So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* St. Louis magazine has published their annual "A List" of local attractions, organizations, people, and events, and the names of at least a couple of the winners will be familiar to StLJN readers.

The Red and Black Brass Band was mentioned for "Best Use of Brass," while Blue Strawberry was named "Best New Storytelling Venue." You can see a list of all the winners here.

* The current fund-raising efforts of radio station WSIE are the subject of a feature story from the Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill. Thanks in large part to budget cuts by the state of Illinois, WSIE must raise a total of $100,000 by the end of this month or the station may go off the air permanently.

* Job’s Trials: A Jazz Song Cycle, the latest recording from bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis, was reviewed by the UK magazine Jazz Journal.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina (pictured) talked about what she's been doing during lockdown and discussed a couple of upcoming livestream performances in an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Jazz in St. Louis has gotten some attention from NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center recently, as last week JALC published a Spotify playlist of St. Louis jazz (accompanied by a short and rather sketchy history of our local scene) as part of a series called "City Soundscapes."

That was followed this week by a St. Louis-themed installment of "On the Road with Riley," an online video series featuring trumpeter Riley Mulkerhar that purports to take "viewers on a virtual road trip...to see how various #jazz scenes around the U.S. are coping with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis." The video features a brief chat with pianist Adam Maness and a streamed performance of "St. Louis Blues" by Mulherkar, Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo, and drummer Kaleb Kirby.

* Dr. Dorothy Steward, the mother of businessman, philanthropist and Jazz St. Louis board member David Steward and one of the namesakes of JSL's headquarters, the Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz, has died at age 92.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter and Webster Groves native Ally Hany Albrecht recently was featured with the U.S. Air Force Band of the Golden West performing one of her original compositions on "AZAM," the morning newscast of the Fox affiliate in Phoenix, AZ. 

* A recent performance by saxophonist Eric Person (pictured) at The Falcon in Marlboro, NY was reviewed by writer Rudy Lu for the upstate NY arts website Nippertown.

* The Funky Butt Brass Band's new album Onward was reviewed by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.

* Also in the RFT, a look at Takeshima Records, a new Japanese-style "listening room" and bar opening this week on Chouteau Avenue in the Grove.

* "Job's Blues," a track from bassist Dan Loomis' new album Job's Trials, this week was featured as a "Download of the Day" on AllAboutJazz.com. Loomis also was interviewed this week about the album and his career on the "Neon Jazz" radio program hosted by Joe Dimino on KCXL in Liberty, MO.

* Jazz St. Louis has published on their website a Q&A with saxophonist Tim Warfield, who's performing at the venue through Sunday night.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Bassist, composer, former St. Louisan, and SIU Edwardsville alumnus Dan Loomis (pictured) has launched a crowd-funding campaign to pay for a recording of his jazz song cycle "Job's Trials." You can read more about the project and, if you like, pledge your support here.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed about his guest spot on the new Nas album and more by HipHopDX.com

* The STL Free Jazz Collective has posted on YouTube a video of their performance on April 27 at the Link Auditorium, their first show without founding member and former St. Louis poet laureate, the late Michael Castro.

* Also new on YouTube, bassist and singer Janet Evra performing "Tenderly" for the web series Lo-Fi Cherokee 2019.

* Singer, actor and St. Louis native Craig Pomranz wrote a personal essay for CabaretScenes.org about how the late Doris Day taught him to sing.

* Pianist and St. Louis native Dred Scott was the subject of a feature story on the web site Berkeleyside.
 
* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on a recording of the trumpeter's "Swing Symphony" made Jazziz magazine's list of "10 Albums You Need To Know For July 2019."

* Voting in the 2019 DownBeat Readers Poll is open, and you can cast your ballot here.

* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris is looking for young musicians in high school or their first year of college to participate in "From The Lab," a free educational program that will teach recording techniques, music business skills, and more. Applications for the first session starting in Fall 2019 are being accepted now on Harris' website.

