J. Scheidegger Center arts series to feature Branford Marsalis Quartet, Tower of Power

The J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts at Lindenwood University today announced the 2021-22 season schedule for their touring artists series, and there are at least a couple of shows of potential interest to StLJN readers.

The biggest "get" from a jazz fan's perspective is the Branford Marsalis Quartet, who will close out the series next spring with a concert on Thursday, April 14.

Marsalis and company (pictured) will be immediately preceded on the schedule by legendary funk and soul band Tower of Power, who will perform at Lindenwood on Saturday, March 19.

Single ticket prices for Marsalis and TOP both start at $15 for rear balcony/obstructed view seating and go up to $95 per person for "platinum" seating.

The series also will include a holiday show from swing revivalists Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Thursday, December 23, as well as six other performances featuring country music, comedy, magic, and more.

Single ticket sales via the Scheidegger Center box office will begin on Tuesday, August 3, and there's also a "Pick-A-Pack" option that offers a discount when purchasing tickets to four shows at the same time. You can see the season brochure for the series online here.

Sunday Session: May 30, 2021

Doug Carn

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

* Celebrating Gospel Music After the Civil Rights Era (AAIHS.org)
* My favourite Dylan song – by Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones, Judy Collins and more (The Guardian)
* Vanderbilt Heard Libraries are new home to Dizzy Gillespie Collection (Vanderbilt.edu)
* From the Deep South to Chicago, How Blues Music Shaped the Lives of 2 Japanese Men (NBCChicago.com)
* In his final months, Ralph Peterson pushed ‘onward and upward’ to complete ‘Raise Up Off Me’ (Boston Globe)
* You Just Can't Peg Pedrito Martinez And Rubén Blades (NPR)
* Live Music Is Back. America’s Indie Venues Are No Better Off (Rolling Stone)
* Strata-East Records: An Oral History (Jazz Times)
* The History of Reverb (Reverb.com)
* Unique Collection Of Classic 'Sweet Soul' Music From Chicago Finds New Home (WBUR)
* Branford Marsalis' 'Ma Rainey' Score Makes 100-Year-Old Blues Sound Relevant Today (NPR)
* In Conversation: Can’s Irmin Schmidt on the Band’s Legacy and Most Memorable Live Shows (FloodMagazine.com)
* Six Definitive Songs: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Sun Ra (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Best Archie Shepp Tracks: 20 Essentials From The Jazz Firebrand (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* ‘Black music is my superpower. It’s my way of showing love’: the art of Georgia Anne Muldrow (The Guardian)
* Let’s talk about sax, baby: How one of music’s most maligned instruments reconquered pop and indie (The Independent)
* John Coltrane House project in Strawberry Mansion gets state blight remediation funds (PhillyVoice.com)
* Doug Carn’s Big Moment (DownBeat)
* Lost in Space Music: Records That Explore the Outer Limits (Bandcamp.com)

Sunday Session: April 25, 2021

Larry Carlton

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

* Catching Up With Laurie Anderson, An Artist Always Ahead Of Her Time (NPR)
* And all that jazz: innovative album covers from the 1950s on – in pictures (The Guardian)
* Jazz Artists Remember Chick Corea (Jazz Times)
* Apple Music Says It Pays One Penny Per Stream — 2-3 Times What Spotify Pays (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Does Spotify pay artists a fair rate? Here’s what musicians, managers and Apple Music have to say (Los Angeles Times)
* Ethan Iverson: From The Bad Plus to Bebop, Bud Powell and Bach (JazzWeekly.com)
* Tony Bennett: A Hero's Journey in Authenticity (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Sonny Simmons and the Backwoods (The Wire)
* Larry Carlton: My Career in Five Songs (Guitar Player)
* UnitedMasters’ Steve Stoute: ‘Record companies’ ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish.’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Chops: Branford Marsalis and Howard Alden on Ghost Performances in Movies (Jazz Times)
* Prince’s go-to synths and drum machine: a career in music tech gear (MusicRadar.com)
* 2021 NEA Jazz Masters: A Q&A with Phil Schaap (SFJAZZ.org)
* Why is classical music used in cartoons? (ABC.net.au)
* Tomorrow’s Warriors at 30 - the power behind London’s jazz revival (The Standard)
* 45 Lost Albums We Want To Hear (Stereogum.com)
* International Jazz Day's Global Celebrations Are On, And Again Online (NPR)
* Sounding Out Electronic Music’s Female Pioneers (Metrograph.com)
* Tom Holkenborg: “I think I paid about £15 for my Memorymoog synth - in 1983 you couldn’t give them away” (MusicRadar.com)
* SFJazz hosts inspiring virtual Jazz Masters Tribute Concert (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Recordable and portable: the cassette tape miracle (NewFrame.com)
* Steve Reich: Humans Love to See Other Humans Play Music (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Frank Zappa’s Final American Concert to Be Released as Live Album (Consequence of Sound)
* Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: December 27, 2020

