So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Record megalabel Columbia/Legacy last week announced the release of a sixth volume in their "Bootleg Series" of Miles Davis live recordings.

Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Final Tour is a four-CD set (pictured) documenting five shows from Davis' 1960 tour of Europe, and is set for release on Friday, March 23, 2018.

* A story in UMSL Daily details the upcoming travels of the UMSL Big Band directed by Jim Widner, including a trip next week to Chicago for the annual Midwest Clinic and appearances in January at the Jazz Education Network convention in Dallas and the Missouri Music Educators Association conference at the Lake of the Ozarks.

* Singer, actor and Belleville native Lea DeLaria was the subject of a feature story on the website OutInStL.com. DeLaria, who's starred on Broadway and in cabaret, TV, and film, will make her debut at Jazz at the Bistro with shows on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28 that also will feature singer Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer as a guest performer.

* The STL Free Jazz Collective has posted to YouTube a video of their complete performance with multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart earlier this month at the 14th St. Artist Community. 

* Also on YouTube, saxophonist Eric Person has posted a video from his show with fellow saxophonist Houston Person in March of this year at Dizzy's Club in NYC.

* The Sheldon has posted to Facebook a photo album from the Spanish Harlem Orchestra's performance there last week.

* Guitarist Dave Black's upcoming album, a collaboration with blues guitarists Tom Hall and Brian Curran, is previewed in a Riverfront Times story by Thomas Crone.

* Also in the RFT, the Funky Butt Brass Band's "Holiday Brasstravaganza" and their new Christmas album are the subjects of a brief feature story by Christian Schaeffer.

* Right Up On, saxophonist/composer Oliver Lake's recent recording in collaboration with the FLUX Quartet, made the New York Times' recently published list of "The 25 Best Classical Music Recordings of 2017."

* Singer Debby Lennon's latest theatrical role, as tone-deaf diva Florence Foster Jenkins in Max and Louis Productions' upcoming staging of the musical Souvenir, is the subject of a short feature by St. Louis Post-Dispatch theater critic Judith Newmark.

* Percussionist Moacyr Marchini of Samba Bom will lead a series of eight Brazilian percussion workshops for adult students beginning Wednesday, January 10 at Lucha in Grand Center. For more info about the workshops and how to sign up, go here.

* The venerable Edwardsville drinking spot Laurie's Place, which in recent months has featured a jazz jam session on Tuesday nights, will close at the end of this year.

Jazz this week: Jane Monheit, Douglas Ewart and the STL Free Jazz Collective, Battle Trance, holiday jazz begins, and more

This week's busy calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a return engagement from one of the most popular female vocalists in jazz; a couple of shows featuring adventurous woodwind players; the first few of what will be many holiday-themed concerts for the season; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, November 29
Singer Jane Monheit returns to St. Louis for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Monheit (pictured, top left) last performed here in 2015 with singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli at the Sheldon's annual benefit gala, and before that in 2014 at the Bistro.

She first won wide public attention shortly after the turn of the century, applying a plush vocal tone and a sure sense of swing to mostly standards from the Great American Songbook. Since then, Monheit has released a dozen albums as a leader, and also made guest appearances on record with a wide variety of performers, from fellow singers such as Sara Gazarek and Tony DeSare to instrumentalists including David Benoit, Ray Brown Jr., and many others.

After recording for five different labels, including Sony, Concord, and Decca/EmArcy. Monheit in 2016 started her own record company, Emerald City Records, inaugurating the imprint with the release of The Songbook Sessions, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. Listeners this week at the Bistro can expect an emphasis on that material, though the multi-night gig also should give Monheit a chance to dig into her back catalog as well.

