Pollstar: Poncho Sanchez to perform Monday, March 20 & Tuesday, March 21 at Jazz at the Bistro

This just in: Two online sources are reporting that master conguero Poncho Sanchez and his Latin jazz band will be returning to St. Louis to perform on Monday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

While these dates have not been announced officially yet by Jazz St. Louis, as of early Tuesday morning they're now listed by the online tour information provider Pollstar and as part of the tour schedule on Sanchez' website.

Given Pollstar's general near-100% reliability plus confirmation from Sanchez, presumably there will be an announcement from JSL any time now confirming the shows, with information on ticket prices and an on-sale date. If and when that announcement comes, this post will be updated.

Sanchez (pictured) last performed in St. Louis in November 2015, doing a four-night run at the Bistro. His most recent album Live in Hollywood was released in 2012.

UPDATE, 2:00 p.m., 3/1/17: Sanchez' show was announced officially in the Jazz St. Louis marketing email that went out today. Tickets are $40, $10 for students, and are on sale now.

New book by St. Louisan Paul Steinbeck tells history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago

Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, a new book by St. Louis bassist and educator Paul Steinbeck, has been published by The University of Chicago Press.

Generally considered one of the most important small groups of the creative music movement that began in the 1960s, the Art Ensemble originally spun off from saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell's sextet, which was made up of musicians who were part of Chicago's storied Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Released in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Art Ensemble's founding, Message to our Folks is touted by its publisher as "the definitive study of the Art Ensemble," and Mitchell has called the book "more than we could have hoped for, telling the complete history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago in careful, engaging detail.”

"The book tells the complete history of the band, from its founding in 1966 to its final performances in the 2010s," said Steinbeck, who is an assistant professor of music theory at Washington University and plays bass with the STL Free Jazz Collective, in an email to StLJN. "Message to Our Folks also closely examines some of the group's best performances."

(At this point, it's worth noting that though born and based in the Windy City, the AEC also featured two St. Louis natives in important roles: original drummer Phillip Wilson, who left the group after one album to join the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and was replaced by Famoudou Don Moye; and trumpeter Lester Bowie, another co-founder who would remain with the band until his death in 1999.)

The book (pictured) can be purchased directly from the University of Chicago Press; from booksellers everywhere, including St. Louis' Left Bank Books and the bookstore at Washington University; and in digital form from ebook vendors such as Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Google Play, and Kobo.

Big Sam's Funky Nation headlining Schlafly Tap Room festival on Saturday, March 11

New Orleans sensation Big Sam’s Funky Nation is returning to St. Louis to play at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 11 at the Schlafly Tap Room.

The free performance will be part of the Tap Room's annual Stout and Oyster Festival, and will cap a two-day event also featuring sets by the Funky Butt Brass Band and others.

Led by trombonist "Big Sam" Williams, the Funky Nation (pictured) has been visiting St. Louis at fairly regular intervals in recent years, and last performed here in August 2016 at the Broadway Oyster Bar. Shortly before that show, they were named “Best Band In New Orleans” by the local magazine Where Y’At in the publication's 19th annual writer’s poll.

Williams, a great-grandson of legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden, 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 check out some videos of Big Sam's Funky Nation in action via this post that ran on StLJN before their last gig here.

"Sculptures in Sound" series launching Saturday, March 4 at St. Louis Artists' Guild

The St. Louis Artists' Guild has announced a new concert series of jazz and creative music called "Sculptures in Sound."

The series, curated by saxophonist and educator Christopher Braig, will begin with a concert featuring trombonist Michael Vlatkovich at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, March 4 at the Artists' Guild, 12 N Jackson Ave in Clayton.

A St. Louis native who moved to Los Angeles in 1973, Vlatkovich (pictured) has toured extensively in the USA, Canada and Europe, and has worked as a collaborator and sideman with a variety of singers and instrumentalists, including Vinny Golia, Peggy Lee, Brian Setzer, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Bryan Adams, Bobby Bradford, Gerry Hemingway, and Rob Blakeslee.

Though he's played jazz, rock, pop and world music, and can be heard on a number of film and TV soundtracks, Vlatkovich's own music emphasizes free improvisation, working in formats including solo performance, in a duo with poet Dorothea Grossman, and leading a trio or quartet.

For his St. Louis show, Vlatkovich will be joined by Braig and fellow St. Louis saxophonist Jay Hutson. And while he's here, the trombonist also will present a free, public open rehearsal and masterclass starting at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, March 3 at the Artists' Guild.

Subsequent concerts in the "Sculptures in Sound" series will feature performances by trumpeter Keith Moyer's quintet on Saturday, April 1, and Christopher Braig's Aboriginal Quartet with trumpeter Pat Harbison on Saturday, May 6.

Single tickets for any of the concerts in the series are $25 for general admission and a CD; $15 for general admission only; or $10 for students with ID, and can be purchased online or at the door. Series tickets are available for $40 for all three concerts, or $70 for three concerts plus three CDs.

