Sunday Session: June 23, 2019

Anthony Braxton

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

* Why Captain Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’ Still Sounds Like Tomorrow (Rolling Stone)
* JazzTimes 10: Jazz on Film (Jazz Times)
* Django Bates: Miniature worlds (Innerviews.org)
* Germantown’s finest: Take a trip down Philly jazz’s memory lane with renowned artist Leroy Butler (Philadelphia Weekly)
* Behind the unique, family-powered career of Keb' Mo' (Nashville Tennessean)
* New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is Charting a Path Forward (DownBeat)
* Cornwall music festival at the centre of international email fraud (CornwallLive.com)
* This Is Why Uber Drivers Play Such Bad Music (Medium.com)
* Are the Major Record Companies Signing Too Many Artists? (Rolling Stone)
* Avant-Garde Legend Anthony Braxton on His ‘Trans-Idiomatic’ Improv Odyssey (Rolling Stone)
* Chris Potter: Master of Paradox (Jazz Times)
* Blue Note Celebrates 80th Anniversary with Vinyl Reissues (DownBeat)
* Threats, Quid Pro Quo Harassment, & Obscene Messages: Abuse on an Operatic Scale (TwinCitiesArts.com)
* Tony Kofi: now’s his time (Jazz Journal)
* Jazz musician Kassa Overall ready to take the lead (San Francisco Chronicle)
* “Satchmo” Summer Jazz Camp to Celebrate 25 Years (Jazz Times)
* Photos: The 24th Vision Festival in Brooklyn (Jazz Times)
* Give me that good old progressive jazz (Jazz Journal)
* The Eclectic Sensibility of Anat Cohen (DownBeat)
* Rock Riff Rip-Off: The Legal Loophole That May Leave Some of Rock's Greatest Riffs Up For Grabs (Bloomberg.com)
* Jeff Coffin, Howard Levy Jam with Flecktones at Red Rocks (DownBeat)
* A Frog, a Banjo, and an Indelible Message: Making “The Rainbow Connection” (Vanity Fair)

Jazz this week: Anat Cohen, Eliane Elias, Michael Rosen, Bill McNally, and more

The calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis for the week before Mardi Gras is packed with performances in a variety of styles, with a handful of visiting headliners hitting local stages, plus some noteworthy shows from our hometown performers. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 27
Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen (pictured, top left) brings her quartet to Jazz St. Louis for the first of five nights of performances, continuing through Sunday.

Voted the top clarinetist in jazz in the most recent DownBeat critic's poll, Cohen is a versatile player who can navigate a variety of styles with both technical facility and feeling. You can find out more about Cohen and see videos of her playing (in several different musical idioms) in this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Wednesday, this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features the Jazz Troubadours at The Stage at KDHX, along with the jam session hosted by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, February 28
Saxophonist Michael Rosen, a New York native and Berklee grad who expatriated to Italy in the late '80s and has made a name for himself on the European jazz scene, will play in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, accompanied by keyboardist Jay Oliver, guitarist and bassist William Lenihan. and drummer Steve Davis.

Elsewhere on Thursday, trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a jam session at Rendezvous Cafe & Wine Bar in O'Fallon, MO; Samba Bom brings a bit of Brazilian carnival to Joe's Cafe & Art Gallery; Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz for the Missouri Botanical Garden's "Orchid Nights"; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet plays the music of Rahsaan Roland Kirk at The Dark Room.

Friday, March 1
New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound returns to the Sheldon Concert Hall with a program featuring music by their late founding member Matt Marks, who died suddenly after a concert here last year; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, March 2
The Friends of Scott Joplin present ragtime pianist 
Bill McNally in a matinee concert at the Opera House of Pacific.

On Saturday evening, pianist and singer Eliane Elias (pictured, bottom left) will perform at The Sheldon. Having already proved her skills at jazz-fusion, the music of her native Brazil, and much more, Elias on her most recent recording explores something a bit different, re-imagining the score of the Broadway show Man of La Mancha in a Latin jazz style.

You can see some recent performances by Elias on video in this post from last Saturday. Also, The Sheldon and Metrotix have cut the price of some remaining tickets for the concert to $25. To get the discount, go here and use the promo code LAMANCHA.

Also on Saturday, Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion will play music from composers including Steve Reich and Wilco's Glenn Kotche in a concert at 560 Music Center.

Sunday, March 3
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents keyboardist "Bob Row's "Mardi Gras Party" at Royale Orleans; Genesis Jazz Project plays at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; and the Jazz Troubadours return to Evangeline's.

Tuesday, March 5
The Funky Butt Brass Band will play for Fat Tuesday revelers at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

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: Spotlight on Anat Cohen

This week, it's time to check out some videos featuring clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, who's coming to St. Louis to perform with her quartet starting Wednesday, February 27 through Sunday, March 3 at Jazz St. Louis.

Born in Israeli and educated at Berklee, Cohen moved to New York after college and began her career by touring with the all-woman big band the Diva Orchestra and working with Brazilian groups. Over the past decade, she has become perhaps the most prominent clarinet player in jazz, building a reputation in part on her ability to play convincingly in a variety of styles, from vintage swing to modern jazz to Brazilian music.

Cohen released her most recent recording, a live album of duos with pianist Fred Hersch, in 2018, after putting out three albums - two of Brazilian music, and one with her Tentet - in 2017.

