Sunday Session: February 7, 2021

Femi Kuti

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

* The Autobiography of Phil Woods: April in Paris 1968 (Jazz Times)
* Spotify’s latest invention monitors your speech, determines your emotional state… and suggests music based on it (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* YouTube says music artists' income could fall if it must pay more for streams (The Guardian)
* Tony Bennett's Battle With Alzheimer's (AARP.org)
* Mississippi Delta: The root of the blues in photos (Nashville Tennessean)
* Playlist: Haitian Rhythms And The Music Of New Orleans (NPR)
* The Velvet Mafia: the gay men who helped shape music in the 60s (The Guardian)
* Different beat: how Fela Kuti’s son and grandson are modernising the dynasty (The Guardian)
* A Time For The Blues (DownBeat)
* The Greatest and Yacht-iest of the Doobie Brothers, According to Michael McDonald (Vulture.com)
* Got the blues? Listen to these 25 essential Mississippi Delta blues songs (Beauregard Daily News)
* Revisiting the Tender Sounds of Dusty Springfield (The New Yorker)
* Mozart did not consider himself a tortured genius (Christian Science Monitor)
* Ben Sidran: The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma (Nardis) (Jazz Times)
* Here’s Where You Can Donate to Help Struggling Music Industry Workers (Rolling Stone)
* How pianist Jason Moran is exploring art and Black influences to get through the pandemic (NBC News)
* The Last Remaining Juke Joints in America (SPIN)
* Planning for the Future of Van Gelder Studio (Jazz Times)
* Danny Ray, James Brown’s Longtime ‘Cape Man’ and Emcee, Dead at 85 (Rolling Stone)
* STEAL THIS PLAN (AntiGravityMagazine.com)
* Ma Rainey’s Blues Power (Tidal.com)
* Hermosa Beach’s Lighthouse Cafe plans to reopen in March under new ownership (Hermosa Beach Daily Breeze)
* Music Venue Owners And Artists Reflect On How The Pandemic Changed Their Industry (NPR)
* How Black Composers Shaped the Sound of American Classical Music (NPR)
* You might know the Bakersfield Sound, but how well do you know the Lakeview Sound? (KGET)
* Béla Fleck’s Journey To Find Truth In Origins Of The Banjo (WBUR)
* How the US Civil War Influenced Music (History.com)
* While Hollywood Had the Sunset Strip, East L.A. Had the ‘Latin Strip’ (LATaco.com)

Jazz this week: Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, Denise Thimes, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the return of a unique fusion group; a visit home from a favorite local expat; two of the bands that launched the "jazz-rock" genre 50 years ago; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, June 26
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features singer Feyza Eren and guitarist Dave Black at The Stage at KDHX, along with the jam session hosted by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, June 27
The reunited original lineup of Béla Fleck and The Flecktones (pictured, top left) return for their first St. Louis performance in seven years at Powell Hall. You can see some videos of recent performances and some footage from the early days of the Flecktones, including their very first performance, in this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Thursday, it's the penultimate performance of trumpeter Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, with the finale set for Saturday night.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Chris Swan play The Pat Connolly Tavern; and the latest installment of the Bruxism experimental music series, featuring Curt Oren, William Morris, Michael Williams and Henry Claude, and Francis Hacienda, happens at the Schlafly Tap Room.

Friday, June 28
Singer Denise Thimes (pictured, bottom left), who last year moved from St. Louis to Chicago in search of greater career opportunities, will be back home to perform for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Also on Friday, the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson return to the Parkside Grille; and guitarist Dan Rubright and the Wire Pilots will perform at the Ozark Theatre.

Saturday, June 29
Guitarist Brian Vaccaro and vocalist Stephanie Stewart will play a matinee at Alpha Brewing Company; singer Bre Hammond presents "A Tribute To The Ladies of Jazz" at the Ozark Theatre; and The Dark Room features pianist Ryan Marquez playing for dinner and Andrew Stephen's Texturz performing for the late show.

Sunday, June 30
There are several noteworthy daytime events on Sunday, including the summer edition of the St. Louis Record Show at the American Czech Center; jazz brunch with pianist Adam Maness at Thurman's in Shaw or singer and bassist Janet Evra at Evangeline's; and the monthly Traditional Jazz Jam Session at the Folk School of KDHX.

