So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry that's playing for the next week at the Tivoli Theater, was reviewed for the Post-Dispatch by Calvin Wilson. (To find out how to get free tickets to selected screenings of the film tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, read this post.)

* Also here this weekend, Brazilian big band SpokFrevo Orquestra wraps up their US tour with a performance on Sunday night at The Sheldon. You can read a review of their shows last week at NYC's Lincoln Center here, courtesy of AllAboutJazz.com's Nick Catalano.

* And via Nate Chinen of the New York Times, here's a review of saxophonist Joshua Redman's just-completed gig at NYC's Village Vanguard. Redman's trio will open a four-night stand this coming Wednesday at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Speaking of the Bistro, while he was here last week to play at the club, guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli also visited KWMU's program "CityScape" for an interview and brief performance.

* And in a semi-related bit of news, Jazz St. Louis announced this week that the Bistro will begin serving a weekly jazz brunch, complete with live music, from 10:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. Sundays starting November 16. Singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing will provide the sounds for the first three weeks, with pianist and Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap's trio taking over for the month of December. You can see the menu devised by Catering St. Louis and more details here.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake has posted on SoundCloud a preview track, "6 & 3," from the new release by his Organ Quartet.

* And speaking of new albums, the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured) have posted on Facebook a video "teaser" for their next recording, scheduled for release in November.

* Electronic musician Eric Hall has posted on Bandcamp a recording of his recent performance at the Public Media Commons in Grand Center.

* Singer/pianist Steve Ross' show last weekend for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Down Beat magazine has announced the results of their 2014 Readers Poll, which include a win in the "Historical Album" category for Miles Davis' Miles At The Fillmore—Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3. You can see the complete results of the poll here.

* Meanwhile, Blue, the note-for-note remake of Davis' Kind of Blue by the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, continues to incite controversy and commentary, the most recent examples being pianist George Colligan's blog post about the album and Ottawa Citizen jazz writer Peter Hum's list of "50 Records To Listen To Before Checking Out That Kind Of Blue Remake."

* Following a meeting between the St. Louis Police Department and representatives of downtown music venues, police say they have "strong leads" for finding the group of thieves who have been robbing the vehicles of touring bands. Read more on the story from the Riverfront Times and KWMU/St. Louis Public Radio.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” DJ Calvin Wilson will delve into compositions associated with Miles Davis that have become jazz standards, as performed by Davis, Donald Harrison, Don Byron, and others. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen. 

On Sunday, this week's guest on WSIE's "Jazz Talk" will be singer Tony Viviano.The program airs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 88.7 FM, and also can be heard online.

Then Sunday night on St. Louis Public Radio's "Jazz Unlimited," host Dennis Owsley will feature the music of Chick Corea. Listen in from 9:00 p.m. to midnight over the air at 90.7 FM or online.

Jazz this week: SpokFrevo Orquestra, Jesse Gannon and Truth, Dave Dickey Big Band, a new film about Clark Terry, and more

The schedule of jazz and creative music for this Halloween weekend in St. Louis features everything from intimate cabaret shows to roaring big bands, plus the local debut of a new documentary film featuring a St. Louis-born jazz legend. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with Ken Haller presenting the first of two performances of his show "Mama's Boy" at the Gaslight Theater; and saxophonist Adam Schefkind will become the first Washington University student to headline a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series.

Also tonight, Sandy Weltman will lead a harmonica workshop at Mozingo Music's O'Fallon location; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music.

Tomorrow, pianist and singer Jesse Gannon and his band Truth will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, becoming the first St. Louis act to make their Bistro debut in the new, renovated version of the room.

Also tomorrow, singer Dean Christopher no doubt will be breaking out the celebrity impressions during the performance of his "Rat Pack and More" show at the Ozark Theatre; singer Erika Johnson and guitarist Tom Byrne will duet at Robust Wine Bar's downtown location; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and bassist Darrell Mixon leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

And let's not forget that Friday also is the first evening that Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry, will be showing at the Tivoli Theater. The bad news is that the film is only playing here locally for a week; the good news is that the producers are offering free tickets to selected showings this weekend. For more about all of that, see this post.

On Saturday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing, hot jazz and jump blues at Evangeline's; singer Ron Wilkinson will perform at the Ozark Theatre; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival will present a "Webster Senior Showcase" featuring Webster University students Michael Williams, Eden Rain Eernissee, and Michael Dewar at the Gaslight Theater

Then on Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will present their November event at the  American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway on the south side.

That evening, listeners can choose between two big band concerts, both happening in the Grand Center district. At Jazz at the Bistro, the Dave Dickey Big Band will be making their debut at the venue, having moved their monthly shows from their former location at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

Meanwhile, just a couple of short blocks away, the Brazilian big band SpokFrevo Orquestra (pictured), which mixes jazz with styles associated with the Brazilan carnival, will be wrapping up their eight-city tour of the USA with a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

As shown in the video of a full concert included in part three of StLJN's fall 2014 jazz preview, this a musically accomplished and sonically explosive group, and it's too bad that their appearance here seems to be flying under the radar of much of the local media.

Fortunately for big band enthusiasts, the shows start two hours apart, meaning that it should theoretically be possible to catch the first set of the Dickey band at the Bistro, then hustle on over to Sheldon to hear SpokFrevo Orquestra. (The only downside to this plan is that it likely means missing the intermission set at the Bistro by the Lindbergh High School Jazz Ensemble.)

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the free jazz and improvising ensemble Numbers returns to Tavern of Fine Arts; and Webster University's student jazz combos will be performing at the University's Community Music School.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)

Get free tickets to this weekend's screenings of new Clark Terry documentary

Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin, is getting a St. Louis run starting this Friday, October 31 and continuing through the following Thursday, November 6 at the Tivoli Theater, 6350 Delmar.

The film tells the story of the relationship between the nonagenarian Terry and Kauflin, a blind pianist in his early twenties, and has received almost universally positive reviews since its release last month, including a rave from the New York Times. You can see the trailer for Keep On Keepin' On in the embedded video window at the bottom of this post.

