So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes' show this Sunday for the Open Air series at the Grandel Theatre is previewed in a story by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony, a new seven-CD box set featuring previously unheard recordings by the late saxophonist, former St. Louisan and Black Artists Group co-founder Julius Hemphill (pictured), has been released by New World Records

* In an essay in the St. Louis American, Kayla L. Dennis, the aunt of trumpeter Keyon Harrold, opines about the recent incident in which her nephew and his son were assaulted by a woman at a hotel in NTC.

* The latest efforts of local music venues including the Pageant, Old Rock House, and The Sheldon to stay viable during the pandemic are spotlighted in a feature story from St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

* KMOV recalled the death of singer-songwriter and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway by re-airing their 1979 report of his passing.

* And speaking of re-upping vintage content, AllAboutJazz.com has republished a 1998 interview with trumpeter Lester Bowie.

* Jazziz magazine is promoting the new music streaming service Qobuz.com with a specially compiled Miles Davis playlist, "Miles After Dark," which "features 50 laid-back, chilled-out Miles tracks that are sure to ease you into a state of absolute relaxation."

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, the trumpeter's ex-wife, actor Cicely Tyson, who passed away on Thursday night at age 96, talked about her time with Davis in an NPR interview about her new autobiography Just As I Am.

Sunday Session: December 31, 2017

Donny Hathaway

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

* Jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield keeps on making music, despite federal indictment (New Orleans Advocate)
* Is Music Getting Shorter? How Hot 100 Hits Downsized In 2017 (Billboard)
* Holiday travel woes? Try flying with a tuba (Cincinnati Enquirer)
* 'This Christmas': How a Chicago postal worker and Donny Hathaway created a holiday classic (Chicago Tribune)
* The Bad Plus Interviews 2017: Introduction (Bebopified.com)
* Interview: Jamie Saft (Burning Ambulance)
* This Is The Odd Writing Technique Used by David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, and Bob Dylan (Curiosity.com)
* Streaming Services and the End of Music Collection (Variety)
* Brian Eno Presents a Crash Course on How the Recording Studio Radically Changed Music: Hear His Influential Lecture “The Recording Studio as a Compositional Tool” (1979) (OpenCulture.com)
* Hackers Can Rickroll Thousands of Sonos and Bose Speakers Over the Internet (Wired)
* Paul McCartney's One on One Tour Earns $132 Million in 2017 (Billboard)
* Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri Doesn't Miss A Beat at 81 (NPR)
* Sidran, Willis Deliver Intense Sets in Paris (DownBeat)
* In A New Book, A Musician And A Scientist Describe Their Lives At the South Pole (KUT)
* Five visions for the future of music (BBC)
* Deluxe Reissue of Sonny Rollins’ “Way Out West” Out Feb. 16 (Jazz Times)
* 'The Coolest Job In The World': Fenway's Organist Talks Music And Baseball (WBUR)
* Tropicalia Music Still Speaks To Young Marginalized Urban Brazilians (NPR)
* Not dead yet: Record executives fight for compact disc's future (CBC)
* The explosive influence of Chicago’s AACM and the records it created (TheVinylFactory.com)
* A bluesy winter night in New York with Slim Harpo (Salon.com)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Writing for DownBeat, Terry Perkins reported on last week's reunion of former members of the Black Artists Group for a discussion and performance at Jazz at the Bistro.

* The reunion of former BAG members included saxophonist Oliver Lake, who's now playing with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille as Trio 3 at NYC's Village Vanguard through Saturday.  

Lake also was named this week as co-recipient of a $25,000 grant from the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund to support the development and staging of Interruption!, a live performance piece for 14-piece ensemble with music by Rob Reddy and a libretto written and performed by Lake.

* Two St. Louis musicians, drummer Emanuel Harrold and bassist Jahmal Nichols, can be heard on the new album from singer Gregory Porter, which NPR made available online this week for a "First Listen."

* Guitarist Todd Mosby is featured on the latest episode of the podcast A Concert Pitch. Mosby will play music from his new album On Eagle Mountain on Saturday night at Focal Point.

* The Black Rep's production of Twisted Melodies, a play about singer/songwriter, pianist and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway's battle with mental illness, was reviewed by Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American and by HEC-TV's Two On The Aisle. The one-man show by Kelvin Roston Jr. (pictured) closes this Sunday, May 1.

* A proposal from The 442s was one of three selected for Forest Park's new artist-is-residence program.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's annual "Go List" issue has named Jazz St. Louis' Ferring Jazz Bistro as the "Best Place to Hear Jazz."

* Saxquest has posted to Facebook a photo album from saxophonist David Liebman's appearance there last Saturday.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Tomorrow's Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival was previewed by KTRS' "McGraw Millhaven Show."

