So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Michael Castro, the well-known St. Louis poet who was a member of the STL Free Jazz Collective and had a long history of collaborating with jazz and creative musicians, died last Sunday, December 23, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday and St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis American.

Castro (pictured second from right, with the Collective) recently had completed a term as St. Louis' first-ever poet laureate. He was 73 years old and had battled colon cancer for some time. Funeral arrangements are pending.

* Pianist and singer Harry Connick Jr's show last Thursday at the Stifel Theatre was reviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Dan Durchholz. The Post's website STLtoday also published online an "iParty" gallery of photos of concert-goers.

* Vocal group Take 6's performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, also last Thursday, was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn, and also was the subject of an STLtoday "iParty" gallery.

* Saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who died in October, was the subject of a year-end remembrance in the Detroit Metro Times. Bluiett also was mentioned in NPR Music's tribute to musicians who died in 2018.

* The story behind "Blue Xmas," trumpeter Miles Davis' one-off holiday collaboration with the late singer, pianist, and songwriter Bob Dorough, was recounted in an article in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

Jazz this week: Legacy Jazz Quintet plays Art Blakey, a tribute to Fran Landesman, and more

Assuming that drivers in the St. Louis area recover from the havoc caused by today's snowstorm, there are a number of jazz and creative music performances happening over the next few days that may reward those who choose to venture out into the mid-January cold. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Ken Kehner, who teaches at UMSL and plays with bassist Jim Widner's big band, the Poor People of Paris and others, celebrates the release of his new CD From The Moment On with two sets at the Bistro at Grand Center. (That's the same venue used by Jazz at the Bistro, but Jazz St. Louis is not involved with presenting Kehner's performance, and so tickets for the show are available for purchase by cash only at the door.)

Also tonight, Latin jazz group Clave Sol is the house band for a "World Jazz Jam" at Club Dantes, which is in midtown at 3222 Olive. (For those of you keeping track of the local jam session scene, this event apparently is now running weekly, and has been added to the StLJN site calendar.)

Tomorrow night, the Legacy Jazz Quintet, which is led by pianist Phil Dunlap of Jazz St. Louis and serves as a de facto repertory ensemble for JSL, returns to the Bistro for a two-night stand playing the music of Art Blakey.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Jeff Riley will perform at The Chapel; saxophonist Jerry Greene leads a quintet with singer Tony Viviano at Robbie's House of Jazz; and vibraphonist Dustin Sholtes brings his quartet to the Cigar Inn.

On Sunday, singer, pianist and songwriter Bob Dorough returns to St. Louis to perform a tribute to songwriter Fran Landesman at the Bistro. Like the Ken Kehner show, this is an independent production not presented by Jazz St. Louis; for ticket information, call 314-968-1898.

Also on Sunday, pianist Carolbeth True (pictured) and her trio will be joined by singer Christi John Bye for a free concert at Second Baptist Church as part of the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series; and keyboardist Brock Walker plays an early show at BBs Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big band will play their first gig of the year at BB's, and on Tuesday, the St. Louis Low Brass Collective will do their annual concert as part of the Notes From Home series at The Sheldon.

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.)

Bob Dorough to perform Sunday, January 15 at the Bistro at Grand Center

Singer, pianist and songwriter Bob Dorough (pictured), known for being one of the few vocalists ever to record with Miles Davis as well as for his compositions for the ABC-TV children's program Schoolhouse Rock, is returning to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Sunday, January 15 at the Bistro at Grand Center, 3536 Washington Boulevard.

The show is billed as a tribute to Fran Landesman, the late poet, songwriter and former St. Louisan who, with her husband Jay, owned the Crystal Palace nightclub in Gaslight Square. Although it is taking place in the same space used by Jazz St. Louis for Jazz at the Bistro, Dorough's show is an independent production renting the room for the evening; tickets, priced at $35 each and on sale now, are available in advance only by calling 314-968-1898.

Post critics describe holiday comforts

The weekend Post-Dispatch has a feature in which the paper's various arts and entertainment critics describe some of their favorite holiday traditions and comforts, and a couple of those short essays involve jazz. Visual arts critic David Bonetti has a personal holiday tradition involving Bob Dorough's "Blue Xmas," while jazz critic Calvin Wilson plans to use some of his free time over the holidays this year to dig into a Sonny Stitt box set. Read the whole article online here.

