Jazz this week: Tribute to Count Basie, Clint Baker salutes New Orleans "cornet kings," Webster Groves Piano Festival, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes tributes to one of the greatest big band leaders in jazz and to New Orleans' tradition of producing memorable cornet players, a free outdoor concert featuring four St. Louis pianists, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 21
Saxophonist Kendrick Smith (pictured, top left) has assembled an eight-piece band plus vocalist Joe Mancuso to pay "Tribute to Count Basie" in a concert at the Ozark Theatre.

Also on Wednesday, Jazz St. Louis will raise funds with "Cocktails for a Cause" at 33 Wine Shop & Bar, and this week's Grand Center Jazz Crawl features saxophonist Andy Ament at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the  Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor returning to The Dark Room.

Thursday, August 22
The Ptah Williams Trio with bassist Darrell Mixon and drummer Gary Sykes will play at Joe's Cafe, and trumpeter Jim Manley performs at Evangeline's.

Friday, August 23
The Focal Point continues their late-summer traditional jazz series with the Rudy Torrini Swing Project, featuring the St. Louis clarinetist and friends playing music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s.

Also on Friday, Miss Jubilee performs in a free outdoor show for "Jungle Boogie" at the St. Louis Zoo; and keyboardist Ryan Marquez will promote the release of his new CD Cosmic Perspective with a late-night show at The Dark Room.

Saturday, August 24
The first-ever Webster Groves Piano Festival
will feature music from Carolbeth True and Two Times True, Jay Oliver, Michael Silverman and Bach to the Future, and Ptah Williams with Darrell Mixon and Steve Davis, all for free on the front lawn of the Masonic Hall, 12 E. Lockwood Ave in downtown Webster.

Also on Friday, San Francisco-based multi-instrumentalist Clint Baker (pictured, bottom left) will offer "A Tribute to the Cornet Kings of New Orleans" with some help from cornetists T.J. Muller and "Wild" Bill Mason at the Focal Point; and Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz at Urban Chestnut Midtown Brewery and Biergarten.

Sunday, August 25
Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to play for brunch at the Angad Arts Hotel, and the Folk School of KDHX presents their monthly Traditional Jazz Jam Session.

Monday, August 26
Drummer Kaleb Kirby and friends perform at The Dark Room.

Tuesday, August 27
Pianist Pat Joyce plays solo at Evangeline'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.)

Sunday Session: September 16, 2018

Billy Cobham

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:

* For Chelsea native Chick Corea, one passion, many paths (Boston Globe)
* Pianist Matthew Shipp can make magic with the perfect partner (Chicago Reader)
* Bassist Eric Revis works at the conflux of the mainstream and its far-out tributaries (Chicago Reader)
* Conversation with Billy Cobham, Part 1: The Art of Creation (SomethingElseReviews.com)
* Conversation with Billy Cobham, Part 2: Brian Gruber and Ronnie Scott’s (SomethingElseReviews.com)
* Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates 40 years in Japan – and China could be the next stop (South China Morning Post)
* Hank Mobley, the greatest sax player you never heard (The Spectator)
* Channeling the cosmic imperfections of Sun Ra’s record sleeves (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Israeli music scene jolted by international boycott movement (Associated Press)
* Documentary Offers Intimate Portrait of a Demur Abercrombie (DownBeat)
* Barre Phillips announces his farewell record End To End (The Wire)
* Guantánamo Mixtape: This Would Be the Soundtrack to Hell (LitHub.com)
* Quincy review – portrait of a musical legend fails to sing (The Guardian)
* Musicians, Labels and Festival Programmers Anxious Over Brexit (DownBeat)
* Live Review: 2018 Detroit Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* The Untold Stories of Paul McCartney (GQ)
* No Boundaries: The Many Sides of Steven Bernstein (SFJAZZ.org)
* Fifteen Questions Interview with Olivia Block (15questions.net)
* The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s (Pitchfork.com)
* 'I didn’t just fade off the planet.’ Reconnecting with ’70s funk queen Betty Davis (Washington Post)
* No more heroes: how music stopped meaning everything (Irish Times)
* Count Basie Orchestra Knows Pop Music (DownBeat)
* Jazz in the Display Case (Jazz Times)
* With 'Emanon,' legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter finds a way to marry comic books and jazz (Los Angeles Times)
* In Memoriam: Randy Weston (DownBeat)
* Cuong Vu Keeps it Close to Home for ‘Change In The Air’ (DownBeat)
* Former Bad Plus pianist still 'loves playing in the Midwest' despite rocketing career (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
* Wilco Guitarist Nels Cline Reclaims Mood Music In The City Of Brotherly Love (NPR)
* Berkeley's Legendary Fantasy Studios to Close Its Doors (KQED)
* Trumpet Colossus Kenny Dorham Towers Alongside the Jazz Gods (Austin Chronicle)
* The World On Six Strings (ArtForum.com)

