April is Jazz Appreciation Month

It's almost time once again for Jazz Appreciation Month, the annual celebration of jazz music sponsored every April by the Smithsonian Institution.

Now in its 17th year, Jazz Appreciation Month (or JAM) was created "to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and its importance as an American cultural heritage. In addition, JAM is intended to stimulate the current jazz scene and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz—to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and support institutional jazz programs."

This year, JAM "celebrates the relationship between jazz and justice by looking beyond the music to the dynamic ways jazz has played a transformative role in social justice, musician's rights, and equality since its birth in America."

To tell this story, for the first time JAM will not feature a musician, but instead highlight "one of the most influential non-musicians in jazz history," producer Norman Granz, who "devoted his life to civil rights and equality - within the music industry and beyond. Through numerous record labels and his iconic touring show, Jazz at the Philharmonic, he helped propel many jazz musicians to greatness." You can learn more about Granz at the Smithsonian's website.

At the end of the month, jazz fans worldwide also will celebrate the seventh annual International Jazz Day on Monday, April 30. Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Jazz Day is designed to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners of the globe.

The "global host city" for 2018 is Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, and though there will be an all-star International Jazz Day concert, no plans have been announced yet regarding a broadcast or webcast of that show. There also will be hundreds of related events taking place in cities all over the world (though, alas, there are none scheduled here in Missouri).

In the meantime, if you can't wait to get started, the Smithsonian offers a list of "ways to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month," and has produced a poster (pictured) honoring Granz and six musicians - bassist Charles Mingus, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane - whose careers intersected in some way with the producer and impresario.

The second in a three-year series featuring a triptych of artwork by LeRoy Neiman, the 2018 posters are distributed for free to schools, libraries, music and jazz educators, music merchants and manufacturers, radio stations, arts presenters, and U.S. embassies worldwide, and anyone can request  a copy here. You also can see and download commemorative posters from the previous 16 years of JAM here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: C. Spencer Yeh and Andrew Lampert

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring musician and artist C. Spencer Yeh and artist, curator and filmmaker Andrew Lampert, who will be joining forces for a performance presented by New Music Circle next Saturday, April 7 at The Luminary.

Yeh is a violinist, vocalist and electronic musician who studied film in college; Lampert is an artist and filmmaker who frequently collaborates on multimedia performances and sometimes plays music. For their St. Louis show, each man will do a separate set, and then they'll perform together for the evening's finale.

Born in Taiwan, Yeh studied film at Northwestern University in Chicago and is known for his musical project Burning Star Core and for collaborations with artists such as Tony Conrad, Thurston Moore, Jandek, Ben Hall and Don Dietrich, Nate Wooley, Colin Stetson, Okkyung Lee, John Wiese, Chris Corsano, and many others.

Lampert, who's originally from St. Louis, was trained as a film archivist and previously was a curator for Anthology Film Archives in New York City. In his own work, he "explores the cinematic experience as content, experimenting with the physical spaces between projector, projectionist, audience and screen, and with the experiences made possible through their convergence."

What this most likely means in terms of their performance here is that Lampert will be projecting images from a variety of sources – 8mm film, 16mm film, and digital video - and cutting and mixing them in real time, presumably in response to the sounds Yeh is producing with his violin, vocals, and electronic gear running through a quadrophonic (i.e four discrete channels) sound system.

Since this will be the first time that Yeh and Lampert will have performed together, there's no way to "preview" the show in any meaningful sense, and in any case, an online video is only going to capture a portion of what happens in a multi-media show like the one they'll be doing.

What is possible, though, is to show you some of the work Yeh and Lampert have done individually, in hopes of conveying some idea of what their collaboration may be like.

The first video up above is a recording of Yeh's performance at the 2017 New Media Art & Sound Summit in Austin, TX, in which he's using his quadrophonic setup to process and playback material drawn from recordings of the RCA Mark II synthesizer, the first programmable synthesizer ever built.

After the jump, you can see two more of Yeh's solo performances, from March 2014 at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, TX, and March 2012 at Studio Soto in Boston, that demonstrate more of the range of his sets.

The fourth clip is a 2014 interview with Yeh, in which he talks about the development of his work, the Burning Star Core project, and his approaches to using voice, violin and abstract sound.

As for Lampert, the nature of his performance work makes it difficult to document in the usual ways, so there's not much pertinent footage available online. That said, today's fifth video is a recording of a gig he did with percussionist Chris Corsano in 2014 in Austin, TX that may have some relevance to how he'll approach his St. Louis performance. The sixth and final clip is a brief excerpt from a performance that Lampert did with video artist Greg Pope in 2011 in Norway, offering another glimpse of his live modus operandi.

For more about Andrew Lampert, read the brief feature about him from 2010 in Bomb magazine, and his 2014 interview published on the website of the School of Art Institute of Chicago.

For more about C. Spencer Yeh, read the feature story about him in the December 2017 issue of Interview magazine and the interview with him published in 2016 on the website of Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

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

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2018-19 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced their season schedule for 2018-19.

