Friday, January 31, 2020

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* In a ceremony this past Monday at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, pianist, guitarist and composer Adam Maness (pictured) received a St. Louis Arts Award from the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.

In conjunction with the award recognizing Maness as 2020's top "Arts Collaborator," the Council produced a brief video about him, which you can see here.

* Writing in Syncopated Times, Friends of Scott Joplin board member Magdalene Linck ponders the organization's future after the recent death of board president Bryan Cather.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed on the online video series PopkillerTV Plus.

* In an article for American Songwriter magazine, guitarist Pat Metheny tells "Why A Miles Davis Album Changed His Life Forever."

* Rhino Records and the Miles Davis estate have released an official music video for "So Emotional," a track from Davis' "lost" album Rubberband that was released late last year. The track and the video both feature vocalist Lalah Hathaway (daughter of the late singer, pianist and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway), and you can see the video online here.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Jazz this week: Norm Lewis, Aaron Diehl, Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes cabaret from a Broadway veteran; a solo concert from one of today's top young jazz pianists; four visiting players teaming up for a one-time-only collaboration, and more.  Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 29
Singer and actor Norm Lewis, who's starred on Broadway in shows including Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera, performs for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis as part of their series of co-presentations with Cabaret Project of St. Louis.

Also on Wednesday, singer Mardra Thomas headlines "An Evening of Jazz," rescheduled from earlier this month due to bad weather, at the Skip Viragh Center For the Arts at Chaminade College Prep; electro-jazz trio Vehachi plays the monthly concert series at the World Chess Hall of Fame; and keyboardist Jim Hegarty leads a quintet at The Dark Room as part of this week's "Wednesday Night Jazz Crawl" in Grand Center.

Thursday, January 30
Drummer Demarius Hicks leads a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and trumpeter Brady Lewis and BLStet return to The Dark Room.

Friday, January 31
Pianist Aaron Diehl (pictured, top left), who's played here before accompanying singer Cecile McLorin Salvant, makes his solo St. Louis debut performing in the "Annual Carlin Concert" for Washington University's department of music at the 560 Music Center.

You can sample some of Diehl's solo and trio playing on video in this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Friday, the ad hoc ensemble billed as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Group performs for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis. The group features four musicians who are doing educational residencies for the organization this week: saxophonist Camille Thurman (pictured, bottom left), trumpeter Pharez Whitted, bassist Endea Owens, and drummer Steve Fidyk.

Elsewhere around town, the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar; and pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson are back at Parkside Grille.

Saturday, February 1
Singer and guitarist Tommy Halloran headlines a concert at Focal Point; singer Lola Kristine and the Ryan Marquez Trio take the stage at Blue Strawberry; and jazz-fusion trio Tracer, with pianist Ptah Williams, bassist Darrell Mixon and drummer Gary Sykes, will move up their weekly gig at Troy's Listening Room by a day to avoid conflict with Sunday's Super Bowl.

Sunday, February 2
Singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will play a matinee at Alpha Brewing Company, and the Jazz Troubadours return for their monthly gig at Evangeline's.

Monday, February 3
Kicking off Black History Month, saxophonist Harvey Lockhart and his quartet will present "Yardbird Suite: A Charlie Parker Centennial Concert" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus.

Tuesday, February 4
Saxophonist Jason Swagler will lead his group in a concert at the Gaslight Theater.

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, January 26, 2020

Sunday Session: January 26, 2020

Jimmy Heath
Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Commentary: George Walker is the black composer you should know but don’t. Why that may change (Los Angeles Times)
* Jimmy Heath, Legendary Saxophonist, Composer and Jazz Educator, Dies at 93 (WBGO)
* Jimmy Heath 1926 – 2020 (Jazz Times)
*Harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite sees the old year out (Sonoma Press Democrat)
* John McLaughlin: “Listening to any kind of real music is a meditative experience” (TheHinduBusinessLine.com)
* Roberta Flack: 'My music is my expression of what I feel in a moment' (The Guardian)
* The Neuroscience of Drumming: Researchers Discover the Secrets of Drumming & The Human Brain (OpenCulture.com)
* Winter JazzFest Broadens Scope, Encompassing Physical and Mental Well-Being (DownBeat)
* Grammy Awards Nominating Is Marred by Insider Deals, Ousted CEO’s Complaint Alleges (Variety)
* Listen Deeper: The Strange Case Of Iannis Xenakis & Pauline Oliveros (TheQuietus.com)
* Dave Brubeck Archives Headed to Connecticut (Jazz Times)
* Kendrick Scott: Making Walls into Bridges (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Major Undertakings of Meredith Monk (DownBeat)
* All Sound Is Music: Laurie Anderson Interview (SFJAZZ.org)
* Psst! A Peek at 'Secrets Are the Best Stories,' Kurt Elling's New Album with Danilo Perez (WBGO)
* Louis Armstrong Musical A Wonderful World to Have World Premiere in Miami (Playbill)
* Birdland, The Jazz Corner of the World (Forbes.com)
* Vincent Herring on Charlie Parker’s Perennial Influence (DownBeat)
* Survival Records Returns with New Jazz Releases (Jazz Times)
* A Long Talk With James Newton Howard, One of Hollywood’s Most Accomplished Composers (Vulture.com)
* Chick Corea Is the Well-Tempered Clavierist (Jazz Times)
* Following Outrage, Discovery Networks Backs Down on Composer Ultimatum (Variety)
* Cecil Taylor: Looking (BurningAmbulance.com)
* Pete Brown: White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns, Part 1 (AllAboutJazz.com)

