Sunday Session: July 31, 2016

Johnny Hodges

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Jane Monheit: Beyond Ella (Los Angeles Review of Books)
* Live: Famoudou Don Moye & Hartmut Geerken - A historic free-improv set in Berlin (Jazz Times)
* The Linguistics of My Next Band Name (JStor.org)
* Why is new classical music left to wither and die? (The Telegraph UK)
* New Ensembles, Inspired Pairings Animate Umbria Jazz Fest (DownBeat)
* Johnny Hodges - The Timeless Artistry of a Great Ellingtonian (New England Public Radio)
* Record Labels Need a Change of Culture in the ‘Dashboard Era’ of the Music Industry (Medium.com)
* The mystery of the phantom Billboard hit, “Ready ‘N’ Steady,” is finally solved (AV Club)
* Pitchfork Fest, a Bastion of Rock and Pop, Opens Doors to Jazz (DownBeat)
* Dave Douglas review – jolting backbeats and hip-hop highjinks (The Guardian UK)
* Born to Be Blue: Ethan Hawke on the fast life and mysterious death of Chet Baker (The Guardian UK)
* Inside The Playlist Factory (Buzzfeed.com)
* Free-Improv Players Soar During Astral Spirits Showcase (DownBeat)
* Why Beijing Is (Still) A Great City For Jazz Music (Forbes)
* How Being a Music Journalist Made Me Wind Up in a Psychiatric Hospital (Vice.com)
* Charles Davis obituary (The Guardian UK)
* Rock, racism and rebel music: 1970s Britain through a photographer’s lens (HuckMagazine.com)
* Brian Eno Explains the Loss of Humanity in Modern Music (OpenCulture.com)
* Remembering Marni Nixon, the Invisible Voice of ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘West Side Story,’ and ‘The King and I’ (The Daily Beast)
* The leading manufacturer of music boxes for ice cream trucks calls Minnesota home (TheCurrent.org)
* THE BLURT JAZZ DESK: Sonny Rollins (BlurtOnline.com)
* Carla Bley: Shoe Leather, Mystery & Moxie (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Behind the Lens: A Deep Dive into the New Frank Zappa Doc ‘Eat That Question’ (Vice.com)
* How the pop video got weird again (The Guardian UK)
* David Bowie’s Blackstar Band Announces New Album, Shares “A Small Plot of Land” Cover (Pitchfork)
* This 1960 Jazz Film Shaped Concert Documentaries as We Know Them (Vice.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: In the groove with Big Sam's Funky Nation

This week, let's check out some videos of the New Orleans-based band Big Sam’s Funky Nation, who are coming back to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, August 11 at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Led by trombonist "Big Sam" Williams, the Funky Nation has been visiting St. Louis at fairly regular intervals for several years now, usually appearing at the Oyster Bar. With a danceable, crowd-pleasing style that draws on rock, funk, and more, as well as jazz, they recently were named “Best Band In New Orleans” by the local magazine Where Y’At in the publication's 19th annual writer’s poll.

Interestingly, Williams is a great-grandson of Buddy Bolden, the famed New Orleans cornetist, a fact he didn't learn until he was an adult and already working as a professional musician. Before forming the Funky Nation, he previously played with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and with famed singer/songwriter and pianist Allen Toussaint, and from 2010 to 2013 also had a recurring role on the HBO series Treme.

You can hear a fine example of the signature sound of Big Sam's Funky Nation in the first video up above, a clip of a tune called "Gimme That Funky Horn" that was recorded in 2013 at The Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton, FL

After the jump, you can see five more videos, all recorded in December 2015 at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, FL and shared on the band's own YouTube page. In order, the clips feature "Big Sam's Blues Medley"; a medley of "Do Whatcha Wanna" "Treme", and "Tweet"; "Give Up the Funk"; "Coffee Pot"; and a medley of "Funky Donkey" and "Purple Haze".

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* KDHX has put on their Flickr page a photo set from Femi Kuti's performance a couple of weeks ago at the Ready Room.

* St. Louis' own Vintage Vinyl (pictured) is one of a select group of music retailers featured an article in last Friday's USA Today, "Vinyl lives! 10 great record stores for a musical treasure hunt".

* Saxophonist Greg Lewis Jr was profiled by the Belleville News-Democrat.
 
* The Rustic Goat and The Lux, two downtown nightspots that sometimes present live jazz, were raided and closed this week by St. Louis police this week for liquor license violations. 

* After eight years as director of marketing and communications for Jazz St. Louis, Devin Rodino has left the the organization, effective yesterday. An email from Rodino said he's moving to Columbia, MO for "personal reasons," and StLJN wishes him all the the best in his future endeavors.

With Rodino's departure, Jazz St. Louis is seeking a new marketing and communications director. They've posted a job description online in PDF format here, and you can find about more about the position, as well as other current job openings at JSL - for a development associate and a part-time box office associate - here.

*  David Garfield, the Metro East native who serves as touring keyboardist and music director for guitarist George Benson, was singled out for some praise by London Jazz News in their review of Benson's show last month in London.

Jazz this week: A benefit starring Johnny O'Neal, free outdoor concerts, and more

It's mid-summer in St. Louis, and though as usual for this time year, it's mostly another slow week with regard to touring musicians visiting St. Louis, the fine pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal (pictured) will be in town for a benefit show on Sunday.

