Sunday Session: January 6, 2019

Ron Carter

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* A Jazz Conversation with Ted Gioia (Jazz Profiles)
* Ron Carter: Still Searching for the Right Notes (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Paul McCartney opens up about Abbey Road, the Beatles' breakup in wide-ranging interview (CBS News)
* The West Coast Jazz Revival (City Journal)
* Jeff Goldblum: Not a Hollywood Square (Jazz Times)
* Helen Sung: Words and Music (Jazz Times)
* These early Louis Armstrong recordings are among the flood of works now in the public domain (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* New Orleans Is Not Coachella: Guest Editorial (Offbeat)
* Herbie Nichols’ Third World (WFIU)
* Jazz Musician Plays Acoustic Guitar While Undergoing Brain Surgery, Helping Doctors Monitor Their Progress (OpenCulture.com)
* The Price, Cost and Value of Digital Music (DownBeat)
* Is this the end of owning music? (BBC)
* Bill Charlap: Life, Love, Songs, and Pianos (Stereophile)
* DJ Art Laboe, 93, spins oldies to link inmates and family (Associated Press)
* Dickey Betts returns to performing following brain surgery (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
* Album Sales Are Dying as Fast as Streaming Services Are Rising (Rolling Stone)
* How Soul Train became the most radical show on American television (DazedDigital.com)
* Blue Note “As Important As The Beatles Or Dylan” Says Don Was (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Bootsy Collins Announces Retirement from Live Bass Playing (NoTreble.com)
* Carlos Santana Announces New EP, Signs to Concord Records (Jambands.com)
* 12 New Jazz Artists to Watch in 2019 (Paste)
* The Jazz Glories of 1959, One Day at a Time: A Conversation with Critic Natalie Weiner (WBGO)
* Green Book Director Peter Farrelly Defends Film Amid Criticism by Don Shirley’s Family (Vanity Fair)
* Spike Lee’s Secret Weapon For 30 Years: ‘BlacKkKlansman’ Composer Terence Blanchard (IndieWire.com)

Sunday Session: April 22, 2018

Kamasi Washington

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Why the Hell Can’t Hollywood Make a Decent Music Festival Movie? (Los Angeles)
* A record shop life (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Cape Town Festival Honors Hugh Masekela (DownBeat)
* The Unlikely Pairing of Louis Armstrong With Ella Fitzgerald Is (Still) Pure Bliss (Mother Jones)
* Laurindo Almeida: Forgotten Genius of Guitar Arrangement (Acoustic Guitar)
* Bill Charlap: “I’m Not a Composer” (Jazz Times)
* Beyond 'Blurred Lines': How Forensic Musicology Is Altering Pop's Future (Rolling Stone)
* The State of the Music Cities Union (Medium.com)
* This Must Be David Byrne (GQ)
* Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN.' Wins Historic Pulitzer Prize In Music (NPR)
* Pulitzer Prize Administrator Explains How Kendrick Lamar Won (Billboard)
* This Year’s Other Two Pulitzer Finalists on Losing to Kendrick Lamar (Slate)
* What the classical-music world can learn from Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize (Washington Post)
* Should Artists Get a Cut When Their Songs Land On Branded Playlists on Spotify? (Billboard)
* Kamasi Washington on how South Central shaped his experiential new record (DazedDigital.com)
* My Amazing Day…and Night, with Jimi Hendrix (GovindaGallery.com)
* Los Tigres Del Norte Perform At Folsom Prison 50 Years After Johnny Cash (NPR)
* 10 of the Best Music Podcasts (Variety)
* Tiger Lily Records: The wild story of the tax scam label run by the notorious Morris Levy (Part II) (DangerousMinds.net)
* "Jazz & Social Justice": A Playlist by Angela Davis (SFJAZZ.org)
* Vinyl: Ornette Coleman’s Revolution (DownBeat)
* Global Recorded Music Revenues Grew By $1.4 Billion in 2017 (Music Industry Blog)
* Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD (KCRW)
* What Is HD Vinyl and Is It Legit? (Gizmodo)
* The great Record Store Day debate and why we like vinyl so much, anyway (Alternative Press)
* The Beatles: In Defense of Revolution 9 (Den of Geek)

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap, Kris Davis & Craig Taborn, Jason Marsalis, and more

It's a busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy touring performers in town, including three top-flight pianists, two of whom will be performing together as a duo.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, September 28
Pianist Bill Charlap returns with his trio for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Charlap was here most recently in February 2014 with saxophonist Houston Person at the Bistro, but this time, the focus is strictly on the him and his band, which the British newspaper The Guardian earlier this year called "one of the best piano trios ever, and certainly as instantly recognisable as any of its great predecessors."