Saturday, January 25, 2020

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Christian Sands & "Remembering Erroll Garner"



It's been a good winter for St. Louis fans of jazz piano. We've got three top-shelf pianists performing here in as many weeks, starting last night with Matthew Shipp at the 560 Music Center; continuing next week with Aaron Diehl at the same venue; and then Christian Sands, who will be performing a program titled "Remembering Erroll Garner" on Saturday, February 8 at The Sheldon

Erroll Garner was a major star in jazz from the 1940s until his death at age 52 in 1977. He's probably most remembered today as the composer of the standard "Misty," but Garner's distinctive self-taught piano style, which incorporated elements from stride to bebop - effectively bridging the pre- and post-WWII eras of jazz - earned much respect from his contemporaries and still offers plenty to consider and enjoy.

Though Sands, a 31-year-old graduate of Manhattan School of Music who's originally from Connecticut, has played here before with bassist Christian McBride, his upcoming Sheldon performance will be his first here as a bandleader. So today's collection of videos attempts to provide an introductory overview of his playing via a half-dozen relatively recent performances, starting in the first video up above, which includes three tunes that Sands played in October 2018 at Paste Studio in NYC.

After the jump, you can see Sands, bassist Luques Curtis, and drummer and East St. Louis native Terreon Gully doing "My Funny Valentine" in November of last year at Cadogan Hall in London.

The next three videos show Sands performing "Can't Find My Way Home" in October 2019 at the Kahilu Theatre in Honolulu, HI; "Song Of The Rainbow People," recorded in 2018 at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles; and "L-O-V-E" in the studios of radio station WBGO in Newark, NJ.

The final clip features the pianist offering his take on a somewhat unlikely piece of material, the children's song "If You're Happy and You Know It," as recorded in February 2016 at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.

For more about Christian Sands, read the profile of him published last January in Jazz Times, and his interview with Keyboard magazine from 2017. One complete version of his Erroll Garner tribute show, as performed in June 2018 at Scullers in Boston, can be heard here.

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

Friday, January 24, 2020

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* A performance by trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold and a screening of the documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool will be featured during the upcoming "Celebration of Cool" at the famed Apollo Theater in NYC on Saturday, February 1.

* Euclid Records in Webster Groves (pictured) was noted as "The Largest Record Store In Missouri" by the website OnlyInYourState.com.

* New Music Circle administrator Jeremy Kannapell was interviewed about the organization's upcoming concerts by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.

* A recent episode of the podcast The Funky Blues Show focused on St. Louis, offering "a celebration of the Jazz and Blues tradition of one of the great musical cities of the USA, with music from Albert King, Roosevelt Sykes, Chuck Berry, Clark Terry, Donny Hathaway and many more."

* St. Louis County will get a new outdoor music venue later this year with the opening of Saint Louis Music Park, a new 4,500 seat facility at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights. The venue will debut on May 25 with a show featuring pop singer Kesha and hip-hop star Big Freedia, with operators promising to book acts from a variety of musical genres going forward.

* Singer Anna Blair's cabaret show last week at Blue Strawberry was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

J.D. Parran and K. Curtis Lyle to perform Saturday, February 8 at SLU's Xavier Hall

Multi-instrumentalist and St. Louis native J.D. Parran (pictured) is coming home to team up with poet K. Curtis Lyle and a group of local improvisors for a performance at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, February 8 at Xavier Hall on the campus of St. Louis University.

The concert is part of the "Jazz 'n Tongues" music-and-poetry series sponsored by SLU and the Nu-Art Series. Nu-Art's impresario George Sams will be part of the ensemble on trumpet and flugelhorn, along with bassist Darrell Mixon, violinist Alyssa Avery, and cellist Tracy Andreotti.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Jazz this week: Matthew Shipp, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Funky Butt Brass Band, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a solo performance from a singular pianist, the local debut of a rising star on organ, a new album release from a hometown favorite band, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 22
Organist Delvon Lamarr and his trio will make their St. Louis debut with the first of five nights of performances continuing through Sunday at Jazz St. Louis.

The Seattle-based Lamarr, who cites Booker T and the MGs as a major influence, formed the band in 2015 and they've issued two recordings so far, both of which made the top 10 of the US jazz albums chart.

