues through August 28.

Fifth annual Miles Davis Festival set for Saturday, August 14 at Lewis & Clark Community College

The fifth annual Miles Davis Festival will be held starting at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, August 14, at the Commons at Lewis & Clark Community College, 5800 Godfrey Road in Godfrey, IL.

Saxophonist Michael Anthony Fitzgerald (pictured) and guitarist Brian White return from last year's festival lineup to headline the 2010 event. Drummer Howard Neal and his band also will perform, doing a tribute to the music of the late R&B singer and longtime Southern Illinois resident Luther Ingram.

The Miles Davis Festival is sponsored by the Madison County Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council and the Alton Foundation. General admission tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

(Unfortunately, the website created for the 2009 festival doesn't seem to have been updated since last year, so that's about all we can tell you. More details if/when we get them...)

Site news: Return to the land of linkin'

The section of St. Louis jazz-related links on the right sidebar has just gotten a long overdue update, with new entries in every category.

In the "Bands and Musicians" section, there now are links for The 4 City Saxes, singer Ann Dueren, singer Carmen Emborski, saxophonist Larry Johnson, singer/guitarist Elliott Ranney, singer Christy Simmons, Sound Unlimited, Three Central, and pianist Stephanie Trick, as well as revised links to new web addresses for singer and keyboardist Curt Landes and singer Brian Owens.

In the "Clubs, Concerts & Festivals" section, links have been added for music venues 2720 Cherokee and the Ambassador Events Center and cabaret promoters The Presenters Dolan.

In "Radio, Records and More," there's a new link to composer John Tamm-Buckle's label Kvist Records, which features electronic music, free improv and more.

Under "Products, Services and Resources for Musicians," links have been added for custom electric bass purveyor CertainBass, the Missouri Association for Jazz Education, the Musicians Association of St. Louis Local 2-197, St. Louis Music Classified, and the St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts.

And in the "From St. Louis to The Universe" section, you'll now find links to bassist Mark Peterson, singer Lynne Fiddmont and saxophonist and composer John Zorn, who once studied here at Webster University.

Also, a few dead links have been pruned, and a couple of misdirected ones fixed. The next spring blog improvement project here at StLJN will be adding some new stuff in the "More Jazz And Creative Music Links" and "Jazz Blogs of Note"sections, plus expanding the "Jazz Notes From All Over" section. More on that later in the week...

In the meantime, if you find any dead links anywhere on the sidebar, please alert yr. humble editor with an email to stljazznotes @ yahoo . com. (Remove the extra spaces inserted to foil spammers.) And, as always, if you have suggestions for other jazz-related sites that StLJN should link to, please send them via email to the same address.

King Sunny Ade cancels tour

After canceling the first five dates of their North American tour last week, singer and guitarist King Sunny Ade and His African Beats now have scrapped the entire tour. Ade was scheduled to perform in St. Louis tomorrow night (Tuesday April 20), at the Old Rock House. A statement released today by Ade's management said:

"On March 26th 2010 a tragic car accident took the lives of two members of the African Beats, talking drummer Gabriel Ayanniyi and percussionist Omo Olope, who were en-route to a video shoot for a forthcoming recording. When the US Embassy refused to grant visas to replacement members in a timely manner, there was confusion about the possible courses of action.At the same time, it became clear that the artist and the band had neither recovered from the impact of the tragedy, nor were they able to find consensus on how to move forward with normal touring.

As a result, the North American April/May 2010 tour has been canceled until such a time as King Sunny Ade and his group have sufficiently regrouped and are ready to face the rigors of an International tour again.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to the band and the families of the deceased. On behalf of the artist and his band we extend our apologies to all who will be disappointed by their inability to perform in North America this year."

The Old Rock House is offering ticket refunds at the point of purchase only.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: King Sunny Ade and His African Beats

The subjects of this week's video feature are King Sunny Ade & His African Beats, who will be in St. Louis this coming Tuesday, April 20 to perform at the Old Rock House. Since visa problems forced the band to cancel the first several dates of their tour, their St. Louis show now is the kickoff for the band's jaunt across the United States.

UPDATE - 2:00 p.m., 4/19/20: Ade now has canceled the entire tour; for details, see this post.

Ade's style of Nigerian juju music first gained wide popularity outside Africa in the 1980s, helping to pave the way for many other "world music" artists to enjoy commercial success outside their home countries. (For more background on Ade, check out this biography and discography.)