Also on Wednesday, singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's, and Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris will perform at Nathalie's.

Thursday, September 29
There's no Jazz at Holmes concert this week at Washington University, but pianist Ptah Williams and guitarist Eric Slaughter Quartet will be holding down their usual Thursday night slot at The Dark Room.

Friday, September 30
If you don't already have tickets to see Al Jarreau at Jazz at the Bistro, you're most likely out of luck, as the show, featuring the singer and a pianist in what Jarreau calls "a piano bar setting," has been sold out for a while now. The available options at this point would be to check with the box office for any last minute cancellations or returns; or show up in time to stake out a spot to watch the live video feed of the show in the Bistro's adjacent lounge.

Elsewhere on Friday, The Eren Sisters will perform at the The Chapel, Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom, guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio at Cigar Inn, and saxophonist Tim Cunningham plays at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Saturday, 
October 1
New Music Circle begins their 2016-17 season with a concert featuring Kris Davis and Craig Taborn (pictured, top left) at the 560 Music Center.

The joint tour pairing the two intriguing pianists arrives simultaneously with Davis' latest album Duopoly, a series of duets performed with eight different musicians, including Taborn. Both Davis and Taborn are highly capable improvisers, and the rare opportunity to hear them work together should be a real treat for those who enjoy adventurous sounds.

Also on Saturday, the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The youngest brother of four in the famed New Orleans musical family, Jason Marsalis (pictured, bottom left) is perhaps best known as a drummer, thanks to his ongoing work in pianist Marcus Roberts' trio. But he's a legitimate voice on the vibes as well, swinging hard and leading a tight band, as you can see and hear them for yourself in last Saturday's video showcase post.

Elsewhere around town, Franglais plays Gypsy jazz and swing at Evangeline's, and trombonist Kevin Ward leads a quartet at The Dark Room.

Sunday, October 2
Guitarist Dave Black plays for brunch and Nathalie's, and the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

Monday, October 3
Bassist Willem von Hombracht will lead a quartet in a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University  campus.

Tuesday, October 4
The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra with singers Valerie Tichacek, Ron Wilkinson, and Dean Christopher will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

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.)

Music Education Monday: A master class with pianist Bill Charlap

Bill Charlap has won wide acclaim as one of the most accomplished and tasteful pianists of his generation. Charlap (pictured) who turns 50 this year, has recorded seven albums as a leader or co-leader for the Blue Note label, including two Grammy-nominated CDs.

He also was a member of Blue Note Seven, the all-star group assembled in 2008 to mark the label's 70th anniversary, and as a sideman has performed or recorded with many well-known singers and musicians, including Tony Bennett, Phil Woods, Harry Allen, Ruby Braff, Scott Hamilton, Gerry Mulligan, Warren Vaché, Jim Hall, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and more.

More recently, Charlap last year was named director of jazz studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, and today for Music Education Monday, you can see a video of a master class Charlap presented in 2013 at the Jazz Philharmonic Hall in Saint Petersburg, Russia. While the quality of the video (shot by an audience member) isn't particularly good, and there are occasional interjections from a translator, it's listenable and watchable enough to spend 50 minutes with Charlap as he shares the story of his career and some musical perspectives, with accompanying musical examples. 

You can see the video after the jump...

Miles on Monday: An open letter from Mingus to Miles, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* An ensemble led by pianist Bill Charlap revisited the arrangements from Davis' landmark album Birth Of The Cool for a concert on November 14 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, and DownBeat magazine has a review.

* Speaking of DownBeat, it was 60 years ago today that bassist and composer Charles Mingus (pictured, with Davis) took to the pages of that same magazine to pen "An Open Letter to Miles Davis."

Apparently prompted by concern about Davis' then-imminent return to the jazz scene after kicking his addiction to heroin, Mingus wrote:

"How is Miles going to act when he gets back and gets going again? Will it be like a gig in Brooklyn not too long ago with Max, Monk, and me when he kept telling Monk to “lay out” because his chords were all wrong? Or even at a more recent record date when he cursed, laid out, argued, and threatened Monk and asked Bob Weinstock why he hired such a nonmusician and would Monk lay out on his trumpet solos?"

The bassist did strike a more conciliatory note toward the end of his letter, writing, "Truly, Miles, I love you and want you to know you’re needed here, but you’re too important a person in jazz to be less than extra careful about what you say about other musicians who are also trying to create."

