Jazz this week: Clayton Brothers Quintet, Nick Finzer, "Sculptures in Sound," and more

The news in St. Louis jazz and creative music this week is coming mostly from Grand Center, as the district rolls out an expanded version of their weekly Wednesday night "jazz crawl."

The first week includes a promising young musician making his St. Louis debut at a new venue for the event, the return of a popular group of seasoned jazz veterans to Jazz at the Bistro, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 1
The Clayton Brothers Quintet (pictured, top left) performs for the first of four nights continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Led by bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and also including John's son, the talented pianist Gerald Clayton, the CBQ offers a spirited update of the classic hard bop sound. For more about them, and some video samples of live performances, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, NYC-based trombonist Nick Finzer will make his St. Louis debut, helping inaugurate the expanded version of the Grand Center Jazz Crawl with a performance at the Curtain Call Lounge.

Finzer is touring in support of his "politically charged" third album Hear & Now, released in February on his label Outside in Music. His set at the Curtain Call officially marks that venue's addition to the expanded Jazz Crawl, which is adding Wednesday sets there from local (and some touring) bands and a weekly swing dance event hosted by Lindy Hop St. Louis at the newly reopened Grandel Theatre.

The event will continue to include weekly happy hour sets at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, guitarist/singer Tommy Halloran playing this week; a jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's trio at The Dark Room, now officially re-located in the Grandel Theatre; and the free video simulcasts in Jazz St. Louis' first-floor lounge when there's live music at the Bistro.

Elsewhere around town, pianist Curt Landes, bassist Glen Smith and drummer Chuck Kennedy will be hosting their weekly Wednesday jam session at @Nesby's in South County.

Thursday, March 2
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert featuring vocalists Katie Greenberg,  a Wash U student, and R. Scott Bryan interpreting music from a number of rock and pop songwriters, backed by a group including keyboardist Jay Oliver and a string trio.

Friday, March 3
During the afternoon, trombonist and St. Louis native Michael Vlatkovich
will present an open rehearsal and masterclass at the St. Louis Artists' Guild in Clayton. (He'll perform at the same venue Saturday night; see below.)

That evening, saxophonist Harvey Lockhart (pictured, bottom left) has a new Friday happy hour gig weekly at The Dark Room; the Jazz Troubadours play at Thurman's in Shaw; and jazz/fusion band SpaceShip returns to The Abbey in Belleville.

Saturday, March 4
Michael Vlatkovich helps launch the new "Sculptures in Sound" series at the Artists' Guild, with some help from saxophonists Christopher Braig and Jay Hutson.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Cory Christiansen, who lived in St. Louis in the early 2000s while working for Mel Bay Publishing, returns for a public concert at Webster Groves High School.

Sunday, March 5
The St. Louis Record and CD Collector Show will hold their March event at the American Czech Educational Center, and the Friends of Scott Joplin present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

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.)

Edited after posting to fix a typo.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Clayton Brothers Quintet

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring members of the Clayton Brothers Quintet, who will be performing in St. Louis starting next Monday, March 1 through Saturday, March 4 at Jazz at the Bistro.

With a crisp, hard-bop sound evoking memories of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's classic quintet and any number of vintage Blue Note recordings, the group is led by bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and also includes John's son Gerald Clayton on piano, drummer Obed Calvaire, and trumpeter Terell Stafford.

The brothers also co-lead the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra with drummer Jeff Hamilton, a bifurcation of musical efforts that began years ago when the brothers mutually agreed to support each others' preferred musical format. As recounted in their Wikipedia entry, "Jeff's love of small groups lead to formation of the Clayton Brothers Quintet," while John's preference for big bands led to formation of the CHJO.

After more than three decades, the orchestra may have a higher public profile, thanks in no small part to having recorded and performed with popular guests such as John Pizzarelli and Diana Krall, but the quintet has put out eight albums since 1980 - the most recent of which, Soul Brothers, came out last spring - and earned generally good notices for them.

Still, for a group that's been around that long, and that even has earned Grammy nominations for a couple of their recordings, there seems to be relatively little video of them available online, while clips of the big band proliferate.. Nevertheless, StLJN has managed to unearth a few videos of the quintet in action previously unseen here, starting with the first clip up above, an excerpt from their show at the 2012 Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival.

After the jump, you can see excerpts from two more performances from around that time, recorded in October 2012 at the BMW Jazz Festival in São Paulo, Brazil and at Dizzy's Club in Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC.

Below that, you can check out solo improvisations from the two Clayton brothers, as John Clayton plays a solo version "If I Were a Rich Man" in April, 2015 at the University of New Hampshire, and Jeff plays a free-form solo while guesting with the Stanford University jazz orchestra in 2011.