And of course, St. Louis' hometown musicians keep on keepin' on no matter what, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening around town over the next few days.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, July 27
The Grand Center "jazz crawl" starts this week with singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, and continues as usual with bassist Bob DeBoo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's trio at The Dark Room.

Thursday, July 28
Singer Erin Bode will perform in a free outdoor concert at Kirkwood Station Plaza in downtown Kirkwood, and bassist Glen Smith will lead a trio in a concert at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center at Washington University, wrapping up this year's free "Jazz in July" concerts from Wash U's Jazz at Holmes series.

Also on Thursday, singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran and his Guerrilla Strings will be recording in public view at the Gaslight Lounge; and this month's edition of the Bruxism experimental music series, with Blank Thomas, Alberto Patino, Schievvf, will be presented at the Schlafly Tap Room.

Friday, July 29
Soul-jazz/funk quartet The Service returns for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; and guitarists Farshid Soltanshahi and Dave Black will team up with multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman for a concert at Focal Point.

Elsewhere around town, the Midwest Jazz-tette performs West Coast-style cool jazz at Evangeline's; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and trumpeter Jim Manley will be back at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.

Also on Friday, singer Ken Haller presents his cabaret performance "The TV Show" at The Emerald Room at The Monocle. Haller will return to the same venue on Saturday night to perform his show "Song by Song by Sondheim".

Saturday, July 30
Take your pick of R&B-influenced saxophonists doing free outdoor concerts, as Tim Cunningham performs at Carondelet Park while Jim Stevens plays at Lafayette Park.

Also on Saturday, the Funky Butt Brass Band will play their monthly gig at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday, July 31
The Community Women Against Hardship will present their annual jazz benefit concert at the Ferring Jazz Bistro, this year featuring pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal.

The Detroit native, now based in NYC after many years living in Alabama, has been compared to Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. Now 59 years old, O'Neal worked early in his career with Clark Terry and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but geography, bad health, and bad luck mostly kept him from gaining wider recognition until this decade, when he re-established his presence on the NYC scene with weekly gigs in Manhattan.

For this show, O'Neal will be accompanied by a contingent of St. Louisans including singer Anita Jackson, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Jerome “Scrooge” Harris.

Monday, August 1
Singer and impresisonist Dean Christopher will present his "Rat Pack & More" show at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.

Tuesday, August 2
The Jazz Troubadours, featuring vibraphonist Tom Rickard, bassist Guy Cantonwine, and drummer Steve Helfand, have begun a weekly Tuesday late-night gig and jam session at Evangeline's, continuing until further notice.

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.)

Miles on Monday: News, reviews and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* With Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead now available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and video on demand, the film rating site Rotten Tomatoes has given the flick a 73% score on the "Tomato Meter".

* The video release of the movie also has prompted a few additional reviews from websites and publications that didn't get it to is during its theatrical run, like the ones published last week by TheFilmStage.com and Spacial-Anomaly.com.

* Also last week, Glide magazine published a review looking at the video release of Miles Ahead, the film's soundtrack, and Everything's Beautiful, the companion remix/tribute album from keyboardist Robert Glasper.

* From Newport, RI comes news that Roomful of Blues trumpeter Doug Woolverton will pay tribute to Davis' famous set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, recorded live and released as Miles Davis at Newport 1958, by recreating it this Thursday, July 28, at the Jane Pickens Theater in Newport.

* And from MTV, of all places, there's a surprisingly readable article about the recently released "lost album" of singer Betty Davis (pictured), which was produced by Miles Davis in 1969 for his then-wife and employed many of the same musicians who played on Miles' landmark album Bitches Brew.

James Carter to play benefit concert on Saturday, October 22 at The Sheldon

Saxophonist James Carter and his organ trio are returning to St. Louis to headline the Sheldon Art Galleries' annual "ArtSounds" benefit at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, October 22 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Carter (pictured) and his trio, which includes organist Gerald Gibbs and drummer Leonard King, last performed here in March of this year at Jazz at the Bistro.

As part of his Sheldon concert, Carter will improvise a solo piece inspired by the "Paint for Peace" murals created by St. Louis artists following the death in 2014 of Michael Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson.

The murals will be featured in "Outside/In: Paint for Peace," an exhibit opening on Friday, October 7 at the Sheldon Art Galleries. (Additional works from the exhibit will be shown at the Ferguson Youth Initiative, UMSL's Gallery 210, Missouri History Museum, and Vaughn Cultural Center.)

Proceeds from the "ArtSounds" event benefit the exhibits and educational programs of the Sheldon Art Galleries. Patron tickets, which include a pre-concert reception, complimentary parking, preferred seating and a tax deduction, are priced at $500, $300 and $150, and can be purchased now by calling The Sheldon at 314-533-9900.

Remaining tickets for the concert only will cost $35 for orchestra seating, $30 and $25 for the balcony, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Friday, September 16 via MetroTix outlets and the Sheldon box office.

Music Education Monday: Master classes with bassist Abraham Laboriel

This week for Music Education Monday, you can check out a couple of master classes with the veteran bassist Abraham Laboriel.

Since graduating from Berklee and beginning his career in the early 1970s, the 69-year-old Laboriel (pictured) has played thousands of sessions, working on TV and film soundtracks and with top names in jazz, rock, pop, and contemporary Christian music including Al Jarreau, George Benson, Andy Summers, Barbra Streisand, Billy Cobham, Dave Grusin, Dolly Parton, Donald Fagen, Elton John, Freddie Hubbard, Herb Alpert, Herbie Hancock, Lalo Schifrin, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and many others.

