StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Ken Burns' Jazz

This week, celebrate the nation's birthday with a screening of Jazz, the ten-part history of the music directed by famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and originally aired on PBS back in 2001.

Although the series was acclaimed by some as the most comprehensive filmed treatment of jazz history to date, many fans and critics also found plenty to criticize. Many of the negative comments focused on the series' heavy emphasis on older styles, the short shrift given to developments after 1960 - essentially all crammed into the final episode - and the overuse of certain interview subjects as experts, particularly Wynton Marsalis, whose disdain for free jazz, fusion, and other nontraditional styles already was well-known by the time the series was made.

The Wikipedia page for Jazz summarizes a few of the opinions, both pro and con, and you can read a more detailed critique of the series in the article "How Ken Burns Murdered Jazz," by Jeffrey St. Clair, excerpted from his book Serpents in the Garden and published in the magazine Counterpunch.

Though it certainly has a considerable number of flaws and omissions, yr. humble editor believes Jazz the series still is worth watching, as there's a lot of interesting material about the first 50 years of jazz and many of the most important musicians who made that history. Just keep in mind that, hyperbole and authoritative trappings notwithstanding, this is just one person's view of the subject. Perhaps another filmmaker eventually will take up the challenge to do a better job of telling the story of jazz in the 1960s and beyond.

In the meantime, the first episode, "Gumbo," is embedded up above, and after the jump, you can see the other nine, which are titled (in order) "The Gift," "Our Language," "The True Welcome," "Swing: Pure Pleasure," "Swing: The Velocity of Pleasure" (in three parts), "Dedicated to Chaos" (in two parts, and unfortunately missing its middle section), "Risk" (in three parts), "The Adventure" (in two parts), and "A Masterpiece By Midnight."

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Miles Davis, the electric years

In recent weeks, this Saturday video feature has been focusing almost exclusively on previewing musicians who are coming to St. Louis in the near future. Today, let's change pace - it's been at least six months since we've featured any Miles Davis video here, and in that time, some interesting new things featuring the trumpeter have come online. We've also dug up a couple of older clips from Miles' electric period that have not been seen here before.

First up is a version of "Bitches Brew" recorded in 1969 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The album of the same name wouldn't be released until the following year, so the lucky Danes in the audience were getting an early look and listen to part of what would become one of Miles' best-known and most influential recordings.

For the next clip down below, we fast-forward to 1973, and the searching quality of the 1969 performance has given way to a more aggressive, almost atonal funk in an excerpt from a concert in Berlin titled "Live Electric & Brutal."

The third video is from a mid-1980s VH1 program called New Visions, and features Davis talking, sketching, showing off his artwork and providing intros for some music videos.

Batting cleanup is a rare clip showing Davis and blues guitarist and singer B.B. King on stage together in 1973, with Miles noodling for a couple minutes over some ballad changes. (Anyone recognize the tune?) While this is noteworthy more for its novelty value than for any musical virtues, one can't help but wonder what interesting variations on the blues might have been produced if B.B. and Miles had decided to collaborate at greater length.

UPDATE, 12:30 a.m., 12/9/09: StLJN reader "donmalcholm" identifies the tune in the Miles/B.B. video as "Guess Who," noting that it's "a Jesse Belvin number that B.B. King frequently includes in his set." Thanks!

(For more on all things Miles, check out Jeff Hyatt's fine site Miles Davis Online.)

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you haven't checked StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds since the start of the new year, you've missed music videos featuring Gil Scott-Heron, the Allman Brothers Band, Ellery Eskelin, McCoy Tyner and Stephane Grappelli, Al Green, Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, Weather Report, Memphis Slim, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Earth Wind and Fire, Carla Bley with Charlie Haden and the New Liberation Orchestra, the Neville Brothers, Santana, Captain Beefheart, Archie Shepp, and Ray Charles.

But don't dismay, they're all still there waiting for you, along with a new post every day showcasing a different video clip from genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock and experimental. To see for yourself, point your browser to http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Some historic sounds from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

With Mardi Gras coming relatively early this year, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band set to perform in the St. Louis area in a couple of weeks, I thought it might be fun to devote this week's video post to some traditional New Orleans sounds. Unfortunately, there seems to be no video footage of the current PHJB readily available online, so instead, let's go back in time to look at some vintage clips of an earlier edition of the group.