The sixth and final video is an interview with the Clayton brothers recorded in 2011 for the web series The Pace Report.

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

Jazz this week: Ralph Towner, STO Jazz Orchestra, Sherman Irby, Clayton Brothers Quintet, Rebirth Brass Band, and more

Along with Halloween and the conclusion of baseball's World Series, there's a whole lot of jazz and creative music happening in St. Louis over the next few days. So, without further ado, let's go straight to the highlights:

On Thursday, Ralph Towner, known for his work with the Paul Winter Consort and Oregon as well as his own recordings, will perform a free solo guitar concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Also on Thursday, Robbie's House of Jazz will present the STO Jazz Orchestra, a student big band from the Czech Republic that's currently touring the USA; and jazz radio host and historian Dennis Owsley begins his workshop on "Miles Davis: Jazzman" at the Ethical Society.

On Friday, after spending the week working with student musicians from the area and giving school performances for Jazz St. Louis, alto saxophonist Sherman Irby wraps up his stay fronting his quartet for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. For more about Irby, a modern exponenet of the alto tradition of Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley, plus some videos of him in action, see this post from last Saturday.

That same evening and just around the corner, New Music Circle will present a concert of the music of James Mobberley and Paul Rudy at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Both composers are affiliated with the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and their work will be performed by Rudy (various instruments, voice and electronics), Keith Benjamin (trumpet), John Leisenring (trombone) and Carter Enyeart (cello).

Also on Friday, saxophonist Jim Stevens will be at Jazz on Broadway in Alton; guitarist Dave Black will lead a trio with bassist Willem von Hombracht and drummer Kevin Gianino at the Cigar Inn in Belleville; and saxophonist Willie Akins and his band will play at Robbie's.

On Saturday, the Clayton Brothers Quintet (pictured) comes to town for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Headed by John Clayton on bass and Jeff Clayton on saxophone, the group also includes the fine trumpeter Terell Stafford, John's son Gerald Clayton on piano, and drummer Obed Calvaire. As demonstrated on their Grammy nominated album Brother to Brother, the Claytons offer a swinging, straight-ahead sound with occasional tinges of hard bop and Latin jazz.

Also on Saturday, the Alton Landing Jazz Quartet plays at Jazz on Broadway; saxophonist Rod Tate is at the Halls Ferry Inn Jazz Cafe; and Robbie's has two separate shows: a late afternoon set featuring Dave Black and saxophonist Christopher Braig, followed by an evening performance from a sextet of young musicians led by saxophonist Matt Leininger.

On Sunday, New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band returns to town for a late afternoon show at The Gramophone, with St. Louis' own Funky Butt Brass Band opening (and perhaps even joining forces at some point with the headliners).

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday keyboardist Brock Walker performs at the Sheldon to promote the release of his new CD 25th & State.

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

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

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2011-12 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall on Friday released the schedules for their various 2011-12 season series. For jazz fans in St. Louis, the biggest news might be the confirmation of two dates that previously had leaked out through Pollstar.

More specifically, as we told you here last month, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will return to the Sheldon on Friday, September 30 in a benefit performance for the Sheldon's educational programs.

Also, as noted here earlier this week, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will play the Sheldon on Thursday, March 29. This will be the new/old lineup of the Flecktones, with original member Howard Levy on keyboards and harmonica returning to replace saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who's now playing with (and presumably cashing some very large checks from) the Dave Matthews Band.

Both the Marsalis/JaLCO performance and the Flecktones show are designated as "special concerts," which means that tickets are not sold as part of any of the series packages.

As for the Sheldon's 2011-12 jazz series, it will include the Clayton Brothers Quintet (Saturday, October 29), pianist Chucho Valdés (pictured) and the Afro-Cuban Messengers (Saturday, February 11), the Detroit-based, all-female group Straight Ahead (Saturday, March 24), and singer Sara Gazarek (Saturday, May 5).

So what's the takeaway on this lineup? Well, Gazarek is one of the best young female jazz singers around, and Valdés' skills as a pianist and composer certainly are impressive, though deployed in a rather conventional Latin-jazz format (for which, to be fair, Valdes helped draft the blueprints). Those two shows seem worthy of eager anticipation; the Clayton Brothers and Straight Ahead, maybe not so much.

For one thing, both groups already have played St. Louis within the past 18 months, so it's not like those who have an interest have been deprived of the chance to hear them. More to the point, while both undeniably offer skilled musicianship, neither group is particularly innovative, buzzworthy or even musically distinctive. Given the universe of possibilities out there, it's hard to get too excited about a four-show series in which half the concerts are devoted to such middling, recycled fare.