Given that Mingus was famously irascible to the point of physical violence with his own collaborators and sidemen - he once punched trombonist Jimmy Knepper, causing him to lose a tooth and suffer lasting damage to his embouchure - there's more than a little irony in him admonishing Miles about mistreating other musicians. Yet the mere fact that he would write such a thing, and that DownBeat would print it, suggests how important Davis was to jazz, even after having been out of action for an extended period.

* This week also marks 57 years since the release of Davis' album Milestones, which was issued originally on December 1, 1958, as Columbia CL 1193. Collecting material from sessions held in February and March of that year, the album featured Davis with a band including John Coltrane on tenor sax, Cannonball Adderly on alto sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and "Philly" Joe Jones on drums.

The tracks included "Dr. Jekyll," "Sid's Ahead," "Two Bass Hit," "Miles," "Billy Boy," and, interestingly, given the strained relationship between Miles and Monk mentioned in the Mingus letter, a version of Monk's "Straight, No Chaser," which you can hear via the YouTube embed below.

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap & Houston Person, Alarm Will Sound, Peter Martin, So Percussion, Willie Pickens, and more

This week's menu of jazz and creative music around St. Louis includes performances by three top pianists representing NYC, Chicago and St. Louis, plus local stops for two acclaimed touring new music ensembles, and much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Bill Charlap (pictured) and guest tenor saxophonist Houston Person open an four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Both men have played at the Bistro separately before, but this will be their first time joining forces here in St. Louis. Though of different generations, Charlap, a 47-year-old New Yorker, and Person, who's 79 and originally from South Carolina, have compatible musical values centered firmly in the jazz mainstream.

Given that, they also should have an extensive repertoire to draw upon, so part of the fun of a gig like this is seeing what tunes they'll end up picking to perform. For more about Person, and some video samples of him performing a half-dozen well-known tunes, check out this video post from last Saturday.

Update - 12:15 p.m., 2/5/14: Jazz St. Louis has announced that Charlap will play solo on Wednesday night, as bad weather has prevented the rest of the band from flying to St. Louis.

Also tonight, members of The 442s, singer Brian Owens, and others from the St. Louis Symphony will present a free Black History Month concert, "Someday We'll Be Free - Celebrating The Music of Donny Hathaway," at Powell Symphony Hall.

Tomorrow night, drummer Maurice Carnes and his trio, featuring saxophonist Freddie Washington, will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also on Thursday, the 20-member chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound* returns to the Sheldon Concert Hall with a program of music from their next album, including compositions by Edgard Varese, the Beatles, Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Wuorinen, and more. 

On Friday, St. Louis' own Peter Martin will be back at Sheldon for the first concert of the year in his ongoing eponymous series there. The pianist's theme this time is "Chamber Jazz," and Martin will showcase some of his new compositions via an ensemble including Bjorn Ranheim on cello and Shawn Weil on violin, plus bassist Chris Thomas and drummer Rob Woodie.

Also on Friday, the much-talked-about new music group So Percussion performs at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of their tour this month of University of Missouri campuses; saxophonist Jim Stevens will team with Good 4 the Soul to present "The Music of David Sanborn" at the Wildey Theatre;  Miss Jubilee performs at the Moonshine Blues Bar in St. Charles; the Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly  "West End Stomp" dance at the Mahler Ballroom will feature music from The Sidemen. 

On Saturday afternoon,;Saxquest will present another in their series of free performances and workshops, featuring saxophonist Randy Hamm with pianist Kyle Aho, plus a set by the Missouri Saxophone Quartet. 

Then on Saturday evening, trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet will offer a Black History Month-themed performance at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday afternoon, veteran Chicago pianist Willie Pickens will be in town to play with drummer Jerome "Scrooge" Harris and friends in a jazz brunch performance benefiting Community Women Against Hardship at the Bistro at Grand Center. Later that afternoon, guitarist Steve Schenkel's quartet will play a free concert for the "Inner Jazz" series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Kim Portnoy and his group will perform original music in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; and the Sessions Big Band will play downtown at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups

Then on Tuesday, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of bassist Jim Widner, will be back at the Touhill for a program of music from "A Night at the Movies"; and guitarist Vincent Varvel will lead a trio 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.)

* Disclaimer: As mentioned here before, for the last three years I've been compensated financially to assist Alarm Will Sound with promotional activities in St. Louis and Columbia. As also mentioned here before, I'd still recommend this concert to StLJN readers even if I weren't working with the band.  