The African Beats' music features chiming guitars, multiple layers of percussion, and a vocal call-and-response that contrasts solo voices with choral passages. All of these traits are in evidence in today's three videos, starting at the top with "Me Le Se," which was recorded in June 2009 at the Triple Door in Seattle.

Down below, you'll find a clip of an older piece called "Ja Lo Lo Ja Lo Lo" from a 1998 live performance in California. Finally, we have an undated, promotional-style music video of "Enle Eku" that shows off some tasty lead guitar work. Though the visuals have a low-budget, birth-of-MTV quality, Ade's charisma comes through, and it's got a certain retrograde charm for those of us old enough to remember the early 1980s.

Notes from the Net: Russell Gunn's latest CD; awards for Clark Terry & David Sanborn; 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, as we usually do, with the most famous jazz musician ever to come from the St. Louis area, Miles Davis Online has news of a jazz festival named after Davis that takes place this week at the University of North Carolina - Greenville. The university also named its jazz studies program after the trumpeter and owns the horn Davis used on Kind of Blue.

Meanwhile, the "Night Lights" program on Indiana public radio station WFIU recently devoted a broadcast to “The Birth of the Cool Songbook,” featuring recordings by other artists of the music used for Davis' historic Birth of the Cool album. The program features tracks from Charlie Parker, Claude Thornhill, Bud Powell, Red Norvo, Bill Evans, Mark Murphy, Ahmad Jamal, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Gerry Mulligan and others. Read more and access the archived audio stream here

For more Miles, check out AOL Radio's list of their top 10 Miles Davis songs, and this review of Gerry Gibbs and the Electric Thrasher Orchestra's new CD Play the Music of Miles Davis 1967-1975, written for AllAboutJazz.com by "Pico."

* Via Plastic Sax, Kansas City's American Jazz Museum later this month will pay tribute to the legacy of Duke Ellington while honoring Ellington alumni and St. Louis native Clark Terry and KC's Ahmad Alaadeen. Events will include panel discussions on Thursday, April 29 (the 111th anniversary of Ellington’s birth) and Friday, April 30; an open rehearsal of the Ellington Alumni All-Stars; and a concert featuring Terry, Alaadeen, the Ellington All-Star Big Band and several student ensembles from the KC area.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn will receive the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards ceremony Friday, April 23 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Sanborn also will be one of the headliners this June at the seventh annual West Oak Lane Jazz Festival in Philadelphia.

* After being pushed back a couple of weeks, trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn's new CD Ethnomusicology Vol. 6: Return of Gunn Fu is scheduled to be released this Friday, April 16. Gunn (pictured) will be in St. Louis to perform on Sunday at the Sheldon Concert Hall as a guest artist with Ronald Carter and the NIU Jazz Ensemble.

* Here's another review of The Wee Trio's new CD Capitol Diner #2, written by J. Parker for AllAboutJazz.com. Former St. Louisan Dan Loomis plays bass for the Wee Trio.

* Opening the "coming attractions" file, here's a review of guitarist John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension's new CD To The One, written by John Kelman for AllAboutJazz.com. McLaughlin and 4D will perform at the Sheldon on November 19.

* Via Doug Ramsey's Rifftides, the 2010 Brubeck Festival happened last weekend at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and Paul Conley of Capitol Public Radio in Sacramento interviewed Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola about the history of the institute. To hear the conversation, go here and click on "Listen." Brubeck is scheduled to return to St. Louis on October 17 to perform at the Sheldon.

* Guitarist Pat Metheny continues to tour with his Orchestrion project and is getting plenty of press coverage. Here's an interview he did with writer Philip Booth for the St. Petersburg Times (the link is to an extended version on Booth's blog) and another feature story about Metheny from Jordan Levin of the Miami Herald. Also, Metheny and speaker company Martin Logan are offering fans a chance to win a pair of Purity loudspeakers and an IPod filled with a collection of Metheny’s most popular tracks. The giveaway continues through April 30; for more information, go here. Metheny will be in St. Louis on May 8 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, who played here in St. Louis in February at The Pageant, has a new CD, DVD and instructional book on New Orleans-style grooves. Moore talked about the project with the Huffington Post's Sal Nunziato here, and also recently did a podcast interview with The Jazz Session, which you can access here.

* Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who played at the Touhill in February, has written the score for the first Broadway revival of Fences, the 1987 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play by August Wilson. The production stars Denzel Washington and opens later this month at the Cort Theatre in New York.

* Pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who performed at the Sheldon last Saturday, will headline the Billy Taylor Jazz Festival next weekend in Greenville, NC.

* Dave Samuels of the Caribbean Jazz Project, who played in St. Louis last month at Jazz at the Bistro, was interviewed by the local paper before a concert in his hometown of Fairfield, CT.

* Pianist and singer Jamie Cullum, who played here last month at the Roberts Orpheum Theatre, now is touring on the other side of the world, with recent stops (and accompanying interviews) in Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

* Lastly, the eclectic multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, who played a couple of St. Louis shows last year, now has several albums online as free downloads via the Free Music Archive. Read more about it here, and see listings of the available tracks here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

Has it been nearly a month since our last shameless plug for StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds? Why, yes, it has been, and during that time the site has continued to present a proverbial plethora of online music videos from genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock and experimental.

There's a different, carefully selected video posted each day for your listening and viewing pleasure, and over the the last couple of weeks, featured artists have included Joe Henderson & Herbie Hancock, the Staple Singers, Brick, Fats Waller, Gary Lucas, Bud Powell, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, Deep Purple, Gil Scott-Heron, Bob Dylan, the Crusaders, Sarah Vaughan and Bill Evans.

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

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, John Pizzarelli, King Sunny Ade, Ronald Carter & Russell Gunn, Lea DeLaria, and more

It's an extremely busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with everything from big bands and straight-ahead small group swing to organ-driven soul-jazz, cabaret, free improv, and two or three different flavors of ethnic music fused with jazz.

Let's go to straight to the highlights, described here in more-or-less chronological order:

On Wednesday, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli, who's always a good draw here in the Gateway City, begin a four-night run at Jazz at the Bistro. This time around, expect to hear at least a few selections from his latest CD, the Duke Ellington tribute Rockin' In Rhythm, as well as other classic jazz and popular songs from Pizzarelli's extensive repertoire.

On Thursday evening, it's the final Jazz at Holmes event of the semester at Washington University, a free concert featuring saxophonist Larry Johnson and Two Times True, led by pianist Carolbeth True and including her son David True on drums.

Also on Thursday, the 2010 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival also gets underway at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, with student combos playing and working with guest clinicians all day. There will be more student bands and clinics during the day on Friday and Saturday, with evening concerts headlined by trombonist Conrad Herwig's Latin-jazz band on Friday and Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band (pictured) on Saturday. (For a complete schedule of events, see this post.)

In addition to the events for the participating student ensembles, Herwig also will present public master classes on Friday and Saturday. Also, word from GSLJF publicist Dawn DeBlaze is that the Big Phat Band will perform Goodwin's new arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue, " which should be interesting. For some video of the Big Phat Band in action, see this post from last Saturday, and for more about the GSLJF, check out Terry Perkins' preview story now online at the St. Louis Beacon.

On Friday and Saturday, singer/actor/comic and Belleville native Lea DeLaria brings her cabaret show to Nancy's Place, 4510 Manchester (in the Grove neighborhood). DeLaria, who's best known for her out-and-outrageous comedy but also has some serious vocal chops, will be accompanied by pianist Janette Mason, whose CD Alien Left Hand was just nominated in the "Best Jazz CD" category of the UK's 2010 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. (You can see DeLaria and Mason on video here, doing a swinging version of "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," from the musical Sweeney Todd.) The show's promoter tells StLJN that some tickets remain for both nights, including some VIP packages for Friday, and can be purchased online via brownpapertickets.com.

And speaking of cabaret, Jim Dolan's Presenters Dolan has two shows this weekend at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Jeffrey Wright will reprise his show "The Dance" on Friday, and Shana Farr will make her St. Louis cabaret debut on Saturday with"Pure Imagination," accompanied by musical director Amanda Kirkpatrick and bassist Jay Hungerford.

On Saturday afternoon, the Nu-Art Series wraps up its spring skein of jazz composers concerts with a performance by saxophonist Stan Coleman and the Youth Jazz Band doing the music of Duke Ellington.

Then on Saturday evening, sitarist Imrat Khan and guitarist Todd Mosby will do a benefit concert at the Ethical Society; the Dutch lute player/composer Jozef van Wissem and NYC free improv duo Che Chen and Robbie Lee play at Open Lot; and keyboardist Reggie Thomas performs at Robbie's House of Jazz to celebrate the release of his new CD Four, which features Thomas on Hammond B-3 organ with trumpeter Clay Jenkins, guitarist Rick Haydon and drummer Gary Hobbs.

