Jazz this week: "Bitches Brew" at 50, Storm Large, Valentine's Day jazz, and more

If you're looking for something musical to do for Valentine's Day, this week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes plenty of options.

However, seating availability already may be scarce for some of these shows, especially on Friday night, so depending on the venue, you may need to make reservations or call ahead to assure a spot. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 12
Jazz St. Louis continues their "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series with "Bitches Brew at 50," featuring writer and musician George Grella, who wrote a book about the landmark Miles Davis album for the 33 1/3 series.

Grella's talk will be followed by a performance from a band including trumpeter Danny Campbell, keyboardists Adam Maness and Adaron "Pops" Jackson, saxophonist Kendrick Smith, bassis Bob DeBoo, percussionist Matt Henry, and drummer Montez Coleman.

Thursday, February 13
Singer Storm Large (pictured) returns for another performance at Blue Strawberry, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor plays a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode begins a three-day run of Valentine's Day shows continuing through Saturday at Jazz St. Louis, and songwriter Al Hammerman presents "Meet Me at the Corner," a program of his original songs, at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The show will feature singers Alan Ox, Brian Owens, Arvell Keithley and Feyza Eren singing Hammerman's compositions, with proceeds benefitting the Old Newsboys  Fund for Children's Charities.

Friday, February 14
Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at Evangeline's; bassist and singer Janet Evra plays at Blue Strawberry; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will play for the first of two nights at Troy's Listening Room.

Elsewhere around town, singer Ralph Williams performs at Cigar Inn; multi-instrumentalist T.J. Muller presents "Love Songs of the 1930s" at Focal Point; and saxophonist Larry Johnson and guitarist Randy Bahr will play both Friday and Saturday at Tompkins by The Rack House, a recent addition to downtown St. Charles.

Saturday, February 15
Singer Feyza Eren performs in a late-morning matinee at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and drummer Kaleb Kirby and his band are back for late night at The Dark Room.

Sunday, February 16
Singer and guitarist Tommy Halloran plays for brunch at The Dark Room; the Original Knights Of Swing return for a matinee at the Opera House of Pacific; and drummer Demarius Hicks and friends will play an early-evening show at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Monday, February 17
The Webster University Jazz Collective will perform in concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

Tuesday, February 18
Cabaret Project 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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianist Tom McDermott had a few words with Terry Perkins for a St. Louis Beacon article about the St. Louis International Film Festival's presentation tomorrow of the film biography of New Orleans pianist James Booker. McDermott will perform a Booker-inspired solo set following the screening at Webster University.

* Meanwhile, KPLR had a short feature on The Pleasures of Being Out of Step, the biography of writer and jazz critic Nat Hentoff that's also being shown during this year's SLIFF.

* Trumpeter Jim Manley talks about his shows this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro in an article by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson.

* There's lots of Miles Davis news this week, starting with the release of a nine-CD box set of original mono versions of albums recorded by the trumpeter's first "great quintet" and with the arranger Gil Evans, and a review, via the Daily Beast, of the new book of Davis' artwork.

Meanwhile, the New York Times had a feature story on how Davis' heirs continue to promote his legacy more than 20 years after his death, which prompted blogger Jeffrey Hyatt of Miles Davis Online to assess the estate's official Internet presence.

But the biggest Davis-related news of the week is that actor Don Cheadle appears to have found financing for his long-awaited feature film about Davis, now titled Kill The Trumpet Player, with filming scheduled to begin next summer.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby (pictured) has helped design and is endorsing a new line of signature saxophones made by P. Mauriat and distributed by St. Louis Music.

* KDHX has put online some new audio recordings of saxophonist C. Felton "Raven Wolf" Jennings and poet Dwight Bitikofer.

* If you missed the tenth anniversary of Noisefest a couple of weeks ago at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, you can check out excerpts from a number of the performances via the YouTube channel of "izzythepusher."

* Singer-songwriter Al Hammerman was interviewed by the website Pop Goes The Week.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, Calvin Wilson's "Somethin' Else" expounds on the theme of "talent deserving wider recognition" with tracks from pianists Myra Melford and Kenny Barron, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, and more. Next up, Jason Church's "The Jazz Collective" will spotlight trumpeters including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Hargrove, Dizzy Gillespie, Donald Byrd, Herb Alpert and Maynard Ferguson, as well as music from locals such as Jim Manley, Dawn Weber and the Funky Butt Brass Band. Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., followed by Church's show at 9:00 p.m., via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Down the dial at KWMU (90.7 FM), "Jazz Unlimited" host Dennis Owsley this Sunday will present the second part of his historic survey of live jazz from Carnegie Hall, plus a tribute to the recently deceased saxophonist and flute player Frank Wess. The program airs from 9:00 p.m. to midnight and also can be heard online at http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/.