(Edited after posting to correct the date of So Percussion.) 

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Standard time with Houston Person

Today, let's look at some video clips featuring the tenor sax stylings of Houston Person, who's coming to St. Louis next week to perform with pianist Bill Charlap's trio Wednesday, February 5 through Saturday, February 8 at Jazz at the Bistro.  

Person, who will turn 80 in November, grew up in Florence, South Carolina and studied at South Carolina State College before joining the Air Force. While stationed in Germany, he played in a service band with future pros including Don Ellis, Eddie Harris and Cedar Walton, and after his discharge, continued his studies at Hartt College of Music in Connecticut.

His first wide recognition came in the early 1960s as a result of work with organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith's band. Person then got his own contract with Smith's label, Prestige Records, and put out a series of albums that helped make his reputation as a successful bandleader in the soul-jazz genre. Later, he worked for many years touring and recording with vocalist Etta Jones, whom he met while both were with Smith.

Over the course of his career, Person has made more than 75 albums as a bandleader, and also has recorded with Bill Charlap, Charles Brown, Charles Earland, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Billy Butler, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and others. Since Etta Jones died in 2001, Person has continued to lead his own groups, but also works frequently as a guest soloist and a single, allying himself with other bandleaders, local house bands, and festival rhythm sections as the occasion warrants.

Those kind of gigs tend to rely on a standard repertoire shared among the musicians, and though Person made his rep in the soul-jazz genre, over the years he's also shown his skill at playing swing, ballads, and selections from the "Great American Songbook," some examples of which are featured today.

First up is a version of "Fools Rush In," recorded in October 2011 at the Lockerbie Jazz Festival in Scotland along with baritone saxophonist Alan Barnes and the Paul Harrison Trio.

Down below, it's "Star Eyes," from the Norwich (CT) Jazz Party in May 2012, which also features Warren Vache (cornet), John Pearce (piano), Nicki Parrott (bass), and Bobby Worth (drums). 

The third clip, recorded in June of last year at the Blue Note in NYC, features Person accompanying singer Tony Middleton on "Time After Time" with pianist Joe Alterman, bassist James Cammack, and drummer Alex Raderman. Below that, Alterman, Cammack and drummer Justin Chesarek are backing up Person in the fourth video, a version of "It Could Happen To You" recorded in June 2011 at Iridium in NYC.

The fifth and sixth videos both feature Person as a guest soloist with guitarist Peter Hand's big band in a 2011 concert at Centenary Theatre, Hackettstown, NJ. Thematically related though several decades apart in origin, the versions of "Stormy Weather" and "Sunny" both feature solos from Person, Hand and pianist James Weidman.

For more about Houston Person, check out this interview he did for a Jazz St. Louis podcast back in 2009, and this video interview with "The Pace Report" from 2010.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 2

This week, it's part two of our winter/spring 2014 preview taking a look at some of the touring jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis next year.

Part one, published last week, covered the month of January. Today, we pick up the timeline at the start of the following month for our first clip, featuring Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who will be returning here on Saturday, February 1 to perform at The Demo.

They're seen here performing "The Burning" in a gig last August at Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Germany. Written for their album The Race Riot Suite, this piece (and the whole record) features the core JFJO band - pianist Brian Haas,bassist Jeff Harshbarger lap steel guitarist Chris Combs, and drummer Josh Raymer - augmented by a five-piece horn section, comprised of Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Peter Apfelbaum (tenor and baritone saxophone), Mark Southerland (tenor saxophone), Skerik (saxophones) and Matt Leland (trombone).

Down below, you can see pianist Bill Charlap who will be in St. Louis to team up with saxophonist Houston Person to play Wednesday, February 5 through Saturday, February 8 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video, recorded in October 2013 at KPLU radio in Seattle, features Charlap doing brief solo interpretations of "All The Things You Are" and "Sophisticated Lady."

Meanwhile, Person can be seen in the third clip, playing Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'" in June of this year at the Blue Note in NYC, accompanied by pianist Joe Alterman, bassist James Cammack and drummer Alex Raderman.

The following weekend, the Cuban-born pianist Chucho Valdés and his quintet will perform on Saturday, February 15 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The fourth video features their complete set from this year's Barcelona Jazz Festival.

A few days later, bassist Christian McBride checks into Jazz at the Bistro, where he'll play with his new trio from Wednesday, February 19 through Saturday, February 22. The group, which features pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., is featured on McBride's latest album Out Here. They're seen here playing "My Favorite Things" in November 2013 at the Teatro Verdi in Padova, Italy.