* Pianist Kim Portnoy will have an original composition premiered by Chamber Project St. Louis during their upcoming 2019-20 season. Portnoy's "From an Imaginary Musical" will be on the program for the group's concert in April 2020 at the Missouri History Museum.

The Wee Trio to play Tuesday, October 17 at SIU Edwardsville's Dunham Hall

The Wee Trio, featuring bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis, will return to the St. Louis area to perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 17 at SIU Edwardsville's Dunham Hall.

The performance is part of SIUE's "Arts & Issues" serie, and the SIU Edwardsville jazz faculty ensemble will open the show.

The Wee Trio (pictured) last appeared in St. Louis in November 2016 in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, supporting the release of their most recent album Wee + 3.

Tickets for The Wee Trio at SIU Edwardsville are $20 for the general public; $18 for seniors age 65 or older and for SIUE staff, faculty, retirees, and alumni; $15 for students with ID; and are on sale now.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The Wee Trio's new album Wee + 3

This week, let's check out some new music from The Wee Trio, who will be in St. Louis to perform in a free concert next Thursday, November 3 for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Featuring St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, James Westfall on vibraphone, and Jared Schonig on drums, the group is touring in support of their latest album Wee + 3, which was released in late September. The "+ 3" in the title refers to the addition of three guest musicians - pianist Fabian Almazan, guitarist Nir Felder, and trumpeter Nicholas Payton - for the first time on any of their recordings.

You can see the "electronic press kit" for Wee + 3 in the embedded window up above. After the jump, there are videos featuring performances of five of the songs from the album, four of which were recorded simultaneously with the audio at Systems 2 Studio in Brooklyn, NY.

The first two tracks, Westfall's composition "Titan Up" and Schonig's "Climb," feature Almazan. Felder joins the group next for "Gibbs Street," another Schonig composition, which is followed by the trio without guest musicians playing Schonig's "Sound Evidence".

Last but not least, there's a live version of another Schonig tune, "Sabotage," that was recorded by an audience member during the group's last visit to St. Louis at a concert in September 2013 at Chaminade College Preparatory School. While the new studio recording features Payton on trumpet, this performance shows that the tune works with just the three core members, too.

(As it happens, the title of "Sabotage" has a St. Louis connection, too, originating when The Wee Trio recorded a live album in 2013 at Jazz at the Bistro. In the press release for Wee + 3, Loomis explains, “The second night of the recording we went to play our first set only to discover (mid-song!!) that the microphone cables had been cut!! We never found the culprit but clearly someone set out to sabotage the band! Thus Jared had a title for his new song.")

For more about Wee + 3, read the reviews from radio station WWOZ and Offbeat magazine.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Jim Manley has a new album, 62 Summers, out this month.

Available now in digital formats and as a limited-edition CD, the recording (pictured) includes 12 tracks of groove-oriented original material and also features guest solos from guitarist and former St. Louisan Jeff Snider.

* The Bosman Twins' gig this weekend at the Blue Room in Kansas City was previewed on the KC jazz blog Plastic Sax.

* Drummer Kimberly Thompson was profiled last month in a promotional feature by microphone manufacturer Audix.

* Drummer Dave Weckl recently took part in a big band tribute to Buddy Rich at London’s Royal College of Music.

* Bassist Dan Loomis has posted to YouTube a video of his jazz oratorio "Job's Trials - Our Trials," which premiered in a performance in June at Ibeam in Brooklyn, NYC.

* Trumpeter Bruce Purse is the co-author of "The Band Room," a new semi-autobiographical play set in 1986 in St. Louis that "pays tribute to the power of music education." The play debuts next week at Lehman College in NYC.

* Flow, the latest recording by saxophonist Oliver Lake with the Generations Quartet, was reviewed by Karl Ackermann of AllAboutJazz.com.

* Saxophonist Chris Cheek's new album Saturday Songs was reviewed by AAJ's Jakob Baekgaard.

* Jazz St. Louis' efforts to bring jazz performances to area public schools were featured in a story on St. Louis Public Radio.

