Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival seeking musicians for 2011

The Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival is seeking musicians to play at this year's event, which will be held in September in the Old Webster business district of Webster Groves.

Jennifer Bellm of Webster Records heads up the OWJ&BF's booking efforts, and says she's especially interested this year in musicians and groups who have not played the event before.

Prospective performers should send Bellm a biography and music samples, either via email to goodtunes @ swbell.net - remove the extra spaces before hitting "send"! - or via postal mail to: Jennifer Bellm, Webster Records, 117 W. Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves, MO 63119. Bellm also can be reached via email or by phone at 314-961-4656 for questions or further information.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: They've got it covered...

Rather than featuring a single artist, this week's video showcase is loosely organized around the idea of St. Louis musicians covering well-known songs. First up is singer Jeanne Trevor with a rendition of Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," taken from a performance of fellow singer Wendy Gordon's songbook musical/cabaret show "A Jazz Heaven" at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Down below, the St. Louis Low Brass Collective plays their arrangement of Neal Hefti's "Li'l Darlin'," made famous by Count Basie. This clip was recorded at the StLLBC's 2010 performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and features (left to right) trombonists Jim Owens, Cody Henry and Caleb McKee and bass trombonist Gerry Pagano, with Jeff Hoard on tuba, Ken Kehner on piano, and Kevin Gianino on drums.

Below that, singer Mardra Thomas and keyboardist Reggie Thomas offer a sultry version of Ray Charles' "Unchain My Heart" in a video shot at a concert last summer in O'Fallon Park. The Thomases will be performing on Friday, February 11 and Saturday, February 12 as well as Valentine's Day evening at Jazz at the Bistro.

Batting cleanup today is pianist Peter Martin, with his version of "Viva La Vida," a big pop hit for the group Coldplay that won the Grammy Award for Best Song in 2009. Martin recorded the tune that same year on his self-produced, solo piano EP Set of Five; this version appears to have been done in his living room. Martin will continue his eponymous concert series at the Sheldon with a solo piano performance on Thursday, February 10.







(Edited 2/1/11 to add the additional dates for Mardra and Reggie Thomas at Jazz at the Bistro.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Veteran freelance scribe Terry Perkins talked with singer/songwriter/guitarist Javier Mendoza for a St. Louis Beacon story previewing Mendoza's shows this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Meanwhile, St. Louis American editor Chris King interviewed bassist Stanley Clarke about his gig next weekend at the Bistro.

* Radio host, author and photographer Dennis Owsley has a new post this week on St. Louis magazine's Look/Listen blog looking at big bands in the St. Louis area.

* Gutiarist Charlie Hunter, who was in town last week to play the Bistro, also stopped by the studios of KPLR (Channel 11) for a brief interview and performance segment, which has been archived online here.

* Washington University's Gerald Early will serve as moderator and host for a discussion with Ellis Marsalis (pictured) when the veteran New Orleans pianist (and father of Wynton, Branford, Jason and Delfeayo Marsalis) appears next month in Columbia, MO to perform for the We Always Swing concert series.

The discussion, with Q&A session and reception afterward, will take place at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, February 12 in the Monsanto Auditorium of the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center on the Mizzou campus. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited; call 573-449-3001 to reserve a spot. Marsalis and his trio, including son Jason on drums, will perform at 8:00 p.m. the next evening, Sunday, February 13, at the Windsor Ballroom of the Holiday Inn Select in Columbia. Tickets are $20-$35, and can be bought through Ticketmaster or by calling the We Always Swing offices.

* The jazz bands from Webster Groves Middle and High Schools have rescheduled their "Cool Nights, Hot Jazz" concert at The Pageant for Thursday, February 3. The performance, which is a fundraiser for the jazz program in Webster Groves schools, originally was scheduled for last week but was postponed due to snow.

Jazz this week: Jazz at Holmes resumes, Javier Mendoza, "Jazz Under The Stars," and more

Though this weekend's offerings of jazz and creative music in St. Louis are less numerous than last week's, there are at least a few noteworthy events happening around town. So, let's take a look and see what's coming up...