Sunday Session: June 24, 2018

Eric Dolphy

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:

* Back in Swing: The Secret Subculture of Jazz Cafes (Japan Forward)
* The home of timeless music (CNet.com)
* George Clinton: ‘If people don’t like funk, it’s just the wrong time for them’ (The Guardian)
* Lorraine Gordon, 1922 — 2018 (EthanIverson.com)
* How Herbie Hancock Charted New Territory With ‘Empyrean Isles’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* This simple robot offers more cowbell (TechCrunch.com)
* Rutgers Acquires Count Basie Collection (Jazz Times)
* Gregg Allman's Son Devon Talks Carrying on the Family Legacy (Rolling Stone)
* Herbie Hancock Looks Back on Work with Indy Jazz Legends (Nuvo.net)
* Warner to Launch Elektra Music Group as Standalone Company (Variety)
* Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Named National Treasure (Pitchfork)
* 16 Years Late, $13B Short, but Optimistic: Where Growth Will Take the Music Biz (Redef.com)
* The Sound Of Silence: Female Composers At The Symphony (NPR)
* Eric Dolphy: Gone In The Air (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Systems Two Recording, A Prolific and Pivotal Studio in Brooklyn, Quietly Closes Its Doors (WBGO)
* Arturo Sandoval Features Pharrell, Grande and More on ‘Ultimate Duets’ (DownBeat)
* Clatskanie native Nate Wooley translated musical passion into thriving New York career (TDN.com)
* Revered Drummer Brian Blade Draws a Through-Line from Jazz to Gospel (KQED)
* Archaeologists Just Sifted Through the Woodstock '69 Festival Field (Billboard)
* Brötzmann Reflects on ‘Machine Gun’ as it Hits 50th Anniversary (DownBeat)
* Jazz Commentary: Greg Hopkins Big Band at Ryles — Whither Big Bands? (ArtsFuse.org)
* Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music (NPR)
* A Lot of Energy—Remembering Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) (New Music Box)
* Meet the Italian composer who conducts the world’s biggest all-robot orchestra (KXXV)
* The Axe Murderer Who Loved Jazz (WBUR)
* Can You Measure How Good a Song Is? (New Republic)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Giants of jazz in concert

Since this feature is still employing a non-topical, summer-vacation protocol, today's post is simply a sort of video jazz festival, for which yr. editor has selected full sets from six of the all-time giants of jazz, recorded at various locations around the world in the middle of the last century.

In order, the videos are:

* Louis Armstrong in 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium
* Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1965 in Montreal
* Count Basie Orchestra in 1972 in Copenhagen, Denmark
* Thelonious Monk Quartet in 1963 in Japan
* Charles Mingus Sextet in 1964 in Oslo, Norway
* Miles Davis Quintet in 1964 in Milan, Italy

The Armstrong video is at the top of this post; the others can be seen after the jump. Enjoy!

Jazz this week: "Basie's Birthday Bash," a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, and more

This week's schedule of live jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis avoids the late-summer doldrums with tributes to two jazz greats, plus a variety of shows in genres and styles ranging from pre-war swing to contemporary to free improvisation. Let's go to the highlights...

Thursday, August 20
Singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's, guitarist Dave Black and Friends will perform at Nathalie’s, and pianist Brad Ellebrecht and singer Tom Kernan play at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Friday, August 21
The Jazz St. Louis Big Band will present the first of two nights of "Basie’s Birthday Bash" at Jazz at the Bistro. For more about the music and legacy of the legendary bandleader and pianist Count Basie (pictured, top left), see this video post from a couple of weeks ago.

Also on Friday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Highway 61 Roadhouse; trumpeter Jim Manley takes the stage at Thurman Grill; and the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, August 22
Speaking of jazz legends, there will be a tribute to another jazz great - who also crossed paths with Basie more than once - as Robbie's House of Jazz presents Danita Mumphard (pictured, center left) and Trio Tres Bien interpreting songs made famous by Ella Fitzgerald at the Ozark Theatre.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Gypsy jazz band Franglais will be joined by guest saxophonist Dave Stone for a gig at Evangeline's; and the Sidney Street Shakers will be part of the musical menu for the one-year anniversary celebration at the Tick Tock Tavern.