Then on Sunday evening, in an odd bit of synchronicity, two of the bands that helped popularize the jazz-rock genre a half-century ago will be in St. Louis on the same night, as Chicago plays at the Fox Theatre and Blood, Sweat & Tears performs at the River City Casino & Hotel.

The current touring version of Chicago includes three original members - keyboard player and singer Robert Lamm, trumpeter Lee Loughnane and trombonist (and St. Louis native) James Pankow. 

Meanwhile, BS&T, which has seen dozens of musicians come and go over the past 50 years, has no members remaining from their hit-making days, but fields a lineup of players selected by founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby, who doesn't perform with the group but owns rights to the name.

Tuesday, July 2
Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran plays a free outdoor concert at Fanetti Park.

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: 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)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Then and now with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

This week, let's take a look at some videos of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, who are coming to St. Louis to perform next Thursday, June 27 at Powell Hall.

This year's tour marking the band's 30th anniversary is one of their most extensive since original member Howard Levy rejoined in 2009, covering 21 dates this summer with more on tap for fall. Their Powell Hall appearance will be their first St. Louis show since 2012, when they played at The Sheldon while touring in support of their 2011 album Rocket Science.

With that 30th anniversary in mind, today's collection of videos shows the Flecktones both in the present day and at the very beginning.

Their very first show together in 1988 came about when Fleck was asked to appear on the PBS series Lonesome Pines and had to assemble a band to play the show, which went well enough that they subsequently stayed together as the Flecktones. You can see a performance from that 1988 broadcast, "Sea Brazil," in the first video embed up above.

After the jump, you can take a look at the full episode of the Flecktones' return in 1991 to the Lonesome Pines stage in Louisville, KY, this time with saxophonist Branford Marsalis along as a special guest.

Next, check out their 1992 appearance on PBS' Austin City Limits, not long before Levy left the band.

Fast-forwarding ahead 16 years, the next two clips, "Sex In A Pan" and "Nemo's Dream," were recorded during a performance by the reunited Flecktones in June 2018 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.

The last video features them playing the title track from their second album, 1991's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, at a gig last July in Boulder, CO.

For more about Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, read Fleck's interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Daniel Durchholz, and the feature story about the current reunion tour published a couple of weeks ago on TheBluegrassSituation.com.

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

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones to perform Thursday, June 27 at Powell Hall

The original lineup of Béla Fleck & The Flecktones (pictured) is reuniting for a 30th anniversary tour that will include a performance at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 27 at Powell Hall in St. Louis.

The group - Fleck on banjo, Howard Levy on piano and harmonica, percussionist Roy "Future Man" Wooten, and bassist Victor Wooten - today announced a total of 19 dates, beginning May 31 at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver and continuing through July 1, with more shows expected to follow.

Tickets for the shows announced today, including St. Louis, are on sale now. For more information and a complete list of dates, see Fleck's website.

Sunday Session: May 14, 2017

Tyshawn Sorey

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

* Can’t help falling in price: why Elvis memorabilia is plummeting in value (The Guardian)
* Photos & Review: Stevie, Snoop, Tank and the Bangas shine on Jazz Fest’s biggest day (Offbeat)
* Louis Armstrong and the jazz heritage of the Fair Grounds (New Orleans Times-Picayune/NOLA.com)
* Béla Fleck: Things That Sound Right (New Music Box)
* "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," Baseball's National Anthem (Neatorama.com)
* Jazz Fest wraps up with big sets from The Meters, Kings of Leon (Offbeat)
* Q&A with Orrin Evans: The Bad Plus’ New Addition (DownBeat)
* Cassettes Are Making A Comeback, But Which Artists Are Actually Selling Them? (Forbes)
* What does ‘rock music’ even mean anymore anyway? (City Pages)
* This cybernetic synth contains a brain grown from the inventor’s cells (CreateDigitalMusic.link)
* How Preservation Hall Jazz Band Found Their New Sound in Cuba (Rolling Stone)
* New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest: A Photo Recap (DownBeat)
* The Colonel Has a Master Plan (OtielBurbridge.com)
* Scofield Revisits His Past in Jazz at Lincoln Center Concert (DownBeat)
* The Decline of the Yellow Label (Atavist.com)
* Universal Demands Cancellation of $30 Million Deal With Prince Estate (Billboard)
* The MP3 Is Officially Dead, According To Its Creators (NPR)
* eMusic Relaunches Indie-Centric Music Service (Billboard)
* New Orleans Jazz Festival: 2nd Weekend Photos (Jazz Times)
* “Play Without Bitching About the Key,” and Other Humorous, Blunt Annotations Added to Musical Scores (OpenCulture.com)
* Here comes the science bit: why music festivals are going geek (The Guardian)
* Paradise Blue: A Fictional Jazz Club in a Real Time (DownBeat)
* The Checkout: Drummer Tyshawn Sorey Reflects on His Spectrum of Imagination (WBGO)
* In full, on vinyl, no talking: have we lost the art of listening to music? (The Guardian)
* Valdés Puts Efflorescent Pianism on Display at Birdland (DownBeat)