Keyboardist Jon Batiste will kick off the hall's jazz subscription series on Saturday, October 20. Other concerts in the series will feature singer Dee Dee Bridgewater (pictured), performing music from her recent release paying tribute to Memphis soul (Saturday, November 17); singer Dianne Reeves (Saturday, February 9); and pianist Eliane Elias (Saturday, March 2).

In addition, saxophonist James Carter will return to perform with pianist Peter Martin's trio in a non-subscription "special concert" on Sunday, May 19.

The hall's "Coffee Concerts" series, presented on select Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, also will feature some musicians of potential interest to StLJN readers, including Cornet Chop Suey (October 9 & 10); singer Feyza Eren (November 13 & 14); and The Gaslight Squares (April 9 & 10), while the Saturday matinee series will include concerts from singer Anita Jackson (February 2) and guitarist Dan Rubright of the Wire Pilots (April 6).

Season tickets for the jazz series are $160 orchestra, $145 balcony; Coffee Concerts are $70 orchestra, $60 balcony; and Saturday Matinee tickets are $25 for adult subscriptions, $10 per child. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 14 and continue through the first concert in each series via the Sheldon's website or by phone at 314-533-9900.

Single tickets, which range in price from $30 to $50 for concerts in the jazz series, will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 11 at the Sheldon and all MetroTix outlets.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer, actor, and Webster University faculty member Debby Lennon has won this year's award for "best actress in a comedy" from the St. Louis Theater Circle for her portrayal of would-be diva Florence Foster Jenkins in Max & Louie Productions' staging of Souvenir. The production won five awards in total from StLTC, including "outstanding comedy."

* St. Louis native and Washington University alumnus Olly Wilson (pictured), a composer, musician, musicologist, and emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley whose students included drummer Tony Williams, has died at age 80.

* Keyboardist Ryan Marquez appeared Thursday on the morning newscast at KTVI (FOX2) to promote his album release show this Saturday night at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* The release this week of the CD box set Miles Davis/John Coltrane - The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 already has prompted media coverage including a column from The New Yorker's Richard Brody, a review on Pitchfork.com, and a story about "When Miles Davis and John Coltrane Scandalized Paris" via OZY.com.

* Pianist Peter Martin was profiled this week in Keyboard magazine's "Talent Scout" column.

* Just in time for New Orleans' tricentennial, singer, trumpeter (and University City native) Jeremy Davenport has released a song paying tribute to his adopted home, "One Way Ticket to New Orleans."

* Chris Hansen of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation was interviewed about the foundation's new residency program for musicians by McGraw Millhaven of KTRS .

* Keyboardist Jim Hegarty has released a new recording in his Secret Sessions series, available as a free download from Bandcamp. The latest volume, recorded on February 25, documents a live improv session featuring Hegarty on modular synthesizer with Tracy Andreotti (cello), Eric Paul Mandat (clarinets), Greg Mills (piano, melodica), Claude Montgomery (bass), George Sams (flugelhorn), Steven Thomas (guitar), and Fred Tompkins (flute, bass flute).

* The Riverfront Times is looking for up to 30 local musical acts who would like to be part of  ShowcaseSTL 2018, a two-day "concert crawl" on Saturday, June 16 and Sunday, June 17 that will feature more than 100 performances at various venues in the Grove. To find out more about the event and how to submit materials for consideration, go here.

Kranzberg Arts Foundation begins "Music Artist in Residence" program

The Kranzberg Arts Foundation (KAF) has announced a new "Music Artist in Residence" program intended to identify "band leaders with original projects and provide them with the performance, rehearsal and recording opportunities that assist them with advancing and building their careers."

The first group of residents consists of nine performers who already are involved with the foundation through performances at the Kranzberg Arts Center and/or The Dark Room, including bassist Bob DeBoo, keyboardists Mo Egeston, Jesse Gannon, Owen Ragland and Ptah Williams, singer Anita Jackson, saxophonist Ben Reece, bassist and singer Tonina Saputo, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor (pictured).

As artists in residence, they'll continue regular performances at those venues and in conjunction with other programs within the Grand Center Arts District. What makes the residency program new are the additional forms of support being deployed on their behalf, including marketing help, free rehearsal and office space, and more.

Residents will have access to cooperative office space and conference rooms at .ZACK, with rehearsal spaces provided at Kranzberg Arts Center and other KAF venues, said Chris Hansen, executive director of the foundation, in an email to StLJN. The foundation also will provide funding for "paid radio and print, social media, digital activation, as well as helping them (with) graphic design, photography and other essential tools," he said.

In addition to the in-house support from the foundation, Clayton Studios will donate studio time towards production of a compilation album featuring the artists in residence. The album, release date TBD, will be available through digital outlets, along with a "small number" of CDs, Hansen said.

Also, Listen Live Entertainment, producers of the annual LouFest Music Festival, will "provide the artists with main stage opportunities at the festival and other satellite events, plus other exciting opportunities to be announced later."

In total, Hansen said the foundation will spend more than $100,000 annually on the residency program. That's over and above the fees paid to the musicians for performances, and encompasses all the marketing and support services, as well as recent upgrades to The Dark Room including a new piano, sound system, and an in-house sound technician.

