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.)

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...

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 Cécile 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.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2019 jazz preview, part two

Today, it's time for part two of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview, presenting videos of the jazz and creative music artists who will be coming here to perform for the next four months. (You can see part one here.)

The chronology of upcoming shows resumes with Paa Kow and his Afro-Fusion Orchestra, who will be in St. Louis on Friday, September 6 for a performance at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups. The group, including St. Louis' own Weedie Braimah on percussion, can be seen in the first video up above, which is an excerpt from their performance in 2018 at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival.

After the jump, you can see a video of singer Cyrille Aimee, who will perform on Wednesday, September 18 and Thursday, September 19 at Jazz St. Louis. The clip shows Aimee singing "Down" in February of this year at the studios of WBGO radio in Newark, NJ.

Next up, it's saxophonist Joshua Redman, who's bringing his quartet for shows starting Wednesday, September 25 and continuing through Sunday, September 29 at Jazz St. Louis.The video shows a full set of music from Redman, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Greg Hutchinson, and pianist Aaron Goldberg recorded in 2013 at the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival in France.

The following week, St. Louis will get a return visit from singer Cécile McLorin Salvant with pianist Aaron Diehl's trio, as they perform on Saturday, October 5 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. They can be seen in the next video, a full set recorded in 2016 at the Festival de Jazz de Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.

Today's penultimate video features Chicago-based cornetist, composer, and vocalist Ben Lamar Gay, who will open New Music Circle's 61st season with a performance on Saturday, October 5 at Off Broadway. He's seen here with his quartet performing "More" at DJ Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards ceremony this past January in London.

The final clip features members of Artemis, the all-star, all-woman ensemble who will perform Wednesday, October 9 through Sunday, October 13 at Jazz St. Louis.

Since literally all the members of the group are busy bandleaders in their own right, Artemis hasn't done much extended touring. The only live videos of them online so far seem to be some shaky footage shot at last year's Newport Jazz Festival and posted online in two-minute chunks, which don't serve the music or musicians particularly well.

Fortunately, there is some good-quality video of a gig in July 2017 at New Morning in Paris, nominally billed as "Woman To Woman," but featuring all the members of Artemis except for drummer Allison Miller, and so, it's an extended excerpt from that show that is posted here for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

Look for part three of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Sunday Session: April 7, 2019

James Carter

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:

* James Carter Revisits the Music of Django Reinhardt (Westword)
* CD REVIEW.. Bill Evans – Evans in England (Ronnie Scotts, Dec 1969) (London Jazz News)
* Hannibal Lokumbe: Always Go With the Feeling (New Music Box)
* Hardly Anyone on the Pop Charts Writes Their Own Music (Alone) Anymore (Rolling Stone)
* Live Review: Big Ears Festival 2019 (Jazz Times)
* We Spoke To The Head Of Music At Ronnie Scott’s About The Rise Of British Jazz (Complex.com)
* Galactic Takes Over Historic New Orleans Venue Tipitina’s (DownBeat)
* Steve Cropper reflects on a lifetime of playing guitar with a who's who of musical titans (Straight.com)
* Colonel Sanders at the Rave: Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Presence at Ultra Music Festival Was Disturbing (Pitchfork.com)
* Sounds from Tomorrow's World - Sun Ra and the Chicago Years, 1946-1961 (UChicago.edu)
* Red Bull Music Academy, Radio to Shut Down After 21-Year Run (Rolling Stone)
* Jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden’s historic house cited for demolition by neglect (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Kamasi Washington Is Finding That There Are No Wrong Notes (GQ)
* Pharoah Sanders: Spirit Ascending (BrooklynRail.org)
* Tibetan Musical Notation Is Beautiful (OpenCulture.com)
* Premiere: Hear the Title Track from Melissa Aldana’s Upcoming Motéma Album, ‘Visions’ (DownBeat)
* Melvin Gibbs Isn’t Looking Back (Jazz Times)
* Ruthie Foster, the Blues, and a Town That Needs Lifting (No Depression)
* ‘Old Town Road’ and the History of Black Cowboys in America (Rolling Stone)
* Country Music Excludes Women, Especially Over Age 40, Study Finds (NPR)
* Aaron Diehl: paradox at the piano (Rochester City Newspaper)

Sunday Session: March 31, 2019

Matthew Shipp

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:

* Jazz in Troubled Times: Watson Professor, WSJ contributor Larry Blumenfeld Riffs on ‘Relevance, Resonance’ of Jazz Culture (Syr.edu)
* Bootsy Collins: The Warner Bros. Era (CultureSonar.com)
* 1918-2018: 20 works that defined a century (Classical-Music.com)
* Michael Wolff’s Miraculous Turn (DownBeat)
* 30 Years of 'Nick of Time': How Bonnie Raitt's 'Underdog Record' Swept the Grammys & Saved Her Career (Billboard)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago on the Past and Future of Their ‘Great Black Music’ (Rolling Stone)
* Carla Bley Plays the Big Band With Her Hands (Westword)
* Pianists Born 100 Years Ago Prove: There's No One Way To Play Jazz (NPR)
* How the music of 1950’s Cuba revolutionized the sound of young Senegal (QZ.com)
* Carla Bley Stretches Out at Big Ears (DownBeat)
* Signature Moves - A brief conversation with underground jazz piano great Matthew Shipp (RockAndRollGlobe.com)
* Resonance Records to Release Archival Recordings by Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans (Jazz Times)
* DJs of the Future Don't Spin Records—They Write Code (Wired)
* Big Ears Festival 2019: The Best (Echoes.org)
* The best decade for pop music has been revealed – according to science (NME.com)
* Frank Sinatra And Elvis Presley: When The Chairman Met The King (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Brotherhood of Alfredo Rodríguez and Pedrito Martinez (DownBeat)
* The Eclectic Artistry of Gary Lucas (Van Wyck Gazette)
* How the Music of Hawaiʻi’s Last Ruler Guided the Island’s People Through Crisis (Smithsonian)
* Downtown Music Acquires CD Baby Owner AVL Digital Group (Price Tag: $200 Million) (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* ‘What The F*** Is Happening Right Now’: A Look At ‘The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa’ (Pollstar.com)
* Aaron Diehl: paradox at the piano (Rochester City Newspaper)
* Jazz Guitarist Joe Morris: Enhance the Risk (Premier Guitar)
* Jazz Duo Explores the Intersection of Math and Music (Flagpole)