Today's collection of clips shows off at least some of Cohen's versatility in dealing with a variety of settings and styles, starting with the first video up above, in which Cohen plays the swing-era staple "China Boy" in 2018 with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

After the jump, you can see a full set by Cohen fronting a quartet with Jason Lindner (piano) Joe Martin (bass) and Daniel Freedman (drums), recorded in 2013 at the Istanbul Jazz Festival.

Next, it's Cohen and pianist Fred Hersch teasing and tumbling their way through a discursive version of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," recorded in 2016 in the studios of public radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

After that, you can check out a couple of performances of Brazilian music by Cohen. The first is a duet with guitarist Marcello Gonçalves (with whom she recorded the 2017 album Outra Coisa), playing Moacir Santos' "Coisa No. 5/ Nanã," recorded in 2017 at the Buffet Crampon showroom in Paris.

That's followed by "Espinha de Bacalhau," recorded in October 2014 at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Choro Aventuroso, which also includes accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, guitarist Cesar Garabini, and pandeiro player Sergio Krakowski.

The final video shows Cohen with her brothers, saxophonist Yuval Cohen and trumpeter Avishai Cohen, performing as the 3 Cohens Sextet and playing Ellington's "The Mooch" in 2018 at the Jazz à La Villette festival in Paris.

For more about Anat Cohen, read her interview published in January 2019 on the website Music & Literature, and her June 2018 interview with AllAboutJazz.com's R.J. DeLuke.

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

Jazz this week: Tortoise, Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, Anat Cohen, and more

Unpredictable weather is just one reason that a lot of touring acts like to stay home in early January.

But whether St. Louis this weekend ends up with the spring-like temperatures we're enjoying at midweek, or with the ice storm being promised (threatened?) by Friday, the calendar of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis features several shows that definitely are worth leaving the house to hear.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 11
Five young local musicians associated with Jazz St. Louis' educational programs will reunite as the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars Alumni Quintet for the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

The group features saxophonist Carlos Brown, Jr., trumpeter Brady Lewis, drummer Everette Benton, pianist Eliot Courtois, and bassist Nathan Pence, all of whom currently are studying music at various universities around the country.

Also on Wednesday, guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Glen Smith will be playing duets at Evangeline's.

Thursday, January 12
The eclectic instrumental quintet Tortoise (pictured, top left), who have been enjoying a period of renewed activity since the 2016 release The Catastrophist, their first album since 2009, returns to perform at the Old Rock House.

Elsewhere around town, the Peoria, IL-based band The Perrilles Project will be playing music associated with iconic drummer Max Roach at Evangeline's; and singer and impressionist Dean Christopher brings his "Rat Pack and More" show to Joe's Cafe & Gallery.

Friday, January 13
Four musicians in town this week to do educational residencies for Jazz St. Louis - trumpeter Terell Stafford, trombonist Andre Hayward, bassist Rodney Whitaker, and drummer Steve Fidyk -  will join forces to perform as the "Jazz at Lincoln Center Group" for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Stafford and Whitaker already are familiar to local jazz fans thanks to multiple previous appearances here - in fact, the trumpeter played the Bistro just last month as part of saxophonist Tim Warfield's holiday show - while Fidyk, though not a marquee name, is a well-regarded drummer and teacher known for his work with big bands.

But the sleeper attraction on this gig may very well be Hayward (pictured, center left) a veteran of the SFJAZZ Ensemble who last played here in 2013 at the Bistro as part of a similar setup with Whitaker, Warfield, and pianist and former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas. He's one of the top trombonists working today, with a quick imagination as an improviser, fine technique, and a well-rounded tone.

Also on Friday, vocal group Java Jived will bring their Manhattan Transfer-esque harmonies to the Emerald Room at The Monocle; and Miss Jubilee will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, January 14
Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen (pictured, bottom left) returns to play at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

While one of Cohen's major projects of the past year was working with arranger Oded Lev-Ari and a new ten-piece band, for this show she'll be fronting her quartet, a versatile and free-wheeling band that can handle music ranging from classic swing numbers associated with Fats Waller and Benny Goodman to Brazilian choro music.

Also on Saturday, singer Erika Johnson and guitarist Tom Byrne will perform at Montrey's Cigar 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 Session: May 1, 2016

Eddie Palmieri

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Jazz Fest Day 2: Whatever Happened to Rosie? (Offbeat)
* Before & After with Trevor Dunn - Listening wide, from A to Zappa (Jazz Times)
* New Music From Professor Longhair, Who Taught New Orleans How to Play The Piano (The Daily Beast)
* Artist backlash over YouTube’s royalty payments grows noisier (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Esperanza Spalding: Character Study (Jazz Times)
* How we made Laurie Anderson's O Superman (The Guardian UK)
* That Time I Opened Tower Records Early So Prince Could Shop (NBC)
* The oral history of Eddie Palmieri’s Harlem River Drive (WaxPoetics.com)
* How Jazz Saved Hip-Hop Again (Playboy)
* Photo Album: Highlights of the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest–Part 1 (DownBeat)
* 13 Cartoon Portraits of Legendary Blues Artists (Mother Jones)
* Classical music page-turners turn the page into the modern era (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* 'James Brown: Live At The Apollo Vol. 4' Is A Marvelous And Mysterious Time Capsule (NPR)
* Jazz Foundation of America Loft Party - The Cookers, Kahil El'Zabar and more (Jazz Times)
* After The Album: How Playlists Are Re-Defining Listening (MusicIndustryBlog)
* Beyond 'Mrs. Jones': Billy Paul's Music You Might Not Have Heard (NPR)
* Revisiting Loma Records, the L.A. Soul Label That Launched Ike and Tina Turner (LA Weekly)
* The Inside Story on Designing Prince's Paisley Park: Exclusive (Billboard)
* The Unbelievable True Story of the Wrecking Crew’s Max Bennett (Observer.com)
* Phil Kives, K-Tel International founder, dies at 87 (CBC)
* Sonny Rollins: “John Coltrane Was Like A Preacher” (Mojo)
* Photo Highlights of the 2016 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest (DownBeat)
* Anat Cohen Tentet Brings Retro Sound and Ebullient Spirit to Jazz Standard (DownBeat)
* The Blur of Music Discovery (Disquiet.com)
* Gregory Porter review – jazz chameleon finds countless ways to seduce (The Guardian UK)
* FootPrince - The jazz side of Prince (Jazz Times)
* Dweezil Zappa Changes Name of Zappa Plays Zappa Due to Sibling Disputes (Relix.com)
* Jazz Fest Day 4: What a Difference a Week Makes (Offbeat)
* Jazz Record Mart founder opens new store (Chicago Tribune)
* The great disappearing venues disaster (CentreForLondon.org)
* Stuck on repeat: why we love repetition in music (The Guardian UK)
* Radiohead's corporate empire: inside the band's dollars and cents (The Guardian UK)

