Jazz this week: Brad Mehldau Trio, Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Victor Wooten, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the long-awaited return of a critically acclaimed pianist; an all-woman big band headlining a local festival; a couple of free events examining the music of John Coltrane; and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 10
Pianist Brad Mehldau returns to St. Louis for the first time since 2011 for the start of a five-night engagement at Jazz St. Louis.

Though Mehldau has a new album of electric music recorded in collaboration with drummer Mark Guiliana coming out next month, this gig will be with his long-running acoustic trio (pictured, top left), which includes drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Their most recent recording is Seymour Reads the Constitution!, which came out in 2018, and given how long it's been since Mehldau's last appearance here, it seems likely that this week's run at the Bistro will feature some of that material, as well as selections from 2016's Blues and Ballads.

Also on Wednesday, writer Ashley Kahn will give a presentation for Jazz St. Louis' "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series on "A Love Supreme: The Music and Message in John Coltrane's Magnum Opus."  The free event will take place at the St Louis Public Library's Schlafly Branch in the Central West End.

Thursday, April 11
There's more Coltrane content on tap for Thursday night, as the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert featuring saxophonist Paul DeMarinis playing a program of the saxophonist's compositions. DeMarinis will be joined by pianist Nick Schlueter, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Steve Davis, with Ashley Kahn also on hand to deliver some pre-concert remarks.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode will celebrate the release on vinyl of her 2016 album Here and Now with a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and guitarist Dave Black and friends return to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, April 12
The 2019 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival will present the DIVA Jazz Orchestra (pictured, center left) in concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.


The NYC-based, all-woman big band led by drummer Sherri Maricle last year celebrated their 25th anniversary with an album featuring all-original compositions and arrangements by members of the group.

For more about that, plus some videos of DIVA in action, as well as videos of musicians who will be featured in Saturday's GSLJF concert, check out this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, Second Generation Swing Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom, and singer Anita Jackson returns to The Dark Room.

Saturday, April 13
The 2019 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival's final concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center will be a tribute to UMSL jazz studies director Jim Widner featuring the "Ultimate Jazz All-Stars," an ad hoc group assembled for the occasion by drummer and producer Gregg Field and featuring musicians such as saxophonist Tom Scott, trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, pianist, saxophonist and arranger/composer Gordon Goodwin, bassist Carlitos del Puerto, pianist Shelly Berg, and more.

Also on Saturday, the Midwest Jazz-tette plays West Coast "cool" jazz at Evangeline's.

Sunday, April 14
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Stompers playing traditional jazz in a matinee at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport

Then on Sunday evening, multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman and pianist Carolbeth True will revisit some of the music from their 1998 album New World Harmonica Jazz at the house concert venue Judson House.

Monday, April 15
Students and faculty of Webster University will perform the music of Cole Porter at the annual "Shepard/Davis Scholarship Concert" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

Tuesday, April 16
Bassist Victor Wooten (pictured, bottom left) returns with the Wooten Band for a show at Old Rock House. Along with the leader, the Wooten Band includes his brothers Regi and Joseph Wooten on guitars and keyboards and Derico Watson on drums.

The show also will feature the "Wooten Woods Experience," which involves an audience participation segment; guest musicians/educators drawn from a roster including bassist Steve Bailey and saxophonists Bob Franceschini and Bob Hemenger; and "a select group of students from his music and nature camps, an immersive educational program focusing on the relationship between music, nature, and life."

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: October 8, 2017

Antonio Sanchez

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Trane of No-Thought: How Meditation Inspired Jazz Great John Coltrane (LionsRoar.com)
* Jazz and Communism? The Perfect Oxymoron - Paquito D’Rivera considers the implications of International Jazz Day 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66 (Rolling Stone)
* An Appreciation of Tom Petty: Rock’s Superstar Everyman (Variety)
* Free Falling with Tom Petty (The New Yorker)
* Tom Petty's final interview: There was supposed to have been so much more (Los Angeles Times)
* Judd Apatow Revives Mainstream, Bob Shad's Independent Record Label (WBGO)
* Nextbop Interviews Kendrick Scott (NextBop.com)
* The Meaning of Soul Music According to Raphael Saadiq (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: Ashley Kahn on Thelonious Monk's Legacy (Keyboard)
* Antonio Sánchez Brings Electronics and Politics To 'Bad Hombre' (NPR)
* Herbie Hancock: Why he thinks the audience is a member of his band (Philly.com)* A New Model for Paying Musicians a Living Wage? (East Bay Express)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Kamasi Washington on the Music That Made Him a Jazz Colossus (Pitchfork.com)
* Why British DJs From the ’60s and ’70s Kept Their Best Records Secret (AtlasObscura.com)
* The Philosophy & Music of Devo, the Avant-Garde Art Project Dedicated to Revealing the Truth About De-Evolution (Open Culture.com)
* Puerto Rico's 'Singing Newspapers' (NPR)
* The Unknowable Joni Mitchell (The Atlantic)
* Live Sound Processing and Improvisation (New Music Box)
* Mike Stern: Playing Through the Pain (Jazz Times)
* Photos: New York Hot Jazz Festival at the McKittrick Hotel - Cyrille Aimée, Bria Skonberg, Anat Cohen and more swing the fest's fifth edition (Jazz Times)
* European Jazz Conference 2017 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Speed of sound – how Spotify killed the long intro (The Guardian)
* After year of silence, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra ready to move on without founder Irvin Mayfield (New Orleans Advocate)
* I Wrote a Hit Song With Justin Bieber. Want to See My Royalties? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Beats? How Blade Runner impacted electronic music (FactMag.com)
* Kate Bush, Radiohead, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Nominated For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (NPR)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago Celebrates 50 Years Of Channeling And Challenging History (NPR)
* Jazz Drummer Alvin Queen Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Dropped Charges From 50 Years Ago (Billboard)
* On the Cultural Specificity of Symphony Orchestras (CreateEquity.com)

Miles on Monday: The latest Miles Ahead news and reviews, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* The new book The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary Ensembles by Bob Gluck (pictured) was reviewed by Karl Ackerman for AllAboutJazz.com.