Sunday Session: February 26, 2017

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

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

* How Hans Zimmer Became a Rock Star (The Atlantic)
* Larry Coryell Dies at 73 (Jazz Times)
* Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Reunite in the Studio (Pitchfork.com)
* The American Beat of Bobby Lloyd Hicks (DaveHoekstra.com)
* Learn About Early Audiovisual Art With 10 Pioneering Works (ElectronicBeats.net)
* Tulane archive gets piece of jazz history (Tulane.edu)
* Going Deep (Oxford American)
* What Do Actual L.A. Jazz Musicians Think of La La Land's Portrayal of L.A. Jazz? (LA Weekly)
* Alt.Latino Explores Afro-Latin Music For Black History Month (NPR)
* John Coltrane's 'Interstellar Space' at 50: Legacy of a Free-Jazz Masterpiece (Rolling Stone)
* How the Doctor Who theme reveals our deepest fears about space (BBC)
* Q&A with Anoushka Shankar: Spirit of Collaboration (DownBeat)
* Jazz in the digital age: Tools for exploring the music (San Jose Mercury News)
* Listen: Preservation Hall Jazz Band Doubles Down On Afro-Cuban Connection (NPR)
* Portland Jazz Fest Grooves to Fascinating Rhythms (DownBeat)
* Joshua Bell: VR could popularize classical music (USA Today)
* Welcome to the Jazzless Age: Change in New York Times coverage spells trouble for a scene (Salon.com)
* The Rhythm Changes: Kamasi Washington Interviewed (ClashMusic.com)
* A Jazz Fact Check Of 'La La Land' (NPR)
* THEFT: A History of Music (Boing Boing)
* A New Documentary Explores The Troubled, Brilliant Life Of Pianist Bill Evans (NPR)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Clayton Brothers Quintet

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring members of the Clayton Brothers Quintet, who will be performing in St. Louis starting next Monday, March 1 through Saturday, March 4 at Jazz at the Bistro.

With a crisp, hard-bop sound evoking memories of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's classic quintet and any number of vintage Blue Note recordings, the group is led by bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and also includes John's son Gerald Clayton on piano, drummer Obed Calvaire, and trumpeter Terell Stafford.

The brothers also co-lead the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra with drummer Jeff Hamilton, a bifurcation of musical efforts that began years ago when the brothers mutually agreed to support each others' preferred musical format. As recounted in their Wikipedia entry, "Jeff's love of small groups lead to formation of the Clayton Brothers Quintet," while John's preference for big bands led to formation of the CHJO.

After more than three decades, the orchestra may have a higher public profile, thanks in no small part to having recorded and performed with popular guests such as John Pizzarelli and Diana Krall, but the quintet has put out eight albums since 1980 - the most recent of which, Soul Brothers, came out last spring - and earned generally good notices for them.

Still, for a group that's been around that long, and that even has earned Grammy nominations for a couple of their recordings, there seems to be relatively little video of them available online, while clips of the big band proliferate.. Nevertheless, StLJN has managed to unearth a few videos of the quintet in action previously unseen here, starting with the first clip up above, an excerpt from their show at the 2012 Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival.

After the jump, you can see excerpts from two more performances from around that time, recorded in October 2012 at the BMW Jazz Festival in São Paulo, Brazil and at Dizzy's Club in Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC.

Below that, you can check out solo improvisations from the two Clayton brothers, as John Clayton plays a solo version "If I Were a Rich Man" in April, 2015 at the University of New Hampshire, and Jeff plays a free-form solo while guesting with the Stanford University jazz orchestra in 2011.

The sixth and final video is an interview with the Clayton brothers recorded in 2011 for the web series The Pace Report.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Jeanne Trevor (pictured) and pianist Dave Venn's gig Saturday night at Jazz at the Bistro was touted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com columnist Joe Holleman.

* Elsewhere in the P-D, theater critic Judith Newmark reviewed Max and Louie Productions' staging of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, which continues through Saturday, March 4 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* DK Annex, the business incubator and event space recently opened by drummer James Jackson and his wife Kristy, was spotlighted this week in the St. Louis American.

* The latest episode of pianist Peter Martin's podcast "The Process" features a chat with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and singer Kurt Elling.

* Also on the podcast front, drummer Dave Weckl is interviewed on a recent episode of DrumTalk.

* Electronic musician Eric Hall has released a new recording featuring guest musicians from the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, with proceeds benefiting the American Civil Liberties Union.

Jazz this week: Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge, Jay Oliver, Jazz St. Louis gala, and more

With a forecast for spring-like weather in the offing, it should be a good weekend to get out and hear some live music in St. Louis.

However, if you're headed down to the annual Mardi Gras parade on Saturday, don't expect to find much jazz or blues among the musical options.

With the notable exception of the Funky Butt Brass Band, who will make appearances at the Mayor's Ball on Friday night, at the parade tent in Soulard on Saturday afternoon, and at the Old Rock House on Saturday, the corporate-dominated event unfortunately continues to rely mostly on DJs and rock cover bands, ignoring the genres most associated with Mardi Gras in the popular imagination.

That said, if you want to find some live jazz around St. Louis this week, you're in the right place. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 22
Guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge (pictured, top left) will play a duo show at Off Broadway (relocated from the originally announced venue, the Old Rock House).

Known individually for their work in jazz (Lage) and bluegrass (Eldridge), the two joined forces a few years back for an album, and have continued the project with intermittent touring between their commitments to other bands.

