So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Lauren Parks, president of the House of Miles in East St. Louis, was interviewed for a Belleville News Democrat article about local culture in ESL.

* Asleep at the Wheel's concert last Friday at the Fox Theatre was reviewed by Dan Durchholz for the Post-Dispatch. The Post also published a gallery of photos from the gig.

* Also in the Post-Dispatch, Kevin Johnson reports on bassist Jahmal Nichols scoring a documentary that aired on PBS. There's also a brief video accompanying the story.

* Still in the Post, Kevin Johnson interviewed singer Robert Nelson about this Saturday's Juneteenth show at Blue Strawberry, and there's a video with that story, too.

* The Riverfront Times reports that the Way Out Club, a fixture of south city nightlife and alternative music for 27 years, will close permanently next month.

* A 1976 interview of saxophonist Julius Hemphill on the public radio program "Fresh Air" was resurfaced this week by pianist Ethan Iverson, who offered his commentary on the talk via Twitter.

* Marcus Baylor and Jean Baylor of the Baylor Project (pictured) were the featured guests this week on radio station WBGO's online video talk show "The Pulse."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Ulysses Owens, Jr

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

* The Kranzberg Arts Foundation this week announced that they'll be taking applications for their 2021-22 artist-in-residency program starting Tuesday, June 15. The program is open to all individual artists - visual arts, writers, filmmakers, etc - as well as musicians. The deadline to apply is August 1; for more information or to submit an application, go to https://www.kranzbergartsfoundation.org/residencies/.

* The Sheldon's Peter Palermo discusses the hall's immediate post-pandemic plans and next season in an interview with the St. Louis American's Danielle Brown..

* Drummer and educator Henry Ettman will be teaching a jazz course online next month via the Washington University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. "New Sounds, New Artists, New Scenes: Jazz in the 21st Century" will explore "new and evolving artists and groups, changing jazz styles from mainstream to avant-garde, and the impact of external forces such as technology, political/cultural turbulence and the pandemic." The course will meet (online) from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Wednesdays starting July 7, continuing through July 28. To register, go to https://osher.wustl.edu/course-registration-2/ or call (314) 935-4237.

* The connections between Miles Davis' late-period electric music and "punk jazz" are elucidated in a review of the trumpeter's album Dark Magus newly published on the swesite PunkNews.org.

* Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson was interviewed by Daniel Durchholz for the Post-Dispatch in advance of the band's gig tonight at the Fox Theatre.

* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio is introducing another weekly webcast, this one starring drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. in "a journey through all things #DRUMS with various guest drummers, musicians, artists, and music industry professionals." The program will air live at 5:00 p.m. Wednesdays on the company's Facebook page, starting next week with drummer Lewis Nash as the featured guest/interviewee.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist Kendrick Smith was interviewed by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson, talking about this Saturday's jazz fundraiser show at the Grandel Theatre's "Open Air" tent. There's also a short video accompanying the article.

* Also from Kevin Johnson in the Post, pianist and singer John McDaniel talks up his return engagement tomorrow night at Blue Strawberry.

* Stories, the forthcoming album from bassist Tom Kennedy (pictured), is previewed in an article in Bass magazine. The album is set for release by Autumn Hill Records on Friday, May 21.

* The Sheldon Art Galleries will open a new exhibit of musical instruments created by local students on Friday, April 30 in the AT&T Children's Gallery.

* An interview with drummer Dave Weckl by Daniel Durchholz in the Post-Dispatch discusses Weckl's new live album, his recent move back to the St. Louis area, and more.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist Ben Reece this week released a new recording with his Unity Quartet.

Titled Hard Times, the album (pictured) features 12 original compositions performed by Reece and Rob Nugent on saxophones, Cody Henry on sousaphone and Ron Sikes on drums. It was recorded "live in the studio" at Midtown Sound House in St. Louis, with Dan Merhmann engineering.

Hard Times is available now via Reece's Bandcamp page and the usual outlets for digital music.

* British drummer Moses Boyd offered his in-depth take Miles Davis’ mid-Sixties album Nefertiti on the latest episode of the web series "Classic Album Sundays."

* By way of commemorating the 14th anniversary of the demise of Mississippi Nights, the Post-Dispatch republished Daniel Durchholz's look back at the history of the eclectic riverfront music venue.

* The first development of artists' housing from the St. Louis Art Place Initiative, located in the Gravois Park neighborhood on the south side, is now accepting applications. The program is intended to build "wealth and equity through homeownership for low to moderate-income artists of all disciplines." Find out more at http://stlartplace.org/.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Etienne Charles of the SFJAZZ Collective talked with the Post-Dispatch's Daniel Durchholz about the group's latest project, a re-imagining of music by Miles Davis and Sly Stone.

