Sunday Session: October 29, 2017

Ambrose Akinmusire

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Jazz Night in America: At the Ojai Music Festival, Vijay Iyer Showcases Improvisation (WBGO)
* Joni Mitchell: Fear of a Female Genius (TheRinger.com)
* No alternative: how brands bought out underground music (The Guardian)
* Classical and Jazz musicians show different brain responses to unexpected events, study finds (PsyPost.org)
* Why anyone that says the recording industry is dead is wrong (AudioHertz.com)
* October Revolution in Jazz & Contemporary Music 2017 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Music Publishers Want to Create a Comprehensive Song Database — 15 Years Too Late (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* A bold venture to restore Gershwins' music (Chicago Tribune)
* Blue Note All-Stars' Debut Album Paints A Portrait Of Contemporary Jazz (NPR)
* Bernie Grundman’s Mastering Masterclass (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* The 50 Best Jazz Saxophonists Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The World’s Most Remote Record Store, And Other Cool Stats (Discogs.com)
* Entry Point: Sonny Rollins Bridge Project (Rutland Herald)
* Marsalis, Krall, Corea Among DownBeat Readers Poll Winners (DownBeat)
* Fats Domino, New Orleans' founding father of rock 'n' roll, has died at age 89 (New Orleans Advocate)
* Fats Domino, Architect Of Rock And Roll, Dead At 89 (NPR)
* Playing Boogie Woogie With Fats Domino (The Paris Review)
* Fats Domino: Remembering a Rock and Roll Pioneer (The Atlantic)
* Little Richard Remembers Fats Domino: 'He Could Make a Piano Talk' (Rolling Stone)
* Ambrose Akinmusire on Current Trumpet Greats (Jazz Times)
* AUM Fidelity’s World of Free Jazz and Elemental Light (Bandcamp.com)
* The life and death of the indie-rock heyday (Vox.com)
* The Beatles’ Popularity Is Plunging on Google & YouTube (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Sonny Clark Steps Out of the Shadows, on a Revelatory New Reissue From 1960 (WBGO)
* The Greatest Week in the History of Avant-Garde Jazz (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Talent And Tourism Keep Blues Alive In Clarksdale, Mississippi (NPR)
* Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: What John Coltrane Borrowed From Ravel (WBGO)
* How club culture and EDM inspired jazz musicians (Financial Times)
* Magnetic Tape and the Emergence of High-Fidelity Recording (TelosAlliance.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on John Wiese

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring John Wiese, who's coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, November 11 at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

Wiese, who was born in Kansas, grew up in St. Louis, and now lives in Los Angeles, is an "artist, composer, publisher of books and records, graphic designer, typographer, and various other things" who has been called "one of the last decade’s most sophisticated and accomplished sound artists" by Vice.com.

According to the descriptive copy on New Music Circle's website, Wiese "doesn’t really think of himself as a musician in the traditional sense, and instead of writing purely notated music he works with manipulating, cutting and arranging sounds electronically. The end product is more like a meticulous collage, built upon dense, nuanced sounds ranging from the minimal to the frenetic."

Since graduating from the California Institute of the Arts in 2001, Wiese has performed at venues and festivals all over the United States, Europe and Japan, and has released hundreds of recordings as a solo artist, collaborator, and under pseudonyms and/or project names including Sissy Spacek and Bastard Noise.

For his St. Louis performance, he has created a new site-specific work that will include more than 20 local musicians. And in addition to his concert, Wiese also will take part in several other events while he's in town, including a public presentation on Wednesday, November 8 at Washington University and a screening of some of his short films on Thursday, December 9 at the Moolah Theatre. (You can see the complete list of collaborating players and associated events here.)

Since it's impossible to show videos of a piece that hasn't premiered yet, today's collection of clips instead offers a chance to check out Wiese's general aesthetic via several of his solo performances, starting up above with an excerpt from a show in April 2015 at Pariah in Dallas, TX.

After the jump you can see two more excerpts from performances in 2014 and 2013 at the Los Angeles art gallery 356 S. Mission Rd, and excerpts from shows at the Debacle Fest 2013 in Seattle and a performance in March 2012 in Cork, Ireland.

Finally, you can see a short video interview with Wiese (complete with French subtitles) from 2016, and a 2014 clip in which he goes shopping at Amoeba Music in Hollywood as part of their "What's In My Bag?" web series.

For more about John Wiese, check out the feature about him published in April 2016 by Vice.com, and his 2015 interview with Bomb magazine.