The first video, titled "Beginning Funk Bass," was recorded in 1994 and is pretty much what you'd expect from the title, with Laboriel demonstrating various funk grooves and licks and discussing the concepts and techniques used in them.

The second video is from 2014 and captures a relatively informal session, in which Laboriel plays, talks a bit, and takes questions. Although this class was presented originally for an audience made up primarily of church musicians and does feature some discussion specific to that context, many of the bassist's insights nevertheless can be applied to any genre.

Sunday Session: July 24, 2016

Irma Thomas

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* A Visit to the Pops Home (Stereophile)
* Chas Chandler: The man who discovered Jimi Hendrix (BBC)
* …But I Hate Modern Music (New Music Box)
* Solving the Mystery of 'Heartbreak Hotel' (Rolling Stone)
* How a little mathematics can help create some beautiful music (TheConversation.com)
* How Do Music Preferences Differ Place To Place? Pandora Shares State By State Data (HypeBot.com)
* Just Three Albums Have Sold Over 1 Million Units This Year (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The Surprising Musical Preferences of an Amazon Tribe (The Atlantic)
* How Composer Howard Shore Brought the Sounds of Tangier to William S. Burroughs' ‘Naked Lunch’ (Vice.com)
* Hersch, Sanchez, Porter Delve Deep at Portugal’s Funchal Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Pokemon Go Invades Pro Audio (Pro Sound News)
* Interview: Fred Hersch (Stereophile)
* Billboard's First Hitmakers Roundtable: 7 of Music's Top Creatives and Influencers on the State of Pop, 10-Second Attention Spans and the Song of the Summer (Billboard)
* One of the nation’s most successful musicians dies (Antigua Observer)
* New Orleans 'Soul Queen' Irma Thomas: ' I can't choose a song that doesn't make sense to me' (KPCC)
* Where have the great composers gone? (The Guardian UK)
* Jazz Museum in New Orleans gains a new director (New Orleans Advocate)
* The Mad Scientists Of Vinyl Record Design (Fast Company)
* More Bird With Strings (Jazzwax.com)
* Composing in the Entrepreneurial Era (Van magazine)
* Richard Corsello, Sonny Rollins' Go-To Engineer - How he transformed subpar source recordings into Rollins' triumphant "Road Shows" series (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Guillermo Klein: The Sound of Symmetry (DownBeat)
* Composers seek new definition of greatness in a digital age (The Guardian UK)
* New Orleans jazz drummer Jason Marsalis and his family move to France (New Orleans Advocate)
* Coming to Grips with Dead & Bro: John Mayer and the Improbable Live Rebirth of the Grateful Dead (Pitchfork)
* An Exhibition of Japanese Portable Record Players (Spoon & Tamogo)
* North Beach History: When Bebop Filled The Night (Hoodline.com)
* Enter Brian Wilson’s Creative Process While Making The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds 50 Years Ago: A Fly-on-the Wall View (OpenCulture.com)
* Looking for the great composers? They’re all around us (San Francisco Chronicle)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Giants of jazz in concert

Since this feature is still employing a non-topical, summer-vacation protocol, today's post is simply a sort of video jazz festival, for which yr. editor has selected full sets from six of the all-time giants of jazz, recorded at various locations around the world in the middle of the last century.

In order, the videos are:

* Louis Armstrong in 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium
* Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1965 in Montreal
* Count Basie Orchestra in 1972 in Copenhagen, Denmark
* Thelonious Monk Quartet in 1963 in Japan
* Charles Mingus Sextet in 1964 in Oslo, Norway
* Miles Davis Quintet in 1964 in Milan, Italy

The Armstrong video is at the top of this post; the others can be seen after the jump. Enjoy!

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Wee Trio, which includes St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, has launched a crowd-funding campaign raising money to record their fifth album. The recording, titled WEE + 3, will feature guest appearances from pianist Fabian Almazán, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarist Nir Felder.

* Jazz St. Louis' program last week pairing a performance of music from drummer Max Roach's We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite with a discussion of jazz, race, and social justice issues was the subject of a feature story by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* New Music Circle will promote their upcoming 58th season with "an evening of drinks and DJs" from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 3 at the Tick Tock Tavern, 3459 Magnolia in the Tower Grove East neighborhood. The free event will feature Josh Weinstein and Jeremy Kannapell spinning records, plus raffles for various prizes including CDs, LPs, and tickets to upcoming NMC concerts. Proceeds from drinks purchased during the event will go to support NMC's various programs.

* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio Network has started a new podcast, "The Process," which will feature "interviews with the best players in jazz and beyond." The first episode, with Martin and drummer Gregory Hutchinson (pictured), is online now.

* Saxophonist and educator Harvey Lockhart and the other winners of the 2017 St. Louis Arts Awards were profiled on the website of the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.

* Legendary singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker's favorite places in France were the subject of an article in the New York Times travel section.

* The Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for the next round of their $20,000 Artist Fellowships through Wednesday, August 10. A total of ten $20,000 fellowships will be awarded to individual St. Louis artists in any discipline as selected by an advisory committee of arts professionals, peers and RAC commissioners. RAC also is offering a workshop on how to apply for the fellowships on Tuesday, August 2 at the Vaughn Cultural Center.