Tonight, Brandt's has an early set from saxophonist Christopher McBride, and singer Erin Bode and her band are playing Porter's in Collinsville.

On Thursday, saxophonist and clarinetist Mike Buerk and his 13-piece big band will open this semester's Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University with a performance of music of the Swing Era.

Also on Thursday, the Young Friends organizations of Jazz St. Louis and the St. Louis Science Center are cosponsoring an event called "Jazz Under The Stars" at the Planetarium in Forest Park, featuring music from guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio; and alto saxophonist Kendrick Smith's quartet plays at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Friday and Saturday, singer/songwriter Javier Mendoza (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro. Though Mendoza's usual sound is more along the lines of Latin-flavored pop/rock, for these shows he reportedly has rearranged his songs and augmented his band with the fine guitarist Dave Black to add a jazz aspect to his music.

Also on Friday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran and his trio play at Broadway Bean Coffee, and Robbie's will feature a band called Elements, about whom I can tell you absolutely nothing.
(The club's website has no information about them, and Google serves up a number of groups with similar names, none based in St. Louis. Maybe they're brand new?)

On Saturday, Robbie's will feature their house band, led by co-owner/trombonist Robert Edwards, and on Tuesday, they'll host their usual weekly jazz jam session.

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.)

(Edited 1/27/11 to add the Matthew Von Doran gig.)

Brad Mehldau to play April 6 & 7 at Jazz at the Bistro

Jazz St. Louis has announced that pianist Brad Mehldau (pictured) is returning to St. Louis to play Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7 to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

You can find out the details, including the on-sale date for tickets, by reading this post I wrote for the Riverfront Times' music blog A to Z.

Jazz at Holmes announces winter/spring 2011 schedule

The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has announced its schedule of free concerts for winter/spring 2011. The series kicks off next Thursday, January 27 with a concert of swing era music from saxophonist/clarinetist Mike Buerk's 13-piece big band. Here's the complete lineup:

Thursday, January 27: Mike Buerk Orchestra

Thursday, February 3: Hard Bop Heritage

Thursday, February 10: Sandy Weltman Quartet with Kim Portnoy, Ric Vice, and Clancy Newell

Thursday, February 17: St. Louis Jazz X-Tet with Dave Stone and Peter Schlamb

Thursday, February 24: Ptah Williams and William Lenihan

Thursday, March 3: Eric Slaughter Quartet

Thursday, March 10: Ben Thigpen Quartet

Thursday, March 24: Vince Varvel Trio

Thursday, March 31: Carolbeth True (pictured) & Two Times True

Thursday, April 7: Kara Baldus plays the music of Bill Evans

Thursday, April 14: Scratch plays music of the Crusaders

Jazz at Holmes concerts take place from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. most Thursdays while school is in session. Holmes Lounge is located in Ridgley Hall on the west side of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. The concerts are free and open to the public.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A Stanley Clarke sampler

Today, we shine our video spotlight on bassist Stanley Clarke, who will be back in St. Louis to play a duo gig with pianist Hiromi Uehara starting Wednesday, February 2 through Saturday, February 5 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Clarke has been in St. Louis a couple of times recently, teaming up with keyboardist George Duke in 2006 at the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and during Return to Forever's reunion tour, which played the Fox Theatre in 2009. Both of these shows featured Clarke playing electric bass, an instrument he helped re-define during his rise to fame in the 1970s.

The first video up top features a recent performance of Clarke's signature song "School Days," which served as the title track to the 1976 album that cemented Clarke's status as a trendsetter. This version, from the Northsea Jazz Festival, is undated, but probably comes from the mid-2000s. Down below, though, we go all the way back in the day with our second clip, which features a bushy-haired Clarke working out on his song "Hot Fun" at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival.

