So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* NPR last Friday had a feature on a newly released, previously unheard live recording of Grant Green (pictured) made here in the guitarist's home town of St. Louis.

* Tonight's performance by the electronic music duo Caboladies, presented by New Music Circle at the White Flag Projects gallery, is previewed by Terry Perkins for the St. Louis Beacon. Meanwhile, NMC's program coordinator Jeremy Kannapell was interviewed about the organization's plans for the remainder of the 2012-13 season by the Riverfront Times' Josh Levi.

* Metrobones have posted to their Facebook page an album of photos from the group's concert last Friday at The Pageant with the Webster Groves High School jazz bands and guest soloist, trombonist Michael Dease.

* Bassist Reid Anderson of The Bad Plus, who are playing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro, submitted to a Q&A with the Riverfront Times' Jessica Lussenhop that, alas, ends up mostly rehashing old info about the trio while ignoring their most recent work. On the other hand, for some Bad Plus-related content that at least has the virtue of being current, there's this review of one of their sets Wednesday night at the Bistro by KDHX's Wil Wander.

* The St. Louis Low Brass Collective's board secretary and bass trombonist Andy Schiefelbein talked with the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller for a brief article about the LBC's annual performance next Tuesday at the Sheldon

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra sends word that their director Bob Boedges has been named to the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame. Boedges will be inducted in a ceremony during MMEA's annual conference later this month held at Tan-Tar-A Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks.

* Lastly, congratulations to pianist Carolbeth True, who's being honored as Citizen of the Year for 2013 by the city of Rock Hill.

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, Caboladies, Brett Walberg, a tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more

It looks to be a full weekend of jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with one of the top trios in jazz making a return visit to our fair city; an up-and-coming saxophonist making his local debut; an intriguing program of electronic music and video; a couple of local concert series presenting their first offerings of 2013; plus, as the saying goes, much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, The Bad Plus return to St. Louis for their annual January engagement, continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Fans can expect to hear some selections from the trio's latest album Made Possible, which came out in September, as well as older material and perhaps some new compositions as well. For more about Made Possible and The Bad Plus' other recent activities, check out this post from last Saturday.

On Thursday night,  New Music Circle presents a free event teaming artist/musician Robert Beatty with bassist Darin Gray for a show at Apop Records. NMC also will be serving free refreshments and selling discount tickets for Friday night's performance by the electronic music duo Caboladies (pictured) at White Flag Projects

Beatty is in town to provide visuals for Caboladies, and he and Gray have performed together before in Beatty's hometown of Lexington, KY, so the event, announced last week, seemed like a natural adjunct to the previously announced Caboladies gig. As for the Caboladies themselves, their "uniquely fractured sonic sensibilities" will be on display on Friday at White Flag Projects in the form of separate opening sets by the two members of the group, Eric Lanham and Chris Bush, followed by a collaborative set with live video accompaniment by Beatty.

Also on Friday,  Boston-based saxophonist Brett Walberg, a 20-something who's played in styles ranging from straight-ahead to funk to avant-garde, will be making his St. Louis debut, leading a trio at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday afternoon, singer Wendy Gordon and her band will perform for jazz brunch at Frontenac Grill. Then that evening, singer Feyza Eren is at Robbie's; guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio at the Wine Press; and you can choose from among three different gigs fronted by local bassists, with John Covelli playing solo at the Tavern of Fine Arts; Darrell Mixon leading a trio at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and Eric Foreman's trio holding forth at the south side neighborhood spot Thurman Grill.

Then on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club kicks off their 2013 schedule of monthly events with a double bill including Clarinet Summit, featuring clarinetist  Scott Alberici, plus the Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer-inspired quartet Utter Chaos. This show will take place at Frontenac Grill, which is a new venue for the Jazz Club this year, although they'll also be presenting some shows at other locations as well. 

Also on Sunday, pianist Ptah Williams will perform a free concert for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series at Second Baptist Church, 9030 Clayton Road in Richmond Heights.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday what's being billed as the "1st Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Benefit Jazz Concert" will be presented at Chaminade Preparatory School, 425 S. Lindbergh Blvd. The event will feature singer Denise Thimes and saxophonist Tim Cunningham fronting a rhythm section of pianist Joe Cartwright, bassist Eric Warren and drummer Montez Coleman, along with performances from the student jazz bands of Chaminade and University City High School.

Also on Monday, the Latin jazz band Clave Sol will play at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The electronic music duo Caboladies, who will perform next Friday at the White Flag Projects gallery in a concert presented by New Music Circle, were interviewed by St. Louis magazine's Stefene Russell.

* Reid Anderson, bassist for The Bad Plus, talked briefly about the group's new album Made Possible with the Post's Calvin Wilson. TBP will be back in St. Louis next Wednesday through Saturday to play at Jazz at the Bistro. 