* St. Louis musicians are being invited to submit music videos to GOTV, a new local cable channel featuring original documentaries and films and "the largest independent made-for-television music format in the world." GOTV's programming airs on Charter’s channel 995 from 7-11 am and 6-10 pm daily, with "plans to expand to Atlanta and LA in September and Dallas in January of 2017." For more information, visit mygotvmusic.com.

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn was the featured attraction for the final performances last weekend at the Atlanta jazz club Churchill Grounds, which closed after a 16-year run.

* The voice of the late Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, who grew up in St. Louis, is accompanied by music from guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, and others on a new album, Let Me Hang You, out now from Ernest Jenning Record Co/Khannibalism. Recorded by producer Hal Wilner shortly before Burroughs' death in 1997 but unreleased until now, the album features Burroughs reading excerpts from his infamous novel Naked Lunch.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Wee Trio, which includes St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, has launched a crowd-funding campaign raising money to record their fifth album. The recording, titled WEE + 3, will feature guest appearances from pianist Fabian Almazán, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarist Nir Felder.

* Jazz St. Louis' program last week pairing a performance of music from drummer Max Roach's We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite with a discussion of jazz, race, and social justice issues was the subject of a feature story by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* New Music Circle will promote their upcoming 58th season with "an evening of drinks and DJs" from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 3 at the Tick Tock Tavern, 3459 Magnolia in the Tower Grove East neighborhood. The free event will feature Josh Weinstein and Jeremy Kannapell spinning records, plus raffles for various prizes including CDs, LPs, and tickets to upcoming NMC concerts. Proceeds from drinks purchased during the event will go to support NMC's various programs.

* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio Network has started a new podcast, "The Process," which will feature "interviews with the best players in jazz and beyond." The first episode, with Martin and drummer Gregory Hutchinson (pictured), is online now.

* Saxophonist and educator Harvey Lockhart and the other winners of the 2017 St. Louis Arts Awards were profiled on the website of the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.

* Legendary singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker's favorite places in France were the subject of an article in the New York Times travel section.

* The Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for the next round of their $20,000 Artist Fellowships through Wednesday, August 10. A total of ten $20,000 fellowships will be awarded to individual St. Louis artists in any discipline as selected by an advisory committee of arts professionals, peers and RAC commissioners. RAC also is offering a workshop on how to apply for the fellowships on Tuesday, August 2 at the Vaughn Cultural Center.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Tavern of Fine Arts (pictured), the Central West End restaurant and bar that has presented numerous jazz, free improv, cabaret, and classical music performances over the past five years, will close permanently at the end of service next Saturday, June 25.

In a message posted on the venue's website, proprietors Aaron Johnson and Matt Daniels wrote, "While the performances have often attracted large audiences, and we have always paid the bills, the business is not profitable." Next week's performances will go on as scheduled, but the closing means the cancellation of a CD release party planned by local free improvisors for next month, as well the loss of the venue for recurring events including poetry readings, a monthly free improv jam session, and Cabaret Project St. Louis' monthly "open mic."

* KDHX has posted online photo albums from Genesis Jazz Project's concert last Thursday at Chesterfield Amphitheater; the New Orleans Suspects' show on Friday at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and Saturday's "Summer Gras" at Old Rock House.

* Bjorn Rannheim of The 442s was interviewed about the band's new release RELAY on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis.

* Saxophonist Christopher Braig has started a podcast called, fittingly enough, Sax St. Louis Podcast, offering "an eclectic mix of music, jazz, saxophone history, interviews, performing and educational topics relating to the greater St. Louis music community." Episode 1 is online now, with a second installment promised soon.

* The culinary offerings at The Dark Room were the subject of features this past week in the Ladue News and on the morning newscast at KTVI/Fox 2.

* In a new entry on his blog Devil at the Confluence, author, historian, and illustrator Kevin Belford takes a deep dive into the question of how Jelly Roll Morton got credit for a recording of the song "Soap Suds" that actually was made by the St. Louis Levee Band.