As much fun as it is to watch Clarke do his electrified thing on those well-known tunes, the gig at the Bistro will feature Clarke's acoustic bass playing, not his electric work. So, our third clip is an excerpt from a duo gig Clarke did with Hiromi - who customarily goes by her first name only - in June 2010 at the Dakota in Minneapolis, and features both players showing off their considerable chops without amplification. While this performance feels somewhat overstuffed for my taste, I suspect that it's a fairly representative example of what they'll be doing at the Bistro in a couple of weeks.

To balance the scales a bit, the fourth video features a Hiromi/Clarke performance that I liked a bit more. It's from a 2009 acoustic trio gig at the Dakota with Clarke and drummer Lenny White, and features the pianist delivering a relatively concise, hard-boppish solo on "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise" as Clarke supports her with fast walking lines underneath. Personally, I doubt if I'll ever become a big fan of Hiromi's "more is more" style of pianism, but as always, dear readers, your mileage may vary. For more on the Clarke/Hiromi collaboration, check out this 2009 interview with the bassist.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Singer Carla Cook will perform and fellow vocalist Mae Wheeler will be honored for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts at this year's St. Louis Arts Awards.

* Guitarist Todd Mosby (pictured) went on the 4:00 p.m. newscast at KPLR (Channel 11) this week to demonstrate and talk about his Imratgitar, a custom-built hybrid of a guitar and a sitar. You can see the segment archived online here.

* Radio station WSIE (88.7 FM) is now offering to record and air free promotional spots featuring local jazz talent. From the blog entry on the station's site: "Here’s the plan: Any business owners, booking agents, promoters, music enthusiasts, or musicians are welcome to send us their contact information and/or audio file of who you are, what you do, why you like jazz, why supporting local music is important to you and (of course – the call tag of the station) “88.7 the jazz station”. We will gladly put your 30 second spot on the air! If need be, we can come record you."

WSIE this week also has been airing an interview with pianist Carolbeth True about her concert this Saturday at the Sheldon. The interview will be rebroadcast again today (Friday, January 21) at 6:00 p.m..

* The trombone ensemble Original Boneheads recently visited schools in Granite City to work with music students in the district, as recounted here by Suburban Journals reporter Scott Cousins.

* The University of Missouri St. Louis' Gallery 210 this week opened a new exhibit called “Post-Gig,” a traveling collection of 130 original, contemporary music posters from the 2000s drawn from Clifford Stoltze’s book 1000 Music Graphics. The exhibit runs through March 12, with a closing reception featuring Stoltze at 5:30 p.m. on March 10.

* The Missouri Association of Jazz Educators (MOAJE) has a number of events planned during next week's 73rd Annual Missouri Music Educators Conference at Lake of the Ozarks, including a jam session on Wednesday night and a reading session on Friday. For a complete schedule, see the MOAJE website.

Charlie Hunter interview now online

Guitarist Charlie Hunter (pictured) is back in St. Louis this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro, and in anticipation of his appearance, last week I was able to talk with him about his current trio for a brief feature/interview published today on the Riverfront Times' A to Z music blog.

You can read that article here.

Jazz this week: Charlie Hunter, Bonerama, Bloom Project, Dave Black, and more

This week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a grab-bag of styles, from a funky, soul-jazz-inspired guitar trio to straight-ahead standards to free improv. Let's go to the highlights....

The big name in town this week is guitarist Charlie Hunter, who plays with his trio tonight through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Hunter was in St. Louis most recently in 2009 at the Bistro, playing in a duo format, and has released a couple of CDs since then, including his most recent effort, the 2010 solo disc Public Domain.

His current trio includes drummer Eric Kalb and bass trumpeter Michael Williams, and you can see some footage of them performing live in this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the New Orleans-based Bonerama brings its four-trombone front line to The Gramophone, and saxophonist Christopher McBride plays an early evening gig at Brandt's, which recently underwent a change in management and seems to be doing better both at updating their online music schedule and at once again booking some jazz-oriented acts.

On Thursday evening, the Webster Groves HS and middle school jazz bands hold their "Cool Nights, Hot Jazz" fundraiser at The Pageant, and on Friday, pianist Ptah Williams leads his trio at Robbie's House of Jazz.

