* In other Miles Davis news, Rubberband, an EP of previously unheard Davis tracks recorded and then scrapped before the 1986 release of Tutu, is out now on Rhino Records.
* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold is featured on the European releaseWhen You Are Here, credited to the Culture Revolution Project, a joint venture by Harrold with Polish saxophonist Sylwester Ostrowski. The album can be heard now on the major streaming services, but so far does not seem to be for sale as a physical CD here in the US.
Harrold also has contributed a version of "She's Leaving Home" to A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper, a new compilation album paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that's out today on Verve Records as a special "Black Friday" release.
The album (pictured) also includes interpretations of Beatles songs by drummers Antonio Sanchez and Makaya McCraven, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, pianist Sullivan Fortner, harpist Brandee Younger, and more.
* Guitarist Vincent Varvel has posted to YouTube a video of "Both Sides Now," a track from his upcoming solo guitar album due out in January.
With a 14-minute "sampler" episode already recorded, Sanborn (pictured) now has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help finance production of full episodes.
* NPR jazz critic Kevin Whitehead was interviewed Tuesday by St. Louis Public Radio's Don Marsh. Whitehead was in town to give a talk for Jazz St. Louis' "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series on Wednesday night at St. Louis County Public Library's Grant's View branch.
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a pioneering jazz-fusion keyboardist; a quick-thinking musical impressionist who first gained fame online; one of the top female vocalists in jazz taking on some soul and blues classics; and more. Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, November 14
Keyboardist Jeff Lorber(pictured, top left) will perform for the first of five nights at Jazz St. Louis. Lorber, who last played here in February 2015 at the Bistro, this time is supporting a new release, Impact, that came out in August on Shanachie Records.
With a band that includes bassist Jimmy Haslip, drummer Gary Novak, guitarist Paul Jackson Jr., and saxophonists Andy Snitzer and Dave Mann, Impact features 10 new original compositions by Lorber, some of which no doubt will get played this weekend. (You can listen to all the tracks from Impacthere.)
Also on Wednesday, Jazz St. Louis' "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series presents a talk by NPR jazz critic Kevin Whitehead at St. Louis County Library's Grant's View Branch. Whitehead will discuss his forthcoming book Play the Way You Feel, which examines how fiction and biographical films from 1927 to 2016 told stories about jazz music and musicians.
Thursday, November 15
Guitarist Dave Black leads his latest project, In Touch, in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. In addition to Black, the group features Kyle Honeycutt on drums, Ben Wheeler on bass, the St. Louis Symphony's Asako Kuboki on violin, and Paul DeMarinis on saxophones and clarinets.
Also on Thursday, Nashville-based singer/songwriter Kristen Cothron performs at The Wolf, and trumpeter Danny Campbell leads a trio at The Dark Room.
Friday, November 16
Singer Christina Bianco, who's gotten tens of millions of views on YouTube for her impressions of various celebrity vocalists, will perform her show "Diva Moments" for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.
Backed by a group dubbed The Memphis Soulphony, Bridgewater has been touring with a show based on her 2017 album Memphis...Yes I'm Ready, which features her interpretations of (mostly) well-known songs associated with her hometown.
You can find out more about the project and see some videos of her performing the Memphis show in this post from last Saturday. Also, the Sheldon is offering a $10 discount for online purchases of tickets to the concert, which can be accessed by going here and using the promo code MEMPHIS10.
Elsewhere around town, Jeanette Harris who's billed as the "scintillating saxtress of smooth jazz," will play two shows at .ZACK.
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.)
This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, who will be in St. Louis to perform next Saturday, November 17 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
Long known as one of the top female jazz singers of her generation, Bridgewater went in a different musical direction for her most recent album, Memphis... Yes, I'm Ready, which came out last year and features her takes on famous soul and blues tunes associated with her hometown.
On the album and on tour, she's accompanied by a eight-piece band dubbed the Memphis Soulphony, configured like a vintage show band with rhythm section, horns, and background singers. Though Bridgewater's interpretations of the material mostly are faithful to the spirit of the originals, she and the band add some of their own touches to both update and personalize the material.