To help promote the St. Louis run, the film's publicity firm is giving away a limited number of free tickets for the showings at 7:15 p.m. this Friday, October 31; 2:15 p.m. this Saturday, November 1; and 2:15 p.m. this Sunday, November 2. The free tickets are limited to two per person; to sign up, go here.

Roy Hargrove Quintet to perform December 17-20 at Jazz at the Bistro

Jazz St. Louis has announced that trumpeter Roy Hargrove's quintet will perform Wednesday, December 17 through Saturday, December 20 at Jazz at the Bistro. Hargrove's group will fill the dates originally scheduled for pianist Joe Sample, who died on September 12.

"We were all saddened by the passing of legendary pianist/keyboardist Joe Sample. His music, both with The Jazz Crusaders and after, touched many lives and left a lasting impression on the jazz world and beyond," said a statement released by Jazz St. Louis. "We will always remember his amazing week of shows at Jazz at the Bistro in March 2013 and wish we could see him perform once again this December."

It's been a while since Hargrove (pictured) has been in St. Louis - he was here with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters in 2005 at The Pageant, and according to Jazz St. Louis, he last played at the Bistro way back in August, 1999. The trumpeter's most recent albums as a leader are 2008's Earfood with his quintet and Emergence, a big band date that came out in 2009, though since then he also has guested on recordings by Jimmy Cobb, Marcus Miller, Angelique Kidjo, and Cyrille Aimée.

Ticket holders for Joe Sample can use their tickets for the corresponding day and time for the Hargrove quintet, or return them for a full refund by calling the Jazz St. Louis box office at 314-289-4030 between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Tickets for the Roy Hargrove Quintet go on sale to Jazz St. Louis subscribers starting at 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday, October 29 and to the general public at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, October 31.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Rashad Becker & Eli Keszler

This week, let's take a look at Rashad Becker and Eli Keszler, two musicians who will be sharing a bill playing separate sets in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, November 8 at The Luminary.

The German-born Becker is known in the music industry as a mastering and cutting engineer with more than 1,200 albums to his credit. His own music uses real-time synthesis and sampling to realize what Becker calls "traditional music Of notional species."

You can hear an example of one of his solo sets in the first video window up above, recorded in April of this year in Turin, Italy. After the jump, there are two more shows by Becker, from June 2013 at the PAN ACT Festival in Boston, and February 2012 in Bristol, England.

Below that are three videos featuring Keszler, a percussionist who also does sound installations. The first, of a work called "Archway," documents a collaboration between Keszler and So Percussion to create a piece of music using the Manhattan Bridge as both the setting and, by running piano wires from the bridge to the ground, an instrument.

Next, there's another of Keszler's works created for a specific location - in this case, the Helm V&A Museum in London - that combines live performance with electronic manipulation of sound. The final video is a clip of a Keszler solo percussion set recorded in 2012 at the Bruismelk Festival in Antwerp, Belgium.

For more about Rashad Becker, read this interview in BOMB magazine; this review of volume 1 of his Traditional Music of Notional Species; and this interview with him about his engineering and mastering work. You also can hear more of Becker's music on SoundCloud.

For more about Eli Keszler, see this 2012 interview at Tiny Mix Tapes; this review of his 2012 two-disc set Catching Net; and his SoundCloud page.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli, in town to perform 
through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro, was a guest yesterday on John Carney's program on KTRS.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake has a new album, What I Heard, out on his Passin' Thru label. Available any day now via the usual outlets, it's the third release from his organ quartet with trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, drummer Chris Beck, and organist Jared Gold, and features all original compositions by Lake.

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary featuring trumpeter Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin, got a favorable review in this video from New York Times film critic A. O. Scott.

* Saxophonist Eric Person has put on YouTube a new video of his big band playing the original composition "And Then There Was Light."

* Actor/director Don Cheadle talked with Variety about completing and searching for a distributor for his Miles Davis movie, Miles Ahead.

* Speaking of Davis, NPR's new program "Jazz Night in America" debuted last week with trumpeter Wallace Roney's set from the Detroit Jazz Festival in which he performed a series of recently "rediscovered" works written for Davis and orchestra by saxophonist Wayne Shorter. 

* Meanwhile, the controversy over Mostly Other People Do The Killing's note-for-note remake of Davis' Kind of Blue continues, with another review of the album, by AllAboutJazz.com's Bruce Lindsay, while over at his blog Do The Math, pianist Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus weighs in with some interesting thoughts about the project as a work of conceptual art.

* Ladue News has party pics from the recent opening of Jazz St. Louis' new HQ.

* And in a related development, JSL's executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford has been named the St. Louis American's Nonprofit Executive of the Year. Bradford will be honored at the American's annual awards luncheon on Friday, November 14 at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis.

* Following a recent series of thefts of equipment and valuables from touring bands that had their vehicles broken into, St. Louis police were scheduled to meet yesterday with owners and managers of several rock music venues in the city to come up with plan to catch the thieves.

* There's bad news this week for the Palladium, as artist, author and preservationist Kevin Belford reported on Twitter that the historic building in Grand Center, once the site of shows by numerous touring jazz and blues performers, has been tagged with a Notice of Condemnation. No word yet as to if this is truly the end of efforts to save the structure; please stay tuned...

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts continues their efforts to get "Every Artist Covered" by health insurance with two workshops, about the Small Business Health Options Program for not-for-profit organizations and "Navigating Health Care Reform" for individuals, on Tuesday, November 11 at the Regional Arts Commission. VLAA also will offer individualized, in-person help with health insurance enrollment during four sessions in November and December. For more details, visit the VLAA website.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” DJ Calvin Wilson pays tribute to the late pianist Mulgrew Miller. Right after that on "The Jazz Collective," host Jason Church will remember singer Tim Hauser of Manhattan Transfer, who passed away this week, and spin tracks from Johnny Britt, Jonathan Butler, Dan Siegel, Rick Braun, Herb Alpert, Larry Carlton, Donald Byrd, Erin Bode, The Funky Butt Brass Band, Chris Hazelton's Boogaloo 7, and Tim Cunningham.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen. 

Jazz this week: John Pizzarelli, Esfoma, The Cunninghams, a tribute to Charles Mingus, Bad Luck, and more

Autumn is definitely in the air in St. Louis, and it's looking like a fine weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music. Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy performances coming up over the next few days...

