Sunday Session: May 24, 2020

Gary Bartz

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Bluesman Lucky Peterson Dies at 55 (Billboard)
* Remembering Michael McClure: The Real Lizard King (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Jorge Santana, Guitarist Who Helped Shape the Sound of Latin Rock with Malo, Is Dead at 68 (WBGO)
* Remembering the passion of Alto Madness creator Richie Cole (Chicago Tribune)
* From Chuck Berry to John Lennon: 8 songs that Paul McCartney couldn’t live without (FarOutMagazine.co.uk)
* Pondering The Future of The Arts – If They Have One (ArtAndSeek.org)
* Pandemic Spurs Marc Ribot, Music Workers Alliance To Demand Economic Fairness (DownBeat)
* Brown Sugar: The Story of Lucille Wilson Armstrong (LouisArmstrongHouse.org)
* Alvin Lucier (BurningAmbulance.com)
* Social distancing in UK clubs “financially unviable”, new survey states (DJMag.com)
* The Durability Of Drummer Rashied Ali’s Survival Records (DownBeat)
* Gene Perla’s Brighter Day (Local802AFM.org)
* For Jazz Legend Gary Bartz, “Hearing is Like A Fingerprint” (Bandcamp.com)
* The Dizzy Chronicles: Legendary jazz musician trapped in Spokane by Mount St. Helens eruption (Spokane Spokesman-Review)
* Archie Shepp: Memoirs of a Gunfighter (Jazz Times)
* What if Louis Armstrong had succumbed to the last pandemic? (Chicago Tribune)
* Exclusive First Look at New Photograph of Blues Legend Robert Johnson (Vanity Fair)
* Ivan Neville on battling back from coronavirus and pneumonia: 'Don't let this take me' (NOLA.com)
* Music Revenue to Drop 25% in 2020, but Long-Term Outlook Is Good: Goldman-Sachs (Variety)
* Jazz Coalition Announces the First Wave of Awardees From Its Commission Fund (WBGO)
* The records that changed my life, from A (Joan Armatrading) to Z (Frank Zappa), and 58 more (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Jazz history lost: How a string of deaths from Covid-19 has left the jazz community in a state of shock (The-TLS.co.uk)
* Grégoire Maret Under The Influence Of ‘Americana’ (DownBeat)
* A Conversation With ...Danny Weis (FYIMusicNews.ca)
* Eric Clapton, B.B. King’s ‘Riding with the King’ to Be Reissued With Two Unreleased Tracks (Rolling Stone)
* How the Coronavirus Is Affecting America’s Vinyl Record Industry (Pitchfork.com)
* An Overdue Ovation for Ernie Watts (Jazz Times)
* Covid Conversations, Volume 2: Deborah Gordon (LarryBlumenfeld.com)
* Stranded musicians surrounded by wolves outside ‘haunted’ castle after bus breaks down (New York Daily News)

Sunday Session: October 7, 2018

Jerry González

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* This Record Label Is What The Future Of Music Business Looks Like (Forbes)
* Wynton Marsalis on his animal ballet, teen funk band days, kazoos and Jazz at Lincoln Center's 31 years (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Q&A: Betty Davis looks back at her fiery funk legacy (Now Toronto)
* It’s Still Not Betty Davis Time, But We’re Getting There (Jazz Times)
* Guggenheim Says Spotify’s Major Label Renegotiations Will Significantly Lower Royalty Obligations (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Tony Bennett & Diana Krall: Streetwise, Yet Sophisticated (DownBeat)
* Jerry González Dies After Fire in His Madrid Home: Report (Billboard)
* Jerry González, Latin Jazz Visionary, Dies After House Fire (NPR)
* Jerry González Dies at 69 (Jazz Times)
* New Doc ‘Fire Music’ Sets the Record Straight on Free Jazz (Rolling Stone)
* Quincy Jones: Celebrating Seven Decades of Music (Billboard)
* Dizzy Gillespie Documentary in the Works (Jazz Times)
* Review: One Note At A Time (Jazz Journal)
* Monterey Jazz Festival Features Highly Charged Performances (DownBeat)
* Tom Petty’s Biographer on the Story He Didn’t Tell (Rolling Stone)
* Jazz Needs A "LeBron James Mentality": A Conversation With The West Coast Get Down's Cameron Graves (SFJAZZ.org)
* How the Music Modernization Act will help artists get paid more from streaming (TheVerge.com)
* How Geoff Emerick Helped the Beatles Reinvent Music (Rolling Stone)
* Geoff Emerick threw himself into the Beatles' experiments (The Guardian)
* Joey Baron’s Deep Listening Manifesto (DownBeat)
* New York Hot Jazz Festival Celebrates Music of New Orleans and Paris (DownBeat)
* Jaimie Branch on International Anthem Fostering Community (DownBeat)
* Hear the Earliest Surviving Radio Broadcast by Duke Ellington, A Historic Find, in Deep Dive (WBGO)
* The 40 Greatest Movie Soundtracks of All Time (Vulture.com)
* Guest Blog: Musicians Deserve More (Offbeat)
* Do Not Seek For Things Outside Yourself: The Compositional Journey of Tyshawn Sorey (BrooklynRail.org)
* Ethan Iverson: At the Crossroads of Jazz and Classical Music (DownBeat)
* The Art Ensemble of Chicago Celebrates 50 Years Of Channeling And Challenging History (NPR)
* Kamasi Washington on Igor Stravinsky, Art Blakey, and a Certain Vintage Arcade Game (WBGO)
* A Look Back At How Virtuoso Jimmy Blanton Changed The Bass Forever (NPR)

