Mark O'Shaughnessy 1952 - 2017

Funeral services are set for Mark O'Shaughnessy, founder and co-owner of the St. Louis venue BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

O'Shaughnessy, a longtime advocate for St. Louis music and musicians who opened the first of the club's three incarnations back in 1976, died Saturday, May 27 in his apartment above BB's of complications of diabetes. He was 65.

Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. this Thursday, June 1 at Kutis Affton Chapel, 10151 Gravois Road. A funeral will be held at 9:15 a.m. Friday, June 2 at Affton Chapel, followed at 10:00 a.m. by a Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary, 4092 Blow Street.

BB's operations manager and partner John May told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson that the club will continue business as usual. While O'Shaughnessy (pictured) had announced plans to retire this year, negotiations to buy his share of the BB's business were still underway at the time of his death, May told StLJN.

On a personal note, I knew Mark for more than 35 years, first meeting him when I was one of about 15 audience members for a show by the great singer Betty Carter during BB's second chapter in the early '80s. Although we weren't close friends, he was very encouraging of my efforts in music and journalism over the years - as he was for countless others - and it was always good to see him and talk, however briefly. The St. Louis music scene and the musicians who inhabit it certainly owe him a "thanks" and a debt of gratitude, and though he'll be missed, he'll be remembered fondly.

Mark O'Shaughnessy is survived by his mother, Frances M. O’Shaughnessy of St. Louis; four daughters, Heather O’Shaughnessy of Maui, HI, Kerensia Blackman of Jefferson County, and Kelly Slavin and Megan Steen of St. Louis; a son, Richard VanGelder of Omaha, NE; and five grandchildren.

Moon Hooch to perform Friday, October 13 at Old Rock House

The saxophones-and-drums trio Moon Hooch will return to St. Louis to perform at 10:00 p.m. Friday, October 13 at the Old Rock House.

After spending most of this summer in Europe, Moon Hooch (pictured) will be touring the US in the fall in support of their upcoming album Live At The Cathedral, a three-CD/DVD package recorded in 2015 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City that will be released on Friday, June 30.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 day of show, and are on sale now.

Jazz this week: Antonio Hart, Glenn Miller Orchestra, Norah Jones, St. Louis Piano Festival, and more

With spring winding down and summer just ahead, this week's calendar of jazz and creative music is a bit back-loaded, with several of the more noteworthy musicians visiting our town scheduled to perform early next week rather than over the weekend.

Fortunately, St. Louis' local musicians and singers also have a few things planned between now and then. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 31
With Jazz at the Bistro now on its weekends-only summer schedule, there's no live music there this Wednesday, but the weekly Grand Center Jazz Crawl will include music from Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, pianist Phil Dunlap at the Curtain Call Lounge, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley will be playing his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar, and guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran will entertain diners at The Shaved Duck.

Thursday, June 1
Pianist Adam Maness' trio returns to Thurman's in Shaw, and pianist Ptah Williams and guitarist Eric Slaughter will hold forth at at The Dark Room.

Friday, June 2
On Friday morning, Jazz St. Louis will celebrate the annual observance of "National Donut Day" with an event featuring free donuts, live music from students in the JazzU program, and more, at Jazz at the Bistro.

That evening, the JazzU students will be back on stage for the first evening of their annual weekend of performances at the Bistro, with alto saxophonist Antonio Hart (pictured, top left) as guest soloist. Hart, who first gained notice as a collaborator with trumpeter Roy Hargrove, bassist Dave Holland, and others, has recorded nine albums as a leader and also teaches jazz studies at Queens College City University of New York.

Saturday, June 3
The Funky Butt Brass Band will be playing at two different faux-New Orleans events in one day, providing the music for "Crawfish Fest 2017" in late afternoon at Ballpark Village, then heading a few blocks over to the Old Rock House to wrap up their "Summer Gras," an afternoon-into-evening affair also featuring music from Al Holliday and the The East Side Rhythm Band, The Grooveliner, The Provels, and Big Mike Aguirre and The Blu City All Stars.

Also on Saturday, pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will perform at the Parkside Grille.

Sunday, June 4
Following up on the weekend's Scott Joplin Festival, an annual event held in Joplin's birthplace of Sedalia, MO, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present an "Afterglow Party" featuring festival performers and St. Louis players at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's New Rosebud Cafe.

Monday, June 5
Also capitalizing on the aftermath of the Joplin festival, the second year of pianist Ethan Leinwand's St. Louis Piano Festival will pay tribute to a famed St. Louis ragtime pianist and historian with the "Trebor Tichenor Ragtime Concert," featuring Tichenor's daughter Virginia Tichenor, Marty Eggers, Terry Parrish and John Reed-Torres, at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Tuesday, June 6
Singer/songwriter, pianist and guitarist Norah Jones will perform at the Peabody Opera House. 

Jones (pictured, bottom left) is touring in support of her most recent album Day Breaks, which was released in October of last year on the Blue Note label and offered something of return to the jazz-influenced sound featured on her first album 15 years ago.

Day Breaks features guest performances from well-known jazz musicians including drummer Brian Blade, bassist John Patitucci, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, and includes Jones' interpretations of Horace Silver's "Peace" and Duke Ellington's "African Flower," both of which seem like good candidates for her set list at the Peabody.