On Sunday afternoon, saxophonist Ronald Carter and the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble plus special guests Russell Gunn and Reggie Thomas will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall in the sixth annual "Youth In the Arts" benefit for the Genesis Performing Arts Foundation. For ticket information, go here or call 618-741-0898.

Also on Sunday, singer Erin Bode appears in the final free concert of the spring for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series at Second Baptist Church.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday the godfather of juju music King Sunny Ade and his African Beats will play at the Old Rock House. Although this show seems to have stirred interest well beyond St. Louis, as of this writing it looks like there are still tickets available, though there's no telling how long the remaining supply will last.

UPDATE, 5;30 p.m., 4/15/10: Although Ade has had to cancel the first five shows on his US tour due to visa problems affecting a couple of band members, the Old Rock House's Erica Deiters has confirmed to StLJN that Ade's St. Louis show Tuesday is still on.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or by becoming a "fan" of the StLJN Facebook page.

(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.)

Jazz St. Louis benefit gala raises more than $150,000

Jazz St. Louis has announced that their benefit gala held last Sunday at the Hilton at the Ballpark netted more than $150,000, an increase of more than 30% from the 2009 event. The benefit featured music from saxophonist Houston Person, Good 4 The Soul, the Funky Butt Brass Band, and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble, with proceeds going towards JSL's education and outreach programs.

Speaking of those education programs, JSL has posted online a set of photos from last week's educational residency by the Clayton Brothers Quintet. Before playing at Jazz at the Bistro last Friday and Saturday, bassist John Clayton, saxophonist Jeff Clayton and the rest of the band spent the week visiting area schools to perform and conduct clinics and master classes. You can see the photos on the JSL Facebook page, even if you do not have a Facebook account.

Herwig interviewed, Chestnut reviewed

Pianist Cyrus Chestnut was in St. Louis last Saturday night to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and his show was reviewed by Chris Gibson for the website Broadway World. You can read the review here.

Also, the weekend Post-Dispatch featured an interview by the P-D's Calvin Wilson with trombonist Conrad Herwig, who's coming to town this weekend to do clinics and a concert on Friday night at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. You can read the interview online here.

Lynne Fiddmont, Reggie Thomas schedule CD release events

The new week brings news of two upcoming CD release events featuring musicians from the St. Louis area:

* Keyboardist Reggie Thomas will promote the release of his latest CD Four this Saturday, April 17 at Robbie's House of Jazz.

Four features Thomas on Hammond B-3 organ, along with trumpeter Clay Jenkins, guitarist Rick Haydon and drummer Gary Hobbs. Saturday's performance at Robbie's starts at 9:00 p.m., and admission is $10 at the door.

* Singer Lynne Fiddmont (pictured) returns home to celebrate the launch of her new CD Lady, a tribute to Billie Holiday, at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, May 23 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Fiddmont, who now lives in the Los Angeles area, has provided backing vocals for Stevie Wonder, Kirk Whalum, Phil Collins, George Duke, Patti Austin and many other well-known performers, and released her first solo CD Flow back in 2006. Her brother Keith Fiddmont, a jazz saxophonist and educator also now living in LA, will join her for the performance at the Sheldon. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online here. For more information, call 314-473-6940 or send an email to ordertickets@live.com.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Four from Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

It's been a while since we've highlighted any big band clips for this weekly feature, and so today let's take a look at some videos of pianist, saxophonist and arranger/composer Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, who are coming to town to play next Saturday, April 17 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival.

Formed in 2000 and based in Los Angeles, the 17-piece Big Phat Band also headlined an evening at the Touhill for the GSLJF back in 2007. Reviewing the show then, I enjoyed their performance and was favorably impressed with their overall musicianship, energy and showmanship, but found the material a little slight and unmemorable.

Now, thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can check out four staples from the BPB's songbook and draw your own conclusions. First up is "Hunting Wabbits," inspired in part by the classic Carl Stalling soundtracks to Warner Brothers cartoons (and the Raymond Scott compositions frequently incorporated therein). It's probably my favorite piece of Goodwin's, and from what I can tell, pops up at the majority of BPB shows.