Now, with a new record, Mount Royal, set for release on Friday, they're doing a series of live dates in support of the release. For more about that, and some video samples of them in action, see this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Wednesday, trumpeter Rob Endicott leads a quintet in the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Thursday, 
February 23
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a performance by keyboardist and St. Louis native Jay Oliver (pictured, center left), accompanied by bassist/guitarist William Lenihan and drummer Steve Davis.

A childhood friend of Dave Weckl, Oliver was a member of Weckl's band in the 1990s, recording four albums with the drummer, but he's had his greatest commercial successes as a producer, programmer and songwriter for rock acts including Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Buffett and the Eagles.

More recently, Oliver's "world music" project Aomusic has released four albums of original compositions and also created theme music for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Given all the time he spends in the recording studio, this show should give Oliver a good opportunity to cut loose in a live situation, and given his hometown connection, there should be a good turnout. (Note that while most Jazz at Holmes shows are free, this show will have a $10 admission charge at the door.)

Also on Thursday, the Funky Butt Brass Band kicks off Mardi Gras weekend with an early evening show at Blues City Deli; saxophonist Jason Swagler will be giving his faculty recital at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus in Edwardsville, and saxophonist Dave Stone's trio will play at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, February 24
Jazz St. Louis holds their annual fundraising gala at the Sheldon Concert Hall, featuring a cocktail hour, dinner and auction; a concert from teenage piano phenom Joey Alexander's trio; and an after-party with music from singer Denise Thimes. Some tickets for Alexander's concert may still be available via Metrotix; for ticket availability for the gala, check with the Jazz St. Louis box office.

Also on Friday, percussionist Henry Claude will perform at the 560 Music Center, joined by the Vernacular String Trio, Perihelion Quartet, and trumpeter George Sams; singer Feyza Eren's quartet will play a free show at the St. Louis Art Museum; and vibraphonist Tom Rickard's trio returns to the Cigar Inn.

Saturday, February 25
Two veteran local musicians whose careers stretch back to the Gaslight Square era, pianist Dave Venn and singer Jeanne Trevor, will take the stage for one night only at Jazz at the Bistro; pianist Greg Mills will present new compositions for solo piano at  Jackson Pianos; and Miss Jubilee will perform at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton.

Sunday, February 26
The Folk School of KDHX presents a traditional jazz jam session; and the Ambassadors of Swing return for an early evening performance at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

Monday, February 27
Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck.

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.)

Sunday Session: February 19, 2017

Clyde Stubblefield

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

* Why Music Ownership Matters (TheSmartSet.com)
* Vocalist Al Jarreau Dies at 76 (Jazz Times)
* The Great Al Jarreau, An Appreciation (with Rare Photos) (EurWeb.com)
* Black Classical: Composers and Conductors Who Shaped Music History (WQXR)
* Scofield, Nash, Collier Win Big at Grammys (DownBeat)
* The Audiographa Project Captures the Compositions of Music (Design-Milk.com)
* Christoph Cox on The History of Sound Art, Full Lecture (SonicField.org)
* Doctor Who composer Delia Derbyshire’s archive to be digitized (FactMag.com)
* 'Game Of Thrones' Composer Ramin Djawadi On Melodies That Stick (NPR)
* Keith Jarrett: Alone in a Crowded Room (Jazz Times)
* Jarrett’s Profoundly Emotional Excursion at Carnegie Hall (DownBeat)
* Why happy music makes you do bad things (BBC)
* 'Respect' Wasn't A Feminist Anthem Until Aretha Franklin Made It One (NPR)
* Bill Evans on meeting Miles (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Drum Legend Jack DeJohnette Returns to Austin (Austin Chronicle)
* Master blaster: the woman making Björk, Aphex Twin and Eno sound so good (The Guardian)
* The Man Who Broke Ticketmaster (Vice.com)
* Sound and Space: Our Acoustic Perception of the World (TheEpochTimes.com)
* Ohio Players Founder, Junie Morrison, Dead At 62 (OkayPlayer.com)
* Free Jazz Pianist Muhal Richard Abrams Brings 70 Years Of Sounds To Wesleyan (Hartford Courant)
* A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music (Pitchfork.com)
* Indian Secrets: Old and new Mardi Gras Indian traditions face off (Offbeat)
* Mick Jagger wrote a 'masterpiece' memoir that has never been published (The Guardian)
* All-Star Band Hudson To Release Album, Tour North America (DownBeat)
* The Thinning of Big Mama (Oxford American)
* Q&A with Matthew Shipp: On Home Turf (DownBeat)
* Moog are the music makers: Inside the small town factory that builds the world’s best-loved synths (FactMag.com)
* Clyde Stubblefield, James Brown's 'Funky Drummer,' Dead at 73 (Rolling Stone)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge

With appearances here this week by both Mike Stern and Ralph Towner, it's already been a good month in St. Louis for fans of jazz guitar, and it's not over yet.

Guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge, who will perform next Wednesday, February 22 at Off Broadway, may operate in a very different stylistic realm than either Stern or Towner, but their skills are equally worthy of attention from serious guitar enthusiasts. .

Lage, 29 years old, was a child phenom who's been in the public eye since he was the subject of the 1997 documentary Jules at Eight. A graduate of Berklee School of Music, he has recorded four albums as a leader, the most recent being Arclight, released last year on Mack Avenue.

