So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Chesterfield Jazz Festival, now renamed the Chesterfield Wine and Jazz Festival and changed from a ticketed event to a free one, will take place this year from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Saturday, June 28 at Chesterfield Amphitheater.

The lineup of bands will include a headlining set by Yellowjackets (pictured), plus Bach to the Future, led by the event's organizers Michael Silverman and Robert Silverman, and additional acts TBA.

* Saxophonist and Webster University alum Chris Cheek has teamed with fellow saxophonist Seamus Blake for a new album, Reeds Ramble. They'll promote the release with gigs on March 13, 14 & 15 at Small's in NYC. 

* Drummer and St. Louis native Emanuel Harrold, who this past week became a Grammy winner by virtue of his work on singer Gregory Porter's Liquid Spirit, is featured in a new promotional video from drumstick and accessories maker Vic Firth.

* The Wee Trio's live version of David Bowie's "Queen Bitch," recorded here in St. Louis for their album Live at the Bistro, was a "Download of the Day" at AllAboutJazz.com. The group, which includes St. Louis expat Dan Loomis on bass, will return in April to Jazz at the Bistro.

* St. Louis' Cornet Chop Suey and pianist Stephanie Trick are among the performers at the 39th Central Illinois Jazz Festival being held this weekend in Decatur.

* Trombonist Dave Stamps, a graduate of SIUE and Northern Illinois University and son of SIUE's former director of jazz studies Brett Stamps, has been named director of the jazz program at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.

* Jazz St. Louis has posted online a photo album of the Matt Wilson Quartet and John Medeski last week visiting Beasley Elementary School in the Mehlville School District and performing at Jazz at the Bistro.

* And speaking of photo albums, Miss Jubilee has posted one on Facebook documenting their weekly Thursday night gig at Thaxton Speakeasy.

* The website New York Jazz Workshop offers an entry-level introduction to Miles Davis in three parts.

* The band program at Riverview Gardens High School, directed by saxophonist Harvey Lockhart, is keepin' on keepin' on despite losing a number of students this year to inter-district transfers. Most recently, the RGHS drumline won the second annual Show-Me Showdown held last month at Normandy HS. You can see their first-place performance on video here.

* Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for another round of Artist Support Grants, which are awarded to individual artists and range in amount from $500 to $3,000. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 5.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else,"  Calvin Wilson will spin interpretations of the music of Charlie Parker by the likes of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, saxophonist Anthony Braxton, and Junk Genius.

After that, "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will offer a guitar-centric program featuring sounds from Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Ottmar Liebert, Chris Standring, George Benson and Lee Ritenour, as well as St. Louis' own Elliott Ranney, Tom Byrne, Farshid Etniko, and Brian Vaccaro.

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

Andre Delano to perform Sunday, March 9 at Bistro at Grand Center

Saxophonist and East St. Louis native Andre Delano (pictured) is coming back home to perform at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, March 9 at the Bistro at Grand Center.

The gig is in support of Delano's latest single "Help Yourself," which will be featured in two versions on the forthcoming 9 Mile Road compilation on Woodward Avenue Records.

A graduate of Lincoln High School, Delano first gained national attention with his 2005 album Full Circle, which included tracks such as "Night Riders" and "Foot Steps" that got substantial airplay on smooth jazz radio. His credits as a sideman include performances and/or recordings with Maxwell, Jeff Lorber, Bobby Womack, Stevie Wonder, Chieli Minucci, Doc Powell, Bobby Lyle, and others.

Since his first solo album, Delano has released two more CD as a leader, and also spent three years as a featured performer in singer Lionel Richie's touring band. He last played in St. Louis in March 2013 at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Tickets for Andre Delano at the Bistro at Grand Center are $25 and are on sale now via Metrotix.

Jazz this week: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Jazz at Lincoln Center Quartet, and more

Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening this week in and around St. Louis:

Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University presents "A Tribute to Jim Hall" with guitarists William Lenihan & Vincent Varvel; and it's the monthly "Experimental Arts Open Mic Night" with live improvised music at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Tomorrow night, four musicians who are part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - trombonist Vincent Gardner (pictured), saxophonist Walter Blanding, trumpeter Kenny Rampton and drummer Jerome Jennings - will take the stage for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. The four have been in town all week for an educational residency with Jazz St. Louis, presenting workshops and master classes at area schools and working with student musicians in the JazzU and Jazz St. Louis All-Stars programs. They'll be joined for the Bistro gig by JSL's education director, pianist Phil Dunlap, and bassist Nick Jost.

Also on Friday night, pianist Travis Wesley Hoover brings his trio to Robbie's House of Jazz; the Ann Dueren Trio performs at Il Bel Lago; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; guitarist Mason Baran's trio will be at the Cigar Inn; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will continues with what's now being billed as a regular weekly Friday show at Troy's Jazz Gallery. 

Then on Saturday, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns to St. Louis for the first tme since 2011 to perform at  The Demo. To see some performance videos and find out what JFJO has been up to since they were here last, see this post.

Also on Saturday night, the Coleman Hughes Project plays at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at Venice Cafe; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will duet at Thurman Grill; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be back at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Freddie Washington will join members of the Webster University Jazz Faculty to play the music of Sonny Rollins at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus; and guitarist Tom Byrne will play at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)

(Edited after posting to fix some formatting problems.) 

Maceo Parker to headline Jazz St. Louis fundraising gala on Friday, February 28

Saxophonist Maceo Parker will be the featured musical entertainment  for Jazz St. Louis' annual fundraising gala, to be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, February 28 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, 100 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton.

Parker (pictured) is best known for helping define the funk genre while working with James Brown and in various combinations with fellow former Brown sidemen Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis.