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:

* Tonight's 7:30 p.m. set by Sammy Miller and the Congregation at Jazz at the Bistro will be streamed live online by Jazz St. Louis. You can see it on JSL's website, their Facebook page, or on UStream.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was named one of "10 New Artists You Need To Know" in the October issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Harrold (pictured) also was featured on a recent episode of B-Side, a web series produced and curated by the BRIC arts and media nonprofit in Brooklyn, NYC.

* A recent show by saxophonist Dave Sanborn, and his kindness to a young fan, are the subjects of a feature story on AllAboutJazz.com.

* New Music Circle will present a free program of short films by composer and electronic musician John Wiese at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, November 9 at the Moolah Theatre & Lounge. Wiese will be in town for a concert presented by NMC on Saturday, November 11 at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

* In conjunction with a talk this week at Washington University, bassist, author and educator Paul Steinbeck was interviewed about Message to Our Folks, his book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby was interviewed on a recent episode of the Neon Jazz podcast.

* The Sheldon has posted to Facebook a set of photos from the Hudson concert earlier this month.

* Euclid Records has released a free smartphone app, with a barcode scanner that provides access to sound samples, plus info on new releases and store events, and more. The app is available for both Android and iPhone via Google Play and the iTunes app store.

* Actor and singer Alice Ripley's show last weekend for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* The remains of the hull of the Goldenrod Showboat - which for decades on the St. Louis riverfront served as the site for performances of traditional jazz and ragtime - were destroyed in a fire last week in Calhoun County, IL.

* The Regional Arts Commission is surveying the St. Louis arts and culture community in conjunction with EVOKE, a new initiative described as "a cultural planning process that seeks to elicit, inspire and explore how the arts can become more relevant in addressing St. Louis’s cultural challenges...The outcome of the conversations, studies, data gathered and ideas shared will be a regional cultural plan designed to guide RAC’s work and evolve our vision for a more vibrant and equitable future for St. Louis." You can weigh in by taking the survey online here.

* Chasing Trane, the documentary about saxophonist John Coltrane that briefly played in movie theaters earlier this year, will be broadcast as part of the PBS series Independent Lens and will air in St. Louis at 10:00 p.m. Monday, November 6 on Nine PBS (aka KETC).

Jazz this week: John Pizzarelli, Sammy Miller and the Congregation, a tribute to Thelonious Monk, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the St. Louis debut of an up-and-coming young band; a tribute to a distinctive jazz composer and pianist; the return of a longtime local favorite for a benefit performance; and more. 

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 25
Pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Montez Coleman will salute one of the greatest composers in jazz in the first of two nights of a "Thelonious Monk Centennial Celebration" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Wednesday, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features cornetist and singer T.J Müller at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, a jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 26
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents "Streams of Extremity II," a free concert featuring pianist Ptah Williams, guitarist/bassist William Lenihan, drummer Steve Davis, and a string trio performing and improvising based on the music of Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and more.

Elsewhere around town, New Orleans keyboardist and singer John "Papa" Gros returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a quintet at The Dark Room

Friday, October 27
Drummer/singer Sammy Miller and the Congregation (pictured, center left) will make their St. Louis debut and wrap up a week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

For more about Miller and his band of twenty-somethings, plus some sample performances on video, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival presents singer and pianist Eric Comstock and singer Barbara Fasano in a one-night-only performance of their cabaret show "Downton Abbey Road: The Best of Britain" at the Gaslight Theater.

Elsewhere around town, the Midwest Jazz-tette returns to Evangeline's, and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, October 28
Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli (pictured, top left) will perform for the annual "ArtSounds" benefit gala at the Sheldon Concert Hall. (For those interested in just hearing the music, the Sheldon may have some concert-only tickets available; check with their box office for details.)

Also on Saturday, the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday October 29
The Folk School of KDHX presents their monthly traditional jazz jam session; the Bosman Twins (pictured, bottom left) will headline a benefit at the Sheldon raising money for the Royal Vagabonds scholarship fund; and the students of the JazzU Big Band will perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

Monday, October 30
Saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead a quintet of members of the Webster University jazz faculty in "1967: Jazz in Transition" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

The program will feature performances of songs first released in 1967 by artists including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Lloyd, Gary Burton, Sam Rivers, Chick Corea, and more.