Jazz this week: Fareed Haque's Mathgames, Jeff Coffin, Johnny Boyd, Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival, The Wee Trio, and more

If you've checked out the first three parts of StLJN's fall 2013 jazz preview, you already may have realized that we're heading into what could be the busiest three weeks of the season, with a wide assortment of touring musicians and special events coming up. Here's a look at the highlights of the next few days...

Tonight, guitarist Fareed Haque brings his fusion band Mathgames to The Gramophone; saxophonist Chad Evans leads a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and pianist Brad MacDonald, a Collinsville native and former student of Carolbeth True's now based in Chicago, will lead a trio at Robbie's House of Jazz.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jeff Coffin (pictured) and his band the Mu'tet return to St. Louis to perform at The Gramophone. Interestingly, Coffin's old bandmate Bela Fleck also is back in town Friday, exploring old-time, bluegrass and country styles in a duo show with fellow banjo player and singer Abigail Washburn at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Meanwhile, swing dance fans likely will be flocking to hear singer Johnny Boyd, formerly of 1990s revivalists Indigo Swing, at the Casa Loma Ballroom, with Miss Jubilee opening the show.

Elsewhere on Friday night, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes Trio are at The Wine Press; the Funky Butt Brass Band plays their monthly gig at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and drummer Kaleb Kirby will lead a jam session at Robbie's House of Jazz in anticipation of Saturday's Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival.

And speaking of the Old Webster festival, it will feature music on two outdoor stages in the Old Webster Business District, near Lockwood & Gore, from noon until 10:00 p.m. on Saturday. Performers at the free event will includes blues singer-guitarist Marquise Knox; the Webster University jazz faculty, reprising the Cannonball Adderley tribute they performed a couple of weeks ago on campus; veteran bluesman David Dee; the Willie Akins/Montez Coleman Group; singer-songwriter Javier Mendoza; and the seemingly ubiquitous retro-swing of both Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes and Miss Jubilee.

Also on the schedule are Shades of Blue, the 18-member big band from Scott AFB; "Webster's Got Talent" contest winners Blue Like Jazz, with guest vocalist Erika Johnson; the hometown Webster Groves High School Jazz Band; and a second line featuring New Orleans R&B cover band North of the Quarter.

Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon, Jeff Coffin and at least some, if not all, of the Mu'tet will be doing a free workshop and performance at Saxquest.

On Saturday evening, singer Feyza Eren will be joined at the Wine Press by Italian pianist Antonio Figura, who's in town to do various things at Washington University including a Jazz at Holmes performance next week; and trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a trio at Thurman Grill.

On Sunday, singer Joe Mancuso will bring a quintet with special guest saxophonist Freddie Washington to the Soulard Art Fair. Later that afternoon, you can see two more big bands for the price of one, as the Dave Dickey Big Band is joined at their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company by guest trumpeter Roger Ingram, plus the entire University of Missouri Concert Jazz Band, led by saxophonist Arthur White, performing in the intermission spot.

Also on Sunday, there's a benefit concert to raise funds for blues singer Kim Massie, who recently had thyroid surgery, at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and Good 4 The Soul and various guest stars will offer "A Tribute to George Duke" at the Bistro at Grand Center.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Paul DeMarinis and friends will play at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, while guitarist Tom Byrne is downtown at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

On Tuesday, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, under the baton of bassist Jim Widner, will present "A Tribute to Maynard Ferguson" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The concert will feature trumpeter Jim Manley, who was inspired early in his career by Ferguson and later befriended him, as guest soloist.

That same evening, The Wee Trio, with St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, will be back in the area for the first of two shows supporting the release of their new album Live at the Bistro at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. The group plays again on Wednesday night at Chaminade College Prep's Viragh Center for the 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.)