In addition to his own group and his duo project with Eldridge, Lage also works with bands led by vibraphonist Gary Burton and drummer Eric Harland, and has been heard on recordings by Burton, Harland, pianist Taylor Eigsti, saxophonist Dayna Stephens, guitarist Nels Cline, and others.

Eldridge, 34, is the son of noted bluegrass guitarist Ben Eldridge, and is best known as a member of the eclectic acoustic band the Punch Brothers, who blend bluegrass with rock, classical and extended forms.

He began his music career working with his dad's band The Seldom Scene, and after attending Oberlin University, helped found the bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. Originally begun in 2006 as a side project for Eldridge and mandolinist Chris Thile, the Punch Brothers eventually turned into a full-time band, and have released six albums on the Nonesuch label.

Lage and Eldridge released their first recording as a duo in 2013 and as their schedules permit have continued to play live dates intermittently since then, blending genres in an all-acoustic presentation that draws on material ranging from honky-tonk country and bluegrass to jazz and pop standards to original compositions.

In the first clip up top, you can see Lage and Eldridge performing "Bone Collector" from their second album Mount Royal, which will be released next Friday, February 24 on Free Dirt Records.

After the jump, there's a video of them playing "Butter and Eggs" and "For Critter" as recorded in September 2016 at Flathead Lake in Montana, followed by a clip of "Whiskey Before Breakfast," which was recorded October 30, 2016 at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.

The next video features a version of "Mean Mother Blues" recorded in November, 2015 at the first-ever Fretboard Summit in Santa Cruz, California. The final two clips are "Ginseng Sullivan," from August 2013 at the Loveless Cafe in Nashville, and "Someone To Watch Over Me" from January, 2014 at the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA.

For more about the Lage/Eldridge duo, check out their 2013 chat with Fretboard Journal, and the 2014 review of their live show by Alec Wilkinson of The New Yorker. For more about their new album and another sample track, see the recent short feature about them from American Songwriter.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

After an extended hiatus, yr. StLJN editor is pleased to once again be able to offer a wrap-up of the week's assorted links and short news items of local interest:

 * Trumpeter Nate Wooley talked with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson about his performance with electronic musician Ikue Mori tomorrow night at The Luminary.

* Abdul Hamid Royal, pianist and music director for the production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill playing through March 4 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, was interviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

The play-with-music by Lanie Robertson recounts the story of singer Billie Holiday using one of her nightclub performances as a framing device, and stars Alexis J. Roston (pictured) as Holiday. Roston and Royal also spoke with St. Louis magazine's Rosalind Early for a brief feature story, which you can read here.

* The Dark Room's new space at the Grandel Theatre, which opens for business next week, was the subject of a feature by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson

* The website St. Louis Musicians Unite has compiled Spotify playlists of local music by genre, including a playlist for St. Louis jazz artists. You can see all the lists here.

* Organizers of the Hermann Wine and Jazz Festival have announced their date and lineup for this year. The 2017 event will be held on Saturday, August 19 at the Clara Eitmann Messmer Ampitheater in Hermann, and will feature music from Funky Butt Brass Band, Bach to the Future, The People's Key, singer/songwriter Sean Coray, and the Nick Savage Quintet.

* Speaking of the Funky Butt Brass Band, they have just recorded a version of "St. Louis Blues" and posted it to BandCamp, with the proceeds from downloads of the song going to support "Blues For Kids," the charity organization of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. You can get a copy and support the cause here.

Jazz this week: Mike Stern & Kimberly Thompson, George Sams, Ralph Towner, Ikue Mori & Nate Wooley, Russell Gunn, and more

As you might be able to deduce from looking at the headline for this post, it's very busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis.

Over the next few days, there will be a plethora of visiting performers on local stages, plus the opening of a play about one of the most famous jazz singers ever, free master classes from two guitar greats, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 15
Guitarist Mike Stern performs for the first of four nights continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro, joined by drummer Kimberly Thompson, saxophonist Bob Franceschini, and bassist Teymur Phell.

It's been nearly seven years since Stern (pictured, top left) last headlined a show at the Bistro, and with St. Louis native Thompson on the gig, demand for tickets should be brisk, so advance reservations are strongly recommended.

Also on Wednesday, Cabaret St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at The Emerald Room at The Monocle.

Thursday,
February 16
On Thursday afternoon, Mike Stern will present a free jazz guitar clinic sponsored by Mozingo Music at Lindenwood University's J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts.

Thursday evening, trumpeter George Sams (pictured, center left) will perform for the "Not So Quiet" concert series at the St. Louis Public Library's main location downtown with a group including poet Shirley LeFlore, percussionist Henry Claude, cellist Tracy Andreotti, and violinist Alyssa Avery.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's; and the first preview performance of Max and Louie Productions' staging of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, the Tony Award-winning play-with-music about Billie Holiday, will be presented at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

The show, which features Chicago-based actress and singer Alexis J. Roston reprising her award-winning performance as Holiday, opens officially on Friday night and continues through Saturday, March 4.

Friday, February 17
Friday afternoon, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a "Symposium on the Music of Ralph Towner" with Towner, William Lenihan and Steve Schenkel at the Goldberg Formal Lounge in the Danforth University Center on the Wash U campus.