Manhattan Transfer, Bob Dorough previewed in Post articles

Today's Post-Dispatch has a couple of articles of interest to jazz listeners. The paper's former theatre critic Joe Pollack, who retired a few years back but still does freelance work, returns to the P-D's pages to do an interview with Bob Dorough, found online here.

Also, Terry Perkins has an interview with Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer about the group's holiday show, which comes to the Touhill Performing Arts Center next Wednesday. You can read that article online here.

Jazz this week: Bob Dorough, Brian Owens, BAG Trio, St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, and more

Due to various deadlines and some Blogger balkiness, this will be a rather terse chronological summary of this weekend's most noteworthy jazz-related events:

Tonight, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jim Widner, will do their monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro, and pianist Kim Portnoy does a free concert at Washington University's Holmes Lounge as part of the Jazz at Holmes series

On Friday and Saturday, soul/jazz singer Brian Owens (pictured) performs at the Bistro. For a brief sample of Owens' singing style, see the video window at the bottom of this post.

On Sunday, the BAG Trio featuring Zimbabwe Nkenya, Gary Sykes and Mike Nelson will be featured in a free concert at the Scott Joplin State Historic Site.

Also on Sunday, singer and pianist Bob Dorough returns to St. Louis for the first time in 47 years - no, that's not a typo; he last performed here in 1960 - to do a one-nighter at the Bistro. For a bit more about Dorough, whose long career has included everything from guesting on two Miles Davis albums to writing many of the songs for the educational cartoon series Schoolhouse Rock, see the story about him that I wrote for this week's Riverfront Times. (Note also that the phone number appended to the RFT story is incorrect. The correct phone number for advance tickets for Dorough's show is 314-961-1898.)

For more local jazz events this weekend and beyond, please consult the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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 add more tags.)

Bob Dorough featured in this week's Riverfront Times

This week's Riverfront Times includes a short feature I wrote about pianist and singer Bob Dorough, who will be appearing at the Bistro in Grand Center this Sunday, December 9. You can read the article online here.

Unfortunately, the phone number to call for tickets listed at the end of the story is incorrect. Dorough's show is an independent production, and tickets are not being sold via Jazz at the Bistro's usual outlets. The correct phone number to order advance tickets for Bob Dorough is (314) 968-1898. If there are any seats unsold as of show day, they'll be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

Bob Dorough to perform at the Bistro on Sunday, December 9

Fans of Diana Krall know Bob Dorough (pictured) as the composer of "Devil May Care," which over the years has become a concert staple for Krall, showing off her skills as both a vocalist and piano player.

Miles Davis fans may know that Dorough is one of the very few musicians to get a vocal performance onto a Miles record. (Dorough actually shows up on two of Miles' LPs, writing "Blue Xmas" at Davis' request for the trumpeter's Christmas album, then recording another track, "Nothing Like You," that was issued later on the Sorcerer album.)

Meanwhile, those of the right age to have grown up watch up Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s and 1980s may not know Dorough's name, but millions of them know his songs for ABC's "Schoolhouse Rock" by heart.

Now Dorough, a singer, songwriter and pianist whose long and colorful career has also included stints backing taboo-busting standup comic Lenny Bruce, working in the nightclub act of boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson, and co-producing 1960s pop group Spanky and Our Gang, is coming to St. Louis to perform at the Bistro on Sunday, December 9.

Dorough will do sets at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., backed by a trio including guitarist Steve Berger, Jeff Anderson on bass and Jerome "Scrooge" Harris on drums. Note that while this show is taking place in the Jazz at the Bistro space, it's not a Jazz St. Louis production; instead, it's the work of Jorge Martinez, who's been part of the St. Louis scene as a club owner, promoter and artist since the Gaslight Square era.

Ticket price and purchasing information should be forthcoming from the promoters any minute now, and when said info arrives, I'll update this post. In the meantime, for a bit more on Dorough, an Arkansas native who turns 84 three days after his St. Louis gig, check out this interview he did with Mike Zwerin in 1999, or this Village Voice review from Gary Giddins. Better yet, read Dorough's own account of how he came to St. Louis in 1960 to star in a play called "A Walk on the Wild Side," or dig the live version of "Conjuction Junction" in the embedded video window below.

UPDATE - 5:50 p.m., 11/14/07: Tickets for Dorough will be $30 each, and can be purchased in advance with credit card or check by calling 314-968-1898. Any seats that remain on show day will be sold at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.