Also on Tuesday, the Glenn Miller Orchestra "ghost band" will perform a "Salute to the Heroes of D-Day" at the Webster Groves Concert Hall (formerly the Ozark Theatre); and the St. Louis Piano Festival wraps up with an evening of blues pianists including Silvercloud, Carl "Sonny" Leyland, Gene Taylor, Ethan Leinwand and Christopher Parrish, at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Sunday Session: May 28, 2017

Terrace Martin

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

* How the record industry crisis of 1925 shaped our musical world (The Guardian)
* Composer Angelo Badalamenti, Master Of Mood, Returns To 'Twin Peaks' (NPR)
* The Keys to Snarky Puppy's Success (Keyboard)
* Inside the Offices Where the Music Never Stops and Everyone Is DJ (Bloomberg.com)
* By Any Name, Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda Was A Force (NPR)
* 7 pieces of gear that helped shape Radiohead’s timeless OK Computer (FactMag.com)
* How Did Toby Keith Get To Do A Concert In Saudi Arabia? (NPR)
* Donny McCaslin: The David Bowie Connection (SFJAZZ.org)
* Watch: Alvin Lucier Talks Brain Waves, Marching Bands and John Cage (WQXR)
* Fela Kuti built his music around a distrust of Nigeria's elites. Now they're the audience for the musical about his life (Los Angeles Times)
* Cultural commissioner Mark Kelly moves to reshape Chicago Jazz Festival (Chicago Tribune)
* Yes, L.A. Has Lost Many of Its Jazz Clubs — but Other Venues Are Stepping In (LA Weekly)
* Q&A with Ronald Bruner Jr.: Squad Goals (DownBeat)
* At The Dawn Of Recorded Sound, No One Cared (NPR)
* How data is transforming the music industry (TheConversation.com)
* Night Time, My Time: The Pervasive Musical Influence Of Twin Peaks (ClashMusic.com)
* Confessions Of An MP3 Blogger (TheFader.com)
* Mickey Roker, Dynamic Hard-Bop Drummer and Philly Jazz Institution, Dies at 84 (WBGO)
* Why Remix 'Sgt. Pepper's'? Giles Martin, The Man Behind The Project, Explains (NPR)
* Reviving Alice Coltrane’s Ecstatic Music in New York City (DownBeat)
* Frankie & Johnny, Helen & Morgan (Jazz Times)
* Electronic pioneer Morton Subotnick subject of new documentary Subotnick (FactMag.com)
* Terrace Martin Talks New Jazz Supergroup, Producing for Herbie Hancock (Rolling Stone)
* We no longer know who the biggest pop star in the world is (QZ.com)
* Quincy Jones Reflects on Artists He Loves, Wished He'd Worked With During Intimate Launch of New Headphones (Billboard)
* Social Music: ‘Jam of the Week’ Builds Online Jazz Community (DownBeat)
* Everybody Digs Ralph Towner - The veteran guitarist on solo performance, Bill Evans and Oregon (Jazz Times)
* Kansas City's Oldest Jazz Institution Isn't Afraid Of New Beats — Or Other Challenges (KCUR)
* Joan La Barbara: Finding the Right Words to Inspire Sound (TheLogJournal.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Seven Miles Davis collaborators who helped shape jazz

Yesterday was the 91st anniversary of Miles Davis' birth, and to follow up on StLJN's video tribute to him in this space last week, today let's take a look at some of the musicians who worked with Davis and then went on to become significant influences on jazz in their own right.

Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane played with Davis as part of his "first great quintet" in the late 1950s, making a memorable contribution to the trumpeter's seminal album Kind of Blue. Leaving Davis' employ to start his own group in 1960, Coltrane over the next few years became one of the most emulated saxophonists in jazz, influencing several generations of players into the present day.

He's seen in the first video up above playing "Impressions" - a song that shares its chord progression with Davis' "So What" - on French TV in 1966, with McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums).

Combining the influence of Charlie Parker with generous dollops of blues and gospel, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley also played on Kind of Blue, expanding Davis' working quintet to a sextet. After leaving Davis to concentrate on co-leading his own hard-grooving band with his brother, cornetist Nat Adderley, Cannonball became a headlining attraction around the world, even scoring a major pop hit in 1966 with "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."

The Adderley brothers can be seen in the first video after the jump, performing Nat's composition "Work Song" in 1963 with some help from saxophonist Yusef Lateef, pianist Joe Zawinul (who pops up again a little later in this narrative), bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes.

Pianist Bill Evans was part of Davis' band for less than a year, but his participation in the Kind of Blue sessions helped make him a household name among jazz fans. Leading his own trio over the next couple of decades, Evans exerted a major influence on many pianists that still can be heard in several generations of players ranging from Keith Jarrett to Brad Mehldau.

Evans is in the second video after the jump, playing his popular original composition "Waltz For Debby" with Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums.

Davis' "second great quintet" began coming together in 1963, and would go on to become of the most popular and critically acclaimed small jazz groups of the decade (and eventually, all time). The quintet made a lot of memorable music over the next several years, and ultimately wound up seeding the nascent fusion movement as the various members left to launch their own groups.

Drummer Tony Williams was the youngest member of that quintet, joining Davis while still a teenager. His style - incorporating the influence of rock music and aggressive by default, yet also subtle when needed - was highly influential, and Lifetime, the band the formed after leaving Davis in 1969, was one of the pioneering groups of fusion.

You can see the second version of Lifetime in today's fourth clip, which captures basically all of their set at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival. In addition to Williams on drums, the group includes bassist Junie Booth, guitarist Ted Dunbar, percussionists Warren Smith and Don Alias, and organist Larry Young.

The pianist in Davis' second great quintet was Herbie Hancock, who after leaving Davis would go on to lead one of the most popular bands of the fusion era. His 1974 album Head Hunters was simultaneously one of the major musical statements of jazz-fusion and a huge commercial hit, ranking as one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, right after Kind of Blue. Hancock's subsequent work spanning a variety of genres has secured his place one of the most significant jazz musicians of the last 50 years.