These videos of "Basin Street Blues" (above) and "Victory Walk" (below) date from 1971, and feature the then-current lineup of the PHJB performing in Copenhagen, Denmark. That's Albert Burbank playing clarinet and singing on "Basin Street Blues"; other band members seen in these clips include Kid Thomas on trumpet, Emanuel Paul on tenor sax, Louis Nelson on trombone and Manuel Sayles on banjo. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Another way to save YouTube videos

There's lots of great jazz video footage available on YouTube, Daily Motion and other online video sharing services, but those sites don't make it easy to save copies of the videos you view on your own hard drive. Back in March, StLJN covered one way to save those videos, and while the site mentioned in that post, SaveYouTube.com, now is known as Downloader9, it still seems to perform the same video-saving functions in pretty much the same way.

However, given the ongoing battle between the online video services (who want you to watch videos on their sites, so as to increase their page views) and would-be video savers, it's always good to have alternative methods available. Which brings us to TubeSock, a piece of shareware that gives you another way to sock away those clips. I haven't tried the fully enabled version, which costs $15, but the demo, which allows you to save 30 seconds of a given video, seems promising. You can read more about TubeSock and/or download a copy here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

What's been happening over the last two weeks at StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds?

Music videos featuring Marvin Gaye, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Charles Lloyd, Ginger Baker's Air Force, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, King Curtis, Booker T and the MGs, Cameo, Weather Report, BB King, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Frank Zappa, and Egberto Gismonti, Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden. See them all, and many more, at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Stanley Jordan plays "Eleanor Rigby" plus the Airmen of Note's "No, I Don't Fly Planes"

Once again, this week's videos are devoted to previews of upcoming jazz performances in St. Louis. One clip features a big band, the other a guitarist who often manages to sound like an entire band all by himself.

The guitarist is Stanley Jordan, whose solo playing involves a two-handed tapping technique similar to, but developed independently of, the method used to play the Chapman Stick. Here, Jordan is doing his version of the Beatles' tune "Eleanor Rigby," and he'll be in St. Louis to perform at Finale Music and Dining on Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19.

The big band is the Airmen of Note, the official jazz band of the U.S. Air Force, who will be in town to do a free concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Wednesday, October 17. In this clip from a performance on August 29, 2007 at the Air Force Memorial in Washington DC, they're playing an original chart called "No, I Don't Fly Planes," a title that sounds like something that must have come from some band member's real-life experience.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

Are the heat and humidity of the St. Louis summer getting you down? Beat those dog days of August - or at least distract yourself for a few minutes - with some cool music videos from StLJN's sibling site, Heliocentric Worlds.

Over the past couple of weeks, the site has featured the sounds and sights of David Murray, John Abercrombie, The O'Jays, Sun Ra, Elvis Presley, Heatwave, Bass Desires, Graham Central Station, The Fugs, The Crusaders, Red Holloway, John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy, Stevie Wonder, Jackie McLean, Koko Taylor with Little Walter, David "Fathead" Newman, and Deodato.

There's a new video posted every day, encompassing genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental and more. To see it all, click here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If it's Friday, that means it's time once again for another fortnightly plug for StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, which features music videos from a variety of genres, including jazz, blues, soul, classic rock, prog rock, experimental and more.

Over the last couple of weeks, the site has showcased clips from Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Tower of Power, Medeski Martin and Wood, Pharoah Sanders, Chico Hamilton, Kool and the Gang, Mahvishnu Orcestra, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters 2005, Traffic, Earth Wind and Fire, Howlin' Wolf and Rare Earth. See them all, plus many more, when you visit Heliocentric Worlds.

(Edited 7/21/07 to fix a typo.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Peter White - "Promenade", and Russell Malone - "Mugshot"

This week's videos feature two guitarists who will be performing in St. Louis next weekend. First up is Peter White, who will take the stage at the Pageant on Friday, July 20 as part of the Jazz Attack smooth jazz show, also featuring trumpeter Rick Braun, saxophonist Richard Elliot and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler. He's seen here doing his composition "Promenade" in a clip from 2004.

Down below is a video from Russell Malone, who returns to Jazz at the Bistro on Friday, July 20 and Saturday, July 21 to celebrate the release of his new CD Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 2 on the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label. In this clip, Malone is performing "Mugshot", recorded live at the NYC club Smoke in 2004.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

Posting here will be light for another day or so, due to the holiday and assorted other concerns, but if you're looking for a few minutes of music-related diversion, please visit StLJN's sibling site, the music video blog Heliocentric Worlds.