Meanwhile, the Sheldon's "Coffee Concerts" series will offer return appearances from pianist Carolbeth True and singer Christi John Bye (Tuesday, October 11 & Wednesday, October 12), the St. Louis Rivermen (Tuesday, April 3 and Wednesday, April 4), and trumpeter Bob Ceccarini and pianist Pat Joyce (Tuesday, May 8 and Wednesday, May 9), as well as a non-subscription show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the St. Louis Ragtimers (Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7).

Rounding out the jazz offerings for the year, the Saturday matinee series will include a concert from Cornet Chop Suey on April 21. The Sheldon's news release also mentioned that pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series next year, but offered no further details.

Patron tickets for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performance are on sale now for $150 and $125. Single tickets will be priced at $65 and $55 and will go on sale August 13. However, subscribers can request single tickets with their subscription order.

Subscription tickets for the "Jazz at The Sheldon" series are priced at $150 and $135; the Coffee Concerts series is $65 and $55; and Saturday matinee tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children. Current subscribers are being offered the opportunity to renew now, and new subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 16 and continue through the first concert in each series. For more information or to order tickets, call the Sheldon at 314-533-9900 or visit their website.

Notes from the Net: Miles Davis' Blue Moment; Clark Terry honored in KC; plus news, reviews, interviews and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Starting with some Miles Davis news, "We Want Miles," the exhibit about the trumpeter's life and work first staged last year in Paris, has now opened in Montreal. We Want Miles also is the name of a new book, written by French jazz critic Vincent Bessières and just published here in the US, that includes photographs, handwritten musical scores, album covers, posters, and other visual material from the exhibit. (You can see some of the photos from the Miles-as-fashion-icon section of the book and exhibit here).

Another new book about Davis, The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music by Richard Williams, was featured recently on NPR. For good measure, here's another review of the tome, from Baltimore City Paper's Michaelangelo Matos.

Finally, we move from literature to libations, with news that the brewers at Dogfish Ale have commemorated the fortieth anniversary of Davis' album Bitches Brew with a special craft beer.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry (pictured) was honored by the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City a couple of weekends ago, accepting an award and performing briefly as part of a concert of Duke Ellington music. Bill Brownlee, proprietor of the KC jazz blog Plastic Sax, reviewed the concert for the Kansas City Star here. Meanwhile, our town's Dawn DeBlaze of DeBlaze & Associates was there too, enjoying the proceedings and shooting photos, including the one of Terry accepting his award from AJM CEO Greg Carroll that she has graciously provided to StLJN to accompany this post.

* And while we're on the subject of St. Louis trumpet players, the Lester Bowie tribute presented last year by the San Francisco organization Other Minds can now be heard online. The concert was organized by Bowie's daughter Sukari Ivester, and featured Bowie's Art Ensemble colleagues Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones and Famoudou Don Moye on drums, plus trumpeter Corey Wilkes, saxophonist James Carter (who's in St. Louis this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro), trombonist Frank Lacy, pianist Jon Jang and bassist Peter Barshay.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, DowntownMusic.net has photos of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Hamid Drake , taken at their NYC performance on the same tour that brought them to St. Louis' Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center last month. (Scroll down the page to see the pix.) After wrapping the duo tour, Brötzmann has since headed down under to play the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in Australia.

* Before playing the Touhill Performing Arts Center last Saturday, guitarist Pat Metheny took his Orchestrion home to Kansas City for a concert at the Uptown Theater, and Bill Brownlee reviewed the show for the Star here.

* Here's another review of drummer Stanton Moore's new CD Groove Alchemy, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Doug Collette. Moore and his band Galactic were in St. Louis most recently in February at The Pageant.

* The Clayton Brothers are giving fans an inside look at the production of their next album via the Internet, with rehearsal pictures, videos, interviews, sheet music and more. You can hear bassist John Clayton talk about the development of “Terrell's Tune" here. The Claytons played Jazz at the Bistro in April, and will be back in St. Louis later this month for the Jazz Education Network conference.

* Also performing at the JEN Conference will be bassist Rufus Reid, who has a new trio CD and also guests on the latest disc from Sweden's Norrbotten Big Band. Here's a review of both CDs, written by J. Hunter for AllAboutJazz.com, plus another review of the trio CD by frequent AAJ contributor Pico.

* Saxophonist Kirk Whalum will be one of the headliners at the 31st Detroit International Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend, performing music from Everything is Everything, his forthcoming tribute to singer, songwriter, keyboard player and St. Louis native Donny Hathaway that will be released in September. Whalum will be in St. Louis with this year's Guitars and Saxes tour in August to play The Pageant.

* Singer Michael Buble, who's performing in St. Louis on June 25 at the Scottrade Center, was one of the top winners at the Juno Awards, the annual Canadian music award ceremony held last month.