Sunday Session: May 20, 2018

Shabaka Hutchings

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* New Orleans Celebrates Itself at Jazz Fest (Jazz Times)
* A Lifetime of Carla Bley (The New Yorker)
* Blanchard's trumpet sounds a call of protest (Minnesota Public Radio)
* Matt Marks, Versatile Composer And Musician, Dies At 38 (NPR)
* Guitarist & Composer Glenn Branca Dies at 69 (Billboard)
* Wynton Marsalis & Ethan Iverson: A Conversation on Jazz & Race (Jazz Times)
* Inside Cumbia's New Wave: How Raymix, Becky G Are Updating a Classic Genre (Rolling Stone)
* New Orleans Festival Hosts Generations (DownBeat)
* Spelman College Quietly Eliminates One Of The Country's Few Jazz Programs For Women (WBGO)
* 'The Jazz Ambassadors': When Dizzy and Satchmo Diplomacy Swung the Cold War (PopMatters.com)
* Checking In With Bob Ciano (NostalgiaKing.com)
* 'Isn't This Amazing?': Brian Eno's Boundless Curiosity (Rolling Stone)
* JazzFest Bonn Tinged by Air of Classical (DownBeat)
* The World of Cecil Taylor (New York Review of Books)
* Now TIDAL is accused of failing to pay record labels on time (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Interview \\ Shabaka Hutchings on taking up space and his account on an unjust police arrest (EZHMag.com)
* YouTube Expanding Music Credits on Videos (Pitchfork.com)
* Why Psychological Analysis Shows We're Right To Worry For Musicians' Mental Health (TheQuietus.com)
* Dweezil Zappa Shares ‘Good News’ Post About Resolving Family Issues (Jambase.com)
* What Artists Get Wrong With Their Vinyl Releases: A Conversation with Masterdisk’s Scott Hull (Reverb.com)
* First Listen: Joshua Redman, 'Still Dreaming' (NPR)
* Someone called 911, but this man’s maple instrument wasn’t a gun. It was a bassoon (Springfield News Sun)
* Mojos Working: A History Of Recorded Blues (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Cecil Taylor (1929-2018), Frank O’Hara, Amiri Baraka (Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets)
* Pianist Ahmad Jamal charted a new popularity for jazz (Wax Poetics)
* Reggie Lucas, Miles Davis Guitarist and Madonna Producer, Dead at 65 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: April 29, 2018