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: October 22, 2017

Abdullah Ibrahim

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Why are foreign bands being denied entry into the United States? (Alternative Press)
* Q&A with Don Was: Capturing the Blue Note Vibe (DownBeat)
* The Top Uses of Billie Holiday Songs in Movies or TV (TVOverMind.com)
* When Prince Asked Miles Davis to Play With Him (Diffuser.fm)
* Charnett Moffett: On Loss, Love & Vibrational Healing (Jazz Times)
* Critic's Notebook: Bill Murray, Classical Music's Unlikeliest Star (Hollywood Reporter)
* No alternative: how brands bought out underground music (The Guardian)
* Wadada Leo Smith continues to tinker with his masterpiece (Houston Chronicle)
* MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey stretches musical definitions (Chicago Tribune)
* Who Are the Best-Selling Artists of All Time? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Star-Studded Concerts Planned in NYC to Aid Puerto Rico (DownBeat)
* Jazz Legend James “Blood” Ulmer Walks the Line Between Melody and Improv (Bandcamp.com)
* Why Is Sun Ra Suddenly Having His Moment? (Rolling Stone)
* Uber, But for Millennials Who Want Orchestras in Their Living Rooms (Wired)
* Thelonious Monk's Quiet, Slow Conquest of the World (The Atlantic)
* Which Sounds Better, Analog or Digital Music? (Scientific American)
* Abdullah Ibrahim: How Improvisation Saved My Life (NPR)
* Shaping the ’70s: Simon Draper and the Story of Virgin Records (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* David Torn: Making Records, Film Composition, and Working With David Bowie (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Could city takeover of embattled American Jazz Museum improve its fortunes? (Kansas City Star)
* Two months before the American Jazz Museum bounced checks to artists, it spent how much on a Learjet flight? (Pitch Weekly)
* Meet the Artist Single-Handedly Reviving a Dying Form of Music (Vice.com)
* Herbie Hancock riffs on the ‘ethics of jazz’ (Wisconsin Gazette)
* Philip Glass Reveals His Love for the Cello (The New Yorker)
* What’s actually going on when people talk about digital vs. analogue masters (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Sexism in Jazz, From the Conservatory to the Club: One Saxophonist Shares Her Story (WBGO)
* Perfect Pandemonium: The Art Ensemble Of Chicago At Cafe Oto (TheQuietus.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Sammy Miller and the Congregation

This week, let's get acquainted via video with drummer Sammy Miller and his band, the Congregation.

The NYC-based group will make their St. Louis debut next week as part of an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, wrapping up their time here with performances on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Along with Miller on drums and vocals, the Congregation includes Alphonso Horne (trumpet), Ben Flocks (tenor sax), Sam Crittenden (trombone), David Linard (piano), and John Snow (bass).

Their debut album The Mixtape, released earlier this year, contains a mix of originals and covers, including several familiar standards. "It isn’t traditional jazz, but perhaps there’s this idea of joyful jazz: music that’s medicinal and can uplift people,” Miller said in an interview with Jewish Journal.

You can see for yourself what that's like in today's videos, starting with the first clip up above, which features Miller and the Congregation performing Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley's "Black and Tan Fantasy" in 2015 at Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem.

After the jump, there's a video of them doing the New Orleans standard "Li'l Liza Jane," recorded in 2017 at Live at The Woods in Brooklyn, New York.

That's followed by two tracks recorded in April of this year at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Antonio," and “Blues Don’t Bother I,” recorded in January 2016 at Sofar New York.

The final video shows a full set of Miller and the Congregation recorded in April 2016 at the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

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:

* Singer and actor Alice Ripley's cabaret show  was previewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson.  Ripley performs here tonight and Saturday night for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival.

* Electronic musician and composer John Wiese will present a free, public composition workshop at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 8 in Room 4 of Tietjens Hall on the Washington University campus. Wiese (pictured) will be in St. Louis for a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, November 11 at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall theater.

* The 2018 St. Louis International Film Festival, which will take place November 2-12 at various venues around town, includes a number of films with musical subjects, notably the local premiere of Mr. Handy's Blues, a documentary about "St. Louis Blues" composer W.C. Handy.

The festival's screening of the Handy bio at The Stage at KDHX will be paired with a live performance by singer Valerie "Miss Jubilee" Kirchoff, cornetist TJ Muller, and pianist Ethan Leinwand. You can see the entire festival schedule here.

* Drummer Dave Weckl and bassist Tom Kennedy are headed for Europe next month, touring with guitarist Mike Stern and saxophonist Bob Malach as the Mike Stern/Dave Weckl Band. The group will play dates in Germany, Austria, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, The Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Slovakia and Poland, and then return to the USA for a half-dozen shows in December on the West Coast.