* Belford also posted to Vimeo a 30-second clip from Blues for Charlie O'Brien, a "doc in progress" about the former St. Louis police detective who in the 1950s helped revive interest in the city's early blues and jazz performers.

* A new entry on Marc Myers' blog Jazzwax looks into the connection between guitarist Grant Green's 1965 album I Want to Hold Your Hand and the line of "Little LPs" produced for stereo jukeboxes by Blue Note records.

* Drummer Kimberly Thompson was honored for her work on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers at the SESAC Film & Television Composers Awards Dinner held on June 1 in Santa Monica, CA. The performing rights organization presented more than 100 awards to music composers in the categories of network TV, local TV, cable TV, film composing, jingles, and streaming media.

* Bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis will debut "Job's Trial's - Our Trials," a new jazz oratorio he composed for bass, guitar, drums, voices, and a narrator, in a performance next Friday, June 24 at IBeam Brooklyn in NYC.

* The website Boiler Room has posted online a video of trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold's performance at Revive Music's 10th anniversary event last month in NYC.

* Saxophonist Eric Person and his band Meta-Four are booked to perform at the 2016 Hudson Valley Jazz Festival, which takes place August 11-14 in Peekskill, NY.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz on Broadway, which featured first weekly and later only occasional live jazz at 554 East Broadway in downtown Alton, has closed after a three-year run.

A message sent to the club's email list by manager Jimmie Small said in part, "I do not have the liberty to divulge the overwhelming circumstances that led to this sad event. I would like to, on behalf or all who worked hard during these last 3 years to make the establishment a fine upscale venue for live entertainment, thank each and everyone for all their support, their time, and their encouragement."

* In happier news, favorable reviews keep coming in for Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry. Media outlets weighing in recently include the Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, Toronto Globe and Mail, and DVD Talk.

* Drummer and St. Charles' own Dave Weckl is the subject of the cover feature in the January 2015 issue of Modern Drummer magazine (pictured), coming soon to subscribers' mailboxes and to booksellers and newsstands everywhere.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby has posted a new blog entry in which he opines that critics might gain some much needed empathy from experiencing first-hand the rigors of the road and the effects they have on musicians.

* And speaking of critics, here another review of Osby's new CD with fellow saxophonist Tineke Postma, via AllAboutJazz.com's Dan Bilawsky.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake was interviewed by Revive Music's Natalie Weiner.

* Meanwhile, (R)anthems, the latest album from Wee Trio bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis' "other" band Spoke, was reviewed by AAJ's Ernest Barteldes.

* The Toronto Star has a feature on trumpeter Eugene Gillis, who's been playing his horn at the protests in Ferguson.

* The weekend's best local music-related long read, though, though is "The 100 Greatest St. Louis Songs," compiled and written for the Riverfront Times by Roy Kasten, Christian Schaeffer and assorted RFT colleagues.

The list covers all musical genres, including entries representing a number of St. Louis jazz musicians, and better yet, the article contains YouTube audio for nearly all the listed songs so readers can easily hear them. (Full disclosure: Although I didn't write any of the entries, yr. humble StLJN editor is one of a number of people ostensibly knowledgeable about local music who were solicited for their input and are name-checked in the piece.)

* New music ensemble Alarm Will Sound's recent performance at the Public Media Commons in Grand Center was the subject of a feature story on Nine Network's program Arts America. You can view the segment online here.

* Un Grand Bonheur (A Great Happiness), the first album from recent-transplants-to-St. Louis Franglais, was reviewed by the website The Noise Beneath The Apple. The Django Reinhardt-inspired Gypsy jazz group, fronted by St. Louis-born singer Eve Seltzer and her husband, guitarist Ben Wood, will make their official local debut on Thursday, December 11 at Evangeline's.

* The Bosman Twins were featured last week on the website Jazz For A Saturday Night.

* Chris Limber's show for the just-concluded Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX.