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2016-17 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall today announced their 2016-17 season schedule, including the four concerts making up their jazz subscription series for next year plus some other events of potential interest to StLJN readers.

Percussionist Jason Marsalis' Vibes Quartet will be first up for the jazz series on Saturday, October 1. Marsalis, the youngest brother of the famous New Orleans family of musicians that also includes his siblings Wynton, Branford, and Delfeayo and their dad Ellis, leads his own band as a vibraphonist when not behind the drum set in the trio of pianist Marcus Roberts.

Next will be a quintet co-led by Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and NYC saxophonist Joe Lovano (pictured) on Saturday, November 12. Valdés, a founding member of the Cuban jazz-fusion band Irakere, played with his own group at the Sheldon in 2012, while Lovano was in St. Louis most recently with his band Us Five in 2014 at Jazz at the Bistro, but this performance will be their first here together.

Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen and her quartet will return to bring in the New Year with a concert on Saturday, January 14, and New Orleans trumpeter Etienne Charles will close out the 2016-17 jazz series with some “Creole Soul” on Saturday, March 11.

The Sheldon's 2016-17 "Coffee Concerts" series will include performances of traditional jazz and swing by Cornet Chop Suey (Tuesday, September 27 and Wednesday, September 28) and The Gaslight Squares (Tuesday, November 1 & Wednesday, November 2); a tribute to Nancy Wilson by singer Kim Fuller (Tuesday, April 4 and Wednesday, April 5); and two non-subscription shows by Miss Jubilee (Tuesday, May 2 and Wednesday, May 3).

Also of interest, new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound will return to the Sheldon for the fourth year with concerts on Thursday, December 1 and Thursday, June 1. You can see the complete schedule for all the 2016-17 concert series at the Sheldon's website.

Single tickets for the jazz series shows will be priced at $25 and $40 for Marsalis, Cohen, and Charles, and $30 and $45 for Valdés & Lovano, or you can purchase a series subscription for $135 or $150. Single tickets for the "Coffee Concerts" are $15 and $18, with subscriptions priced at $60 and $70. Single tickets for Alarm Will Sound will be $10 and $20.

Subscriptions for The Sheldon's 2016-17 jazz series and the venue's other concert series will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 16. Single tickets will be available starting at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 13 via MetroTix.

Jazz this week: Kenny Barron, Tyondai Braxton, Thurman Barker, an all-star band with Cohen, Wilson, Hill & Oh, and more

It's a terrifically busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of interesting musicians visiting town over the next few days. So let's skip the rest of the preamble and go straight to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 6
Pianist Kenny Barron returns to St. Louis for the first of two evenings with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro.

Officially designated as an NEA "Jazz Master," the 72-year-old Barron is a stylistically versatile pianist, albeit with a notable affinity for the music of Thelonious Monk, who possesses touch, technique, tone, and taste in abundance, and deploys them in a consistently satisfying fashion. For some samples of his playing, check out the video post that preceded his appearance last year at the Bistro.

Thursday, April 7
Percussionist Thurman Barker, a founding member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians who's played with some of the most significant figures of the past half-century of improvised music, will headline a ticketed concert ($10 GA, $5 students) for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Barker (pictured, top left) will be joined by saxophonist Joel Vanderheyden, trombonist Wayne Coniglio, and bassist Paul Steinbeck, who teaches at Wash U. He'll also perform in a separate event at Wash U on Friday (see below). For more about Barker, and some video samples of him performing in several different musical context, see this video post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Most weeks, Barker's performance would a shoo-in must-see for local fans of adventurous music, but that's complicated in this particular instance by the appearance of composer Tyondai Braxton in St. Louis on the same night for a solo performance at The Luminary.

Braxton, the son of famed composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, has made a variety of music in his career, ranging from experimental rock with the group Battles to compositions for full orchestra to sound installations in museums. While it's not clear from the advance promotion exactly what's involved in one of his solo performances, based on his recent work and reputation, it should be worth hearing.

Elsewhere around town on Thursday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with St. Louis' own Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts performing "Nuance and Novelty" at the Gaslight Theater; singer Ralph Williams begins a monthly residency at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and The Gaslight Squares will play traditional jazz at Thaxton Speakeasy

Friday, April 8
This week, Jazz St. Louis has brought several well-known musicians to town for educational residencies, and to wrap up their stay, clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh will take the stage at Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of performances.