Meanwhile, out in Hermann, MO, the inaugural Hermann Wine and Jazz Festival will feature sets from Dawn Weber, the Silverman Brothers, Ptah Williams, Maurice Carnes, and Tommy Halloran.

Sunday, August 23
Cornet Chop Suey plays a free concert of traditional jazz and swing at Carondelet Park; and
saxophonist Christopher McBride (pictured, lower left), who's been splitting time between Chicago and NYC, will return to offer up contemporary sounds at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
McBride's band for the late-afternoon performance will include trumpeter Quinten Coaxum and pianist Willem Delisfort as well as St. Louis' own Bob Deboo on bass and Montez Coleman on drums.

Monday, August 24
The eclectic acoustic band The 442s will play a free outdoor concert at the Public Media Commons, 3653 Olive St in Grand Center.

Tuesday, August 25
The STL Free Jazz Collective returns to the Tavern of Fine Arts, and singer Feyza Eren and band will perform as part of the "Notes From Home" series 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: Remembering "The Kid from Red Bank"

Longtime StLJN readers know that it doesn't take much prompting to get yr. humble editor to start posting Count Basie videos, and this week, we're using Jazz St. Louis' upcoming "Basie's Birthday Bash" as an excuse for getting down with the Count.

Scheduled for Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22 at Jazz at the Bistro, the event will commemorate the 111th anniversary of Basie's birth in Red Bank, NJ with the Jazz St. Louis Big Band performing his music.

As suggested above, this isn't the first time that Basie has been featured in this space. While the 2010 post on Basie, featuring a show recorded in 1965 for the BBC, unfortunately has been gutted by linkrot, last year's "Basics of Basie", posted prior to the Basie "ghost" band's appearance at the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, is still intact as of this writing. And since that post featured a half-dozen of Basie's most recognizable songs, today we'll concentrate mostly on some longer performances.

The first video up above captures a full set of the Basie band in 1962, performing what would have been a fairly standard collection of material for them at the time. The lineup still featured many of the players from the famed "New Testament" edition of the group that began in the 1950s, including saxophonists Marshal Royal, Frank Wess, Eric Dixon, Frank Foster, and Charlie Fowkes; trumpeters Al Aarons, Sonny Cohn, Thad Jones, and Snooky Young; trombonists Henry Coker, Quentin "Butter" Jackson, and Benny Powell, plus the rhythm section of guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Eddie Jones, and drummer Sonny Payne and the singer, Irene Reid.

After the jump, you can see Basie in 1968 on the TV program Jazz Casual, performing in a quartet with Green, Payne and bassist Norman Keenan.

That's followed by a complete set recorded in 1975 in Stockholm, at which point the band's featured soloists included trombonist Al Grey s and the one-two tenor saxophone punch of Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis and St. Louis native Jimmy Forrest.

Up next is another complete show, from 1981 in Paris, and then, a repost in one video of the entire 1965 performance for the BBC that was referenced above, recorded for the rather prosaically named Show of the Week.

Last but not least is a little gem from a 1959 TV appearance in which the Basie band backed up Lambert, Hendricks and Ross on their vocalese version of "Avenue C," which the trio had recorded on their 1957 album Sing A Song of Basie. While most of the band lays out during the portion of the song in which the singers recreate the sectional parts, the whole thing is worth hearing just for Basie's piano fills.

Bistro's summer season adds Russell Gunn, tribute to Count Basie, and more

Jazz St. Louis has announced additional bookings for this summer at Jazz at the Bistro, with a schedule that for the first time runs continuously through August, thereby eliminating the several-week-long hiatuses of years past.

In addition to return engagements for familiar local favorites such as Denise Thimes and Good 4 the Soul, the slate of newly announced shows also includes a visit home from trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn (pictured), who will perform on July 24 and 25 with a band co-led by drummer and fellow East St. Louisan Montez Coleman.

There also will be a two-night birthday tribute to Count Basie from Jazz St. Louis' own nascent big band; a weekend of adults-only performances pairing jazz acts with a local comedy and burlesque troupe; Bistro debuts for the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra and a trio featuring Coleman, saxophonist Dave Stone and bassist Bob DeBoo, and more.