* Saxquest has posted on Facebook photo albums from recent appearances at the shop by Jeff Coffin and the Mu'tet and Frank Catalano.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday night on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, “Somethin’ Else” host Calvin Wilson will be breaking out the Blue Note, featuring recordings made for the legenday label by the likes of Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean and Bobby Hutcherson. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Edited after to posting to the link to the Alarm Will Sound video. As noted any time AWS is mentioned here, I've been working with the firm Slay & Associates since 2010 providing publicity help to them for their performances in St. Louis and Columbia.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin (pictured) that opened in limited release last weekend, won one of the top prizes at the Aspen Film Festival in Colorado. The film also was reviewed favorably by publications including the AV Club, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times,  New York Times and Washington Post.

* The Baylor Project, featuring drummer (and St. Louis' own) Marcus Baylor and his wife, singer Jean Baylor, will make their Washington, DC debut as a band next Tuesday, October 14 at the city's famed Blues Alley club.

* Another St. Louis native, bassist Dan Loomis of The Wee Trio, has a new album out with his "other" band, the quartet Spoke. Their third outing, titled (R)anthems, features a dozen tracks, including originals as well as an eclectic collection of covers including the Beatles' "Blackbird," Rufus' "Tell Me Something Good," and "I Only Have Eyes For You."

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake recently took his big band to Pittsburgh for the 10th annual concert of jazz and poetry at the venue City of Asylum. You can watch the show in its entirety (including poets) here.

* In what has to be one of the more puzzling and polarizing projects of the year, Miles Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue has been replayed and recorded note-for-note by the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing and released by them under the title Blue. In two of the first reviews to be published, Peter Bacon of the UK blog The Jazz Breakfast calls it "a completely and marvellously realised joke," while AllAboutJazz.com's Mark Corroto said, "What MOPDTK has done is demanding and esoteric. But it is not jazz and, importantly, they know it."

* In other Miles Davis-related news, the trumpeter's visual art was spotlighted this week by the website Open Culture.

* Euclid Records in Webster Groves will hold their semi-annual sidewalk sale from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, featuring live music and thousands of used LPs, CDs and DVDs priced to move.

* The kitchen at the new Jazz at the Bistro is up and running this week, and the menu by St. Louis Catering now can be viewed online.

* In related news, Yamaha is touting the fact that their pianos are the instruments of choice at the new Bistro and in Jazz St. Louis' adjacent classrooms (which are still under construction); and the club took delivery this week on a new custom drum kit hand-made by Jeff Schaefer, a St. Charles builder/refurbisher/tech known professionally as The Reapercussionist.

* And as long as we're speaking of the new Bistro, the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn has weighed in with a few thoughts on the new venue.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,”  host Calvin Wilson gets into the music of pianist Keith Jarrett's 1970s quartets. Listen in at 8:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Meanwhile, on this week's edition on WSIE's "Jazz Talk," hosts Dick Ulett, Mike Silverman and Rob Silverman will talk with drummer Kaleb Kirby. The program is broadcast from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Sundays on 88.7 FM and also can be heard online.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Next month's New Music Circle concert featuring bassist Josh Abrams' Natural Information Society is previewed by Stefene Russell of St. Louis magazine.

* Lamar Harris discusses his instrumental tribute to the music of Jay-Z, coming up tomorrow night at the Kranzberg Arts Center, for an article by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Drummer Matt Wilson talks about his new album Gathering Call with the website Search and Restore and with Aarik Danielsen of the Columbia Daily Tribune. Wilson's quartet and special guest John Medeski will play tonight and tomorrow at Jazz at the Bistro, head to Columbia on Sunday, and then return to St. Louis to perform again on Monday to make up for Wednesday's postponed sets.

* Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is looking for volunteers for its street team, which helps distribute posters and handbills around town. If you'd like to get involved, get in touch via LNAC's Facebook page or by sending an email to contact@lemp-arts.org.

* St. Louis native Dan Loomis, bassist for The Wee Trio, talks at length about the group's album Live at the Bistro album with AllAboutJazz.com's Fiona Ord-Shrimpton.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg (pictured) performed with pianist Robert Glasper last week on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert."