George Coleman

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

* Three Reissues That Illuminate South African Jazz During Apartheid (Discogs.com)
* How Branford Marsalis Found Ma Rainey’s Sound (Vanity Fair)
* Har Mar Superstar's Latest Gig: Mail Carrier (MSPMag.com)
* Tenor Sax George Coleman Shines On Newly Released Live Record, 'In Baltimore' (NPR)
* New Releases from Sonny Rollins and Charles Mingus Reveal Crucial Conceptions of Political Art (The New Yorker)
* The Best Shot We Have To Play Live Music Again: News From The COVID Frontline (Offbeat)
* ‘The New Thing’: The Subversive Bridge From Bop To Free Jazz (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Congress Passes Covid-19 Relief Bill With Funding for Live Music Venues (Rolling Stone)
* Kids Became A&R's 'Secret Weapon' In a Work From Home Year (Billboard)
* Listening to the Joy in James Baldwin’s Record Collection (Hyperallergic.com)
* The Importance Of Mary Halvorson’s Recordings During The Pandemic Year (DownBeat)
* The Royal Bopsters Keep Their Group Identity Alive (Jazz Times)
* When Will Live Music Return? (Rolling Stone)
* Thelonious Monk: An Alternative Top Ten Albums Of Deep And Staggering Genius (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Can a trippy VR film bring classical music to a new generation? (The Guardian)
* Dayna Stephens Fulfills Long-Held Dreams (DownBeat)
* 'Jazz is just a reflection of life': The musical genius of Jerry Granelli (CBC)
* Sonny Rollins: Bright Moments (Jazz Times)
* Ma Rainey’s Moment: The Mother Of The Blues Gets Her Due (Slate.com)
* R.I.P. Leslie West, Legendary Mountain Frontman Dies at 75 (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* “Music is my way of being in the world”: remembering “Blue” Gene Tyranny (The Wire)
* Frank Zappa’s 10 greatest albums of all time (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Holiday Shopping Sends Vinyl Album Sales Soaring to Another Record Week (Billboard)
* Modern Hollywood Discovers Its Jazz ‘Soul’ (The Nation)
* When Sonny Rollins Went Dutch (DownBeat)
* A Bessie Smith Christmas (Jazz Times)
* Paul McCartney: read the exclusive track-by-track story of ‘McCartney III’ (NME.com)
* Music made 2020 better, but we failed to make 2020 better for musicians (TechCrunch.com)

Sunday Session: December 20, 2020

Stanley Cowell

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

* “Up From the Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music” Documentary Debuts Today (Offbeat)
* A Marvelous Marble Machine for Making Music (Kottke.org)
* Art Tatum on V-Disc (Jazz Times)
* Sir Barry Gibb: 'Christmas songs haven't been appropriate for 50 years' (BBC)
* Watch Legendary Saxophonist Azar Lawrence Share His Favorite LPs (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 50 Years Later, 'Feliz Navidad' Still Delivers On Its Bilingual Message (NPR)
* "My goal is to reach people on an emotional level" — The Kenny Barron interview (Ottawa Citizen)
* Danny Jonokuchi & The Revisionists Win Inaugural Count Basie Contest (DownBeat)
* An Examination of Black Coffee by Peggy Lee (Jazz Times)
* Brilliant Acting Makes ‘Ma Rainey’ A Transcendent Film (DownBeat)
* Chicago blues harmonica player Sugar Blue: Running one step ahead of the coronavirus around the world (Chicago Tribune)
* How Branford Marsalis recreated the perfectly imperfect style of 1920s blues for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ (GoldDerby.com)
* In Memoriam: Jazz Night in America Remembers 10 Musicians Who Altered Shape Of Jazz (NPR)
* 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' composer Branford Marsalis says blues legend Rainey commanded attention (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
* The Mutual Musicians Foundation is fighting the gentrification of Jazz in Kansas City (ScalawagMagazine.org)
* Big Data will analyse the mystery of Beethoven's metronome (Phys.org)
* Stanley Cowell, Pianist, Composer and Educator with a Kaleidoscopic View of Jazz, Is Dead at 79 (WBGO)
* Nels Cline Double-Sizes The Singers (DownBeat)
* Jeff Clayton 1955–2020 (Jazz Times)
* Black Mystery School Pianists (New Music Box)
* Jeff Clayton, Versatile Saxophonist and Flutist, and Devoted Jazz Educator, Has Died at 66 (WBGO)
* A Christmas Waltz with Duke Ellington (Jazz Times)
* For midsized music venues, ‘thoughts & prayers’ won’t be enough (Buffalo News)
* Stanley Cowell, Pianist, Composer and Educator with a Kaleidoscopic View of Jazz, Is Dead at 79 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: December 13, 2020