Here's the summer schedule in its entirety, including previously announced shows from JazzU/Jazz St. Louis All-Stars, Terence Blanchard and Marcus Miller:

Wednesday, June 3: Route 66 Jazz Orchestra
Thursday, June 4: Andy Waggoner - "Pianoman: The Music of Billy Joel & Elton John"
Friday, June 5 & Saturday, June 6: JazzU & the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars w/ Stefon Harris
Wednesday, June 10 - Saturday, June 13: Terence Blanchard E-Collective
Tuesday, June 16 - Thursday, June 18: Marcus Miller
Friday, June 19 & Thursday, June 20: Bob DeBoo, Dave Stone, & Montez Coleman
Friday, June 26: "Babes in Brassland" w/ Randy Dandies & Funky Butt Brass Band (18+ show)
Saturday, June 27: "Tassels ‘n Tunes" w/ Randy Dandies & Tommy Halloran’s Guerrilla Swing (18+ show)

Friday, July 10 & Saturday, July 11: Denise Thimes
Saturday, July 18: Anita Jackson
Friday, July 24 & Saturday, July 25: Montez Coleman Group w/ Russell Gunn
Friday, July 31 & Saturday, August 1: Good 4 the Soul

Friday, August 7 & Saturday, August 8: "Saturday Night Fish Fry" featuring Big Mike Aguirre, Funky Butt Horns & Friends
Friday, August 21 & Saturday, August 22: "Basie’s Birthday Bash" w/ Jazz St. Louis Big Band
Friday, August 28 & Saturday, August 29: Javier Mendoza’s Estereotipo

Tickets for the newly announced shows will go on sale to current Jazz at the Bistro subscribers at 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday, April 29, and to the general public at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, May 6. Tickets can be purchased online at jazzstl.org or by calling the Jazz St. Louis box office at 314-571-6000. Box office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Summer 2014 jazz film festival, part 2

This week, we are once again in vacation mode, with a second installment of our summer jazz "film festival" offering a whole day's worth of online jazz videos for your viewing and listening enjoyment. In part one a couple of weeks ago, we served up a half-dozen documentary films about jazz greats.

In part two, the theme is simple: "editor's picks, in concert." And so, without further preamble, we present today's selections, starting up above with a full set by Miles Davis, recorded on November 16, 1971 in Turin, Italy with a band including Gary Bartz (alto, soprano saxes), Keith Jarrett (electric piano, organ), Michael Henderson (bass), Ndugu Leon Chancler (drums), and Don Alias and James "Mtume" Foreman (percussion).

After the jump, you'll find a solo concert by Duke Ellington, recorded for Australian television, date unknown; a performance by the Count Basie Orchestra, recorded in 1981 in Paris; and a complete performance by Herbie Hancock and an all-star band at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival.

The fifth video features a full concert by Ray Charles from 1975 in Madrid, and we wrap up with a complete show by Weather Report, recorded on September 28, 1978 in Offenbach, Germany and featuring Wayne Shorter (saxophones), Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Jaco Pastorius (bass) and Peter Erskine (drums).

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

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Chicago Underground Duo, Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing, and more

As the final weekend of Jazz Appreciation Month comes into view, there's still plenty to celebrate, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening in and around St. Louis over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival gets underway with a quartet performance led by pianist and ex-St. Louisan Reggie Thomas and his Michigan State University colleague, bassist Rodney Whitaker, at Jazz at the Bistro. Drummer Montez Coleman and saxophonist Willie Akins will round out the group.

Also tonight, the St. Louis Low Brass Collective presents a free showcase at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music.

Tomorrow, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival shifts to the Touhill Performing Arts Center, where Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will headline Friday's show, with the UMSL jazz band, directed by Jim Widner, as opening act. For more about this GSLJF, read this interview  that Widner did with Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

Also tomorrow night, the Chicago Underground Duo (pictured), featuring Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (drums, percussion), plays at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center; singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran and his band Guerrilla Swing make their debut in the first of two evenings at Jazz at the Bistro; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival concludes with the first of two performances this weekend by St. Louis' own Lara Teeter at the Gaslight Theater.

And if all that's not enough, elsewhere around town on Friday Samba Bom will perform a free concert at Ferguson Citywalk; singer Joe Mancuso leads a quartet at Nathalie's; trumpeter Randy Holmes' sextet pays tribute to the music of Duke Ellington at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to CJ Muggs in Webster Groves.

On Saturday, record collectors will want to make time to stop by "The Gigantic St. Louis DJ Album Sale for Charity" being held in midtown at 3137 Locust St. (east of Compton, one block west of The Fountain on Locust). The sale will feature more than 10,000 LPs, CDs and items of music memorabilia donated by local radio personalities past and present; for more details, see this post from last week.  