(Edited after posting to correct info on the Joe Mancuso and Brad MacDonald gigs.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Bassist Raymond Eldridge, who's played with many different St. Louis jazz musicians and groups over the course of a five-decade career, reportedly has been in the intensive care unit at Barnes Hospital after suffering a stroke last Friday. His condition had been described as "grave," though a subsequent post on Facebook from a family member said Eldridge had improved greatly since first being admitted. More information on this as it becomes available...

* On a much happier note, StLJN sends best wishes to DJ, author and photographer Dennis Owsley, who celebrated his 70th birthday this week.

* New Music Circle's "Seeing Sound" film-and-music event on Friday, April 5 at Webster University is previewed by Stefene Russell of St. Louis magazine.

* The Monterey Jazz Festival 55th anniversary touring all-star ensemble was featured this past week on NPR's "JazzSet." They'll play as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival on Friday, April 19 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* And speaking of the Touhill, Jazz St. Louis has posted on Facebook a photo album from last Friday's concert there by Chick Corea and Bela Fleck.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake has posted on his SoundCloud page two sample tracks from his new big band album Wheels.

* The Post-Dispatch's recurring feature "A Look Back" this week offered a retrospective on the Gaslight Square entertainment district, written by Tim O'Neil.

* A new episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz will begin airing on Thursday, April 4. It includes footage of a recent performance at Jazz at the Bistro by the group led by saxophonist Willie Akins and drummer Montez Coleman (pictured); a feature on the Sheldon's recent exhibit of jazz-influenced work by famed cartoonist and native St. Louisan Al Hirschfeld; and more. Check your TV provider's program guide for the channel and times, or watch online at www.hectv.org/.

* Finally, a reminder that there are just a couple of days left to vote legendary trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry into Jazz at Lincoln Center's Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame. You have until midnight on Sunday, March 31 to cast your ballot at http://jalc.org/2013-jazz-hall-of-fame-vote.

Jazz this week: Chick Corea & Béla Fleck, Alarm Will Sound, tributes to Dave Brubeck and Eddie Lang, and more

Spring officially arrives tomorrow in St. Louis, and while it remains to be seen whether or not the weather will cooperate by being appropriately spring-like, the next few days definitely include some jazz and creative music performances worth seeing. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the 20-member new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound returns for the second performance of their St. Louis season at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The program will offer a preview of AWS' concert next month at NYC's Carnegie Hall, including the second-ever US performance of Steve Reich's "Radio Rewrite" as well as brand-new works written specifically for the group by John Orfe and Donnacha Dennehy. For more about the concert and "Radio Rewrite," see this article by Stefene Russell of St. Louis magazine.

Also tonight, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly open mic night at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and guitarist Randy Bahr and singer Joe Mancuso will play a duo gig at Candicci's.

On Thursday, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert featuring the music of Dave Brubeck as played by Wash U faculty member and series curator William Lenihan on bass, Nathan Jatcko on piano, Kristian Baarsvik on alto sax, and Steve Davis on drums.

Also on Thursday, Dizzy Atmosphere plays Gypsy jazz and swing at the Shaved Duck, and pianist Ptah Williams and his trio will settle in to what's being billed an ongoing weekly gig at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

On Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band will perform a one-nighter at Jazz at the Bistro;  percussionist Herman Semidey and his band will play Latin jazz at Robbie's House of Jazz; and trumpeter Anthony Wiggins leads a quartet with pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson, drummer Montez Coleman and bassist Laron Stover at Cigar Inn.

Then on Saturday, Jazz St. Louis presents pianist Chick Corea and banjo player Béla Fleck (pictured) in a duo concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The two collaborated on record back in 2007 with The Enchantment, and this tour features music from that album as well as tunes from each man's respective repertoire and a few surprises.

Also on Saturday, trumpeter/vibraphonist Joe Bozzi leads a trio at Truffles; and singer Tony Viviano performs at the Schlafly Bottleworks.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents a tribute to the "father of jazz guitar" Eddie Lang at the Doubletree Hotel at Westport. (Pre-dating even Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, Lang recorded as a sideman with top stars including Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, and Lonnie Johnson and in a duo with violinist Joe Venuti, gaining considerable fame before dying in 1933 at just 32 years old.)

Also on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band will play their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.  Pianist Chip Stephens will be the DDBB's special guest again this month, with the Webster Groves High School Jazz I combo performing at intermission.