Since launching his solo career in 1990 after nearly two decades with Brown, Parker also has played with musicians such as Ray Charles, Prince, Ani Difranco, James Taylor, De La Soul, Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His most recent album Soul Classics was recorded with the WDR Big Band in Germany and released here in the USA in 2012.

The benefit gala will begin with a cocktail hour featuring music from Jazz St. Louis' JazzU students, followed by a dinner and live auction; the performance by Parker; and a post-show cabaret with singer Denise Thimes.

So how much are tickets? Well, neither the announcement in Jazz St. Louis' email newsletter nor the page about the event on their website makes any mention of prices, which suggests that it's one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" type of deals.

We can tell you that tickets for previous JSL galas have started at $500 per person, so it seems likely this year's event will cost at least that much. StLJN will try to get that detail nailed down and this post updated at first opportunity, but if money's no object and you're ready to reserve a spot right away, you can do so any time between now and February 21 by calling JSL development associate Daniel Hodges at 314-289-4034 or sending an email to daniel@jazzstl.org.

In the meantime, we leave you to contemplate the theoretical notion of a crowd of folks in formalwear who have paid $500 (and up!) apiece responding to Maceo's exhortations to "Shake Everything You Got":

Willie Pickens to play jazz brunch benefit for CWAH on Sunday, February 9

Willie Pickens, the veteran pianist and mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene, is coming to St. Louis as the featured performer for a jazz brunch benefiting the not-for-profit organization Community Women Against Hardship.

Perhaps best known outside Chicago for his work with the legendary drummer Elvin Jones, Pickens (pictured) will join a group of St. Louis musicians led by drummer Jerome "Scrooge" Harris for CWAH's annual Black History Month event, which will be held at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, February 9 at the Bistro at Grand Center, 3536 Washington Blvd.

In addition to Pickens and Harris, the ensemble will include saxophonist Freddie Washington, singer Anita Jackson and bassist Bob DeBoo. Students from Harris' Institute for the Advancement of Jazz Study & Performance also will perform as part of the event.

Tickets are $60 for reserved seating, which includes a free CD, or $40 for general admission. All tickets include brunch, which will be served at 1:30 p.m., followed by the performance at 2:30 p.m. To purchase tickets, call 314-289-7523 or visit CWAH's website.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

This week, let's look at some videos featuring Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who are coming back to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, February 1 at The Demo.

Formed in Tulsa, OK in 1994, JFJO are celebrating their 20th year as a band with, among other things, a set at the recently completed Winter Jazzfest in NYC, and having a craft beer named in their honor by Oklahoma’s Prairie Artisan Ales.

(They last appeared here in St. Louis in 2011 at Cicero's, and the subjects of a video showcase post then. Keyboardist and founding member Brian Haas also talked with yr. humble editor about the band's evolution in an interview published in the Riverfront Times.)

At that time, JFJO had recorded but not yet released The Race Riot Suite, an album of songs telling the story of a 1921 race riot in Tulsa that resulted in the death of hundreds of black Tulsans and the destruction of an entire city district.

The album featured the band's core lineup - Haas, Joshua Raymer (drums), Chris Combs (lap steel guitar, guitar) and Jeff Harshbarger (bass) - augmented by a five-member horn section that included Kansas City saxophonist Mark Southerland, who's since become an official member of the group, along with Jeff Coffin, Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum, and Matt Leland.

You can see that ensemble in the first clip up above, performing the "Prelude" of The Race Riot Suite followed by the song "Black Wall Street," both recorded at the suite's world premiere in May 2011 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

Down below, there are clips of four more selections from The Race Riot Suite: "The Burning" and "Second Prayer," also from the world premiere; "Grandfather's Gun," recorded in October 2011 at FTC StageOne in Fairfield, CT; and "Eye of the Dove," again from the world premiere.

The sixth and final video features a solo improvisation from Haas, who now lives in Santa Fe, NM, and last fall released Frames, an album of original compositions performed as a duo with drummer Matt Chamberlain.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Next month's New Music Circle concert featuring bassist Josh Abrams' Natural Information Society is previewed by Stefene Russell of St. Louis magazine.

* Lamar Harris discusses his instrumental tribute to the music of Jay-Z, coming up tomorrow night at the Kranzberg Arts Center, for an article by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Drummer Matt Wilson talks about his new album Gathering Call with the website Search and Restore and with Aarik Danielsen of the Columbia Daily Tribune. Wilson's quartet and special guest John Medeski will play tonight and tomorrow at Jazz at the Bistro, head to Columbia on Sunday, and then return to St. Louis to perform again on Monday to make up for Wednesday's postponed sets.

* Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is looking for volunteers for its street team, which helps distribute posters and handbills around town. If you'd like to get involved, get in touch via LNAC's Facebook page or by sending an email to contact@lemp-arts.org.

* St. Louis native Dan Loomis, bassist for The Wee Trio, talks at length about the group's album Live at the Bistro album with AllAboutJazz.com's Fiona Ord-Shrimpton.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg (pictured) performed with pianist Robert Glasper last week on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert."

* Meanwhile, Kim Thompson, fellow drummer and St. Louis expat, has a new album, Live at Marian's, available on iTunes.

* The latest episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz is now available on the channel's website, spotlighting the jazz program at Webster University and performances from last fall's TKT scholarship concert, "Jazz Interpretations of the Music of Irving Berlin".

* Miles Davis' 1970 shows at NYC's Fillmore East will be reissued next month in an expanded box set. You can hear a sample track, "Spanish Key," here.

