Sunday Session: August 30, 2020

Gregory Porter

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

* The Day Louis Armstrong Lost His Color: A Short Story (Jazz Times)
* A Tale Of Two Ecosystems: On Bandcamp, Spotify And The Wide-Open Future (NPR)
* Give & Take with Musician Sonny Rollins (Tricycle.org)
* Charli Persip, Virtuoso Drummer Who Cut a Swath Through Modern Jazz, Is Dead at 91 (WBGO)
* Steely Dan Engineer Finds Lost ‘Second Arrangement’ Tapes (UltimateClassicRock.com)
* 100 Reasons We Love Charlie Parker For His 100th Birthday (Discogs.com)
* The Best Batch Yet? Captain Beefheart's Doc At The Radar Station Revisited (TheQuietus.com)
* Vinyl sales rock on in spite of Covid-19 (QZ.com)
* Ambrose Akinmusire’s Pure Pursuit Of Sound (DownBeat)
* Billy Childs Reveals the Influences on His Album Acceptance (Jazz Times)
* ‘64% musicians considering leaving the music profession’ – survey (London Jazz News)
* Charlie Parker, the Birth of Bebop, and America’s Greatest Recording Session (Jazz Times)
* The Very Serious Art of Writing Music for Very Funny Cartoons (InsideHook.com)
* Dan Penn talks back (Offbeat)
* 50 Years Later, Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios Is Still An Artistic Haven (NPR)
* Oneness of JuJu’s Afrocentric and Avant-Garde Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* Despite Streaming, US Recorded Music Revenues Still Down 50% From 1999 Peaks (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Terri Lyne Carrington Runs On Determination (DownBeat)
* Bird Lives! A Charlie Parker Centennial, With Strings Attached (NPR)
* Gregory Porter sings of love, but unspeakable grief and the scars of racism lie just beneath (Los Angeles Times)
* Roots in the Archive: Test Pressings Help Keep Robert Johnson’s Songs Alive (NoDepression.com)* The 25 greatest basslines of all time (MusicRadar.com)
* How Charlie Parker Defined the Sound and Substance of Bebop Jazz (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: August 16, 2020

Nubya Garcia

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

* Billy Childs Reveals the Influences on His Album Acceptance (Jazz Times)
* Orchestras are totally safe. Just stay away from the flute player (Wired)
* Ben Sidran: The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma (Nardis) (Jazz Times)
* Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal dies: Chicago’s longest-running jazz impresario presented Charlie Parker and other greats (Chicago Tribune)
* 2020 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Dorthaan Kirk (SFJAZZ.org)
* David Crosby Remembers Jerry Garcia: ‘He Did Not Play for Money — He Was Chasing the Notes’ (Variety)
* The Alchemical Brothers: Brian Eno & Roger Eno Interviewed (TheQuietus.com)
* Bill Frisell On His New Trio Album, Missing Hal Willner & How COVID-19 Robbed Jazz Of Its Rapport (Grammy.com)
* Is Singing Together Safe In The Era Of Coronavirus? Not Really, Experts Say (NPR)
* Nubya Garcia On Identity, Accessibility And Independence (DownBeat)
* The Radical Legacy of Erroll Garner (Jazz Times)
* Austin leads the way to policies for reopening music venues (Offbeat)
* Venues and crew signal 'red alert' for live music and theatre (BBC)
* The Road to Dollywood (Jezebel.com)
* Sun Ra Shines Over Cafe Nine (New Haven Independent)
* Could Aloha be the low-latency app that finally makes virtual band rehearsals a reality? (MusicRadar.com)
* Ranking the best and worst years in music history (NewsChannelNebraska.com)
* Artists Clobbered By COVID-19, With 2.7 Million Creative Job Losses In The United States, Study Finds (Forbes.com)
* Fridays at Five A Talk with Snarky Puppy's Michael League (SFJAZZ.org)
* Craig Taborn by Camille Norment (BombMagazine.org)
* Film Review: “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” — A Contrarian View (ArtsFuse.org)
* RZA Wrote a New Jingle for Ice Cream Trucks to Replace ‘Turkey in the Straw’ (Rolling Stone)
* Dolly Parton Steers Her Empire Through the Pandemic — and Keeps It Growing (Billboard)
* Joey DeFrancesco Expands His Skill Set (DownBeat)
* Are Livestreams Now Music’s Primary Format and Artist Revenue Stream? (Hypebot.com)
* Joe Segal, Owner Of Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, Dies At 94 (DownBeat)
* Sonic Politics - Sound is Power (TheBattleground.eu)
* A Guide to the Music of Cecil Taylor, the Pianist Who Helped Invent Avant-Garde Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* The year the music might die: British clubs face closure (Associated Press)
* Remembering Helen Jones Woods (1923–2020) (Jazz Times)
* How a Movie Score Is Really Made — According to a Top Hollywood Director (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* 'I feel like I'm failing at life': the terrible plight of music event staff (The Guardian)
* Kamasi Washington Breaks Down His Process to Score ‘Becoming’ (Variety)