Branford Marsalis

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

* Revisit a Vibrant San Francisco Music Scene in Harlem of the West (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* The Treasure in Frank Zappa’s Secret Subterranean Vault (The New Yorker)
* Bob Dylan sells his entire catalog of songs to Universal (CNN)
* Paul McCartney opens up about friendship with John Lennon in new interview (NME.com)
* Matthew Shipp at 60 (CliffordAllen.me)
* How John Coltrane Introduced the World to His Radical Sound in the Groundbreaking Recording of “My Favorite Things” (OpenCulture.com)
* Knocking Down Barriers: An Interview with Abdul Wadud, 1980 (PointOfDeparture.org)
* 'Sittin' In: Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s' Opens a Portal to the Past, and a Dialogue (WBGO)
* Wait, Bob Dylan Owned ‘The Weight’? An Explainer (Rolling Stone)
* There Goes the Neighborhood: What really caused the decline of 18th & Vine (ScalawagMagazine.org)
* Meet säje, the vocal supergroup thriving on female empowerment (Jazz.fm)
* ‘Mostly Hard Times’: How the City’s Few Jazz Clubs Are Hanging On, Barely (Curbed.com)
* Whit Dickey on the Path to Wisdom (Jazz Times)
* Jazz City: The Once — and Future — Sound of Memphis (Memphis Flyer)
* Ukulele Ike, a.k.a. Cliff Edwards, Sings Again (Jazz Times)
* Tough Times for Jazz Promotion (Interview No. 5 with Wendy Kirkland of Chesterfield Jazz Club) (London Jazz News)
* 82% of Musicians Earn Less Than $270 a Year From Spotify and Other Music Streaming Music Platforms, Study Finds (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The New Vocabulary of Funkadelic (1970) (AquariumDrunkard.com)
* 'I'm a song catcher': 60 years of Arhoolie Records, the label for a lost America (The Guardian)
* Mary Lou Williams, Writ Large (DownBeat)
* Branford Marsalis on the Music of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ and Chadwick Boseman’s Performance (Variety)
* George Benson Innovates, Crafts Pop Hits (DownBeat)
* Concert Industry Lost $30 Billion in 2020 (Variety)
* Our Revels Now Are Ended (The American Scholar)
* Joni Mitchell: “I know what I want and I’m not afraid to stand up for it” (New Statesman)
* He's the Leader: An Interview with Aretha's "Main Man" Fonzi Thornton (PopMatters.com)
* “Then there was the time I was buried in a hole”: Phil Minton at 80 (The Wire)
* Berkeley jazz clarinetist marks the days of pandemic in ‘Plague Diary’ (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Charley Pride, Pioneering Black Country Singer, Dead at 86 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: November 29, 2020

Maria Schneider

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

* 'The Last Shall Be First': A Lost Chapter Of Gospel, Saved From Extinction (NPR)
* Ntozake Shange on Sun Ra and How She Came to Have Her Name (LitHub.com)
* Jazz Composer Maria Schneider Takes on the "Data Lords" in Song (PopMatters.com)
* Nile Rodgers on ‘A Love Supreme’: ‘It Felt Like I Was Getting a Look Into Coltrane’s Soul’ (Rolling Stone)
* Excluded, Penalized, Indebted, Harassed: A Study of Systemic Discrimination Against Women in Opera (MiddleClassArtist.com)
* JT Video Premiere: Sonny Rollins in Holland Mini-Documentary (Jazz Times)
* Calming monkeys with piano music is harder than you think (CNN)
* Veronica Swift’s Unconventional Turns (DownBeat)
* A Tense New Classical Work Bottles The Feeling Of A Police Stop (NPR)
* Chops: Drummers Go Off the Grid (Jazz Times)
* 'I thought ours was better': Keith Richards on recording a Beatles song, solo work and new Rolling Stones (USA Today)
* I'm a sound technician. Losing my hearing was devastating (CBC)
* Jeff Gold – ‘Sittin’ In – Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s’ (London Jazz News)
* 'Frank didn't adhere to any movements': behind the Zappa documentary (The Guardian)
* Buddy Bolden, Known As ‘The Father Of Jazz’ Honored In New Opera (WABE)
* Chick Corea: Accomplishing the goal of art (BBC)
* Warner is signing double the number of artists via AI-driven A&R tool Sodatone than it did last year. Now, it’s hired a global head of Data Science. (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* The legend of Yahya Abdul-Majid (CapitalBop.com)
* The Checkout: Meet Laura Perrudin, A French Harpist with a Jagged Edge (WBGO)
* All doom and boom: what’s the heaviest music ever made? (The Guardian)
* Zev Feldman of Resonance Records (‘Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott’s’) (London Jazz News)
* 'People in their 40s were crying': the sad final days of New York's coolest record store (The Guardian)
* How old, ambient Japanese music became a smash hit on YouTube (ArsTechnica.com)
* Charles McPherson Turns to Ballet (Jazz Times)
* Branford and Wynton Marsalis Are Keeping New York's Jazz Scene Alive (Town and Country)
* 'I will remember this for the rest of my life': John Fogerty on rerecording classic songs with his kids (USA Today)