* Singer, actress, comedian and Belleville native Lea DeLaria was interviewed by the Belleville News Democrat. DeLaria will be back home to speak at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday, September 22 at Lindenwood Auditorium on Lindenwood University's Belleville campus. Her latest album House of David, released this summer, offers jazz interpretations of the music of David Bowie.

* Rev. Cliff Aerie, saxophonist and leader of the Oikos Ensemble, and Tim Osiek, the group's trumpeter, have co-authored Worship In A New Key - Jazz Hymnbook, Vol 1, a new book of jazz arrangements of well-known hymns. A second volume, covering Christmas music, is forthcoming.

* Regional Arts Commission is now accepting applications for the current round of their Artists Support Grants, and they're presenting a free workshop on how to apply for one at 5:30 p.m. next Monday, September 21 at the RAC offices, 6128 Delmar Blvd. The deadline to apply is Thursday, October 22.

* A video just posted to YouTube documents saxophonist Oliver Lake's recent performance with the Vijay Iyer Trio at the Jazz Poetry 2015 festival in Pittsburgh. Lake (pictured, with Iyer) also celebrated his 73rd birthday this past Monday, September 14.

* The late singer, songwriter, keyboardist and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway's battle with mental illness is the subject of Twisted Melodies, a one-man show that just ended a run at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Multi-instrumentalist and former U. Citian Marty Ehrlich's latest album A Trumpet In The Morning was reviewed in the Irish Times.

* Jazz St. Louis has posted to Facebook an album of photos from The Bad Plus' performances last week at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Meanwhile, while the group was in St. Louis, TBP pianist Ethan Iverson (pictured) visited the offices of the St. Louis independent label MAXJAZZ, and blogged about it, with photos, here.

* And speaking of photo albums, Saxquest has posted to their Facebook page a collection of pictures from last week's Jazz Education Network (JEN) conference in Dallas.

* Thirty-five years after the death of singer, pianist, songwriter and former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway, Duke University professor of African and African-American studies Mark Anthony Neal muses on Hathaway's legacy and what might have been.

* A track from singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran was featured as KDHX's "Song of the Day" download, while the album got an advance review from the Riverfront Times.

* Also in the RFT, music editor Daniel Hill takes a look at KDHX's new headquarters in Grand Center.

* And speaking of new albums, bassist Jahmal Nichols has a few words about his with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby is the guest on the latest "A Noise From The Deep Podcast" on trumpeter Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music site, in which he chats with Douglas and co-host Michael Bates about generating creative ideas, finding new musicians, and more.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson will rewind back to the 1950s to feature music from Miles Davis' storied quintet with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

After that, "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will feature music from Jeff Golub, Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, Keiko Matsui, Juris, Pieces of a Dream, Hilton Feldon, John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Jack McDuff, Larry Barker, Ron Goff, Elliott Ranney, and Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing.

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.  

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Sax and clarinet makers P. Mauriat have put on YouTube a brief new interview with St. Louis native Greg Osby, who endorses a signature line of horns for the company. 

* A Chicago blogger wonders if our town's Vintage Vinyl is the best record store on Earth. 

* Singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran was featured in a St. Louis Beacon story by Terry Perkins.

* Saxophonist Eric Person's big band gig last month at NYC's Jazz Standard was reviewed in the December issue of the New York City Jazz Record by Russ Musto, who found the leader's work "inventive" and said the group "had a supple airy sound not often heard in a big band." You can download the mag for free in .pdf format here.

* The Culture Blog at Esquire magazine's series about classic album covers looks at Miles Davis' landmark album Bitches Brew.

* Meanwhile, The Atlantic has a short feature about Never My Love, a new CD box set collecting the work of singer/songwriter, keyboardist, and St. Louis native Donny Hathaway (pictured). For additional  perspectives, the set was the subject of a feature story here by the Philadephia Daily News' Mister Mann Frisby, and reviewed here by Wax Poetics' Eric Luecking.

* KTRS' John Carney has put online an audio file of his recent interview with Jessica Hentoff about The Pleasures of Being Out of Step, the film biography of her dad, jazz critic Nat Hentoff, that was screened last month at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

* Evangeline's Bistro and Music Hall, a new eating and drinking spot in the Central West End promising live jazz and blues several night a week, will celebrate its grand opening tonight. Located at 512 N. Euclid (the corner of Euclid and Washington, Evangeline's will feature Creole and Cajun-style cuisine, with music for the opening festivities provided by guitarist John Farrar and Park Avenue Jazz.

* Jazz radio update: On this week's "Somethin' Else" program on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, host Calvin Wilson features standard tunes composed by jazz musicians, performed by saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, pianist Marcus Roberts, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and more. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.