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 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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz St. Louis will celebrate the first-ever International Jazz Day with an open jam session from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Monday, April 30 at Jazz at the Bistro. Pianist Adaron “Pops” Jackson’s trio will host. Admission is free and open to the public, though seating is limited. Musicians who want to participate are encouraged to sign up starting at 7:00 p.m. that night at the Bistro.

* Trumpeter Clark Terry's recently published autobiography was reviewed by The Australian newspaper.

* Trumpeter, singer and St. Louis native Jeremy Davenport (pictured) recently was featured in a photo essay in New Orleans magazine about the French Quarter. Davenport and his band are the house group at New Orleans' Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

* Last Thursday's performance by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones at the Sheldon Concert Hall was reviewed by KDHX's Jared Corgan.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts has three more "Business Edge" workshops for artists and musicians coming up this month, starting with a "Copyright Clinic" next Monday, April 9. Next up is "Inside the Music Business: Legal Essentials," which was rescheduled for Monday, April 16 after an earlier date was canceled due to inclement weather. The series wraps with "Is It Okay? Fair Use for Filmmakers" on Monday, April 23.

All workshops take place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar (across from The Pageant). The cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door, with advance registration recommended. For more information, visit the website or call VLAA at 314-863-6930.

* The Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller reported this week that St. Louis may be getting a new classical radio station this summer. "The Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis, which provided considerable financial support to the old "Classic 99," KFUO-FM, hopes to be on the air with a new FM station in early June, pending FCC approvals. The new station, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, will broadcast over a combination of regular analog radio, an HD-2 channel and live streaming over the Internet."

Initial funding is coming from The Centene Foundation, which gave $200,000 to get things started and has promised another $1 million, and a fundraising drive that will begin this month. The total cost, including operating expenses, is expected to be $5 million to $6 million over two years. Of particular interest to local jazz fans is a quote in the story from station manager Jim Connett, who said that the new station will feature "everything — chamber music, vocal music, choirs, opera, symphonic, jazz" and what he called "cultural programming." More on this story as it develops...

Jazz this week: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Nicholas Payton, Larry Ochs and Kinhoua, and more

From free improv to fusion to big band to neo-soul/hip-hop influenced experimentation, this week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis has a variety of offerings to suit different musical tastes. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, New Music Circle presents saxophonist Larry Ochs and Kihnoua in concert at Kranzberg Arts Center. In addition to Ochs, the group features Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, Dohee Lee on vocals, and special guest bassist Trevor Dunn.

Also tonight, trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton opens a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, fronting a trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Corey Fonville.

On Thursday, the reunited original lineup of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (pictured) will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can read more about the reunion and see some video footage of the Flecktones playing material from their most recent album here.

Also on Thursday, the Genesis Jazz Project plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Washington University's jazz combo students will perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series.

On Friday, cabaret performers Donna Weinsting and Lara Buck team up for the first of two nights of "Bold, Bawdy, Blonde - and Funny," a new show staged under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Also on Friday, the Saint Boogie Brass Band, a relatively new local group working in the New Orleans brass band tradition, plays at Robbie's; guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio with drummer Paul Shaw and bassist Chris Watrous at Cigar Inn; and the St. Louis Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Then on Saturday, Shades of Jade, a Kansas City band blending jazz with hip-hop and neo-soul, will perfrom at Robbie's; and singer Dean Christopher will do his "Rat Pack and More" thing with help from pianist Carolbeth True at Frontenac Grill

On Sunday, singer Erin Bode will perform in concert at St. Peter's United Church of Christ.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's jazz combo students will show off their semester's work in a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium; and Tom Byrne brings his Pat Metheny-inspired project Have You Heard? back to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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: The return of the original Flecktones

Today, let's take a look at some recent videos featuring Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, who will be back in St. Louis next week to perform Thursday, March 29 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Although they've played in St. Louis numerous times in the past, this is the first appearance here for the Flecktones since their original lineup reconvened in 2009 with keyboard and harmonica player Howard Levy back in the fold. (Saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who had replaced Levy back in 1997, remains busy with the Dave Matthews Band and his own projects.)

The reunited Flecktones - Fleck, Levy, bassist Victor Wooten and percussionist Roy "Futureman" Wooten recorded a new album, Rocket Science, that was released last spring, and have been doing live dates ever since. Today's collection of clips features the reunited lineup in a series of performances from the past year.