Tonight, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. The longtime St. Louis favorite has a new band for this visit, still featuring his brother Martin on bass, but also including two new members, pianist Konrad Paszkudzki and drummer Kevin Kanner. For some samples of Pizzarelli in action, check out this video post, made before his four-night run with his dad, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, last year at the Bistro, and this one from before his 2012 gig at the club. 

Also tonight, Esfoma, an improvising ensemble led by pianist Greg Mills, will perform at Tavern of Fine Arts. Mills played out and recorded frequently from the late 1970s through the 1990s as a solo pianist and with the duo Exiles, but has kept a low public profile of late. He'll be accompanied on this gig by percussionist Henry Claude, cellist Tracy Andreotti, poet Michael Castro, saxophonist Dave Stone, and fellow pianist David Parker.

Tomorrow night, bassist Bob DeBoo leads a group playing the music of Charles Mingus in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; singer Denise Thimes will perform in her tenth annual show raising funds for pancreatic cancer research at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with Antonio Rodriguez performing his show "Memories, Mistakes and Moving On" at the Gaslight Theater

On Friday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues with singer and pianist Steve Ross, who will present his show "An Evening with Steve Ross" at the Gaslight Theater. Once called "the suavest of all male cabaret performers" by the New York Times, Ross will repeat the show again on Saturday.

Also on Friday, Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Joe Mancuso fronts a quartet at Nathalie's; and the The People's Key play the house concert venue KindaBlue, located at 6101 1/2 Idaho on the south side. Elsewhere around town, Miss Jubilee will be swinging at Prasino in St. Charles; guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will host a jam session at The Wolf in Ballwin; and Midwest Jazz-tette will play West Coast-style "cool" jazz at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday, the Seattle-based drum and saxophone duo Bad Luck will perform a late-afternoon show at the Tavern of Fine Arts. Regarded as one of the top experimental, improvising pairs in their hometown, drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch use live audio loops and digital effects to augment and enhance their sound.

Then on Saturday evening, vocal duo The Cunninghams will be in town from their home in Las Vegas to play at the Ozark Theater. Former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife Alicia (pictured) have a long and fascinating history in the music business, some of which is detailed in this post from last Saturday and the accompanying linked material. But you don't need a lesson to enjoy their music, which features closely harmonized vocals, in the style of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross or the Manhattan Transfer, with accents of Latin jazz and exotica.

Also on Saturday, singer Erin Bode is at Nathalie's; singers Feyza Eren and Ayse Eren, aka the Eren Sisters, and guitarist Dave Black will be at The Wine Press; the Ann Dueren Trio returns to Il Bel Lago; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be back at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday morning, The Sidemen will be filling in providing music for the jazz brunch this week at Evangeline's, and later on that day, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play a matinee at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the jazz faculty of Webster University will present their annual TKT Scholarship Benefit Concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus. The event raises money for music scholarships in the names of Terry Jackson, Kirk Cappello and Tony Saputo, three musicians and Webster alumni who were killed in a 1991 plane crash along with five other members of country singer Reba McEntire's road band. This year's theme is "Jazz Interpretations of the Music of Jule Styne," paying tribute to the composer of songs such as "I Fall In Love Too Easily," "The Party's Over" and "People."

Also on Monday, singer Dean Christopher bring his "Rat Pack and More" show with pianist Chris Swan and trumpeter Jim Manley to One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, pianist Jim Hegarty will lead a trio at Tavern of Fine Arts; and the weekly Tuesday jam sessions once held at Robbie's House of Jazz have been resurrected, like much of Robbie's other programming, at the Ozark Theatre.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The return of The Cunninghams

This week, our video spotlight shines on The Cunninghams, a duo comprised of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife Alicia, a singer and pianist. The Las Vegas-based couple are returning to St. Louis for a show next Saturday, October 25, at the Ozark Theatre.

Billing themselves as the "Super Jazz Vocal Pair," the Cunninghams' main calling card is their close harmony vocals, delivered in a style that may remind jazz fans of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral, or the Manhattan Transfer, and spiced with touches of Latin jazz, lounge and exotica. They've toured with the Count Basie Orchestra, enjoyed great success in Asia as well as in the US, and even were nominated for a Grammy Award back in 1989.

Don Cunningham began his professional career here in the 1960s, playing in Gaslight Square and leading the house band at the Playboy Club, which is what led me to write about him and Alicia for the first time back in 2007 for the Riverfront Times. Since that piece and one of today's videos recap much of their back story, we won't do that again today.

Instead, let's go straight to the videos, starting up above with a brief promo clip they put together a couple of years ago to help introduce their act to the uninitiated.

After the jump, you can see a segment from the April 2012 episode of HEC-TV's "I Love Jazz" that includes performance footage as well as an interview, conducted by the program's host Don Wolff. After that, there's an extended excerpt from another homecoming gig the Cunninghams did a few years back at Harris-Stowe State University, accompanied by pianist Jeter Thompson's trio.

Since that's all the footage of them that seems to be available online, we'll wrap up with some vintage audio, specifically "Tabu," the track from Don Cunningham's St. Louis days that 40 years later helped him become known by DJs and record collectors all over the world. From the 2007 RFT article:

"Cunningham also earned international attention a couple of years ago when the San Francisco label Luv N' Haight reissued Something for Everyone, an album he cut in 1965 while his group was the house band at the St. Louis Playboy Club. Inspired by Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter and music he heard in Hawaii while touring with Mathis, Cunningham incorporated those exotic sounds into his own act, eventually cutting an LP and pressing up 500 copies to sell at the club.

More than 30 years later, one of those copies found its way to Luv N' Haight, which included a bootlegged version of the song "Tabu" on a multi-artist compilation aimed at DJs. "Tabu" caught on with record spinners in Brazil, Japan and elsewhere, prompting the label to locate Cunningham and arrange an authorized re-release of the entire album."

For more about The Cunninghams, check out this article that Dennis Owsley wrote in 2011 for St. Louis magazine; this story written by Roscoe Crenshaw in 2009 for the St. Louis American; and this 2005 interview with Las Vegas Talk Radio.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound's two performances this weekend are previewed by Stef Russell of St. Louis magazine.