Jazz this week: St. Louis Cabaret Festival, Houston Person & Montez Coleman, New Orleans Jazz Vipers, and more

As yr. humble StLJN editor this week has been both swamped with paying-gig-type work and plagued by various equipment malfunctions, and this post is already late, this intro will be both mercifully brief and without embellishment.

Here are some of the more noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening in and around St. Louis over the next few days: 

Wednesday, July 20
Saxophonist and East St. Louis native Andre Delano, now based on the West Coast, is back in town for a visit and will perform with Good 4 The Soul at The Lux.

Also tonight, the St. Louis Cabaret Festival gets underway with Broadway star Faith Prince and actor/singer Jason Graae performing at the Sheldon Concert Hall. For more about the festival and video samples of the headling performers, see this Saturday video post from a couple of weeks ago.

Elsewhere around town, singer Erin Bode will perform a free concert (weather permitting) for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden; the Liberation Organ Trio plays at Evangeline's; and the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, featuring former St. Louisans Charlie Halloran on trombone and Chloe Feoranzo on clarinet will perform on a double-bill with Feoranzo's old band, the Sidney Street Shakers, at Foam.

The Vipers' gig is the first of four this week in St. Louis for the band, with shows to follow on Thursday at Joe's Cafe, Friday at Focal Point, and Saturday afternoon at the Blues City Deli. For more about that, see Terry Perkins' article about Halloran, Feorenzo and the band posted yesterday on the website of Alive! magazine.

Thursday, July 21
The St. Louis Cabaret Festival continues with singer Marilyn Maye (pictured, top left), her special guest Ann Hampton Callaway, and pianists Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth at the Sheldon Concert Hall. For more on  what the four of them have planned, listen to Maye and Callaway's interview from yesterday on St. Louis Public Radio.

Also on Thursday, trumpeter Danny Campbell leads a quartet in a free "Jazz in July" show for the Jazz at Holmes series at the Tisch Commons of Danforth University Center on the Washington University campus; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro and his trio will play at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, July 22
The St. Louis Cabaret Festival continues with pianist and singer Tony DeSare at the Sheldon, while over on the other side of Grand Ave, the veteran tenor saxophonist Houston Person (pictured, lower left) will be in town as a special guest soloist with drummer Montez Coleman's band as they undertake two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro. You can find out more about Coleman's shows in a preview story written by the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson

Also on Friday, Second Generation Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber performs in a free outdoor concert as part of the summer series at 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters.

Saturday, July 23
Singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will celebrate the release of their new duo CD with a performance at the Kranzberg Arts Center; bassist Bob DeBoo brings his trio to The Dark Room; saxophonist Tim Cunningham will be playing soul jazz and R&B at @Nesby's; and Miss Jubilee will offer up danceable swing, jump blues and more at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Sunday, July 24
The Coleman Hughes Project will play an early evening show at The Rustic Goat; the Ambassadors of Swing return to Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; and the St. Louis Cabaret Festival wraps up with a final celebration and showcase of students from the coterminous St. Louis Cabaret Conference at the Ferring Jazz Bistro.

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.)

Branford Marsalis, Kurt Elling to perform January 24 & 25 at Jazz at the Bistro

In an addition to the previously announced 2016-17 schedule for Jazz at the Bistro, Jazz St. Louis has announced that saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his quartet will be joining forces with singer Kurt Elling and returning to St. Louis for performances at the Bistro on Tuesday, January 24 and Wednesday, January 25, 2017.

Elling and Marsalis (pictured) recently collaborated on the album Upward Spiral, which was released in June on the Marsalis Music label via OKeh Records.

The recording features a mix of standards, off-the-beaten-path covers and originals, and generally has been well-received by fans and by critics such as AllAboutJazz.com's Dan Bilewsky, who praised it as being "suffused with graciousness, beauty, and, on occasion, heartbreak." (You can see a promotional video for Upward Spiral in the embedded player at the bottom of this post.)

Tickets for the Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling and are on sale now to Jazz at the Bistro subscribers only, with the JSL website currently saying that prices "start at $45; $10 students." Single tickets will go on sale to the general public at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 10.

Miles on Monday: Miles Ahead released on DVD and Blu-Ray, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead, which tells the trumpeter's story beginning with a fictionalized incident set during his late-1970s career hiatus, is being released tomorrow on DVD (pictured) and Blu-Ray.

* Speaking of Miles Ahead, an article published last week in Hollywood Reporter mentions Cheadle's performance in the film as one that "merit(ed) attention" for a potential Academy Award nomination.

* Everything's Beautiful, the tribute/remix album by pianist Robert Glasper issued in conjunction with the theatrical release of Miles Ahead, was reviewed by Croco magazine and by AllAboutJazz.com's Asher Wolf.

* An article by AllAboutJazz.com's Mark Werlin evaluates the remastered SACD reissues of several albums from Miles Davis "Second Great Quintet"

* Somewhat unsurprisingly, given that it's the best-selling jazz album of all time, Davis' landmark recording Kind of Blue figures prominently in Paste magazine's list of "10 Jazz Albums for People Who Don’t Like Jazz."

* The London revival of Robert LePage's Needles and Opium, a performance piece about Miles Davis, Jean Cocteau and various forms of addition, was reviewed by The Telegraph.

Moon Hooch to perform Thursday, October 20 at Old Rock House

Moon Hooch, the saxophones-and-drums trio that in the past couple of years has gone from busking at NYC subway stations to performing at major festivals across the USA and Europe, is returning to St. Louis to play at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, October 20 at the Old Rock House.