While this first group of residents was selected from among performers who had existing relationships with the foundation, that could change in the future. "We will be creating a formal submission process for the next round of residents," said Hansen. "Currently we have not set a definitive time on the residencies. It has been an organic process and we want to serve the current residents until we feel like their and our goals are met."

Jazz this week: The Baylor Project, Don Dietrich & Ben Hall, "Essentially Ellington" festival, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the local debut of a Grammy-nominated act featuring one of the city's own; a rare local appearance from a founder of one of the most uncompromising free jazz/noise bands of all time; several student ensembles showing off what they've learned this year, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 28
The Baylor Project makes their St. Louis debut with the first of four nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

Led by singer Jean Baylor and her husband, drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured), they were nominated this year for Grammy awards in both jazz and R&B categories. You can find out more about them and see some videos of live performances in this post from last week.

Also on Wednesday, singer Joe Mancuso performs for the last night of his winter residency at Taha'a Twisted Tiki, and the "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features the St. Louis Steady Grinders at The Stage at KDHX, the weekly jam session hosted by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, March 29
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert featuring Washington University Jazz Studies Students; guitarist Dave Black leads a trio at The Dark Room; and saxophonist Andy Ament plays at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, March 30
The closing concert of the annual "Essentially Ellington" festival at SIU Edwardsville's Dunham Hall will feature the participating student bands, plus the SIUE Concert Jazz Band and jazz faculty and visiting clinicians including trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Reggie Thomas, bassists Rodney Whitaker and Jeff Campbell, and drummer Dennis Mackrel.

Also on Friday, Oikos Ensemble presents "Good Friday Blues - A Jazz Lamentation" at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Evangeline's; and guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran wraps up his winter residency at Das Bevo Underground.

Saturday, March 31
Traditional jazz bands including the Riff Raff Jazz Band, Annie and the Fur Trappers, and Roya and the High Timers will perform in a benefit for clarinetist and sculptor Rudy Torrini at Yaquis on Cherokee;

Also on Saturday, keyboardist Ryan Marquez celebrates the release of his album Moving Forward In Time with a show at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and singer Feyza Eren and bassist Willem von Hombracht will duet at the KindaBlue Club.

Sunday, April 1
Saxophonist Don Dietrich, best known as one of the founding members of the apocalyptic free-jazz group Borbetomagus, teams with composer/sculptor Ben Hall for a performance at The Sinkhole; Tim Cunningham headlines a bill featuring fellow saxophonists Antoine Washington, Terry Grohman and Kendrick Smith at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and the The Jazz Troubadours return to Evangeline's.

Monday, April 2
Webster University Student Jazz Combos perform at Webster's Community Music School.

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.)

Big Sam's Funky Nation to perform Friday, September 14 at Old Rock House

Big Sam’s Funky Nation is coming back to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Friday, September 14 at the Old Rock House.

The group (pictured), led by trombonist "Big Sam" Williams, is set to release a new album, Songs in the Key of Funk, in May. They were named “Best Band In New Orleans” in 2016 in the local magazine Where Y’At's annual writer’s poll, and last played here in St. Louis in March 2017 at the Schlafly Tap Room.

Williams, who is the great-grandson of legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden, previously played with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and with singer/songwriter and pianist Allen Toussaint, and from 2010 to 2013 also had a recurring role on the HBO series Treme.

Tickets for Big Sam's Funky Nation at Old Rock House are $15, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 28 via Metrotix outlets.

Sunday Session: March 25, 2018

Sun Ra

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Chick Corea remains perpetually active: "I don't know what 'retire' means." (San Diego Union Tribune)
* ‘Keeping The Blues Alive’: Watch Exclusive Interview With Muddy Waters’ Daughter (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Streaming is easy but I don't want idiots listening to my favourite albums (The Guardian)
* Q&A with Ethan Iverson (BlueWallStudio.com)
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Sharing the Passion for Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Buell Neidlinger 1936-2018 (TheBlueMoment.com)
* At 80, Charles Lloyd Continues to Explore (DownBeat)
* A Message Behind the Music: Jazz and Social Justice (SFJazz.org)
* Milford Graves: Full Mantis (4Columns.org)
* Marian McPartland: A Centennial Celebration (NPR)
* How We Reverse Engineered the Cuban “Sonic Weapon” Attack (IEEE.org)
* Artist’s Choice Playlist: Steve Jordan on Masters of Swing & Groove (Jazz Times)
* How Today's Blockbuster Soundtracks Are Launching New Artists to Stardom (Rolling Stone)
* The 25 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time (Rolling Stone)
* These Women Make A Living By Singing at People's Funerals (Vice.com)
* How The Sound Of Country Music Changed (NPR)
* Afrofuturist and Jazz Pioneer Sun Ra’s Legendary Indianapolis Concert (Nuvo.net)
* U.S. Music Industry Hits Highest Revenue Mark in a Decade, Fueled by Paid Subscriptions (Billboard)
* Guitar Center’s $1 billion in debt reveals this truth about musical tastes (Los Angeles Daily News)
* Will Spotify Eat the Music Industry? (Motley Fool)
* In Tennessee, music is being made deep below Earth's surface (Rock Hill Herald)
* At Lawrence Jam Sessions, An Unusual Instrument Lets Everyone Make Music Together (KCUR)
* Jane Bunnett And Maqueque: The New Queens of Afro-Cuban Jazz (NPR)
* Brain Damage Saved His Music (Nautil.us)
* ‘I realised that no-one in the music business knew what they were doing’(MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on The Baylor Project

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on The Baylor Project, who will be making their St. Louis debut starting next Wednesday, March 28 through Saturday, March 31 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Fronted by singer Jean Baylor and drummer Marcus Baylor, her husband and a native of the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, they released their first album The Baylor Project (The Journey) in 2017 and were nominated for Grammy Awards this year in the categories of Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance.