* Meanwhile, the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson takes a look at tonight's "250 Years of St. Louis Music" show at the Sheldon Concert Hall, which features Alarm Will Sound* playing a new work by Peter Martin, plus performances from a diverse list of St. Louis jazz, blues and roots musicians.

* Drummer/bandleader and U City native Ronnie Burrage is the subject of a feature article in Jazz Times.

* To promote an upcoming gig at LA's Jazz Bakery, saxophonist Greg Osby has put together a brief online playlist of some of his favorite music.

* St. Louis singer Katie McGrath will perform her cabaret show "Love in the Desert, Romance in an Age of Scarcity" at NYC's Metropolitan Room next Thursday, October 23.

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin, was reviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Mark F. Turner. 

* Miles Davis' "Blue Xmas" b/w "Devil May Care" will be released as a limited edition 7" blue vinyl single (pictured) for Record Store Day's annual Black Friday event on November 28.

* In more Davis-related news, Jazz Times critic Nate Chinen weighs in on Mostly Other People Do The Killing's controversial note-for-note remake of Davis' Kind of Blue, and Popmatters has an interview about the record with MOPDTK bassist and bandleader Moppa Elliott.

* In response to the controversy, the Davis estate felt the need yesterday to issue an official statement: "I Vincent Wilburn Jr., drummer and nephew of Miles Davis, and Cheryl A. Davis, daughter of Miles Davis, want to clarify that “Blue” the ultimate tribute by the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, is not supported by us, nor done with our cooperation or participation."

* Saxophonist David Sanborn's performance this week in San Diego was previewed by the local daily the Union-Tribune.

* The performances last week by Sanborn at Jazz at the Bistro and Chick Corea at the Sheldon Concert Hall were reviewed by Calvin Wilson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

* Bassist Stanley Clarke's show Tuesday at The Pageant was documented via a photo set posted on Facebook by Hip 96.3 FM.

* The Riverfront Times this week published a set of photos by Mabel Suen showing off the newly renovated Jazz at the Bistro.

* The Funky Butt Brass Band's version of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" was listed at #4 in an article on the website Mashable about "13 Brass Band Cover Songs That Are Better Than The Originals."

Not only that, but while on a recent trip to Arkansas to play the King Biscuit Blues Festival, the FBBB stopped off in Memphis for a visit to the Stax Records museum, where saxophonist Ben Reece, trumpeter Adam Hucke and trombonist Aaron Chandler met famed trumpeter Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns.

* KDHX has posted online a photo set of Wack-A-Doo's performance last week at one of the station's "Harvest Sessions."

* Speaking of photo sets, the Midwest Jazz-tette has posted two of them to Facebook, documenting performances earlier this year at First Unity Church and Cigar Inn

* Trombonist Dave Dickey is moving his monthly big band gig to Jazz at the Bistro, effective Sunday, November 2. The band now will play on the first Sunday of each month, continuing in their new location the practice of having local student bands perform at intermission. Their run of monthly shows at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company lasted three years. Tickets for the November 2 debut performance at the Bistro go on sale at 10:00 a.m. today via Metrotix.

* The Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for the 2015 Katherine Dunham Internship, which provides hands-on experience in arts administration for an African-American student. The deadline to apply is Monday, November 3.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson explores the landscape of extended improvisation via tracks from Henry Threadgill, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis and more. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

* Disclaimer: I've been working with Alarm Will Sound since 2010 on publicity for their gigs in Columbia and St. Louis, including this one. However, given their demonstrated accomplishments and StLJN's usual editorial focus, I'd be writing about them here even if I had no relationship with them.

Review: David Sanborn at Jazz at the Bistro

Opening his second set last Thursday with "Coming Home Baby" seemed a very appropriate choice for David Sanborn. Not only is the tune one of his longtime concert staples, but the Kirkwood High School graduate was in fact back in his hometown, headlining the first full week of shows at the newly expanded and renovated space of Jazz at the Bistro.

Accompanied by a quartet of St. Louis musicians, Sanborn seemed relaxed and relatively low-key as he ventured forth on familiar material like "Maputo" and "Benny," penned for him by, respectively, Bob James and Marcus Miller, as well as the ballad "What Will I Tell My Heart," and "Sofia," from his recent Quartette Humaine album with James.

Though his signature sound has mellowed slightly in recent years, Sanborn's alto still displayed some bite as he spun out his characteristic blues-inflected melodic lines. His approach, much closer to a vocal sound than the pattern-based soloing favored by many contemporary players, may have had its genesis in the blues and funk-based music for which Sanborn is best known, but it also serves the slower, prettier material quite well, as he's able to wring considerable emotion from both a standard like "...Heart" and the original "Sofia," dedicated to his wife.

Though all native to the St. Louis area, the band - Peter Martin on piano and Rhodes, Eric Slaughter on guitar, Chris Thomas on bass, and Montez Coleman on drums - was no mere "local rhythm section," as all have touring credits with major jazz artists. With just one brief rehearsal before beginning the four-night run, the quartet nevertheless provided very sympathetic and capable support for Sanborn, digging in for an extended jam on the opener but also showing appropriate concision when needed.

Martin, whose resume includes work with Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, and Chris Botti, unsurprisingly got the most space to play, serving as an effective foil for Sanborn on both acoustic and electric keyboards and building thoughtful solos when called upon. Slaughter only got a couple of brief solos, but also acquitted himself well, using a rockish tone that evoked the late Hiram Bullock's work with Sanborn.

Thomas and Coleman mostly concentrated on establishing and protecting the groove, adding just enough variation to keep things building without overwhelming the soloists. Coleman did get a brief solo spot near the end of the set, cleverly punctuating his ideas with space instead of just serving up a rote flurry of fast licks.

With a well-established and highly successful musical persona, at this point in his career Sanborn may not deliver many surprises in terms of format or repertoire, but he's a very likeable performer, his playing remains quite engaging on a moment-to-moment basis, and the fans who turned out clearly found it to be a satisfying show all around.