* The iconic trumpeter's sense of style also got him included in a list of eight jazz icons featured on the website of men's clothing retailer Mr. Porter.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson continues the previous episode's focus on Davis, showcasing music from the trumpeter's famed 1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

Then "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will feature tracks from Davis, Grant Green, The Rippingtons, Dudley Moore, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Joel Del Rosario & SureWill, Bob James &  David Sanborn, Jim Stevens, Brian Vaccaro, and Christopher Braig.

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

Jason Swagler & Adaron Jackson to release Map of The World on Tuesday, January 28

Saxophonist Jason Swagler and pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson have teamed up for a new recording, Map of the World, to be released next Tuesday, January 28.

The EP (pictured) includes duo versions of four ballads from an eclectic group of songwriters, starting with Pat Metheny's "A Map of The World," and continuing with Henry Mancini's "Dreamsville," Ivan Lins' "Choro Das Águas," and Randy Newman's "When She Loved Me."

"As we worked through arrangements for a full length ballads album, these four tunes began to stand out almost as a collection or suite," said Swagler in an email to StLJN. "The original idea was to create an intimate and introspective backdrop, and these four songs did just that, and they stood best on their own. So we decided to release the four tunes as a singular statement, rather than as part of a traditional full length album."

Map of the World was produced by Swagler, engineered by Miles Vandiver, and recorded and mixed in the studio at SIU-E. It will be available as a digital download from iTunes and Amazon, and as a physical CD available for purchase via CD Baby and at Swagler's and/or Jackson's live shows.

Coincidentally, Swagler, Jackson and guitarist Rick Haydon also will be performing at 7:00 p.m. this Saturday, January 25 at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton. While the concert is not specifically intended to promote the album release, Swagler said they may have advance copies for sale if they arrive from the manufacturer in time for the show.

Edited 1/29/14 to add links to iTunes and CD Baby.

Jazz this week: Matt Wilson Quartet with John Medeski, Bonerama, Dave Easley, and more

While winter weather has delayed one of this week's headliners for a day, there's still plenty of live jazz and creative music happening in and around St. Louis for those willing to get out and brave the cold. Let's go to the highlights...

If it weren't for the big snowstorm hitting the East Coast, tonight would have been the first of four nights featuring drummer Matt Wilson's quartet with special guest pianist John Medeski at Jazz at the Bistro. However, because of the inclement weather, Wilson (pictured) and company couldn't get a flight that would arrive in St. Louis in time to play tonight's shows.

So, they'll open at the Bistro tomorrow and continue through Saturday; go to Columbia on Sunday for a show there; and then return to St. Louis on Monday to perform one more night at the Bistro in lieu of tonight's postponed sets. The shows here will be the group's first in support of a new album, Gathering Call, that was released just this week. For more about Wilson, including some video samples of his playing and links to several reviews of Gathering Call, go here. 

Elsewhere around town tonight, Dizzy Atmosphere will play at The Shaved Duck, and drummer Montez Coleman will lead a jam session at Nathalie's.

On Thursday, in addition to the delayed opening for Wilson and Medeski, singer Feyza Eren will begin this semester's Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University, and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play at Schlafly Bottleworks.

Then on Friday, multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris will team up with The People's Key to present "The Shawn Carter Jazz Suite," featuring interpretations of the music of Jay-Z, at Kranzberg Arts Center. Also on Friday, saxophonist Kendrick Smith performs at Robbie's House of Jazz; Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; keyboardist and singer Jesse Gannon will be at the Engine Room; and pianist Ptah Williams leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday night, New Orleans' Bonerama will be back in town to perform at the Broadway Oyster Bar; saxophonist Jason Swagler, pianist Adaron Jackson and guitarist Rick Haydon will play a trio show at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton; and singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran will promote the release of a new album with his band Guerrilla Swing via a show at Mad Art Gallery.

On Sunday afternoon, the Funky Butt Brass Band will be the featured entertainment for a first look at the new Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery and Bierhall on Manchester, and the Dave Dickey Big Band will celebrate two years of monthly gigs at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University will present its first jazz faculty concert of the year in Winifred Moore Auditorium, a "Basses Only" performance featuring Jay Hungerford, Ben Wheeler, Ric Vice and Willem von Hombracht.

Also on Monday, steel guitarist Dave Easley, who's played with drummer Brian Blade's Fellowship and several other jazz acts, will be in town to perform a duo set with guitarist Dave Black at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups. If you can't make it to BB's, Easley and Black also will play on Tuesday night at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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.)

Kevin Eubanks to perform Saturday, March 15 at Lumiere Place

Guitarist Kevin Eubanks (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform shows at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 15 at Lumiere Place Casino's Lumiere Theatre.

Eubanks, who led the band on NBC's Tonight Show from 1995 to 2010, has returned to jazz since giving up his TV gig. He's released two albums on the Mack Avenue label - 2010's Zen Food and 2012's The Messenger - and last year joined bassist Dave Holland, keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland in the group Prism for an album and subsequent touring. He last performed in the St. Louis area in July 2010 at the Casino Queen.

Tickets for Kevin Eubanks at Lumiere Theatre are $25 and $35, and will go on sale at this Friday, January 24 via Ticketmaster and in the gift shop at the casino. Ticketmaster also will offer an online-only pre-sale beginning at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, January 23.

Miles Davis Memorial Project to hold fundraising dinner on Saturday, March 22

The Miles Davis Memorial Project, which seeks to place a statue of the legendary trumpeter near his birthplace in downtown Alton, IL, will hold a black-tie fundraising dinner at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, March 22 at the Commons at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey.