Charles Neville

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Revisit the Historic Night When Dizzy Gillespie Opened for Ray Charles in 1970 (Paste)
* Council’s measures present two paths for American Jazz Museum (Kansas City Business Journal)
* Terence Blanchard Talks New Album 'Live,' Gun Violence & Working With Spike Lee (Billboard)
* NEA Jazz Masters Concert Honors Titans (DownBeat)
* The unit structures of Cecil Taylor (The Wire)
* Photographer Spends 10 Years Tracking Down The Original Locations Of Vinyl Covers (Demilked.com)
* Entertainment lawyer Jay B. Ross fought for the people who made the music he loved (Chicago Reader)
* The Quest to Teach AI to Write Pop Songs (Gizmodo)
* Entire music album to be stored on DNA (ETHZ.ch)
* Steve Miller talks back (Offbeat)
* 'We're on Life Support': Is Streaming Music the Final Note for Professional Songwriters? (Pacific Standard)
* Portland Label Unearths Lost Sun Ra Concert (OPB.org)
* Jazz Foundation Honors Greats, Calls for Assistance (DownBeat)
* Live Review: 2018 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert (Jazz Times)
* “Now That’s What I Call Music!” will be mankind's greatest relic (QZ.com)
* This amazing ring allows people to play instruments using hand gestures (BT.com)
* The Fifth Era of Recorded Music (CopyrightAndTechnology.com)
* The 7 people you see at Jazz Fest in New Orleans (NOLA.com)
* My Country Needs Me: on Sons Of Kemet’s Your Queen Is A Reptile (TheQuietus.com)
* Why Terence Blanchard’s “Live” Matters (Village Voice)
* Music Modernization Act Passes U.S. House Unanimously (Hypebot.com)
* Neville Brothers saxophonist Charles Neville has died at age 79 (New Orleans Advocate)
* Charles Neville Of The Neville Brothers Dies At 79 (NPR)
* Four radical and radically original pieces of music that blew up the modernist status quo in 1968 (Los Angeles Times)
* Professor Longhair at 100: New Orleans Jazz Fest, new DVD celebrate piano legend's legacy (New Orleans Advocate)
* State and Mainstream: The Jazz Ambassadors and the U.S. State Department (AllAboutJazz.com)

Sunday Session: January 21, 2018

Charles Mingus

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Interview: Paul McCartney On His Life as a Bassist | Bacon's Archive (Reverb.com)
* 25 Essential Jazz Soundtracks You Should Own (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* At Umbria, Multi-Media and Perfect Pitch (DownBeat)
* Johnny Cash's 'At Folsom Prison': Rosanne Cash Recalls Iconic Live Album (Rolling Stone)
* Too Much Music: A Failed Experiment In Dedicated Listening (NPR)
* Jimi Hendrix Collaborators on Assembling Guitarist's Long-Awaited New LP (Rolling Stone)
* Two Views From the Winter Jazzfest Marathon, Where Clamor and Conviction Abound (WBGO)
* Anchorage author chronicles 8-year friendship with Dizzy Gillespie (AlaskaPublic.org)
* For Wynton Marsalis, forgetting the roots of jazz is forgetting the history of race in America (The Undefeated.com)
* How Benny Goodman Orchestrated 'The Most Important Concert In Jazz History' (NPR)
* Notations: John Cage Publishes a Book of Graphic Musical Scores, Featuring Visualizations of Works by Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, The Beatles & More (OpenCulture.com)
* Winter Jazzfest Gilded With Guitarists and Vocalists (DownBeat)
* Get The Lawyers In! Experts On The Del Rey vs Radiohead vs Hollies Case (TheQuietus.com)
* Interview: Vijay Iyer on Bay Area ties and how he’s not really that famous (San Jose Mercury News)
* 2018 Winter Jazzfest NYC - An overview of the marathon of jazz concerts and events during the 2018 Winter Jazzfest NYC (Jazz Times)
* Marching The Tradition Forward: Celebration of Preservation Hall Jazz Band (SFJAZZ.org)
* Swinging Along the Border: Charles Mingus' Album 'Tijuana Moods' Finds New Resonance (WBGO)
* Interview: Milford Graves (BombMagazine.org)
* Where To Start: The Cosmic Genius Of Sun Ra (ClashMusic.com)
* London’s young jazz heroes are crafting their own sound (HuckMagazine.com)