Also on Wednesday, singer Joe Mancuso continues his weekly gig at Taha'a Twisted Tiki in The Grove; the Cary Colman Jazz Trio plays at Evangeline's; and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features Jacob Alspach at Squatters Cafe/The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, November 30
Guitarist Vincent Varvel leads a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; the Liberation Organ Trio plays at Evangeline's; singer Feyza Eren and her quartet will perform at Joe's Cafe; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, December 1
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with guest vocalist Kim Fuller will perform at the Webster Groves Concert Hall; singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran continues his weekly residency at Das Bevo Underground; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham is at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Saturday, 
December 2
Freddie Washington will be the latest local saxophonist to be featured in Saxquest's series of free Saturday matinee performances, while just down the street at Dead Wax Records, Battle Trance will be promoting their Saturday evening show for New Music Circle with a free in-store performance.

Then, as fate would have it, Saturday evening offers a tough choice for fans of woodwinds and/or creative music, with two shows of interest happening simultaneously.

Battle Trance (pictured, center left), who will be making their St. Louis debut in their Saturday evening concert at The Luminary, is an ensemble of four tenor saxophonists who use extended techniques to play music that's a mix of composition and improvisation, though it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. You can find out more about them, and see videos of some sample live performances, in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Meanwhile, across town in the Old North neighborhood, multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart will be in town to join the STL Free Jazz Collective for a free concert at the 14th St. Artist Community.

Ewart (pictured, bottom left), who plays a whole arsenal of woodwinds, percussion, and self-made instruments, was one of early members of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and has performed and/or recorded with many of the most important creative musicians of the past half-century. There's more about Ewart, including videos of some of his live performances, in this post from last Saturday.

Sunday, December 3
It's another day for matinees, as the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Cornet Chop Suey playing traditional jazz and swing at the Moolah Shrine Temple, while the Friends of Scott Joplin present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

Also on Sunday afternoon, the UMSL Jazz Ensemble directed by Jim Widner, Vocal Point, and University Orchestra will present their annual free concert, "UMSL's Jazz For The Holidays," at the Touhill Performing Arts Center; and trumpeter Randy Holmes, singer and impressionist Dean Christopher, and a mini-big band will pay tribute to Frank Sinatra and Hoagy Carmichael at the Webster Groves Concert Hall.

Monday, December 4
Trumpeter Jim Manley is back at Momo's Greek Restaurant, and Washington University's student jazz combos will show off what they've learned this semester in a free performance at the 560 Music Center.

Tuesday, December 5
Dean Christopher, having a busy week, headlines "A Vegas 'Rat Pack and More' Christmas" 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Douglas Ewart

Today, let's take a look at some videos featuring multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart, who's coming to St. Louis to perform with the STL Free Jazz Collective in a free concert next Saturday, December 2 at the 14th Street Artists Community.

Ewart, who's 71 years old, plays various saxophones and woodwind instruments, hand drums, and instruments of his own design. Born in Jamaica, he moved to Chicago as a teenager, and first gained wide attention as an early member of that city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, later serving as the AACM's president from 1979 to 1986.

He has led his own bands in a variety of instrumental configurations and multi-disciplinary performances, and has recorded as a leader and collaborator with many of the well-known musicians associated with the AACM, as well as with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, and various other creative improvisors and composers.

Given that Ewart and his St. Louis collaborators will be improvising most, if not all, of next Saturday's performance, there's no way to "preview" the show in terms of specific musical content. That said, today's collection of videos, drawn from various Ewart performances in the last eight years, should provide at least some idea of his sound and general approach to making music.

First up is an excerpt from Ewing's set at an observance of John Coltrane's 90th birthday in September 2016 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, in which he plays solo with two dancers, Jay Jao and Taiga Ultan.

After the jump, you can see a couple of excerpts from the set performed by Ewart and his band Inventions in September 2015 at the Chicago Jazz Festival in Millennium Park. Along with Ewart, the group includes Mankwe Ndosi (voice, poetry, percussion), Maggie Brown (voice, percussion), Duriel Harris (poetry, percussion), Dee Alexander (voice, percussion), Mwata Bowden (winds, percussion), Edward Wilkerson (winds, percussion), Jeff Parker (guitar), Dushun Mosley (drums), Darius Savage (bass), Kidd Jordan (saxophone), and Willie Pickens (piano).