While an ad hoc ensemble like this one obviously doesn't have an established songbook to tap, Cohen (pictured, center left) and Wilson have both led their own bands at the Bistro before, offering ample energy and showmanship in the process, while Hill and Oh are regarded as two of the top up-and-coming players in jazz on their respective instruments. So, with a little help from Jazz St. Louis' own Phil Dunlap on piano, a good time should be had by all.

Meanwhile, over at Washington University, Thurman Barker, Joel Vanderheyden & Paul Steinbeck will improvise live music to silent films for "Sonic Visions: Experimental Film + Live Jazz", a free event presented in Brown Hall's Auditorium (aka Room 100) on the Wash U campus.

Also on Friday, jazz/fusion band Dreaming In Colour performs at the Kranzberg Arts Center; The Sidemen will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer, songwriter and pianist Steven Lutvak offers "A Gentleman's Guide to A Gentleman's Guide" for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Saturday, April 9
The Bloomington, Indiana-based Liberation Music Collective (pictured, lower left) will be in town for two events at the Center for Social Empowerment and Justice, located at Wellspring Church, 33 S. Florissant Rd.

LMC is a self-described "socially conscious big band" featuring students and alumni of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Following "in the footsteps of Charlie Haden, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and many others, " the group is "dedicated to performing original compositions about contemporary social issues." They'll host an afternoon workshop for young musicians (middle school to college age), with a  "Jazz for Justice" concert that evening.Both events are free, with donations accepted.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Rahsaan Barber will be in town to present an afternoon performance and workshop at Saxquest, and The Wire Pilots will serve up their original jazz fusion that evening at the gallery and event space 1900 Park.

Sunday, April 10
If you're in the mood for some Gypsy jazz and swing this weekend, Sunday would seem to be the pick day and the Central West End the place, as Franglais are playing for the jazz brunch at Evangeline's, and Coco Rico will be doing an early evening performance at Nathalie's.

Monday, April 11
The Webster University Jazz Collective will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus

Tuesday, April 12
The Saxquest Nonet Jazz Orchestra will return for an early evening performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, giving you an advance look at some of the noteworthy bands and musicians who will be playing in St. Louis during the next several months. (You can see part one here and part two here.)

Following the chronological progression established in those first two installments, the first video up above features the Chicago-based group Spektral Quartet, who will be coming to town to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music Center. The quartet, which plays both new works by contemporary composers and interpretations of canonical classical music, is seen here in a 2015 performance of Philip Glass' String Quartet No 2 "Company".

After the jump, you can see a video of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who will be co-headlining shows starting Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Bridgewater and Mayfield last year joined forces to record an album of New Orleans music called Dee Dee's Feathers, and have been touring together in support, playing shows including the one last summer in San Sebastian, Spain that's documented here.

The following weekend, trumpeter Byron Stripling will return to front the Jazz St. Louis Big Band for a "Tribute to Clark Terry" on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 at the Bistro. In the third clip, you can see Stripling, who very early in his career played in Terry's big band, being interviewed about his former employer in conjunction with another tribute to Terry presented last year by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, which Stripling directs.

The week after that, the all-star SFJazz Collective will return to St. Louis for the first time since 2007 as part of their tour featuring interpretations of music made famous by the late singer and self-proclaimed "King of Pop," Michael Jackson. They'll play Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2 at Jazz at the Bistro, and can be seen here performing a Warren Wolf arrangement of Jackson's "Working Day And Night" at last year's Winter Jazz Festival in NYC.

Next to visit our city will be the veteran pianist Kenny Barron, who's returning with his trio on Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7 to the Bistro. Barron, who played the Bistro last year in a duo with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, is seen here playing "Triste," backed by bassist Chuck Bergeron and drummer Evan Hyde in a performance last spring at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Later that same week, the Bistro will host another ad hoc group of musicians brought to St. Louis to work with students in Jazz St. Louis' various educational programs, as clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh join forces to perform on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Since the group is being assembled specifically for the occasion, the only way to preview it would seem to be to take a look at each of the individual musicians in turn, starting with the sixth video, which shows Cohen performing "In The Spirit of Baden" with her quartet in November 2015 in the studios of KPLU in Seattle.

Below that, you can see Hill's set from the semifinals 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition - which he eventually won - recorded in November, 2014 at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles, California. Hill is accompanied by the 2014 competition band, with former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Carl Allen on drums.

Then, you can see Oh leading her quartet in a performance of her original composition "Yoda," recorded in June of last year for the podcast BreakThruRadioTV. Today's final clip features Wilson (who was just at the Bistro in December with his Christmas Tree-O) and his band Arts and Crafts performing "Free Range Chicken" in 2013 at radio station KMHD in Portland, OR.

Next week, it's part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Anat Cohen out, Erin Bode, Brian Owens in for Peter Martin concert Friday, November 21 at The Sheldon

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced that clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, who had been scheduled to return to St. Louis to perform with pianist Peter Martin on Friday, November 21 at the Sheldon, will be unable to appear that night "due to an unexpected family health situation."

Cohen's spot on the bill will be filled St. Louis vocalists Erin Bode (pictured) and Brian Owens, both of whom have performed with Martin before.

Current ticket holders who still wish to attend the concert need only to keep their current tickets and present them at the door on November 21. Single ticket buyers may request refunds for the face value of their tickets at the original point of purchase; by calling MetroTix at 314-534-1111; or in person at the Fox Theatre box office, 531 N. Grand Blvd.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2014 jazz preview, part 4

Today, it's part four of StLJN's video preview of jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to St. Louis this fall. (In case you missed them, here's part 1, part 2, and part 3.)