You can see and hear what that's like starting with the first clip up above, which features Bridgewater and the Soulphony performing two tunes, "Giving Up" and "Going Down Slow," recorded June 22, 2018 at the Royal Theatre in Victoria, BC, Canada.
After the jump, you can see Bridgewater's recent appearance on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert," recorded April 2, 2018 at NPR studios in Washington, DC. The three-song set includes "Hound Dog," "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?" and "B.A.B.Y.".
Next, you can check out Bridgewater and company doing an extended version of "The Thrill Is Gone," as recorded in March of this year by an audience member at the Blue Note Hawaii.
If those samples have whetted your appetite for more, you then can check out two full sets of Bridgewater's Memphis show, as performed in May 2018 at Ronnie Scott's in London, and an earlier iteration of the show from August 2017 at the Montclair Jazz Festival in New Jersey.
The final video is a short biography of Bridgewater, produced by the National Endowment for the Arts last year when she was named an NEA Jazz Master.
For more about Dee Dee Bridgewater and her tribute to Memphis music, read her interviews from last year with DownBeat and with Jazz Times.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
Keyboardist Jon Batiste will kick off the hall's jazz subscription series on Saturday, October 20. Other concerts in the series will feature singer Dee Dee Bridgewater(pictured), performing music from her recent release paying tribute to Memphis soul (Saturday, November 17); singer Dianne Reeves (Saturday, February 9); and pianist Eliane Elias (Saturday, March 2).
In addition, saxophonist James Carter will return to perform with pianist Peter Martin's trio in a non-subscription "special concert" on Sunday, May 19.
The hall's "Coffee Concerts" series, presented on select Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, also will feature some musicians of potential interest to StLJN readers, including Cornet Chop Suey (October 9 & 10); singer Feyza Eren (November 13 & 14); and The Gaslight Squares (April 9 & 10), while the Saturday matinee series will include concerts from singer Anita Jackson (February 2) and guitarist Dan Rubright of the Wire Pilots (April 6).
Season tickets for the jazz series are $160 orchestra, $145 balcony; Coffee Concerts are $70 orchestra, $60 balcony; and Saturday Matinee tickets are $25 for adult subscriptions, $10 per child. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 14 and continue through the first concert in each series via the Sheldon's website or by phone at 314-533-9900.
Single tickets, which range in price from $30 to $50 for concerts in the jazz series, will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 11 at the Sheldon and all MetroTix outlets.
As regular readers know, this space frequently is used to preview shows from touring jazz and creative music performers coming to St. Louis. But with a relative paucity of acts visiting here in the next several weeks, today's video showcase offers something a little different: a look back at some of jazz performers who have been making news during the first half of 2016, starting with trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold.
Harrold has gotten good notices and a lotofpublicity this year for his work on the soundtrack of Miles Ahead, actor/director Don Cheadle's film about Miles Davis that was released in April. The first video up above features a full set of Harrold's own music, as performed at Revive Music's recent tenth anniversary celebration in NYC and captured on video by Boiler Room.
After the jump, the first video features pianist Robert Glasper, who's also been in the news a lot this year thanks to his involvement in Miles Ahead. Glasper wrote five new compositions for the film's soundtrack, and last month also released Everything's Beautiful, a tribute/remix album using samples from the Miles Davis catalog. The clip is an interview with Glasper, in which he talks about his work on Miles Ahead, his musical relationships with hip-hop performers such as The Roots and the late J Dilla, and more.
The first video of Threadgill features a brief interview with him conducted in January by Frank Oteri of New Music USA. That's followed by a full 75-minute Zooid performance, recorded in October 2013 at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Although Bridgewater, Smith, and the other winners won't actually receive their awards until 2017, you can celebrate now by enjoying a full set of Bridgewater, recorded live at the 2013 Jazzaldia festival in San Sebastian, Spain, followed by the good Doctor's version of Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover," as performed earlier this year with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Kendrick Scott at Kente Arts Alliance in Pittsburgh, PA.