Sunday Session: September 9, 2018

Randy Weston

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:

* Curious questions: Do dogs like listening to music? (CountryLife.co.uk)
* Billy Childs’ Storied Past (NUVO)
* Little Feat – Sky, Heaven and California Up Ahead! (FYIMusicNews.ca)
* East Meets East - Nathan + Noah (Yumpu.com)
* 'My Spike Lee Joints': 'BlacKkKlansman' Composer Terence Blanchard on Working With the Director for Nearly 30 Years (Billboard)
* Washboards: The laundry tool that is music to the ears (CBS News)
* The Lost Mingus Tapes (Qwest.tv)
* “Lost” 1973 Live Charles Mingus Recording Set for Release (Jazz Times)
* Anthony Braxton’s Big Ideas: Why ‘Forces in Motion’ Is an Essential American Music Book (Rolling Stone)
* 'Art shouldn’t be weaponised': the atonal concert championing Berlin's homeless (The Guardian)
* Introducing Humbolt, The World’s First ‘Ethical’ Streaming Music Service (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The Top Uses of John Coltrane Songs in Movies or TV (TVOvermind.com)
* Randy Weston Dies at 92 (Jazz Times)
* Pianist Randy Weston, An Eloquent Spokesman For Jazz's Bond with African Culture, Dies at 92 (WBGO)
* Amid Stormy Skies, Detroit Jazz Fest Honors Geri Allen (DownBeat)
* Let Them Play: Ethan Iverson Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* A hard Brexit will smash the British music industry, experts warn (Gigwise.com)
* Alan Braufman: A Valley Worth Searching (Jazz Times)
* City’s Cultural Capital on Full Display at Chicago Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* William Parker: Other Dimensions (Bass Player)
* Wayne Kramer On World Cafe (NPR)
* Paul Simon Says 'I'm Finished' Writing Music (NPR)
* Rod Argent -The Zombies' Co-Founder on The Beatles, Chick Corea, and His Love for the Piano (Keyboard)
* 'Quincy' Trailer Highlights Life and Career of Quincy Jones: Watch (Billboard)
* This artificial intelligence app wants to make beautiful music with you (Fast Company)
* Apple Music to Publish Its Own Top Music Charts (Rolling Stone)
* His Sh*t’s F***ed Up: The Complicated Legacy of Warren Zevon (TheRinger.com)
* Nolatet: Raising a Bigger Dust Cloud (Jazz Times)

Jazz this week: Billy Childs' tribute to Laura Nyro; Funky Butt Brass Band; and more

This week in St. Louis jazz and creative music, the Sheldon Concert Hall resumes their jazz series with pianist Billy Childs' tribute to an under-appreciated singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 70s; two local favorites play two nights each at Jazz at the Bistro; and more. Let's go the highlights...

Wednesday, January 27
Pianist Ptah Williams leads a group in the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; singer Erin Bode performs for the monthly concert series at the World Chess Hall of Fame; and Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris return to Nathalie's.

Thursday, January 28
Bassist Darrell Mixon and friends will be at The Dark Room, substituting for Ptah Williams as he plays the Bistro, while the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "open mic" night with live improvised music. Also on Thursday, Miss Jubilee plays swing, jump blues and more at Thaxton Speakeasy and singer Joe Mancuso returns to Thurman Grill.