For this installment, we resume with more of what's coming up in November, starting with a video featuring keyboardist Marco Benevento, who will be back to play Sunday, November 9 at 2720 Cherokee.

Benevento is touring this fall in support of his recent album Swift, which features him singing lead vocals for the first time. As someone who's generally enjoyed his instrumental music, I've not found what I've heard so far of his singing to be particularly compelling, so rather than showcasing one of his new songs here, we've got a live version of the Benevento concert staple "RISD", recorded in June of this year at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ. (For samples of Benevento new vocal material, check out these live performances of "At The Show" and "Eye to Eye.")

Later that week, saxophonist Tia Fuller, trumpeter Sean Jones and vibraphonist Warren Wolf will team up to perform on Friday, November 14 and Saturday, November 16 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although all three have recorded for the Mack Avenue label, and Fuller and Jones have worked together on occasion, this specific lineup is a custom one-off for Jazz St. Louis, so there's actually no footage online of all three of them playing together.So instead, we've got clips of them performing individually.

First up is Fuller, seen in a recording made in March of this year at Smoke in NYC that excerpts her solo on a tune that's not positively identified but may very well be "Impressions." The interesting thing about this is that it demonstrates that while some may think of Fuller as a slick R&B saxophonist, based on her tenure with pop singer Beyonce and other commercial gigs, she's also comfortable going outside in a post-Coltrane style.

And speaking of Coltrane, the next clip features Sean Jones' trumpet solo on a big band version of "Giant Steps" recorded with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, for whom he has spent nearly a decade as lead trumpeter. Below that, you can see Wolf in a duo performance of Chick Corea's "Senor Mouse" with pianist Alex Brown, recorded at a performance by Wolf's band in March of this year in Boston at Berklee College of Music's 939 Cafe.

After that, you can see singer Carole J. Bufford doing "Cry Me A River" in a recording made last year in NYC. She'll perform her show "Body and Soul" on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival.

Next, it's guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo, who will bring their show "Swing Xing! Three Generations of Swing Guitar" to the Sheldon Concert Hall on Saturday, November 15. They're seen here performing "Three Little Words" in a recording made in May 2014 at the Cutting Room in NYC.

The very next evening, the all-female ensemble Jazz in Pink will take the Sheldon stage in a benefit performance for Community Women Against Hardship. In this clip from 2013, they're playing "Soulchestral Groove."

A few days later, saxophonist Jeff Coffin and his band, the Mutet, will make make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro with a four-night run starting Friday, November 19 and continuing through Saturday, November 22. This recording of "The Mad Hatter Rides Again" was made by an audience member at Coffin's show last October in Athens, GA.

That same weekend, clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen will be back in town to serve as special guest for pianist Peter Martin's concert on Saturday, November 21 at the Sheldon. Cohen, who led her own group for a week at the Bistro a couple of years ago and this year toured with Martin as part of the Newport Jazz Festival 60th anniversary band, is seen here last December at the Umbria Jazz Festival dueting with guitarist Howard Alden on "Espinha de Bacalhau."

Last but certainly not least, today's final video features trumpeter, singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport, who will return from his adopted home in New Orleans for his annual post-Thanksgiving performance on Friday, November 28 and Saturday, November 29 at Jazz at the Bistro. This is a full set of Davenport and his band, apparently recorded within the last year at some sort of private or corporate gig, but otherwise not labeled with a date or place.

You'll find the fifth and final part of the fall 2014 jazz preview in this space next week, and you can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Jazz this week: Mwata Bowden, a David Sanborn tribute, "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60," Alarm Will Sound, and more

Events have conspired to make this week's preview of jazz and creative music shows in and around St. Louis both rather terse and somewhat behind schedule. so let's go straight to the highlights....

Tonight, multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, performs a free concert with bassist Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. For more about Bowden and some video samples of him performing, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and The Freedom plays smooth jazz and fusion at The Engine Room.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jim Stevens teams up with jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 the Soul for the first of two nights in which they "Play the Music of David Sanborn" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode provides the musical entertainment for "Heart 2 Heart," a benefit for the organization Education 4 All, Inc, at Gallery 400 on Washington Ave; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald returns to Jazz on Broadway; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and the Lindenwood University Jazz Band, with special guest soloist Marshall Gilkes on trombone, will wrap up the first-ever Lindenwood University Jazz Festival with a performance at the Scheidegger Center for the Arts on campus.

On Saturday, singer Joe Mancuso and pianist Adam Maness will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Coleman Hughes Project performs at The Rustic Goat; and husband-and-wife cabaret performers Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts will reprise their show "Swing Into Spring" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show, having been postponed due to bad weather twice already this year, will present their first show of 2014 at the usual location, the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway. Also on Sunday afternoon, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" tribute show, which has been touring for the past two months, arrives at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The ensemble (pictured) features St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, along with clarinetist/saxophonist and music director Anat Cohen, singer Karrin Allyson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Also on Sunday evening, singer Steve Lippia will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" at Powell Symphony Hall.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School building on campus; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound resumes their St. Louis season at a new venue, performing music from Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Steve Reich at The Pageant. For more details, check out this preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

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 this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival with Anat Cohen, Matt Wilson, Doc Severinsen, Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary tour; and more