* Pianist Peter Martin's music education video company Open Studio Network was featured in an article on AVClub.com.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby was interviewed on Philadelphia radio station WRTI's program "The Bridge"

Jazz this week: Harold López-Nussa, Filippo Cosentino, Alice Ripley, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a pianist from Cuba, a guitarist from Italy, a cabaret show from a singer and actress who has earned Broadway's highest honor, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 18
Cuban-born pianist Harold López-Nussa makes his St. Louis debut in the first of four evenings at Jazz at the Bistro. For more about López-Nussa (pictured, top left) and some video samples of him and his trio in action, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, Bach to the Future and guitarist Dave Black will perform for the Webster Arts series at Cyrano's, and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Glen Smith at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 19
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present "From Torino - Music of Italian Film Composers," a free concert featuring Italian guitarist Filippo Cosentino, guitarist and bassist William Lenihan, and the Sogni D'Alba String Trio.

Elsewhere around town, violinist Christopher Voelker's trio plays The Pat Connolly Tavern, drummer Kaleb Kirby’s Animal Children returns to The Dark Room, and Cabaret Project St. Louis will present their monthly "Broadway Open Mic" at the Curtain Call Lounge.

Friday, October 20
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival's fall series resumes with Tony Award-winning actress and singer Alice Ripley (pictured, bottom left) performing for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Friday, singer Feyza Eren returns to the Webster Groves Concert Hall.

Saturday, October 21
Saxophonist Dave Stone will play a free matinee show at Saxquest, and trumpeter/vibraphonist Joe Bozzi and his band return to Evangeline's

Sunday, October 22
Miss Jubilee will play for brunch at Evangeline's, and singer Chuck Flowers will perform a late-afternoon show BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups

Monday, October 23
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays for diners and drinkers at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, October 24
Bassist, educator and author Paul Steinbeck will discuss his book Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago in Room 142 of Olin Library on the Washington University campus. The free, public event is part of the Washington University Library Faculty Book Talk series.

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.)

New Orleans funk/jazz band Galactic to perform Thursday, March 15 at Delmar Hall

The New Orleans-based funk/jazz band Galactic (pictured) is returning to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, March 15 at Delmar Hall.

Over the last few years, they've played here several times at Delmar Hall's sibling venue The Pageant, most recently in March 2014. Their most recent recording is Into the Deep, which came out in 2015 on the Provogue label.

Tickets for Galactic at Delmar Hall are $25 in advance, $30 day of show, with a $2 surcharge for minors, and will go on sale at 10:00 this Friday, October 20.

Sunday Session: October 15, 2017

Thelonious Monk

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Black Musicians on Being Boxed in by R&B and Rap Expectations: “We Fit in So Many Things” (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: A coworking space for musicians, and artists as startups (CDM.link)
* Composer Philip Glass Says Scoring Jane Goodall Doc Was 'Challenge': Interview (Billboard)
* Magic in the method: The Art Ensemble of Chicago live in New York (Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches)
* How Karaoke Secretly Became a Major Driver of Innovation (Vice.com)
* Homages and Tributes for the Thelonious Monk Centennial, But No Competition (For Now) (WBGO)
* 10 Things You Didn't Know About Thelonious Monk, by His Son T.S. Monk (Jazz.org)
* Think of Thelonious Monk (The New Yorker)
* A Century Of Song: Monk At 100 (SFJAZZ.org)
* After Midnight: Thelonious Monk At 100 (NPR)
* The Met and the Philharmonic Look Backward (The New Yorker)
* An Interview With Louis Armstrong House’s Research Director, Ricky Riccardi (Offbeat)
* Grady Tate, Prodigious Jazz Drummer And Noted Vocalist, Dies At 85 (NPR)
* Drummer and Singer Grady Tate Dies (Jazz Times)
* Tyshawn Sorey, A Musical Shapeshifter, Wins MacArthur 'Genius' Prize (NPR)
* The Man Who Forgot He Was a Rap Legend (GQ)
* Hallelujah! The Songs We Should Retire (NPR)
* Live Review: October Revolution of Jazz & Contemporary Music (Jazz Times)
* The Boston Public Library Owns 200,000 Vinyl Records — And It’s Putting Them All Online (WBUR)
* Will Recent Court Rulings Endanger the Future of Biopics and Documentaries? (Hollywood Reporter)
* Can Atlanta Become the Music Industry's Next Business Hub? (Billboard)
* Fear and the Future of Live Music (PSmag.com)
* In Detroit, Artists Rebuild with the City or Get Squeezed Out (Paste)
* How Dan Deacon Collaborated With Rats To Make His Latest Film Score (NPR)
* Human speech, jazz and whale song (PHYS.org)
* The Devaluation of Music: It’s Worse Than You Think (Medium.com)
* Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares (OvergrownPath.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Harold López-Nussa