Regarding the new Bistro, while the exterior looks mostly familiar except for some new signage, there's a brand new lobby area, and the remodeled performance area inside feels considerably more open and spacious than the old one. The new layout of the room, with the stage against the long wall on the east side of the room instead of the short wall at the back, achieves the desired goal of bringing more seats closer to the stage, and also allows for better positioning of the lighting instruments.

As for the decor of the room, when I first saw the drawings made public at the start of the project, I must admit my first thought was "cocktail lounge in a Scandinavian airport." While the actual room doesn't feel anywhere near that stark, as someone who prefers his music venues on the funky side, it would be nice to see some St. Louis jazz-related photos, posters, artwork, or memorabilia on some of the wall areas that aren't covered with material to reflect or absorb sound. Admittedly, this is kind of a nitpick, and something that can be dealt with as finishing touches are put on the facility, but I do hope there's a plan to add some sort of visual homage to local jazz history.

More importantly, the sound, though generally regarded as good at the old Bistro, has been noticeably improved. The design of the room and the purchase and installation of the sound system were done in consultation with Sam Berkow, who performed similar duties for Jazz at Lincoln Center and SFJAZZ's new building, and the results are impressive.

The gear is visually unimposing, with speakers flown above the stage and small subwoofers tucked into the front corners, but does a good job of distributing the sound throughout the space. While everything, including the drums, now runs through the PA (which can get dicey in a room the size of the Bistro) the mix seemed relatively natural, nicely balanced, and not too loud for the room. Slaughter's guitar solos did get a bit hot, at least from where I was sitting, but that's one small fader adjustment. For the most part, things seemed pretty well dialed-in for only the second week of operations.

All in all, the new Bistro seems a fine place in which to play or hear music, and I'd expect that musicians and listeners both will give it very favorable reviews. That said, I'm a bit skeptical of the notion that the mere existence of this new space somehow will transform the entire St. Louis jazz scene for the better. Look for a further examination of that topic in an upcoming commentary...

Photo provided by Madeline Dames of HEC-TV.

Jazz this week: "250 Years of St. Louis Music," Phil Dunlap Quintet, Karen Mason, and more

So what's going on this week with live jazz and creative music in St. Louis? Glad you asked, as we just happen to have some recommendations for you, including the return of a local favorite who's been away for a couple of years, a diverse salute to St. Louis music history, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Reggie Thomas, the former St. Louisan and former faculty member at Michigan State who's back a little closer to home now that he's heading up the jazz program at Northern Illinois University, will be performing with the Mineral Area College Jazz Ensemble and MAC Kicks Band at the college's Fine Arts Theatre down in Park Hills.

Also tonight, singer Joe Mancuso and Friends - in this case, guitarist Randy Bahr, bassist Willem von Hombracht, and drummer Gerald Warren - will be at Nathalie’s; and Miss Jubilee has a double-header on tap, with a trio show for happy hour at Magpie's on Main in St. Charles, followed by an evening gig at Thaxton Speakeasy.

Then on Friday, yr. humble StLJN editor must first invoke a disclaimer, as I've been working in my "day job" in recent weeks to help promote the "250 Years of St. Louis Music" concert taking place that evening all over the Sheldon Concert Hall and Galleries.

The centerpiece of the event is an 8:00 p.m.set by the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound featuring a new composition by Peter Martin (pictured) inspired by Miles Davis. But the festivities actually kick off at 6:30 p.m. and continue after AWS' set with music upstairs and down from jazz performers including Martin, Denise Thimes, Carolbeth True, and Willie Akins; blues from Kim Massie and Billy Peek; hip-hop from Illphonics; the St. Louis Ragtimers; folk and country from Gary Hunt and Dade Farrar; the Webster University Chamber Singers, and more. (See the "250 Years" link above for details on who's playing when and where.)

Also on Friday, pianist and Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap will lead the latest iteration of his quintet in the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.  Featuring Danny Campbell on trumpet, Ben Reece Aaron Giraudo on tenor sax, Montez Coleman on drums, and young phenom Nathan Pence on bass, the group will mix Dunlap's originals, no doubt including some from his forthcoming album, with hard-bop covers.

Elsewhere around town, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with singer Karen Mason performing her show "Secrets of the Ancient Divas" for the first of two evenings at the Gaslight Theater; guitarists Brian Vaccaro and Tim Fischer (the latter a recent transplant from California) will duet at Chasers Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; trumpeter Jim Manley returns to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; and vibraphonist Tom Rickard leads a trio at Cigar Inn

On Saturday afternoon, saxophonist Jim Stevens and group will be getting funky by the riverside at the Loading Dock up in Grafton; and Saxquest will present a free concert by the Saxquest Nonet Jazz Orchestra, performing music from the "cool jazz" movement of the 1950s.

Then on Saturday evening, pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play at the Ozark Theatre; the Wire Pilots return to the Tavern of Fine Arts; and the Coleman Hughes Project with singer Adrienne Felton will be at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

On Sunday, early risers and/or runners can take in some swing and jump blues from Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes as they entertain participants and observers of the annual Rock and Roll Marathon from a stage at Chippewa and S. Broadway.

Later on Sunday, Alarm Will Sound will play a free concert outdoors at the new Public Media Commons, 3653 Olive St. in Grand Center, premiering "Ten Thousand Birds," a new work from Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Luther Adams. Artist Michael Eastman will provide visuals projected on the Commons' two-story tall video screens, and St. Louis electronic musicians Eric Hall and NNN Cook each will do short opening sets, with Cook's enlisting five members of AWS to provide live instrumentation for his piece.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band will be back for their now bi-monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and on Tuesday, the weekly jam session formerly held at Robbie's House of Jazz in Webster Groves has been re-started at the Ozark Theatre (which now is being programmed by former Robbie's GM Dorothy Edwards).

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)

Greg Mills' Esfoma to perform Wednesday, October 22 at Tavern of Fine Arts

From the late 1970s through the 1990s, pianist Greg Mills was a frequent public participant in the St. Louis creative music scene, performing and recording as a solo artist and as part of the duo Exiles with multi-instrumentalist Jay Zelenka.

More recently, Mills has been much less visible, but now he's scheduled a return to the stage as a leader with a gig at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday, October 22 at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Performing under the name Esfoma (after his 1984 solo release of the same name), Mills will be joined by saxophonist Dave Stone, cellist Tracy Andreotti, percussionist Henry Claude, poet Michael Castro, and fellow pianist David Parker.