Thursday, January 23
Pianist Kara Mehrmann and her quartet will perform in a free concert to kick off this semester's offerings from the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; drummer Steve Davis' band with singer Feyza Eren plays at Joe's Cafe; and guitarist Vincent Varvel leads a trio The Dark Room

Friday, January 24
Pianist Matthew Shipp (pictured, top left) will perform in a solo concert presented by New Music Circle and Washington University at 560 Music Center. (Shipp also will present a free "artist talk" on Friday afternoon in Room 102 of the Music Classroom Building on the Wash U campus.)

Shipp's improvised solo performances defy easy description, but you can sample several of them via video in this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Friday, the Jazz Troubadours perform at Evangeline's; singer Robert Nelson returns to Parkside Grille; and the eclectic multi-instrumentalist Sam Golden has rounded up a posse of like-minded St. Louis players to perform as Fiddlin' Sam and the Golden Bolo Band for a "Western Swing Showcase" at Focal Point.

Saturday, January 25
Singer and actress Sara Sheperd, who's starred on Broadway in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, brings her cabaret show "Female On Fire - A Celebration of Female Singer/Songwriters" to Blue Strawberry; Miss Jubilee performs for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and The Gaslight Squares return to the Frisco Barroom.

Sunday, January 26
The Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured, bottom left) will promote the release of their latest recording Onward with a matinee performance at Off Broadway; and jazz-fusion trio Tracer, aka pianist Ptah Williams, bassist Darrell Mixon and drummer Gary Sykes, continues their weekly residency at Troy's Listening Room.

Monday, January 27
Guitarist Dave Black leads a quartet in a concert at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus.

Tuesday, January 28
Singer Jan Shapiro, pianist Dave Venn and bassist Eric Warren perform at Evangelines, and Arvell Keithley, Jim Manley and the Wild, Cool & Swingin' Horns return for another encore performance at the Gaslight Theater.

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, January 19, 2020

Sunday Session: January 19, 2020

Gregory Porter
Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Beatles' Abbey Road tops US bestselling vinyl LPs of the 2010s (The Guardian)
* Gary Clark Jr.: "Music is my religion" (CBS News)
* Jason Moran is making jazz history. Don’t miss it.  (Washington Post)
* “If You’re in the Song, Keep on Playing”: An Interview With Pharoah Sanders (The New Yorker)
* Jonathan Kreisberg: A Spirit Captured in Constant Motion (AllAboutJazz.com)
* A music artist says Apple Music pays her 4 times what Spotify does per stream, and it shows how wildly royalty payments can vary between services (Business Insider)
* The Sound and Myth of Charlie Parker at 100 (DownBeat)
* Jazz singer Gregory Porter is an ex-lineman with a blues-infused soul (TheUndefeated.com)
* Umbria Goes Pop (DownBeat)
* The Past Year, And Decade, In Music Listening: Video Rules, The Boy's Club Remains (NPR)
* New remastered Charlie Parker box set coming this February (JazzFM.com)
* Spotlight: Capitol Records Architect Louis Naidorf Sets the Record Straight on Myth of Tower's Iconic Design (Billboard)
* How Chicago Label International Anthem Is Rewriting the Rules of Jazz (Pitchfork)
* For Its Fifth Collection, Newvelle Issues Material From Staaf, Douglas (DownBeat)
* Telstar: The Song, And The Future That Never Was (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Alex Winter’s Frank Zappa Doc ‘Zappa’ Premieres at South by Southwest (Rolling Stone)
* Watch a Video For "Revival," the Lead Single From Gregory Porter's Forthcoming Album (WBGO)
* New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Announces 2020 Lineup (Jazz Times)
* Jazz pianist Kris Davis on pushing the boundaries of the piano (CBC Radio)
* Andrew Cyrille Lays His Declaration of Musical Independence on UT (Austin Chronicle)
* Inspired by John Cage, an Italian Collector Commissioned Leading Artists to Transform Pianos Into Weird and Wonderful Sculptures—See Them Here (ArtNet.com)

Saturday, January 18, 2020

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase:
In the tradition with Aaron Diehl



This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring pianist Aaron Diehl, who's coming to St. Louis to perform on Friday, January 31 at the 560 Music Center.

The event is a solo piano recital presented by Washington University as its "Annual Carlin Concert," honoring the legacy of Seth Carlin, the internationally renowned pianist who taught at Wash U for 37 years. Carlin was a classical pianist who also enjoyed listening to jazz, and so in keeping with the occasion, Diehl will be playing vintage jazz and stride piano pieces from James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and others, plus works by George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Louis Gottschalk.

As a contemporary pianist with classical training who also is noted for his interest in pre-WWII jazz styles and material, Diehl seems particularly well-equipped for the task. You can get a taste of the range of his talents starting in the first video up above, which documents Diehl's part of "Rags, Strides, and Stomps," a show at the 2015 Jazz in Marciac festival (also featuring fellow pianists Joey Alexander and Sullivan Fortner). In the clip, Diehl performs "The Original Jelly Roll Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton, "Viper's Drag" by Fats Waller, and James P. Johnson's "Concerto Jazz-A-Mine."