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on pianist Harold López-Nussa, who will make his St. Louis debut with performances starting this coming Wednesday, October 18 and continuing through Saturday, October 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Now 34 years old, López-Nussa grew up as part of a musical family in Havana, Cuba. His father, drummer Ruy Francisco López-Nussa, and uncle Ernán, a pianist, both were working musicians; his mother Mayra Torres was a piano teacher; and his younger brother Ruy López-Nussa is the drummer in Harold's trio.

Following that family tradition, López-Nussa began playing piano in grade school, and studied classical music through his teenage years and into his twenties, ultimately earning a degree in classical piano from the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA) in Havana.

He first gained wide attention outside Cuba in 2005 by winning the jazz solo piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Since then, López-Nussa has led his trio in performances at major jazz festivals including Montreux, Monterey, Montreal, Tokyo, and many others, and at major venues in Europe, Asia and the USA, including the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and SFJAZZ.

Thanks to the relaxation of trade restrictions between the United States and Cuba, he was able to release his most recent album, 2016's El Viaje, via the Detroit-based Mack Avenue label. You can hear López-Nussa's trio and some of the material from El Viaje in the first video up above, which documents their set at the 2016 Moers Festival in Germany.

After the jump, there are two more full sets, one from a show in 2015 at la Fabrica de Arte Cubano in Havana, and one recorded in 2014 at the Cosmo Jazz Festival in Chamonix, France.

Next, you can see the trio in a couple of informal clips, shot close-up by audience members in relatively small venues. The first is a song called "Paseo," recorded in February 2016 at La Zorra y el Cuervo in Havana, Cuba, and the second is "New Day," recorded in October 2015 at the SideDoor Jazz Club in Olde Lyme, CT.

The final video is a brief interview with Harold López-Nussa, produced by the website Havana Cultura.

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:

* Italian guitarist and composer Filippo Cosentino will present a free, public lecture and discussion at 4:30 p.m. next Wednesday, October 18 in the Grand Room at the Washington University Alumni House (located behind the music department on Forsyth). Cosentino (pictured) will perform the following night (Thursday, October 19) for the Jazz at Holmes series at Wash U.

* Having wrapped up his duties as artistic director of the 2017 Sopot Jazz Festival in Poland, saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby will be back in the USA for a Thanksgiving week tribute to the electric music of Miles Davis at the NYC club Iridium. Other members of the tribute ensemble include trumpeter Randy Brecker, drummer Steve Smith (of Journey and Vital Information), and bassist Lonnie Plaxico.

* If you've ever wondered whether the arts are a moneymaker for the local economy, a study released this month by Americans for the Arts shows that in 2015, the not-for-profit arts and culture industry in the St. Louis area generated $591 million in annual economic activity, supporting 19,129 full-time equivalent jobs and yielding $57.7 million in local and state government revenue.

(Note that this figure doesn't include for-profit ventures in theater, visual arts, or the music industry - ranging from big arena shows and concert clubs, to one-person gigs at neighborhood venues, to support services like music stores and recording studios - so if anything, it probably understates the total economic impact of arts-related businesses.)

* St. Louis-based publishers Worship Jazz have released two new "jazz nativity" scripts for the holiday season, "What Child is This?" and "Angels from the Realms." Both include full staging instructions and music suggestions from the company's book Jazz Christmas Carols, Volume 2. For details, samples from the scripts, and pricing information, see the Worship Jazz website.

* Missouri student composers in grades K-12 can win awards and cash prizes for their original music in a variety of genres, via the University of Missouri School of Music's Creating Original Music Project (COMP). Entries for the 2018 competition are being accepted now; for more information, visit the COMP website.

Jazz this week: Arturo Sandoval, Moon Hooch, Paula West, Hudson, The Wee Trio, and more

It's a big week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a half-dozen noteworthy headliners performing in various styles visiting the area over the next few days.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 11
The weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features Mark Wallace at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, a jam session with bassist Bob Deboo and friends at Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, the students of Washington University's Monday Night Jazz Band will present a free concert at the 560 Music Center's Pillsbury Theatre.