Down below are clips of "Count Bubba's Revenge," an uptempo blues, and the Latin-flavored "El Macho Muchacho," which, though quite well-executed, strike me as emblematic of the band's somewhat awkward resemblance to the Doc Severinsen-era Tonight Show band and certain other 1970s big bands. Both pieces are entertaining enough, and offer blowing space for some talented soloists, but feel a bit generic.

And speaking of the 1970s, batting cleanup today is a clip of the Big Phat Band's version of "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)," which sold a bajillion records for one-hit wonders Wild Cherry back then, and to this day remains on the playlist for cover bands and wedding DJs throughout the land. As a showcase for the alto sax soloist - here it's Eric Marienthal - it's an opportunity to whip up a little David Sanborn/Maceo Parker pastiche, which Marienthal does quite handily.

As a concept/arrangement, it recalls the sort of thing Maynard Ferguson did back in the 1970s, in the process achieving the same sort of adoration among students and aspiring big-band musicians that Goodwin seems to enjoy today. However, there's a big difference: Ferguson was tackling pop tunes of the time, not reaching back more than 30 years for his source material.

While "Play That Funky Music" is fun in an empty-calories sort of way, there's not much underlying musical substance there. If they're going to play big band versions of goofy pop songs, it'd be more interesting to hear Goodwin and the Big Phat Band do something with more contemporary material. If The Bad Plus can re-do Nirvana and Vijay Iyer can remake M.I.A., why couldn't Gordon Goodwin re-imagine the music of, say, Lady Gaga or Kanye West?

Sylvia McNair to perform in benefit concert for Hope Center on Thursday, May 6

Singer Sylvia McNair (pictured), who made her name in opera and classical music before turning to Broadway, cabaret and jazz, will perform material from the Great American Songbook for the sixth annual Evening of Hope, a cabaret-themed benefit concert to be held Thursday, May 6 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Proceeds from the event will support the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Tickets start at $250 each, and include cocktails and buffet dinner, a ticket to the concert and a dessert reception with McNair following the concert. Concert-only tickets also will be available through MetroTix for $25 each. For more information, visit www.hopehappens.org.

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2010-2011 season series

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced its 2010-11 season series, and the news for St. Louis jazz fans is, at best, mixed.

Those who were hoping to hear new and exciting music at the Sheldon next year likely will be disappointed, as most of the acts booked for the jazz series, Coffee Concerts and "special concerts" series already have played here in town in the very recent past.

Specifically, the Sheldon's 2010-11 jazz series will include four concerts (that's one fewer than this year's series), and all of the musicians - singer Tierney Sutton (October 9), saxophonist Victor Goines (November 13), the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and pianist Jon Cleary (February 26), and singer/pianist Tony DeSare with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (April 30) - have been to St. Louis recently. Sutton played the Sheldon in 2006; Goines was there in 2007; and the DDBB, Cleary, DeSare and Pizzarelli have all performed at other local venues within the last two years.

Similarly, the Coffee Concerts series of mid-morning weekday performances will feature a familiar lineup of local bands, with shows from Cornet Chop Suey (October 19 & 20), Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris (November 16 & 17), Swing DeVille (April 12 & 13) and the Sheldon Jazz Quintet (May 10 & 11) of interest to jazz listeners.

This year, there also will be a handful of Saturday matinees featuring local musicians, including pianist Carolbeth True with singer Christi John Bye on January 22, and singer Brian Owens doing a Sam Cooke tribute on February 12. Like their Coffee Concert colleagues, True, Bye and Owens all were featured at events at the Sheldon during this current season.

The "special concerts" series will feature return appearances at the Sheldon by pianist Dave Brubeck (October 17) and singer Banu Gibson (November 7). Brubeck played the hall in 2007 and 2008, while Gibson was there in 2005.

Two other "special concerts" will feature acts that are new to St. Louis and of alleged potential interest to jazz fans. Guitarist John McLaughlin (pictured) will bring his electric quartet 4th Dimension to the Sheldon on November 19, which should be a genuine treat for local fusion fans. On the other hand, pianist David Lanz and the Liverpool Trio will appear on February 11 doing something called “Re-Imagining the Beatles," which, as described, strikes yr. humble editor as a tasteless, pandering schlockfest likely unfit for human consumption.