After the jump, you can see him play another Johnson piece, "Caprice Rag," as recorded by an audience member at a show last year at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Jersey.

Next, you can see Diehl and trumpeter Dominick Farinacci take on Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" in a clip from 2009, followed by another video from that same year showing the pianist soloing on W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" during a celebration of the music of Louis Armstrong at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

Those are followed by two videos showing Diehl playing notated works from the classical tradition, starting with an excerpt from his performance last November of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, CA, and then Diehl and his trio playing Philip Glass' 2014 composition "Piano Etude No 16" in a live-in-the-studio video just released earlier this month by Mack Avenue Records.

The final video is an hour-long interview with Diehl, recorded in March 2019 at Library of Congress, in which he discusses jazz history with the Library's James Wintle.

For more about Aaron Diehl, read his interview from July 2017 with JazzWax.

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

Friday, January 17, 2020

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* A memorial service for the late Bryan Cather, ragtime historian and president of the Friends of Scott Joplin, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 25 at St. John's Episcopal Church, 3664 Arsenal (across from Tower Grove Park).

* The recent vinyl reissue box set (pictured) of Miles Davis' The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings was reviewed by Jazz Times.

* The soundtrack from director Stanley Nelson's documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool is set for release on Friday, February 21.

Titled Music From and Inspired by Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool, the album has 28 tracks of music and dialog from the film selected by Nelson. One of those tracks is a previously unheard recording, "Hail to the Real Chief," which combines unreleased studio trumpet performances by Davis with music by drummer Lenny White, performed by White, Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr, Marcus Miller, Jeremy Pelt, Antoine Roney, John Scofield, Bernard Wright, and others. You can listen to "Hail to the Real Chief" here.

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, fans of the trumpeter are being invited to submit original artwork to be used on an upcoming vinyl single release of "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" from Bitches Brew. For details, go to http://secret-7.com/

* KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi reviewed recent cabaret shows at Blue Strawberry by singers Christy Simmons and Emily Skinner.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Jazz this week: Mardra & Reggie Thomas, Jahmal Nichols, Todd Mosby + Bach to the Future, Lamar Harris, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis puts the spotlight on hometown performers, with the return of a local favorite couple who have moved away, a show teaming up two bands with distinctive approaches to jazz fusion, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 15
Bassist Jahmal Nichols, who's spent most of his time in recent years on the road with singer Gregory Porter, is back home for a visit and will lead his own band for the first of two nights performing at Jazz St. Louis.

Also on Wednesday, drummer Steve Davis leads a trio at Evangeline's, Miss Jubilee performs at Schlafly Bottleworks, and trumpeter Jim Manley continues his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, 
January 16
Guitarist Todd Mosby (pictured, center left) and his New Horizons Ensemble team up with Bach to the Future for a double-bill of jazz-fusion at Sky Music Lounge, and singer Anna Blair performs her cabaret show "Always..." at Blue Strawberry.

Also on Thursday, singer Cheri Evans and CEEJazzSoul perform at the Chase Club; keyboardist Ryan Marquez and his trio return to The Dark Room; and keyboardist Adam Maness' trio continues their weekly gig at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, January 17
Spouses and former St. Louisans Mardra and Reggie Thomas (pictured, top left), on vocals and keyboards respectively, will be back in town to headline "An Evening Of Jazz" at Chaminade College Preparatory School.

Also on Friday, multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Elsewhere around town, electro-jazz trio Vehachi plays at the house-concert venue the Judson House, and The Way Out Club hosts "Descension 1" the first installment in a new experimental music series produced by Josh Levi, this time featuring Jack Callahan aka die Reihe, Brain Transplant, and Martin Carriel and Joann McNeil.

Saturday, January 18
Multi-instrumentalist Joe Bozzi and his band return to Evangeline's, and The Dark Room features pianist Jesse Gannon at the dinner hour and drummer Kaleb Kirby's quintet for the late show.

Sunday, January 19
Singer and bassist Janet Evra (pictured, bottom left) performs for brunch at Evangeline's, while singer and guitarist Tommy Halloran is on stage at The Dark Room.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents a matinee performance of vintage jazz by The Gaslight Squares in the Oasis Room of the Moolah Shrine Center.

Also on Sunday afternoon, Oikos Ensemble presents "Dreams and Visions - A Jazz Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King" at St. John United Church of Christ in Collinsville.

Monday, January 20
The Folk School of KDHX hosts their weekly Traditional Jazz Jam Session.

Tuesday, January 21
Cabaret Project of St. Louis presents their monthly "Singers Open Mic" at Sophie's Artist Lounge.

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, January 12, 2020

John Scofield, Sean Jones to headline 2020 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival

The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival has announced that guitarist John Scofield and trumpeter Sean Jones (pictured) will be the headliners for the 2020 fest's concerts on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Scofield will perform on Friday, featuring music from his most recent recording Combo 66 with a band including keyboardist Gerald Clayton, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummer Bill Stewart.