In the fifth video, you can see and hear Hancock and the first touring edition of the Headhunters band playing a gig in 1974 in Germany, performing tunes from their first album and the follow-up, Thrust. Along with Hancock, that's Mike Clark on drums, Paul Jackson Jr. on bass, Bill Summers on percussion, and Bennie Maupin on tenor sax, flute, and bass clarinet.

Saxophonist Wayne Shorter was the longest-serving member of Davis' second quintet, coming on board in 1963 and staying until 1970. That's when Shorter and keyboardist Joe Zawinul, a former member of Cannonball Adderley's band who had played on Davis' albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, formed Weather Report, which would become another of the most iconic and successful bands in the fusion genre.

After that group ended its run, both Shorter and Zawinul went on to enjoy very successful individual careers as bandleaders, and though Zawinul dies in 20017, Shorter continues to work and is regarded as one of the most noteworthy jazz composers of his generation.

In today's final video, you can see the two of them performing with the first Weather Report lineup on German TV in 1971. Miroslav Vitous is on bass, with Alphonse Mouzon on drums and Dom Um Romao on percussion, and for part of the set, they are augmented by trombonist Eje Thelin and saxophonists Alan Skidmore and John Surman.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Attention donut lovers: The pastry devotees and baked-goods aficionados at Jazz St. Louis will celebrate National Donut Day once again this year with a morning of festivities at Jazz at the Bistro.

The free, public event, scheduled for 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 2, will feature free donuts from 14 local shops, plus complementary beverages, live music from students in JSL's JazzU program, a "Best Donut" competition, activities for kids, and more.

* Speaking of the Bistro, thanks to radio station WBGO,  you can get a first listen to trumpeter Sean Jones' new "live" album on Mack Avenue Records, which was recorded last year at the club.

* A crew from the Japanese documentary TV series Yume No Tourimichi has been in Missouri this month, shooting footage in St. Louis and Sedalia for an upcoming episode about ragtime pianist and composer Scott Joplin.

* And speaking of ragtime, the Goldenrod Showboat - which for 50 years hosted ragtime and vintage jazz festivals while moored on the St. Louis riverfront - finally has been declared beyond all hope by preservationists after recent flooding on the Illinois River where the boat's remains had been stored.

* Today is the 91st anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis, and should you be looking for a thoroughly annotated list of 10 noteworthy Latin jazz interpretations of Davis compositions, it turns out that Chip Boaz of the website Latin Jazz Corner has you covered.

In other Miles-related news, the London Vocal Project last week performed for the first time singer and lyricist Jon Hendricks’ vocalese version of the Davis/Gil Evans orchestral album Miles Ahead. Hendricks (pictured, with the album's reissue cover) has been working on this project since the late 1960s, and you can read reviews of the London production here and here.

To commemorate the trumpeter's natal day, you also can read a retrospective look at Davis' album E.S.P. from Stereophile's Fred Kaplan, occasioned by the 45th anniversary of its release; listen to the most recent episode of the "Night Lights" program from Indiana public radio station WPIU, which covers "Final Miles," as represented by the trumpeter's late-career recordings for Warner Brothers; and watch StLJN's video tribute to Davis from last Saturday. 

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe to perform Friday, July 21 at Atomic Cowboy

Saxophonist and singer Karl Denson and his band Tiny Universe are returning to St. Louis to perform at 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 21 at Atomic Cowboy's outdoor pavilion.

The show is part of Denson's "Runnin' With The Diesel" tour, which will take KDTU (pictured) to 14 cities this summer, showcasing material from their forthcoming studio album (due out later this year) plus older tunes and some select covers.

The current Tiny Universe touring lineup includes Denson, guitarist DJ Williams, drummer Alan Evans, bassist Chris Stillwell, keyboardist David Veith, trumpeter Chris Littlefield, and slide and lap steel guitarist Seth Freeman.

Tickets for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe at Atomic Cowboy are $25 in advance, $28 day of show, and are on sale now.

Edited after publication to correct the day of the week.

Jazz this week: Christian McBride, The Soul Rebels, Greg Tardy, Grand Marquis, and more

The calendar of live jazz and creative music coming up in St. Louis features several noteworthy visitors for the Memorial Day weekend, including a renowned.bassist and bandleader; a veteran saxophonist who's played with some very well-known jazz names; one of New Orleans' busiest brass bands; and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 24
Bassist Christian McBride opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Having played the club in 2014 with his trio and in 2009 with the quintet Inside Straight, this time McBride is showcasing his latest group, New Jawn, a quartet featuring trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and drummer Nasheet Waits. (For those curious about the band's name, "jawn" is an "all-purpose noun," perhaps derived from "joint," used specifically by Philadelphia natives.)

With no piano, guitar or vibes to supply chords, New Jawn's instrumentation give McBride plenty of harmonic freedom while interacting with Evans and Strickland. It's a setup that's proven adaptable to a variety of jazz styles dating back to at least the 1950s, when Ornette Coleman's original quartet and the Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker "cool jazz" ensemble both eschewed chordal instruments with memorable, yet very different, results.

You can get an idea of what McBride, Evans, Strickland and Waits are doing with that flexibility in this video of Thelonious Monk's "Raise Four", recorded last September at SFJAZZ in San Francisco, and this clip of Monk's "Mysterioso," from a show this March in Russia.

Also on Wednesday, singer Marsha Evans will perform for the "Chapel Concerts" series at St. Vincent Home for Children, and trumpeter Jim Manley will be back for his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, May 25
The Soul Rebels (pictured, top left) will perform at the Old Rock House.

Putting a contemporary spin on the New Orleans brass band tradition, the Soul Rebels are known for re-imagining hit songs from a variety of genres, and for their frequent collaborations with an equally diverse range of bands, singers, and MCs.