Previously, Marcus had been known for his work as a member of the jazz-fusion band Yellowjackets from 2000 to 2010, while Jean, using her maiden name Jean Norris, sang with Zhané, the hip-hop/soul duo known for 1990s hits such as "Hey, Mr. DJ" and "Groove Thang" and later had released a couple of solo albums.

The music they make as The Baylor Project draws on those varied influences, blending contemporary jazz with R&B/soul and adding a bit of gospel flavor, which seems fitting for a couple of preachers' kids. But rather than read further description, you can see and hear for yourself in the first clip up above, a performance of their Grammy-nominated song "Laugh and Move On" recorded in November 2017 at the studios of radio station WERS in Boston.

After the jump, you can see them play Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me a Bedtime Story," with original lyrics by Jean Baylor, and Mongo Santamaría's "Afro Blue," as recorded in January of this year in the studios of WBGO in Newark, NJ.

The last three videos were recorded in the music room at South Restaurant in Philadelphia, circa February 2017, and feature the Baylors performing their interpretations of the well-known hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and the standards "Tenderly" and "Our Love Is Here To Stay."

For more about The Baylor Project, check out their interview from earlier this week with the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn; their segment on Radio 103.9 New York from February 2018; their appearance on The Tom Joyner Morning Show last December; and the audio of their appearance in January on WBGO's "Morning Jazz," which includes an interview as well as a couple more songs.

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 Denise Thimes, who just moved to Chicago but is back in St. Louis this weekend to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, got a warm welcome to the Windy City, courtesy of what can only be described as a rave review from the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich for her shows last weekend at Winter's Jazz Club downtown.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor and singer Jean Baylor of The Baylor Project were interviewed in advance of their appearance next week at Jazz at the Bistro by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Message to Our Folks, the book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago written by bassist and Washington University professor Paul Steinbeck and released last year by the University of Chicago Press, has been translated into Italian as Grande Musica Nera. Published by Quodlibet, the Italian edition (pictured) is being celebrated this week with a book release event at the Bergamo Jazz Festival.

* Jazz Times is offering readers a chance to win a free copy of the soon-to-be-released CD box set Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Final Tour. You can enter the drawing for the giveaway here.

On a related note, NYC radio station WBGO last week previewed a live version of Davis' "So What" from the set as part of their weekly online feature "Take Five."

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, rapper Q-Tip will star as the trumpeter in a staged reading of My Funny Valentine, a new play by Nelson George about "a day in the life of the jazz giant."  The reading happens this coming Monday, March 26 at Joe's Pub in NYC.

* Trumpeter Freddie Hendrix will play the part originally conceived for the late Hugh Masekela when pianist Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya present “Jazz Epistles - The Story in Concert” on Saturday, April 14 at The Sheldon. Hendrix's resume ranges from work with jazz artists including saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, the Count Basie Orchestra and the Christian McBride Big Band, to backing up singers such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys.

* St. Louis has what might be called a cameo role in the promotional campaign for Standing Room Only, a forthcoming collection of previously unreleased performances by singer Frank Sinatra that will come out in May as a 3-CD set and in digital formats from Capitol/Universal Music Enterprises.

To promote the release, the label has posted online a clip of Sinatra singing “Fly Me To The Moon” with the Count Basie Orchestra recorded in 1965 at Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. Although the performance is not included in Standing Room Only, which collects shows from 1966 at the Sands in Las Vegas, 1974 at The Spectrum in Philadephia, and 1987 at Reunion Area in Dallas, you can watch the video here.

Whitaker Music Festival announces 2018 schedule

The Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden has announced their schedule for 2018.

The free concert series, presented Wednesday nights at the Garden from late May through the end of July, seems to be recalling its roots as "Jazz in June" a bit with this year's schedule. It features more jazz (or at least jazz-adjacent) performers than it has in the recent past, starting with multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris (pictured) on Wednesday, June 6.

Other concerts that may be of particular interest to StLJN readers include trombonist Charlie Halloran (June 13), Acoustik Element (June 27), Funky Butt Brass Band (July 4), and trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber and the Electro Funk Assembly (July 25).

The series kicks off on Wednesday, May 23 with a show by soul singer Gene Jackson, and also will include performances by rock/Americana acts Brothers Lazaroff (May 30) and John Henry (June 20), blues guitarist Ivas John (July 11), and Al Holliday and The East Side Rhythm Band (July 18).

The Whitaker Music Festival shows start at 7:00 p.m., and all concerts are free and open to the public.