Up above, you can see them playing the song "Prickly Pear," which was first recorded for Rocket Science, at the 2011 Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee.

Down below is a short promotional video for Rocket Science that includes some musical excerpts and brief interviews with the band members about their reunion. Below that are two more clips of live performances of songs from the album, "Sweet Pomegranates" and "Life In Eleven."

We close out with two clips that show the current Flecktones reaching into their back catalog for older material, with a version of "Sinister Minister" recorded last June at the Mountain Jam festival, and a rendition of "Big Country," also from Bonnaroo 2011.

Sheldon, Metrotix offering online presale of tickets for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Metrotix are offering online customers an advance opportunity to buy tickets for the concert by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones (pictured) on Thursday, March 29 at the Sheldon. The show is part of a tour that reunites the group's original lineup for the first time in 18 years.

Tickets go on sale to the general public this Saturday, February 25, but online buyers can get a day's jump on that by taking advantage of a presale starting at 10:00 a.m. Friday, February 24. Tickets for the show are priced at $40, $50 and $65. To access the presale, go to http://metrotix.com/promotions, select the Sheldon from among the list of venues, and when prompted, enter the promotion code BELA12.

The Sheldon also still has on sale a limited number of patron tickets, which help support the venue's education programs. Priced at $150 and $125, they include preferred seating, a pre-concert reception, complimentary parking and a tax deduction. For more information, call the Sheldon directly at 314-533-9900.

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2011-12 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall on Friday released the schedules for their various 2011-12 season series. For jazz fans in St. Louis, the biggest news might be the confirmation of two dates that previously had leaked out through Pollstar.

More specifically, as we told you here last month, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will return to the Sheldon on Friday, September 30 in a benefit performance for the Sheldon's educational programs.

Also, as noted here earlier this week, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will play the Sheldon on Thursday, March 29. This will be the new/old lineup of the Flecktones, with original member Howard Levy on keyboards and harmonica returning to replace saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who's now playing with (and presumably cashing some very large checks from) the Dave Matthews Band.

Both the Marsalis/JaLCO performance and the Flecktones show are designated as "special concerts," which means that tickets are not sold as part of any of the series packages.

As for the Sheldon's 2011-12 jazz series, it will include the Clayton Brothers Quintet (Saturday, October 29), pianist Chucho Valdés (pictured) and the Afro-Cuban Messengers (Saturday, February 11), the Detroit-based, all-female group Straight Ahead (Saturday, March 24), and singer Sara Gazarek (Saturday, May 5).

So what's the takeaway on this lineup? Well, Gazarek is one of the best young female jazz singers around, and Valdés' skills as a pianist and composer certainly are impressive, though deployed in a rather conventional Latin-jazz format (for which, to be fair, Valdes helped draft the blueprints). Those two shows seem worthy of eager anticipation; the Clayton Brothers and Straight Ahead, maybe not so much.

For one thing, both groups already have played St. Louis within the past 18 months, so it's not like those who have an interest have been deprived of the chance to hear them. More to the point, while both undeniably offer skilled musicianship, neither group is particularly innovative, buzzworthy or even musically distinctive. Given the universe of possibilities out there, it's hard to get too excited about a four-show series in which half the concerts are devoted to such middling, recycled fare.

Meanwhile, the Sheldon's "Coffee Concerts" series will offer return appearances from pianist Carolbeth True and singer Christi John Bye (Tuesday, October 11 & Wednesday, October 12), the St. Louis Rivermen (Tuesday, April 3 and Wednesday, April 4), and trumpeter Bob Ceccarini and pianist Pat Joyce (Tuesday, May 8 and Wednesday, May 9), as well as a non-subscription show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the St. Louis Ragtimers (Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7).

Rounding out the jazz offerings for the year, the Saturday matinee series will include a concert from Cornet Chop Suey on April 21. The Sheldon's news release also mentioned that pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series next year, but offered no further details.

Patron tickets for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performance are on sale now for $150 and $125. Single tickets will be priced at $65 and $55 and will go on sale August 13. However, subscribers can request single tickets with their subscription order.

Subscription tickets for the "Jazz at The Sheldon" series are priced at $150 and $135; the Coffee Concerts series is $65 and $55; and Saturday matinee tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children. Current subscribers are being offered the opportunity to renew now, and new subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 16 and continue through the first concert in each series. For more information or to order tickets, call the Sheldon at 314-533-9900 or visit their website.