Sunday Session: December 10, 2017

Sunny Murray

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Who can fill the role of Tom Lehrer today? (The Economist)
* Pete Escovedo: Rhythms of Life (Jazz Times)
* Paul McCartney’s Lost Experimental Christmas Album That He Made For The Beatles Has Surfaced Online (Uproxx.com)
* Spotify Attorney Estimates the Service Infringed 300,000 Songs in Settlement Hearing (SPIN)
* Why Sun Ra Matters (Philadephia Jazz Project)
* The Problem with Muzak - Spotify’s bid to remodel an industry (The Baffler)
* The Chief of Entertainers - Trumpet virtuoso Dizzy Gillespie was a jazz prophet, a musical genius, and a scatterbrained whirlwind (TheAmericanScholar.org)
* Electrifying Photos of Cuba's Thriving Music Scene (Vice.com)
* Louis Armstrong’s home in Queens is now a museum (Curbed.com)
* Historic Austin Music Venue Is Being Sold on eBay (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Lloyd Price's Personality: Long Live The Real King! (JazzWeekly.com)
* David Bowie Sang For Devo, and Mark Mothersbaugh Might Have the Tapes (BedfordAndBowery.com)
* How I Got 10,000 Spotify Plays For a Totally Fake Song (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Last.fm Was the Only Music Social Network That Made Sense (Vice.com)
* Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins on Retiring His Sax, His Legacy, and the Secret to Life (Vulture.com)
* Quincy Jones is about to launch the 'Netflix of jazz' (Mashable.com)
* Next Wave Forever: John Cale at Seventy-Five (The New Yorker)
* New Jimi Hendrix LP Unearths 10 Previously Unheard Recordings (Rolling Stone)
* Inside the Shady World of the Musical Hologram (Vice.com)
* The Legacy of Buddy Rich (Jazz Times)
* This Kenyan drummer is fighting to make more space for women in percussion (TED.com)
* Eric Clapton Talks Addiction, Cream's Brilliance, the Future of the Guitar (Rolling Stone)
* RIP: Sunny Murray, pioneering free jazz drummer (TinyMixTapes.com)
* Drummer Sunny Murray Dies at 81 (Jazz Times)
* Enacting Change in the Performing Arts World Begins with Changing the Conservatory Culture (AmericansForTheArts.org)
* David Sedaris: Songs for My Father - A conversation with the best-selling author and humorist on his lifelong love of jazz (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: December 3, 2017

The Soul Rebels

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* The Grateful Dead Levitate Egypt’s Pyramids Under A Lunar Eclipse (Flashbak.com)
* Rudy Royston on Cymbal Creativity (Jazz Times)
* A War Is Brewing in the Steely Dan Universe (Vulture.com)
* Walter Becker Estate Responds to Donald Fagen's Steely Dan Lawsuit (Paste)
* 'We could build something revolutionary': how tech set underground music free (The Guardian)
* What Thelonious Monk's Most Famous Composition Owes to Dizzy Gillespie (WBGO)
* Tricky Repertoire: The Soul Rebels step out of the box (Offbeat)
* Within The Context Of All Contexts: The Rewiring Of Our Relationship To Music (NPR)
* Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) (Offbeat)
* Have Scientists Found a Secret Chord for Happy Songs? (Scientific American)
* Jon Hendricks obituary (The Guardian)
* Billy Childs, Fred Hersch and Chris Potter Lead the Jazz Nominees for the 60th Grammy Awards (WBGO)
* The Payola Blues: New Technology, Same Old Tune? (Hhhhappy.com)
* 17 of the Greatest Televised Moments in Music History (Soundfly.com)
* John McLaughlin on his final US tour and playing with Miles Davis (Chicago Tribune)
* Mel Martin, Stalwart of the Bay Area Jazz Scene, Dead at 75 (KQED)
* Kurt Elling Channels Divinity, Philosophy, and Poetry into Jazz (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* What the hell’s happening to music’s trade press? (And what does it mean for the rest of us?) (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* A Brief History of Funk (Afropop.org)
* What Music-Playing Plants Can Teach Us About Consciousness (Hyperallergic.com)
* Clarke Peters: from green hair to good times, Louis Jordan brought joy to my world (The Guardian)
* Antonio Sanchez: Immigrant Songs (Jazz Times)
* Deck the Halls with Vince Guaraldi (The New Yorker)
* Hermeto Pascoal's Music Reaches Far Into The Stratosphere (NPR)
* The Tree That Rocked The Music Industry (NPR)
* Mickey Hart On His Experimental New Solo Album And Why It’s Impossible For Him To Leave The Grateful Dead (Uproxx.com)
* Jimmy Iovine Breaks Down What's Wrong With the Music Business, Warns Against Overoptimism in Streaming: 'They're Not Making Money' (Billboard)
* For Women in Jazz, a Year of Reckoning and Recognition (New York Times)