The Collective was scheduled to perform here in St. Louis tomorrow night at The Sheldon, but they've cancelled that show and the remainder of their spring tour due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

* Guitarist Dave Black was the subject of a short feature story in St. Louis magazine.

* This weekend's Carol Moore Memorial Jazz Festival at Mineral Area College, featuring trombonist Michael Dease (pictured), was previewed in a feature story in the Park Hills Daily Journal.

* Jazz St. Louis has published on their website a Q&A with keyboardist Dave Grelle. Grelle's band Playadors performs at the venue tonight and tomorrow night.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLToday.com went into their archives to republish photos from when W.C. Handy, composer of "St. Louis Blues," came back to St. Louis for a visit in 1932.

* The venue formerly known as The Stage at KDHX will get a makeover and a new name, Bennie's Blues Room, as it becomes the new headquarters for the St. Louis Blues Society. Focusing on the history of St. Louis blues, the venue (named in honor of the late guitarist and singer Bennie Smith) will present live music, educational events, and more, as detailed in a story by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* The Regional Arts Commission this week unveiled a five-year plan that would have them working more closely with local arts groups to set priorities and foster collaborations as well as providing funding. For details, see this story by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced four new inductees into its Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, including a former St. Louisan.

That would be saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer (pictured) who, while born in Carbondale, IL, grew up in St. Louis and did his first professional work as a musician here. He's joined in the class of 2019 by saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, singer Dinah Washington, and drummer Chick Webb.

* The 2019 edition of Fair U City, the community carnival held during the first weekend in June in Heman Park alongside the U City Jazz Festival, has been cancelled due to a dispute over financial and other matters between city government and the University City Community Foundation, the not-for-profit group that organizes the fair.

Responding to the cancellation announcement in a Facebook post, U City Jazz Fest organizer Michael Silverman said he's now looking for an alternate location to stage the event on Saturday, June 8. Watch this space for more as this story develops...

* Jazz St. Louis will team up this fall with three other local arts organizations for a production of "Such Sweet Thunder," an "avant-garde ballet" created by French choreographer Maurice Béjart in 1960 using the music from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's 1957 suite of the same name.

JSL will supply the sounds, Big Muddy Dance Company will create the choreography, and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will "weave the pieces together with Shakespearean scenes and sonnets." The fourth partner, Nine Network, will host three free performances of the work on October 3, 4 and 5 at its Public Media Commons.

* Singer Alicia Olatuja was interviewed about her new album Intiution on the podcast Doing Jazz with Lorens Chuno.

* St. Louis writer (and Jazz Journalists Association 2019 "Jazz Hero") Terry Perkins got a byline in the May issue of DownBeat with a feature story about singer Cyrille Aimée.

* House of Miles East St. Louis, the organization that has restored Miles Davis' childhood home as a museum and educational facility, was profiled for the website TheSTL.com by writer Daniel Durchholz.

* The final performance of the 2019 Vision Festival, set for June 9-16 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY, will be a tribute to the late saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, led by his friend and collaborator, pianist D.D. Jackson, and featuring U City native and drummer Ronnie Burrage, saxophonists James Carter and Darius Jones, bassist William Parker, and percussionist Juma Sultan.

* The story of the legal battle between seemingly-defunct music festival LouFest and their former sound and lighting contractors Logic Systems has been updated by St. Louis writer and musician Kevin Mitchell in a post on Medium.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Marcus Baylor (pictured) and The Baylor Project are featured on the latest episode of the web video series "Black Friday Live - Celebrity Edition."

* Multi-instrumentalist, DJ and composer Lamar Harris will team up with Grammy Award winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard and Opera Theatre of St. Louis to present "The Lab," a workshop for "high school musicians, producers, deejays and spoken word artists to develop and collaborate with other composers." Applications are due by February 15 for the six-session program, which will run from Sunday, March 17 through Sunday, May 19.

* The traveling exhibition “Guitar: The Instrument That Rocked the World”, now on display at the St. Louis Science Center through April 14, is the subject of a Post-Dispatch story by Dan Durchholz.

* The fate of the remains of the Goldenrod Showboat, once the site of jazz and ragtime performances on the St. Louis riverfront, is the subject of a story by Paul Schankman for HEC-TV.

* Via Marc Myers' Jazzwax blog, video has surfaced on YouTube of a recently rediscovered interview with Miles Davis from 1984 that finds the trumpeter being quizzed by a couple of local talk-show hosts in Baltimore who apparently had no idea who he was, with results that are both cringe-worthy and kind of funny (as long as you weren't one of the participants). See part one here, and part two here.