Sunday Session: March 1, 2020

Terri Lyne Carrington

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

* Winner Takes All: Igor Levit in the Attention Economy (Atavist.com)
* Innovation is Kris Davis’ Motivation (DownBeat)
* ‘You’re one of the more normal composers’: Simon Rattle and Thomas Adès swap notes (The Guardian)
* In Solo Works and Soundtracks, Colin Stetson Follows a Narrative (DownBeat)
* Scientists study blind piano prodigy (CBS News)
* How Long Will Spotify Allow Bootleg “Podcasts” to Top the Charts? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* American Routes Shortcuts: Michael Cuscuna (WWNO)
* Fela Kuti’s “Coffin for Head of State” was genuine life-and-death protest music (TrebleZine.com)
* It was banned by the Nazis, Stalin and the Vatican. This is the surprising history of the saxophone (ABC.net.au)
* 'Say Amen, Somebody' Restoration Unveils The Wonder Of The Gospel Pioneers (NPR)
* Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain (Vice.com)
* On “I Am A Man,” Jazz Bassist Ben Williams Redefines Protest Music On His Own Terms (Bandcamp.com)
* The B-52s’ Kate Pierson on the Music That Made Her (Pitchfork.com)
* Melissa Aldana has burgeoning ‘Visions’ for her quartet (CapitalBop.com)
* There Was A Time: James Brown, The Chitlin’ Circuit, And Me: The First Days On The Bus (TheRecoup.com)
* Kurt Elling on Working with Danilo Pérez, Politics and Recording with an Indie Label (DownBeat)
* Social Science Becomes Social Art for Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Band (Jazz Times)
* Interview: Free Jazz Trumpeter Jaimie Branch on Music-Making as Time-Travel (Reverb.com)
* Watch the Trailer for Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (Jazz Times)
* Bria Skonberg Digs Into Tension With ‘Nothing Never Happens’ (DownBeat)
* How Martin Luther King Jr. and Motown Saved the Sound of the Civil Rights Movement (TIME)
* Music Benefactors Wants to Solve the Crowdfunding Riddle for Musicians — Introducing the ‘Artist Public Offering’ (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Baltimore Rebirth: A New Bloom Of Jazz In Charm City (NPR)
* Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim reflects on life before and after apartheid, and how Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk helped shape his career (Chicago Tribune)
* Post-club: Why DJs and producers are leaving nightclubs behind (MixMag.net)
* Branford Marsalis: Jazzman For The Masses (Long Island Weekly)
* Dweezil, Son of Frank (Weekly Alibi)

Sunday Session: June 9, 2019

Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest, drawn from StLJN's inboxes, newsfeeds, and assorted other sources:

* Joey DeFrancesco: From Musical Prodigy to Jazz Icon (AllAboutJazz.com)
* John Coltrane Wanted To Be A Saint. The Coltrane Church Honors His Religious Legacy (OkayPlayer.com)
* John Coltrane at the Age of 32 (DownBeat)
* For jazz man, nine years of practice led to one electric, life-changing moment (Newport News Daily Press)
* Weasel Walter on Getting The Flying Luttenbachers Together Again (DownBeat)
* Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes Coming to U.S. Theaters (Jazz Times)
* Sheet Happens: One of Music's Oldest Businesses Is Growing in the Digital Age (Billboard)
* Carlos Santana Reflects On 50 Years Of Making Music And His New Africa Speaks (Stereogum.com)
* The Enduring Passion of Leo Feigin, Leo Records Founder (DownBeat)
* Branford Marsalis: Listening with Sonic Ears (Stereophile)
* Effort underway to restore iconic Detroit club that once hosted jazz legends like Miles Davis (MichiganRadio.org)
* Singer Sheila Jordan going strong at 90 (Chicago Tribune)
* Branford Marsalis’ Secret (Jazz Times)
* ‘Creativity is a muscle. It must be worked out. It must be pushed.’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Lawrence “Lo” Leathers 1981-2019 (Jazz Times)
* Planned demolition of Cab Calloway's former Baltimore home stirs conservation critiques (Baltimore Sun)
* Searching For Disco's Cro-Magnon (NPR)
* Brian Wilson Postpones Tour, Citing “Mental Insecurity” (Pitchfork.com)
* Several Directions at Once: Listening With Myra Melford, Before a Residency at The Stone (WBGO)
* CD Baby Guest Post: The 5 Most Important Things to Know about Music Distribution in the Streaming Era (Berklee.edu)
* Exclusive: Chick Corea Revisits His Own Past with His Spanish Heart Band on “My Spanish Heart” (Paste)
* Dr. John, iconic New Orleans musician, has died at age 77 (New Orleans Advocate)
* Remembering Dr. John (Keyboard)
* Singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren shares his journey Sunday in Great Barrington (Berkshire Eagle)
* 'We fell like cosmic rain': how the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices became global stars (The Guardian)
* The Man Who Made His Computer Sing: Max Mathews & the Invention of Digital Music (5Mag.net)
* Joshua Redman Finds ‘Founts of Inspiration’ (DownBeat)
* Videos: Those times Dr. John lit it up (Offbeat)
* How the Moers Festival became a celebration of avant-garde change (DW.com)

