StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Readers Poll winners in concert, part 2

For this final Saturday video post of 2020, we continue with the theme of last week's post, looking at performances from some of the winner's in this year's Readers Poll in DownBeat magazine.

The first video up above features singer Gregory Porter, who tied for first place in the poll's "male vocalist" category. Porter and his band, which includes St. Louis' own Jahmal Nichols on bass and Emanuel Harrold on drums, can be seen performing a full set in 2018 at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany.

After the jump, you can see a set by Kurt Elling, who tied with Porter as best male vocalist, from 2018 at the Jazz San Javier festival in Spain.

Next up is a video that showcases two of this year's poll winners, organist Joey DeFrancesco and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Their "Big Band B-3" concert was recorded in 2019 at Lincoln Center, and features music from "two classic records that defied the organ’s typical small group confines," Duke Ellington’s "New Orleans Suite," and St. Louis native Oliver Nelson's arrangements of "Peter and the Wolf," which originally were presented on record with the great organist Jimmy Smith as soloist.

That's followed by a video featuring Regina Carter, a perennial poll-winner who once again this year was named top violinist in the DB poll. In the only one of today's clips recorded in this pandemic-curtailed year, Carter can be seen with her husband, drummer Alvester Garrett, streaming an intimate duo performance from their home back in April.

The fifth video features percussionist Poncho Sanchez, another multiple winner in the DB polls, and his band, as recorded in 2014 for the Voice of America's program "The Hamilton Live."

And getting the last word today is another high-profile singer (and pianist), Diana Krall, who once again was chosen by DownBeat readers as favorite female vocalist. She's seen here as the featured guest on a 2015 episode of the online video series "Live@Home."

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