(If you'd like to hear more, both Bridgewater and Smith have been the subjects of previous Saturday video posts. StLJN looked at Bridgewater's current collaboration with trumpeter Irvin Mayfield in this post from March of this year, and paid visits to Dr. Smith in 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2015.)
Smith's latest album Evolution was released by Blue Note in January, and based on thecriticalreception, seems likely to end up on a fair number of year-end "best of" lists. Two other performers who released muc-talked-about albums in the first half of 2016 were bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding and singer Cyrille Aimée.
Spalding picked up an electric bass, a new look and a new theatrical persona for her album Emily's D+Evolution, which went in what NPR Music called "a louder, proggier, weirder funk-rock direction." You can see and hear that direction in today's seventh clip, a full performance recorded by NPR and WFUV in March of this year at BRIC in NYC.
For those who tastes run more toward the traditional, that's followed by a clip of Spalding's appearance at this year's International Jazz Day celebration held on April 30 at the White House, in which she performed a swinging version of "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" for the President, First Lady, and assembled guests.
As for Aimée, her album Let's Get Lost was released in February to goodnotices, and audiences around the country seem to be responding enthusiastically to her updated take on Gypsy jazz You can see her singing much of the material from that album in today's penultimate clip, recorded in February at WNYC in New York.
Last, but certainly not least, you can check out some music from saxophonist Kamasi Washington, whose sprawling three-CD debut album The Epic was one of the best-reviewed records of last year.
Washington's star has continued to rise quickly in 2016, as he's gotten major press coverage from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, and many other mainstream media outlets, and has been touring to enthusiastic and often sold-out houses.. Today's final clip is a concert version of The Epic, recorded last August for NPR's "Jazz Night In America".
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
With the weather taking a timely spring-like turn, it's a very busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a couple of touring headliners in town plus visits by some lesser-known but worthy musicians from NYC, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans.
The two have been touring together since last year in support of Dee Dee's Feathers, a collaborative album featuring contemporary interpretations of famous songs associated with Mayfield's hometown of New Orleans. For more about that, and some video samples of Bridgewater, Mayfield and their touring band, the New Orleans 7, in action, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.
Wednesday also is the opening night for Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing, a play at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis that includes in its cast saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person, who's in from NYC to make his theatrical debut in the production.
Set in 1947, the play by Trey Ellis and Ricardo Khan is a story of "baseball by day and jazz by night as the impassioned and devoted players tried to find their place in a country on the verge of change." Playing a character called simply "Jazzman," Person will act and perform music composed for the play by Kansas City saxophonist and former Jazz Messenger Bobby Watson. The production runs through April 10 on The Rep's main stage.
Thursday, March 17
The critically acclaimed Chicago-based singer Tammy McCann(pictured, center left) will kick off the weekend's Gaslight Cabaret Festival shows with a performance of "The Storytellers - Sarah, Ella, Dinah and Billie" at the Gaslight Theater, while another Chicago native now based in Boston, drummer Yoron Israel, will bring his band High Standards to the Kranzberg Arts Center.
Friday, March 18
The touring theatrical production "In The Mood", a nostalgic evocation of the Swing Era featuring live music from an onstage big band, will be presented in matinee and evening performances at the Touhill Peforming Arts Center; and singer Marissa Mulder returns from NYC to present the first of two performance of a new show, "Fragments of Marilyn" at the Gaslight Theater.
Saturday, March 19
Another Chicago-based singer, Keri Johnsrud, will be making her St. Louis debut in concert with her quartet at The Chapel, while New Orleans keyboardist Joe Krown and his organ trio, featuring guitarist Walter "Wolfman" Washington and drummer Russell Batiste Jr. will bring the funk to the Broadway Oyster Bar.
Sunday, March 20
Pianist Jon Weber, in town to accompany Tammy McCann and Melissa Mulder, gets his own moment in the spotlight with "From Joplin to Jarrett: 100 Years of Piano Jazz" at the Gaslight Theater; and the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro.