To be fair, the Sheldon remains a very enjoyable place to see and hear a concert. The production staff headed by Dale Benz does a consistently good job, and all sorts of musicians like playing there. Here's the thing, though: it's not that the musicians booked for 2010-11 are bad (with the exception of Lanz, whose stuff really is nearly unlistenable); the problem is that we've seen and heard just about all of this before, in some cases multiple times.

(Parenthetically, I'm also uneasy about the fact that of all the artists mentioned above, the only African-Americans are Goines, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Owens, and Mardra and Reggie Thomas of the Sheldon Jazz Quintet. There's no reason to think that this mostly-white lineup of musicians is a result of overt racism, but given the music's origins, it still is unsettling to have so relatively few black artists involved in jazz performances at one of our city's most prestigious venues.)

Ultimately, with so many interesting things happening in jazz and creative music these days, it's a shame that the Sheldon's booking policy for jazz is so unimaginative and retrograde. While the need to sell tickets and pay the bills is understandable, their current approach seems almost absurdly risk-averse. There's a sophisticated audience for music in St. Louis, and as one of the most significant concert halls in town, the Sheldon could, and should, do a much better job of exposing that audience to a wider variety of jazz artists.

For more details and ticket prices for all of the Sheldon's season series, please consult their website, where further information on the 2010-11 schedule will be posted on Monday.

VLAA presenting music publishing seminar next Tuesday, April 13 at RAC

St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts (VLAA) will present a seminar on music publishing at 7:00 p.m. next Tuesday, April 13 at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd (across from The Pageant).

The seminar is titled "Music and Money: The Invisible World of Music Publishing" and will be conducted by Shawn Murphy, who worked for 12 years for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Composers (ASCAP) and is a former board member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which produces the Grammy Awards. Murphy also has taught music business courses at Chicago's Columbia College and DePaul University, and has guest lectured at many other high schools, colleges and universities.

Tuition is $10 in advance and $15 at the door. For more information, call 314-863-6930, or visit the St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts website.

Jazz this week: The Clayton Brothers, Cyrus Chestnut, Matt Wilson, Jan Shapiro, Jazz St. Louis benefit gala, and more

Whether it's some kind of side effect of Jazz Appreciation Month or just coincidence, many of the jazz and creative music performers in St. Louis this weekend seem to have some sort of connection to music education.

On Thursday, singer Jan Shapiro will return to St. Louis to do a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Shapiro is a former St. Louisan who now heads the vocal music department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Also on Thursday, drummer Matt Wilson and his quartet will perform in a concert with the Webster Groves High School jazz band at Hixson Middle School. For details, see this post.

On Frida, the Clayton Brothers (pictured) begin a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jeff Clayton have been in town all week doing an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, including school performances, master classes, working with students in JSL's JazzU and All-Stars programs, and more.

For this weekend's performances at the Bistro, they'll be joined by pianist Gerald Clayton (John's son) and drummer Obed Calvaire, plus a "special guest" trumpet player each night. St. Louis' own Keyon Harrold will hold forth on Friday, while Terrell Stafford, who's recorded several discs for the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label and works frequently with the Claytons, will be there on Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, pianist Reggie Thomas will perform at the Metropolitan Gallery for the penultimate entry in the Nu-Art Series' spring jazz composers concerts. Thomas, who teaches music at SIUE, will team with drummer Marty Morrison and bassist Nick Jost to do the music of Andrew Hill and his own compositions.

On Saturday evening, pianist Cyrus Chestnut takes the stage at the Sheldon Concert Hall for a program of music concetrating on selections from his CD Cyrus Plays Elvis. As far as I know, Chestnut isn't doing any formal teaching while he's in town, but he's definitely got the chops to school some folkswhen he sits down at the piano. To see some video of Chestnut, check out this post from last Saturday. Also, the Sheldon and Metrotix have a "buy one, get one free" offer on tickets for the Chestnut concert.

Also on Saturday evening, pianist Carol Schmidt, who teaches at Webster University, will play a concert with bassist Ric Vice and several guest vocalists at Elliot Chapel in Kirkwood.

On Sunday, Jazz St. Louis presents its annual benefit gala featuring music from saxophonist Houston Person, who will be backed by Good 4 The Soul, plus the Funky Butt Brass Band and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble. Ticket prices start at $250 perperson, and proceeds from the event benefit JSL's education programs. For details, go here.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday Jazz St. Louis holds the monthly meeting of its CD Listening Club at Borders Books & Music in Brentwood. The featured CD for April is Stanley Turrentine's Sugar, and the special guest will be KMOX and KMOV broadcaster Carol Daniel (who, due to a lack of obvious connections to jazz, seems a puzzling choice to yr. humble editor).