Sunday Session: April 21, 2019

Branford Marsalis

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:

* Arturo O’Farrill’s ‘Fandango at the Wall’ Transcends Borders (LatinoUSA.org)
* 'People who sing it want the world to know they exist': 50 years of My Way (The Guardian)
* New Orleans trumpeter celebrates personal rebirth at French Quarter Festival (New Orleans Advocate)
* Best Jazz Albums: 50 Essentials You Need To Hear (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Louis Armstrong: ‘more important than Picasso’ (Jazz Journal)
* Gerald Clayton Talks About Jazz and the Creative Process (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the Music Industry Waged War on the Cassette Tape in the 1980s, and Punk Bands Fought Back (OpenCulture.com)
* The Shape-Shifting Music of Tyshawn Sorey (The New Yorker)
* Icons: Michael Beinhorn is Preventing Bad Music by Promoting Pre-Production (SonicScoop.com)
* A Visit to John Cage’s 639-Year Organ Composition (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Chris Potter Has His ‘Circuits’ Rewired (DownBeat)
* Concord Jazz Festival Returns for 50th Anniversary (Jazz Times)
* The Crimson King Seeks a New Court (Rolling Stone)
* Stanley Crouch, Bob Dorough, Abdullah Ibrahim, Maria Schneider Honored at NEA Jazz Masters Tribute (DownBeat)
* How a world-renowned cellist used Bach to blast Trump (RawStory.com)
* Branford Marsalis Discusses the Genre, Teaching Music and Getting Up Early (DownBeat)
* Why is jazz unpopular? The musicians 'suck', says Branford Marsalis (Sydney Morning Herald)
* Unplugged: Is the Guitar Solo Finished? (Rolling Stone)
* Impulse For Change: The Story Of Impulse! Records (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Integral to Over a Century of Piano Culture, Steinway & Sons Looks to the Future (Billboard)
* 12 Women Influencing the Future of Jazz (Paste)
* Iyer, Taborn Build Something Majestic on New ECM Album (DownBeat)
* Space is the Place: an introduction to the music of jazz visionary Sun Ra (List.co.uk)
* the musical genre is dead, gen z killed it (Vice.com)
* The All-Female Big Bands That Made History During World War II (NPR)

Jazz this week: Branford Marsalis Quartet; Wilson, Miles & Strickland; Toby Foyeh & Orchestra Africa; and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a week full of headliners at Jazz St. Louis, plus noteworthy shows featuring Afrobeat, free improvisation, vintage swing, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 3
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis' quartet continues their run at Jazz St. Louis, with the 7:30 shows pretty much sold out, but with tickets available (as of this writing) for the 9:30 sets both tonight and Thursday.

Marsalis and company are touring in support of their new album The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, which was released last month. For more about that, and some videos featuring live performances of some of their new material, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black perform at SqWires Restaurant & Annex, and trumpeter Jim Manley will be doing his regular weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, April 4
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert of improvised music featuring trumpeter George Sams, violinist India Cooke, pianist Greg Mills, clarinetist Eric Mandat and cellist Tracy Andreotti.

Update, 8:00 p.m. 4/3/19: George Sams has informed StLJN of a couple of late-breaking personnel changes on the gig, as violinist Alyssa Avery will perform in place of India Cooke, and bassist Darrell Mixon will be there instead of Tracy Andreotti.

Also on Thursday, guitarist Todd Mosby and his New Horizons Ensemble promote the release of a Mosby's new CD Open Water with a performance at Sky Music Lounge.

Elsewhere around town, fusion trio Tracer, with pianist Ptah Williams, bassist Darrell Mizon and drummer Gary Sykes, will be back at The Dark Room; singer Cherilyn Evans and CEEJazzSoul return to the Chase Club in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; and saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, April 5
In town this week for educational residencies with Jazz St. Louis. drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Ron Miles, and saxophonist Marcus Strickland (who's stepping in for the previously announced Jeff Coffin) will wrap up their stay by joining forces for the first of two nights of performances at the Bistro.