Also on Saturday afternoon, mouthpiece guru Mike Lomax will give a free workshop and presentation at Saxquest; and Miss Jubilee plays a matinee at Blues City Deli.

Update - 11:00 a.m. 4/25/14: Saxquest has posted on Facebook that the Mike Lomax mouthpiece workshop has been postponed due to illness.   

Then Saturday evening, the 2013 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival concludes with a concert by the Count Basie Orchestra, now directed by trumpeter Scotty Barnhart and featuring Reggie Thomas on piano, at the Touhill. For more about the Basie band and some video samples of performances of their classic repertoire, see this post from last Saturday.

And that's not the only big band show in town on Saturday, as that same evening bassist/trombonist Wayne Coniglio will lead a 35-piece orchestra with guest soloists including Cecil Cope and Elsie Parker in "The Swing of Hearts," a romance-themed program at Florissant Civic Center Theatre.

Also on Saturday night, violinist David McNair and his Gypsy jazz group Tzgane return to Robbie's House of Jazz; and the Ann Dueren Trio performs at Il Bel Lago.

On Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, with saxophonist Chip McNeill as guest soloist and the Genesis Jazz Project performing at intermission.

Also on Sunday, guitarists Steve Schenkel, John McClellan, Dave Black and Tom Byrne - aka the guitar faculty of Webster University - team up to perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham and singer Jeffery Hardin join forces for a concert at the Forest Park golf course clubhouse.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to  BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and on Tuesday, pianist David Parker and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw will perform as a duo at Tavern of Fine Arts.

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: The basics of Basie

With the Count Basie Orchestra set to close out the 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival with a concert on Saturday, April 26 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, our mission here today is a simple one: To share performances of a half-dozen of the most famous and enduring arrangements from the Basie band's repertoire.

Although the band's appearance here will mark 30 years to the day since Basie himself passed away, a series of musicians steeped in the Count's particular musical ethos has continued to direct them in steady touring and the occasional recording, keeping these songs alive for new generations of jazz fans.

Most recently, trumpeter Scott Barnhart, who's played with the Basie band for more than 20 years, took over the leadership last year, and the current pianist is none other than former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas, who now lives and teaches in Michigan. (While Thomas is back in St. Louis next week, he'll also perform on Thursday night at Jazz at the Bistro, co-leading a small group with bassist Rodney Whitaker to kick off the GSLJF.)

You can read a brief history of the Basie orchestra on their website, linked above, but for a more in-depth look at the man and the band, Rutgers University's digital exhibit "One More Once: A Centennial Celebration of the Life and Music of Count Basie." is a fine place to start.

As for our survey of some of Basie's best, the first video clip up above is from a 1943 feature film called Reveille with Beverly, and depicts Basie and the band performing "One O'Clock Jump," a propulsive exercise in blues riffing that served as their theme song in the early years. Although obviously pre-recorded and staged for purposes of the film, it's still a reasonable approximation of what they must have looked and sounded like back then.

Though the blues was central to the first edition of the Basie band, after World War II a "New Testament" version of the group emerged, powered by a more diverse selection of charts from arrangers such as Neal Hefti and Frank Foster, who also played tenor sax in the group and would serve as director for several years after Basie's death.

Hefti's "Li'l Darlin'," shown in the second video in a version recorded in 1960 in Milan, demonstrated that the Basie band could play a delicate ballad as well as swing the blues, and it remains one of the single most beloved pieces in their songbook. The trumpet solo is by Sonny Cohn.

Below that are two selections from a program that Basie recorded in 1965 for the BBC. "Jumpin' at the Woodside" is perhaps Basie's most famous uptempo flag-waver, and in this version, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis gets off a blistering tenor sax solo that almost brings down the house.

After that, it's "April in Paris," with a signature arrangement devised by organist Wild Bill Davis that features a fake ending - or sometimes, multiple fake endings - followed by the Count cuing the band to hit it "one more time," which you can see at the 2:37 mark in this particular clip.

The last two videos are from a show in 1981 at NYC's Carnegie Hall. Frank Foster's "Shiny Stockings" is another perennial favorite dating back to the 1950s version of the band, and is heard here at a somewhat brisker tempo than on the original studio version.

The final number, "Every Day I Have The Blues," takes the Basie orchestra back to its roots, backing singer Joe Williams in what many jazz fans consider to be the definitive version of this blues standard (which, incidentally, was written and originally recorded by St. Louis pianist Pinetop Sparks).