His last gigs in St. Louis were an October 2017 date with the group Hudson at The Sheldon, and a week co-leading a band with saxophonist Joe Lovano in April, 2018 at Jazz St. Louis.

Jones will play on Saturday, teaming up with choreographer, dancer and vocalist Brinae Ali to present "Dizzy Spellz," which is described as "an Afro-futuristic lens exploring the intersection of cultural and spiritual dilemmas within the African Diaspora through the music of Dizzy Gillespie."

A frequent visitor to St. Louis in recent years, Jones' most recent gig here was with the "Bistro All-Stars"(also including saxophonist Tia Fuller, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and pianist Peter Martin) in February of last year at Jazz St. Louis.

The GSLJF also includes two days of adjudication, clinics, and performances by area high school big bands on the Wednesday and Thursday preceding the public concerts. This year's festival will be the first under the direction of pianist and educator Adaron "Pop" Jackson, who took over leadership of the University of Missouri-St. Louis' jazz program last fall after the retirement of former director and festival founder, bassist Jim Widner.

Tickets for both concerts are scheduled to go on sale, prices TBA, on Friday, January 24 via the Touhill box office.

Aaron Diehl to perform solo concert on Friday, January 31 at 560 Music Center

Pianist Aaron Diehl (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform in a solo concert at 7:30 p.m., Friday, January 31 at the 560 Music Center's E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.

The event is presented by Washington University as its "Annual Carlin Concert," honoring the legacy of Seth Carlin, the internationally renowned pianist who taught at Wash U for 37 years. Acknowledging the classical tradition, Diehl's program will include works by Gershwin, Copland, and Gottschalk, as well as music by James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and more.

Diehl, who turns 35 this year, is one of the top jazz pianists to emerge on the national scene in the last decade. He has released four albums as a leader, and has toured and/or recorded as a sideman with Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wycliffe Gordon, Warren Wolf, Lew Tabackin, Matt Wilson, and more. Diehl currently serves as musical director for singer CĂ©cile McLorin Salvant, and performed here in St. Louis most recently in October 2019, accompanying her in a concert at The Sheldon.

Tickets for Aaron Diehl's performance at 560 Music Center are $20 for adults, $15 seniors and Wash U faculty and staff, $5 students, free for Wash U students with ID, and are on sale now online and at the Edison Theatre box office on campus.

Sunday Session: January 12, 2020

James "Blood" Ulmer
Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* ECM at 50 (The Blue Moment)
* How To Like Jazz, For The Uninitiated (NPR)
* Buenos Aires International Jazz Fest survives fiscal crisis (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Berklee Surveys 10 Careers In Music And How Much Money You Can Make (Hypebot.com)
* The Hacker History Of Music Technologies (HackADay.com)
* Chris Lightcap: Two Become One (Jazz Times)
* Seeing Terrence Malick films through his use of music. His composers share what they know (Los Angeles Times)
* Philadelphia's Sigma Sound: The Studio Where Bowie Found His Soul (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Bill Frisell: New Ideas in Old Songs (Stereophile)
* Doors drummer John Densmore: ‘It took me years to forgive Jim Morrison' (The Guardian)
* Mark Stryker, Author of 'Jazz From Detroit,' on a City "Punching Way Over Our Weight Class" (WBGO)
* Roots Amid Chaos: Darcy James Argue Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* The Endless Potential Of The Pedal Steel Guitar, An Odd Duck By Any Measure (NPR)
* Guitar god James ‘Blood’ Ulmer recalls when Soho was a garment district (New York Post)
* Dr. Barry Harris to Receive Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award (Jazz Times)
* The Man Who’s Spending $1 Billion to Own Every Pop Song (Medium.com)
* End of an era: Pianist Ellis Marsalis retires from his 30-year gig at Snug Harbor (NOLA.com)
* How London’s Young Jazz Musicians Are Revitalizing the Artform (HypeBeast.com)
* “Chuck Berry lived to play live music. It was his absolute joy”: Charles Berry Jr on his father’s guitars, music and legacy (Guitar.com)
* Adam Rudolph: Ragmala and Prototypical Music (AllAboutJazz.com)
* How Music Copyright Lawsuits Are Scaring Away New Hits (Rolling Stone)
* Rush drummer Neil Peart dies at age 67 (Jazz.FM)
* Prince: Requiem for a bass hero (Guitar World)
* California’s new gig worker law is disrupting the music industry and threatening all performing arts (CalMatters.org)

Saturday, January 11, 2020

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase:
Spotlight on Matthew Shipp



Today, StLJN's video spotlight is focused on pianist Matthew Shipp, who will be performing a solo concert presented by New Music Circle and Washington University on Friday, January 24 at 560 Music Center.

Shipp also will present an "artist talk" that will be free and open to the public at 3:00 p.m. that Friday in room 102 of the Music Classroom Building on the Wash U campus.