The fourth clip is a piece called "Manalapho," written in 2013 in tribute to Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed in a 2012 shooting that sparked outrage across the country.

That's followed by Ewart and another iteration of Inventions, as recorded in 2009 at the Vision Festival in NYC. This version of the group features Ewart, the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Joseph Jarman and St. Louis' own J.D. Parran on various woodwinds, along with pianist Donald Smith, percussionist Thurman Barker, and poet Amiri Baraka.

The final video is an interview with Ewart, recorded in 2011 on the occasion of the release of his album Songs of Sunlife on innova Recordings, in which he discusses the album, his life, and influences.

For more about Douglas Ewart, check out the interview with him published in 2015 on the website of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where Ewart now lives; and his interview from that same year with the NY Jazz Record.

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

Douglas Ewart to perform with STL Free Jazz Collective on Saturday, December 2

Multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart is coming to St. Louis to perform with the STL Free Jazz Collective at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 2 at the 14th Street Artist Community, 2701 N 14th St in the Old North neighborhood.

The concert is free and open to the public, thanks to funding from the Regional Arts Commission.

Ewart (pictured), who plays various saxophones and woodwind instruments, hand drums, and instruments of his own design, was an early member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and served as the AACM's president from 1979 to 1986.

He has collaborated in performance and on recordings with many of the well-known musicians associated with the AACM, as well as with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, and numerous other creative improvisors and composers. Ewart, who now lives in Minneapolis, last played in St. Louis in 2010 at Webster University's Community Music School.

The STL Free Jazz Collective includes "Baba" Mike Nelson (trumpet, shells, percussion), Jerome "Jay Dubs" Williams (alto sax), Jim Hegarty (piano, electronics), Paul Steinbeck (bass), Gary Sykes (drums, percussion), and Michael Castro (poet). You can see a video of their last performance at the 14th St. Artist Community here.

Jazz this week: Branford Marsalis, Douglas Ewart, Charles "Bobo" Shaw, Mardra and Reggie Thomas, and more

It looks to be a busy few days for live music in St. Louis, with plenty of events this weekend that will be of interest to fans of jazz and creative music. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, saxophonist Dave Stone and trumpeter Randy Holmes play the music of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry in a free concert for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series. Also, actress and singer Tyne Daly, accompanied by pianist and St. Louis native John McDaniel, continues her show for Cabaret St. Louis tonight through Saturday night at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

On Friday, saxophonist Branford Marsalis takes the stage at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. It's Marsalis' first trip to St. Louis in several years, and after playing here previously with Buckshot LeFunque and in a trio format, this time he' s bringing his quartet as they celebrate ten years of working together. For some video of the foursome in action, see this post.

That same evening, singer Mardra Thomas and pianist Reggie Thomas will resume their week-of-Valentine's-Day tradition of demonstrating both musical and marital harmony at Jazz at the Bistro. The Thomases will do the customary two sets on both Friday and Saturday, with an additional set at 8:30 p.m. Sunday especially for the holiday.

And speaking of singers performing on Friday night, that's also when the smooth, suave, yet swingin' Ron Wilkinson will perform at Robbie's House of Jazz. Wilkinson was a regular in the room in its previous incarnation as Cookie's Jazz and More, and the intimate scale of the space seems well-suited to his relatively subtle vocal approach.

On Saturday, there's a chance to hear two veterans of creative music who played significant roles in, respectively, St. Louis' Black Artists Group and Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. In the afternoon, drummer and former BAG member Charles "Bobo" Shaw will perform his own music and that of Eric Dolphy downtown at the Metropolitan Gallery as part of the Nu-Art Series' "Re-Arrangements & Nu-Compositions" concert series.

Then Saturday evening, multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart will perform at Webster University Community Music School under the auspices of New Music Circle. For more about Ewart, who formerly served as president of the AACM but now is based in Minneapolis, see this video post from a few Saturdays ago.