UPDATE - 10:00 a.m., 1/20/11: Webster Groves HS jazz band director Kevin Cole just emailed with the news that tonight's fundraising event at the Pageant has been postponed due to the snowstorm that hit St. Louis today. Cole says they'll try to reschedule, and when they do, StLJN will have the news right here.

On Saturday morning, pianist Carolbeth True and singer Christi John Bye will play a program of jazz and pop standards at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and later that afternoon, pianist Heather Bosshardt has a CD release event at Robbie's.

On Saturday night, Bloom Project, aka pianist Thollem McDonas and saxophonist Rent Romus (pictured), will offer a performance of improvised music at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of New Music Circle, and vibraphonist Peter Schlamb is at Brandt's.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday bassist David Certain's CertainBeat WorldBop returns to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, guitarist Dave Black will perform in a "Notes from Home" concert at the Sheldon.

Black's concert will feature original music performed by four different ensembles, with a cast of players including violinists Asako Kuboki and Justin Branum; cellist Ranya Iqbal; saxophonist Paul DeMarinis; bassists David Deriso, Marc Torlina, Willem von Hombracht, and Dave Troncoso; drummers Kevin Gianino and Joe Meyer; and vocalists Margaret Bianchetta and Javier Mendoza.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* St. Louis-based pianist Peter Martin is in Washington DC this week as part of a group of jazz musicians who will be performing Wednesday night at a state dinner hosted by President and Mrs. Obama for Chinese officials.

The all-star lineup includes Dianne Reeves and Chris Botti, both of whom have employed Martin as their pianist, as well as Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Matt Wilson, Randy Brecker, and Antonio Hart. Martin has been Tweeting (or is it Twittering?) about visiting the White House, and also has posted a couple of photos online.

* Jazz bands from Webster Groves High School and Hixson Middle School will perform at 7 p.m. this Thursday, January 20 at The Pageant (pictured) to benefit the WGHS jazz program. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. and will feature the 7th grade jazz band, 8th grade jazz band, WGHS Wednesday Jazz band, WGHS Thursday Jazz band, and WGHS Jazz I. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students, and are available in advance online or at the door. WGHS jazz program director Kevin Cole tells StLJN that Pageant bossman Pat Hagen is opening and staffing the top-rated venue gratis, making money only from drink sales so that all the ticket proceeds can go to WGHS to fund guest artists, sheet music, jazz trip scholarships, and more.

* Guitarist Dave Black last week led an ensemble into the studios of radio station KDHX (88.1 FM) for a live performance promoting his upcoming concert next Tuesday at the Sheldon. You can hear their performance archived online here.

* Speaking of the Sheldon, the hall also is serving as the collection point for a special Music for Lifelong Achievement instrument drive starting next month. MFLA and an organization called Horns to Havana want to collect and send musical instruments, both donated and purchased, to students in schools in and around Havana, Cuba. If you have an instrument to donate, you can bring it to the Sheldon before any concert during February and March, or during normal business hours Monday through Friday.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Catching up with Charlie Hunter

This week, let's take a look at some video clips featuring guitarist Charlie Hunter's trio, who will be in St. Louis next week to perform Wednesday through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

If you're already with familiar with Hunter, you know that his distinctive technique on the seven-string guitar lets him play both bass lines and guitar parts simultaneously, and that he frequently changes musicians, band configurations, and material in an effort to keep things fresh.

Hunter's current touring ensemble features Eric Kalb on drums and Michael Williams on bass trumpet, an instrument not often seen outside of concert bands and orchestras. The basic concept is similar in some ways to his drums/guitar/sax trios of the pass, but the substitution of a brass instrument for the reed definitely adds a new wrinkle. Williams' bass trumpet sounds a bit like a valve trombone in spots, and, as you'll hear in these clips, he also uses different mutes skillfully to produce a variety of timbres.

The first shows Hunter, Kalb and Williams at a gig last April in Fort Lauderdale, FL, playing their version of the old chestnut "Ain't We Got Fun," a song Hunter recorded on his recent solo CD Public Domain. As the title suggests, the songlist for that CD was drawn from old standards and pop tunes with lapsed copyrights. However, this performance is about as far from a historical recreation as one could get, and it's a good example of how Hunter has re-imagined those familiar songs.

