Friday, September 20, 2013

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* "Jazz Unlimited" host Dennis Owsley will will serve as interviewer and moderator for a discussion with multi-instrumentalist and composer Marty Ehrlich at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, October 3 at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd.

Ehrlich, who grew up in University City, will play with his Rites Quartet in a concert presented by New Music Circle the following evening, Friday, October 4, at the Kranzberg Arts Center. The Ehrlich/Owsley conversation is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis expat Greg Osby (pictured) talked to London Jazz News about his upcoming appearance at the Whirlwind Festival in UK.

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn, raised in East St. Louis and now living in Atlanta, has a new album, Elektrik Funeral, out this month on the Atlanta-based indie label Hot Shoe Records. Described as "inspired by the work of the Brecker Brothers Heavy Metal Bebop and the music of the classic Black Sabbath lineup," the album features a cover version of Sabbath's "War Pigs" and guest appearances from musicians including saxophonist Branford Marsalis, pianist Robert Glasper, and trombonists Andre Hayward and Fred Wesley.

* A new short film, Trane and Miles, takes a fictionalized look at Miles Davis and John Coltrane in 1959 during the recording of Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue.

* Saxophonist Eric Person (also from St. Louis, now living in Brooklyn, NY) has posted on Facebook an album of pictures from his big band's first live gig earlier this month at NYC's Jazz Standard.

* Speaking of Facebook photo sets, here's one posted by the American Embassy in Guyana, documenting the recent trip to that country by pianist and Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap, bassist Nick Jost and drummer Marty Morrison. The trio were in Guyana from September 9 through September 14 on behalf of the U.S. State Department's Jazz Ambassadors program to perform a concert and lead workshops for local students and musicians.

* In other Jazz St. Louis-related news, there's a new promo video online for the touring edition of "Abyssinian: A Gospel Celebration," the extended work composed in 2008 by Wynton Marsalis for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a gospel choir. JSL is presenting the St. Louis stop of the "Abyssinian" tour next month at the Touhill.

* Meanwhile, JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford on Wednesday night took part in a Jazz Journalists Association online video panel, "The Future of Jazz: Where We’ll Hear Jazz," with Revive Music's Meghan Stabile and former Jazz at Lincoln Center head Adrian Ellis. You can watch a replay of their discussion here.

* Singer Michael Buble's concert last Friday at the Scottrade Center was reviewed by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* The St. Louis Jazz Orchestra's tribute to Maynard Ferguson next Tuesday night at the Touhill is previewed in an online story from UMSL's news service.

* Trumpeter Roger Ingram's appearance Sunday night with the Dave Dickey Big Band at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company is previewed by St. Louis magazine intern Kim Aubuchon (who's a trumpet player herself).

* Congrats to Logic Systems Sound & Lighting, based in the St. Louis suburb of Valley Park, for being named one of the finalists for Front Of House magazine's 2013 Hometown Hero awards.

* In some less felicitous news, St. Louis blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Lee Kennett is facing a relapse of the colon cancer he's fought for several years, and friends and family have launched an online fund-raising effort to help with medical bills and other expenses.

* Jazz radio update: This week's edition of Calvin Wilson's "Somethin' Else" is devoted to the music of legendary bassist and composer Charles Mingus, as heard on recordings by Mingus himself; his former sideman, saxophonist Charles McPherson; and the Mingus Big Band, which continues to perform his compositions under the auspices of his widow Sue Mingus. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

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