Also on Sunday, NYC-based saxophonist Michael Eaton will perform with organist Brad Whiteley and drummer Shareef Taher at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups. They'll be playing music from Eaton's 2014 album Individuation and previewing material from his planned next album Dialogical, which is scheduled to be recorded at live sessions next month in Brooklyn.
Monday, March 21
The eclectic ensemble Pink Martini(pictured, lower left), which draws on jazz, classical, Latin, and pop music to create a singularly suave sound, will make their St. Louis debut in a performance 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.)
Today, let's look at some videos of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who are coming to St. Louis to perform starting Wednesday, March 16 and continuing through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro.
Already well-established as individual artists, Bridgewater and Mayfield joined forces for the first time in 2015 to collaborate on the album Dee Dee's Feathers, which features the two of them with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and assorted guest stars playing songs associated with New Orleans.
Up above, you can see a brief "making of" video put together by their label OKeh Records to promote the release of Dee Dee's Feathers.
After the jump, you can see Bridgewater, Mayfield, and their touring band the New Orleans 7 performing "Saint James Infirmary" and "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" at a gig last October in Brussels.
Below that, there's a version of "One Fine Thing" recorded at the 2015 Festival Jazz à l'Hospitalet in Narbonne, France, followed by a brief commentary on the song by Bridgewater and Mayfield, and an in-studio performance of "House of the Rising Sun".
In the final video, shot in August of last year at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Bridgewater and Mayfield are interviewed for the museum's video show The Drop, and then are joined by students from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Ensemble to perform music from Dee Dee's Feathers.
Today, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, giving you an advance look at some of the noteworthy bands and musicians who will be playing in St. Louis during the next several months. (You can see part one here and part two here.)
Following the chronological progression established in those first two installments, the first video up above features the Chicago-based group Spektral Quartet, who will be coming to town to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music Center. The quartet, which plays both new works by contemporary composers and interpretations of canonical classical music, is seen here in a 2015 performance of Philip Glass' String Quartet No 2 "Company".
After the jump, you can see a video of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who will be co-headlining shows starting Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Bridgewater and Mayfield last year joined forces to record an album of New Orleans music called Dee Dee's Feathers, and have been touring together in support, playing shows including the one last summer in San Sebastian, Spain that's documented here.
The following weekend, trumpeter Byron Stripling will return to front the Jazz St. Louis Big Band for a "Tribute to Clark Terry" on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 at the Bistro. In the third clip, you can see Stripling, who very early in his career played in Terry's big band, being interviewed about his former employer in conjunction with another tribute to Terry presented last year by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, which Stripling directs.
The week after that, the all-star SFJazz Collective will return to St. Louis for the first time since 2007 as part of their tour featuring interpretations of music made famous by the late singer and self-proclaimed "King of Pop," Michael Jackson. They'll play Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2 at Jazz at the Bistro, and can be seen here performing a Warren Wolf arrangement of Jackson's "Working Day And Night" at last year's Winter Jazz Festival in NYC.
Next to visit our city will be the veteran pianist Kenny Barron, who's returning with his trio on Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7 to the Bistro. Barron, who played the Bistro last year in a duo with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, is seen here playing "Triste," backed by bassist Chuck Bergeron and drummer Evan Hyde in a performance last spring at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.
Later that same week, the Bistro will host another ad hoc group of musicians brought to St. Louis to work with students in Jazz St. Louis' various educational programs, as clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh join forces to perform on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.
Since the group is being assembled specifically for the occasion, the only way to preview it would seem to be to take a look at each of the individual musicians in turn, starting with the sixth video, which shows Cohen performing "In The Spirit of Baden" with her quartet in November 2015 in the studios of KPLU in Seattle.
Below that, you can see Hill's set from the semifinals 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition - which he eventually won - recorded in November, 2014 at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles, California. Hill is accompanied by the 2014 competition band, with former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Carl Allen on drums.
Then, you can see Oh leading her quartet in a performance of her original composition "Yoda," recorded in June of last year for the podcast BreakThruRadioTV. Today's final clip features Wilson (who was just at the Bistro in December with his Christmas Tree-O) and his band Arts and Crafts performing "Free Range Chicken" in 2013 at radio station KMHD in Portland, OR.