You can find out more and see some videos of them in action in this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Thursday, The 442s will return to Cyrano's, and saxophonist Greg Tardy (pictured, center left) will be in town for a free, early evening performance at Saxquest.

Tardy, who heads the jazz studies departments at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, has released more than a dozen albums as a leader, enjoying a relationship of more than a decade with the indie label Steeplechase Records. He's also worked with a number of well-known jazz musicians, most notably Elvin Jones, Dave Douglas, Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau, and Joshua Redman.

Friday, May 26
Saxophonist Harvey Lockhart and the Collective will be back at The Dark Room; guitarist Tom Byrne and singer Erika Johnson will make their debut at the Parkside Grille in West County; and the Second Generation Swing Band will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Also on Friday, the annual Glendale Jazz Festival will take place on an outdoor stage at Glendale City Hall. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature music from the Funky Butt Brass Band, blues/R&B singer Coco Soul, the St. Louis Big Band with singer Anita Rosamond, and Randy Holmes and the Satchmo 7.

Saturday, May 27
The Kansas City-based jump blues and swing band Grand Marquis (pictured, bottom left) returns for a performance at the Casa Loma Ballroom; the Midwest Jazz-tette returns to Evangeline's, and the Kevin Lucas Marimba Band will play a concert at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton.

Sunday, May 28
The Folk School of KDHX will host their monthly Traditional Jazz Jam Session on Sunday afternoon.

Later in the afternoon and just a short distance away in Grand Center, more than thirty St. Louis musicians and singers will join forces for the "Willie Akins Jazz Festival," an event paying tribute to the late saxophonist at the Grandel Theatre.

Organized by singer Joe Mancuso, the concert also is intended to raise money for music scholarships in Akins' name, and so while the event is free and open to the public, donations will be accepted at the door, and there's also a GoFundMe page for online contributions.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Edited after posting to add info on the Glendale Jazz Festival. 

Sunday Session: May 21, 2017

Thelonious Monk

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

* The 20 hottest music startups of 2017 (according to Midemlab) (Musically.com)
* #AfroNation: The House That Africa Built (NationOfBillions.com)
* Cleveland's legendary Leo's Casino made music history, transcended race (photos, videos) (Cleveland.com)
* Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Timeless Jazz (The New Yorker)
* With a New Collaborations Album, Todd Rundgren Talks About Loving Reznor, Fagen and Robyn… and Loathing Trump (Variety)
* The failed experiment of the digital album booklet (TheOutline.com)
* Benmont Tench - The 40th Anniversary Interview (Keyboard)
* Google’s AI Invents Sounds Humans Have Never Heard Before (Wired)
* With Experience on their Side, The Cookers Heat Up Dizzy’s (DownBeat)
* 'Rolling Stone' Founder Jann Wenner On 50 Years Of Rock And Roll History (NPR)
* “MP3 is dead” missed the real, much better story (Marco.org)
* Hear 2,000 Recordings of the Most Essential Jazz Songs: A Huge Playlist for Your Jazz Education (OpenCulture.com)
* Nels Cline on Why Playing Jazz Has Never Been More Important (Observer.com)
* Hear Aerobic Exercise: When Soviet Musicians Recorded Electronic Music for a Subversive Home Fitness Record (1984)(OpenCulture.com)
* Maxwell, Cat Power, and 5 More on Their Favorite Nina Simone Songs (Pitchfork.com)
* Rebuilding—and Recording With—the 1920s Technology That Changed American Music Forever (Wired)
* How the Internet financially kills musicians and other artists (Washington Post)
* The Art of the Mistake - Why flubs and clinkers are part of the myth of authentic jazz. (CommonReader.wustl.edu)
* Magical Mystery Drum: The Quest for Ringo's Ed Sullivan Snare (Reverb.com)
* A Long-Lost Thelonious Monk Album Is Finally Released Nearly 60 Years Later (Newsweek)
* The science of songs: how does music affect your body chemistry? (The Guardian)
* Drumset = You (The Paris Review)
* An ode to the joy and madness of the B-side (TheVinylFactory.com)
* 17 charts that show the current state of the music industry (BusinessInsider.com)
* Making sounds with Suzanne Ciani, America's first female synth hero (The Guardian)
* Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson Shares the Cuban Inspiration Behind His "Folk Song" (WBGO)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A birthday tribute to Miles Davis

With the 91st anniversary of Miles Davis' birth coming up next Friday, May 26, it's time for StLJN's annual tribute to the most famous and influential jazz musician ever to come from this area.

In an encore post from last year's celebration of the trumpeter's 90th natal date, here are nine videos from throughout his career- one for each decade since his birth - selected by yr. editor as personal favorites. From that post, here's a description of the clips: 

The first, embedded up above the text, is the by-now-at-least semi-famous live version of "So What," the leadoff track from Kind of Blue, seen here as recorded by Davis and his quintet for the 1959 TV special The Sound of Miles Davis.

After the jump, you can see Davis and the Gil Evans Orchestra performing "The Duke" and "Blues for Pablo" from that same TV special.

The next two clips show Davis' so-called "Second Great Quintet" - with Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Tony Williams (drums) and Ron Carter (bass) - in 1967, performing "I Fall In Love Too Easily" in Karlsruhe, Germany, and then doing "Footprints" in Stockholm, Sweden.

Davis was on the precipice of his "electric period" at that point, and in the next clip, a full set recorded in 1969 in Copenhagen, you can see him taking the leap with help from Shorter plus Chick Corea (keyboards), Dave Holland (bass), and Jack DeJohnette (drums).