With a distinctive style that defies easy comparisons, Shipp has said he sees his playing as part of the "black mystery school" of pianists, led by Thelonious Monk and including other singular talents such as Mal Waldron, Randy Weston, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, and Andrew Hill.

Since moving to New York in mid-80s, Shipp has been credited as leader or co-leader on nearly 70 recordings, playing solo; with a trio; in duos with bassist William Parker, saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Evan Parker, and others; and in larger groupings including stellar players such as trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Roy Campbell and saxophonist Marshall Allen. Shipp also forged enduring partnerships with two saxophonists, the late David S. Ware and Ivo Perelman, recording 20 albums with the former and, to date, more than 30 with the latter.

The last time Shipp was here in St. Louis, in March 2015, he performed with bassist Michael Bisio at The Stage at KDHX. This time, he'll be playing solo, and so today's post features several videos of his solo work, starting up above with a set recorded in September 2018 at Zurcher Gallery in New York City.

After the jump, there are four more sets of solo piano by Shipp in reverse chronological order, starting with one from April 2018 at a venue called Kaleidophon in Ulrichsberg, Austria, followed by another from November 2017 recorded at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Then, there's a set from August 2015 at Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Austria, and one from February 2014 recorded at Cafe Oto in London.

The final video shows Shipp playing a duo set with his frequent collaborator, bassist William Parker, in June 2019 during the 24th annual 24th Vision Festival at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY.

For more about Matthew Shipp, read his interview from May 2019 with Jazz Times, and his 2018 conversations with DownBeat and JazzTrail.net.

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

Friday, January 10, 2020

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The second episode of saxophonist David Sanborn's new online video series "Sanborn Sessions" went "live" this week on YouTube and elsewhere.

The episode is an all-St. Louis affair with singers Michael McDonald and Brian Owens (pictured, with Sanborn) as the featured guests, and you can see it in the video embed at the bottom of this post.

* Bryan Cather, a ragtime historian and president of the Friends of Scott Joplin, has died. He was 53 years old, and was found Sunday by friends at his south St. Louis home after he apparently suffered a heart attack.

Cather came to St. Louis in 2004 from Arlington, TX, and subsequently played a major role as a volunteer with the Friends and the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, as detailed in this obituary in Syncopated Times. Funeral arrangements are pending, but the article says that "a memorial service is likely to be held at Bryan’s John’s Episcopal Church in the Tower Grove Neighborhood of St. Louis and his cremains will be interred in Oklahoma."

* Treasure Shields Redmond, daughter of East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene Redmond, was a guest Thursday on St. Louis Public Radio's "St. Louis On The Air" to talk about the "Historic Jazz & Poetry Excursion" tour of East St. Louis, in which trumpeter Miles Davis and his now-restored childhood home play a major role.

* Also on the Davis beat, the recent biographical documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, directed by Stanley Nelson, has been nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award as "Outstanding Documentary (Film)."

* In a related story, Davis' son Erin and nephew Vincent Wilburn Jr. recently appeared on the program California Live on KNBC in Los Angeles to promote the film.

* And last but not least regarding Davis, a feature out this week from Jazzwise magazine looks at "How Miles Davis put together ‘the greatest rock ’n’ roll band you ever heard’."

* Pianist, singer and songwriter Rick Jensen's cabaret show last week at Blue Strawberry was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* A story in the St. Louis American offers a brief preview of the "34th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Statewide Celebration Kick-Off Program for Missouri," which takes place tomorrow night at Harris-Stowe State University and will include appearances by saxophonist Kirk Whalum and singer Denise Thimes.

* Bassist Sam AuBuchon, a senior at West County High School in Park Hills, MO and a member of the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble, was the subject of a feature story in the St. Francois County Daily Journal.

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, Emily Skinner's "Broadway My Way," and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the return of one of the most acclaimed trios in modern jazz, a visit from a Broadway diva performing in an intimate cabaret setting, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 8
The Bad Plus (pictured, top left) continue their decade-plus-long tradition of a week of January performances here, playing for the first of five nights continuing through Sunday at Jazz St. Louis.

Since their appearance here last year, TBP in October released a new album, Activate Infinity, their second since pianist Orrin Evans replaced founding member Ethan Iverson in 2018.

The album, their first for the British label Edition Records, features eight tracks of new original material, with two written by Evans, two by drummer Dave King, and four by bassist Reid Anderson. Fans can expect to hear most of those new pieces during their shows here, and given the trio's continuing popularity here, advance reservations are advised.

Thursday, January 9
Keyboardist Mo Egeston will have new original material plus some guest stars for an "All-Star Birthday Groove" performance at Joe's Cafe, and Dean Christopher returns with his "Rat Pack and More" show to LoRusso's Cucina.

Also on Thursday, guitarist Dave Black and saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will play duets at The Pat Connolly Tavern, and singer Christy Simmons performs her cabaret show "When Life Gives You Lemons" at Blue Strawberry.