Thursday, October 12
If  you're up for a short road trip, trumpeter Serafin Aguilar, best known for his work in Maynard Ferguson's band, will be just down the road in Flat River on Thursday, performing with the MAC Kicks Band and MAC Jazz Ensemble at the Mineral Area College Theater in Flat River.

Also on Thursday, guitarist Dave Black plays at The Pat Connolly Tavern, and singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's.

Friday, October 13
The saxophones-and-drums trio Moon Hooch (pictured, bottom left) returns, bringing their distinctive "acoustic techno" sound to the Old Rock House.

For more about them and some video samples of recent performances, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, the Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is back for the first of two nights paying tribute to his mentor Dizzy Gillespie at Jazz at the Bistro; and singer Paula West kicks off the fall series of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival with the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Saturday, October 14
The "supergroup" Hudson (pictured, top left), featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John Scofield, keyboard player John Medeski and bassist Larry Grenadier, brings their first-ever nationwide tour to the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Elsewhere around town, the New Orleans Suspects return to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and The Gaslight Squares and Miss Jubilee will perform on a double bill at Das Bevo Biergarten.

Sunday, October 15
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Pat Joyce and clarinetist Scott Alberici at the Webster Groves Concert Hall; and singer Mary Dyson performs at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Monday, October 16
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays for diners and drinkers at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, October 17
The Wee Trio, featuring bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis, will be back in the area for a performance at SIU Edwardsville's Dunham Hall, augmented by members of the university's jazz faculty for select numbers from their most recent album Wee +3 .

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: October 8, 2017

Antonio Sanchez

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Trane of No-Thought: How Meditation Inspired Jazz Great John Coltrane (LionsRoar.com)
* Jazz and Communism? The Perfect Oxymoron - Paquito D’Rivera considers the implications of International Jazz Day 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66 (Rolling Stone)
* An Appreciation of Tom Petty: Rock’s Superstar Everyman (Variety)
* Free Falling with Tom Petty (The New Yorker)
* Tom Petty's final interview: There was supposed to have been so much more (Los Angeles Times)
* Judd Apatow Revives Mainstream, Bob Shad's Independent Record Label (WBGO)
* Nextbop Interviews Kendrick Scott (NextBop.com)
* The Meaning of Soul Music According to Raphael Saadiq (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: Ashley Kahn on Thelonious Monk's Legacy (Keyboard)
* Antonio Sánchez Brings Electronics and Politics To 'Bad Hombre' (NPR)
* Herbie Hancock: Why he thinks the audience is a member of his band (Philly.com)* A New Model for Paying Musicians a Living Wage? (East Bay Express)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Kamasi Washington on the Music That Made Him a Jazz Colossus (Pitchfork.com)
* Why British DJs From the ’60s and ’70s Kept Their Best Records Secret (AtlasObscura.com)
* The Philosophy & Music of Devo, the Avant-Garde Art Project Dedicated to Revealing the Truth About De-Evolution (Open Culture.com)
* Puerto Rico's 'Singing Newspapers' (NPR)
* The Unknowable Joni Mitchell (The Atlantic)
* Live Sound Processing and Improvisation (New Music Box)
* Mike Stern: Playing Through the Pain (Jazz Times)
* Photos: New York Hot Jazz Festival at the McKittrick Hotel - Cyrille Aimée, Bria Skonberg, Anat Cohen and more swing the fest's fifth edition (Jazz Times)
* European Jazz Conference 2017 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Speed of sound – how Spotify killed the long intro (The Guardian)
* After year of silence, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra ready to move on without founder Irvin Mayfield (New Orleans Advocate)
* I Wrote a Hit Song With Justin Bieber. Want to See My Royalties? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Beats? How Blade Runner impacted electronic music (FactMag.com)
* Kate Bush, Radiohead, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Nominated For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (NPR)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago Celebrates 50 Years Of Channeling And Challenging History (NPR)
* Jazz Drummer Alvin Queen Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Dropped Charges From 50 Years Ago (Billboard)
* On the Cultural Specificity of Symphony Orchestras (CreateEquity.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A few sips of Moon Hooch

This week, let's sample some videos from Moon Hooch, who are returning to St. Louis to perform on Friday, October 13 at the Old Rock House.

The NYC-based trio - drummer James Muschler and saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen - met while attending The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC, and got their start in 2010 busking in subway stations.