There you'll find video clips featuring Tony Williams' All-Star Quintet, the Average White Band, Al Kooper, the J Geils Band, Otis Redding, Roy Ayers, the Allman Brothers Band, Mikel Rouse, Joe Henderson, Parliament/Funkadelic, Traffic, Jack DeJohnette, Deodato, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jeff Beck with Jan Hammer & Steve Lukather, Diamanda Galas, Bassdrumbone, and J.J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt and Howard McGhee, plus many more.

See them all, plus dozens more videos of jazz, blues, soul, classic rock, prog rock and assorted other cool stuff, at Heliocentric Worlds.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

Looking for more music videos that go beyond the usual pop/alt-rock/hip-hop stuff you can see just about anywhere?

Then get yourself on over to StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where recent posts have featured Bassdrumbone (Gerry Hemingway, Ray Anderson and Mark Helias), Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters circa 1974, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Miles, David S Ware, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, Pete Cosey's Children of Agharta, Little Milton, Oscar Peterson, The Band with the Staple Singers, Roswell Rudd with Badma and Tuvsho, The Foundations, and Erroll Garner.

There's also six months' worth of equally eclectic archives, featuring jazz, blues, soul, classic rock, prog rock, and more, and you don't need a spaceship with FTL drive to visit. You can journey to Heliocentric Worlds - and yes, it's named after the Sun Ra albums - just by clicking here.

A video preview of this year's St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival

As promised, here are some videos featuring some of the musicians who will be performing at this year's St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which takes place from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday at Shaw Park in Clayton.

Up top, you'll find a clip of George Benson doing his version of what has become one of his signature songs, "On Broadway". This performance is from a 1998 appearance on the UK television program Later.

Down below is a "vintage" clip of Ramsey Lewis performing one of his first big hits, a very brief version of the McCoys' pop tune "Hang On Sloopy," from some time in the mid-1960s on the TV show Hullabaloo. If you can ignore (or be amused by) the goofy antics of the go-go dancers, this is a pretty good example of the hard-driving, blues- and gospel-influenced style that launched Lewis' career.

Below that is a clip featuring percussionst Poncho Sanchez, in some sort of all-star session that also involved the late vocalist Celia Cruz and the great Tito Puente on timbales, performing "Quimbara". Sanchez is actually third-billed on this clip, but given that Puente and Cruz are two of the all-time greats of salsa music, one can surmise that he probably didn't mind too much.

As for the local musicians performing at the Festival, thanks to the producers of Jazz @ Cookie's, there are complete half-hour programs online featuring both singer Jeanne Trevor and Latin-jazz group SL Son.

Each program is divided into three parts, so embedding all those windows might prove overly cumbersome. Instead, you can see the three parts of Jeanne Trevor's Jazz @ Cookie's episode here, here and here, and you'll find the three parts of SL Son's episode here, here and here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

As attentive regular readers doubtless already know, StLJN has a sibling site called Heliocentric Worlds, which exists basically as a place to post online music videos I've found that are worth sharing but may not fit into the format here. There's a different clip posted every day, with plenty of jazz of various styles, but also blues, soul, funk, prog rock, classic rock, and even occasional experimental/avant garde stuff.

Recent posts have featured clips of John Cage, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Tower of Power, Elvin Jones, Art Tatum, Jimmy Smith, Paul Butterfield, Wayne Shorter, J Geils Band, Keith Jarrett, Return To Forever, Lou Rawls, Cab Calloway with the Nicholas Brothers, Average White Band, Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra, Otis Redding, Blind Faith,the Staple Singers, and a cover of Hendrix' "Manic Depression" by Vernon Reid, Jack Bruce and Terry Bozzio.

To see all these, plus many more, please visit Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Happy birthday, Miles Davis

Since Miles Davis' birthday falls on a Saturday this year, it seemed like a good idea to combine our 2007 commemoration of the trumpeter's birth with StLJN's weekly Saturday video feature.

A couple of these clips have been displayed here before, but most are new to this space. The performances span more than 30 years, from the late 1950s to 1991, and you'll see Miles in both acoustic and electric formats (as well as some interview footage). Where it was available, I've noted the personnel and recording dates below the clips' respective embedded windows.

So, without further ado, and with apologies to those still using a dialup connection, here's a multi-part, video birthday tribute to the St. Louis area's most famous jazz musician of all, born on this day in 1926...