Friday, January 10
Singer and actress Emily Skinner (pictured, bottom left), known for her leading roles in musicals including Billy Elliot, Side Show, and Dinner at Eight, will present her cabaret show "Broadway My Way" for the first of two nights at Blue Strawberry.

Also on Friday, Herman Semidey and Orquestra Son Montuno will play salsa, Latin jazz and more in their debut performance at Troy's Listening Room, and pianist and singer Curt Landes performs solo at The Judson House.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley returns to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; and singer Anita Jackson performs at Sophie's Artist Lounge.

Saturday, January 11
Bassist and singer Janet Evra plays at Evangeline's, and guitarist Brian Vaccaro leads a quartet at the house concert venue KindaBlue Club.

Sunday, January 12
Miss Jubilee performs for brunch at Evangeline's, and the Arcadia Dance Orchestra returns to Focal Point.

Monday, January 13
Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck, and the Southwestern Illinois College Jazz Band performs at Main Street Brewing Company in Belleville.

Tuesday, January 14
Guitarist Eric Slaughter will perform at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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

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

Sunday, January 05, 2020

Sunday Session: January 5, 2020

John Coltrane
Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Prospecting for Musical Ghosts Along Lost Highways and Byways (Texas Highways)
* Five music-tech forecasts that misfired in 2019 (Patreon.com)
* Why Philip Glass was still driving a cab in his 30s (PRI.org)
* ‘The Hot Rats Sessions’ offers a window into how Frank Zappa used a recording studio (DangerousMinds.net)
* Sacred Blue: Jazz Goes To Church In the 1960s (Indiana Public Media)
* Jeremy Pelt Digs into the Canon (DownBeat)
* John Coltrane Talks About the Sacred Meaning of Music in the Human Experience: Listen to One of His Final Interviews (1966) (OpenCulture.com)
* In Memoriam: Jazz Artists We Lost in 2019 (JAZZIZ)
* Neil Innes: Monty Python songwriter dies aged 75 (BBC)
* With state Polka Hall of Fame in its death throes, can polka music itself be far behind? (Green Bay Press Gazette)
* Dee Alexander Interprets Billie Holiday on Delmark Outing (DownBeat)
* Linda Shaver-Gleason: Exit Interview with a Public Musicologist (NationalSawdust.org)
* The History of the Fisheye Photo Album Cover (OpenCulture.com)
* The Decade in Rock That Rock Fans Hated (Jezebel)
* Storied North Carolina Festival Offers Vibrant Jazz Jams (DownBeat)
* Bass legend Carol Kaye blasts ‘Mrs. Maisel’ homage as ‘slander’ (New York Post)
* Beijing unveils plans to become ‘international music capital’ in 5 years (InkstoneNews.com)
* Why We Keep Sending Music to Extraterrestrials (Slate)
* Saxophonist Melissa Aldana on Her First Grammy Nod, and Her Album 'Visions' (WBGO)
* Jack Sheldon 1931-2019 (Jazz Times)
* The Curved Air of Tomeka Reid (JazzDaGama.com)
* Geometry sings the blues in Indian-American mathematician's radical new music system (FirstPost.com)
* Lost in muzak: how ambient became cool (The Guardian)

Saturday, January 04, 2020

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2020 jazz preview, part five



Today, it's time for the fifth and final installment of StLJN's winter/spring 2020 jazz preview, featuring videos of noteworthy bands and musicians who will be coming to St. Louis to perform over the next few months. You can see part one here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.

Resuming in chronological order where last week's post left off, the first video features percussionist Claire Rousay and saxophonist Michael Foster, who will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, April 24 at the Urb Arts gallery. You can see them in the video embed up above performing a duo show last April in San Antonio, TX.

Next, it's swing and jump blues band Davina and the Vagabonds, who will be back in town on Saturday, April 25 for their first performance ever at Blue Strawberry. They can be seen in the first video after the jump, which documents a full set of music recorded in February 2018 at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City.

After that, it's pianist Connie Han, who will make her St. Louis debut with shows starting Wednesday, April 29 and continuing through Sunday May 3 at Jazz St. Louis. She is featured in today's third video performing her original composition "GrĂ¼vy" from her debut album Crime Zone in September 2018 at the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe, MI.

That same weekend, multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson will return to play on Saturday, May 2 at The Pageant. Video number four is an excerpt from Culbertson's DVD Colors of Love Tour - Live in Las Vegas that shows him performing "Feelin' It/Funkin'".

The following week, singer Paulo Szot will make his St. Louis cabaret debut with performances on Wednesday, May 6 and Thursday, May 7 at Jazz St. Louis, wrapping up their series of co-presentations this season with Cabaret Project of St. Louis. Szot is featured in today's fifth video, singing "This Nearly Was Mine" from the musical South Pacific in May 2018 at at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York City.

Video number six features singer Nicole Henry, who will be performing on Wednesday, May 13 through Sunday, May 17 at Jazz St. Louis, and shows her singing "Teach Me Tonight" in Bovember 2017 at at the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe.