While this week's big event for jazz and creative music in St. Louis is the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, featuring a number of nationally known touring musicians, there also are plenty of noteworthy performances featuring local players coming up in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, singer Mary Dyson and pianist Brock Walker's trio will play at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly open mic night at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra performs at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

On Thursday, clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson will open the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival by teaming up for two sets at Jazz at the Bistro. You can read StLJN's interview with Cohen here, and see a video preview of all of the festival acts here. Also, the St. Louis Beacon has a preview story about the festival by Terry Perkins here; and Matt Wilson talked with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson (no relation) for a brief article that can be found online here.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode will be at Crave coffee house, and keyboardist Pete Ruthenberg plays an early evening set at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

On Friday, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival continues with the Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary Tour at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The all-star band features singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Benny Green, drummer Lewis Nash, saxophonist Chris Potter, and trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire. The UMSL Big Band, directed by bassist and GSLJF head honcho Jim Widner, will open the show. For more, see the preview stories about as well as Bridgewater's interview with the Post's Calvin Wilson, which can be found online here.

Also on Friday, singer Feyza Eren performs at the Wine Press; saxophonist Willie Akins plays at Cigar Inn; and saxophonist Stephen Martin, a grad student at Webster University, brings a quartet to Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, the GSLJF concludes with a performance from the Doc Severinsen Big Band at the Touhill. The veteran Tonight Show trumpeter (pictured), still quite capable at age 85, has a band reportedly stocked with top players from the West Coast, including the great tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, which should make for a enjoyable evening of music. The UMSL Big Band will open the show.

Also on Saturday, guitarists Tom Byrne and Eric Slaughter will play at Schlafly Bottleworks; the Kevin Mitchell 4 are at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Venice Cafe

Then on Sunday, singer and pianist Anita Rosamond performs a free concert for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series at Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights; and the St. Louis Metrobones will bring their many trombones to the Highway 61 Roadhouse.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday, the Webster University Jazz Collective plays at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

Then on Tuesday, singer Joe Mancuso will perform for the Sheldon Concert Hall's "Notes From Home" series with a quartet plus guest stars including trumpeter Jim Manley, saxophonist Larry Johnson, and singers Wendy Gordon and Jeanne Trevor. Also on Tuesday, the Genesis Jazz Project plays a free concert at Hazelwood West High 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.)

StLJN interview: Anat Cohen

The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival began as primarily an educational event for local student jazz bands, and although the festival has been booking headlining talent for several years now, the professionals performing at the GSLJF still are involved in putting on workshops and adjudications for the students.

As you’d expect, the questions they get from young musicians can cover a wide range of topics, from technical to philosophical. But if any aspiring jazz clarinetists ask Anat Cohen this week which other clarinet players they should be listening to, the answer they get may be somewhat surprising.

“I think I'm more influenced by John Coltrane than any clarinetist,” said Cohen, who plays both clarinet and saxophone. “I don't listen to the instrument, maybe as much as I listen to the soul behind the notes.” Born in Israel and educated at the Berklee College of Music, Cohen (pictured) has risen to jazz stardom over the past decade, winning multiple polls as “best clarinetist,” playing major festivals and clubs, and recently headlining her first European tour.

“Sometimes you want to listen to other instruments to get your influences,” she explained last week in a phone interview with STLJN. “In many people’s minds, clarinet still belongs to certain genres and certain times, but you don’t have to play just swing music.”

Still, “it's important to listen to the history of your instrument,” she acknowledged, ticking off a list of influential clarinetists that included her friend and mentor Paquito D’Rivera as well as historic figures such as Edmund Hall, Sidney Bechet and Benny Goodman.

Perhaps the most important information she hopes to impart to the students has to do with being in the moment. “When you are a student, you study so many details about the music. The hardest thing to remember is that you are making music with other people. I really focus on the communication between the musicians,’ she said. “I tell them, ‘Take a step back. Play less notes, and let's listen to each other.’ Nobody told me those things when I was studying music.”

Cohen’s last album Claroscuro featured her regular quartet, which includes Jason Lindner on piano, Daniel Freedman on drums and Joe Martin on bass. That group made their St. Louis debut last year at Jazz at the Bistro. During this visit, Cohen will take part in educational events at the University of Missouri St. Louis and then team up with drummer Matt Wilson to perform on Thursday night at the Bistro.

For the last several years, the GSLJF's Thursday night opener has featured special combinations of musicians who don’t work together regularly. While that's also the case with Cohen and Wilson, they aren’t exactly strangers, either. After meeting a couple of years ago at a recording studio in New York City, where both reside, the two had been looking for a way to do something together, Cohen said. They finally got a chance to record together in December – no word on when that session will come out, though – and do a few trio gigs around NYC with Martin Wind from Wilson’s band Arts and Crafts on bass.

In addition to earning plaudits for their skills as instrumentalists and composers, both Cohen and Wilson have a reputation as performers who know how to relate to an audience. “I love playing with Matt. He's just so creative and so much fun and so musical and honest,” she said. “Matt likes to have fun. He’s crazy enough to do anything.”

Asked if more jazz musicians could benefit by emulating that crowd-friendly approach, Cohen noted that showmanship and musicianship aren’t incompatible. “It's a very individual thing. When you go out and see Jimmy Heath, he's the master of an instrument, and he's also an entertainer and he's having fun. It’s very individual.”

Cohen and Wilson will be joined by two local musicians, pianist Ken Kehner and bassist Jahmal Nichols, for what promises to be a very spontaneous set. “I don’t know when we're going to rehearse,” she said with a wry chuckle. “We'll be cool, we'll find stuff to play. Having Matt Wilson on the bandstand – it’s like, some drummers, you know you're going to play swing, or more groove-oriented music. But with Matt it’s like, start the conversation and see where it goes. I like to converse on stage.”