The trio (pictured) released their third album Red Sky in June to favorable reviews, and will be touring throughout the summer and fall in the USA, the UK and Germany in support of the recording.

Tickets for the all-ages Moon Hooch performance at the Old Rock House are $13 in advance, $15 day of show, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Friday, July 22 via Metrotix.

Music Education Monday: Jazz trombone tips from Robin Eubanks, and more

This week for Music Education Monday, here's a grab-bag of material of interest to trombonists, including a video in which Robin Eubanks (pictured) talks about "music, jazz, and developing as a musician."

The brother of guitarist Kevin Eubanks and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, Robin Eubanks probably is best known for his work with bassist Dave Holland and as a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, but he's also released nine albums as a bandleader, the most recent of which is 2014's kLassik RocK Vol. 1 with his band Mental Images.

Over the course of more than 30 years in the music business, he's also played with Slide Hampton, Sun Ra, Stevie Wonder, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Elvin Jones, and more. You can see the video of Eubanks in the embedded window at the bottom of this post.

But first, a few more links for jazz trombonists current and future, starting with Trombone.org's Online Trombone Journal, which has a large archive of articles and regularly adds new content, and the list of transcribed jazz trombone solos collected at DigitalTrombone.com.

For more tips from working trombonists on video, check out the YouTube series "Bone Masters" on trombonist Paul Nowell's YouTube Channel. Nowell to date has released 46 episodes, most ranging from five to 10 minutes in length and featuring a different guest trombonist.

If you're interested in a deep dive into the work of one of the greatest jazz trombonist of all time, take a look at "Transcription and Analysis of Selected Trombone Solos from J.J. Johnson's 1964 Recording Proof Positive," a dissertation completed in 2009 by trombonist Rodney Lancaster for his doctorate at the University of Miami.

Another dissertation available in full online, "Teaching and Learning Jazz Trombone" by Ohio State University doctoral candidate Julia Gendrich, has some interesting material for both students and teachers.

Or if doctoral dissertations are bit much to take in, there are some easily digestible yet useful ideas in "listicles" such as JazzTbone.com's "Seven Habits of Effective Trombonists" and the University of Colorado music department's "100 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Trombone Playing That Require Absolutely No Talent," which contains a number of tips that could be used by just about any musician.

Sunday Session: July 17, 2016

Herbie Hancock

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* The Loudest Sound In The World Would Kill You On The Spot (FiveThirtyEight.com)
* I Can’t Believe I’m Saying This, But I Miss My CDs (Wired)
* Hermeto Pascoal's 80th Birthday Concert - Multi-instrumentalist performs with his all-star British ensemble (Jazz Times)
* Brian Eno Plays the Universe (Nautil.us)
* Jazz Stars Unite Across Generations in Rochester (DownBeat)
* theartsdesk at Love Supreme Festival 2016: Kamasi Washington, Esperanza Spalding and Stanley Clarke - Laid back atmosphere, inspiring music at the UK’s only green field jazz festival (TheArtsDesk.com)
* Marvin Gaye Documentary ‘Marvin, What’s Going On?’ Being Developed With the Support of Gaye’s Family (IndieWire.com)
* Snap, Crackle And Swing: Young Roy Haynes (IndianaPublicMedia.org)
* Four Really Weird Music Gadgets (AJournalOfMusicalThings.com)
* Listen to the Bad Plus Cover Prince’s ‘The Beautiful Ones’ From the Trio’s Upcoming Album ‘It’s Hard’ (Exclusive) (Wall Street Journal)
* New study ranks the best (and worst) U.S. cities for music fans (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* The Music Business And The Great Youtube Debate (MagneticMag.com)
* Surprise! 78 DSO musicians each receive $5,000 bequest (Detroit Free Press)
* A rude car salesman did me a huge favor, says jazz icon Herbie Hancock (CNBC)
* Culture, not biology, decides the difference between music and noise (PBS)
* How the ’70s Dethroned the ’60s as Popular Music’s Golden Age (Pitchfork)
* How It All Stax Up: Charting the Rise of Neo-Classic Soul (Bandcamp.com)
* 50 years ago, this Boston band toured with The Beatles, then broke up immediately (Boston Globe)
* Music Ownership Incredibly Unimportant to 15-19 Year Olds, Study Finds (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Warner Music Issues Potentially Devastating Blow to Small Record Stores (Pitchfork)
* Neuroscientists Still Don’t Know Why Music Sounds Good (Wired)
* Rob Mazurek’s Universe of Sound (Bandcamp.com)
* In New Orleans, scandal tarnishes a jazz star and the libraries he was asked to help (Washington Post)
* Headphones Everywhere (The New Yorker)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Favorite jazz documentaries

As sometimes happens in mid-summer, the next couple of weeks in St. Louis are looking relatively uneventful with regard to touring jazz performers visiting our town. So this week, StLJN is going to take a break from our regular, locally focused sort of Saturday post to share some some favorite jazz films that can be viewed for free online.

Today's first movie, embedded up above, is The Last of the Blue Devils, a 1979 documentary about the history of Kansas City jazz directed by Bruce Ricker and starring Jay McShann, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and various other notable KC musicians.

After the jump, you can see Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz, a 1997 documentary about the famed record label that helped establish the careers of many jazz greats, followed by 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz, a film produced in 2009 by BBC Four that looks at how four key albums released in the titular year affected the course of music for the next half-century.