* Meanwhile, Kim Thompson, fellow drummer and St. Louis expat, has a new album, Live at Marian's, available on iTunes.

* The latest episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz is now available on the channel's website, spotlighting the jazz program at Webster University and performances from last fall's TKT scholarship concert, "Jazz Interpretations of the Music of Irving Berlin".

* Miles Davis' 1970 shows at NYC's Fillmore East will be reissued next month in an expanded box set. You can hear a sample track, "Spanish Key," here.

* The iconic trumpeter's sense of style also got him included in a list of eight jazz icons featured on the website of men's clothing retailer Mr. Porter.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson continues the previous episode's focus on Davis, showcasing music from the trumpeter's famed 1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

Then "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will feature tracks from Davis, Grant Green, The Rippingtons, Dudley Moore, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Joel Del Rosario & SureWill, Bob James &  David Sanborn, Jim Stevens, Brian Vaccaro, and Christopher Braig.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.   

The Wee Trio to release Live at the Bistro on Tuesday, September 17; tour to include three St. Louis dates

The Wee Trio, featuring St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, will release their new album Live at the Bistro on Tuesday, September 17.

Recorded on February 8 and 9 of this year at Jazz at the Bistro in St. Louis, the album is the fourth for the group, which also includes vibraphonist James Westfall and drummer Jared Schonig.

In conjunction with the release of Live at the Bistro,  The Wee Trio will embark on a fall tour that will include three performances in the St. Louis area -  on Monday, September 23 at The Principia (Loomis' alma mater); Tuesday, September 24 at Jefferson College; and Wednesday, September 25 at Chaminade High School.

"This record is really about us wanting to 'bottle' the live experience of The Wee Trio and share it with our fans,." said Loomis in a news release. The bassist expressed similar sentiments when he talked with StLJN earlier this year about the recording of the album; you can read that interview here.

Described as "the most musically complete Wee Trio recording to date," Live at the Bistro is on the group's own Bionic Records label, and includes original arrangements of the standards "Cherokee" and "There Is No Greater Love"; compositions from each of their previous three recordings; and brand-new originals "Sabotage" (written by Schonig), "White Trash Blues" and "New Earth" (Westfall) and "Ranthem" (Loomis).

No details have been released yet about tickets for The Wee Trio's St. Louis shows, but as soon as the information becomes available, StLJN will have it for you right here.

UPDATE - 8/26/13, 6:45 a.m.: Turns out that The Wee Trio's performance at Principia is a private event, but ticket information for the other two dates is as follows:

The Jefferson College show will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 24 at the college's Fine Arts Theatre, 1000 Viking Dr. on the campus in Hillsboro. Tickets are
$5 for general admission, $2 for students and seniors, and are available at http://www.jeffco.edu/pace.

The concert at Chaminade College Prep begins at 7:30 p.m. in the school's Skip Viragh Center for the Arts, 425 S. Lindbergh Blvd. The Wee Trio also will give a pre-concert talk starting at 6:45 p.m.. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students, and will be available starting in September at http://www.chaminade-stl.org/.

StLJN Interview: Dan Loomis of The Wee Trio on recording live at Jazz at the Bistro

As mentioned several times before in this space, The Wee Trio (pictured, top left) are in St. Louis this weekend, performing and recording a live album on Friday and Saturday nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Though scheduling complications over the past week rendered fruitless our attempts to connect via phone with bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis (pictured, below left), he was kind enough to respond to a few questions about the impending gig/recording session via email: 

StLJN: Your last album began with the idea of exploring the music of a single composer, and after considering various possibilities, you decided on David Bowie. Is there an overall concept behind this recording, and if so, what is it?

Loomis: "The driving motivation behind this record is to capture the live energy of the band. A captivating live experience has always been paramount to The Wee Trio's mission. People often come away from our shows saying, "I don't usually like jazz but I really liked THAT!" So this is our attempt to 'bottle' that, so to speak."

What songs do you plan to record, and who are the composers/arrangers? (Anything else you can tell me about the specific compositions would be good, too.)