That evening, funk legends Tower of Power will perform at River City Casino. Although drummer David Garibaldi and substitute bassist Marc Van Wageningen are still recovering from serious injuries suffered in an accident before a gig last month in Oakland, TOP's current tour is continuing, with original bassist Francis "Rocco" Prestia back on the bandstand and former drummer Herman Matthews, who played with the group for several years in the 1990s, filling in for Garibaldi.

Also on Friday, trumpeter Byron Stripling will be guest soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as they present their Black History Month program "Lift Every Voice and Sing," at Powell Symphony Hall.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley returns to Evangeline's; trumpeter Kasimu Taylor and pianist Ptah Williams perform duets at Thurman's in Shaw; and Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, 
February 18
New Music Circle presents electronic musician Ikue Mori and trumpeter Nate Wooley at The Luminary.

For more about that, and some videos of Mori and Wooley (pictured, bottom left) in performance, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, the Jazz at Holmes series presents a solo concert by Ralph Towner at 560 Music Center. Towner has just released a new album of solo guitar performances, and you can read more about that and see and hear some videos of him in this post from a couple of weeks ago.

Sunday, February 19
Trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, now living in Atlanta, will be back home to headline Community Women Against Hardship's "Black History Benefit" at Jazz at the Bistro, accompanied by pianist Adam Maness, singer Anita Jackson, bassist Jeff Anderson and drummer Montez Coleman.

Also on Sunday afternoon, St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Bob Row and friends at the Elks Lodge #9 in Creve Coeur.

Monday, February 20
Webster University Jazz Collective will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

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.)

St. Louis jazz at the 2017 Grammys

Although the contributions of St. Louis jazz musicians may not have been explicitly acknowledged by name at the 2017 Grammy Awards, the city was represented by players on at least a couple of this year's winning recordings.

Trumpeter Keyon Harrold (pictured, top left) presumably will be getting a Grammy statue for his crucial contributions to the Robert Glasper-produced soundtrack for Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead, which was the winner in the "Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media" category.

Also, his brother, drummer Emanuel Harrold, and bassist Jahmal Nichols, who's also from St. Louis, are the rhythm section for singer Gregory Porter, who won "Best Jazz Vocal Album" for his 2016 release Take Me To The Alley. Harrold performed on the Grammy-winning recording, and he and Nichols (pictured, center right) continue to tour around the world with Porter.

Finally, although there was no Grammy Award for "Best Stage Outfit Inspired By A 1970s Miles Davis Album Cover," if such an award existed, it surely would have gone to pop diva Beyonce, who (as you can see from the picture below) looked almost as if she stepped right out of the painting by artist Mati Klarwein that was used as the cover art for Davis' 1971 album Live-Evil. (Hat tip to @danieldurchholz for pointing out the resemblance.)

You can see a complete list of this year's Grammy Award winners here.

Sunday Session: February 12, 2017

Jon Hendricks

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

* Happy 30th birthday, 'world music' (PRI)
* The Enduring Mystery of Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ (Observer.com)
* THE BEAT GOES ON: New Albany jazz master Jamey Aebersold brings music to community (Jeffersonville News and Tribune)
* What if you could touch and feel a score? (CreateDigitalMusic.link)
* “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” - Classic comedy album a Firesign of the times (Boston Globe)
* 13 Musicians Influenced by Author William S. Burroughs (Paste)
* Michael Chapman: the man who connects Elton, Bowie, Nick Drake and Sonic Youth (The Guardian)
* "This is not a woman's issue' – tackling conducting's gender problem (The Guardian)
* David Axelrod, Influential Musician and Producer, Dies (Billboard)
* The Music Legal Forecast for 2017 (Vice.com)
* Review: 'Celebrate Ornette' Gives Avant-Jazz Legend an All-Star Farewell (Rolling Stone)
* Crate Diggers: Mats Gustafsson -A rare visit to the free jazz giant’s two and a half tonne vinyl cave (The VinylFactory.com)
* The tables have turned, but will vinyl’s record sales last? (TheDrum.com)
* When Discs Die (Tedium.co)
* These Seven Black Composers Made Classical Music History (Nashville Public Radio)
* The Art Ensemble Of Chicago captivate at Cafe OTO (Jazzwise)
* After 50 Years, Hendricks’ “Miles Ahead” Remake Set for NYC Premiere (DownBeat)
* Dear Creepy Men of the Music Industry, Please Stop (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The cassette revival needs blank tapes – meet the hoarders coming to the rescue (FactMag.com)
* Billboard's 2017 Power 100 List Revealed (Billboard)
* A Sonic Introduction to Avant-Garde Music: Stream 145 Minutes of 20th Century Art Music, Including Modernism, Futurism, Dadaism & Beyond (OpenCulture.com)
* Does College Radio Even Matter Anymore? (Pitchfork)
* How Railroads Influenced Jazz Music (WBUR)
* Al Jarreau: An American Original (Jazz Times)
* ‘Spine-tingling’ lost Bob Marley tapes restored after 40 years in a cellar (The Guardian)
* The Standard Bearers: In Jazz Categories, The Grammys Remain Focused On The Past (NPR)
* Spinal Tap Reunite to Sue Record Label for $400 Million (Guitar World)
* Krall Revisits Songbook on New Album, Announces World Tour (DownBeat)
* “I’ll be there”: Charlie Haden was the Tom Joad of jazz, and his Liberation Music Orchestra lives on (Salon.com)
* How 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' Became The World's First Gold Record (NPR)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Ikue Mori & Nate Wooley

This week's grab-bag of videos features electronic musician Ikue Mori and trumpeter Nate Wooley, who will be performing in a concert presented by New Music Circle next Saturday, February 18 at The Luminary.