Friday, January 29
The Funky Butt Brass Band get warmed up for Mardi Gras season in the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, and trumpeter Jim Manley plays at Thurman Grill.

Saturday, January 30
Pianist Billy Childs will present "Re-Imagining Laura Nyro," featuring live performances of the material from his best-selling, Grammy Award winning album Map to the Treasure, at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Childs (pictured, upper left) first came to wide attention with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's group in the late 1970s, and still takes the occasional road gig in support of Chris Botti, but these days most of time and artistic energy seems to be spent on arranging and composing, including writing a number of commissioned works for symphony orchestra.

His latest project features interpretations of music written by Nyro, a teenage songwriting prodigy whose tunes were huge hits for The Fifth Dimension, Blood Sweat and Tears, and others, but who then experienced various career and health setbacks before her untimely death from ovarian cancer in 1997, when she was only 49 years old. For more about the project, read the preview story about Childs' concert by Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday.com.

(The Sheldon and Metrotix are offering a discount on tickets for Childs' concert to online buyers, reducing prices to $30 for orchestra seats, $25 for the balcony. To get the discount, go here and enter the promotional code TREASURE.)

Also on Saturday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes perform at Evangeline's; trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber is at Nathalie's; and the Liberation Organ Trio plays the house concert venue KindaBlue Club.

Sunday, January 31
The Dave Dickey Big Band (pictured, lower left) will present their monthly show at Jazz at the Bistro, with the Francis Howell Central HS Jazz Band playing at intermission.

Monday, February 1
Singer Debby Lennon and members of the Webster University jazz faculty will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 2

This week, it's part two of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, featuring bands and musicians who will be visiting St. Louis to perform in the new year. (You can see part one, which covers most of the month of January, here.)

Today's installment picks up the chronological thread in late January with Bonerama, who will be back in town to play on Friday, January 22 at Broadway Oyster Bar. In the first video up above, you can see an excerpt from their set at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in which they perform the original tune "Mr. Okra" and their interpretation of the NOLA standard "Indian Red."

After the jump, it's pianist Billy Childs, who will perform Saturday, January 30 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The video clip feature Childs' version of "New York Tendaberry" from his album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, and was recorded at the 2015 Monterey Jazz Festival.

Next up is singer Cyrille Aimée, who will be making her St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, February 3 through Saturday, February 6 at Jazz at the Bistro. Aimée and her band are seen here performing the standard "Caravan" in a promotional video for the Crested Butte Music Festival held in July in Colorado.

That same week will mark the long-anticipated return of singer Gregory Porter, whose career has taken off like the proverbial rocket since he last visited St. Louis in January 2013 to perform at the Bistro. It's a measure of how much his star has risen over the last three years that this time, instead of doing a four-night run in the relatively intimate confines of the Bistro, Porter will perform in concert on Saturday, February 6 at a much larger venue, the Touhill Performing Arts Center. You can see him in the fourth video doing his song "Liquid Spirit" in a show earlier this year in Ibiza, Spain.

Two nights after Porter's concert, saxophonist Branford Marsalis will return to St. Louis to perform Monday, February 8 through Wednesday, February 10 at Jazz at the Bistro. Marsalis is seen in the fifth video clip with his long-running band - pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner - playing "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" this past July at the Ravello Festival in Italy.

After that, you can see pianist Marcus Roberts, who will be featured in a week of performances Wednesday, February 17 through Saturday, February 20 at the Bistro. Roberts and his trio, with Jason Marsalis (brother of Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo) on drums and Rodney Jordan on bass, are seen here performing Thelonious Monk's "Blues Five Spot" at a concert last February in Calgary, Alberta.

The following week, St. Louis jazz fans will have the chance to check out another powerful pianist, as Danilo Perez performs on Saturday, February 27 at the Sheldon. Perez has been part of saxophonist Wayne Shorter's quartet for years now, and earlier this year enlisted the aid of his bandmates in that group, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, to record a trio album, Children of the Light, which was released in September. In the seventh clip, you can see them performing the title song from that album in a show this past July at the Blue Note Milano in Italy.