Next week, it's part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
While this week's big event for jazz and creative music in St. Louis is the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, featuring a number of nationally known touring musicians, there also are plenty of noteworthy performances featuring local players coming up in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...
On Thursday, clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson will open the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival by teaming up for two sets at Jazz at the Bistro. You can read StLJN's interview with Cohen here, and see a video preview of all of the festival acts here. Also, the St. Louis Beacon has a preview story about the festival by Terry Perkins here; and Matt Wilson talked with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson (no relation) for a brief article that can be found online here.
On Friday, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival continues with the Monterey Jazz Festival 55th Anniversary Tour at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The all-star band features singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Benny Green, drummer Lewis Nash, saxophonist Chris Potter, and trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire. The UMSL Big Band, directed by bassist and GSLJF head honcho Jim Widner, will open the show. For more, see the preview stories about as well as Bridgewater's interview with the Post's Calvin Wilson, which can be found online here.
On Saturday, the GSLJF concludes with a performance from the Doc Severinsen Big Band at the Touhill. The veteran Tonight Show trumpeter (pictured), still quite capable at age 85, has a band reportedly stocked with top players from the West Coast, including the great tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, which should make for a enjoyable evening of music. The UMSL Big Band will open the show.
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.)
Student jazz bands from around the area will take part in workshops and adjudications during the three days of the event at the University of Missouri St. Louis, but for the general public, the action begins on Thursday night when clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson team up for a performance at the Bistro.
Up above, you can see Cohen playing her composition "Anat's Dance" at a gig last June in Washington, DC, backed by pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Daniel Freedman. For more about Cohen and additional videos of her performing, check out this post that preceded her headlining gig at the Bistro in February of last year.
As has been the case for the past several years, the GSLJF's Thursday night show will feature a combination of musicians who usually don't work together - in this case, Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson, who's played in St. Louis with his band Arts & Crafts several times in recent years. Down below, you can see Arts & Crafts performing Wilson's tune "Bubbles," in a video shot last year at NYC's Tribeca Arts Center. Along with Wilson, that's Terell Stafford on trumpet, Gary Versace on keyboards and Martin Wind on bass.
A couple of the members of Monterey Jazz Festival all-star band also have played here recently with their own groups, and were featured at that time in a video post here. You can see clips of Chris Potter in this post from last December and this one from February 2011, and videos of Christian McBride in posts from 2009 and 2010.
As for the rest of the ensemble, in the next embed window down below you can see trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, performing last year with his band at the Jazz Standard in NYC. Below that, there's a clip of Dee Dee Bridgewater and Benny Green, whipping up a duet on "All Blues" earlier this year while visiting the studios of radio station WPLU in Tacoma, WA.
The final two clips feature Doc Severinsen, who gained national fame as the longtime bandleader for NBC's Tonight Show during Johnny Carson's tenure as host, and remains remarkably active today at age 85. In addition to performing with his big band and the small group San Miguel Five, Severinsen continues to do educational events and make guest appearances similar to the one depicted in today's fifth clip, which shows him performing "The September Song" with the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble just last year at the National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University.
Contrast that with the sixth clip, a vintage Severinsen performance of "Blues In The Night" and "Sunday Morning" recorded way back in 1965 for a local charity telethon in Louisville, Kentucky. While Severinsen's tone and range might not be quite what they were nearly 50 years ago, it's impressive and inspiring to see the degree to which he's been able to maintain his skills at an age when most brass musicians have long since retired.
Severinsen's big band draws on material from his recording career, famous standards, and the book of arrangements used by the Tonight Show band, and features some top-drawer players from the West Coast, including the great tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts. Although there no doubt will be some familiar favorites in the set list, Severinsen's remarks at the start of the clip from 2012 would suggest that he's not content just to relive the past.