Sunday Session: April 2, 2017

Regina Carter

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Streaming Music Services, From Most Screwed to Least Screwed (Gizmodo)
* Hardware Store With a Jazzy Past Prepares to End its 95-Year Run (WTTW)
* How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Music Making (Billboard)
* With a big benefactor, Detroit Jazz Festival aims to find other revenue sources (CrainsDetroit.com)
* Fragments of Louis Armstrong when he was on the cusp of greatness (New Orleans Times-Picayune/NOLA.com)
* How inner city apartment developments have killed Australian rock’n’roll (Domain.com.au)
* Here’s how technology is fueling the home-recording industry (DailyNews.com)
* Orrin Evans Among Headliners of Inaugural Philly Jazz Fest (DownBeat)
* Big Ears 2017: Where Jeff Tweedy Is Noise Star, Symphony Plays on Floor (Rolling Stone)
* Chick Corea Announces ‘The Musician’ Documentary Film & Live Album (Jambase.com)
* The Microscopic Septet - Pioneers Across Jazz Boundaries (PopMatters.com)
* Meet the encephalophone: An instrument you can play with your mind, just by thinking (Seattle Times)
* Carter Honors First Lady of Song with New Ella Tribute Album (DownBeat)
* Q&A with ‘I Called Him Morgan’ Filmmaker Kasper Collin (DownBeat)
* Jazz great Arthur Blythe, who grew up in San Diego, is dead at 76 (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Dizzy in the Daylight (New York Review of Books)
* Sculpting Sound: The Life of a Field Recordist (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts Plots New Big Band Record (Rolling Stone)
* Where Have All The Bob Seger Albums Gone? (NPR)
* Once We Listened to the Beatles. Now We Eat Beetles. (Bloomberg.com)
* When a record label gets into making cool, weird instruments (Create Digital Music)
* Big Ears Festival Embraces Jazz Experimentalism (DownBeat)
* Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Talks Jazz as Protest Music, Trap Influence (Rolling Stone)
* The Poetry of Pop (The Paris Review)
* Monterey Jazz Festival Announces Lineup and Artists-in-Residence (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Allan Holdsworth: “The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever” (DownBeat)
* Artificial Intelligence: Your New Best Friend? (ProSoundNetwork.com)
* Was Chuck Berry the lone genius he’s made out to be? (TheConversation.com)
* U.S. Music Industry Sees First Double Digit Growth in Almost 20 Years as Streaming Takes Over (Billboard)
* Never Mind Her Stellar Jazz Career, Young Ella Fitzgerald Just Wanted to Dance (Smithsonian)
* 7 Indie Labels On How Technology Has Changed Their World (Pitchfork)

Sunday Session: August 23, 2015

Diana Krall

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* A Radical Plan to Save the Big Music Labels: Shrink the Big Music Labels (ReCode)
* A Classic 1970s Synthesizer Is Reborn for the 21st Century (Wired)
* The Quest for Fire Music: Documenting the Free Jazz Revolution (New York Observer)
* The wonders of the internet – listen to John Cage and Morton Feldman in conversation (The Guardian UK)
* The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (Rolling Stone)
* Does ‘Rolling Stone’ Know It Declared Songwriting Dead? (FlavorWire)
* Review: Diana Krall aces jazz, struggles with pop in Oakland (Contra Costa Times)
* The Least Historically Accurate Music Biopics Ever Made (Vulture)
* Gene Kelly as jazz icon: Widow’s program celebrates his art (SF Gate)
* Curtis Institute and the case of Nina Simone (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Jazz Heavyweight Terence Blanchard Won't Turn a Blind Eye (Mother Jones)
* Spirit Of Protest Spun From Blues And Avant-garde (Classical Voice America)
*  TO IRONY AND BEYOND (MoreIntelligentLife.com)
* 'We’ll retire at 106. What else can we do?' The rockers who won't call it a day (The Guardian UK)
* Organized chaos - A Q&A with Alvin Fielder (Arkansas Times)
* Hurricane Katrina and the Healing Power of Jazz (Time)
* 10 Years After Katrina, New Orleans' Brass Bands March On (NPR)
* The 250 Best-Selling Musicians of All Time (Digital Music News)
* How 'Playola' Is Infiltrating Streaming Services: Pay for Play Is 'Definitely Happening' (Billboard)
* A Rational Conversation: Does Anybody Even Have Time For An 80-Minute Album? (NPR)
* Studies Show that the Brains of Jazz, Folk and Classical Musicians Are Not Equal (Mic.com)
* From Nation Time to management time (The Wire UK)
* Javon Jackson Still Learns from the Masters (DownBeat)
* How Widespread Is Ghostwriting in Music and How OK With It Should You Be? (Vice.com)
* How John Birch helped inspire a Dizzy Gillespie presidential run (Boston Globe)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* An early-week set at NYC's Village Vanguard from Trio 3, featuring former St. Louisan Oliver Lake on saxophone, Reggie Workman on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums, got a favorable review from the New York Times' Nate Chinen.

Trio 3 continues there, as noted by some of the Vanguard's characteristically idiosyncratic signage (pictured), through tomorrow night.

* The Sheldon has posted on Facebook a photo album from last Saturday's performance by the Dizzy Gillespie Afro Cuban Experience.