The event will include a cocktail hour, silent and oral auctions, sit-down dinner, and a performance by the Third Coast Jazz & Blues Band. Pete Basola, formerly a jazz educator at Alton High School and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, will sit in with the band and give a presentation about Davis (pictured) and his music.

The project was announced in 2012, and so far, organizers say they've raised about $20,000 of the $150,000 needed to complete it, mostly from the sale of commemorative bricks and granite blocks that will be laid into the sidewalk surrounding to the sculpture. The commemorative bricks and blocks still for are sale, at $75 for a 4" x 8" brick and $400 for a 12" x 12" granite block.

Sculptor Preston Jackson, professor emeritus of the sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was selected last year to create the statue, which the committee hopes to have completed by year end.

Tickets for the Miles Davis Memorial Project fundraising dinner are $60 per person and $450 for a table of eight, and can be purchased by calling Pride Incorporated at 618-467-2375 or via email to pride at prideincorporated dot org.

Jazz at Holmes series returns this Thursday, January 23 with Feyza Eren

The Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University will begin its winter/spring 2014 schedule of shows with a performance by singer Feyza Eren (pictured) at 8:00 p.m. this Thursday, January 23.

Eren previously performed for the series in July of last year. The rest of this semester's schedule apparently is still being confirmed, as the email announcing Eren's appearance actually was the second sent out by Jazz at Holmes over the weekend, superseding Saturday's announcement that drummer Montez Coleman's trio would be the opening performer of the year.

That first email also made reference to "forthcoming highlights in the lineup (including) solo piano by Washington University's very own Kara Baldus, an evening of Chick Corea's music, music on the famed ECM label, and 'Mandela and Music of Social Justice.'" but no other details of the schedule have been released so far.

Presented most Thursday evenings when school is in session, the Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, located on Washington University’s campus at the west end of the Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Matt Wilson

Today, let's spend some time with drummer and bandleader Matt Wilson, who will be in St. Louis with his quartet and special guest pianist John Medeski to perform next Wednesday, January 22 through Saturday, January 25 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Wilson, who grew up in Knoxville, IL, has played in St. Louis a number of times in recent years, including last year at the Bistro with clarinetist Anat Cohen to kick off the 2013 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. Before that, he played at the Bistro with his band Arts and Crafts in 2012, and - in part because his brother Mark teaches at St. Louis University - he's performed at various other local venues, too, including SLU, the now-shuttered Black Cat Theatre in Maplewood, and Hixson Middle School in Webster Groves.

In addition to the quartet, the versatile Wilson leads the band Arts and Crafts as well as the seasonal project Christmas Tree-O. He's released 16 albums as a leader or co-leader, and has appeared on more than 250 CDs as a sideman. In addition to directing his own groups, Wilson has worked regularly as part of bands led by Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz, Bob Stewart, Denny Zeitlin, Ron Miles, Marty Ehrlich, Ted Nash, Jane Ira Bloom and Dena DeRose among others.

This time around in St. Louis, Wilson and his quartet - bassist Chris Lightcap, trumpeter Kirk Knuffke, and the man Wilson calls his "alter ego," saxophonist Jeff Lederer - will be celebrating the release of a new CD, Gathering Call, recorded with Medeski on piano. The album officially drops this Tuesday, January 21, and the quartet and Medeski will be doing a total of ten dates together to promote it over the next couple of weeks.

The relationship between Medeski and Wilson dates back to the 1980s, when the two played together in Boston's Either/Orchestra, but this marks the first time they've recorded together since then. You can read reviews of the album here,  here and here, and listen to the brief (1:47) title track here. Unfortunately, since the lineup of Wilson's quartet plus Medeski is specific to Gathering Call, there's no video of them all playing together to show you. So instead, today we've got several clips featuring Wilson in different contexts, both musical and philosophical.

The first video up above, recorded in 2011, features the quartet (plus a small string ensemble from Kent University) performing "If I Were A Boy, " which a pop hit for singer Beyonce. It's a fairly straightforward rendering that demonstrates nicely the drummer/leader's capacity to look for material beyond the standard jazz repertory.

Down below, you can see Arts & Crafts playing Wilson's composition "Bubbles," first recorded on the album An Attitude for Gratitude, in a performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha in Qatar. Along with Wilson on drums, that's Gary Versace on piano and Martin Wind on bass, with Ron Miles in place of the group's regular trumpeter Terell Stafford.

Below that, you can see Wilson in a couple of improvised drum duets recorded last year. In the third clip, recorded at a jazz festival in Port Townsend, WA, he and Jeff Hamilton trade licks on "A Night In Tunisia." The fourth clip features Wilson and Steve Williams playing together in a show at SUNY New Paltz, NY behind a band that also includes John Menegon (bass), St. Louis' own Greg Osby (alto sax), Tineke Postma (alto sax, soprano sax), and Frank Kimbrough (piano).

You can get a more in-depth look at Wilson's concepts and style in the fifth video, an hour-long master class recorded last year at the jazz camp associated with the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Connecticut. The sixth and final clip is from Wilson's talk at the 2013 JEN Conference, in which he talks about how jazz musicians can further develop their audiences through presentation, involvement, and entertainment (PIE).

For more about Matt Wilson, check out this extended interview published in 2012 on AllAboutJazz.com, and this one from Omaha public radio station KIOS; this audio feature, also from 2012, from NPR's "Weekend Edition"; and Nate Chinen's cover story about Wilson from the November 2009 issue of Jazz Times.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Multi-instrumentalist and former U. Citian Marty Ehrlich's latest album A Trumpet In The Morning was reviewed in the Irish Times.