You can hear samples from the album Esfoma and from Mills' other recordings, both solo and with Exiles, via the website of Zelenka's label Freedonia Music.

Admission to the performance on October 22 at Tavern of Fine Arts is free.

Remembering Lester Bowie

Today, we remember the great St. Louis trumpeter Lester Bowie, who was born October 11, 1941.

Though Bowie (pictured) actually was born in Maryland, he grew up in St. Louis as part of a family that included two brothers who also became professional musicians: Joseph Bowie, a trombonist and leader of the funk-jazz band Defunkt; and Byron Bowie, a saxophonist and arranger/composer.

After developing his trumpet chops playing blues gigs around St. Louis with singers including Albert King and Little Milton and jazz wherever and whenever he could, Lester Bowie moved to Chicago in 1965, where he became a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the group with whom he is most closely associated.

In addition to the AEC, Bowie was involved in many different musical projects, recording in duo and trio settings with many of the musicians from BAG and Chicago's AACM, and leading a number of his own groups, notably Brass Fantasy and the Lester Bowie Organ Ensemble. His work incorporated many types of music, from free improv and knotty post-bop to gospel and doo-wop, and he stood out among trumpet players of his generation for his combination of deep concepts, a sense of humor, and use of extended techniques. Sadly, Lester Bowie died young, passing away from liver cancer on November 9, 1999 when he was just 58.

In the first video window below, you can see him in 1983 performing with From The Root To The Source, a multi-stylistic group reflecting Bowie's love of popular and church music as well as jazz that also was something of a family band, since it featured his ex-wife Fontella Bass and former in-laws Martha Bass and David Peaston.

In the window below that, you can see him performing "Summertime" in an undated clip with Brass Fantasy, and below that, in two parts, a complete Art Ensemble concert recorded in 1991 in Budapest.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The world of Weckl

This week, our video spotlight shines on drummer Dave Weckl, the St. Charles native who's made a name for himself in the jazz world over the past 20+ years both as a solo artist and bandleader and as a standout sideman to Chick Corea, Mike Stern, and others.

Weckl will be back home in St. Louis this coming Monday, October 13 to present a drum clinic sponsored by Fred Pierce Studio Drum Shop at the Airport Hilton. He's had a busy summer - playing dates with his new acoustic band (including fellow St. Louis native Tom Kennedy on bass); releasing a new album with keyboardist Jay Oliver (yet another St. Louis guy); and even putting out his own branded line of visual artwork. With all that, plus his visit here this week, it seems like an opportune time to look in on him.

Up top, you can see a "live in the studio" performance featuring Weckl, Jay Oliver and the rest of the band who helped them cut this version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" for their new album Convergence, which was released back in June.

After the jump, you can see a brief preview video promoting the drummer's new acoustic band, which, in addition to Weckl and Tom Kennedy, also features saxophonist Gary Meek and pianist Makoto Ozone. The footage was recorded in January of this year at the Catalina Jazz Club.

Below that, there's an interview Weckl this year did for a Dutch video series called DrummersTalk 2014, followed by a couple of clips of Weckl solos - one from the 2012 Montreal Drumfest, and another in-studio effort done specifically that same year for Vic Firth (maker of drum sticks and accessories, and one of several companies with which Weckl has endorsement deals).

We wrap up with one more interview, recorded last year for the drum magazine The Black Page, and one more solo, from an appearance by Weckl a few years back at a drum festival in Australia.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin (pictured) that opened in limited release last weekend, won one of the top prizes at the Aspen Film Festival in Colorado. The film also was reviewed favorably by publications including the AV Club, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times,  New York Times and Washington Post.

* The Baylor Project, featuring drummer (and St. Louis' own) Marcus Baylor and his wife, singer Jean Baylor, will make their Washington, DC debut as a band next Tuesday, October 14 at the city's famed Blues Alley club.

* Another St. Louis native, bassist Dan Loomis of The Wee Trio, has a new album out with his "other" band, the quartet Spoke. Their third outing, titled (R)anthems, features a dozen tracks, including originals as well as an eclectic collection of covers including the Beatles' "Blackbird," Rufus' "Tell Me Something Good," and "I Only Have Eyes For You."

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake recently took his big band to Pittsburgh for the 10th annual concert of jazz and poetry at the venue City of Asylum. You can watch the show in its entirety (including poets) here.

* In what has to be one of the more puzzling and polarizing projects of the year, Miles Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue has been replayed and recorded note-for-note by the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing and released by them under the title Blue. In two of the first reviews to be published, Peter Bacon of the UK blog The Jazz Breakfast calls it "a completely and marvellously realised joke," while AllAboutJazz.com's Mark Corroto said, "What MOPDTK has done is demanding and esoteric. But it is not jazz and, importantly, they know it."

* In other Miles Davis-related news, the trumpeter's visual art was spotlighted this week by the website Open Culture.

* Euclid Records in Webster Groves will hold their semi-annual sidewalk sale from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, featuring live music and thousands of used LPs, CDs and DVDs priced to move.

* The kitchen at the new Jazz at the Bistro is up and running this week, and the menu by St. Louis Catering now can be viewed online.

* In related news, Yamaha is touting the fact that their pianos are the instruments of choice at the new Bistro and in Jazz St. Louis' adjacent classrooms (which are still under construction); and the club took delivery this week on a new custom drum kit hand-made by Jeff Schaefer, a St. Charles builder/refurbisher/tech known professionally as The Reapercussionist.

* And as long as we're speaking of the new Bistro, the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn has weighed in with a few thoughts on the new venue.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,”  host Calvin Wilson gets into the music of pianist Keith Jarrett's 1970s quartets. Listen in at 8:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Meanwhile, on this week's edition on WSIE's "Jazz Talk," hosts Dick Ulett, Mike Silverman and Rob Silverman will talk with drummer Kaleb Kirby. The program is broadcast from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Sundays on 88.7 FM and also can be heard online.