* And while we're talking photo albums, you can see some shots from the Funky Butt Brass Band's gig Wednesday at the World Chess Hall of Fame here.

* Sarah Ulrich of Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes and her residence, the Deco Fortress, are featured in an article in the April issue of Alive! magazine titled "Offbeat Abodes."

* "Josephine and I," a new one-woman show about the legendary entertainer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker now playing at Joe's Pub in NYC, is one of several current theatrical productions reviewed by The New Yorker's Hilton Als.

* Singer/actor Meghan Kirk's show last week for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor has booked two NYC dates for The Baylor Project in May, with gigs set for Friday, May 8 at the Apollo Music Cafe (part of the famed Apollo Theater) and Monday, May 18 at the Blue Note.

* The PledgeMusic campaign for David Sanborn's new album Time and the River is almost over, but you can still get a signed CD, autographed lead sheet, or another pledge premium if you contribute before the official release date on Tuesday, April 7. For more info, visit http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/davidsanborn/exclusives.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson “Somethin’ Else” celebrates 100 episodes with new music from Diana Krall, Bobby McFerrin, Bill Frisell, and more.

Then on "The Jazz Collective", host Jason Church will play tracks from Nathan Woodward, The JT Project, Ken Navarro, Rick Braun, Rock Candy Funk Party, Al Jarreau, Jesse Cook, Chuck Mangione, Rodney Franklin, Manhattan Transfer, George Benson, Common Time, and more.

"Somethin' Else" can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by "The Jazz Collective" at 9:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience, Kneebody, Jazz Edge Big Band, and more

It's looking like the busiest weekend so far this year for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of touring bands and musicians passing through town in the next few days, as well as some particularly noteworthy shows from local players.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 18
The eclectic quintet Kneebody makes their St. Louis debut, opening a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Although their instrumentation (trumpet, sax and rhythm section) may seen familiar, Kneebody pulls in a lot of influences from beyond the jazz tradition, ranging from punk rock to contemporary classical. You can see and hear the results for yourself in this video showcase post from last Saturday.   

Also tonight, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at the Tavern of Fine Arts

Thursday, March 19
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Friday, March 20
The 2015 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival opens with a concert featuring a ad hoc group fronted by saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini, trombonist Steve Wiest, and trumpeter Clay Jenkins at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The UMSL Jazz Ensemble will open the show. 

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; and the Sentimental Journey Dance Band performs at Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, March 21
The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Led by Dizzy Gillespie’s long-term bassist John Lee, the group pays tribute to Gillespie’s pioneering efforts to fuse jazz and Latin music in the 1940s and 50s, with a repertoire featuring the trumpeter's compositions as well as contemporary Latin jazz that draws on the tradition he helped establish.

Back at the Touhill, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival continues with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Led by bassist John Clayton, his brother, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton, and often featuring St. Louis native Keith Fiddmont in the saxophone section, the Los Angeles-based big band is a hard-swinging outfit with original charts that puts contemporary touches on the mainstream tradition, not unlike a West Coast version of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Also on Saturday, singer/actress Anna Blair will perform music composed by a famous former St. Louisan in her show "Inside Story - The Songs of Fran Landesman" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be swinging at the Backstreet Jazz and Blues Club at Westport; guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio adds singer Feyza Eren as special guest for a gig at The Wolf; and drummer Montez Coleman and Friends play at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Sunday, March 22
The Jazz Edge Big Band will present a "Salute to St. Louis Women in Jazz" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Inspired by Women's History Month, the concert will feature the 17-piece band and guest performers including singers Marsha Evans and Denise Thimes, trumpeter/singer Dawn Weber, pianist Carolbeth True, and saxophonist Hope Walker playing "jazz standards and also a few soon to be standards."

Monday, March 23
Guitarist and St. Louis native Daryl Darden, who's been based on the West Coast in recent years, will be back home for a performance at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and pianist Matt Villinger will play while artist Vesna Delevska paints at Tavern of Fine Arts.

Tuesday, March 24
Keyboardist Jim Hegarty doubles down on his Off Topic trio to launch STL, The Free Jazz Septet with a debut performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts. In addition to Hegarty, the septet includes Off Topic members Paul Steinbeck on bass and Gary Sykes on drums, plus "Baba" Mike Nelson (trumpet, shells, poetry), Jay Dubz (alto sax, percussion, vocals), John Tamm-Buckle (electronics), and Michael Castro (poetry).

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.)