* The Sundance Film Festival's screenings of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool starting on Sunday, January 27 are previewed by the website what (not) to doc.

* Saxophonist Tim Cunningham was a guest Wednesday morning on KTVI-Fox 2's morning newscast, promoting his show last night at The Laugh Lounge STL and other upcoming performances.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Michael Castro, the well-known St. Louis poet who was a member of the STL Free Jazz Collective and had a long history of collaborating with jazz and creative musicians, died last Sunday, December 23, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday and St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis American.

Castro (pictured second from right, with the Collective) recently had completed a term as St. Louis' first-ever poet laureate. He was 73 years old and had battled colon cancer for some time. Funeral arrangements are pending.

* Pianist and singer Harry Connick Jr's show last Thursday at the Stifel Theatre was reviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Dan Durchholz. The Post's website STLtoday also published online an "iParty" gallery of photos of concert-goers.

* Vocal group Take 6's performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, also last Thursday, was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn, and also was the subject of an STLtoday "iParty" gallery.

* Saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who died in October, was the subject of a year-end remembrance in the Detroit Metro Times. Bluiett also was mentioned in NPR Music's tribute to musicians who died in 2018.

* The story behind "Blue Xmas," trumpeter Miles Davis' one-off holiday collaboration with the late singer, pianist, and songwriter Bob Dorough, was recounted in an article in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. (pictured) talked about his holiday show next Thursday at the Stifel Theatre for a Post-Dispatch story by Dan Durchholz.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo came in at number eight on NPR's list of "Best New Artists of 2018."

* Singer Storm Large's "Holiday Ordeal" show this past Tuesday at the Sun Theatre was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio's Don Marsh about his musical direction for Metro Theater Company’s “Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure,” which runs through December 30 at the Grandel Theatre.

* St. Louis Symphony oboist Callie Banham's new Christmas album, which includes musical contributions from pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Montez Coleman, is the subject of a feature story by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was part of a panel with writer Nate Chinen and musicians Terence Blanchard and Camila Meza discussing the evolution of jazz at the BRIC JazzFest 2018 last month in Brooklyn, NY. You can see the entire discussion on video here.

* A new box set compiling the Art Ensemble of Chicago's recordings for ECM also includes four of trumpeter and St. Louis native Lester Bowie's albums as leader for the label in the 1980s, plus two featuring Bowie (pictured) as part of Jack DeJohnette's New Directions.

* The Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill reports that drummer Kevin Bowers' band Nova will perform next month at the Winter Jazzfest in New York City.

* Singer Storm Large's show "Holiday Ordeal," happening next Tuesday at the Sun Theatre, was previewed in an article for the Post-Dispatch by Daniel Durchholz.

* Also in the Post-Dispatch, saxophonist Dave Koz talked about his holiday show next Tuesday at Family Arena for an article by the Post's Kevin Johnson.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja (pictured) has signed a contract with Resilience Records, which will release her next album Intuition - Songs from the Minds of Women on February 1, 2019.

* Trumpeter Chris Botti, who performs with the St. Louis Symphony tonight at Powell Hall, was interviewed by Kevin Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* "1968: Let The Sunshine In," the new cabaret show by St. Louis native John McDaniel and Barb Jungr, is the subject of a brief feature on BroadwayWorld.com. The show plays this Saturday (October 27) at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* The concert by pianist and singer Jon Batiste last Saturday at The Sheldon was reviewed by Daniel Durchholz for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

* Also for the Post-Dispatch, Durchholz interviewed singer, songwriter and pianist Jimmy Webb, who's performing in sold-out shows on Sunday and Monday for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival.  

* The Baylor Project, led by drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor and his wife, singer Jean Baylor, was the subject of a brief feature in the Pittsburgh Current.

* Electronic musician Eric Hall has posted to Bandcamp an album of live recordings made during various tour dates this fall in Chicago, Louisville, Indianapolis, and elsewhere.

* Singer and pianist Billy Stritch will headline a fund-raising event for The Cabaret Project of St. Louis on Friday, December 7 at the St. Louis Club in Clayton.

* The results of this year's DownBeat Readers Poll are out, and there's a winner with a St. Louis connection, as Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 got the most votes in the "Historical Album" category.

* Saxquest will present their 2018 Woodwind Musical Instrument Expo from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 17 at the Donald D Shook Fine Arts Building on the campus of St. Charles Community College.

Participating manufacturers will include Buffet-Crampon, Selmer, Yamaha, Yanagisawa, Keilwerth, P. Mauriat, Eastman, Haynes, Powell, Muramatsu, Fox, Loree, BG, D'Addario and Vandoren, and attendees at the free event can pre-register to get access to a private sound room and more.