Pollstar: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones to play the Sheldon next March

The online touring information service Pollstar has just added a listing showing a performance by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Fleck played the Sheldon in April 2009 with his Africa Project, and he and the Flecktones last performed together in St. Louis in February 2007 at The Pageant.

As will all Pollstar listings, this should be not be considered confirmed until officially announced by the venue. The Sheldon is expected to announce its 2010-11 season schedule soon, and when that announcement is made, we'll have details for you right here.

Notes from the Net: Jimmy Wilkins profiled; Rollins, Elling and Botti on the road; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Starting with some Miles Davis-related items, it seems that the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Davis' Kind of Blue continues without pause, as KoB drummer Jimmy Cobb's all-star So What band played at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY this past weekend as part of an extensive touring schedule.

Also, here's a review of the new reissue of Davis' Sketches of Spain, written for PopMatters.com by Sean Murphy. For more Miles-related news and links, as always we exhort you to visit Jeffrey Hyatt's fine site Miles Davis Online, which recently has spotlighted some rarely-seen photos of the trumpeter alongside interviews with the photographers who shot the pics.

* The late trumpeter and St. Louis native Lester Bowie's 1981 album The Great Pretender was the subject of a recent "Listening Party" post on NPR's A Blog Supreme.

* Here's a recent feature story from the Las Vegas Sun about St. Louis native, trombonist and bandleader Jimmy Wilkins (pictured), a veteran of the Count Basie Orchestra who now lives in Vegas.

* And here's a rediscovered vintage 1999 audio interview of saxophonist, composer and one-time Webster University student John Zorn by Chris Comer.

* Former St. Louisan Bob Koester was profiled last week in the New York Times on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of his Delmark Records label. Koester also owns Chicago's Jazz Record Mart.

* Turning to news of recent visitors to St. Louis, it took Jazz St. Louis three tries to get trumpeter Terence Blanchard here to St. Louis this past season - Blanchard's twice-rescheduled week at Jazz at the Bistro finally happened in May - but the trumpeter isn't always quite so hard to get. Thanks to a gap in their tour schedule, he and his band were able to travel to Canada to play a last minute gig at the Ottawa Jazz Festival on just two days' notice after promoters secured a last-minute grant from the Canadian government.

* Singer Tony Bennett is helping to open a new location for the Frank Sinatra School fo the Arts in his hometown of Astoria, Queens. Bennett was in St. Louis in May to play the Fox Theatre.

* Banjo player Bela Fleck took his Africa Project to Caramoor International Music Festival in Connecticut this past week. The tour was in St. Louis in April at the Sheldon Concert Hall

* Turning to news of coming attractions, saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins is playing this week at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. Rollins will be in St. Louis in September to play a Jazz St. Louis-sponsored show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Meanwhile, trumpeter Chris Botti is playing at LA's Greek Theatre this weekend. Botti also will be here in September, at the Fox.

* Singer Kurt Elling also is north of the border this week, performing at the Edmonton International Jazz Festival. For a limited time AOL Music is streaming Elling's new CD Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman for free. Released June 23 on Concord Jazz, it features saxophonist Ernie Watts, The Laurence Hobgood Trio and the string quartet ETHEL accompanying Elling. You can stream the album here. Elling will perform the Hartman/Coltrane material here in December at Jazz at the Bistro, with St. Louis' own Willie Akins taking Watts' part.

* Finally, from the "general interest" files, no doubt there's been plenty of gloomy news in the jazz world recently, from the cancellation of festivals this year in New York, St. Louis, and lots of other places to Jazz Times magazine's recent suspension of publication. However, veteran critic Josef Woodard, writing in the Santa Barbara Independent, remains optimistic about the resiliency of the music and the people who play and listen to it: "Jazz retains its status as America’s greatest indigenous art form and the 20th century’s great musical invention, but the music and its facilitating institutions are facing ominous forces...(snip)...The bright side of this sobering downturn is that jazz is a survivor...Jazz will out, but those of us who need it may have to go some extra miles to satisfy our needs. It won’t be the first time."