* Saxquest has posted to their Facebook page a set of photos from the Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference, held earlier this month in Atlanta.

* The Tavern of Fine Arts is the subject of a short feature story from the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller.

* One of singer Gregory Porter's Sunday night sets at Jazz at the Bistro was reviewed by KDHX's Wil Wander. Also in the audience that same evening was publicist/producer Madeline Dames, who was kind enough to share the photo above of Porter and his drummer, St. Louis native Emanuel Harrold, as well as this remembrance:

"On Sunday evening I snuck down to Jazz at the Bistro for the last set of Gregory Porter's show. As excited as I was to hear Gregory perform, I was just as enthusiastic to see Emanuel Harrold on drums."

"Emanuel and his brother Keyon were second set regulars during my tenure at the Bistro. "Back in the day" students could come in for second sets for just $10 and the smart ones took advantage of this. Fast forward to 2013, both Emanuel and Keyon are a part of the Grammy-nominated "Be Good". And I can't help but think how much Barbara Rose would have LOVED this part of the story! Something tells me she's enjoying the show from her listening room in the sky."

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan David Sanborn and keyboardist Bob James (who grew up in the northwest Missouri town of Marshall) are among first musicians to sign to the reborn OKeh label, newly revived under Sony Masterworks.

* Singer and actor Ken Page, the St. Louis native who was part of the original Broadway casts of Ain't Misbehavin' and Cats, is back in town directing Upstream Theater’s production of his musical play Café Chanson, which runs this weekend at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Read a short interview with Page by the St. Louis Beacon's Nancy Fowler here.

* Electronic musician Joe Raglani was interviewed on the website AdHoc.fm.

* Lindy Hop St. Louis has posted online a Facebook photo album from January's West End Stomp swing dance and a video of some of the entrants in the evening's dance contest.

* The Gramophone is looking to hire an audio engineer. They're looking for someone with three years of experience in live sound and (preferably) some sort of degree in audio engineering. Pay is $13 an hour; you can see details of the job here. Reply with resume, letter of interest and written references via email to mattkeune@gmail.com, or by mail to The Gramophone, 4243 Manchester Ave, St. Louis MO, 63110.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2013 jazz preview

As we head into the final weeks of 2012, let's take a look at some of the touring jazz and creative musicians who will be coming to St. Louis during the first part of 2013. Though there will be more extensive previews here of many of these performances as we go along, this post and its sequels over the next couple of weeks should help give you a quick overview of what's coming up next.

We start up above with singer Gregory Porter, performing his tune "1960 What?" earlier this year at a show in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Porter will make his St. Louis debut with a series of shows Thursday, January 3 through Sunday, January 6 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Down below, you can see and hear The Bad Plus performing "Sing for a Silver Dollar" from their latest album Made Possible in a performance this year at Anthology San Diego. Although this year they've ceded the first-gig-of-the-year slot at the Bistro to Porter, TBP will be back in St. Louis for their annual engagement a couple of weeks later, from Wednesday, January 16 through Saturday, January 19.

The third clip features the improvising electronic music duo Caboladies, aka Chris Bush and Eric Lanham, in an excerpt from a performance in July 2010 in Baltimore. They'll be coming to town for a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, January 18 at White Flag Projects, 4568 Manchester Ave.

Below that, it's the Dave Holland Quintet with "Ebb And Flow", recorded at the 2011 Barletta Jazz Festival in Italy. Holland has spent much of this year gigging with various other ensembles, but he'll reconvene what's been his primary working group for the last decade, with Chris Potter (saxophones), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibes & marimba), and Nate Smith (drums), to play Wednesday, January 30 through Saturday, February 2 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The next musician likely needs no introduction to most St. Louis jazz fans, but just in case you don't already know trumpeter, singer, and University City native Jeremy Davenport, the clip of him performing "Do you Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" should serve as a representative example of his work. Davenport, who now lives in New Orleans, was back here over Thanksgiving weekend for his annual gig at the Bistro, and he'll be returning on Saturday, February 2 to play at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Another St. Louis native, bassist Dan Loomis, is featured in the next clip, along with his bandmates in The Wee Trio, vibraphonist James Westfall and drummer Jared Schonig. Here, they're playing a tune called "White Out" from their CD Capitol Diner Vol. 2, but they'll be recording for a new live album during their gigs on Friday, February 8 and Saturday, February 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

We wrap up today's post with a clip of the New Orleans funk/jazz band Galactic, recorded during a show in April of this year at Cannery Ballroom in Nashville. They'll be returning to St. Louis on Thursday, February 14 to perform at The Pageant. Look for part 2 of the winter/spring 2013 jazz preview next week...