You might say this week's menu of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis has a sort of Noah's Ark vibe to it. The performances are coming in pairs, including two female vocalists, two versatile saxophonists, and two shows with an experimental/free improv bent.
It all gets started on Thursday, when Chicago percussionist Frank Rosaly does a solo show of music from his new recording Milkwork at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Rosaly uses both acoustic and electric instruments, touches on a wide variety of genres, and also incorporates free improvisation and unconventional techniques into his pieces. You can see a brief interview with Rosaly and hear some of his music in the embedded video window at the bottom of this post.
If you're in the mood for something a bit more mainstream, that same evening clarinetist Scott Alberici will perform some straight-ahead swing in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.
Also on Friday, Chicago saxophonist Frank Catalano opens a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. Known as a high-energy player who can swing hard or go outside if the situation warrants it, Catalano played in St. Louis last September for the now-defunct Tuesday night jazz series at the Gramophone, and then was invited to make his Bistro debut this year. To see a couple of videos of Catalano, check out this post.
On Saturday evening, singer Dee Dee Bridgewater kicks off the 2009-10 jazz series at the Sheldon Concert Hall with a program paying tribute to Billie Holiday. (You can see a couple of videos of Bridgewater in the above noted "dueling divas" post here.
Also on Saturday, saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person (pictured) returns home for the first time since 2007 for a gig at the Ambassador. Person will be playing songs from his most recent CD Rhythm Edge as well as his upcoming release The Grand Illusion, backed by the Midwest edition of his band Meta-Four with Bryan Harrison (keyboards), John King (bass) and Kevin Kelley (drums).
That same evening, keyboardist and composer James Hegarty performs at the Kranzberg Arts Center in a concert presented by New Music Circle. Hegarty's performance, called "eXscapement," is a collaboration with his artist daughter Anna that was inspired by their recent trip to Japan.
Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday morning the Sheldon starts their season series of Coffee Concerts with a George Gershwin tribute by singer Debby Lennon and pianist Carolbeth True. (There's another performance on Wednesday morning, too.)
For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.
(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.)
Next week will be another busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and among the visitors to our fair city will be two well-known female vocalists, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Ann Hampton Callaway.
Callaway will be in town on Friday night at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to sing at the kickoff event for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, while Bridgewater will perform her tribute to Billie Holiday on Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall. While the two divas won't actually be dueling in person - yr. humble editor's fondness for alliterative headlines notwithstanding - we do have an opportunity to compare and contrast samples of their work right here.
Up top, you can see both women swinging, as Bridgewater sings "Shiny Stockings" with the Italian Big Band and Callaway revisits the famous Ella Fitzgerald arrangement of "How High The Moon" with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Down below, it's ballad time from the same two gigs, with Bridgewater crooning "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and Callaway singing "Body and Soul".
The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced that jazz DJ, historian and photographer Dennis Owsley will present a series of pre-concert talks before each performance in their 2009-2010 jazz series. The talks will begin at 7:10 p.m. before each 8:00 p.m. concert, and are "designed to introduce new audiences to jazz and deepen the impact of the touring artists’ appearances."
The Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series concert dates, performers and lecture topics will be:
Saturday, October 3 - Dee Dee Bridgewater - "The Triumph of Billie Holiday" Saturday, November 7 - Nicholas Payton - "The New Orleans and St. Louis Trumpet Tradition” Saturday, January 23 - Eliane Elias - “The Lure of Latin Jazz" Saturday, April 10 - Cyrus Chestnut - "Jazz Piano Giants" Saturday, May 1 - Steve Tyrell - "The Great American Songbook"
Owsley's talks are funded through a new Mid-America Arts Alliance grant to support “Community Engagement with Touring Artists” (CETA). The grant will also fund visits by Owsley to visit three towns (yet to be selected) in Missouri and Illinois to give talks on jazz to community groups.
Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:
* Let's start, as we often do, with some Miles Davis-related items. The Montreal Jazz Festival has announced that the ensemble for the "Miles From India" concert on July 4 at the Theatre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts will include bassist Darryl Jones, whose first big-time gig was with Miles and who now plays with the Rolling Stones, and the Indian percussionist Selvaganesh, a member of the group Remember Shakti.