The sixth and final video features bassist Josh Abrams’ Natural Information Society, who will be here to play in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 22 at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave. Although Abrams is known primarily for playing the standard acoustic bass, the Natural Information Society is premised on his use of the guimbri, "a three-stringed animal hide bass traditionally used by the Gnawa of north Africa in healing ceremonies," which you can see him play in this undated clip.

Next week, we'll present part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview...

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap Trio, Tony DeSare & Bucky Pizzarelli, and more

It's been a week of waterlogged weather here in St. Louis, but the soggy circumstances can't put a damper on all the jazz and creative music coming up in town over the next few days. Let's go the highlights...

Tonight, the fine pianist Bill Charlap and his trio open a four-night run continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. While Charlap has played in St. Louis before, this is the first time his trio has performed at the Bistro. You can find out more about Charlap and see some video clips by checking out this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the Meramec Jazz Lab Band, directed by Bob Boedges and now featuring singer Valerie Tichacek, will perform a concert at the Black Cat Theatre.

On Thursday, singers Alice Kinsella and Deborah Sharn will perform a cabaret show at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan, with another performance on Friday night.

Also on Friday, Latin jazz group Ritmo Caliente performs at Robbie's House of Jazz, and keyboardist Nick Schlueter's trio with bassist Jessica Sacks and drummer Josh Costello will play the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday, pianist/singer Tony DeSare and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli will team up for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Saturday. Given that DeSare is influenced greatly by the swing, bop and Great American Songbook classics that have been Pizzarelli's bread and butter throughout his long career, this seems like a pretty good pairing. What's more, The Sheldon is offering a discount on tickets to the concert; see this post for details.

Also Saturday, saxophonist and instrument designer Peter Ponzol will present a free sax clinic at Saxquest; singer Mae Wheeler performs at Seasons American Cuisine in Chesterfield; saxophonist Stan Coleman's University Youth Jazz Big Band will be at Robbie's, and electronic musician and former St. Louisan Tom Hamilton will do a concert for New Music Circle at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

On Sunday, it's time once again for the monthly jam session at Bossanova Restuarant and Lounge in Alton featuring saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio. Also on Sunday, those who still enjoy their recorded jazz in physical media formats may want to check out the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show at the American Czech Center on the south side.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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 to correct the dates of the Presenters Dolan shows.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Four views of Bill Charlap

This week, let's get better acquainted with pianist Bill Charlap, who will be in St. Louis to perform next Wednesday, April 27 through Saturday, April 30 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Charlap played St. Louis twice in 2009, in February at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of the Blue Note 7, and then in December backing his mother, singer Sandy Stewart, in a cabaret show at the Kranzberg Arts Center. This time, Charlap is bringing his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (no relation), which has been together for 13 years. (As a side note, after his gigs in St. Louis, Charlap will head down to Columbia, MO next Sunday to join his wife, pianist Renee Rosnes, in a duo piano performance for the We Always Swing series.)

In addition to work with his own group, Stewart, and the Blue Note 7, Charlap's credits include gigs and recordings with Gerry Mulligan, Benny Carter, Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, the New York Trio with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Bill Stewart, and many others.

You can see Charlap's trio in the first embedded video up above, performing Cole Porter's "In The Still Of The Night" at NYC's Village Vanguard. Down below, you can see a profile of Charlap from the public TV New Jersey Network's program State of the Arts. In the third slot, there's a short feature story on Charlap's collaborative CD with Stewart, and below that, you can hear singer Tony Bennett praise Charlap's skills before they perform "The Way You Look Tonight" together on Elvis Costello's TV program Spectacle.

For more about Bill Charlap, check out this short interview with him, done by Calvin Wilson for the weekend Post-Dispatch; and this feature story about Charlap and Renee Rosnes from the Newark Star-Ledger; and this interview tracking his career development from JazzReview.com.

Notes from the Net: Marsalises on tour, Buble at MSG, 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:

* In this week's Miles Davis news, Miles Davis Online recaps a series of posts on Davis-related art, and has more photos of Davis, including a nice early 1960s pic of the trumpeter and film star/fellow icon of cool Steve McQueen, and a link to a gallery of photos of Davis by famed music photographer Jim Marshall, who died this week at age 74.

And in this week's Davis-tribute-related news, drummer Gerry Gibbs and his Electric Thrasher Orchestra have a new 2-CD set featuring interpretations of music from Miles Davis' early electric period (1967-1975). The discs include 26 selections taken from Bitches Brew, Nefertiti, Sorcerer, Live Evil, Dark Magus, Big Fun, several live Fillmore recordings and others, with liner note commentary from Davis alumni including Bennie Maupin, Gary Bartz, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart and Airto Moreira.