"For this record we are synthesizing the musical information from the Bowie record -- smart pop sensibility and a knack for making the avant-garde mainstream -- and returning with a fresh batch of originals. The band had a chance to rehearse for the second time ever before our California tour this winter. We took the opportunity to add the new tunes to the book and hone the arrangements on some jazz classics that we have been playing for a while. There will be new tunes from all three members on the album."

Why did you pick Jazz at the Bistro as the site to record?

"Jazz at the Bistro is my hometown club. My Aunt Hera used to take me to the opening night of every act that came through. Hearing Ray Brown, Ahmad Jamal, Nicholas Payton, Gary Bartz and so many others live at The Bistro were the most formative listening experiences of my life. Returning there to make a live record is an absolute dream for me. When we decided to make a live record it was the first place that I thought of. (Plus the room sounds great!)"

Who's engineering and producing?

"When we asked around for a live recording engineer everyone said the same thing: Paul Hennerich. We are happy that he was available and enthusiastic to do the project."

(Hennerich is a St. Louis-based engineer who's been doing live sound, recording, and radio broadcasts for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1993. Some of his other credits include "artists as diverse as Christine Brewer and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to the great gravelly voiced Big Bad Smitty and broadcast work for Jazz at the Bistro." He also teaches recording at Webster University.)

How does the schedule lay out, in terms of set-up, soundcheck, test recordings, etc? Will you be playing the same material on both nights? For all four sets?

"As we said, the live experience is paramount to The Wee Trio. So we don't want to sacrifice the experience of the folks coming out for the sake of the record. So we'll play different material on the first and second sets. We will likely repeat a few songs from night to night to get a few takes of them. But we have a lot of material that we love to play so we won't be repeating too much!"

(As regards rehearsal and test recordings, since the band didn't get to St. Louis until Thursday evening, the obvious but unstated answer to that question is that they've got Friday to get things set up and dialed in.)

Will the album consist entirely of recordings from the Bistro, or will there be additional material? If there's more, will it be live or studio, and from where?

"It will be an entirely live album. If it doesn't happen this weekend, it's not making the album! We will likely include some material from previous albums that has evolved into something entirely new since the first time it was recorded. Expect a few Bowie numbers and few choice tunes from Capitol Diner Vols. 1 & 2."

Do you have a name for the album yet? When will it be released, and on what label?

"No name yet. Stay tuned. The record is due out September 1st, 2013. We all grew up on "live at the Bistro" records on the MAXJAZZ label. MAXJAZZ plans pretty far ahead and the band is ready to move forward now. So..... if we can convince Richard McDonnell to completely disrupt his release schedule, we'd love to put this out on MAXJAZZ! But the current plan is to release it on our faithful, independent, New Orleans label (what more could one ask for in this day and age!), Bionic Records.

Tour dates are currently in the works for the end of 2013 and early 2014. There may also be a few surprise Canadian jazz festivals. Stay tuned for the latest at www.theweetrio.com."

For more about The Wee Trio, which also includes vibraphonist James Westfall and drummer Jared Schonig, and video samples of some of the material they plan to record this weekend, see this post.

Thanks to Jason Paul Harman Byrne of Red Cat Publicity for his help in setting up this interview.

SPOKE to perform Sunday, September 16 at Parkway United Church of Christ

The NYC-based band SPOKE (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, September 16 at Parkway United Church of Christ, 2841 N Ballas Rd.

SPOKE features St. Louis native and SIUE alumnus Dan Loomis (also of The Wee Trio) on bass, along with trombonist Andy Hunter, saxophonist Justin Wood, and drummer Danny Fischer.

Formed in 2005, the group has released two albums of "original, genre- spanning music drawing on diverse sources including chamber music, Charles Mingus, Chinese pop, and the Beatles," and recently performed at the Macau Venetian Jazz and Blues festival in China. The individual members also have worked with a variety of well-known musicians and ensembles, including Richard Bona, the Mingus Dynasty, TS Monk, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and others.

The concert is free and open to the public, and will include two sets, at 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.