* The 2018 St. Louis International Film Festival, which will take place Thursday, November 1 through Sunday, November 11 at various venues around town, will include a couple of documentaries that may be of particular interest to StLJN readers.

The Jazz Ambassadors, which premiered earlier this year on PBS, will be shown at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, November 4 at Brown Hall on the Washington University campus. It tells the story of how American jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie toured the world during the Cold War on behalf of the US Government, examining the contradictions they faced in promoting the ideal of equality abroad while enduring segregation at home.

Also of interest, Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes will be screened at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, November 11 at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus, followed immediately by a performance by pianist Adam Maness' trio. The film "explores the vision behind the iconic American jazz label...through current recording sessions, rare archival footage, and conversations with iconic Blue Note artists."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Veteran drummer Gary Sykes, who currently plays with pianist Ptah Williams' trio, the STL Free Jazz Collective, and others, continues to face some serious health issues, most recently making a trip this week to St. Mary's Hospital to have two stents installed.

While Sykes said in a Facebook post that he's feeling better post-surgery, the GoFundMe page to raise money to help with expenses while he's unable to work is still active. Find out more and, if you wish, donate here.

* Singer Valerie Kirchhoff and pianist Ethan Leinwand of Miss Jubilee (pictured) were guests on a recent episode of Rock Paper Podcast.

* The Dark Room has begun live-streaming video of performances on their Facebook page, and archiving the streamed videos on a new YouTube channel.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed about his musical influences by Jamie Cullum for BBC Radio Two's "Take Five."

* Get It How You Live, the new album by trumpeter Russell Gunn's Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, was reviewed by DownBeat magazine.

* Guitarist Nels Cline was interviewed about his show tonight at Delmar Hall by the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson. (Link is to Google cache.)

* Also in the Post, Tower of Power saxophonist and bandleader Emilio Castillo was interviewed by P-D freelancer Daniel Durchholz. (Link is to Google cache.) TOP performs this Saturday, August 11 at River City Casino.

* Grant Green Jr. talks about his dad, St. Louis-born guitarist Grant Green, on the latest episode of the web series The Pace Report.

* Trumpeter and philanthropist Herb Alpert was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio. While Alpert's concert with his wife, singer Lani Hall, on Sunday, August 19 at the Grandel Theatre already is sold out, some of his visual art will be on display at the Grandel from Friday, August 17 through Sunday, August 19.

An opening reception will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, August 17. The public also can view Alpert's abstract mixed-media paintings and large and small-scale bronze sculptures from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 18, and from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 19 before the concert and for 30 minutes after the show.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and bassist Tonina Saputo (pictured) is the latest musician to be featured as one of NPR's 2018 "Slingshot" artists, in what's described as "a collective effort among taste-making music stations to introduce exceptional up-and-coming artists."

* A video of guitarist Dave Black performing his original composition "Still The Same" is the latest release in the St. Louis Open Media Integration Center's "Songday Afternoon" series.

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn has released another track from the forthcoming album by his Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, previewing “Sybil’s Blues” via a post on Revive Music.

* The LouFest music festival has announced its 2018 lineup, which includes trumpeter Keyon Harrold on the main stage, as well as a secondary stage featuring jazz musicians from the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's artists-in-residence program.

* Teenage piano phenom Royce Martin, who's headed for Berklee College of Music this fall, was profiled in a story by Art Holliday of KSDK.

* The Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis has announced seven honorees for their 2019 St. Louis Arts Awards, and the group includes actor and singer Ken Page for "Lifetime Achievement in the Arts" and Chris Hansen of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation for "Arts Innovator." The awards will be presented at a celebratory dinner next January.

* Pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio Network has added another product to their line of instructional videos, as singer Dianne Reeves' new course "Define Your Voice" went online this week.

* The recently issued box set Miles Davis & John Coltrane—The Final Tour from Columbia/Legacy Recordings’ has inspired a feature story about the record and the tour from DownBeat's James Hale.

* Singer and pianist Diana Krall's performance last week at the Peabody Opera House was reviewed for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday by Dan Duchholz. (Link may be paywalled)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Fans of adventurous music and/or craft beer can support New Music Circle at a fundraiser scheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. next Tuesday, June 13 at Urban Chestnut brewery's Midtown location, 3229 Washington Ave. A portion of beverage purchases made during those hours will be donated to NMC.