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 5

This week, it's the fifth and final installment of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, giving you a chance to check out live performance videos of the various touring jazz and creative music performers coming to St. Louis in the next few months. (If you missed the earlier posts, or want to take another look, here are part one, part two, part three and part four.)

Today's first clip up above features singer Catherine Russell, who will make her St. Louis debut as a headliner on Saturday, April 19 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Russell, the daughter of musicians Luis Russell (who played with Louis Armstrong) and Carline Ray, is known for her interpretations of pre-WWII jazz and blues material.

She is seen here performing "Romance In The Dark," a Lil Green song from 1940 later covered by artists such as Dinah Washington and Nina Simone and recorded by Russell on her album Strictly Romancin'. This video was shot in February, 2012 at Wellfleet Preservation Hall in Wellfleet, MA; Russell's accompanists are Matt Munisteri (guitar), Mark Shane (piano), and Lee Hudson (bass).

Down below, you can see a video featuring trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who will return to our town on Friday, April 25 to play at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. The Cuban-born brassman, a friend and protege of the late Dizzy Gillespie, is seen here in an extended jam on what perhaps is Diz' most famous composition, "A Night in Tunisia," recorded in February 2013 in Gleisdorf, Austria. (The video was shot by an audience member on a handheld camera, so the picture is a bit shaky at points, but the audio quality is good throughout.)

The third clip captures a recent performance by the Count Basie Orchestra, who will be the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival's featured attraction on Saturday, April 26 at the Touhill. Now under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, with Bobby Floyd on piano and veteran drummer Butch Miles back behind the kit, the Basie band can be seen here performing "The Deacon" in September, 2013 at the Blue Note in Nagoya, Japan.

Our fourth video is a fairly slick-looking promotional clip for saxophonist Joe Lovano's two-drummer ensemble Us Five, who will be making their St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, April 30 and continuing through Saturday, May 3 at Jazz at the Bistro. This version of "Blessings in May," from Lovano's 2013 album Cross Culture, was filmed live at the Mint in Los Angeles. (And in case you were wondering - yes, that's Esperanza Spalding on bass in this clip, and no, she's not scheduled to be part of the band's St. Louis gig.)

Below that, you can see singer Jane Monheit in a performance recorded in February 2013 at a venue called Bourbon Street in São Paulo, Brazil. The audience-shot video captures her up close and personal, singing the Carol Hall lyric for pianist Bill Evans' well-known composition "The Two Lonely People," which Monheit recorded on her album The Heart of The Matter. She'll be in St. Louis from Wednesday, May 14 through Saturday, May 17 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

In the sixth spot, there's an excerpt from a performance and workshop given by trumpeter Terell Stafford at Saxquest when he was here in St. Louis in November, 2012. Stafford will return to St. Louis to serve as guest soloist with Jazz St. Louis' JazzU student ensemble when they play their annual weekend at the Bistro on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24.

Last but not least, today's seventh and final video shows off the solo piano talents and storytelling of Joe Sample, who will perform with his trio from Wednesday, May 28 through Saturday, May 31 at Jazz at the Bistro. Recorded with some sort of hand-held device in April 2013 at the Fairfield Theatre in Fairfield, CA, the clip has a tiny picture but some very nice audio of Sample getting down and dirty on "Gee, Baby Ain't I Good To You" and "How You Gonna Keep Them Down On The Farm (After They've Seen Paree)."

Arturo Sandoval, Count Basie Orchestra to headline 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival

Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and the Count Basie Orchestra will be the headliners for the 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, which is scheduled for Thursday, April 24 through Saturday, April 26 at Jazz at the Bistro and the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

The GSLJF begins Thursday night at the Bistro with music from a quartet co-led by pianist and former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas and his fellow faculty member at Michigan State University, bassist Rodney Whitaker. Drummer Montez Coleman and saxophonist Willie Akins round out the group, which will play sets at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Sandoval, who last played in St. Louis in October 2012 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, will headline Friday's concert at 8:00 p.m. at the Touhill.

The Basie band (pictured), which last visited the St. Louis area in April 2010 for a gig at SIUE, will perform at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Touhill. They recently had a change in leadership and now are under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, a 20-year veteran of the band who nevertheless also is the first leader who never actually worked for the Count himself.

The UMSL Jazz Band, under the baton of bassist and GSLJF director Jim Widner, will open both shows at the Touhill. The GSLJF also includes a significant educational component, with high school and college jazz ensembles from around the area scheduled during the daytime hours for performances and coaching sessions at the Touhill and UMSL's student center.