This relatively short-lived band, which years later was dubbed the "Lost Quintet," led directly to the group seen in the next video, an entire set recorded on August 18, 1970 at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, MA. The band here is Davis, Corea, Holland and DeJohnette along with Gary Bartz (alto and soprano sax), Keith Jarrett on organ, and Airto Moreira on percussion, and at this point, Miles has gone full-on electric.

By the time the seventh clip was recorded, in 1973 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Davis had changed the entire band again, and the version of "Ife" offers an even more jagged soundscape than the previous clip, courtesy of David Liebman (soprano sax), Pete Cosey (guitar, percussion), Reggie Lucas (guitar), Michael Henderson (bass), Mtume (congas, percussion), and Al Foster (drums).

The final two videos are both from the 1980s, well after Davis' comeback from the period of self-imposed exile in which Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead is set. "Time After Time," Davis' cover of a hit originally recorded by Cyndi Lauper, was a staple of his live sets for several years, and is heard here in a version recorded in 1975 in Tokyo, Japan.

The last clip is a version of "Tutu," recorded in 1988 in Stuttgart, Germany, which unfortunately does not feature Marcus Miller, the song's composer and producer of the album of the same name. But it does show off one of Davis' more interesting and idiosyncratic late-period bands, with Kenny Garrett on saxophone and flute, Robert Irving III and Adam Holzmann on keyboards, Joseph "Foley" McCreary on six-string "lead bass" plus Benjamin Rietveld on electric bass, percussionist Marilyn Mazur, and the great drummer Ricky Wellman, who Davis plucked from Washington DC go-go godfather Chuck Brown's band, the Soul Searchers.

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

Jazz at Holmes reveals schedule for 2017 "Jazz in July" series

The Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University has announced the schedule for this summer's "Jazz in July" shows. 

The series begins on Thursday, July 6 with pianist and singer Curt Landes (pictured) and his band, followed by a show on Thursday, July 13 by pianist Kara Baldus' trio.

The slate of keyboard-centric performances continues on Thursday, July 20 with a quartet featuring Dallas-based pianist Myles Tate, with Paul Steinbeck on bass, Jeff Anderson on tenor sax, and Maurice Carnes on drums; and concludes on Thursday, July 27 with a trio led by pianist Ptah Williams.

Admission to the "Jazz in July" concerts is free and open to the public. Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, located on Washington University’s campus at the west end of the Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake (pictured) was interviewed about the founding of the Black Artsists Groups and various other subject by journalist Seth Colter Wells for a feature story on Bandcamp.com

* A recent visit by drummer Kimberly Thompson and trumpeter Keyon Harrold to Francis Howell High School was chronicled by the school's student newspaper FHC Today. Thompson and Harrold were back home in St. Louis last month for a week-long educational residency sponsored by Jazz St. Louis and performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio Network, which produces music education videos featuring wll-known jazz musicians, was featured on a recent episode of KETC's Living St. Louis.

* Condolences to the family and friends of Tom McMahon, trombonist with the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra, who died last Wednesday, May 10 after a two-year fight with melanoma.

McMahon, 57, worked days as a software application architect at Enterprise Holdings. He is survived by his wife Amy McMahon; children Michael, Nathan and Hannah; and other members of his extended family. A visitation will take place at 1:00 p.m. this Saturday, May 20 at Bopp Chapel, 10610 Manchester Rd. in Kirkwood, followed at 2:00 p.m. by a remembrance. The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra dedicated their performance on Wednesday, May 17 at Jazz at the Bistro to McMahon's memory.

*.ZACK, the newest venue in Grand Center - and yes, the name is supposed to be pronounced "dot-zack" - was the subject of  a feature story on KSDK's Show Me St. Louis.

* Vernacular String Trio was profiled in the Riverfront Times as one of the 77 local bands set to perform in the paper's ShowcaseSTL event, which is set for Saturday, June 17 at various venues in The Grove.

* The jazz program at St. Dominic's High School in St. Charles, directed by saxophonist Larry Johnson, was featured in the Archdiocesan newspaper St. Louis Review. Trombonist Wyatt Forhan, a junior at St. Dominic's, is one of two St. Louis area student musicians selected this year for the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Jazz St. Louis announces 2017-18 season schedule

Jazz St. Louis has announced the touring performers scheduled for the 2017-18 season at Jazz at the Bistro.

In what is undoubtedly the season's biggest "get," the organization will be one of the presenters for the previously announced concert by pianist Herbie Hancock in August at Powell Symphony Hall.

Also as announced earlier this year, the Bistro will host pianist Orrin Evans' debut as a member of The Bad Plus next January.

With those bits of news already public for weeks, the season announcement (which covered only touring acts and did not include any of the locally based performers that presumably will be playing the venue next year) contained very few surprises, but here are the key takeaways:

* Kicking off in late September with a four-night run from Yellowjackets, the schedule is heavy on familiar names such as Terrell Stafford, Cyrus Chestnut, Sean Jones, Houston Person, Benny Green, Freddy Cole, and Poncho Sanchez, all of whom have performed at the Bistro multiple times over the years.

Other than Hancock, the season's most notable shows would seem to be the return of vocal group Take 6 (pictured, top left), who performed at the Bistro in 2011 and will be back for a week in December; and the quartet co-led by guitarist John Scofield and saxophonist Joe Lovano (pictured, center left), who will play the club in April.

* Just three acts - the fewest ever that yr. StLJN editor can remember - will be making their Bistro debuts as headliners. Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly (pictured, bottom left) and Cuban pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa are the complete newbies to the venue, while singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja, who co-headlined a show this year at the Bistro with harmonica player Gregoire Maret, will be appearing at the club for two weeks next season.

She'll headline shows under her own name during Valentine's Day week (taking the slot occupied for years by Mardra and Reggie Thomas, and more recently by Erin Bode) and then will turn up again in April as a featured singer with drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.