Mori, 63, is a Japanese native who first gained recognition in the late 1970s as the drummer for the NYC-based "No Wave" band DNA. She subsequently began working with drum machines and electronics, eventually abandoning the drums entirely for a laptop computer, which remains her preferred instrument. She has collaborated live and on record with many well-known improvising musicians, including Zeena Parkins, Dave Douglas, Fred Frith, and perhaps most notably, saxophonist/composer John Zorn, with whom Mori has made 20 recordings over the last 30+ years.

Wooley, who at 43 years old is a generation younger than Mori, grew up in a small town in Oregon and moved to NYC in 2001. He has performed with Zorn, Frith, Anthony Braxton, Ken Vandermark, Evan Parker, Chris Corsano, Peter Evans, and Halvorson and numerous others, and has earned recognition for a distinctive style of solo performances informed by the relative stillness of his rural upbringing that incorporates "vocalization, extreme extended technique, noise and drone aesthetics, amplification and feedback."

Wooley also is curator of the Database of Recorded American Music and editor of Sound American, which are "dedicated to broadening the definition of American music through their online presence and the physical distribution of music through Sound American Records."

For their St. Louis show, Mori and Wooley will perform individually and as a duo. Although there doesn't seem to be any video online of previous collaborations between the two of them, you can get something of an idea of what to expect by checking out the videos below, in which both are featured performing in three different contexts.

First up is an excerpt from a show by Wooley's quartet last July at a venue called Rye Bar in Brooklyn, NYC. In addition to the leader, the band includes alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drummer Dre Hocevar.

After the jump, you can see an excerpt from a duo performance featuring Wooley and Australian-born improvising vocalist Charmaine Lee in November 2016 at Gallery 456, the venue of the Manhattan-based Chinese-American Arts Council.

Below that, you can see a solo performance by Wooley titles "For Kenneth Gaburo" recorded in January 2015 at Avant Media, which is also in Brooklyn.

The fourth clip features Ikue Mori with drummer Yoshimi Yokota from the Japanese rock band THe Boredoms and cellist Okkyung Lee performing in December 2016 at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn.

Next is an excerpt from from a show by Phantom Orchard, Mori's duo project with harpist Zeena Parkins, recorded in November 2015 at the Zorn-curated NYC performance space The Stone.

The final video is from a solo performance by Mori in 2009 at the Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria. Entitled "Nymphs, witches and fairies," it's a live realization of a soundtrack she composed for a marionette theater performance, augmented here by "film sequences," also by Ikue Mori.

For more about Ikue Mori, check out "In Conversation: Ikue Mori & Okkyung Lee," her 2012 interview with ATTN, and her interview with A Liminal, also from 2012.

For more on Nate Wooley, check out his recent interview on the website of Ars Nova Workshop, and his 2016 interviews with Point of Departure and Bandcamp.com's Bandcamp Daily.

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

Jazz this week: Bruce Barth, Erin Bode, Victor Goines, Lynne Fiddmont, and more

With some relatively mild weather in the forecast and a nice variety of performances happening over the next several days, the weekend leading up to Valentine's Day should be a good time for jazz lovers in St. Louis. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 8
Pianist Bruce Barth returns for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, leading a trio with bassist Dave Baron and St. Louis' own Montez Coleman on drums.

Barth (pictured, top left) is a jazz veteran who first gained wide attention nearly thirty years ago working with saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. Since then, in addition to a solo career yielding more than a dozen albums as a leader - the most recent being 2014's Daybreak - he's racked up a long list of credits accompanying well-known musicians and singers such as Terence Blanchard, Tony Bennett, Terell Stafford, Karrin Allyson, and many more.

Longtime local jazz fans will remember Barth as a fairly frequent visitor to St. Louis and the Bistro in the early 2000s, when he cut a couple of albums for the locally based label MAXJAZZ. More recently, he took part in the memorial concert in 2014 at the Bistro honoring Richard McDonnell, the late founder of MAXJAZZ, but it's been a few years since he's actually headlined here with his own band. St. Louis is the fourth of six cities that Barth, Baron and Coleman will visit on this winter mini-tour, so they should be firing on all cylinders when they get here.

Elsewhere around town, the new weekly jam session hosted by pianist Curt Landes, bassist Glen Smith and drummer Chuck Kennedy continues at @Nesby's in South County.

Thursday, February 9
In honor of Black History Month, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert program called "A Celebration of the Blues: From Oxford, Mississippi to Chicago" featuring Memphis-based "avant soul" singer Candice Ivory, pianist Charles Creath, guitarist Dennis Brock, bassist Paul Steinbeck, and series curator William Lenihan on guitar and/or bass.