* And, in a demonstration of Woodard's point about jazz representing the very best of the United States of America, Jazz at Lincoln Center is now accepting band applications for the 2009-2010 Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program. American music groups specializing in jazz, urban/hip hop and other American roots music including bluegrass, blues, Cajun, country, gospel and zydeco are invited to apply. Over the past four years, 108 musicians from 28 ensembles have toured with the program, visiting 97 countries on five continents. The program, now in its fifth year, is a collaboration with The U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Applications are due by Aug. 10.

Notes from the Net: "Miles From India" in NYC and Montreal; Elling, Bridgewater pay tribute to jazz classics, plus news, reviews, interviews & more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Let's start, as we often do, with some Miles Davis-related items. The Montreal Jazz Festival has announced that the ensemble for the "Miles From India" concert on July 4 at the Theatre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts will include bassist Darryl Jones, whose first big-time gig was with Miles and who now plays with the Rolling Stones, and the Indian percussionist Selvaganesh, a member of the group Remember Shakti.

On a related note, here a review done for AllAboutJazz.com by Martin Longley of a "Miles From India" performance in late May at NYC's Iridium. Also, via Miles Davis Online, we learn that drummer Jimmy Cobb and an edition of his So What band featuring Wallace Roney on trumpet did a Kind of Blue tribute at last weekend's Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, singer Kurt Elling is performing songs from his new CD Dedicated to You this week at NYC's Birdland, and the news Web site/cable channel NY1 has a feature story with accompanying video. Elling will be in St. Louis in December at Jazz at the Bistro to perform material from the CD, which re-imagines songs from the famous collaboration of singer Johnny Hartman and saxophone legend John Coltrane.

* Here's a review for AAJ.com by Chris M. Slawecki of Bach in Havana, the new CD from Tiempo Libre. The band will perform in St. Louis next year at Washington University's Edison Theatre.

* Singer DeeDee Bridgewater (pictured) is performing material from her new Billie Holiday tribute CD during a week-long gig at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Bridgewater will do her Holiday tribute in St. Louis this October at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* Speaking of the Sheldon, here's a review, written by Jerry D'Souza for AllABoutJazz.com, of guitarist Frank Vignola's Live at the Sheldon DVD from Mel Bay Records. Vignola's most recent St. Louis appearance was in May at Jazz at the Bistro.

* The funky organ trio Medeski, Martin & Wood, who were in St. Louis in April to play the Loyal Earth Festival, will play the music of John Zorn during a concert at the Barbican in London.

* Banjo player Bela Fleck, who brought his Africa Project tour to the Sheldon in April, also is doing some duo concerts with Toumani Diabate. Fleck and Diabate were just in Tuscon, AZ, and were featured in the Tucson Weekly.

* Lastly, a few items from the "general interest" files, starting with the unfortunate news that Jazz Times magazine has suspended publication. The mag hopes to find new owners and get back to publishing soon, but given the current economic climate, it's far from a done deal. Howard Mandel has details at his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog here.

* Meanwhile, the once very popular smooth jazz radio format continues to take a beating around the U.S.A, with more stations changing formats to rock music or talk in recent weeks. There's an interesting piece here from the Contra Costa Times (which covers communities near the Bay Area in California) that looks at this trend, noting that the whole notion of "smooth jazz" as a category of music was largely a creation of radio programmers.

* In happier news, the always interesting online jazz magazine Point of Departure has a new issue online.

* The Jazz Journalists Association Awards for this year were announced last Tuesday, and the list of winners includes several musicians who have performed in St. Louis in the past year, such as trumpeter Terence Blanchard, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and electric bassist Steve Swallow. See the entire list of 2009 award recipients here.

* And in my favorite quirky-story-with-a-happy-ending of the week, drums and other music gear that had belonged to the late Max Roach and were stolen after his death turned up last week in an unlikely place: a barn in Byrdstown, TN. The gear is now on its way back to Roach's heirs; read the whole "lost and found" story here.

Bela Fleck documentary Throw Down Your Heart playing tonight and Sunday at Webster University

Via Joe Williams' movie blog at the Post-Dispatch: The documentary film Throw Down Your Heart, which features banjo player Bela Fleck traveling across Africa learning about the history of his instrument and performing with African musicians, will play at 8:00 p.m. tonight and Sunday night at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

The film previously was shown in St. Louis last fall as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival, and Fleck's "Africa Project" tour came to the Sheldon Concert Hall in April. For more information about this weekend's screenings of Throw Down Your Heart, call 314-968-748 or visit the Webster film series Web site.