Of the three (pictured, top left), Wilson is the most familiar to St. Louis audiences, having played here numerous times before with various bands of his own and as a sideman. However, both Miles, who's worked with Bill Frisell and Joshua Redman among others, and Strickland, whose credits include Roy Haynes, Christian McBride's New Jawn, and Dave Douglas, are formidable players and bandleaders in their own right.

Also on Friday, The Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League, a six-piece vintage swing band from Minneapolis, will be in town for a one-nighter at Evangeline's; Miss Jubilee performs for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and keyboardist and singer Jesse Gannon is back at The Dark Room.

Saturday, April 6
Guitarist Dan Rubright of the Wire Pilots plays a late-morning matinee featuring his original compositions at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Saturday evening, guitarist Toby Foyeh (pictured, bottom left) and Orchestra Africa will bring their lively mix of Afrobeat, jazz, rock, and more to the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Sunday, April 7
Pianist Adam Maness plays solo for Sunday brunch in a new weekly gig at Thurman's in Shaw, while Anita Jackson returns to The Dark Room.

Later that afternoon, the Ozark Theatre re-opens for the season with a performance from singer Wendy Gordon celebrating the birthday of Billie Holiday, followed by an open jam session; and the Genesis Jazz Project returns to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, guitarist Tom Byrne will lead a quartet in a concert spotlighting some of his original music at Focal Point.

Monday, April 8
The faculty members who make up the Webster University Jazz Collective will present their final performance of the semester at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

Tuesday, April 9
The Gaslight Squares play the first of two morning "coffee concerts" 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Branford Marsalis Quartet

Today, let's take a look at some videos featuring the Branford Marsalis Quartet, who will be coming to St. Louis to perform starting this coming Tuesday, April 2 through Thursday, April 4 at Jazz St. Louis.

Last seen here in 2017 with singer Kurt Elling, Marsalis and company are on tour in support of a new album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, released a month ago.

While the long-running quartet - Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxes, Eric Revis on bass, Joey Calderazzo on piano, and Justin Faulkner on drums - can interpret a wide range of jazz styles and has a deep catalog of tunes from which to draw, chances are they'll be featuring at least some of the music from that new album during their three nights here. 

So, by way of a preview, you can see a performance of one of the tunes from the album up above, in a clip of "Snake Hip Waltz," composed and first recorded back in 1975 by pianist Andrew Hill.

After the jump, there's a video of "Cianna," a composition by Calderazzo that's also included on The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, and then a "making of" promotional video for the album that includes some short musical excerpts plus comments from Marsalis.

Next, you can see some samples of other recent live performances by the quartet, starting with a version of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" from a concert a couple of weeks ago at the Tivoli in Utrecht, Netherlands.

That's followed by two videos of performances recorded last year - "The Mighty Sword," another Calderazzo tune from the group's 2012 release Four MFs Playin' Tunes that was recorded at a show in April at the Barclay Theatre in Irvine, CA; and a version of Duke Ellington's classic "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," exact date and location unlisted.

For more about the Branford Marsalis Quintet and their new album, check out Marsalis' recent interviews with PopMatters.com and Richmond, VA alt-weekly Style Weekly, and his interview from January on the Burning Ambulance podcast.


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

Jazz this week: Mark Guiliana Quartet, Mwata Bowden, Ahmad Jamal, Grand Marquis, Branford Marsalis Quartet, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a calendar featuring noteworthy performances by several visiting headliners, plus an assortment of gigs in various styles from hometown players. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, 
March 27
Drummer Mark Guiliana and his quartet will perform for the first of five nights at Jazz St. Louis

The NYC-based Guiliana is known for mixing acoustic drums and electronic beats in his own projects and while working with musicians including Brad Mehldau, Avishai Cohen, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Lionel Loueke, and more.

However, for his St. Louis debut as a bandleader, he'll be bringing in a more straight-ahead, acoustic group, featuring bassist Chris Morrissey, saxophonist Jason Rigby, and pianist Shai Maestro.

Also on Wednesday, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features singer Wendy Gordon and Friends at The Stage at KDHX, along with the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, March 28
Multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden (pictured, top left) will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Bowden, a longtime member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the head of the jazz program at the University of Chicago, will be joined by Wash U faculty members William Lenihan on guitar and piano and Paul Steinbeck on bass, plus drummer Steve Davis.

Friday, March 29
Singer Feyza Eren returns to Evangeline's; percussionist Herman Semidey and Son Montuno will play Latin jazz, salsa and more at The Dark Room; and the Sentimental Journey Dance Band performs at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, March 30
Pianist Ahmad Jamal (pictured, center left) performs for the annual benefit gala at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Now 88 years old, Jamal plays just a few selected dates a year, so his performance here should be a special occasion, both for diehard fans who have followed him over the course of his seven-decade career and for younger listeners seeking to experience his distinctive style in person.