* You'd think he'd have played there at some point before this, but saxophonist/composer John Zorn finally is making his debut in Cleveland this weekend with his Masada Sextet, performing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Which raises the question: Given that Zorn hasn't played in St. Louis in something like 15 years, when will someone here invite the former Webster University student back to perform? )

* St. Louis music journalist, DJ and record store guy Steve Pick has a review of bassist Dave Holland's latest CD Pathways online now at Blurt.com.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who were here two weeks ago to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall, are still on tour, and their stop in Buffalo prompted an assessment of Marsalis' impact on jazz by Buffalo News arts editor Jeff Simon. Meanwhile, the JaLCO will be headed to England in June for a residency at London's Barbican Centre (home of the London Symphony), and Marsalis has signed to be one of the headliners at this year's Newport Jazz Festival.

* Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, another member of the famous New Orleans family, played in St. Louis last month at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Since then, he's been to New Zealand, where his concert closing the 2010 NZ International Arts Festival earned rave reviews. It also was announced this week that Marsalis (pictured) will headline the sixth anniversary fundraiser for Canada's JazzFM91 in Toronto.

* Singer Sutton Foster, who headlined a benefit for Cabaret St. Louis in February at the Sheldon, has a couple of concerts coming up in Los Angeles.

* Opening the "coming attractions" file, bassist John Clayton is offering a free online bass lesson at the website ArtistShare.com. The Clayton Brothers Quartet, which features John and his brother, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, will be in St. Louis to perform April 9 & 10 at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli is performing this weekend in Clayton, NC, and was profiled by the local paper here. Pizzarelli will be in St. Louis from April 14 -17 to play the Bistro.

* Singer Michael Buble, who's coming to St. Louis' Scottrade Center on June 25, just played NYC's Madison Square Garden to good notices from both the New York Times' Stephen Holden and the NY Post.

* Pianist Dave Brubeck is one of the latest subjects of blogger Steve Cerra's Jazz Profiles. Brubeck is scheduled to return to St. Louis in October to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of the first American Arts Experience-St. Louis festival.

* Last but not least, in the nearly five years StLJN has been online, there hasn't been a week go by without at least a few hits from people searching for the sheet music (or "jazz notes," if you will) for W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues."

Well, the search is over, because a lead sheet with melody and chord changes for "St. Louis Blues" is freely available online at Wikifonia, which also has similar sheets for hundreds more well-known tunes ranging from public domain classical themes and folk songs to jazz standards and pop hits.

The site also lets you transpose the music into any key at the click of a mouse, which certainly is a handy feature. You'll find the music for "St. Louis Blues" here, and you can browse the rest of Wikifonia's lead sheet collection here.

Jazz St. Louis polling fans on potential Bistro bookings

Once again this year, Jazz St. Louis is looking for input from local jazz fans regarding who they'd like to see booked next season at Jazz at the Bistro. Interested individuals may offer their opinions by responding to a survey on the Jazz St. Louis Web site.

Musicians listed in the poll as under consideration for the Bistro's 2010-11 season include Patricia Barber, Bill Charlap, Stefon Harris, Lionel Loueke, Russell Malone, Gretchen Parlato, Jeremy Pelt, Chris Potter, Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding (pictured) and Tierney Sutton.

Jazz St. Louis also is accepting "write-in" suggestions on their Facebook fan page and, presumably, via other means such as email, postal mail and in person as well. Many of the artists in this year's survey have played the Bistro at least once before, with the exceptions including Loueke, Parlato, Potter and Scott. JSL usually announces the next season's lineup for the Bistro in the latter part of May.

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap and Sandy Stewart, Najee, Erin Bode, Cornet Chop Suey, and more

Holiday hustle-and-bustle may be going into full effect, but over the next few days there are a number of events in St. Louis that you may want to stop and check out if you're a fan of jazz and creative music.

Tonight, singer Erin Bode opens a two-night run at Jazz at the Bistro. If my understanding is correct, this will be a holiday themed show, which means Bode likely will be performing music from her CD A Cold December Night, which was released last year at this time. Word is that Bode and band also have been recording a new CD for release next year, so it's possible that some of those new songs may find their way into her sets as well.