* Jazz St. Louis has posted to Facebook an album of photos from The Bad Plus' performances last week at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Meanwhile, while the group was in St. Louis, TBP pianist Ethan Iverson (pictured) visited the offices of the St. Louis independent label MAXJAZZ, and blogged about it, with photos, here.

* And speaking of photo albums, Saxquest has posted to their Facebook page a collection of pictures from last week's Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference in Dallas.

* Thirty-five years after the death of singer, pianist, songwriter and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway, Duke University professor of African and African-American studies Mark Anthony Neal muses on Hathaway's legacy and what might have been.

* A track from singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran was featured as KDHX's "Song of the Day" download, while the album got an advance review from the Riverfront Times.

* Also in the RFT, music editor Daniel Hill takes a look at KDHX's new headquarters in Grand Center.

* And speaking of new albums, bassist Jahmal Nichols has a few words about his with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby is the guest on the latest "A Noise From The Deep Podcast" on trumpeter Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music site, in which he chats with Douglas and co-host Michael Bates about generating creative ideas, finding new musicians, and more.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson will rewind back to the 1950s to feature music from Miles Davis' storied quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

After that, "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will feature music from Jeff Golub, Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, Keiko Matsui, Juris, Pieces of a Dream, Hilton Feldon, John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Jack McDuff, Larry Barker, Ron Goff, Elliott Ranney, and Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing.

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

Jazz this week: Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Jahmal Nichols CD release, and more

If you're looking to shake the mid-winter doldrums this weekend, your options for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis include the local debut of an up-and-coming New Orleans performer; an album release event featuring the first recording as a leader from one of our town's busiest bassists, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Lew Winer III leads a trio at The Engine Room, while singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black play at Nathalie's, a new restaurant on Lindell in the building that formerly housed Salt, and before that, Savor and the Cabaret at Savor.

Tomorrow night, bassist Jahmal Nichols will make his Jazz at the Bistro debut as a bandleader for the first of two nights promoting the release of his first album, 2 Worlds 1 Mind.

The band for the gig will include saxophonist Kendrick Smith, guitarist Eric Slaughter, keyboardists Cory James and Andre Thomas, and drummer Andrew Exum, plus "special guests," but advance information about the record is scarce, other than a YouTube video that lists the musicians who played on the CD over an excerpt of a unnamed track evoking  early Stanley Clarke. (In a coincidence of particularly unfortunate timing, Nichols' website appears either to have been recently domain-jacked or gone 404, so no help there, either.)

Also on Friday, the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren fronts a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; percussionist Kaleb Kirby's Animal Children perform at The Engine Room; vibraphonist Tom Rickard leads a trio at Cigar Inn; and the Webster Groves High School jazz ensembles will present their annual fund-raising concert at The Pageant. 

On Saturday, the Joe Bozzi Band will play a lunchtime matinee at Talayna's of Chesterfield.

That evening, New Orleans pianist and singer Jon Batiste (pictured) and his band Stay Human will make their St. Louis debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can hear an interview with Batiste, recorded in December for NPR's "Weekend Edition," and some samples of  his music here.

Elsewhere on Saturday, pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play at Robbie's House of Jazz, and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns for their monthly show at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Miss Jubilee at the Doubletree Hotel at Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist John Farrar's Park Avenue Jazz trio now are doing a regular weekly gig at Evangeline's Bistro and Music House; and fellow six-stringers Tom Byrne and Eric Slaughter will take the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

On Tuesday, the Miles Davis Memorial Project will hold a mixer and informational meeting at Bossanova Martini Lounge and Restaurant in Alton.

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.)

Webster Groves student jazz ensembles to perform this Friday, January 17 at The Pageant

The jazz ensembles from Webster Groves High School and Hixson Middle School in Webster Groves will present their annual fund- raising concert at 7:00 p.m. this Friday at The Pageant.

All proceeds from the concert will go toward paying for instruments, sheet music, and trips for WGHS jazz students, and to help defray the costs of bringing in guest artists throughout the year to teach and perform with the bands.

WGHS jazz band director Kevin Cole tells StLJN that the top students from the program will be traveling again this year to NYC, where they'll perform saxophonist Donald Harrison. (You can read Cole's account of the band's 2011 NYC trip here.)

A number of students from the WGHS program have been included in Jazz St. Louis' JazzU and Jazz St. Louis All-Stars ensembles, and in the all-state jazz band for Missouri. The school's flagship Jazz 1 ensemble has appeared in performances with well-known musicians including Bob Mintzer, Wycliffe Gordon, and Byron Stripling, and learned from clinicians including Cyrus Chestnut, Lawrence Fields, Jeff Hamilton, Conrad Herwig, Tom 'Bones' Malone, Delfeayo Marsalis, The Yellowjackets, Chip McNeill, Jeff Hamilton, Mike Stern, Marcus Strickland, Tim Warfield, Esperanza Spalding, Steve Wiest, and the United States Air Force Airmen of Note.

Tickets for the Webster Groves student jazz ensembles at The Pageant are $15 for adults, $10 for students and will be available at the door.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 5

This week, it's the fifth and final installment of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, giving you a chance to check out live performance videos of the various touring jazz and creative music performers coming to St. Louis in the next few months. (If you missed the earlier posts, or want to take another look, here are part one, part two, part three and part four.)

Today's first clip up above features singer Catherine Russell, who will make her St. Louis debut as a headliner on Saturday, April 19 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Russell, the daughter of musicians Luis Russell (who played with Louis Armstrong) and Carline Ray, is known for her interpretations of pre-WWII jazz and blues material.