With some help from some fortuitously timed national media attention, including one of the most-viewed episodes ever of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, they've developed into a busy touring act and have released five recordings in all, the most recent of which is the CD + DVD set Live at the Cathedral, which came out in June of this year.

While the members of Moon Hooch trained as jazz musicians, their sound as a band is something else, drawing heavily on electronic dance music and also influenced by hip-hop, metal, and even a bit of Indian classical music.

McGowen has called it "acoustic techno," and evoking the feel of electronic music on acoustic instruments requires the two saxophonists to use various extended techniques - some of their own invention, like inserting a plastic traffic cone into a sax - while also demanding considerable amounts of precision and stamina from all three musicians.

You can get an idea of what this sounds like and see how they pull it off in today's videos, starting with the first clip up top, which was made in November 2016 in the studios of radio station KJHK in Lawrence, KS, and features them playing "Number 1," "Number 7" and "Bari 3."

After the jump, you can see and hear three more tracks (with somewhat less generic-seeming titles), all recorded in February of this year at the studios of Paste magazine in NYC. They are, in order, "Red Sky," "Light It Up" and "Contrabass Dubstep."

The final two videos, "Acid Mountain" and "Growing Up," were recorded in August 2017 in the studios of radio station KBOO In Portland, OR.

For more about Moon Hooch, check out the interview with them published in July by The Guardian newspaper, and this feature from August in EZH magazine.

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:

* Trombonist Steve Swell will present a free, public "artist's talk" at 4:00 p.m. today (Friday October 6) in Room 102 of Washington University's music classroom building.

Swell (pictured) is in St. Louis to lead his quintet in New Music Circle's season-opening concert on Saturday night at The Stage at KDHX.

* Speaking of Washington University, bassist, educator and author Paul Steinbeck will discuss Message To Our Folks, his book about the history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, as part of Wash U's library faculty book talk series at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 24 in room 142 of the Olin Library on the Wash U campus. The event is free and open to the public.

* Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly is the subject of a photo feature on the website Sound of STL, and her performance Wednesday night at Jazz at the Bistro was briefly reviewed on the website of Sophisticated Living magazine. Kelly continues at the Bistro through Saturday night.

* The Wee Trio's upcoming concert on Tuesday, October 17 at SIU Edwardsville was previewed by the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

* KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, which serves as one of the sites on the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl," is getting a new menu, a new operator, and a new name. According to reports published this week by Feast magazine and others, chef Rob Connoley will take over the restaurant, renaming it Squatter's Cafe, on Wednesday, November 1.

* The annual musical instrument drive sponsored by Music for Lifelong Achievement was the subject of a feature story on KTVI-Fox 2's morning news.

* "Wayfaring Traveler," a track from trumpeter Keyon Harrold's new album The Mugician that features guest performances from Jermaine Holmes, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Robert Glasper, this week made it onto Apple Music's jazz playlist "The A List."

* Singer Debby Lennon will star in the upcoming production of the musical comedy Souvenir being staged by Max & Louie Productions from Thursday, December 14 through Sunday, December 31 at The Marcelle in Grand Center.

The show tells the story of the notoriously tone-deaf Florence Foster Jenkins, "a real-life socialite who set elite eardrums in Manhattan a-trembling in a series of notorious private concerts during the 1930s and 1940s...Her flamboyant costumes and uninhibited love of music was as much her trademark as her inability to sing on key."  Jenkins' story also was the subject of an eponymous 2016 feature film starring Meryl Streep in the title role.

Jazz this week: Grace Kelly, Steve Swell Quintet, Kevin Eubanks, a benefit for Puerto Rico, and more

The fall presenting season is gathering some momentum this week, as the calendar of jazz and creative music for the next few days in St. Louis includes three significant touring headliners - two of whom are making their local debuts - plus a benefit raising money for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 4
Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly (pictured, top left) makes her St. Louis debut in the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

For more about Kelly and some video samples of recent performances, take a look at this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Wednesday, guitarist Dave Black plays solo at Evangeline's, and the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features saxophonist Andy Ament at KDHX's Magnolia Café, a jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 5
Singer Kim Fuller will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, percussionist Joe Pastor leads a trio at The Dark Room, and saxophonist Vince Sala brings his trio to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, October 6
The Puerto Rican Society of St. Louis presents "STL Stands Up For Puerto Rico," a benefit performance to raise money for hurricane relief on the island, at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park. The event will feature music from Orquestra Son Montuno, Farshid Etniko, Clave Sol, Mark Holland, and more.