Also on Thursday, the Jazz Troubadours perform at the Venice Cafe, and pianist Adam Maness and his trio continue their new weekly Thursday night residency at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, February 10
Singer Erin Bode will perform for the first of three Valentine's-themed nights at Jazz at the Bistro, with shows on Friday, Saturday and next Tuesday. Bode's most recent release Here and Now came out last summer, and features her interpretations of songs from writers including Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser, Rickie Lee Jones, and Gerry Rafferty. While some of that material should fit neatly into a Valentine's show, Bode likely will be reaching into her catalog of original songs as well.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham will play the first of two nights this weekend at Troy's Jazz Gallery, and saxophonist Freddie Washington will lead a trio with with drummer Jon-Marc Dale and bassist Simon Evans at Cigar Inn

Saturday, February 11
If you're up for a bit of a drive, you can catch saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines (of Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra fame) and his quintet performing at the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mt. Vernon, IL, about an hour east of St. Louis.

A bit closer to home, singer Tony Viviano will be presenting a Valentine's Day show at Patrick's Westport Grill, and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be playing hot jazz, blues and swing at Venice Cafe.

Sunday, 
February 12
Singer and St. Louis native Lynne Fiddmont (pictured, bottom left) will be back home from the West Coast for a matinee performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, showcasing material from her forthcoming album Power of Love.

Also on Sunday, the Ambassadors of Swing will play at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

Monday, February 13
Pianist Carolbeth True and her band Two Times True plus guest vocalist Erika Johnson will perform while jazz photos by St. Louis author, historian and DJ Dennis Owsley are projected overhead in Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Also on Monday, Dizzy Atmosphere will serenade diners at the Shaved Duck, and Chicago-based saxophonist Shawn Maxwell and his band New Tomorrow will play at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

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.)

Sunday Session: February 5, 2017

Maria Schneider

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

* How Chic’s ‘Good Times’ Launched Rap (Wall Street Journal)
* What would it take to make audio 'cool' again? (CNet.com)
* The story of Ash Koosha, now banned from the USA (DazedDigital.com)
* Volnovod is a robot sculpture that uses wire to make sound visually (CreateDigitalMusic.link)
* David Byrne's New Doc 'Contemporary Color' Shows Off 'Art Sport' And Indie Stars (NPR)
* From The Critic's Desk: A Preview Of 2017 In Jazz (NPR)
* Newport Jazz Festival Announces First Wave of Artists for 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Bob Dylan's New Triple Album Reimagines The Classics (NPR)
* ‘Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague’: A fanboy’s appreciation of Frank Zappa’s ‘Uncle Meat’ (DangerousMinds.net)
* Unreleased Bill Evans Trio Album To Be Released March 24 (DownBeat)
* How a pair of former Detroit Lions helped inspire one of Marvin Gaye’s most defining records (TheUndefeated.com)
* First Listen: Miguel Zenón, 'Típico' (NPR)
* Trombone Shorty Signs with Blue Note, To Release Label Debut in April (DownBeat)
* Colleagues, Collaborators Remember Michael Brecker in NYC Concert (DownBeat)
* How Embattled LA DIY Venue The Smell Is Using VR to Preserve Its Legacy (Vice.com)
* For The Last Time: Rock Is Not Dead, You’re Just Not Paying Attention (Uproxx.com)
* Is the era of weird instruments over? (Perfect Sound Forever)
* From Joni Mitchell to Laura Marling: how female troubadours changed music (The Guardian)
* Maria Schneider ‘Attacking the Data Lords’ (DownBeat)
* Is Spotify Going Bankrupt In 2017? Wall Street Delivers Another Red Flag (DigitalMusicNews.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Ralph Towner

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring guitarist Ralph Towner, who's coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series on Saturday, February 18 at the 560 Music Center.

Towner this week released a new album of solo guitar, My Foolish Heart. It's his 29th recording for the ECM label, which has put out all of his solo material since 1973.

Recorded last Feburary in Lugano, Switzerland under the supervision of ECM founder Manfred Eicher, My Foolish Heart features a mix of new compositions and older material, including two tunes originally recorded by the band Oregon (which Towner co-founded back in the early 70s) and the title track, a staple of his repertoire that he began playing after being inspired years ago by pianist Bill Evans' version.

In the first clip up above, you can hear a version of "My Foolish Heart" from a show Towner did in 2014 in London. Recorded by an audience member who seems to have been sitting in the front row, the video swoops around a bit at the start but locks in on the guitarist after a few seconds.

You can see hear more solo performances from Towner after the jump, starting with a recording of "Solitary Woman" made in 2014 at the POA Jazz Festival in Brazil.

Below that, there's a video with Towner playing "Jamaica Stopover" and "Solitary Woman" (again) in a concert in 2009 at the International Guitar festival in Uppsala, Sweden.

Moving back in time chronologically, next is a full set recorded in May 1998 at the Open Strings Festival in Osunbruck, Germany.

The last two clips, undated but perhaps from the early 1990s, feature Towner playing the standard "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and his own "Silence of a Candle," originally recorded with Oregon on their 1972 debut album Music of Another Present Era.

For more about My Foolish Heart, check out the two reviews published this week by AllAboutJazz.com and the extended take offered by Ralph A. Miriello at the Huffington Post.

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

STL Free Jazz Collective's new digital album is Live at the Ozark Theatre

The STL Free Jazz Collective has released a new digital album, Live at the Ozark Theatre, which is available now as a name-your-price download from Bandcamp.com.