* In addition to Olatuja, three other St. Louis area natives also will return next season to headline at the Bistro. Trumpeter Russell Gunn, who grew up in East St. Louis, will return from his current home in Atlanta to play a week in November with a band including drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last surviving musician who played on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

Later that month, trumpeter Jeremy Davenport will be back from New Orleans to perform his usual Thanksgiving weekend shows. And next spring, drummer Marcus Baylor's Baylor Project will be featured for a week of performances in March.

Here's the lineup of announced shows in chronological order:

Thursday, August 10: Herbie Hancock (at Powell Symphony Hall)

Wednesday, September 20 - Saturday, September 23: Yellowjackets

Wednesday, October 4 - Saturday, October 7: Grace Kelly
Friday, October 13 & Saturday, October 14: Arturo Sandoval
Wednesday, October 16 - Saturday, October 21: Harold Lopez-Nussa Trio

Wednesday, November 1 - Saturday, November 4: Houston Person Quartet
Wednesday, November 15 - Saturday, November 18:: Russell Gunn w/ Jimmy Cobb
Friday, November 24 & Saturday, November 25: Jeremy Davenport
Wednesday, November 29 - Saturday, December 1: Jane Monheit

Wednesday, December 3 - Saturday, December 6: Freddy Cole Quintet
Wednesday, December 10 - Saturday, December 13: Take 6

2018

Wednesday, January 3 - Saturday, January 5: Joshua Redman Quartet
Wednesday, January 17 - Saturday, January 20: The Bad Plus
Wednesday, January 31 - Saturday, February 3: Cyrus Chestnut Trio

Wednesday, February 14 - Saturday, February 17: Alicia Olatuja
Wednesday, February 21 - Saturday, February 24: Benny Green Trio

Wednesday, March 14 - Saturday, March 17: Sean Jones Quartet
Wednesday, March 28 - Saturday, March 31: The Baylor Project

Wednesday, April 11 - Saturday, April 14: “Songs of Freedom” w/ Ulysses Owens Jr., Alicia Olatuja & Joanna Majoko
Wednesday, April 25 - Saturday, April 28: John Scofield-Joe Lovano Quartet

Wednesday, May 9 - Saturday, May 12: Terell Stafford Quintet
Wednesday, May 23 - Saturday, May 26: Poncho Sanchez

Various season subscription packages can be purchased now via the Jazz St. Louis website or by calling 314-571-6000, with single tickets scheduled to go on sale on Thursday, August 10. 

Jazz this week: Route 66 Jazz Orchestra, "Miles Ahead" in concert, Bosman Twins, Vernacular String Trio, and more

There's not much going on this week in terms of well-known touring jazz and creative musicians visiting St. Louis, but fortunately, our town's plentiful contingent of local players has some noteworthy things planned.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 17
The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra (pictured, top left) returns to Jazz at the Bistro, the Sidney Street Shakers will play traditional jazz and swing at their monthly gig at Foam, and trumpeter Jim Manley will be back at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, May 18
The Jazz St. Louis Big Band, directed by pianist Phil Dunlap, will celebrate the upcoming birthday of iconic trumpeter Miles Davis with "Miles Ahead: Miles Davis, Gil Evans and the Birth of Cool," a free lecture/concert program featuring re-creations of arrangements from Davis' famed collaboration with arranger/pianist Evans, at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Thursday, Cabaret Project St. Louis marks the five-year anniversary of their monthly "Broadway Open Mic" night in the event's latest location, the Curtain Call Lounge, next to the Fox Theatre.

Friday, May 19
The Bosman Twins (pictured, center left) will return for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, and drummer Steve Davis's band, featuring vocalist Feyza Eren, will perform in a free concert at the Webster Groves Concert Hall (formerly the Ozark Theatre).

Also on Friday, singer Ann Dueren's trio will perform for diners and drinkers at Gerard's in Des Peres.

Saturday, May 20
The Funky Butt Brass Band will play their monthly gig at Broadway Oyster Bar, and trumpeter and vibraphonist Joe Bozzi and his band return to Evangeline's.

Sunday, May 21
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents The Gaslight Squares with guest trumpeter Bill Mason at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, and the Vernacular String Trio (pictured, bottom left) will promote the release of their album Parlance with a free in-store performance at Vintage Vinyl.

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.)

Glenn Miller Orchestra performing Tuesday, June 6 at Webster Groves Concert Hall

The Glenn Miller Orchestra is coming to St. Louis to perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 6 at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, formerly known as the Ozark Theatre.

The venue at 103 E. Lockwood in Webster Groves, originally a neighborhood movie house known for decades as the Ozark Theatre and then as the Webster Groves Cinema, was refurbished in the 2000s as an event space and had been operating once again under its original name.

The recent decision to re-brand as the Webster Groves Concert Hall is intended to clarify "who we are and where we are located," said Maugy Stevens, one of the hall's proprietors, in an email to StLJN. 

As it happens, June 6 marks the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day invasion that ultimately led to the Allied victory in World War II, and so the Glenn Miller Orchestra's program at the WGCH will commemorate that event with a "salute to the heroes of D-Day."

Miller and his music are associated closely with World War II, as he reached his greatest popularity during the early years of the war, then enlisted to lead an army band, only to have his plane disappear over the English Channel in December 1944 while traveling to entertain US troops in France.

After Miller's death, his band soldiered on, in the process pioneering the now-common concept of a "ghost band" that continues to perform the well-known repertoire of a deceased bandleader. Though there have been a couple of brief hiatuses, the Glenn Miller Orchestra (pictured) has continued into the present day, with licensed versions touring frequently in both the USA and Europe. 