Jazz this week: The Thing, Denise Thimes, Charlie Hunter, Victor Wooten Trio, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features several stellar singers; the local debut of an esteemed free jazz trio; some straight-up bebop; funky sounds from New Orleans, California, and beyond; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 21
Singer Brian Owens performs for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, revisiting some of the jazz material he did earlier in his career, with backing from pianist Adam Maness' trio.

(Thursday's show will features Owens' current working band, the Deacons of Soul, with an emphasis on songs recorded for his most recent album The Soul of Cash, an R&B-flavored re-imagining of songs associated with country music legend Johnny Cash.)

Also on Wednesday, the Ambassadors of Swing return to Tin Roof St. Louis downtown; and singer Joe Mancuso is back at Taha'a Twisted Tiki in The Grove.

Thursday, March 22
New Music Circle presents the Scandinavian free-jazz trio The Thing (pictured, top left) at Off Broadway. Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love have been working together since the turn of the century, touring and recording frequently as a trio and also playing with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Joe McPhee, James "Blood" Ulmer, and singer Nenah Cherry.

This is their St. Louis debut, and there seems to be a good deal of interest in the show, so if you're planning on going, don't be late. For more about The Thing and some videos of their live performances, see this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Thursday, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert featuring trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet playing 1940s and '50s bop in the style of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and guitarist/violinist Christopher Voelker of Dizzy Atmosphere leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, March 23
Singer Denise Thimes (pictured, center left) who recently moved from St. Louis to Chicago and got a rave review from the Chicago Tribune for her first shows there, will be back home to present a tribute to Nina Simone in the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

A few blocks away, Jeanne Trevor - another longtime favorite St. Louis female vocalist who, unfortunately, gigs infrequently these days - will perform with guitarist Dave Black and bassist Willem von Hombracht at The Judson House.

Also on Friday, pianist Ptah Williams will be in his usual spot at The Dark Room; the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran does the penultimate gig in his winter residency at Das Bevo Underground.

Saturday, March 24
Guitarist Charlie Hunter (pictured, bottom left) returns to lead a trio with singer Dara Tucker and drummer Damon Grant at Off Broadway; the New Orleans Suspects are back for another performance at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and trumpeter Jim Manley is playing at One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar.

Sunday, March 25
Miss Jubilee performs for brunch at Evangeline's; pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with singer Kim Fuller and saxophonist Larry Johnson play a late-afternoon concert at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, and singer Mary Dyson is back with an early evening show at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Monday, March 26
Webster University's Student Jazz Combos will show off what they've learned this semester with a concert at the Community Music School.

Tuesday, March 27
Bassist Victor Wooten and his trio with drummer Dennis Chambers and saxophonist Bob Franceschini will perform at the Old Rock House.  Wooten, who played the Chesterfield Jazz Festival here last summer with his family band, the Wooten Brothers, currently is touring in support of his most recent album Trypnotyx, which was released last fall and features Chambers and Franceschini.  For more about that, and some videos of recent live performances of material from the album, see this post from last Saturday.

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: March 18, 2018

Charles McPherson

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Syrian refugees using music therapy to soothe the trauma of war (ABC.net.au)
* Meet the Electric Guitarist Who Gave Benny Goodman a Jolt (OZY.com)
* Inside the Gramercy: The Grit and Glamour of New York's Rock & Roll Hotel (Rolling Stone)
* The long, slow death of print music journalism (GlobalNews.ca)
* Dark and Deep Flows the River: An Interview with Wadada Leo Smith (PopMatters.com)
* The Treasured Preservation Hall Sousaphone Has Been Returned (Offbeat)
* Saudi Arabia's bootleg music shops (BBC)
* Why Labels Are Looking to Africa to Find the Next Global Pop Star (Billboard)
* Kurt Elling Remembers Jon Hendricks (Jazz Times)
* Blue Note Label Boss Don Was Is Not Ready to Give Up on Jazz (Forbes.com)
* The end of live music? (CompleteMusicUpdate.com)
* Kamasi Washington at Sydney Opera House: a defiant cry from a jazz star in his prime (The Guardian)
* Will Corporations Ruin Live Music in the Bay Area? (East Bay Express)
* Expert Introductions: The Quietus' Top 40 Genre Compilation Albums (TheQuietus.com)
* iHeartMedia Files for Bankruptcy (Variety)
* Charles McPherson: The Man and His Muse (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis builds an intentional community in jazz (Chicago Reader)
* Q&A with Paal Nilssen-Love: In a Natural Way (DownBeat)
* The Residents pay tribute to Sun Ra (and Barry White) (DangerousMinds.net)
* Here's a Playlist of Songs You Know But You Can’t Name (Lifehacker.com)
* Reconsidering Gene Krupa, A Great Jazz Drummer Hiding in Plain Sight (WBGO)
* Bobby Previte: the Art of Travelling Trustingly (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Quincy Jones: 20 Great Productions (Rolling Stone)
* Which Cities Get the Most (and Least) Concerts? (Priceonomics.com)
* The Man Who Made Violins Out of New York City Buildings (AtlasObscura.com)
* Celebrating the Free Jazz Revolution, in Black and White (Village Voice)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Victor Wooten Trio's Trypnotyx

Today, let's check out some videos of the Victor Wooten Trio, who are coming to St. Louis to perform Tuesday, March 27 at the Old Rock House.