Last, but certainly not least today, is saxophonist James Carter, who will be returning to perform with his organ trio starting Wednesday, March 2 through Saturday, March 5 at Jazz at the Bistro. Carter is seen here fronting a big band on a typically effusive performance of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," recorded in June of this year at the Festival Django Reinhardt 2015 in Samois-sur-Seine, France.

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

The Sheldon announces 2015-16 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced their various series lineups for the 2015-16 season, with a jazz series featuring four piano players, plus various other events that may be of interest to jazz and creative music fans.

Brazilian-born pianist Eliane Elias (pictured, top left) will begin the jazz series on Saturday, November 21, followed by Billy Childs presenting his show "Re-Imagining Laura Nyro" on Saturday, January 30.

The Panamanian native Danilo Pérez (pictured, center left) is next, with a program called, appropriately enough, "Panama 500" on Saturday, February 27, and Cyrus Chestnut, who's quite familiar to St. Louis listeners from numerous previous appearances at Jazz at the Bistro and The Sheldon, wraps up the series with "African Reflections" on Saturday, May 7.

Two of the Sheldon's big fundraising events of the year also will feature jazz headliners, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (pictured, bottom left) booked to perform at the Friends of the Sheldon benefit gala on Saturday, October 3, and pianist Ramsey Lewis celebrating the 50th anniversary of his hit "The In Crowd" at the annual ArtSounds! event on Saturday, November 7.

(While the benefit gala ticket prices start at $150 for JaLCO and Marsalis, and $125 for Lewis, and go up from there, there also will be concert-only tickets sold for both, priced at $45 orchestra, $40 balcony for JaLCO and $65 orchestra, $55 balcony for Lewis.)

Also of potential interest to jazz fans, singer Banu Gibson will pay tribute to "40 Years of Randy Newman" in a special non-subscription matinee concert on Sunday, October 25.

Pianist Peter Martin turns up on three different programs - first, in a concert for his eponymous series, with a special guest TBA, on Saturday, October 10; then with St. Louis Symphony violinist David Halen and friends for a holiday program on Wednesday, December 2; and finally, with Halen and other St. Louis Symphony members playing classical music on Wednesday, April 6.

New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound also will be back for their fourth St. Louis season, with concerts scheduled for Tuesday, October 20; Friday, November 20; Friday, February 12; and Thursday, May 26.

The popular Coffee Concert series of mid-week morning performances will include Alan Ox doing “Songs of Great American Crooners” on Tuesday, October 6 and Wednesday, October 7; actor/singer Ben Nordstrom on Tuesday, February 16 and Wednesday, February 17; Wack-A-Doo on Tuesday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 6; and cabaret singer Tim Schall in a tribute to music of the Gaslight Square era, “The Gaslight Generation,” on Tuesday May 10 and Wednesday, May 11. Last (from a jazz perspective) but not least, trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber will play a Saturday matinee on Saturday, April 2.

So what's the "hot take" on this lineup? Longtime readers may recall that in the past, yr. humble StLJN editor has taken the Sheldon's management to task for being too risk-averse when booking the jazz series, and the phrase "talented, but safe" once again could be used to describe pretty much all this year's choices. Consider also that, although some of the individual programs presented might have been different, the entire jazz series  could have been booked with these exact same artists 10 years ago, and the dimensions of the challenge become more apparent.

Of course, there's always potential for additional individual concerts to be added as the fall approaches, and if past years are any guide, there likely will be at least a couple more shows of interest to jazz fans. But given that this year's lineup contained some arguably riskier choices, such as the Spokfrevo Orquestra and Cécile McLorin Salvant, the 2015-16 slate seems like a bit of an artistic retrenchment.

Subscriptions for the four-concert jazz series are $150 for orchestra seating, $135 balcony, with prices for other shows varying according the specific event. New subscriptions go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 11, with sales will continuing through the first concert in each series, via phone at 314-533-9900 and online at http://www.thesheldon.org/. Single tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. August 8 at 10 a.m. via MetroTix or the Sheldon website.