She is seen here performing "Romance In The Dark," a Lil Green song from 1940 later covered by artists such as Dinah Washington and Nina Simone and recorded by Russell on her album Strictly Romancin'. This video was shot in February, 2012 at Wellfleet Preservation Hall in Wellfleet, MA; Russell's accompanists are Matt Munisteri (guitar), Mark Shane (piano), and Lee Hudson (bass).

Down below, you can see a video featuring trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who will return to our town on Friday, April 25 to play at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. The Cuban-born brassman, a friend and protege of the late Dizzy Gillespie, is seen here in an extended jam on what perhaps is Diz' most famous composition, "A Night in Tunisia," recorded in February 2013 in Gleisdorf, Austria. (The video was shot by an audience member on a handheld camera, so the picture is a bit shaky at points, but the audio quality is good throughout.)

The third clip captures a recent performance by the Count Basie Orchestra, who will be the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival's featured attraction on Saturday, April 26 at the Touhill. Now under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, with Bobby Floyd on piano and veteran drummer Butch Miles back behind the kit, the Basie band can be seen here performing "The Deacon" in September, 2013 at the Blue Note in Nagoya, Japan.

Our fourth video is a fairly slick-looking promotional clip for saxophonist Joe Lovano's two-drummer ensemble Us Five, who will be making their St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, April 30 and continuing through Saturday, May 3 at Jazz at the Bistro. This version of "Blessings in May," from Lovano's 2013 album Cross Culture, was filmed live at the Mint in Los Angeles. (And in case you were wondering - yes, that's Esperanza Spalding on bass in this clip, and no, she's not scheduled to be part of the band's St. Louis gig.)

Below that, you can see singer Jane Monheit in a performance recorded in February 2013 at a venue called Bourbon Street in São Paulo, Brazil. The audience-shot video captures her up close and personal, singing the Carol Hall lyric for pianist Bill Evans' well-known composition "The Two Lonely People," which Monheit recorded on her album The Heart of The Matter. She'll be in St. Louis from Wednesday, May 14 through Saturday, May 17 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

In the sixth spot, there's an excerpt from a performance and workshop given by trumpeter Terell Stafford at Saxquest when he was here in St. Louis in November, 2012. Stafford will return to St. Louis to serve as guest soloist with Jazz St. Louis' JazzU student ensemble when they play their annual weekend at the Bistro on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24.

Last but not least, today's seventh and final video shows off the solo piano talents and storytelling of Joe Sample, who will perform with his trio from Wednesday, May 28 through Saturday, May 31 at Jazz at the Bistro. Recorded with some sort of hand-held device in April 2013 at the Fairfield Theatre in Fairfield, CA, the clip has a tiny picture but some very nice audio of Sample getting down and dirty on "Gee, Baby Ain't I Good To You" and "How You Gonna Keep Them Down On The Farm (After They've Seen Paree)."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has openings for a guitarist, lead tenor saxophonist, and trombonist. Rehearsals begin on January 15 and are held Wednesday evenings in South County. To schedule an audition, contact the band via their website.

* The blog Killed in Cars has available for free download a remix/sampler of live bootlegs of Miles Davis performances from October and November 1971 in Milan, Brussels, Belgrade, Oslo, and Turin.

* Meanwhile, guitarist Henry Kaiser talked with Guitar Player magazine about Yo, Miles!, the band he co-led with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith that drew inspiration from Davis' electric music of the same period.

* Drummer and University City native Ronnie Burrage will celebrate the release of Heal, the latest album by his Band Burrage (also featuring St. Louis guitarist Eric Slaughter) with a late-night show on January 18 at NYC's Blue Note.

* Meanwhile, another former U. Citian, multireedist Marty Ehrlich, will team with alto saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby for the tribute concert "Compulsion: The Music of Andrew Hill" this coming Tuesday, January 14 at NYC's Jazz Standard. Osby and Ehrlich, who both are former Hill collaborators, will be joined by saxophonists Donny McCaslin and Jaleel Shaw; trumpeter Jeremy Pelt; bassist Ben Allison; and drummers Matt Wilson and Billy Drummond.

* Out on the West Coast, drummer Dave Weckl (pictured), who just celebrated a birthday on Wednesday, will perform with his new Acoustic Band on January 20 and 21 at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. The lineup for the group features a couple of familiar collaborators - bassist and fellow St. Louis native Tom Kennedy and saxophonist Gary Meek - along with pianist Makoto Ozone.

* Pianist Peter Martin has revamped the look and added new material to the video lessons section of his website.

* KDHX will present a free workshop on "How To Get Your Music On The Radio" at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow at the station's new HQ at 3524 Washington Ave.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson will feature recordings from top jazz drummers such as Art Blakey, Bobby Previte and Jeff “Tain” Watts.

Then on "The Jazz Collective," Jason Church will have an all-St. Louis program, with music from Erin Bode, Farshid Etniko, Jim Manley, Funky Butt Brass Band, Jesse Gannon, Tommy Halloran, Dawn Weber, Tom Byrne, Tim Cunningham, Jim Stevens, Vince Varvel, Jeanne Trevor, Kim Massie, Robert Silverman, "Peanuts" Whalum, Clave Sol, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes, Brian Vaccaro, Rod Tate and Gregg Haynes, Soul Cafe, Carolbeth True, Elliott Ranney, and Jason Swagler.

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

Terence Blanchard replaces Chucho Valdés for February 15 concert at The Sheldon

This just in: The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced that trumpeter Terence Blanchard (pictured) and his sextet will replace Chucho Valdés for the concert scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Saturday, February 15 at the Sheldon. According to the Sheldon's announcement, Valdés is unable to appear due to an injury sustained while on tour.