The Sheldon offering $25 tickets for Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Metrotix are offering a substantial discount on tickets for the performance by the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience next Saturday, March 21 at The Sheldon.

Led by Gillespie's former bassist John Lee and featuring percussionist Machito, Jr., the namesake and son of Gillespie's famed collaborator, the six-piece group (pictured) performs a variety of material associated with the legendary trumpeter who helped invent bebop and pioneered the combination of jazz and Latin rhythms.

With the discount, tickets for the show, regularly priced at $45 for orchestra seats or $40 for the balcony, can be purchased for just $25 each.

To take advantage of the offer, use the promotional code DIZZY25 when ordering your tickets online at www.metrotix.com/promotions, by phone at 314-534-1111, or in person at any Metrotix outlet or at the Fox Theater box office, 531 N. Grand Blvd.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part three of StLJN's preview of touring jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the first part of 2015. (You can see parts one and two, covering January and the first part of February, here and here.)

Our first two clips feature cellist Okkyung Lee and saxophonist Lotte Anker, who will be performing separate sets in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 21 at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave.

The video up above is from Lee's performance at the High Zero 2014 festival, held in September at a venue called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in Baltimore. After the jump, you can see Anker perform a rather unusual piece for saxophone and bow, recorded October 21, 2014 at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. (For lots more of Anker, see this previous video showcase posted before her appearance here in St. Louis in March, 2013.)

After the edgy improvisations of Lee and Anker, you can enjoy some more traditional sounds courtesy of trumpeter Byron Stripling, who will perform for one night only on Saturday, February 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. Stripling played here in St. Louis most recently in May 2014, doing his "Gospel According to Swing" show with the St. Louis Symphony. 

In this clip from 2013, he's fronting the Naples Jazz Orchestra in a version of the standard "Bourbon Street Parade." For more of Stripling, see this post, which ran before last appearance at the Bistro in 2012.

The next video features singer Rene Marie, who was a familiar face in St. Louis in the early 2000s. She made a number of live appearances here while signed to the locally based label MAXJAZZ, for whom she recorded five albums between 1999 and 2004. She'll return for the first time in a decade to perform Wednesday, March 4 through Saturday, March 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Those gigs likely will feature some material from I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt), her most recent recording released in 2013 on the Motema Music label. This live-in-the-studio clip of "I'd Rather Be Burned As a Witch" from that album features a band including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and trumpeter Etienne Charles.

The following week, New Music Circle will present On Fillmore, aka percussionist Glenn Kotche and bassist and Belleville, IL native Darin Gray, in a concert on Saturday, March 14 at The Stage at KDHX.

The duo have made four albums and a couple of soundtracks together since first joining forces in 2000, and gained additional notice in 2013 when they toured with "Apocalyptical," a live show produced by the makers of public radio program "Radiolab." In this clip, recorded in 2013 at Audio Rebel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they're playing a piece called "Complications."

Today's sixth clip features Kneebody, who will be making their St. Louis debut with performances from Wednesday, March 18 through Saturday, March 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. Band members Adam Benjamin (keyboards), Shane Endsley (trumpet), Ben Wendel (tenor sax) and Kaveh Rastegar (bass) first met in the late 1990s while they all were students at the Eastman Conservatory.

With drummer Nate Wood, they formed Kneebody in 2000 and since then have recorded nine albums of eclectic instrumental music that touches on styles from jazz to punk rock to the compositions of Charles Ives. In this clip, they're playing "Cha Cha" from their 2013 album The Line in a gig at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles.

Today's seventh and final video features the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience, who will be in St. Louis to perform on Saturday, March 21 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The tribute group is led by bassist John Lee, who played with Gillespie for many years, and also includes percussionist Mario Grillo, aka "Machito Jr," son of the famed Latin bandleader Frank "Machito" Grillo.

The band's front line features trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's played frequently with former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, and saxophonist Sharel Cassity, with guitarist Yotam Silberstein and drummer Robby Ameen completing the lineup. They're seen here in an excerpt from a show in 2013 in Sofia, Bulgaria, playing "Manteca," the seminal Latin-jazz number composed in 1947 by Gillespie, percussionist Chano Pozo, and Gil Fuller.

Look for part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2015 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump.

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2014-15 season schedule

The Sheldon Concert Hall today announced the schedules for their various 2014-15 subscription series and special concerts, and as usual, there's some programming that will be of interest to StLJN readers.