(At this point, it seems like it also should be mentioned that this is Mardi Gras weekend here in St. Louis. As has been the case in recent years, there will be plenty of partying going on, but not much live music at the official events for fans of jazz or blues. Yes, the Funky Butt Brass Band and Gumbohead will be showing up in several places around town over the weekend, but the music for the two large events on Parade Day will be provided by rock cover bands and a DJ. I've pretty much said all I have to say about the local Mardi Gras music situation in the two posts linked above; if you're looking for more information about this year's Mardi Gras-related events in St. Louis, you'll find it here. )

On Sunday evening, singer, pianist and saxophonist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum returns to Brandt's for a special Valentine's Day show. Given the room's modest capacity, reservations would seem to be advisable.

Looking past the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Paul DeMarinis and his Sextet will give a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, performing some new DeMarinis compositions from his forthcoming CD, which reportedly is called The Sun...The Stars. Joining Demarinis for the concert will be singer Debby Lennon and a rhythm section made up of Nick Schlueter (piano), Dave Black (guitar), Ben Wheeler (bass) and Kyle Honeycutt (drums).

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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 by becoming a "fan" of 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.)

(Edited after posting to fix a couple of garbled sentences.)

Douglas Ewart to perform Saturday, February 13 at Webster University Community Music School

Multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart (pictured) has rescheduled his St. Louis performance for 7:30 p.m., Saturday, February 13 at the Webster University Community Music School, 535 Garden Ave (behind the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis).

Ewart originally was supposed to have played in St. Louis this past weekend in a duo with bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya. His appearance was postponed when presenters New Music Circle turned the event into a benefit for Nkenya, who suffered a stroke last fall. For the February 13 concert, Ewart will be joined by poet Shirley LaFlore, percussionist Rashu Aten, and Jim Hegarty on electronics.

Tickets for the concert are $15 for general admission, $7 for students with ID. For more about Douglas Ewart, see this video post from a few Saturdays back.

Concert to benefit Zimbabwe Nkenya scheduled for Saturday, January 30

This just in: New Music Circle will present a benefit performance for bass player and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) at 7:30 p..m. , Saturday, January 30 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand.

Nkenya has been an active participant in the local improvised music scene since his return to St. Louis from New Mexico in 2007. Over the course of his career, he has played with many well-known creative musicians here and in New Mexico, New York and around the USA. He had had been scheduled to co-headline a concert with Douglas Ewart for NMC on January 30; however, according to today's news release, he had a stroke "earlier this past fall," and has been unable to perform since then.

The release said that NMC plans to reschedule Ewart, with more information available soon. Admission to the January 30 benefit for Nkenya will be by voluntary contribution, with all proceeds going to the bassist and his family.

Scheduled performers include Jim Hegarty, Fred Tompkins, and Deb Summers, who will represent New Music Circle; Dave Cheli's group Tribal Chicken; and percussionist Thomas Zirkle (HaZMaT). All the musicians are volunteering their services, and additional performers will be announced on NMC's website.

UPDATE - 5:20 p.m., 1/12/10: In addition ot the St. Louis event, Nkenya's friends and musical colleagues in New Mexico, including trumpeter Paul Gonzales, are staging a benefit for the bassist at 6:00 p.m., Sunday, January 31 at the Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE in Albuquerque.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Three from Douglas Ewart

This week, let's check out some videos featuring Douglas Ewart, a multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder who will be in St. Louis on Saturday, January 30 to perform in a duo concert with bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Born in Jamaica in 1956, Ewart moved to Chicago as a teenager and became involved with the city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He would eventually go on to serve as president of the AACM, and has worked and/or recorded with musicians including former St. Louisan J. D. Parran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Robert Dick, Von Freeman, Joseph Jarman, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, James Newton, Rufus Reid, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Richard Teitelbaum, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Don Byron, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and George Lewis. Ewart has lived since 1990 in Minneapolis, while continuing to perform and teach all over the world.