Tickets for the Glenn Miller Orchestra at the Webster Groves Concert Hall are $45 and can be purchased by phone at 314-962-7000 or online at http://www.websterconcerthall.org.

Freedonia Music releases three new albums

The St. Louis-based indie label Freedonia Music, which documents free improv, experimental, and creative music from the city's past and present, has three new releases out this month, all featuring pianist Greg Mills.

Mosaique is a solo effort from Mills described as "improvised classical music" that was "created in the spirit and practice of free improv utilizing a language of musical possibilities based in Modern Classical," with each of the nine improvised compositions dedicated to a different 20th century composer.

Duets features the pianist in a series of improvised partnerships with musicians including cellist Tracy Andreotti, saxophonist/clarinetist Dave Stone, percussionist Henry Claude, and flute player Fred Tompkins.

Circle pairs Mills once again with multi-instrumentalist and Freedonia Music proprietor Jay Zelenka. The two worked together in the 1980s as the duo Exiles, and this album features studio recordings from that period, originally released on various cassette projects and now remastered for CD, plus an unreleased live performance from a 1997 New Music Circle concert featuring Mills, Zelenka, Dave Stone, and bassist Eric Markowitz.

All three albums are available now from download and streaming sites, and in CD format from the Freedonia Music website.

Sunday Session: May 14, 2017

Tyshawn Sorey

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

* Can’t help falling in price: why Elvis memorabilia is plummeting in value (The Guardian)
* Photos & Review: Stevie, Snoop, Tank and the Bangas shine on Jazz Fest’s biggest day (Offbeat)
* Louis Armstrong and the jazz heritage of the Fair Grounds (New Orleans Times-Picayune/NOLA.com)
* Béla Fleck: Things That Sound Right (New Music Box)
* "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," Baseball's National Anthem (Neatorama.com)
* Jazz Fest wraps up with big sets from The Meters, Kings of Leon (Offbeat)
* Q&A with Orrin Evans: The Bad Plus’ New Addition (DownBeat)
* Cassettes Are Making A Comeback, But Which Artists Are Actually Selling Them? (Forbes)
* What does ‘rock music’ even mean anymore anyway? (City Pages)
* This cybernetic synth contains a brain grown from the inventor’s cells (CreateDigitalMusic.link)
* How Preservation Hall Jazz Band Found Their New Sound in Cuba (Rolling Stone)
* New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest: A Photo Recap (DownBeat)
* The Colonel Has a Master Plan (OtielBurbridge.com)
* Scofield Revisits His Past in Jazz at Lincoln Center Concert (DownBeat)
* The Decline of the Yellow Label (Atavist.com)
* Universal Demands Cancellation of $30 Million Deal With Prince Estate (Billboard)
* The MP3 Is Officially Dead, According To Its Creators (NPR)
* eMusic Relaunches Indie-Centric Music Service (Billboard)
* New Orleans Jazz Festival: 2nd Weekend Photos (Jazz Times)
* “Play Without Bitching About the Key,” and Other Humorous, Blunt Annotations Added to Musical Scores (OpenCulture.com)
* Here comes the science bit: why music festivals are going geek (The Guardian)
* Paradise Blue: A Fictional Jazz Club in a Real Time (DownBeat)
* The Checkout: Drummer Tyshawn Sorey Reflects on His Spectrum of Imagination (WBGO)
* In full, on vinyl, no talking: have we lost the art of listening to music? (The Guardian)
* Valdés Puts Efflorescent Pianism on Display at Birdland (DownBeat)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Soul Rebels' brass band revolution

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on the Soul Rebels, who are coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, May 25 at the Old Rock House.

Described by the Village Voice as "the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong," the group was founded in the early 90s in New Orleans by percussionists Lumar LeBlanc and Derrick Moss, who then were both part of the more traditionally minded Olympia Brass Band.

LeBlanc and Moss wanted to bring more contemporary music into the brass band format, incorporating hip-hop, soul, funk, and R&B into their sound. Starting with a regular Thursday night gig at the bar Le Bon Temps Roule - a residency that continues to this day, when they're not on the road - the Soul Rebels first gained a local following and eventually became an international touring act, playing major venues and festivals on several difference continents.

They've recorded a total of seven albums since 1995, the most recent being 2012's Unlock Your Mind, and along the way have developed a sub-specialty in collaborating with performers from many musical genres.

Over the years they've worked not just with fellow New Orleans groups like Galactic and funk icons including saxophonist Maceo Parker, but also hard rockers Metallica and Marilun Manson, pop-punk band Green Day, and a host of hip-hop MCs, inclding Nas, Rakim, Slick Rick, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, GZA, Black Thought of The Roots, Big Freedia, and many more.

You can get an pretty good idea idea of their approach to transforming popular material via today's collection of videos, starting up above with their version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," recorded in 2015 at Tipitina's in New Orleans.

After the jump, you can see the Soul Rebels offering their take on the 2015 hit "Uptown Funk," recorded at the Blue Note in Tokyo. That's followed by arrangements of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You," from a show in 2012 at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC, and the Eurythmics' 1980s hit "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This," as performed in 2012 at DBA in New Orleans.

In the fifth clip, you can get a taste of how the Soul Rebels collaborate in live performance, as they back the great old-school MC Rakim in a regrettably brief version of one of his biggest songs, "Don't Sweat the Technique." Last but not least, you can check out an entire set of the band, recorded in 2011 at The Blockley in Philadelphia.

For more about the Soul Rebels, check out this feature from Gambit magazine about their tour earlier this year with Nas, and this article from Mix magazine, in which their sound engineer talks about mixing the band during some dates with Talib Kweli.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz St. Louis is looking to hire a full-time Education Associate to help launch a new program for at-risk middle school students called Jazz Academy. For more information about the job and how to apply, go here.