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or by becoming a "fan" of the StLJN Facebook page.

(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.)

Metrotix offering online presale of Harry Connick, Jr. tickets

Metrotix and the Fox Theatre are offering an online presale of tickets for the concert by Harry Connick Jr. on Friday, June 11 at the Fox.

Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10:00 a.m. this Saturday, April 10, but online purchasers can buy tickets starting at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 8. To access the presale, go to the Metrotix site and when prompted, enter promo code HCJR.

John Pizzarelli podcast interview now online at Jazz St. Louis website

Jazz St. Louis has just put online the latest installment in their series of podcast interviews. This one features singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli, who will be performing at Jazz at the Bistro starting next Wednesday, April 14 through Saturday, April 17.

You can listen to the audio stream of Pizzarelli chatting with JSL's Gene Dobbs Bradford here, or download the interview as an .MP3 file here.

Notes from the Net: More on Metheny's Orchestrion; Zorn in Cleveland: 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:

* It's been kind of a slow news week, but we can fulfill our Miles Davis news requirement for this installment with a link to a Nate Chinen essay for At Length magazine about about the night the trumpeter shared a bill at the Fillmore East with singer/songwriter Neil Young. (Via Miles Davis Online).

Also, we're sorry to have to note the passing of writer and musician Michael Zwerin, who played trombone on Davis' Birth of the Cool and wrote about, rubbed elbows or played with many of the most significant jazz musicians of the past half-century. Zwerin died last week in Paris at age 79.

* For some reason, saxophonist, composer and one-time Webster University student John Zorn had never played Cleveland before last week, when he finally made his debut there at the city's art museum with his Masada Sextet. Here's a review of the proceedings from Cleveland Scene.

* Here's a review of The Wee Trio's new CD Capitol Diner #2, written for AllAboutJazz.com by "Pico." Former St. Louisan Dan Loomis is the Wee Trio's bassist.

* Opening the "coming attractions" file, here's a review from AllAboutJazz.com's Woodrow Wilkins of guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli's latest CD, the Duke Ellington tribute Rockin' in Rhythm. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis next week to play Wednesday through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

*Ranging far from his Kansas City home, Plastic Sax's Bill Brownlee has a review of guitarist Pat Metheny's Orchestrion concert in Rome, Italy. In related news, Metheny and the Orchestrion (pictured) are the subject of a Wall Street Journal article by the noted jazz writer Ashley Kahn, and also will be featured on the April 25 edition of the CBS television program Sunday Morning. The Orchestrion tour comes on St. Louis on May 8 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Also, just because: Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor. Assuming he escapes the savage jaws of the prehistoric predator, Buble will be in St. Louis on Friday, June 25 to play the Scottrade Center.

* Lastly, for the musicians and music students out there, Berklee College of Music is offering a free downloadable Music Business Handbook that "collects some of the essential knowledge from our instructors in one easy-to-navigate guide." Topics covered include include "Past, Present, and Future of Music, Direct-to-Fan Marketing, Music Publishing, Music Licensing, Challenges of the Music Industry, and Music Royalties."

The Sheldon, Metrotix offering "buy one, get one free" deal on Cyrus Chestnut tickets

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Metrotix are offering a "buy one, get one free" deal on the online purchase of tickets for pianist Cyrus Chestnut's performance at the Sheldon this Saturday, April 10.

To access the offer, go here and use the promo code SHELDON10.

Matt Wilson Quartet to play this Thursday, April 8 at Hixson Middle School

This just in: Drummer Matt Wilson (pictured) is bringing his quartet to St. Louis for a concert at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, April 8 at Hixson Middle School, 630 S. Elm in Webster Groves.

Wilson and his band - saxophonist Jeff Lederer, trumpeter Kirk Knuffke and bassist Chris Lightcap - will be joined onstage by the Webster Groves High School "Jazz 1" ensemble. Wilson played in St. Louis most recently in March 2009 at the Black Cat Theatre. His last Quartet CD, That’s Gonna Leave a Mark, also came out in 2009.

The Matt Wilson Quartet performance at Hixson Middle School is open to the public, and general admission tickets will be on sale at the door for $10.

(Thanks to StLJN reader Rad Widmer for the tip on this story.)