Jazz this week: David Sanborn, Rebirth Brass Band, Chick Corea, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Stanley Clarke Band, and more

It's the busiest week for jazz and creative music so far this fall in St. Louis, with a half-dozen touring headliners passing through town in the next seven days. Let's go to the highlights....

Tonight, alto saxophonist and Kirkwood's own David Sanborn returns home to begin a four-night run continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Sanborn will be accompanied on this visit by an all-St. Louis rhythm section, with Eric Slaughter on guitar, U City's Peter Martin on piano and Chris Thomas on bass, plus East St. Louis' Montez Coleman on drums. As you might guess, advance reservations are a must; at last report, tickets were scarce for the 7:30 p.m. shows but some seats still may be available for the 9:30 p.m. sets.

Also tonight, The 442s will be joined by pianist Peter Henderson for a free concert that's part of Powell Symphony Hall's "On Stage" series, which, as the name implies, puts the musicians and audience together on the hall's ample stage. 

Tomorrow, New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band will be back to perform at The Gramophone. Along with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rebirth are one of the standard-bearers for their hometown's brass band tradition, adding their own contemporary twists and over the the years serving as a launching pad for several solo careers, including that of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. If you like New Orleans music, they're definitely a must-see.

Also tomorrow, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present "Freedom Summer '64: A Love Supreme," a free concert featuring the music of John Coltrane as performed by a group including saxophonists Freddie Washington and Paul DeMarinis, guitarist William Lenihan, drummers Maurice Carnes and Steve Davis, and pianist Kara Baldus.The concert will be preceded by panel discussion let by Wash U professor Patrick Burke, author of the 2008 book Come In And Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street.

Other Thursday night possibilities include jazz-fusion group Common Time, who will perform at The Engine Room; and singer Erika Johnson and guitarist Tom Byrne's trio at Venice Cafe.

On Friday, singer Feyza Eren will perform at the Ozark Theatre; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will return to Nathalie's; the St. Louis Big Band will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and saxophonist Kendrick Smith leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday, pianist Chick Corea will play a solo piano concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Though Corea has performed here in various contexts over the last couple of decades - with his Elektrik Band, the reunited Return to Forever, and most recently in a duo with banjo player Bela Fleck - this will be the first time he's ever played here solo. For some video samples of Corea alone at the piano, check out this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy will be in town to perform at the Ozark Theatre. The Houston native, once called "the baddest sideman in jazz" by Down Beat magazine, served as music director for Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, has been a member of the Mingus Big Band, and has a long list of collaborators that includes St. Louis musicians such as Greg Osby, Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, and Lester Bowie, as well as Henry Threadgill, Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Bobby Watson, David Murray, McCoy Tyner, and numerous R&B and hip-hop performers.

Elsewhere around town that evening, Miss Jubilee will be swinging the Casa Loma Ballroom, and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with singer Katie McGrath performing her show "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity" at the Gaslight Theater.  And still more local vocal talent will be on offer Saturday in the form of  Joe Mancuso at EdgeWild Restaurant & Winery; the Ann Dueren Trio at Il Bel Lago; and Mary Dyson and Diane Vaughn at Troy's Jazz Gallery

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday drummer and St. Charles native Dave Weckl, who first gained wide recognition as part of Corea's Elektrik Band, will be in town to present a clinic sponsored by the Fred Pierce Studio Drum Shop at the Hilton St. Louis Airport

Also on Monday, percussionist Joe Pastor will bring his group to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and guitarist John Farrar and the Park Avenue Trio will be at Evangeline's, which now serves as the lone outpost for their weekly sessions after they recently wrapped up a 16-year run (!) of Wednesdays at Hammerstone's.

Then on Tuesday, bassist Stanley Clarke, yet another former compatriot of Corea's, will lead his electric band in a concert at The Pageant. Clarke's latest album Up was released on September 30 by Mack Avenue Records, and features members of his touring group as well as an all-star roster of guest musicians. St. Louis' Bach to the Future will open the show, which is a benefit for the not-for-profit adoption agency Dillon International.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)

Storify: Jazz St. Louis opens new HQ

A look at the opening weekend of the new Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz...

Alarm Will Sound to perform free concert Sunday, October 19 at Public Media Commons

The acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound* (pictured) will continue their third St. Louis season with a free concert featuring the world premiere of composer John Luther Adams' new work Ten Thousand Birds at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, October 19 at the new Public Media Commons in Grand Center.

Adams, who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his orchestral piece Become Ocean, is known for creating large-scale works that embrace public spaces. Ten Thousand Birds, composed with a grant from New Music USA, is based on the songs of birds native to Missouri and the western limit of the eastern hardwood forest, and "fully embraces the orchestral range of colors in the instrumentation of Alarm Will Sound."

St. Louis artist Michael Eastman will provide projected visuals to accompany the music, and St. Louis electronic musicians Eric Hall and NNN Cook will do brief individual sets to open the show. Cook’s piece, written especially for this performance, will include live instrumentation provided by five members of Alarm Will Sound.

The Public Media Commons, which officially opened in September, is a 9,000-square-foot space flanked by large-screen video walls—two stories high—on two sides. In addition to the video walls, the space also includes a performance stage, interactive touch screens, and a window into one of the Nine Network studios.

The performance will be Alarm Will Sound’s second of the weekend here, as the group also will be featured in the “250 Years of St. Louis Music” concert on Friday, October 17 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, playing a new work by pianist Peter Martin, inspired by the music Miles Davis, and another written specifically for the occasion by AWS cellist and University of Missouri professor Stefan Freund.

Admission to the Public Media Commons concert is free and open to the public, with no reservations required.

*As always when StLJN mentions Alarm Will Sound, we include some sort of disclaimer like this one, noting that yr. humble StLJN editor has since 2010 been paid by the PR firm Slay & Associates for tasks including helping AWS with publicity for their concerts in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. That said, given StLJN's usual focus, I'd be writing about AWS even if I had no personal connection to them, so rather than omit any mention of a concert that readers might enjoy, you get the article plus this disclosure of the conflict of interest.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Chick Corea plays solo

Chick Corea has been considered one of the top pianists in jazz for 50 years now, and he's played in St. Louis numerous times over the years. Corea was here most recently in 2008 with Return to Forever at the Fox Theatre and in 2013 in a duo concert with banjo player Bela Fleck at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Though his newest album release Trilogy is a triple-CD set recorded live with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, this time Corea will be playing solo when he returns here next Saturday, October 11 to play at the Sheldon Concert Hall. That's something he's done periodically throughout his career, but not previously here in St. Louis.

