So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Post-Dispatch business reporter Tim Bryant writes today that the Music Center of Kirkwood (once known as Mel Bay Music) will relocate later this year from downtown Kirkwood to a former paint store on Watson Rd. in Crestwood. The new store, to be renamed City Music and Education Center, will be triple the size of the current Kirkwood location - and, interestingly, less than a mile from one of two Guitar Center stores in the St. Louis area.

* St. Louis magazine's Stefene Russell has an article from the mag's March issue now online about Jazz St. Louis' 15th anniversary and upcoming benefit gala.

* Back at the Post, Terry Perkins reviewed last Saturday's concert by Chris Botti with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. For a contrasting view, read this blog entry about the trumpeter's St. Louis show from blogger Amy Zopfi, a blogger from Las Vegas who's planning on following Botti across the country for an entire year's worth of concerts.

* The remodeling of Mangia Italiano is done, and the South Grand restaurant and bar reopened this week, with saxophonist Dave Stone's trio set to resume their long-running Friday night gig this evening.

* The St. Louis-based traditional jazz and swing band Cornet Chop Suey (pictured) is on the road this weekend, heading west to Seaside, OR, where they'll be one of 11 bands performing for the 28th annual Oregon Dixieland Jubilee. The festival starts today and continues through Sunday.

* Jay Landesman, former owner of the Crystal Palace nightclub in St. Louis' famed Gaslight Square entertainment district, died this week in London at age 91. You can read the Post-Dispatch obituary by Deb Peterson here, and a piece about Landesman from the Riverfront Times' Aimee Levitt here.

(Edited 2/28/11 to add the blogger's name to the item about Chris Botti.)