Tickets for all performances go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this coming Monday, November 18. Tickets for the Thomas/Whitaker quartet are $33 via Metrotix or by calling the Jazz St. Louis box office at 314-289-4030. Tickets for Arturo Sandoval and the Count Basie Orchestra range in price from $20 to $40 each, and will be available through the Touhill website and box office or by calling 314-516-4949.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz Film Festival Summer 2013, part 2

This week, we continue our summer festival of jazz films with five documentaries looking at the lives of legendary musicians, plus a vintage TV special from the 1970s featuring performances from a stellar lineup of musicians still active then.

First up is Art Tatum: The Art of Jazz Piano, the only documentary portrait of the great pianist.

Down below, you'll find The Long Night of Lady Day, a look at the life of singer Billie Holiday originally aired as part of PBS' American Masters; and More Than You Know, a documentary about tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.

Below that, it's Music in the Key of Oscar, about pianist Oscar Peterson; and Joe Zawinul: A Musical Portrait, a BBC film about the Weather Report keyboardist.

The final film is an all-star jazz show first broadcast on CBS in 1976 as The Original Rompin' Stompin' Hot And Heavy, Cool And Groove All Star Jazz Show. Hosted by Dionne Warwick, the Emmy winning film was directed by Gary Keys and recorded at the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC.

Aired as part of the network's "Lively Arts for Young People" series, it traces the history of jazz from spirituals to fusion and jazz-rock, and includes performances from Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Max Roach, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and Joe Williams.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz film festival 2012

As we did last year around this time, this week we're taking a break from the usual routine of previewing upcoming shows and showcasing St. Louis musicians for a sort of summer vacation post, featuring a half-dozen full-length jazz films for your late summer viewing and listening pleasure.

Our first film up top is The Miles Davis Story, a British documentary from 2001 that uses interviews and rare footage to recount Davis' life, from his upbringing in East St. Louis to his last years as one of the most celebrated musicians in jazz.

Down below is The Charlie Parker Story, a BBC Wales documentary made in 2001 about the legendary alto saxophonist who helped invent bebop (and also gave Davis his first big break).

Next up is Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz, a 1997 German film about the legendary record label that focuses on its founder, Alfred Lion.

That's followed by Count Basie: Then As Now, Count's The King, a 2008 documentary that uses rare footage and interviews with former sidemen to pay tribute to the great big band leader and pianist.

We finish with two films from the 1980s that examine the well-worn stereotype of the tragic jazz musician. Let's Get Lost is a American documentary film from 1988 about the turbulent life and career of trumpeter Chet Baker, written and directed by Bruce Weber.

Today's final film, Round Midnight is a critically acclaimed drama from 1986 that features real-life tenor saxophone great Dexter Gordon in the role of fictional saxophonist Dale Turner. Directed by Bernard Tavernier, it's the story of "a musician slowly losing the battle with alcoholism, estranged from his family, and hanging on by a thread in the 1950's New York jazz world" before getting an offer to play in Paris and a chance at redemption.

Jazz this week: Count Basie Orchestra, John Patitucci, Jeff Beck, Curtis Roads & Bryan O'Reilly, Steve Tyrell, and more

It's going to be another busy weekend for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with shows on tap ranging from classic big-band swing to experimental electronics, along with several stops in between. Let's go to the highlights:

Starting tonight, bassist John Patitucci (pictured) leads his trio for two sets per night through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Considered one of the top bass players in jazz since the mid-1980s, Patitucci has played St. Louis before, most recently as part of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival in the fall of 2008, but the chance to see him up close and leading his own band undoubtedly will bring out legions of fellow bass players and music students, so advance reservations are suggested.

On Thursday, guitarist Jeff Beck brings his current tour to the Fox Theatre. While I don't care for some of the material Beck chooses to do, and wish he'd spar a bit more with his band instead of just using them as a backdrop, there's no denying the man's skills. Since it's the first time he's been to St. Louis is something like 15 years, expect a packed house.

On Friday, there are three noteworthy free concerts featuring St. Louis-based musicians. Over at Washington University, bassist Tom Kennedy and guitarist William Lenihan will co-lead a group in a free performance at the Danforth Center. Meanwhile, that same evening keyboardist Jim Hegarty, bassist Willem von Hombracht and drummer Kyle Honeycutt will give a free performance at Three Sinks Gallery in Webster Groves in conjunction with the opening of a show of paintings by Firmin Puricelli. Also on Friday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran, bassist Bob Deboo and drummer Steve Davis will play a free show at the Broadway Bean coffeehouse in the Carondelet neighborhood.