Featuring Wooten on bass, Dennis Chambers on drums, and Bob Franceschini on tenor sax, the group is touring in support of their latest album Trypnotyx, which was released last September. The album feature 14 tracks of original material, with Wooten and Franceschini augmenting their instruments with various electronics to expand the sound, plus some guest contributions from singer Varijashree Venugopal and actor/comedian/"voicetrumentalist" Michael Winslow.

You can see Wooten, Chambers and Franceschini getting into something from the bassist's back catalog in the first video up above, which shows them playing "Zenergy" from his 1999 album Yin-Yang in a version recorded in January of this year at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco

After the jump, you can see live versions of some of the material from Trypnotiyx, starting with "Take Off" from that same Regency Ballroom gig; "DC10," recorded last October at the C2G Music Hall in Fort Wayne, IN; "The 13th Floor," from a gig in May 2017 at the Joy Theater in New Orleans; and "Funky D," recorded in January 2017 during the halftime of an NBA game at NYC's Madison Square Garden.

The sixth video is a full show, recorded on December 12 of last year at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC.

That's followed by a recording of Wooten's solo spot from the Joy Theater show, in which he touches on tunes including "You Can't Hold No Groove," "Sex In A Pan," and "Amazing Grace"; and a one-on-one interview with the the bassist, recorded in July of last year for the YouTube channel Scott's Bass Lessons.

For more on Victor Wooten and Trypnotyx, check out Wooten's interviews from December 2017 with the Boston music website RedLineRoots.com and the website For Bass Players Only

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:

* "Rubberband," a "lost" Miles Davis recording made after the trumpeter's mid-'80s switch of record labels from Columbia to Warner Brothers and then shelved, will be released as a vinyl EP (pictured) for Record Store Day 2018.

* On a related note, Paste magazine has posted online some tracks featuring Davis' band recorded live in 1970 at NYC's Fillmore East, just before the release of the trumpeter's landmark album Bitches Brew.

* And while we're on the subject of Miles Davis, Pitchfork's ongoing series of retrospective album reviews this week found a lot to like about his album Get Up With It, a compilation of tracks from various early '70s sessions released in 1974, just before Davis' infamous six-year hiatus from performing.

* Speaking of Record Store Day, pianist and St. Louis native Lawrence Fields performs on a special RSD release from Sound Prints, the band co-led by trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Joe Lovano. The limited-edition, green vinyl 45 RPM record on Douglas' Greenleaf Music label features Lovano’s new original tune “On Pebble Street” and an alternate take of "Scandal," a Douglas composition that's the title track of the band's forthcoming album.

* Trumpeter Kasimu Taylor, The Dark Room, saxophonist Kendrick Smith, and Thurman's in Shaw all were mentioned this week in an article about St. Louis by the New York Times' "Frugal Traveler" columnist Lucas Peterson.

* Applications for program grants from the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis are due on Friday, April 20.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn recently sat down with journalist/author Cal Fussman for an episode of Fussman's new podcast "Big Questions." The interview goes online soon at https://www.calfussmanpodcast.com/.

* Singer Denise Thimes was interviewed on the latest episode of the "Chicago Jazz" podcast from  ChicagoJazz.com.

* Jazz St. Louis is now accepting applications for their 2018-19 JazzU program for middle school and high school student musicians, with auditions set for Monday, June 4 through Thursday, June 7. Applications are due by Friday, April 27.

* Trumpeter and former East St. Louisan Russell Gunn's residency this week at Columbia College Chicago is the subject of an article in DownBeat.

* The Funky Butt Brass Band has posted to SoundCloud more than 30 tracks of audio from last weekend's gigs at Jazz at the Bistro.

Jazz this week: Melissa Aldana Quartet, Ben Wendel's "The Seasons," Galactic, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features performances from two stellar saxophonists, one of New Orleans' favorite funk bands, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, 
March 14
Saxophonist Melissa Aldana returns with her quartet for the first of four nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

Aldana, who was born in Chile and educated at Berklee, has enjoyed a fast rise in the jazz world since becoming the first female instrumentalist and the first South American to win the annual Thelonious Monk competition in 2013, thanks to her distinctive tone on tenor sax and a musical approach influenced by players such as Sonny Rollins, Don Byas and Mark Turner.

For more about Aldana, you can see and hear some samples of her playing on video in this post, which dates from her St. Louis debut two years ago, and read an interview with her published a few weeks ago by the Chicago Tribune here.

Aldana's sets also will be simulcast on video to the first-floor lounge opposite the Bistro, where they can be viewed for free as part of the "Grand Center Jazz Crawl,"  which this week also includes Jacob Alspach and Friends at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, March 15
Saxophonist Ben Wendel performs at The Ready Room. Wendel (pictured, top left), best known as a member of the cooperative band Kneebody, currently is touring with music from a project called "The Seasons," which featured 12 original compositions dedicated to musical friends and colleagues that were released as a series of duo performances on video over the course of a year.

You can find out more about Wendel and "The Seasons," and hear some of the compositions that have been expanded to full-band arrangements for the tour, in this post from a week ago Saturday.