* In advance of his gig tonight for The Sheldon's annual fundraising gala, guitarist and singer George Benson did a brief Q&A with St. Louis magazine's Erin Williams.

* Singer Joe Mancuso has organized an event to raise money for music scholarships in the name of the late saxophonist Willie Akins. Set up as a structured jam involving a couple of dozen St. Louis musicians, the "Willie Akins Jazz Festival" is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 28 at the Grandel Theatre, with an informal jam session at The Dark Room to follow. Mancuso also has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the scholarship fund.

* The Bosman Twins (pictured) were interviewed last week on the WSIE (88.7 FM) program "Voices," and their chat with host Hank Thompson has been archived online as an MP3 file here.

* The STL Free Jazz Collective has posted on Facebook a photo album from their recent show at the 14th St Artists Community.

* The website Sound of STL has photo coverage of the recent gig by Thomas Fujiwara's The Hookup presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

* Speaking of KDHX, singer Ken Haller's latest reprise of his cabaret entertainment "The Medicine Show" was reviewed for the station by Chuck Lavazzi.

* In the latest chapter in the saga of the Goldenrod Showboat, St. Louis Public Radio reports that the remains of the venerable venue - once home to performances of ragtime and vintage jazz on the St. Louis riverfront - are sinking in the flooded Illinois River. The flooding threatens the plans of preservationists who hoped to salvage artifacts and materials from the boat for display in a museum.

* The British music magazine The Wire has published an excerpt from Message To Our Folks, bassist and Washington University faculty member Paul Steinbeck's new book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

* "The Music Seen - Beyond the Stage," an exhibit featuring music-related images from seven different photographers, will open with receptions from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 9 and from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday, June 10 at Bullivant Gallery, 3321 Washington Blvd in Grand Center. The exhibit, which features work from Michael Eastman, David Godlis, Jason Lee, Charles Peterson, David Rocco, Dr. Ernest Withers, and Baron Wolman, continues through Friday, July 14.

* Just in time for Mothers Day, the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn interviews Shirley Harrold, a St. Louis mom whose flock of 16 children includes two young jazz stars, trumpeter Keyon Harrold and drummer Emanuel Harrold.

Jazz this week: Joey DeFrancesco, George Benson, Denise Thimes, and more

As the not-for-profit presenting season and the spring academic semester both approach their ends, this week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis nevertheless features performances from two major touring headliners, plus a number of other noteworthy shows.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 10
Organist Joey DeFrancesco returns to Jazz at the Bistro
for the first of four nights, continuing through Saturday.

DeFrancesco (pictured, top left) recently expanded his band from a trio to a quartet, and has just released an album, Project Freedom, featuring the new lineup. For more about that, and some recent videos of him in performance, see this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Wednesday, new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound closes out their St. Louis season with a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and NOiSETTE 2017: Spring Edition! will present a slew of experimental, improvisational and/or noise performers, including Alex Cunningham, Bitchfit, Brain Transplant, Chelsea Gray, Corrigan Brothers, Dave Stone Ensemble, Eric Donte, Grain and NNN Cook, in a free show at Blank Space.

Thursday, May 11
Singer Jenna Bauer and guitarist Dave Black return to The Pat Connolly Tavern; percussionist David A. N. Jackson will be sitting in with the Ptah Williams/Eric Slaughter Quartet at The Dark Room; and pianist Adam Maness and his trio will be back at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, May 12
Guitarist and singer George Benson will headline the annual benefit gala raising funds for the Sheldon Concert Hall. 

It's been nearly six years since Benson (pictured, center left) last played here (in October 2011 at the Touhill), and judging from the more recent performances caught on video in this post from last Saturday, he's still delivering the goods both vocally and instrumentally. While the long gap since his last show here should spur the demand for seats, there may be some concert-only tickets still available; contact the Sheldon box office for the latest information.

Also on Friday, the City of Clayton's "Music in the City" event will feature free happy-hour performances at various restaurants and bars in the area, including Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at Morton's and Tommy Halloran at Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar.

Saturday, May 13
New Music Circle closes out their 2016-17 season with a bill of solo electronic-music performers from the Midwest, including Louisville's Robert Beatty, Matchess (aka Chicago's Whitney Johnson), Hylidae (St. Louis' Jon Burkhart), and Nadir Smith, aka Biggie Stardust (Thomas Olanrewaju Osunsami, also of St. Louis) at the William A Kerr Foundation on Laclede's Landing.

Sunday, May 14
Singer Denise Thimes (pictured, bottom left) presents her annual Mother's Day show raising money to fight pancreatic cancer at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Thimes' guest performers this year will include St. Louis singer and pianist Theo Peoples, who formerly toured with latter-day versions of both the Temptations and the Four Tops, and New Jersey-born teenage phenom Matthew Whitaker, a blind multi-instrumentalist who's drawn comparisons to a young Stevie Wonder.

Also on Sunday, Israeli composer and improviser Ofir Klemperer will perform at Kismet Creative Center, with opening sets from Chelsea Gray and Alex Cunningham.

Monday, May 15
Trumpeter Jim Manley continues his weekly residency at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, May 16
Singer Wendy Gordon presents her latest production, "Remembering the Legends," at the Sheldon Concert Hall, with guest performers including Linda Kennedy, Jeanne Trevor, Rosemary Watts-Dreyer, Joe Mancuso, Jerome Davis and Marty Abdullah.

Also on Tuesday, the twice-monthly St. Louis Gypsy Jazz Jam, hosted by guitarist Paul Davis of Wack-A-Doo, has a new night of the week and a new home at Stone Spiral Coffee House & Gallery.

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.)