The remaining three films offer more in-depth looks at individual musicians, starting with Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, a 1988 documentary about the pianist and composer that was directed by Charlotte Zwerin.

Next up, you can see Ornette: Made In America, director Shirley Clarke's 1985 film about saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the opening of the Caravan of Dreams performance center in Fort Worth, TX.

Last but not least, it's Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, director Robert Mugge's look at the pianist, bandleader, and cosmic philosopher that was released in 1980.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

It's been a week of various difficulties, technical and otherwise, here at StLJN HQ, but even though this post may be a bit later than usual, you'll still want to check out these short news items and assorted links from the past few days:

* According to posts this week on social media, bassist David Troncoso died on Monday, July 11 of complications from cancer. He was 70 years old.

Originally from Montebello, CA, Troncoso (pictured) was known particularly for his expertise in Latin jazz, but he played with a variety of St. Louis musicians and bands, as well as with nationally and internationally known performers including Carmen McRae, Peter Nero, Eddie Cano, Bobby Hutcherson, Clare Fischer, Nino Tempo, and more.

In addition to earning wide respect for his musical skills, Troncoso also is being remembered as a devoted dad, friend, and animal lover with a sharp sense of humor. No memorial service will be held, but according to his son Dave "Don Tron" Troncoso, plans for a musical "celebration of life" will be announced at a later date. Our condolences go out to David Troncoso's family, friends and musical associates.

* Jazz St. Louis' Gene Dobbs Bradford will lead a "Jazz History Ride" being offered to local bicycle enthusiasts tomorrow by Trailnet. The tour of "local jazz landmarks" starts at 10 a.m.; for details and last-minute registration info, go here.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake was the subject of a brief feature story in SF Weekly previewing an upcoming gig in the Bay Area. .

* Saxophonist Eric Person and his band Meta-Four have booked a return appearance at NYC's Blue Note Jazz Club on Monday, September 19.

* Pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio Network has announced the pending release of yet another jazz education course on video, "Fundamentals of Jazz Trumpet" as taught by Sean Jones.

Site news: Stormy weather

Due to heavy storms on Wednesday afternoon in the St. Louis area, StLJN HQ has been offline for the past 24 hours.

Now that everything seems to be working again, regular blogging, Tweeting, Facebook posting, and so on will resume shortly...

Dweezil Zappa to perform Thursday, October 13 at The Ready Room

Guitarist Dweezil Zappa is returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, October 13 at The Ready Room.

His tour this year will feature music from and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Freak Out, the 1966 debut album by his father, the late guitarist and composer Frank Zappa.

However, since Dweezil (pictured), who is Frank's eldest son, has been involved in a legal battle with his three siblings over use of the Zappa name, his band can no longer use the moniker Zappa Plays Zappa, which they've toured under since 2006.

As a result, this year's series of shows is being billed as “50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever The F@%k He Wants — The Cease and Desist Tour.”

Tickets for Dweezil Zappa at the Ready Room are priced from $25 to $50, and will go on sale at noon this Friday, July 15 via ticketfly.com.

Miles on Monday: Betty Davis' lost sessions released, reissue news, and more

With no post here last Monday due to the Independence Day holiday, here's an extra-large serving of Miles Davis news from the last two weeks:

* Perhaps the biggest story of the fortnight involving the trumpeter was the news that a set of previously unreleased recording sessions he produced for his ex-wife, singer Betty Davis, has been issued as Betty Davis: The Columbia Years 1968-1969 by the label Light In The Attic Records.

Co-produced by Davis and his longtime collaborator Teo Macero, the album (pictured) features much of the band that would appear a couple of years later on Davis' album Bitches Brew, including guitarist John McLaughlin, keyboardist Herbie Hancock, bassist Harvey Brooks, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and organist Larry Young, plus two of Jimi Hendrix' musical associates, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox.

Press coverage of the release has been extensive, with stories and reviews appearing everywhere from NPR to the alt-rock magazine Pitchfork to AllAboutJazz.com.

* Meanwhile, a box set of Davis' own music, Miles Davis At Newport 1955–1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4, was named the winner in the Historical Album category of the 2016 DownBeat Critics Poll.

* The recent reissue of Davis' album Agharta on LP by the label Music on Vinyl was reviewed by London Jazz News.

* Also in London, theater artist Robert Lepage's performance piece Needles and Opium, a surreal meditation from 1991 about Miles Davis, Jean Cocteau and various types of addiction, was revived for a production at the Barbican that featured actor Wellesley Robertson III as Davis.

* Also revived is Elevator to the Gallows, the 1958 Louis Malle film that features a soundtrack by Davis, as a newly restored version will be shown next month at Film Forum in New York City in advance of a potential wider release.

* In other Davis-on-film news, Elmore magazine reviewed Everything's Beautiful, keyboardist Robert Glasper's tribute to Davis that serves as a companion piece to his work on the score for Don Cheadle's movie Miles Ahead; and the Massillon, OH Independent ran a feature story about the experiences of an local Davis fan who worked as an extra on the film, which was shot in Cincinnati. Miles Ahead comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, July 19.

* Last but not least, "Miles in May," an episode of All Music Television's program The Jazz Creative recorded earlier this year in Los Angeles and featuring Glasper and multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, has been posted online, and can been seen in the embedded video window below.