Update: 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 14: StLJN has just gotten word from Ben Wendel's publicist that his St. Louis date has been cancelled. If you bought tickets, contact your point of purchase for refund details.

Also on Thursday, New Orleans funk/jazz band Galactic (pictured, bottom left) will be back for another visit to St. Louis, their destination this time being Delmar Hall; Cincinnati "garage jazz" band Animal Mother tops a bill that also includes Animal Children and saxophonist Dave Stone at Foam; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, March 16
Catch some of St. Louis' own at one of several weekly residencies happening on Fridays, including pianist Ptah Williams' trio at The Dark Room; singer and guitarist Tommy Halloran at Das Bevo Underground, or saxophonist Tim Cunningham at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Saturday, March 17
Pianist Christopher Parrish plays a matinee at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe as part of a new monthly series presented by the Friends of Scott Joplin.

Then on Saturday night, singer Tony Viviano will be doing his thing at Table Three, while keyboardist Mo Egeston offers late night grooves at The Dark Room.

Sunday, March 18
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents Miss Jubilee in concert at the Moolah Shrine Temple in Maryland Heights.

Monday, March 19
Trumpeter Jim Manley will be back at Momo's Greek Restaurant, and pianist Carolbeth True and saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will perform a duo concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

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.)

Jazz St. Louis adds more shows, including David Sanborn, for spring and early summer

Jazz St. Louis today announced five additional bookings for late spring and early summer at Jazz at the Bistro.

The slate of shows features a return visit from saxophonist David Sanborn (pictured), who will come back to his hometown to perform with a quintet (personnel TBA) from Wednesday, June 6 through Saturday, June 9 at the Bistro.

Also added to the schedule are performances from singer Erin Bode on Wednesday, May 2 and Thursday, May 3; pianist Peter Martin and Inner Circle on Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5; the student ensembles JazzU and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars with special guest saxophonist Antonio Hart on Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2; and the JazzU Big Band and the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra with Antonio Hart on Sunday, June 3.

Tickets for all these shows will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, March 16 via the Jazz St. Louis website or by phone at 314-571-6000.

Edited after posting to correct the end date of David Sanborn's engagement.

Sunday Session: March 11, 2018

Herbie Hancock

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Ben Sidran Remembers Tommy LiPuma (Jazz Times)
* An ‘Astral Weeks’ origin story, told 50 years after Van Morrison fled to Boston (Boston Globe)
* Big Ears 2018 – Q&A With Milford Graves (ArtsKnoxville.com)
* McCoy Tyner In The ’70s: Part 1 (BurningAmbulance.com)
* Herbie Hancock 'still learning,' as eclectic music icon works on new album with Kendrick Lamar, Wayne Shorter and more (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Why are concert tickets going on sale so early? And where does all that cash go? (Kansas City Star)
* 7 Candid Photos of Jazz Legends (BBC)
* Like A Cosmic Newspaper: Val Wilmer On Sun Ra (TheQuietus.com)
* How the classical took control of the jazz in ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Mere Virtuosity - Variations on a Slippery Idea (VQROnline.org)
* Inside the Bizarre, Booming Business of Turning Hit Songs into Baby Lullabies (Thrillist.com)
* Q&A with Steven Bernstein: On Respectability (DownBeat)
* Founder of Tower Records dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars (Sacramento Bee)
* Herbie Hancock Taps Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat for New Album (Rolling Stone)
* NPR’s Tiny Desk Is Actually Not Tiny at All (Vice.com)
* NME to close print edition after 66 years (The Guardian)
* Big Ears Announces Full 2018 Lineup (DownBeat)
* An Impressive Audio Archive of John Cage Lectures & Interviews: Hear Recordings from 1963-1991 (OpenCulture.com)
* There’s a Tuba Crime Wave Sweeping America (Wall Street Journal)
* The Many Dimensions of Drummer, Composer and Bandleader Allison Miller (WBGO)
* Van Morrison teams up with Hammond hero Joey DeFrancesco on new album You’re Driving Me Crazy (Jazzwise)
* A Cherished BBC Radio Show Asks Celebrities to Pick a Desert Island Survival Kit (AtlasObscura.com)
* For iconic jazz club Village Vanguard, music rather than food is its main gig (New York Business Journal)
* Taylor Ho Bynum Presents New Suite in Hartford (DownBeat)
* Linda Ronstadt: From Tucson to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, her lifetime love affair with music (AZCentral.com)
* The Original Noise Artist: Hear the Strange Experimental Sounds & Instruments of Italian Futurist, Luigi Russolo (1913) (OpenCulture.com)
* An Interview with Billy Cobham, Genius Drummer with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel, Etc. Etc. (The Stranger)
* Kobalt invests $150m in independent artists to challenge ‘stupidity’ of traditional major label deals (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Her Tiny Apartment is New York’s Most Secret Jazz Club (MessyNessyChic.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on The Thing

Today, let's check out some videos featuring The Thing, who will be in St. Louis later this month for a show presented by New Music Circle on Thursday, March 22 at Off Broadway.

With an energetic, extroverted style that's sometimes been called "Action Jazz" (after their 2006 album of the same name), saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten draw as much inspiration from punk rock and various world musics as they do from the jazz tradition.