On a related note, here a review done for AllAboutJazz.com by Martin Longley of a "Miles From India" performance in late May at NYC's Iridium. Also, via Miles Davis Online, we learn that drummer Jimmy Cobb and an edition of his So What band featuring Wallace Roney on trumpet did a Kind of Blue tribute at last weekend's Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.
* Turning to news of coming attractions, singer Kurt Elling is performing songs from his new CD Dedicated to You this week at NYC's Birdland, and the news Web site/cable channel NY1 has a feature story with accompanying video. Elling will be in St. Louis in December at Jazz at the Bistro to perform material from the CD, which re-imagines songs from the famous collaboration of singer Johnny Hartman and saxophone legend John Coltrane.
* Here's a review for AAJ.com by Chris M. Slawecki of Bach in Havana, the new CD from Tiempo Libre. The band will perform in St. Louis next year at Washington University's Edison Theatre.
* Speaking of the Sheldon, here's a review, written by Jerry D'Souza for AllABoutJazz.com, of guitarist Frank Vignola's Live at the Sheldon DVD from Mel Bay Records. Vignola's most recent St. Louis appearance was in May at Jazz at the Bistro.
* Banjo player Bela Fleck, who brought his Africa Project tour to the Sheldon in April, also is doing some duo concerts with Toumani Diabate. Fleck and Diabate were just in Tuscon, AZ, and were featured in the Tucson Weekly.
* Lastly, a few items from the "general interest" files, starting with the unfortunate news that Jazz Times magazine has suspended publication. The mag hopes to find new owners and get back to publishing soon, but given the current economic climate, it's far from a done deal. Howard Mandel has details at his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog here.
* Meanwhile, the once very popular smooth jazz radio format continues to take a beating around the U.S.A, with more stations changing formats to rock music or talk in recent weeks. There's an interesting piece here from the Contra Costa Times (which covers communities near the Bay Area in California) that looks at this trend, noting that the whole notion of "smooth jazz" as a category of music was largely a creation of radio programmers.
* In happier news, the always interesting online jazz magazine Point of Departure has a new issue online. * The Jazz Journalists Association Awards for this year were announced last Tuesday, and the list of winners includes several musicians who have performed in St. Louis in the past year, such as trumpeter Terence Blanchard, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and electric bassist Steve Swallow. See the entire list of 2009 award recipients here.
* And in my favorite quirky-story-with-a-happy-ending of the week, drums and other music gear that had belonged to the late Max Roach and were stolen after his death turned up last week in an unlikely place: a barn in Byrdstown, TN. The gear is now on its way back to Roach's heirs; read the whole "lost and found" story here.
In an article written for the Post-Dispatch by pop critic Kevin Johnson, the Sheldon Concert Hall has announced the schedule of performers for its various 2009-10 season series. As outlined in the story, the Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series looks like this:
Saturday, October 3: Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater in a tribute to Billie Holiday Saturday, November 7: Trumpeter Nicholas Payton Saturday, January 23, 2010: Pianist and singer Eliane Elias Saturday, April 10: Pianist Cyrus Chestnut plays the music of Elvis Presley Saturday, May 1: Singer Steve Tyrell
The Sheldon's Web site has a brief announcement on the front page directing current season subscribers to Metrotix for renewals, but currently has no other information about the 2009-10 season. New subscriptions to the Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series will go on sale May 13, with single ticket sales beginning in August.
While overall this seems like a solid lineup of mainstream jazz performers, it strikes me as being, once again, a bit too familiar and risk-averse. The only one of these musicians who hasn't already played St. Louis in recent years is Elias, and none of them can be considered innovative, cutting-edge or even particularly involved in any significant current developments in jazz.
And, once again, I'd question the booking of two singers - three, if you count Elias - into a five-concert series, as it seems an excessive concession to commerical considerations. The Sheldon is a great place to hear a concert; I just wish they'd show a bit more imagination and yes, perhaps even some guts, in their season series booking policies.