Jazz this week: Billy Childs Quartet, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mephista, Arturo Sandoval, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a couple of notable concerts of adventurous improvised music, plus an all-star quartet of modern mainstream players, a top Latin-jazz trumpeter, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Billy Childs' quartet begins a four-night engagement, continuing through Saturday, at Jazz at the Bistro. Though Childs may be the nominal leader, it's something of an all-star band, with drummer Brian Blade, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson and bassist Scott Colley bringing together a rather eclectic menu of influences, ranging from straight-ahead jazz to rock and pop to experimental. For more about Childs, including a video interview and some performance footage, check out this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, singer Joe Mancuso leads a quartet with Carolbeth True (piano), Willem von Hombracht (bass) and Kevin Gianino (drums) at Frontenac Grill. 

Tomorrow night, percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani returns to St. Louis, this time teaming with bassist Darin Gray and dancer/choreographer Vanessa Skantze for a concert at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
exploring the intersection of improvised music and the Japanese performance form called Butoh.

Also on Thursday, poet Eileen G'sell and guitarist William Lenihan's trio will join forces for "Stories: The New Beat Generation," a free concert of poetry and improvised music for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

On Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis will present another in their series of monthly swing dances at the Mahler Ballroom, with music from Miss Jubilee and the Bella Rue Jazz Band. Also on Friday, the Willie Akins/Montez Coleman quartet is at Robbie's House of Jazz; trumpeter Jim Manley plays at One 19 North Tapas Bar & Restaurant; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes are at Highway 61 Roadhouse; and drummer Paul Shaw leads a trio with bassist Bob DeBoo and vibraphonist Tom Rickard at Cigar Inn. 

Saturday,  the trio Mephista, featuring pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, electronic musician Ikue Mori, and percussionist Susie Ibarra, will perform at 560 Music Center in a concert presented by New Music Circle. Given the three musicians' diverse range of experiences, from classical to punk rock to avant-jazz, this is a tough concert to pigeonhole, stylistically speaking, but definitely recommended for fans of creative improvised music.

Also on Saturday, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval (pictured) returns to St. Louis to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The Cuban native, who last performed here in 2006 at jazz at the Bistro, first became known in this country as a member of the Latin jazz/fusion group Irakere, and also benefited early in his career from the friendship and mentoring of trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie. On his own, he's become both an in-demand leader of his own combo and a frequent guest soloist with big bands and classical orchestras.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Paul Demarinis will bring his group to Webster University's Moore Auditorium, and drummer Joe Pastor's trio plays at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups. Then on Tuesday, guitarist Dave Black and his band will be at BB's. 

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: A few minutes with Billy Childs

This week, let's spend a few minutes with some videos of pianist Billy Childs, who will be in St. Louis next week to play Wednesday, October 3 through Saturday, October 6 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although the gig is billed as the Billy Childs Quartet, the group - which includes alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade - is positioned as more of a cooperative effort than a typical leader/sidemen scenario. And though they've worked together before on a very limited basis, playing in Los Angeles and at the Blue Note in Tokyo back in March, there seems to be no online video footage of them playing together.

So instead, we're focusing on the nominal leader, who may be a bit under the radar of many music fans despite his numerous accomplishments. Childs, 55, grew up in Los Angeles and studied music at USC. He worked briefly with trombonist J. J. Johnson while still in college, then joined Freddie Hubbard's band from 1978 to 1984.

Since then, in addition to leading his own bands, Childs has performed and/or recorded with Dianne Reeves, Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Daniels, Bobby Hutcherson, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Harrison, and others. In recent years, he's also worked regularly with Chris Botti, playing in St. Louis with the trumpeter several times.

Drawing on his background in classical music, Childs has written arrangements for Botti, Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Gladys Knight, Michael Bublé, David Foster, Phil Ramone, Claudia Acuña, and others. He's also penned many commissioned pieces for a variety of ensembles, ranging from string quartet to full orchestra, and in 2009 received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

In 2000 Childs arranged, orchestrated and conducted Dianne Reeves' album The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, which won a 2002 Grammy award for "best jazz vocal CD." Childs also has won three Grammy Awards on his own, in 2006 (for "best instrumental composition" and "best arrangement accompanying a vocalist") and again in 2011 for "best instrumental composition."