If you've already bought tickets for Valdés and wish to attend Blanchard's performance, you can keep your tickets and just present them at the door on February 15. Refunds for the face value of tickets can be obtained at the original point of purchase.

Blanchard was here in St. Louis frequently last year, as Opera Theater St. Louis presented the world premiere production of his first opera, Champion, and played free outdoor concerts at both St. Louis Place Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden. (Coincidentally, when Blanchard performed at The Sheldon in 2006, he was filling a date that had opened up when bassist Dave Holland had to cancel.) 

The New Orleans native also is known for writing scores for a number of director Spike Lee's films, and for the recent Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. He also appeared here in 2012 at both the Touhill Performing Arts Center, with percussionist Poncho Sanchez, and at Jazz at the Bistro with his own band. Blanchard's most recent album Magnetic, released last year, made the year-end "Best of 2013" lists of a number of jazz critics and publications.

(Edited 1/10/14 to fix a redundancy in the text.)

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, Nathaniel Bartlett plays Stockhausen, Lina Koutrakos, and more

As St. Louis continues to dig out from the big storm, it looks like this week's jazz and creative music performances around town should go on as scheduled.

Should the weather turns nasty again, however, we encourage you to call ahead before heading out to your venue of choice, and this site will be updated with any cancellation info received at StLJN HQ. Hoping for warmer temperatures soon, let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, The Bad Plus returns to St. Louis for the eighth consecutive year in January to open a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. At this point, most StLJN readers likely will be familiar with the critically acclaimed trio, but if you're not, you can check out our extensive previous coverage, including a couple of compilations of live performance video clips, here.

Since The Bad Plus have signed a new record deal with Sony, with their first album back on the label scheduled for release later this year, it seems likely the crowd at the Bistro will get a taste of some of that new material as well as selections from their back catalog. Given the possibility of new sounds in the offing, plus the group's extensive existing fan base here, advance reservations are strongly suggested.

Also tonight, percussionist Henry Claude and cellist Tracy Andreotti will bring their alternate identities The Steve and Jennifer Project to the Tavern of Fine Arts for an evening of improvised music.

Tomorrow night, Good 4 The Soul will make their monthly appearance at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen will perform at the new south side venue The Engine Room; and Miss Jubilee plays swing, jump blues and more at Thaxton Speakeasy.

On Friday, the Knights of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes trio will perform at Thurman Grill; and bassist Darrell Mixon will lead a trio at Cigar Inn.

Then on Saturday, percussionist Nathaniel Bartlett, who also was here in St. Louis last weekend, will be coming back through town after playing several other shows in the interim for another performance at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. This time, Bartlett will perform two works from Stockhausen and an original piece by LNAC's Mark Sarich.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday night, singer Lina Koutrakos presents her cabaret show "Shades of Blue" at the Kranzberg Arts Center; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black return to Chaser's Lounge at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; singer Chuck Flowers fronts a trio at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro and his trio will play at the house concert venue KindaBlue, 6101 1/2 Idaho.

On Sunday, the "Inner Jazz" series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ continues with a free concert by trumpeter/pianist Tim Osiek and his quartet.

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.)

Ken Page added to Gaslight Cabaret Festival

The Gaslight Cabaret Festival has added a major attraction to its lineup, as festival producers The Presenters Dolan have announced that singer/actor, Broadway veteran, and St. Louis native Ken Page will perform to kick off the multi-week event with shows at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 20 and Friday, February 21 at the Gaslight Theater.

Although Page (pictured) has appeared in movies, on TV, and as a voiceover performer for animation, he's best known for his many starring roles in musical theater, including being part of the original casts of the Fats Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin', Cats, The Wiz, and the hit revival of Guys and Dolls.

For the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, Page will perform a show called "Old, New, Borrowed & Blue," which according to promotional materials will feature "a range of songs from Old Broadway, New Broadway, his favorite artists, and the blues." (For more about Ken Page, see this 2012 feature story from St. Louis magazine.)

Tickets for Ken Page at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival are $35 and $40, and are on sale now online at http://www.licketytix.com and by phone at 314-725-4200 ext 10.

Engine Room revs up first month's schedule

The Engine Room at Feraro's, the new live music venue at 7700 Ivory St. on the south side, has announced its first full month's schedule, as assembled by musician and instrument-builder David Certain, who's serving as the club's "minister of music."

Things get underway this Tuesday when the club presents the first in a series of weekly jam sessions, hosted by a trio including Darrell Mixon on bass, Jack Lane on guitar, and Certain on drums. Wednesdays will be Reggae Night, featuring Oba Simba's Onix Reggae band.

Thursdays through Saturdays, the Engine Room will present a mix of jazz, funk, R&B and rock, with the first week's bookings including saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen on Thursday, January 9; guitarist Tom Byrne (pictured) and his trio on Friday, January 10; and singer Brian G. Soul and band on Saturday, January 11.

The rest of the month's schedule will include saxophonist Lew Winer III, leading a trio (January 16); Kaleb Kirby's Animal Children (January 17); CertainBeat WorldBop (January 18); a return gig for Dineen (January 23); pianist/singer Jesse Gannon and Truth (January 24); GeoBilly with Billy Barnett & George Potsos (January 25); trumpeter Ben Henderson's trio (January 30); and the Kevin Renick Band (January 31), with UberCool kicking off next month on Saturday, February 1.

Tuesday hours for live music will be 8:00 p.m. to midnight, with no cover charge. Reggae Night performances on Wednesdays will be 9:00 p.m. to midnight, with a $5 cover, while weekend shows will run from 8:00 p.m. to midnight with the same $5 cover. And if you're interested in following along on social media to keep up with future bookings, The Engine Room has both a Facebook page and Twitter account.