The penultimate clip spotlights pianist Orrin Evans of The Bad Plus, who will return with his own trio to perform Wednesday, May 20 through Sunday May 24 at Jazz St. Louis. Since recent footage of Evans' trio seems relatively hard to come by, you can see him here in a clip from September 2013 with bassist Eric Revis and drummer Karriem Riggins perform his original composition "The Answer" at the Jazz Standard in NYC.

The final video features percussionist Poncho Sanchez, a frequent visitor and local favorite here who will return to perform Wednesday, May 27 through Sunday, May 31 at Jazz St. Louis. Sanchez and his band are seen performing the title song from his new album Trane's Delight during a show in September 2019 at Spaghettini in Seal Beach, California.

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

Friday, January 03, 2020

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn (pictured) has launched a crowd-funding campaign to pay for the next recording by his Royal Krunk Jazz Orchestra.

* Reid Anderson, bassist for The Bad Plus, was interviewed about the group's return to Jazz St. Louis next week by the Post-Dispatch's Daniel Durchholz.

* A new article in DownBeat recalls how the late trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry "fostered generations of performers."

* The closing last weekend of the south side venue Foam was the subject of stories by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy D. Goodwin and St. Louis magazine's John J. Goddard.

* Singer Katie McGrath's show last Saturday at Blue Strawberry was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Funeral arrangements for the late pianist, singer and saxophonist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum have been announced. A wake and memorial jam session is scheduled from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. today at Archway Memorial Chapel, 111 Taylor Road in Hazelwood. A funeral Mass will take place at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, January 4, at St. Elizabeth Mother of John church, 4330 Shreve Ave in St. Louis, with a repast immediately following. Burial will be at 10:00 a.m. Monday, January 6 at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

Whalum's obituary as published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch can be seen here, and his passing also was noted in a story by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Radio host, author and photographer Dennis Owsley bade farewell to listeners of his "Jazz Unlimited" radio show with a message on Facebook (also published in abbreviated form on the St. Louis Public Radio website). In that message, he revealed that the program's Sunday night time slot will be filled, at least for the time being, by music from the nationally syndicated "Jazzworks" service (also heard on one of StLPR's digital sub-channels).

Thursday, January 02, 2020

Jazz this week: Jim Manley's birthday bash, "60 years of Giant Steps," and more

While this weekend feels like a bit of a post-holiday lull, thanks to the way the calendar lined up this year, there still are some noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening around St. Louis over the next few days to get 2020 started. Let's go to the highlights...

Thursday, 
January 2
Pianist and singer Rick Jensen presents his cabaret show "With A Little Help From My Friends," featuring guest vocalists Beverly Brennan, Robert Breig, Dionna Raedeke and Angie Nicholson, at Blue Strawberry.

Also on Thursday, The Dark Room has guitarist Dave Black playing at the dinner hour and saxophonist Scooter Brown for late night sets; and saxophonist Vince Sala returns to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, January 3
Pianist Ptah Williams plays for dinner at The Dark Room; saxophonist Kendrick Smith continues his weekly gig at Thurman's in Shaw; and bassist Darrell Mixon leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

Saturday, January 4
Trumpeter Jim Manley (pictured, top left) celebrates his birthday with a performance at Evangeline's, and trombonist John Covelli and friends pay tribute to "60 Years of Giant Steps" at The Dark Room.

Also on Saturday, "Out Sounds," a new experimental music series affiliated with New Music Circle, will present Austin, TX-based improvising percussionist and instrument inventor Lisa Cameron in a performance at Flood Plain.

Sunday, January 5
Miss Jubilee performs for brunch at Evangeline's, with Dizzy Atmosphere returning to The Dark Room. Also on Sunday, the St. Louis Record Show presents their first event of the year at the American Czech Center.

Monday, January 6
The Folk School of KDHX hosts their first Traditional Jazz Jam Session of the year.

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.)

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of a new month and a new year, and that means it's time to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, when each day there's posted a new online music video, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental and more.

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

BĂ©la Fleck & The Flecktones - Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Billy Cobham's Culture Mix - Live at Leverkusener Jazztage
Keith Jarrett Trio - "On Green Dolphin Street"
Lounge Lizards - Live in Munich
Milt Jackson & Bobby Hutcherson - "Just Friends"

Other recent posts have featured videos with performances by Fred Frith, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Gary Clark Jr, Tom Waits, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Bruce Springsteen, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Sonic Youth, Pharoah Sanders & John Hicks, The Specials, Robert Cray, MC5, Philip Glass Ensemble, SFJAZZ Collective, Dweezil Zappa, Michael Brecker, Taylor Ho Bynum 9-tette, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Johnny Shines & Robert Lockwood, Jr, Led Zeppelin, Gong, Bill Frisell, Johnny Guitar Watson, Joe Pass, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and Bernard Purdie.

To see all these videos, plus thousands more from the thoughtfully selected archives, just use your computer, tablet, phone or other Internet device to visit https://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.