* Here's another review of guitarist John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension's new CD To The One , written for AllAboutJazz.com by Ian Patterson. McLaughlin will bring the fusion quartet to the Sheldon Concert Hall in November. McLaughlin also now has an official iPhone App, created by his record label Abstract Logix. You can get it for free by going to the App Store on your iPhone and searching for "John McLaughlin."

Tickets now on sale for JEN Conference concerts

Single tickets are now on sale for the three evening concerts that will be presented as part of the first-ever Jazz Education Network Conference, which takes place Thursday, May 20 through Saturday, May 22 in St. Louis.

All three concerts, as well various other conference events, will be presented at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The show on the evening of Thursday, May 20 will feature the Brubeck Institute Quintet; the Caswell Sisters; the JEN All-Stars, hosted by bassist John Clayton; and the Army Blues “Pershing’s Own,” directed by CW5 Charles Vollherbst.

Then on Friday, May 21, it's the acappella vocal sextet Sixth Wave; bassist Rufus Reid (pictured) and his Out Front Trio; and the University of Missouri - St. Louis Big Band, directed by Jim Widner with special guests percussionist Ruben Alvarez, vibraphonist Stefon Harris and trumpeter Wayne Bergeron.

The concert on Saturday, May 22 features the Hannes Sigfridsson Trio, a group of young musicians from Sweden; a duo set from trumpeter Marvin Stamm and pianist Bill Mays; singer Rosana Eckert & Friends, with pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Lou Fischer, drummer Ndugu Chancler and percussionist Gary Eckert; and the Clayton Brothers Quintet, featuring bassist John Clayton, his brother Jeff Clayton on alto sax and his son Gerald Clayton on piano, plus trumpeter Terell Stafford and drummer Obed Calvaire.

Tickets (or in the conference's parlance, "registrations") for each evening concert are $30, and can be purchased online here (Thursday), here (Friday) and here (Saturday). Those who register for the entire conference or purchase a one-day pass get their tickets as part of the package; for more information on conference registrations, go here.

Jazz this week: The Clayton Brothers, Cyrus Chestnut, Matt Wilson, Jan Shapiro, Jazz St. Louis benefit gala, and more

Whether it's some kind of side effect of Jazz Appreciation Month or just coincidence, many of the jazz and creative music performers in St. Louis this weekend seem to have some sort of connection to music education.

On Thursday, singer Jan Shapiro will return to St. Louis to do a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Shapiro is a former St. Louisan who now heads the vocal music department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Also on Thursday, drummer Matt Wilson and his quartet will perform in a concert with the Webster Groves High School jazz band at Hixson Middle School. For details, see this post.

On Frida, the Clayton Brothers (pictured) begin a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jeff Clayton have been in town all week doing an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, including school performances, master classes, working with students in JSL's JazzU and All-Stars programs, and more.

For this weekend's performances at the Bistro, they'll be joined by pianist Gerald Clayton (John's son) and drummer Obed Calvaire, plus a "special guest" trumpet player each night. St. Louis' own Keyon Harrold will hold forth on Friday, while Terrell Stafford, who's recorded several discs for the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label and works frequently with the Claytons, will be there on Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, pianist Reggie Thomas will perform at the Metropolitan Gallery for the penultimate entry in the Nu-Art Series' spring jazz composers concerts. Thomas, who teaches music at SIUE, will team with drummer Marty Morrison and bassist Nick Jost to do the music of Andrew Hill and his own compositions.

On Saturday evening, pianist Cyrus Chestnut takes the stage at the Sheldon Concert Hall for a program of music concetrating on selections from his CD Cyrus Plays Elvis. As far as I know, Chestnut isn't doing any formal teaching while he's in town, but he's definitely got the chops to school some folkswhen he sits down at the piano. To see some video of Chestnut, check out this post from last Saturday. Also, the Sheldon and Metrotix have a "buy one, get one free" offer on tickets for the Chestnut concert.

Also on Saturday evening, pianist Carol Schmidt, who teaches at Webster University, will play a concert with bassist Ric Vice and several guest vocalists at Elliot Chapel in Kirkwood.

On Sunday, Jazz St. Louis presents its annual benefit gala featuring music from saxophonist Houston Person, who will be backed by Good 4 The Soul, plus the Funky Butt Brass Band and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble. Ticket prices start at $250 perperson, and proceeds from the event benefit JSL's education programs. For details, go here.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday Jazz St. Louis holds the monthly meeting of its CD Listening Club at Borders Books & Music in Brentwood. The featured CD for April is Stanley Turrentine's Sugar, and the special guest will be KMOX and KMOV broadcaster Carol Daniel (who, due to a lack of obvious connections to jazz, seems a puzzling choice to yr. humble editor).

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or by becoming a "fan" of 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.)