* The Boston Creme donut from Old Town Donuts in Florissant is the winner of Jazz St. Louis' "Best Donut" award for 2017, as determined last Friday during JSL's annual "National Donut Day" celebration. You can see photos from the event in a Facebook album here.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby, who's been spending a lot of time in Europe recently, last month conducted two workshops for young musicians in Spain, working under the auspices of the US Embassy with students at the Teresa Berganza music conservatory in Madrid and the Padre Antonio Soler music school in San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

* Singer-songwriter Norah Jones' performance on Tuesday at the Scottrade Ceneter was reviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Dan Durchholz.

* Singer Dee Daniels (pictured), who will perform this Sunday with the St. Louis Symphony as part of their "Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and the Ladies of Swing," was interviewed by St. Louis magazine.

* The newly renamed Webster Groves Concert Hall, formerly the Ozark Theatre, is the subject of a St. Louis County Arts blog feature by Valerie Tichacek.

* As one of 77 local bands that will perform in the Riverfront Times' upcoming ShowcaseSTL, the  Funky Butt Brass Band were profiled this week by the RFT's Roy Kasten.

* Singer Tony Bennett's show Wednesday night at the Fox Theatre was reviewed by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson, and the Post also published an "IParty" album of photos from the evening.

* This weekend's U City Jazz Festival and Fair U City are previewed in the Post's "Hot List" section.

* Mozingo Music is presenting a free workshop on audio recording at 7:00 p.m. Monday, June 26 at their store at 4689 Hwy. K in O'Fallon, MO. The 90-minute workshop will feature manufacturer's rep Michael Canning demonstrating the use of PreSonus software and hardware and Audio Technica microphones in a live recording session. Admission is free, but since space is limited, advance reservations are required.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Veteran music scribe Dan Durchholz has written a preview story for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday about next Wednesday's concert by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (pictured) and Del McCoury Band at the Family Arena; read it online here.

* St. Louis musicians will stage a benefit performance to help raise money for relief efforts in Japan next Monday, April 11 at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive. Performers will include members of the Saint Louis Symphony, Arianna String Quartet, Dave Black, Erin Bode, Farshid Etniko, Todd Mosby, Dawn Weber, and many others. There will be two sets, at 7:30 and 9:30. Tickets are $15, cash at the door only, and include two drinks. All performers are donating their services, and 100% of the proceeds from the ticket sales and a silent auction will go to Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund. For more information call 314-721-0943.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m., 4/8/11 - Terry Perkins has more details on the Japan relief concert in an article for the St. Louis Beacon here.

* The Art & Air Festival is looking for performers for this year's event via the "2011 Art & Air Idol" contest. Selected contestants will compete on Wednesdays in May in preliminary rounds held at Llywellyn’s Pub in Webster Groves. The winner gets a chance to perform on the main stage at Art & Air 2011, which will be held June 3-5 on the grounds of Eden Theological Seminary in Webster. The contest is open to "acoustic-oriented musicians, solo to small group," and organizers tell StLJN they're looking specifically for some jazz performers. The deadline for entry is April 20; you can find out more and submit an application here.

* While back in his hometown last month to perform at the Kranzberg Arts Center, singer and St. Louis native Craig Pomranz was profiled by local PBS affiliate KETC's program Living St. Louis and reporter Ruth Ezell; check out the YouTube video of the segment here.

* The P-D reports that the historic Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville is set to reopen next week as venue for movie and live performances, and that pianist Jean Kittrell, apparently coming out of retirement for the occasion, will perform at the venue's open house next Tuesday, April 12.

* Radio station KWMU, home to Dennis Owsley's Sunday night program Jazz Unlimited, next week will break ground on their new headquarters and studios in Grand Center. The facility is expected to be ready in 2012.

Harry Connick Jr. reviewed

Singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. was in St. Louis on Friday night to perform at the Fox Theatre, and the Post-Dispatch sent veteran music freelancer Daniel Durchholz to cover the show. You can read Dan's review online here.

Reviews of Jeff Beck concert, Larry Johnson CD now online

Just a quick note about a couple of reviews of interest:

Guitarist Jeff Beck was in St. Louis last night to perform at the Fox Theatre, and Dan Duchholz reviewed the show for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can read the review online here.

Also, St. Louis saxophonist Larry Johnson's debut CD Circles was reviewed recently for AllAboutJazz.com by Nicholas F. Mondello, who called it "an enjoyable effort by a very talented saxophone artist." You can read the full review here.

Marsalis, Sinatra Jr. interviews in the Post-Dispatch

Today's Post-Dispatch also featured interviews with Delfeayo Marsalis (by Terry Perkins) and Frank Sinatra Jr. (by Dan Durchholz). Read the Marsalis article online here, and the Sinatra Jr. article here.