Down below are live versions of two tunes from Hunter's previous CD, Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You That You Will Not Be Getting Paid, which saw the guitarist working with a three-piece brass section, and seems to have provided some inspiration for his current trio. "High Pockets and a Fanny Pack" is taken from the same gig as the first selection, while "You Look Good In Orange" is from a show last year in Dayton, OH.

The final clip comes from a concert Hunter did in December at the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, CA. It's basically a solo guitar piece, and it's included here because it's a nice example of Hunter playing in a way that recalls a more traditional jazz guitar style, but with his distinctive touch in it to illustrate the connections between the two.

Jazz this week: Christian Pincock, Musica Slesa, Moyindau, Eric Slaughter Trio, Erika Johnson, and more

It's more than likely to be freezing cold in St. Louis this weekend, but with the 2011 portion of the presenting season starting to heat up, there are a number of jazz and creative music performances that could justify the effort required to bundle up and brave the chill.

If you're looking specifically for something to put you in mind of warmer climes, the St. Louis based Latin jazz band Musica Slesa will be performing on Friday night at Jazz at the Bistro and presumably will be, as the saying goes, muy caliente.

Also on Friday, pianist and singer Curt Landes' trio will play at Robbie's House of Jazz, and trombonist/composer/electronic musician Christian Pincock will perform at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Pincock's music is concerned with the interaction of live, sampled and synthesized sounds, with lots of computer processing of his trombone. You can see a couple of videos of him in performance in last Saturday's video showcase post.

On Saturday afternoon, singer Erika Johnson will reprise her take on the music of Nina Simone for a concert presented by the Nu-Art Series at the Metropolitan Gallery downtown. That evening, drummer Brian Sullivan leads a trio with bassist Darrell Mixon and pianist Mat Dillinger at Robbie's.

On Sunday, guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio (pictured) will do a free, early evening concert at Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers Series.

After that, if you hurry, you can make it down to the south side for a Sunday evening performance from Moyindau at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. The Michigan-based quartet brings together influences from jazz, classical, Eastern European folk music, free improv and more, and you can sample some of their sounds from that same video post from last week.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday BB's Jazz Blues and Soups has pianist Dave Becherer's trio, and on Tuesday, the weekly open jam sessions continue at Robbie's House of Jazz.

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 Crusaders reschedule St. Louis concert for Saturday, June 11 at the Touhill

Jazz St. Louis has announced that the Jazz Crusaders (pictured) have rescheduled their St. Louis concert for 8:00 p.m., Saturday June 11 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

The concert, which will feature original Crusaders members Joe Sample, Wayne Henderson and Wilton Felder, originally was scheduled for September 2010 at the Touhill, but was postponed to due to a medical issue affecting one of the musicians, reportedly Felder.

Tickets for the Jazz Crusaders at the Touhill will be priced at $100 for Gold Circle seating, which includes a post-concert reception with the musicians, $50 and $35. Jazz at the Bistro subscribers will receive an email offering them the first opportunity to purchase seats. Tickets then will go on sale to the general public at 10:00 a.m. next Tuesday, January 18, and can be purchased by phoning the Touhill box office at 314-516-4949 or online at www.touhill.org.

Notes from the Net: Miles biopic moves ahead, Oliver Lake's solo set, 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:

* In recent Miles Davis-related news, Miles Davis Online looks at what's ahead for the trumpeter's legacy in 2011, and the proposed feature film biography of Davis now has a script and appears to be moving closer to reality. Meanwhile, Miles' producer Teo Macero was the subject of a roundtable discussion among contemporary DJs published by The Revivialist.

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake (pictured) did a solo show last month in San Diego; via Avant Music News, here's a feature on Lake from the local paper, and here's a review from Robert Bush of AllAboutJazz.com.