* Pianist Robert Glasper and writer Ashley Kahn will team up this fall to teach a course on the music and legacy of Miles Davis at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

* A new exhibit, "So What! The Artistry of Miles Davis," opened last week at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles. The exhibit, which features "archival recordings, magazine articles, concert posters, original photographs, and a significant discography" continues through June 4.

Meanwhile, as the run-up continues to the nationwide opening on April 22 of Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle's film about Davis, the movie continues to make plenty of news. Here's coverage from the past week, once again organized roughly by topic:

The music
* Smithsonian Jazz Expert Gives Liner Notes to the New Miles Davis Biopic (Smithsonian)
* Early Days With Miles Davis (Magnet)
* Don Cheadle’s latest film, Miles Ahead, is miles apart from other biopics (Dallas Morning News)
* HEAR: Miles Davis & Robert Glasper ft. Phonte on New Track (Keyboard)
* Album review: Miles Davis and various artists, Miles Ahead OST (Irish Examiner)
* The mercurial, magnificent Miles Davis (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Robert Glasper on scoring 'Miles Ahead' tribute LP (Revolt.tv)

Reviews of the film
* 'Miles Ahead' review: Don Cheadle's inventive, freewheeling slice of jazz legend's life (Chicago Tribune)
* Review: Miles Ahead (RogerEbert.com)
* Miles Ahead Captures Miles Davis' Lightning in a Bottle (East Bay Express)
* Original Gangster - Don Cheadle and Steven Baigelman jettison traditional biopic conventions to capture the gangster truth of enigmatic jazz genius Miles Davis in Miles Ahead (Writer's Guild of America)
* Insert music-related pun to indicate Don Cheadle's Miles Davis biopic isn't good (RedEyeChicago.com)
* Cheadle’s acting excellent in free-form Miles Davis movie (SF Gate)
* ‘Miles Ahead’ boldly re-imagines Miles Davis’s life (Washington Post)
* ‘Miles Ahead’: Don Cheadle captures the cool in bold biopic (Chicago Sun Times)
* 'Miles Ahead' Ponders Miles Davis' Lost Years (Popmatters)
* Miles Ahead Review (EmpireOnline.com)

Interviews and features
* Box Office: A Healthy Opening for Don Cheadle's 'Miles Ahead' (IndieWire.com)
* Photos from Miles Ahead opening in London (PAImages.co.uk)
* Don Cheadle on playing Miles Davis and directing his first film (AV Club)
* Don Cheadle interview: The actor directs and stars in a new biopic of manic jazz legend Miles Davis (The Independent UK)
* Popcast: Miles Davis and Chet Baker, Artists in Exile (New York Times)
* Vince Wilburn on Miles Ahead (WBGO)
* Don Cheadle on BBC Radio 4 (BBC Radio 4)
* How Miles Davis inspires actor-director Don Cheadle (BBC)
* Don Cheadle: 'Miles Davis was probably bipolar' (BBC)
* Don Cheadle gets inside Miles Davis’ head (San Francisco Examiner)
* Actor Don Cheadle is Miles Ahead as Music Icon Miles Davis (Voice of America News)
* Cincinnatian appears in Miles Davis movie (Cincinnati Herald)

Miles on Monday: Performances set around statue unveiling, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* The Miles Davis Memorial Project last week announced several live performances that will take place in conjunction with the unveiling of the statue of Davis on Saturday, September 12 in downtown Alton, IL.

Along with trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's previously announced set outdoors near the statue site on Third St., several Alton nightspots will feature jazz music that evening after the ceremony.

Veteran big-band trumpeter Bobby Shew (pictured), who's played with Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, and other top bands, will visit Alton to perform with drummer Montez Coleman's quintet in a post-unveiling gig at Elijah P's, 401 Piasa St.. Also that evening, trumpeter Jim Manley will lead a trio at Bossanova Restaurant and Lounge, and trumpeter Dan Smith will be playing at Catdaddy’s Tavern.

* The 2015 Newport Jazz Festival may be in the history books, but the fest's celebration of Davis' historic performances there is still reverberating, as fans attending this year's event shared their memories of Davis for a short video posted on the Miles Davis Facebook page.

* Meanwhile, writer Ashley Kahn, who among other things penned the definitive account of the recording of Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, was interviewed about the trumpeter's history at Newport on Boston radio station WBGO.

* On another related note, reviews of the box set of Davis' performances at Newport released last month are still coming in. Writing for Jazz Times, Colin Fleming calls the box "enough to get you pacing in excitement," while dual reviews in The Guardian (UK) found it to be "a real prize" and "coolly swinging".

* Want a free copy of the Davis/Newport box set? Vote in Jazz Times' "Anniversary Edition" Readers' Poll before Tuesday, September 1, and you can enter a drawing to win one.