On Saturday morning, former St. Louisan Bob Koester, proprietor of Chicago's Delmark Records label and Jazz Record Mart, will speak about Delmark's history at the Sheldon Art Galleries. For more on Koester, see this post.

Then on Saturday evening, the Count Basie Orchestra, which features former East St. Louisan Tony Suggs on piano, will perform at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom for the university's "Arts & Issues" series. Though the Basie band certainly needs no extended introduction here, StLJN had some choice 1960s video footage of them a post last Saturday, which serves as a pretty good primer on their sound and style.

Also on Saturday, singer Steve Tyrell will appear at the Sheldon Concert Hall in a show that's been sold out for at least a couple of weeks now. (If you're really desperate to get a ticket, I suppose you could go to the Sheldon and hope someone cancels and turns their tix back in to the box office. Otherwise, given the Sheldon's propensity for re-booking acts that do well there, you can take solace in knowing that it likely won't be long until Tyrell is back again.)

For something completely different on Saturday, check out electronic composer Curtis Roads and multi-media artist and musician Brian O'Reilly, who will perform "Flicker Tone Pulse" at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park's Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts.

Presented by New Music Circle, the performance will consist of "a set of new electronic compositions with visual accompaniment. These works explore a multiscale approach to composition, and are designed to be spatialized live by the composer, with simultaneous video projection on multiple screens." Roads is considered a leading practitioner of granular synthesis, and you can find out more about him and his techniques in a video profile done a couple of years ago for a Dell Computers promotion, available in three parts here, here and here.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The legacy of Count Basie

With the Count Basie Orchestra set to appear in the St. Louis area next weekend, this seems like the perfect opportunity to present some vintage video of Basie and his band. The present-day Basie Orchestra, currently under the direction of trombonist Bill Hughes and featuring St. Louis native Tony Suggs on piano, will play Saturday, May 1 at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom for the University's "Arts And Issues" series.

The band still plays a number of the charts you'll see performed in today's videos, which are from a broadcast done for the BBC back in 1965 (broken into five parts so as not to exceed the maximum length allowed by YouTube).

It's interesting to consider that at the time this was shot, the British Invasion was the biggest thing in popular music here in the U.S., and big band music already was considered somewhat old-fashioned. Yet the audience of Brits watching the performance obviously dig Basie and his crew, applauding enthusiastically for every number and cheering long and loud for moments like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' tenor sax feature on "Jumpin' At The Woodside" and Rufus "Speedy" Jones' thunderous drum solo on "Whirly Bird." Forty-five years later, the performance still impresses, aided by some good sound and crisp camerawork and direction.

The Basie band of this era was stocked to the proverbial gills with choice soloists including Davis and fellow saxophonists Eric Dixon and Marshall Royal, trombonist Al Grey and trumpeter Al Aarons, and armed with a thick book of tunes that ranged all the way from the riff-based blues of their early Kansas City days to the modern arrangements crafted for them in 1950s and 1960s by Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones, Frank Foster and others. The Count himself is in fine form here, too, contributing several tasteful piano solos and directing the orchestra with characteristic aplomb.

Here's a clip-by-clip list of the featured songs:
Part 1: "All of Me," "Flight of the Foo Birds" and "The Midnight Sun Never Sets"
Part 2: "Blues for Eileen" and "Jumpin' At The Woodside"
Part 3: "I Need to Be Be'd With" and "April In Paris"
Part 4: "Whirly Bird"
Part 5: "Li'l Darlin'" and "One O'Clock Jump"

Though Count Basie passed away in 1984, the band has continued in more-or-less uninterrupted fashion under a succession of musical directors, keeping these classic arrangements alive for new generations and also making new recordings, the most recent of which was 2009's Swinging, Singing, Playing on the Mack Avenue label.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Getting down for the Count

This week, we're taking a break from coming attractions and showing a bit of history instead - specifically, two videos of Count Basie that both feature St. Louis natives as soloists.

Up top, it's Clark Terry on trumpet with a Basie small group in 1950 or thereabouts, working out on "One O'Clock Jump". Wardell Gray is on tenor sax and Buddy DeFranco is the clarinetist. Down below, the 1977 edition of the Basie band is doing "The Heat's On" at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, with a tenor sax solo by Jimmy Forrest. Forrest is perhaps best known for writing the bump-and-grind standard "Night Train" but he, along with Terry, also is one of a select group of musicians to have worked with both Basie and Duke Ellington.