The first clip is from last year at Vision Festival 14 in NYC, and features an ensemble including Ewart, Parran, and Jarman along with drummer Thurman Barker, pianist Donald Smith and poet Amiri Baraka. Down below, there's an excerpt from a performance at the Velvet Lounge in Chicago by Ewart's ensemble Inventions, and below that, part of a 2006 duo performance in Minnesota by Ewart and fellow reedman Denis Colin.

For more about Ewart, check out this website, this print interview from last December, and this extended audio interview from American Public Radio's American Mavericks series. For more information on his St. Louis concert, see the website of presenters New Music Circle.

New Music Circle announces 2009-10 season schedule

New Music Circle has announced its lineup of concerts for the 2009-10 season, which marks NMC's 51st year of presenting contemporary and experimental music in St. Louis. This year's schedule once again has a number of multimedia events, mixing music with film, dance and spoken word performance.

Pianist, composer and electronic musician James Hegarty kicks off the season with a concert on Saturday, October 3 at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park's Center Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts. Hegarty's performance, called "eXscapement," is a collaboration with his artist daughter Anna inspired by their recent trip to Japan.

Saxophonist Larry Ochs, perhaps best known as a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, comes to St. Louis on Friday, Oct. 9 for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall with his group Sax & Drumming Core. Formed in 2000, the band includes Ochs on saxophone, plus drummers Donald Robinson and Scott Amendola, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Satoko Fujii on synthesizer and piano.

Then on Sunday, November 8, NMC will present a local version of composer Rob Voisey’s 60x60 Dance project at Mad Art Gallery, featuring St. Louis dancers and choreographers performing to 60 different 60-second pieces written by 60 different composers and curated by Voisey.

Performance artist Kelsey LaPoint, who has been involved in several previous NMC events, closes out the year with a holiday-themed performance piece to be staged Wednesday, December 2 through Friday, December 4 at the Regional Arts Commission building, 6128 Delmar.

The new year starts with multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart (pictured), known as a key member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and St. Louis bassist and mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya collaborating on a concert Saturday, January 30 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Next up, video artist Van McElwee returns again this year with a program called "Modular Mazes" on Saturday, February 27 at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus. Dedicated to "exploring the ancient form of the labyrinth in new ways," the piece will combine video, 3D animation and music from Jim Hegarty, percussionist Rich O'Donnell and the Semi Acoustic Noise Ensemble (SANE).

On Saturday, March 13, Swedish sound artist John Tamm-Buckle will perform "Droning Maud Land" at the Kranzberg Arts Center. The piece is "an interactive sculpture made of ice frozen around a frame, contact microphones, and a digital thermometer. While the ice melts, pieces of the sculpture will be amplified and played like a percussion instrument. The signal sources will be run through a custom Max/MSP patch that performs various signal-processing and signal-routing functions. In addition to the sound of the sculpture, analyzed audio data will trigger and morph samples recorded in Antarctica."

The following month, cellist Craig Hultgren brings his repertoire of extended cello techniques back to St. Louis for a performance on Saturday, April 3 at the Kranzberg. Hultgren's peformance "Stains" is described as "an evocative set of solo cello pieces with strong narratives will be sampled and extended to run seamlessly, overlapping poems and stories. The works will include acoustic, electronic, and video pieces for solo cello played by Hultgren, as well as a variety of narrative pieces."

The season's penultimate concert features composer, software designer and granular synthesis pioneer Curtis Roads and video artist Brian O’Reilly, who will present a set of new electronic compositions with visual accompaniment on Saturday, May 1 at the Mildred E Bastian Performing Arts Center. Electronic musician and former St. Louisan Tom Hamilton closes out the 2009-10 season with a concert on Saturday, May 8 at the Kranzberg.

Season tickets are $80 for regular admission, or $40 for students and "starving artists". NMC also offers a "benefactor" membership for $110 that includes a total of 15 tickets that can be used for any performance. For more information, visit NMC's Web site, or download a copy of the season brochure in .pdf format here .