Founded in 2000 in Stockholm, Sweden, they've recorded more than 20 albums to date, roughly split between releases credited only to The Thing and those that give equal billing to collaborators such as Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Joe McPhee, James "Blood" Ulmer, and singer Nenah Cherry, whose father, trumpeter Don Cherry, lived in Stockholm for years and served as an important initial inspiration for The Thing.

You can hear them in action starting up above with a performance of "Red River," recorded on October 15, 2016 at the Skopje Jazz Festival in Skopje, Macedonia.

After the jump, you can see them play "Viking" from their 2011 album Mono, recorded July 7, 2014 at the Skuespilteatret in Copenhagen, Denmark, followed by a full set from October 30, 2014 at Jazzhouse, also in Copenhagen.

Next, there's another full set from the 2014 Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria, featuring a sit-in from saxophonist Ken Vandermark, followed by a set from 2013 recorded at a venue called MDK Dragon in Poznań, Poland.

Last but not least, you can see an excerpt from a show that The Thing did in October 2015 for students at the Austin Discovery School in Austin, TX, demonstrating the visceral appeal of their approach to all sorts of audiences.

For more, read the interview Mats Gustafsson did last year with The Vinyl Factory; his 2015 interview with the website Something Else!; and his 2013 interview published by The Quietus.

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:

* This year for Record Store Day on Saturday, April 21, Resonance Records will release on vinyl two previously unheard albums by guitarist and St. Louis native Grant Green.

The two-LP set Slick! Live at Oil Can Harry's (pictured) was recorded on September 5, 1975 at the titular club in Vancouver, BC, while Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970) is a three-LP set compiling recordings from ORTF studios in Paris and the Antibes Jazz Festival.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted to Facebook a photo album from their performance last week at The Sheldon.

* And speaking of the Sheldon, they've posted to Facebook some photos from last Saturday night's performance by trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra.

* Thurman's in Shaw has hired Denise Mueller, formerly of The Dark Room, as its new general manager.

* Music educator, author, and STL Free Jazz Collective bassist Paul Steinbeck has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at Washington University.

* Episodes of the podcast "You'll Hear It," featuring pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness, are now available on Spotify.

* Martin also has a couple of new blog posts up on his Open Studio Network website, offering his take on "7 Essential Jazz Piano Albums" and a "7 Step Guide to Learning Jazz Piano."

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake last week was part of an all-star ensemble assembled for "The Sonic Universe Project" at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, along with multi-instrumentalists Douglas R. Ewart and Roscoe Mitchell, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, bassist Antony Cox, and percussionist Hamid Drake.

* Bassist and singer Tonina Saputo was profiled by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer. 

Jazz this week: Marilyn Maye, Jeanne Trevor & Dave Black, Funky Butt Brass Band, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes return gigs for an acclaimed veteran of cabaret singing and a favorite local act at the city's premier jazz club; a rare performance by one of St. Louis' own jazz divas; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...


Wednesday, March 7
Marilyn Maye (pictured, top left), who's sometimes called "the grand dame of cabaret," returns for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Not unlike Tony Bennett, Maye, who's set to turn 90 next month, draws on a deep knowledge of the Great American Songbook and seven decades of show business experience to deliver still-relevant performances seemingly in defiance of the passage of time. If you have any serious interest in cabaret singing and are not already a fan, catch her while you can, but know that Maye has a substantial local fan base, thanks to multiple appearances here in recent years, so advance reservations definitely are suggested.

Maye's opening night performance will be video-simulcast to the first-floor lounge adjacent to the Bistro as part of this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl," which also features guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Glen Smith at The Stage at KDHX; the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, March 8
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert titled "Women's Voices in Music" featuring Wash U students Helen Kaul, Hannah Gilberstadt, Nadia Irvin, Ella-Marie West, and Eden Diamond, accompanied by clarinetist Linda Gurney, pianist Kara Baldus, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Eddie Campbell.

Also on Thursday, singer Jeanne Trevor will make a rare appearance in a duet with guitarist Dave Black at The Pat Connolly Tavern, and the fusion/funk band SpaceShip returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, March 9
The Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured, bottom left) will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, with various friends sitting in to augment the ensemble, including singers Roland Johnson and Anita Jackson, guitarist Jimmy Griffin, keyboardist Dave Grelle, and more.

Also on Friday, the Original Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, March 10
Troy's Jazz Gallery celebrates five years in business with music from the Coleman Hughes Project; saxophonist and singer Cary Colman and her trio return to Evangeline's; and saxophonist Dave Stone and his trio continue their Saturday night residency at Thurman's in Shaw.

Sunday, March 11
Singer Chuck Flowers and pianist Dave Becherer will play for brunch at The Dark Room, and then that evening, the Dave Dickey Big Band returns to the adjacent Grandel Theatre, this month featuring guest vocals from singer Anita Jackson and an intermission performance by the Parkway Central High Schooll Jazz Band.

Monday, March 12
Trumpeter Jim Manley continues his regular Monday night gig at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, March 13
Miss Jubilee plays for the weekly "NOLA Swing" event at HandleBar.

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.)