For more about Jamal and some video samples of recent performances (plus a couple of throwback sets), check out this post from last Saturday. 

Elsewhere around town, Kansas City-based jump blues and swing band Grand Marquis returns to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a quartet at Evangeline's; and Dizzy Atmosphere will play vintage swing and Gypsy jazz at Urban Chestnut Midtown Brewery and Biergarten.

Sunday, March 31
The University City Symphony Orchestra  presents a program titled "Jazzy Classical" at the 560 Music Center. The free concert will feature works by George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and William Grant Still performed by the orchestra with guest musicians including pianist Ptah Williams, Bach to the Future, guitarist Dave Black, and violinist Tracy Silverman.

Monday, April 1
Webster University's Student Jazz Combos will show off what they've learned this year with a performance at Webster's Community Music School.

Tuesday, April 2
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis (pictured, bottom left) and his quartet will perform for the first of three nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Appearing in St. Louis for the first time since their January, 2017 gig with singer Kurt Elling at the Bistro, Marsalis and his longtime band - pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner  - are touring in support of a new album, The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul, which was released last month to favorable reviews.

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: January 13, 2019

Roy Hargrove

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:

* Vinyl and cassette sales saw double digit growth last year (TheVerge.com)
* How one designer created the “look” of jazz (Vox.com)
* A Guide To Blue Note: 10 Essential Albums You Must Hear (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Musician performs highest ever classical concert on a grand piano in the Himalayas (iNews.co.uk)
* On Roy: The Jazz Gallery Speaks (JazzSpeaks.org)
* Dom Flemons Presents A New Image Of The American Cowboy (NPR)
* Blue Note's High Notes: The Jazz Label Celebrates 80 Years (Billboard)
 * No Color Photos of Jazz Singer Mildred Bailey Existed… Until Now (Smithsonian)
* A Mosaic of Music: Jazz Pianist, Composer, and Arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi (Nippon.com)
* Sun Ra: Never A Part Of This Planet (PleaseKillMe.com)
* ARP Founder Alan R. Pearlman Has Died (Synthtopia.com)
* SFJAZZ Celebrates Wayne Shorter (DownBeat)
* Universal Music Group Will Get New Owners This Year (Rolling Stone)
* Latin Music Is Now More Popular Than Country & EDM In America (Forbes.com)
* Woodstock Will Return This Summer, For Its 50th Anniversary (NPR)
* Roy Hargrove Tribute at Jazz at Lincoln Center: Common, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis & More Pay Homage to Late Trumpeter (Billboard)
* Drummer Alvin Fielder Dies at 83 (Jazz Times)
* Jazz at Lincoln Center Tribute Recalls Hargrove’s Big-Tent Approach (DownBeat)
* Best Kept Secret: Hear the First Song From a New Album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet (WBGO)
* How 1960s Pop Songs Helped Young Women Find Their Own Voices in a Time of Social Change (TIME)
* Bucket List Travels: 8 Music Museums Around The World (KEFWhat.com)
* Why Spotify Is Not A Music Company (Medium.com)
* Joey Calderazzo Bounces Back (DownBeat)
* Clarinetist Anat Cohen to Premiere New Concerto at Carnegie Hall (Jazz Times)
* Bill Evans “in” Paris “with” Gene Lees (Jazz Profiles)
* Joseph Jarman, 81, Dies; Mainstay of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (New York Times)
* Gary Clark Jr.’s New Song Is a Scathing Account of Trump-Era Racism (Rolling Stone)
* Motown: The Music that changed America (BBC)
* Remembering Urbie Green (1926-2018)(Jazz Times)
* Philip Glass Finishes His David Bowie Trilogy, Debuting His Lodger Symphony (OpenCulture.com)

Sunday Session: September 30, 2018

Horace Tapscott

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:

* Trane ’63: A Classic, A Challenge, A Change (WFIU)
* 10 Classic Vocal Jazz Duets (Jazz Times)
* The Absence Of Alice Coltrane – Reflections On Spiritual Eternal (TheQuietus.com)
* George Freeman still swinging hard — at 91 (Chicago Tribune)
* AudioFiles: The Controversy Over MQA (Jazz Times)
* Five Electronic Digital Instruments That Are Changing Music (Berklee.edu)
* SiriusXM buying Pandora Media in $3.5 billion deal (Associated Press)
* Terence Blanchard: Music, Social Justice and Raising Awareness About Violence Against Black People (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Pat Metheny still brings a unique voice to jazz guitar (Wisconsin Gazette)
* Interview with Cooper-Moore: My thinking is that intellect and emotion are part of what makes up the “Soul”: New video 2018, Photos (JazzBluesNews.space)
* Earning the Songs of Bill Withers (Jazz Times)
* Out of Dance, the Distinct Groove of Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf (DownBeat)
* Watch Paul Simon deliver an emotional farewell to fans during his last ever concert (NME.com)
* The Legend of Horace Tapscott and His Arkestra on Nimbus West Records (Bandcamp.com)
* The Smithsonian Robot Pepper Can Create Music from Visual Art. Now You Can Hear the Creepy Sample Tracks. (Washingtonian)
* A Brief History of Guitar Distortion: From Early Experiments to Happy Accidents to Classic Effects Pedals (OpenCulture.com)
* Streaming now accounts for 75 percent of music industry revenue (TheVerge.com)
* Tiny Desk Concert: Cécile McLorin Salvant (NPR)
* Wayne Shorter: Other Worlds (Jazz Times)
* ‘Love Is Here To Stay’: The Eternal Power Of Tony Bennett And Diana Krall (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Crosscultural Significance of Ornette Coleman (Jazz Times)
* Jazz isn’t dead: it’s just moved to new venues (TheConversation.com)
* Forgotten Giants: Willie Dixon - The Poet Laureate of Chess Records (Paste)
* Cosmic composers: how scientists helped reinvent Holst's Planets suite (The Guardian)
* Sony Music Faces Class Action Litigation for Allegedly Withholding Streaming Royalties (DigitalMusicnews.com)
* Q&A: Bridgette Wimberly tells the story of the Atlanta Opera’s “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” (ArtsATL.com)
* Bruce Iglauer Memoir Tells Story Of Blues Staple Alligator Records (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Sound Off: The Sonic Circuits Festival's Enduring Legacy (Washington City Paper)
* Herb Alpert Remembers Hugh Masekela (Afropop.org)
* Tia Fuller: The Brilliance of a Diamond (DownBeat)
* Sun Ra’s Afrofuturistic Album Covers (Flashbak.com)
* Branford Marsalis speaks his mind on music and politics, and he’s not holding back (Charlotte News-Observer)
* 40 years after Are We Not Men? we’re just now starting to get Devo (AVClub.com)
* Otis Rush, Seminal Chicago Blues Guitarist, Dead at 84 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: April 8, 2018

Cecil Taylor

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:

* Spotify Is Killing Song Titles (Medium.com)
* Branford Marsalis talks jazz, classical and playing with Miles Davis, Grateful Dead, Public Enemy (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Did Simon & Garfunkel Write The Jewish ‘Sgt. Pepper?’ (The Forward)
* Arcade Fire: 'People have lost the ability to even know what a joke is. It’s very Orwellian (The Guardian)
* You Can’t Find What You Don’t Look For: Spotify, Google, Pandora Can’t Find Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry–but what about Martha Stewart (MuscTechPolicy.com)
* The Festival Legend: George Wein – 64 Years Of Producing Festivals From Newport To New Orleans And Far Beyond (Pollstar.com)
* At Roulette, Admirers Gather To Honor John Abercrombie (DownBeat)
* The Lofty Optimism of Spotify and the Influence of the Streaming Revolution (The New Yorker)
* Instrumental Listens to 30,000 New Songs a Day to Find the Next Hit. So Why Do We Need A&R People, Again? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The sample legacy of Sly And The Family Stone (TheVinylFactory.com)
* The Day Herbie Hancock Met the Electric Piano (OZY.com)
* Q&A with Norma Winstone: The Consummate Voice (DownBeat)
* Stream a 144-Hour Discography of Classic Jazz Recordings from Blue Note Records: Miles Davis, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman & More (OpenCulture.com)
* How a Calypso Anthem Became the Surreal Centerpiece of Beetlejuice (Pitchfork)
* Inside Jimi Hendrix’s blood-spattered record collection (NME)
* Venture Beyond a Walking Bass Line with the All-American Walter Page, in Deep Dive (WBGO)
* Can Biomusic Offer Kids With Autism a New Way to Communicate? (Smithsonian)
* Love, London, and an enormous Moog: how Simon & Garfunkel made Bookends (The Telegraph)
* How much will artists get paid from the major labels’ Spotify profits? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Avant-Garde Pianist Cecil Taylor Dies at 89 (DownBeat)
* Cecil Taylor Dies at 89 - Piano titan pioneered the jazz avant-garde with an utterly unique sound, technique and approach to improvisation (Jazz Times)
* Cecil Taylor (1929 - 2018) (The Free Jazz Collective)
* Cecil Taylor, Jazz Icon Of The Avant-Garde, Dies At 89 (NPR)
* Cecil Taylor, Pianist Who Defied Jazz Orthodoxy, Is Dead at 89 (New York Times)
* How The #VinylRevival Is Paradoxically Threatening Record Shop Survival (TheQuietus.com)
* What’s Up Tiger Lily?: The wild story of the tax scam record label run by the notorious Morris Levy (DangerousMinds.net)