Cohen, Wilson and company will perform two sets, at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., on Thursday at Jazz the Bistro. The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival then continues at the Touhill Performing Arts Center with the Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary All-Stars on Friday night and trumpeter Doc Severinsen's big band on Saturday. The UMSL Big Band, directed by bassist and GSLJF head Jim Widner, will open the show both nights. For a video preview of this year's GSLJF, see this post.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* St. Louis radio gets a couple more hours of jazz each week starting at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, April 13, as The Jazz Collective debuts on the new Radio Arts Foundation station. Host Jason Church calls it "an all-inclusive Jazz program" featuring "all styles of Jazz: Straight-Ahead, Smooth, Acid, Bop, Fusion, Funk, Soul, World." Listen in via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, or online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

* Meanwhile, down the dial at 90.7 FM, Dennis Owsley, host of KWMU's Jazz Unlimited at 9:00 p.m. on Sundays, this week will present the second part of his audio documentary on St. Louis jazz history, covering the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II.

Featured musicians and groups include Red McKenzie and the Mound City Blue Blowers, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Johnson and the St. Louis Crackerjacks, Hayes Pillars and the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, George Hudson, Eddie Randle and the St. Louis Blue Devils, Shorty Baker, Clark Terry, Miles Davis’ trumpet teacher Elwood Buchanon, and Floyd Smith. Owsley also will reveal how Cab Calloway and Fats Waller were connected to St. Louis, the true story of the discovery of bassist Jimmy Blanton, and, as the saying goes, much more.

* The recently released Miles Davis album Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 2 was reviewed for Jazz Times magazine by Jim Miller.

* Speaking of reviews, the new Willie Akins/Montez Coleman disc The St. Louis Connection was the subject of a St. Louis Beacon article by Terry Perkins.

* Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen was profiled by the Jewish Light's Marvin Glassman. Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson will play Thursday, April 18 at Jazz at the Bistro as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival.

* Meanwhile, the Funky Butt Brass Band got a profile of their own in the St. Louis University student newspaper, the U News.

* Gus Knobbe of Webster Groves High School is the first-place winner in the High School - Jazz category of the 2013 Creating Original Music Project competition, a statewide music contest conducted by the University of Missouri's Mizzou New Music Initiative. Knobbe wins a scholarship to a summer composition camp at Mizzou, and he and his school get cash prizes courtesy of the competition's sponsor, the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Winners from the elementary, middle school and high school divisions all will perform their works in a concert next Saturday, April 20 in Columbia; you can listen in online here.

* And speaking of winners, drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured) and one of his sponsors, Gator Cases, are conducting an online contest to give away some drum accessories. Winners will be selected in a random drawing next Friday, April 19, and the grand prize package includes a Gator GP-PC302 cymbal case, Artist Series stick bag, and a pair of Baylor's Signature Pro-Mark sticks.

* The Cabaret Project of St. Louis will host a trivia night at 7:00 p.m., Saturday , June 8 at the Jewish Community Center, with proceeds to benefit to benefit the upcoming 2013 St. Louis Cabaret Festival. The cost is $20 per person; to reserve a space, email info @ thecabaretproject.org or call 314-359-0786.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival 2013

This week, let's take a brief look at some of the musicians who will be coming to St. Louis this month for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, which takes place Thursday, April 18 through Saturday, April 20 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center and Jazz at the Bistro.

Student jazz bands from around the area will take part in workshops and adjudications during the three days of the event at the University of Missouri St. Louis, but for the general public, the action begins on Thursday night when clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson team up for a performance at the Bistro.

Then on Friday night, the Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary All-Stars will perform at the Touhill. An all-star sextet assembled specifically for this tour, the group features singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Benny Green, drummer Lewis Nash, saxophonist Chris Potter, and trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire. The GSLJF then concludes on Saturday at the Touhill with a performance by the Doc Severinsen Big Band.

Up above, you can see Cohen playing her composition "Anat's Dance" at a gig last June in Washington, DC, backed by pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Daniel Freedman. For more about Cohen and additional videos of her performing, check out this post that preceded her headlining gig at the Bistro in  February of last year.

As has been the case for the past several years, the GSLJF's Thursday night show will feature a combination of musicians who usually don't work together - in this case, Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson, who's played in St. Louis with his band Arts & Crafts several times in recent years. Down below, you can see Arts & Crafts performing Wilson's tune "Bubbles," in a video shot last year at NYC's Tribeca Arts Center. Along with Wilson, that's Terell Stafford on trumpet, Gary Versace on keyboards and Martin Wind on bass.

A couple of the members of Monterey Jazz Festival all-star band also have played here recently with their own groups, and were featured at that time in a video post here. You can see clips of Chris Potter in this post from last December and this one from February 2011, and videos of Christian McBride in posts from 2009 and 2010.

As for the rest of the ensemble, in the next embed window down below you can see trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, performing last year with his band at the Jazz Standard in NYC. Below that, there's a clip of Dee Dee Bridgewater and Benny Green, whipping up a duet on "All Blues" earlier this year while visiting the studios of radio station WPLU in Tacoma, WA.

The final two clips feature Doc Severinsen, who gained national fame as the longtime bandleader for NBC's Tonight Show during Johnny Carson's tenure as host, and remains remarkably active today at age 85. In addition to performing with his big band and the small group San Miguel Five, Severinsen continues to do educational events and make guest appearances similar to the one depicted in today's fifth clip, which shows him performing "The September Song" with the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble just last year at the National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University.