Music Education Monday: A Q&A session with saxophonist Jimmy Heath

A lesson needn't be formal to be valuable, and so in that spirit, today for Music Education Monday here's a video of the veteran saxophonist Jimmy Heath (pictured) answering questions posed by high school students from the Tucson Jazz Institute's ensemble devoted to the music of Duke Ellington.

Posted in May of this year, the footage was shot for Passing the Torch, an upcoming documentary film about Heath by Bret Primack, aka the Jazz Video Guy. (You can find out more about the film, and if you like, contribute to its crowd-funding campaign, here.)

Heath, named an NEA Jazz Master in 2003, is a Philadelphia native and is part of a family of professional musicians that also includes his brothers, the late bassist Percy Heath of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath; and his son, the percussionist and producer James "Mtume" Forman.

He's been involved in jazz education since the 1980s, when he joined the faculty and helped create the jazz program at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in the City University of New York. And as one of the few surviving musicians from the post-World War II bebop era, he's got a lifetime of fascinating experiences to share with students.

Born in 1926, Heath was rejected by the draft board in WWII for being underweight, and instead began working in the music business. Originally an alto saxophonist, he performed around Philadelphia with the Nat Towles band in 1945 and '46, then formed his own group, which lasted until 1949. Heath's big band included at various times future jazz luminaries such as saxophonists John Coltrane and Benny Golson, trumpeters Cal Massey and Johnny Coles, pianist Ray Bryant, and more, but never released any recordings.

Nicknamed "Little Bird" during this period, Heath switched to tenor saxophone in the late 1940s to try to downplay frequent comparisons with Charlie Parker. As fate would have it, though, he wound up dissolving his own band to work with Parker's most famous collaborator, Dizzy Gillespie, forming a friendship that would last for decades.

Health also played briefly with Miles Davis in 1959 after Coltrane left Davis' band, and over the years has performed with many other well-known jazz musicians including Kenny Dorham, Gil Evans, Milt Jackson, Art Farmer, and more. Contemporary listeners may know him best for his work in the Heath Brothers, a band he formed in 1975 with his brothers and pianist Stanley Cowell that has continued as a working unit into the present day.

You can see Heath's Q&A session with the Tucson students in the embedded video window below. As a bonus, after the jump you can see another video in which Heath drops some wisdom, talking in 2011 to Jazz Times magazine about why the great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster when working up new material always learned the lyrics as well as the music.

Sunday Session: July 10, 2016

Tyshawn Sorey

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Photos: DC Jazz Festival - Kamasi, Cécile, Revive, Marquis Hill and more perform (Jazz Times)
* Corea and Friends Take Part in Multi-Generational Tribute to Tyner (DownBeat)
* Jazz Legend Charlie Parker’s Mystery Music Uncovered (The Daily Beast)
* Live Springsteen: The Floodgates Have Opened (No Depression)
* Sony Music Tricked Michael Jackson Fans Into Buying Fake CDs (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Today In History – July 3, 1969: Newport Jazz Fest Experiments With Rock Music (What's Up Newport)
* Irvin Mayfield resigns as director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (Offbeat)
* Irvin Mayfield resigns from New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Hear Electronic Ladyland, a Mixtape Featuring 55 Tracks from 35 Pioneering Women in Electronic Music (OpenCulture.com)
* How Jazz-Loving Teenagers–the Swingjugend–Fought the Hitler Youth and Resisted Conformity in Nazi Germany (OpenCulture.com)
* BadBadNotGood: making jazz hip (hop) again (The Guardian UK)
* Critic's Notebook: Who Will Write the First Great Rock 'n' Roll TV Drama? (Hollywood Reporter)
* The Long Play: The Death and Resurrection of the Pop Album (ThirdBridgeCreative.com)
* Carl Allen: Learning From the Giants (Modern Drummer)
* 10 Cutting-Edge Artists That Have Captured the Imagination Mid-Year (WQXR)
* JALC Announces 2016 Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Inductees (Jazz Times)
* Iyer, Sorey, Crump Rekindle Bonds at Chicago’s Constellation (DownBeat)
* Beyond “La Bamba”: Los Lobos is the best rock band nobody’s listening to (A.V. Club)
* Review: Steps Ahead at Ronnie Scott's (Jazz Journal UK)
* Bayou Maharaja: James Booker, the tragic genius of New Orleans (The Independent UK)
* Is jazz entering a new golden age? (The Guardian UK)
* Inside the Oldest Labor Union for Black Musicians (Atlas Obscura)
* Benny Golson Remembers John Coltrane (Jazz Times)
* Kansas City Union, Home to Bird and Basie, Plans Centennial Celebration (DownBeat)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: 2016 St. Louis Cabaret Festival

This week, it's time to take a look at some of the performers who will part of the 2016 St. Louis Cabaret Festival, which will feature performances by touring headliners on Wednesday, July 20; Thursday, July 21; and Friday, July 22 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

(A final performance on Sunday, July 24 at the Ferring Jazz Bistro will showcase participants from the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, an annual week-long event that encompasses the festival as well as daily educational programming for both aspiring and experienced cabaret performers, professional development, networking, and more.)

This year's festival will feature return appearances by several performers who have been well-received in years past, including longtime St. Louis favorite Ann Hampton Callaway and Kansas native Marilyn Maye, the amazingly spry 88-year-old who's been called the "grande dame of cabaret." They'll both be featured along with pianists Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth on Thursday night's show, titled "Marilyn Maye and her Piano Men".