With regard to the Sheldon's main jazz series, as tipped here on StLJN back in December 2013, it will get underway this fall with concerts featuring pianist Chick Corea (Saturday, October 11) and guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo (Saturday, November 15).

Also on tap for the jazz series is the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience (Saturday, March 21, 2015), which is led by the late, legendary trumpeter's former bassist John Lee. The current iteration of the group also includes Mario "Machito Jr." Grillo, son of the famed percussionist, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's played in the Gillespie memorial big band and worked with former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, among others; plus saxophonist Sharel Cassity, guitarist Yotam Silberstein, and drummer Robby Ameen.

Perhaps the most intriguing jazz series offering is the final one, as the much-talked-about singer Cécile McLorin Salvant (pictured) will make her St. Louis debut at the Sheldon on Saturday, May 2, 2015.

Winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Vocals Competition, the 24-year-old Salvant was raised in Miami but went to Paris to study music. After winning the Monk competition, her career gained momentum in the States thanks to her work with pianist Jacky Terrasson and with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and took off in earnest with the release last year of her American debut album WomanChild.

As for the rest of the Sheldon's 2014-15 schedule, pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series with concerts on Friday, November 21 and Friday, February 27, with the specifics of both programs TBA.

Also returning will be the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound*, whose first performance of their third St. Louis season will be as part of "250 Years of St. Louis Music: American Music at its Best!" a special event on Friday, October 17 that also will include jazz, blues, ragtime and more from Denise Thimes, Peter Martin, Kim Massie, Billy Peek, and other St. Louis favorites.

On their own, AWS will perform in concert on Saturday, December 11 - tentatively scheduled to be the North American premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's extended work The Hunger - and on Friday, January 23 and Thursday, May 28, 2015.

The Coffee Concerts series will include performances from Cornet Chop Suey (Tuesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 8) and Swing Set (Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22, 2015), and the St. Louis Stompers will play a non-subscription Coffee Concert on Tuesday, February 10, 2015. Miss Jubilee also will put in an appearance, playing an 11 a.m. Saturday matinee on March 7, 2015.

Lastly, a couple of the "special concerts" may be of interest as well. South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela will perform with singer Vusi Mahlasela in a program called "20 Years of Freedom" on Saturday, October 4, and though the evening ostensibly will focus on "South Africa’s Freedom Songs," I'll bet you a nickel that Masekela finds a way to work in a bit of "Grazin' In The Grass" before the night is over.

Also, fans of big band, Latin jazz and/or Brazilian music may want to check out SpokFrevo Orquestra on Sunday, November 2. Led by Brazilian saxophonist Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, aka Spok, the 18-piece big band mixes jazz with frevo, a carnival rhythm and musical genre popular in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

Subscription tickets for the jazz series are $150 orchestra, $135 balcony. Subscriptions also are available for the Coffee Concerts and Peter Martin series. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 12 and continue through the first concert in each series.

Single tickets for the jazz series range from $35 to $50, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday,August 9 via MetroTix. You can find all the details on subscriptions, single ticket prices, and all the various series at the Sheldon on their website. 

* As mentioned here several times before, yr. humble StLJN editor is employed by a local public relations firm to, among other things, assist Alarm Will Sound with publicity in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. However, given the scope of StLJN's coverage, I'd be mentioning them even if I wasn't working for them. Now that you know this information, I trust that you, the reader, are capable of making your own judgments about any AWS-related hype and/or potential conflicts of interest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz Film Festival Summer 2013

It's summer vacation time, and today we take a respite from the usual routine of previewing upcoming jazz shows in St. Louis to present our own little online jazz film festival.

Up above, A Great Day in Harlem is a 1994 documentary film that tells the story behind one of the most famous photos in the history of jazz: the 1958 B&W group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians photographed by Art Kane, a freelancer for Esquire magazine, in front of a brownstone at 17 E. 126 Street in Harlem. The photo has remained an important object in the study of the history of jazz, and the film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Down below is The Swing Thing, a 2008 BBC documentary on swing music and dancing that spotlights some of the most popular groups and singers of the big band era.

Below that is another BBC film, 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz which uses four classic albums - Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come - as a lens through which to examine "the seismic year jazz broke away from complex bebop music to new forms, allowing soloists unprecedented freedom to explore and express."

We close out with three films profiling famous jazz musicians: Buddy Rich - Jazz Legend '17 - '70, a biographical documentary on the great drummer; A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba, which looks at the legendary trumpeter's trip to the island nation for a mid-1980s music festival; and My Name Is Albert Ayler, a 2007 biography of the free jazz saxophonist.