* Speaking of AAJ, here's a review from that site's Clifford Allen of The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer, the recently issued CD of a 1986 duet performance by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and drummer Ed Blackwell. Smith's Golden Quartet performed in St. Louis in November at 560 Music Center.

* In related news, Golden Quartet pianist Vijay Iyer has a new project, a trio called Tirtha that blends jazz and Indian music.

* Guitarist John McLaughlin, who played the Sheldon Concert Hall in November, recently talked to NPR about John Coltrane and spirituality in music.

* Singer Jane Monheit, who performed last month at Jazz at the Bistro, recently did an extended interview with AllAboutJazz.com's Esther Berlanga-Ryan.

* The Bad Plus just wrapped up their annual visit to St. Louis on Saturday to general acclaim, but the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich felt their recent performance in Chicago, which preceded their gig here, could have been better.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Coming up next week at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Today, let's take a look at some videos of musicians who will be performing next week at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

First up is trombonist, composer and electronic musician Christian Pincock, who's playing on Friday, January 14 at LNAC. Pincock performs using a valve trombone and a computer-based instrument he created using MAX/MSP software, and draws on "diverse styles such as improvised experimental music, contemporary classical, avant-garde jazz, noise, and electronica."

Pincock in featured in the first embedded video above, performing his piece "Modifications of the Mind - Part 1" in April 2009 at the University of New Mexico ArtsLab in Albuquerque. Down below, there's an excerpt from another solo performance, recorded in March 2008 at Lichtblick Kino in Berlin, Germany.

Two nights later on Sunday, January 16, the Michigan-based quartet Moyindau will stop off at LNAC on their way back home from a tour of southwest. The group includes alto saxophonist Kevin Bene, pianist and composer Alex Kreger, cellist Susanna Mendlow and percussionist Ryan Ptasnik, and cites influences including "experimental jazz, contemporary classical, folk, and free improvisation."

The third video features Moyindau performing a piece called "Descent," and was recorded in July 2010 at Cream City Collectives in Milwaukee. The fourth video is a rendition of "Point House," a multi-part composition also recorded in July, at the Unitarian Universalist Church West in Brookfield, WI.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's this week's wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* The Bad Plus' bassist Reid Anderson was interviewed by Calvin Wilson for a brief article in Friday's Post-Dispatch, and you can read it online here. The Bad Plus continue at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday.

* The RFT's Annie Zaleski reports that Pollstar has ranked The Pageant in St. Louis as the number four venue in the world in concert ticket sales for club venues, with more than 186,000 tickets sold last year.

* NPR now has archived online singer Dianne Reeves' New Year's Eve show from San Francisco, featuring St. Louisan Peter Martin on piano. You can listen to it here.

* The Celebrate St. Louis organization is soliciting ideas for entertainment at the 2011 Fair St. Louis. If you'd like to see some jazz with St. Louis roots on the riverfront during the fair - and how about a soul sax showcase with David Sanborn; a "hip-hop meets jazz" show with Russell Gunn or Keyon Harrold; the aforementioned Peter Martin and some of his famous friends; or just letting the great Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) do whatever the heck he feels like - let them know by sending an email to info@celebratestlouis.org.

Erika Johnson, Quincy Troupe & Kelvyn Bell to perform for Nu-Art Series

The Nu-Art Series this week announced two upcoming events at the Metropolitan Gallery, located downtown at 2936 Locust Street.

Singer Erika Johnson (pictured, above left) will reprise "Erika Sings Nina," a tribute to the music of Nina Simone, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, January 15. A native of East St. Louis, Johnson studied music with Ron Carter at Lincoln HS and Jackson State University, and has performed around St. Louis both as a leader and with saxophonist Willie Akins and others.

Then next month, poet and author Quincy Troupe and singer/guitarist Kelvyn Bell (pictured, below left) will return home to join forces for a performance under the name "SoundArt" at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 19.

Both natives of the St. Louis area who years ago relocated to the East Coast, Troupe and Bell first teamed up in 2009 for a performance with drummer Ronnie Burrage at Robbie's House of Jazz here in St. Louis. The "SoundArt" project is described as "a driving, mystical, melodic music that has sparked an unexpected buzz among lovers of jazz, hip-hop, and the spoken word and promises to energize audiences around the world."