Also returning for an encore appearance will be Broadway star Faith Prince, who was part of the event in 2014. This year, she'll team up with singer and actor Jason Graae on Wednesday night for "The Prince and the Showboy," which they first did together in 2012 in New York City.

New to the event in 2016 is singer and pianist Tony DeSare, who will be featured on Friday night. Though this is his first year as part of the Cabaret Festival, DeSare has played in St. Louis before, in 2007 at the Bistro and in 2011 at the Sheldon. You can see him in the first video up above, singing "Baby Dream Your Dream," a song from the Broadway musical Sweet Charity, at a gig in March of this year in Las Vegas.

After the jump, you can see DeSare performing his original song "Chemistry" in a recording made at the same Las Vegas gig.

Below that, there are a couple of examples of impromptu interaction between Ann Hampton Callaway and Marilyn Maye, as they're featured in two audience-made clips (one from 2010, the other undated) improvising a bit of blues and playing around with "Our Love Is Here To Stay".

(For more videos of Maye and Callaway, together and separately, plus a clip of Billy Stritch, see StLJN's preview of the 2014 fest. There also are a couple of nice clips of Maye in the preview post from 2015.)

You'll also find a couple of videos of Faith Prince in that 2014 post, and you can see her and Jason Graae in today's fifth clip, which excerpts from and promotes the NYC run of "The Prince and the Showboy".

Last but not least, the sixth and final video features Tedd Firth playing a solo piano version of "When A Woman Loves A Man," a song recorded by both Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, as well as many others.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Femi Kuti was interviewed by writer Dan Durchholz for a Post-Dispatch story previewing Kuti's performance Saturday night at the Ready Room.

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn, originally from East St. Louis and now living in Atlanta, will release his latest recording The Sirius Mystery on Friday, August 12. According to a news release, the album (pictured) blends jazz with "EDM, American Trap, African Drums, Dub Step and Charlie Parker improvisation in a four movement suite that is inspired by and based on the “mythology” of the Dogon Tribe of Mali." A single from the album, "Sirius B (The Unseen Absolute)", already is available online.

* Meanwhile, singer and St. Louis native Lynne Fiddmont has released online the first single from her upcoming album, a cover of the Gamble and Huff song "Groovy People".  The song, first made famous in 1976 by Lou Rawls, will be included on Fiddmont's forthcoming CD Power of Love.

* A feature story on St. Louis Public Radio looked at Forest Park's new artist residency program, which this year included The 442s.

* Speaking of St. Louis Public Radio, the station has a new arts and culture editor, David Cazares, who comes to our town via Minnesota Public Radio, the NPR affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. An avowed jazz fan, Cazares has gone public with an appeal to St. Louisans, inviting listeners to offer their input on the sort of arts coverage they'd like to hear.

* You can get a close-up look at the Fox Theatre's recently opened Curtain Call Lounge, which is featuring live jazz and cabaret performances on select nights, via this article from the firm that designed the space.

* Pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio Network has announced another new jazz education course available via online video, a "brand new" edition of drummer Gregory Hutchinsons's "Hutchology" offering "fresh content weekly, new studio recorded lessons, exclusive quick tips and more."

Jazz this week: Femi Kuti and Positive Force, "Jazz in July" begins, and more

As mid-summer weekends go, this isn't an especially busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, but there still are a number of noteworthy performances worth seeking out over the next few days, including the return of a popular free summer concert series and a rare visit from one of the best-known Afrobeat musicians in the world. Let's go the highlights...

Thursday, July 7
The Liberation Organ Trio will open this year's Jazz at Holmes series of free "Jazz in July" concerts at Washington University. (Note that the summer series will be presented in a different location, the Tisch Commons in Danforth University Center, with an earlier start time than the Jazz at Holmes shows presented during the school year.)

Also tonight, guitarist Dave Black, singer Feyza Eren and friends perform at Nathalie's, and pianist Ptah Williams and guitarist Eric Slaughter will be holding forth in their usual Thursday night spot at The Dark Room.

Friday, July 8
Singer Eve Seltzer returns to Evangeline's; the Original Knights of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and roots-rock/Americana band the Brothers Lazaroff will make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro in the first of two nights of performances at that venue. They'll be offering new arrangements of their material that have been expanded to accommodate a roster of guest soloists including saxophonist Ben Reece and trumpeter Adam Hucke.

Saturday, July 9
On Saturday afternoon, singer Wendy Gordon and friends will return for another matinee performance at J&C BBQ & Blues, and saxophonists Jeffrey Collins and Jessica Knopf, aka the Atlas Saxophone Duo, will present a free performance and workshop at Saxquest.

Saturday night, singer and actor Ben Watts, who's moving to NYC, will give his final cabaret performance locally before departing at The Emerald Room at The Monocle; and multi-instrumentalist Femi Kuti (pictured), the son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and his band Positive Force will be in town for a performance at The Ready Room. For some video samples of Kuti and Positive Force in action, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Sunday, July 10
Miss Jubilee returns to perform for brunch at Evangeline's; and Sound Unlimited continues their Sunday night residency at Frederick’s Steakhouse and Pizzeria.

Monday, July 11
Percussionist Joe Pastor and the St. Louis Legacy Ensemble will perform at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, July 12
The loosely organized collective of musician involved with the the new CD New Music/Free Improv Live at the Tavern of Fine Arts will hold a CD release event for the album at Jackson Pianos in the Central West End.

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.)