Saturday, October 7
Veteran free-jazz trombonist Steve Swell makes his St. Louis debut, leading an all-star quintet in a concert presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

Swell's band (pictured, bottom left) features pianist Dave Burrell, bassist William Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, and saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, and you can find out more of them and see some video performances here.

Sunday, October 8
Guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who's gotten very good notices for his post-Tonight Show efforts both on stage and on records. returns to the St. Louis area to perform in the intimate confines of the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. 

Also on Sunday night, the Coleman Hughes Project plays an early evening show at Troy's Jazz 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.)

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of a new month, and so it's time to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where every day there's a new post of an online music video, draw from 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:

Kurt Elling - Live at the Newport Jazz Festival
Tony Bennett & Diana Krall - "The Best Is Yet to Come"
The Soul Rebels - Live in Philadelphia
Maynard Ferguson - "Whatcha Thinkin'"
Big Sam's Funky Nation - "See Me Dance"

Other recent posts have featured the Ed Palermo Big Band, Canned Heat, McCoy Tyner Trio with Gary Bartz & Bill Frisell, Candy Dulfer, J Geils Band, The Skeletons, Colosseum, Wes Montgomery, The Who, Hamiet Bluiett, William Parker & Hamid Drake, Dexter Gordon, The Soul Rebels, George Benson, Mavis Staples, Mallard, Can, Buddy Guy, Free, Dave Holland & Prism, Pharoah Sanders, Tommy Flanagan, Mary Halvorson Octet, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, Ahmad Jamal, and Barbara Dennerlein.

You still can see all of these videos, plus thousands more from the carefully selected archives, just by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Sunday Session: October 1, 2017

Bud Powell

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Why Do Orchestras Seem to Play Behind the Beat? (WQXR)
* How jazz is becoming the sound of resistance once again (Salon.com)
* Patti LaBelle: New Jazz Attitude (Jazz Times)
* An introduction to Jon Hassell in 10 records (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Giving peace a chance? Music can drive us apart as much as it unites (TheConversation.com)
* Reminiscing with Latin-jazz legend Eddie Palmieri (Jazz Times)
* From Louis Armstrong to the N.F.L.: Ungrateful as the New Uppity (The New Yorker)
* Labels And Artists Lending A Hand To Those Affected By Natural Disasters (NPR)
* Meet Jason DeMarco, The Reason Adult Swim’s Music Is So Good (Pitchfork.com)
* A Century Of Song: Monk At 100 (SFJAZZ.org)
* Playlist of the Lambs: psychopaths may have distinct musical preferences (The Guardian)
* Frank Zappa’s 1977 Halloween residency to be released as 158-track costume box set (ConsequenceOfSound.com)
* 70s boombox makes comeback, attracts new generation (KyodoNews.com)
* Was the Blues Born on a Vaudeville Stage? (PopMatters.com)
* Spotify Is Paying $2.77 Million a Month In Rent for Its World Trade Center Offices (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* How Facebook Is Trying to Avoid a Public Relations Disaster with Songwriters (TheStreet.com)
* Bizarre footage shows trumpet-playing bear travelling in motorcyclist's sidecar while sitting at traffic lights (The Mirror)
* America's Small Cities Are Betting Their Second Act on Festivals (Jezebel.com)
* New York Hot Jazz Festival Electrifies McKittrick Hotel (DownBeat)
* The Summer of Yoko Ono Ends with Shrieks and Screams (Smithsonian)
* Bud Powell Revisited (NEPR.net)
* Coltrane’s Hidden Gems: A Seeker’s Guide (EstheticLens.com)
* A Walk Through The Avant-Garde World of ‘Art Rap’ Music (Bandcamp.com)
* Hugh Hefner's Big Contributions to Jazz (WBGO)
* Technician of the Sacred - Three recent books demonstrate that John Cage is overdue for a populist revival (Utne.com)
* Ostrava Days, Brooklyn Nights - On Hypocrisy and Insularity in New Music (Atavist.com)
* Linda Ronstadt: 'I don’t like any of my albums' (The Guardian)
* Culture Clubs: A History of the U.S. Jazz Clubs, Part I: New Orleans and Chicago (AllAboutJazz.com)
* How Instagram Became The Music Industry’s Secret Weapon (Fast Company)
* A Guide to U.K. Jazz in 2017 (Bandcamp.com)
* Q&A: John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring (Jazz Times)
* Which Two Songs Are the First to Be Encoded Into the Fabric of Life? (AtlasObscura.com)