So today, we'll preview that performance with some clips of Corea alone at the piano, starting up top with a promotional video that he put out to promote his current solo tour.

After the jump, you can see and hear five different solo performances. The clips are arranged chronologically, starting with one recorded in 1987 in Brazil that shows Corea improvising in a free-form style.

That's followed by two complete solo concerts recorded in 1994, at Cirque Royal in Brussels, Belgium and Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile.

Next, we jump ahead to 2007 for a version of one of Corea's better-known compositions, "Armando's Rhumba," recorded for the PBS series Legends of Jazz.

The final video features Corea in a solo improvisation paying tribute to Bud Powell, one of his major influences, that was recorded in April 2011 at Massry Center for the Arts in Albany, NY.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist David Sanborn's shows last week at Ronnie Scott's in London were reviewed by London Jazz News and The Guardian.

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary featuring trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry and his student, the young pianist Justin Kauflin, opened last weekend in NYC and LA to favorable notices.

Meanwhile, Quincy Jones, whose company produced the film, talked about it with the hip-hop magazine The Source, and the New York Times published an interview with Kauflin.

* Representatives of the Miles Davis estate, including Davis' son Erin Davis and nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr. will appear on October 10 at the Helen Mills Event Space & Theater in NYC for “CBGB Talks,” a Q&A that "will offer a rare glimpse into the psyche of an iconic, music legend."

* Also on the Davis front, trumpeter Wallace Roney talked with Down Beat about a recent concert in which he performed some re-discovered Wayne Shorter music originally composed for Davis.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person (pictured) has announced that his big band will return to NYC's Blue Note Jazz Club for a show on Monday, November 3.

* From Point of Departure, here are reviews of two recent recordings, by the groups Tarbaby and Trio 3, featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake. Lake will be in residency for a week later this month at NYC's The Stone, playing with a different ensemble every night from Tuesday, October 21 through Sunday, October 26.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted on their Facebook a set of photos from their performance last week at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* Music for Lifelong Achievement's fall musical instrument drive was the subject of a feature story on Fox 2 News.

* Speaking of Fox 2 News, they also had coverage this week of the re-opening of the renovated and expanded Jazz at the Bistro, as did St. Louis magazine's Stef Russell and the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* St. Louis' Euclid Records made indie rocker Bob Pollard's list of the best record stores in the USA, as published in Playboy magazine, while another local music retailer, Cherokee Street's Apop Records, announced this week that they were closing for good as the store owner returns to college.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will feature a jazz take on the music of oft-enigmatic singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, as offered by musicians including Mitchell herself, Herbie Hancock and Dave Douglas.

Then on "The Jazz Collective," host Jason Church will spin tracks from U-Nam, Mariea Antoinette, the JT Project, Doc Powell, Down To The Bone, Common Time, Jesse Gannon, the Silverman Brothers, Chris Hazelton's Boogaloo 7, Candy Dulfer, Brian Culbertson, Ramsey Lewis, George Benson, Side Effect, Pieces Of A Dream, and more.
 
Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Hugh Masekela, a new look for Jazz at the Bistro, a tribute to Floyd LeFlore, Moon Hooch, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with the big news story being the re-opening of the renovated and expanded Jazz at the Bistro with two sold-out performances - one tonight for subscribers and VIPs, the other tomorrow for the general ticket-buying public - by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Though both nights have been sold out for weeks, if you don't have tickets already, you still can watch the performances streamed live over the Internet; see this post for details.

Elsewhere around town tonight, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio is playing a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; guitarist Dave Black and friends are at Nathalie's; and over on the east side of the Mississippi, saxophonist Jason Swagler will perform his faculty recital at Dunham Hall on the SIU Edwardsville campus.

On Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis will present their monthly "West End Stomp" at the Mahler Ballroom, this month featuring music for dancing by Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes. For more danceable music that evening, you can check out the Original Knights of Swing at the Casa Loma Ballroom, or Miss Jubilee at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Those in more of a listening mood on Friday night can catch pianist Brad Ellebrecht's quartet with singer Diane Vaughn at the Ozark Theatre, or guitarist Tom Byrne and singer Erika Johnson dueting at the downtown location of Robust Wine Bar.

On Saturday, famed trumpeter/flugelhornist Hugh Masekela (pictured) and fellow South African, singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela, will perform in celebration of "20 Years of Freedom" at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Although the program's historical theme no doubt will guide most of the evening's musical selections, it's hard to imagine that Masekela won't be able work "Grazing In The Grass" in there somewhere.

Also on Saturday night, Big Sam's Funky Nation will be in town from New Orleans for a return visit to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and the Twin Cities-based jump blues and swing band Davina and the Vagabonds, who performed last month at the Monterey Jazz Festival, will take the stage at BB's.

Coming from a bit closer to home, trumpeter/vibraphonist Joe Bozzi and his band will be at Evangeline's, and saxophonist Sam Hargadine's quartet with singer Feyza Eren will play at Bar Italia.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present pianist Dave Venn and singer Sherry Drake at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the improvising ensemble Numbers will present a tribute to the late trumpeter and Black Artists Group co-founder Floyd LeFlore at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Also on Monday, the trio Moon Hooch, whose groove-based music played by two saxophonists and a drummer has gotten a lot of media attention of late, will be in town for a performance at 2720 Cherokee. You can get a pretty good idea of what they're about by checking out the Tiny Desk Concert they recorded earlier this year for NPR.

(My take is that while Moon Hooch's ensemble cohesion and energy level certainly are impressive, every time I've heard a recording of their music, I get about five minutes in and start wishing fervently that they had a bass player. Your mileage may vary, of course, and based on their background as buskers, they seem to be pretty good at engaging a crowd, so their live show may be a qualitatively different experience.)

Then on Tuesday, Samba Bom will play Brazilian jazz, samba, and more at a "Notes From Home" show at the Sheldon.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)