He made his first album as a leader for Windham Hill Jazz in 1988 and since has recorded for several labels, including GRP, Shanachie and Metropolitan. Childs' most recent recordings for ArtistShare, Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010), combine jazz and classical elements.

Today's first clip up above, recorded late last year at Duc des Lombards in Paris, conveys some of the flavor of those two recent records, as Childs leads a sextet that include Blade on drums as well as Tim Garland (saxophones), Carol Robbins (harp), Larry Koonse (guitar) and Hamilton Price (bass).

Down below, you can see Childs with Price and drummer Gerry Gibbs, showing off some keyboard pyrotechnics on Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" in a clip recorded in 2007 at Steamers Jazz Cafe in Fullerton, CA. Below that, there's a video interview with Childs in four parts, recorded in 2009 for a Detroit-based program called eFactor.

For more about Billy Childs, check out his episode of NPR's "Piano Jazz", recorded in 2006.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2012 jazz preview, part 2

This week, we present part two of StLJN's fall jazz preview, featuring video samples of some of the musicians who will be coming to St. Louis to perform between now and the end of the year. (You can see part one of the preview here.)

Today's first video up top features guitarist John Scofield playing "Trio Blues" with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart in November 2010 in Leverkusen, Germany. Scofield will be back here in St. Louis to perform Friday, September 28 and Saturday, September 29 at Jazz at the Bistro

Down below, you can see and hear singer Bett Butler (vocals) performing an excerpt from "Come Rain or Come Shine" at the Elephant Room in Austin, TX during this year's SXSW festival. Though she's accompanied here by Joël Dilley (bass), Paul Klemperer (sax), and Philip Marshall (drums), Butler will be in St. Louis with writer Pam Houston to present a collaborative program called "Words and Music" on Sunday, September 30 at the Ethical Society.

Below that , it's pianist Billy Childs playing a solo piece called "The Red Wheelbarrow" in May 2010 at WNYC radio in New York. Childs is coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday October 3 through Saturday October 6 at Jazz at the Bistro with an all-star quartet that also will include drummer Brian Blade, saxophonist Steve Wilson, and bassist Scott Colley.

Next up, we've got a clip showcasing the first of four stellar trumpeters who will be visiting St. Louis during a four-week stretch this fall. It's the Cuban-born virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, playing "There Will Never Be Another You" in January of last year in the studios of Seattle radio station KPLU. His band in the clip includes Mahesh Balasooyria (piano:) Zane Musa (saxophone), John Belzaguy (bass) and Johnny Friday (drums). Sandoval returns to St. Louis for a concert on Saturday, October 6 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Then, it's New Orleans native and trumpeter Christian Scott, doing his tune "Spy Boy" last November at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Scott's band here features Berklee grad and St. Louis native Lawrence Fields on piano, plus Matthew Stevens (guitar), Kris Funn (bass) and Jamire Williams (drums). He'll be in St. Louis to perform Wednesday, October 17 through Saturday, October 20 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Right on Scott's metaphorical heels is trumpeter Terell Stafford, seen here with his quintet playing "Blues for J.T." at the 2006 Jazz Baltica festival in Salzau, Germany. Stafford's accompanists in the clip include Tim Warfield (tenor sax, soprano sax), Martin Wind (bass), Matt Wilson (drums) and Mulgrew Miller (piano). For his upcoming St. Louis gig, which will take place Wednesday, October 31 through Saturday, November 3 at Jazz at the Bistro, Stafford will be showcasing music from This Side of Strayhorn, his 2011 release on St. Louis' MAXJAZZ label.

Today's final video features cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's sextet performing a piece called "Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths" at the 2010 Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Germany. Along with Bynum, the group's current lineup includes Jim Hobbs (alto saxophone), Bill Lowe (bass trombone, tuba), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ken Filiano (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums), and they'll be playing Saturday, November 3, at the Luminary Center for the Arts in a concert presented by New Music Circle.

Join us again in this space at the same time next week for the third part of StLJN's Fall 2012 jazz preview...