Tickets for both concerts will be $10 for general admission, available at the door.

Dinner/dance on February 4 to benefit O'Fallon Township HS bands

Once again this year, parents and friends of the band program at O'Fallon Township High School in O'Fallon, IL are putting on a jazz-themed event to raise money for music education at OTHS.

The swing group Wack-A-Doo (pictured), featuring vocalist Valerie Tichacek, will provide the entertainment for the second annual "O’ That Jazz" fundraiser, which will take place from 6:00 p.m. to midnight, Friday, February 4 at The Fountains Hotel & Conference Center, 319 Fountains Parkway in Fairview Heights.

Tickets for the event are $40 per person for seating around the dance floor, $35 for all others, and include dinner, dancing, and the chance to bid in oral and silent auctions. The event is open to the community, and tickets can be purchased online at www.Showclix.com/event/othsband. For more information, visit the OTHS band program website.

(Edited after posting to fix some typos.)

Review: The Bad Plus at Jazz at the Bistro

The Bad Plus are in St. Louis this week to perform through Saturday night at Jazz at the Bistro, and I was there Wednesday to review their second set for the Riverfront Times' music blog A to Z. That review is now online, and you can read it here.

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus and more

The jazz and creative music concert schedule in St. Louis is not exactly jam-packed for the first full weekend of 2011, but I suppose that's all the more reason to get out and catch The Bad Plus (pictured) as they return to Jazz at the Bistro tonight through Saturday.

You can read my preview of TBP in this week's Riverfront Times, and to see some videos of the band playing material from their most recent CD Never Stop, check out this post from last Saturday.

Elsewhere around town, the new year seems to be getting off to a bit of a slow start. There's nothing jazz-oriented on tap this week at the Pageant, the Touhill or the Sheldon, and at this writing, Robbie's House of Jazz hasn't updated their website with schedule information for the new year. Area universities have yet to resume classes, and so the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has yet to announce their winter/spring 2011 schedule.

On the bar/restaurant scene, Mangia Italiano is under new ownership and will be closed for renovations until mid-month, thus temporarily sidelining their long-running Friday night attraction, saxophonist Dave Stone's trio.

To sum up, it looks like the 2011 concert schedule won't really get rolling until next week, but in the meantime, there are just a few more local gigs to commend to your attention.

On Thursday, saxophonist Dave Cheli will perform free improvisation with his sons, Kevin (drums & percussion) and Dominic (keyboards) at Stone Spiral Coffeehouse. and on Saturday, the Chelis will split a bill with flute player Fred Tompkins and pianist Jim Hegarty at the St. Charles Coffeehouse (which, name notwithstanding, actually is in St. Peters). Tompkins and Hegarty promise "some original music and our own versions of pieces by Ornette Coleman, Brian Eno and Douglas Ewart."

Looking beyond the weekend, BB's Jazz Blues and Soups has guitarist Tom Byrne's trio early on Sunday night, and the Sessions Big Band on Tuesday.

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.)

Young Friends groups to present "Jazz Under The Stars" on Thursday, January 27 at the Planetarium

The Young Friends of Jazz St. Louis will join forces with the Young Friends of the Saint Louis Science Center for "Jazz Under the Stars," an event taking place from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Thursday, January 27 at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium in Forest Park.

The evening will feature music from the Eric Slaughter Trio and guest performers Jason Swagler and Zelina Bott-Goins, with the Planetarium's projection system providing the celestial atmosphere alluded to in the event's title. Admission is $35, which includes two drink tickets, appetizers, and complimentary valet parking. A cash bar also will be available. To purchase tickets, call 314-289-4424 or visit ticketmaster.com/slsc.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's a brand new year, and with it, there are more music videos to explore at StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds. Each day, there's a new clip posted, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, and more, and showcasing performers that every music fan should know.