"So What"


"My Funny Valentine"


Recorded October 11, 1964 in Milano, Italy, featuring Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums).

"I Fall In Love Too Easily"


Recorded 1969, featuring Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (saxophone), Chick Corea (piano), Dave Holland (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums)

"Ife," Parts 1-3






Live in Vienna


Recorded November 3, 1973, featuring Davis (trumpet), Dave Liebman (saxophones), Reggie Lucas (guitar), Pete Cosey (guitar), Michael Henderson (bass), Al Foster (drums) and Mtume (percussion).

"Tutu"


"It's About That Time"


Recorded 1991 in Paris and credited to "Miles Davis and Friends," featuring Davis (trumpet), Kenny Garrett (saxophone), Bill Evans (saxophone), Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Herbie Hancock (keyboards), Chick Corea (keyboards), Al Foster (drums), Foley (bass) and others.

1982 interview on NBC's "Today Show"

StLJN Saturday at the Movies:The Pharoah Sanders Quartet featuring John Hicks,plus Dave Brubeck live in 2006

This week's videos put the spotlight on two legendary jazz pianists. First up is a 1988 clip of the Pharoah Sanders Quartet performing in Koeln, Germany, featuring the late, great former St. Louisan John Hicks on piano. There's a brief statement of the head, and then Hicks takes off with a blistering solo, which he makes look as easy as a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. Along with Hicks and Sanders, you can see the great Idris Muhammad on drums, as well as a few shots of the bass player, who I didn't recognize. Anyone know who it is? The video is more than 20 minutes long, so it may take a while to download, but it's worth it.

The second clip features Dave Brubeck, who will be coming to St. Louis in a couple of weeks to do a benefit performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall. There are several good vintage clips of Brubeck floating around the net, but this one is very recent, featuring his current quartet in a 2006 performance of "Someday My Prince Will Come" at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Looks like it may have been shot from the balcony of the hall, but it should provide some idea of what to expect from Brubeck's upcoming show here.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you've got a few spare minutes, here's a way to amuse your eyes and ears: visit StLJN's sibling site, the music video blog Heliocentric Worlds.

There, you'll find recent posts including music videos from the likes of Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Barry Altschul, Ray Charles, Gary Lucas' Gods and Monsters with Roswell Rudd, Miles Davis, Sly and the Family Stone, Pat Martino and John Scofield, Jack Bruce and Dick Heckstall-Smith, Fly, the Cinematic Orchestra featuring Fontella Bass, Cecil Taylor, Glenn Branca, Count Basie, Jaco Pastorius with the Gil Evans Orchestra, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, John McLaughlin, Bill Evans, Santana, Thelonious Monk, and more.

There's a new music video posted every day, drawing from a variety of genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, experiemental, classic rock and prog rock. Check 'em all out by visiting Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you haven't checked in lately at StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, you've missed a bunch of intriguing online music videos, including clips featuring Johnny "Guitar" Watson; Phil Woods; Art Tatum; Herbie Hancock; Freddie King; the Bar-Kays; Stan Getz and Mary Lou Williams; National Health; Oliver Nelson, Lee Konitz and Art Farmer; Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (with Bruce Springsteen); Tony Williams; Hermeto Pascoal; Horace Silver; Ella Fitzgerald and Nat "King" Cole; Material; Bill Bruford's Earthworks; War; Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition; and Elvin Jones, plus the documentary film Sound featuring John Cage and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Fortunately, all these videos and more are still available for your viewing and listening pleasure, just by visiting Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com.

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

If you can't get enough o' that YouTube online-music-video goodness, be sure to check out StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds. There's a new music video every day, from a variety of genres including jazz, blues, funk, soul, classic rock, prog rock and experimental.

Recent videos have included clips of Wilson Pickett, Billie Holiday, the Fireworks Ensemble performing Zappa's "G-Spot Tornado," Santana, Thelonious Monk, Jaco Pastorius with the Gil Evans Orchestra, Gentle Giant, Blood Sweat & Tears, Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars, Jon Hendricks, Miles Davis, Brian Auger and the Trinity, Dexter Gordon, Axiom featuring Bootsy Collins, Kool & the Gang, and John Lurie and Nana Vasconcelos, plus a six-part BBC documentary on Harry Partch. To see all this, plus much more, click on over and visit Heliocentric Worlds at http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.