Contrast that with the sixth clip, a vintage Severinsen performance of "Blues In The Night" and "Sunday Morning" recorded way back in 1965 for a local charity telethon in Louisville, Kentucky. While Severinsen's tone and range might not be quite what they were nearly 50 years ago, it's impressive and inspiring to see the degree to which he's been able to maintain his skills at an age when most brass musicians have long since retired.

Severinsen's big band draws on material from his recording career, famous standards, and the book of arrangements used by the Tonight Show band, and features some top-drawer players from the West Coast, including the great tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts. Although there no doubt will be some familiar favorites in the set list, Severinsen's remarks at the start of the clip from 2012 would suggest that he's not content just to relive the past.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2013 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part 3 of our video preview offering samples of some of the touring jazz and creative musicians who will be coming to St. Louis during the first part of 2013. (Part 1 of the preview is here and part 2 is here.)

Most of the musicians spotlighted in this week's installment may need little introduction to St. Louis jazz fans, as they've all played here at some point in the recent past, some multiple times.

For example, the bassist John Clayton and his son, pianist Gerald Clayton played here as part of the Clayton Brothers Quintet (co-fronted by John's saxophone-playing brother Jeff Clayton) in April 2010 at  Jazz at the Bistro and again in October 2011 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

They're coming back to play as a duo from Wednesday, March 13 through Saturday, March 16 at the Bistro, and though online footage of just the two of them is scarce, we did manage to find the undated clip embedded up above, which features them together playing a medium-slow blues at the 2009 Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy.

The second clip, embedded just below the text, features another duo, pianist Chick Corea and banjo player Béla Fleck. Corea was here most recently with Return to Forever in August 2011 at the Fox Theatre, while Fleck appeared with the reunited original Flecktones lineup in March of this year at the Sheldon.

They'll be playing together in a concert presented by Jazz St. Louis on Saturday, March 23 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Here you can see them in a clip from 2008, performing "Sunset Road" from their 2007 collaborative album The Enchantment. (It was shot by an audience member, so the video quality is a bit shaky, but the audio is good enough.)

Next, it's pianist Joe Sample, who will lead a trio starting Wednesday March 27 through Saturday, March 30 at Jazz at the Bistro. Sample and singer Randy Crawford performed in 2008 at the now-defunct St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and Sample also was here with the reunited Jazz Crusaders in June 2011 at the Touhill. This clip shows him playing "Old Places, Old Faces" with Jay Anderson on bass and Lenny Castro on drums

Trumpet fans and players should relish the combination of Jon Faddis, Terell Stafford and Sean Jones, who will join forces to play on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6 at Jazz at the Bistro. It'll be a rare chance to see these three top trumpeters together on one stage, and all three have headlined their own gigs here in the past few years.

Faddis played St. Louis in 2009 at the Touhill for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival and again with pianist Cyrus Chestnut in 2011 at the Bistro; Jones headlined at the Bistro in April 2009 and again May 2011, and also did a one-nighter there with Stefon Harris this April as part of the 2012 GSLJF. (You can check out StLJN's previous video features on Jones here and here.)

For his part, Stafford led his own quartet in a week of dates at the Bistro in October (and was the subject then of his own video showcase post). He also played the club in March of this year with drummer Matt Wilson's band Arts and Crafts.

Stafford is shown with Wilson below in today's final clip, but before we get to that, there's Faddis playing "Autumn Leaves" from a 2011 concert paying tribute to Miles Davis at the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. Below that, you can see Jones working out on "I'll Remember April" in an undated video recorded at Gregory's Jazz in Rome, Italy.

Singer Marlena Shaw is next on the calendar, as she'll be in town the following week to perform Wednesday, April 10 through Saturday, April 13 at Jazz at the Bistro. Shaw last played the club in May 2010, and had been scheduled to return in the spring of 2012, but postponed and was rescheduled for 2013. Here, you can see her performing "Feel Like Making Love" in March 2010 at New Morning in Paris, France. 

We close out today's video preview with clips featuring clarinetist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson, who will be paired for a gig to open the 2013 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival on Thursday, April 18 at Jazz at the Bistro. Cohen made her St. Louis debut as a leader in February of this year at the Bistro, and also played the club in 2007 with Waverly Seven; Wilson was here most recently in March for a week-long educational residency with Jazz St. Louis that culminated in a two-night stand with his band Arts and Crafts at the Bistro.

The video of Cohen shows her and her quartet - Jason Lindner on piano, Joe Martin on bass, and Daniel Freedman on drums - playing "As Rosas Nao Falam" from her most recent album Claroscuro. It was filmed in June 2012 at at the Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington D.C..

Today's final clip was recorded during Wilson's last visit to St. Louis, when he and Arts and Crafts (with Stafford on trumpet) also did an in-store performance and clinic at Saxquest. Here, you can see them at Saxquest playing "Beija-Flor" by Brazilian samba singer Nelson Cavaquinho, from their 2001 debut album. Then Wilson talks for a bit before they play his original composition "In Touch With Dewey", first recorded on the 2007 album The Scenic Route.

Next week in this space, the plan is to have more about singer Gregory Porter, who will open 2013 at Jazz at the Bistro, with the fourth and final part of StLJN's winter/spring 2013 jazz preview set for two weeks from today. Stay tuned...















(Edited 12/26/12 to fix a typo and a formatting problem.)