Also this evening, just around the corner from the Bistro, pianist Bill Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart (pictured) will open a four-night stand of performances presented by Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Art Center. Charlap was here with the Blue Note 7 in February at the Sheldon, and often is ranked among the top piano players in jazz by critics and various jazz polls. For her part, Stewart, who is Charlap's mother, had a thriving career in musical theater, cabaret and jazz before retiring in the 1960s to raise her family; her comeback in the 1990s prompted renewed interest in both her older work and her present day performances, as described in this feature story from the New York Times.

On Thursday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran performs a free show with his trio at Broadway Bean, a new coffee house, art gallery and music venue at 7619 South Broadway in the Carondelet neighborhood.

Moving on to the weekend, on Friday the smooth jazz saxophonist Najee will headline a "Jazz Explosion" show, also featuring unspecified "special guests," at the Ambassador Events Center, 9800 Halls Ferry Rd.

Continuing in that contemporary, electrified vein, the quartet Good 4 The Soul, featuring pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson, bassist John King, guitarist Shaun Robinson and drummer James Jackson, will bring their mix of jazz, funk, soul and gospel back to the Bistro on Friday and Saturday nights.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Cornet Chop Suey in a concert of traditional New Orleans style jazz and swing at the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield.

For information on more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar, or by clicking here. Also, you can follow St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes and become a "fan" by signing up 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.)

Cabaret St. Louis tickets going on sale Monday, October 5

Tickets for Cabaret St. Louis' fall series of touring artists go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, October 5 at all Metrotix outlets.

For jazz fans, the pick show of the season probably is the pairing (pictured) of pianist Bill Charlap, a fine jazz player who was here most recently in February with the Blue Note 7, and his mother, singer Sandy Stewart.

They'll be in town December 9 - 12 to perform at the Kranzberg Arts Center, which also will serve as the venue for shows by Maude Maggart (October 21-24), Steve Ross (November 4-7), and Nellie McKay (November 17 & 18). As has been mentioned here before, the Kranzberg only holds 80 people, so if you're interested in seeing one or more of these performers, you'd best act quickly to purchase your tickets.

Pollstar: Sandy Stewart and Bill Charlap coming to St. Louis in December

The online tour information service Pollstar has added a listing showing four nights of performances by singer Sandy Stewart and her son, jazz pianist Bill Charlap (pictured), Wednesday, December 9 through Saturday, December 12, at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand (at Olive) in St. Louis' Grand Center arts district.

Stewart and Charlap have worked together as a duo in cabarets and jazz clubs since Stewart began her comeback in the mid-1990s. A big band singer and actress in her youth, Stewart had retired from the stage to raise a family after meeting and marrying Broadway composer Mark "Moose" Charlap in the 1960s. (You can read more about the circumstances of her retirement and comeback in this 1994 article from the New York Times.) Bill Charlap is well known in the jazz world for his six albums as a leader for the Blue Note label and his work with Gerry Mulligan, Benny Carter, Tony Bennett, Phil Woods and others. He played in St. Louis most recently in February of this year with the Blue Note 7 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Although the Pollstar listing does not include a presenting organization, the artists, dates and venue would suggest the work of Cabaret St. Louis and its impresario Jim Dolan, who have staged a number of shows already at the KAC. At present, the Cabaret St. Louis Web site doesn't list any dates beyond the current spring schedule, which wraps up with four shows this week at the KAC by torch singer Lina Koutrakos, and one on May 14 at the Sheldon featuring drag performer Varla Jean Merman.

However, a bit of Google-assisted sleuthing turned up this blog post from KDHX theater reviewer/host Chuck Lavazzi, which says that the Stewart/Charlap show is indeed part of a fall Cabaret St. Louis schedule that also will include "return engagements at the Kranzberg by Maude Maggart (October 21 - 24) and Steve Ross (November 4 - 7) along with first-time appearances by Nellie McKay (November 18-21)" and the Stewart/Charlap duo.

(This info is conveyed in the context of a review of Cabaret St. Louis' recent benefit at the Fox Theatre, so perhaps there was some information disseminated that night for the advance benefit of the patrons who attended. That's just my speculation, though, as there's nothing in the post indicating the source of the info, save a link to the Cabaret St. Louis site.)

Regardless, as always, Pollstar listings should be considered unconfirmed until officially announced by the venue and/or presenter. If/when an official announcement is made, StLJN will have the details for you right here. In the meantime, for a bit more on Sandy Stewart and Bill Charlap, check out the video in the embedded window below for a clip that includes a brief interview and some footage of them in the recording studio.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on the Blue Note 7

We've super-sized this week's video post to bring you a preview of the Blue Note 7, who will be in St. Louis next Sunday, February 22 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall under the combined auspices of Jazz St. Louis and the Sheldon.