(Edited after posting to fix a typo and to correctly identify Brian G. Soul.) 

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 4

This week, we continue with part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, featuring bands and musicians who will be coming to our town in the first few months of this year. (Here are part one, part two and part three.)

Today's first clip features guitarist Pat Metheny and his Unity Band, with saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Antonio Sanchez, performing "Breakdealer" at a show in July 2012 in Rome, Italy. Metheny and the ensemble, now known as the Unity Group with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, will be touring in support of a new album this year and will play St. Louis on Sunday, March 9 at The Pageant.

Down below, you can see pianist Cyrus Chestnut who will be here with his trio and special guest guitarist Russell Malone to perform Wednesday, April 2 through Saturday, April 5 at Jazz at the Bistro.

In this clip, Chestnut, bassist Darryl Hall and drummer Willie Jones III are playing his adaptation of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," recorded in 2011 for his album Moonlight Sonata, an import-only release from Japan. Below that, you can see a video of Malone playing "There Will Never Be Another You" with pianist Billy Taylor's trio.

The fourth clip shows flute player and composer Claire Chase, who will perform here in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, April 4 at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. This video is an excerpt from a performance by Chase and her ensemble last January at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

Next up are The Wee Trio, featuring St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform on Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 at Jazz at the Bistro. In this clip, you can see them in a 2012 show at MiraCosta College in California, performing the arrangement of "Queen Bitch" originally conceived for Ashes to Ashes, their album of David Bowie music, and then revisited on Live at the Bistro, recorded here in St. Louis last February.

The sixth clip features singer Storm Large, who's performing Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 at the Gaslight Theater as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. Large, whose career in entertainment has ranged from rock singer to reality TV to cabaret, is heard here in a 2011 recording singing the standard "Brasil" with Pink Martini, the retro-style dance band for which she is co-lead vocalist.

Today's seventh video features percussionist Poncho Sanchez, who was here in 2012 to perform at the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival and will return this year to play Wednesday, April 16 through Saturday, April 19 at the Bistro. Sanchez and his band are seen here performing their complete set from the 2012 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Look for the fifth part of the winter/spring 2014 jazz preview next week.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter, consultant and impresario George Sams plans to re-start The Nu-Art Series this year with four to six performances at a location or locations yet to be determined, according to an article by Terry Perkins published this week by the St. Louis Beacon/St. Louis Public Radio.

* Singer Sarah Ulrich of Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes (pictured) is profiled in the latest issue of the local lifestyle magazine Uptown.

* The St. Louis Business Journal reports that Jazz St. Louis had a fiscally successful year in 2013.

* StLJN's annual roundup of "Best Jazz of 2013" lists this year included a couple of local entries, from Josh Weinstein, host of KDHX's "All Soul, No Borders," and Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis. You can see the entire list roundup, which has more than 120 "best of" lists from around and still is being updated, here.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of “Somethin’ Else” on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, host Calvin Wilson will focus on the music of Herbie Hancock, including his collaborations with trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist Michael Brecker. 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.

Jazz this week: Funky Butt Brass Band, Nathaniel Bartlett, West End Stomp, St. Louis Guitar Fusion, and more

The first part of the New Year traditionally is a bit a slow for the live music business, but if you're willing to brave the cold and snow, there still are some noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening around St. Louis in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, trumpeter Jim Manley will be back for his ongoing Thursday evening gig at Joyia Tapas, 4501 Manchester Ave in the Grove neighborhood.

Tomorrow night, the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of what's being billed as a New Orleans-style New Year's Celebration. While the overall production may not be quite as elaborate as the FBBB's recent Holiday Brasstravaganza, no doubt they will have a least a few trickerations up their sleeves to entertain the assembled multitudes. 

Also on Friday, percussionist and composer Nathaniel Bartlett (pictured) will be in town to perform at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Bartlett will perform trichotomic ecology, a composition for 5 octave marimba, viola, and percussion that uses a custom eight-channel speaker array he calls the "SSAL loudspeaker cube," which surrounds the audience and creates "an elaborate, kinetic, three-dimensional sound environment."

The piece also employs software that not only responds to the composer via foot pedal commands but also ‘listens’ via microphones to the performers and generates notation on a video screen based on composer-created computer algorithms.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly "West End Stomp" dance will feature music from Wack-A-Doo at the Mahler Ballroom; saxophonist Willie Akins leads a quartet at Cigar Inn; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes make their debut at Backstreet Jazz and Blues club in Westport; and Wendy Gordon returns to DeLeo's Cafe & Deli.

Then on Saturday night, Robbie's House of Jazz has a double bill, with an early evening show by saxophonist Jay Hutson and Da Wolvez with singer Tamesha Foote, followed by a late set by the Robert Tucker Quartet. Also on Saturday, bassist Bob DeBoo's weekly trio performance at Kranzberg Arts Center has been held over into the new year.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will hold their first event of the year at the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway.

UPDATE - 5:30 p.m., 1/3/13: Organizers of the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show posted on Facebook that Sunday's show is canceled due to the expected bad weather. The next show will be held on Sunday, March 2 

That evening, guitarists Dave Black, Randy Bahr and Farshid Soltanshahi (from Farshid Etniko) will team up for their first-ever concert together, billed as "St. Louis Guitar Fusion," at The Chapel.

UPDATE - 9:30 a.m., 1/3/13: Dave Black has posted on Facebook that Sunday's concert is postponed, due to winter weather.

And if for some reason that's not enough guitar for you, there's more on Monday, as guitarist Tom Byrne will be back at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)