As the title suggests, the recording was made at a live performance last December at the Ozark Theatre in Webster Groves.

Along with improvised music from the group's five instrumentalists, the album (pictured) includes three tracks featuring spoken word performances from St. Louis poet laureate Michael Castro, titled "We Need to Talk," "America Loves Its Guns More Than Its Children," and "St. Louis Blues Revisited."

The topical focus is no coincidence, said the group's keyboardist Jim Hegarty via email. "The message is yet again really relevant in the light of recent events," Hegarty said. "We're really into the idea of unity and we're using our music to share a vision of peace and freedom for everyone."

In addition to Hegarty and Castro, the STL Free Jazz Collective includes "Baba" Mike Nelson (trumpet, shells, percussion and vocals), Paul Steinbeck (bass), Gary Sykes (drums), and Jerome "Jay Dubz" Williams (alto sax).

Trombonist Nick Finzer to help kick off expanded Grand Center Jazz Crawl on Wednesday, March 1 at Curtain Call Lounge

Trombonist Nick Finzer and his sextet are coming to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 1 at the Curtain Call Lounge. The show will be free and open to the public.

Finzer (pictured), a native of Rochester, NY who graduated from the Juilliard School of Music and now resides in NYC, will be touring in support of his third album Hear & Now, which is set for release Friday, February 17 on his label Outside in Music.

His gig at the Curtain Call will be part of the launch that evening of a revamped Grand Center Jazz Crawl, said Robert Harris, director of communication and programs with the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, which co-sponsors the weekly event.

Harris said that, starting that evening, the expanded Jazz Crawl will add Wednesday sets from local (and, occasionally, touring) bands at the Curtain Call and a weekly swing dance event hosted by Lindy Hop St. Louis at the newly reopened Grandel Theatre.

The existing elements of the Jazz Crawl will continue as before, including a happy-hour set featuring various "vintage jazz" performers at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe; bassist Bob DeBoo's weekly jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center; trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's weekly sets at The Dark Room, newly relocated to the Grandel Theatre; and the free video simulcasts in Jazz St. Louis' first-floor lounge when there's someone playing at the Bistro. 

As for Finzer, with eight original compositions plus one song by Duke Ellington, his new album is described in promotional materials as "politically charged."

"I wanted to capture feelings I was having about our country's social framework," said Finzer in a news release. "I started out trying to write about the emotional feeling of living in New York in 2016, but as the presidential election went on I realized that the stances I was taking were more politically oriented. Throughout the process of making the record I saw that this project was becoming more and more relevant to our reality."

Along with the leader on trombone, Finzer's sextet includes tenor saxophonist/bass clarinetist Lucas Pino, guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Dave Baron, and drummer Jimmy Macbride.

Fred Tompkins releases new CD Another Place

Flute player and composer Fred Tompkins has released a new CD, Another Place, featuring eight original compositions performed by a cast of St. Louis musicians and singers.

In addition to Tompkins' work on flutes, piano, and sampler, the self-produced release (pictured) features performances from guitarists Dave Black and Lee Scott Price, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, drummers Gary Sykes, Kevin Cheli and Charlie Dent, keyboardists Jim Hegarty, Greg Mills and Henry Palkes, and singer Debby Lennon.

While most of the album was recorded in Tompkins' studio, several tracks also incorporate live improvisations from performances at the now-closed Tavern of Fine Arts.

Another Place is available as a CD from Vintage Vinyl, Euclid Records, CD Baby and Tompkins' website, and also can be purchased in digital form at iTunes, Amazon, and other online retailers.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of a new month, and so it's time to check in once again on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where each day we post an online music video, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental, and more.


The five most-watched videos added to the site last month were:

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - "A Real Mother For Ya"
Sun Ra Arkestra - Live on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert"
Duke Ellington Orchestra - "Perdido"
George Lewis & Vijay Iyer - Live at Wellesley College
Carl Perkins - "Boppin' The Blues"

Other recent posts have featured video performances from Weather Report, Donny Hathaway, Tyrone Davis, David Bowie, Joe Cuba with Cheo Feliciano, Stanley Turrentine, Robert Cray, Diana Krall, Mulgrew Miller Trio, Esperanza Spalding, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Maynard Ferguson, Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet, Clark Terry Quartet, Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran, Free, John Coltrane Quartet, Charlie Palmieri & Friends, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Oliver Lake, Andrew Cyrille & Santi Debriano, Robert Glasper Experiment, Booker T. and the MGs, Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention, Ray Charles, and Bill Evans.

If you've somehow missed out on all this up until now, you still can see all these videos plus thousands more from the carefully curated archives by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Victor Goines Quintet playing on Saturday, February 11 at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts

Saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines and his quintet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 11 at the Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, 2600 Richview Rd in Mt. Vernon, IL.

A New Orleans native who is known for his long association with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Goines (pictured) currently is director of jazz studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

He previously performed at Cedarhurst in February 2014, and played in St. Louis most recently in December 2016 as part of a benefit concert at The Sheldon for the North County Big Band. Goines' most recent recording, Morning Swing, came out in 2013 on Rosemary Joseph Records.

Tickets are $35 or $30 for members of Cedarhurst, and can be purchased online at www.cedarhurst.org or by phone at 618-242-1236, ext. 225.