The past couple of weeks have featured vintage and rarely seen videos from artists including Jackie Wilson, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Woody Shaw Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Sun Ra Arkestra, Howlin' Wolf, John Coltrane Quartet, Charlie Haden's Quartet West, Miles Davis, Gentle Giant, Count Basie Orchestra, Mel Torme, Parliament/Funkadelic, Mel Lewis Orchestra, the documentary Weird Nightmare: A tribute to Charles Mingus, Eric Clapton, Bill Withers, Fred Frith, Jimmy McGriff, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, and Andrew Hill.

If you missed them when they first were posted, don't despair - you still can see all these compelling clips, plus hundreds more from the archives, by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Jimmy Webb to perform for Presenters Dolan's upcoming cabaret series

The Presenters Dolan have announced a new schedule of cabaret shows to be presented in February and March at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

The upcoming series' best known performer is singer and songwriter Jimmy Webb (pictured), who will play the Kranzberg from Thursday, March 17 through Saturday, March 19.

Webb, the Grammy Award winning writer of 1960s vintage pop hits such as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Didn't We" and "MacArthur Park", will be singing his own songs and "telling stories about them and the people who sang them over the years." Webb should have some interesting stories to tell, as his tunes have been recorded by an extraordinarily diverse group of performers, including Glen Campbell, the actor Richard Harris, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, Frank Sinatra, Nanci Griffith, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Elvis Presley, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

The performers for the other four shows all have a St. Louis connection. The husband and wife team of pianist Joe Dreyer and singer/actress Rosemary Watts will open the series on Friday, February 11 and Saturday, February 12 with their new show "Crazy Relationships - Love in Many Aspects," supported by Scott Alberici on clarinet and Dave Troncoso on bass.

St. Louis native Craig Pomranz is up next, returning home for performances on Friday, February 18 and Saturday, February 19. Pomranz' show is directed by Ron Cohen, with Stephen Bocchino as musical director.

Pianist Carol Schmidt then takes the stage on Friday, February 25 and Saturday, February 26, accompanied by Ric Vice on bass and a lineup of guest singers including Robert Breig, Michele Isam, and Dionna Raedeke. Schmidt's show will include several originals from her forthcoming CD The Significance of Scenery, which she plans to release this fall.

Roundin out the series is St. Louis native, actor and singer Craig Rubano, whose show "We Can Be Kind: Songs of Passion, Songs of Hope" will run Thursday, March 10 through Saturday, March 12. Rubano's show includes songs from writers such as Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, with Beth Ertz as music director and accompanist.

Tickets range in price from $20 for Schmidt's performances to up to $55 for preferred seating for Jimmy Webb, and are on sale now online at licketytix.com.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Happy New Year with The Bad Plus

Once again in 2011, the eclectic piano trio The Bad Plus will be the first performers of the new year at Jazz at the Bistro, where they'll appear Wednesday, January 5 through Saturday, January 8. TBP's latest CD Never Stop came out in September, and it's likely that their St. Louis sets will include ample helpings of material from that recording.

So, today we've got some video clips of some recent performances of songs from Never Stop, which is the first TBP album to feature all original material.

First up is the title track, recorded in October at Club Panama in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The stripped down arrangement hints at minimalism and techno, both acknowledged influences on The Bad Plus, which have been combined and rendered here with a few characteristic twists.

Below is a version of "Super America" recorded in September in Montreal. As the title suggests, this one has sort of an Americana feel, almost Coplandesque in a way, but also slightly tongue in cheek. In the third slot is "My Friend Metatron," recorded at the same gig in Amsterdam as the first selection.

In the fourth embedded window, you can see the band's entire set from the Rosslyn Jazz Festival in Virginia, recorded in September 2010. The visuals are fairly basic, but the audio's nice, and, taken together with the preceding clips, you can get a reasonable idea of some of what you might expect to hear next week.

For more about Never Stop, check out the "Extended Liner Notes" that ran on NPR's A Blog Supreme in September, featuring commentary from TBP's Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King, as well as this review of the CD from Jazzblog.ca's Peter Hum. The Wall Street Journal this past week also published a worthy feature on TBP, which you can see here.