Because the band is an all-star group assembled specifically for a tribute album and 50-city tour commemorating the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, there's no video available online of them all playing together. However, someone did make a short clip to promote the album and tour, and you can see that in the embedded video window up above.

Down below, we've got videos of the various Blue Note 7 members in action, with the exception of tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who previously was the subject of a video post here when he brought his quartet to Jazz at the Bistro last year. You can check out that post for some samples of Coltrane's playing; below, you'll find the other members of the Blue Note 7 in this order:

* Trumpeter Nicholas Payton playing Milt Jackson's bebop standard "Bags' Groove."
* Guitarist Peter Bernstein playing a tune called "Bobblehead" at the NYC club Smoke.
* Alto saxophonist Steve Wilson doing a version of "But Not For Me," apparently with some substitute chord changes, during a show at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, MN.
* Pianist Bill Charlap and bassist Peter Washington playing "In The Still Of The Night" in a clip recorded at the Village Vanguard. (That's Kenny Washington, no relation to Peter, on drums.)
* Drummer Lewis Nash, as part of saxophonist Joe Lovano's quartet with bassist George Mraz and the legendary pianist Hank Jones, playing Lovano's "Bird's Eye View" at the Jazz Baltica festival.

The band's repertoire for the tour includes new arrangements of music associated with a number of jazz greats who recorded for Blue Note over the years, including Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson and others. The Blue Note 7 have been on the road since the first week of January, so they should definitely have their arrangements together and be firing on all cylinders when they get to St. Louis next week.

Notes from the Net: Reviews of Miles Davis, Grant Green and Oliver Lake; Frahm and McBride interviewed; and more

It's another week, another month, and StLJN has been slaving over a hot Internet, gathering, sifting and preparing these info-snacks for your edification and entertainment:

* Let's start, as we so often do, with Miles Davis and, via the always interesting be.jazz, a complete track listing for the upcoming The Complete On The Corner Sessions box set.

*Blogcritics.com has a review of the new Miles remix CD, Evolution of the Groove : "A solid imagining of what Miles might sound like in 2007. More importantly, it’s a reminder of his continued influence. The only complaint I have with this little EP is it’s far too short."

* Catching up with some other St. Louis natives, we find that the New York Times reviewed Oliver Lake's Trio 3 gig last weekend at NYC's Iridium: "The collaboration pushed all parties toward new solutions, and for artists like these, that’s a clear sign of success."

* CD Reviews.com has a review of the recently issued Grant Green CD Live at Club Mozambique: "Jazz guitar fans are going to love this document of Green's guitar excellence... This gig captured Green at the top of his game and his playing here is, like always, a revelation. You have to get this."

* The San Francisco Chronicle has a brief review of the latest Cinematic Orchestra release, which features guest vocals from Fontella Bass.

* St. Louis music publisher Mel Bay's 60th anniversary was featured in an AP story that got picked up in many newspapers over the weekend; read the International Herald Tribune's version here.

* Turning to the 'coming attractions" file, Joel Frahm, tenor saxophonist with Waverly Seven, recently did a podcast interview with a site called The Jazz Session, while Blogcritics.com has a new interview with bassist Christian McBride (pictured). Waverly Seven will be at Jazz at the Bistro in November, while McBride will be part of the Ray Brown Tribute Band gig at the Bistro in April.

* From the "making beautiful music together" file: Renee Rosnes, who plays piano with the SFJAZZ Collective and was in St. Louis with them last spring to perform at the Bistro, just married fellow jazz pianist Bill Charlap. Best wishes to the happy couple, but what I really want to know is: Do they have two pianos at home, or, if not, who gets first dibs on the keyboard if both want to practice at the same time?

* Finally, NYC composer and blogger Darcy James Argue has what I thought was an interesting post on the lack of what he calls "rhythmic authority" displayed by many classical musicians, and one orchestra that nevertheless seems to have plenty of it:

"That's the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra, who are basically ambassadors for Venezuela's El Sistema, a national music program that for 30 years has been providing free instruments and music education to kids we've taken to euphemistically calling "at risk."

...American orchestras, feeling the crunch of reduced ticket sales and an aging audience, have been wracking their brains trying to figure out how to turn things around, but many of the proposed changes are of the "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" variety.

It seems to me that when you are getting your asses handed to you by a bunch of Venezuelan street kids, it's time for everyone involved to take a long hard look in the mirror. And then maybe reach for that tambor mina and start shedding."