Jazz this week: Ellen Fullman, Lonnie McFadden, Jazz Ambassadors, Tauk, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a performance on a unique instrument that's also an art installation, plus concerts in a variety of genres from vintage jazz to cabaret to funk and fusion.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, November 7
Singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's; Miss Jubilee plays at Schlafly Bottleworks; and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features TJ Muller at The Stage at KDHX along with the jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, November 8
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival's fall series resumes with Kansas City trumpeter and singer Lonnie McFadden (pictured, center left) performing for one night only at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Thursday, guitarists Dave Black and Farshid Soltanshahi with guest multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman will play at Joe's Cafe; singer Joe Mancuso and friends perform at 50/Fifty Kitchen; and saxophonist and singer Cary Colman's trio returns to Evangeline's.

Friday, November 9
Artist, musician and instrument inventor Ellen Fullman will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 560 Music Center.

Fullman (pictured, top left) is the creator of the Long String Instrument, which consists of dozens of wires 50 feet or more in length, stretched across a space and "bowed" with rosin-coated fingers, producing "a chorus of minimal organ-like overtones." For more about Fullman and some video footage of playing the Long String Instrument, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, keyboardist David Grelle's Playadors make their Bistro debut in the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis; the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer Anita Jackson performs for the late show at The Dark Room

Saturday, November 10
Singer Ken Haller reprises his show "Happy Haller Days!" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, and saxophonist Dave Stone's trio plays at Thurman's in Shaw.

Sunday, 
November 11
The US Army's "Jazz Ambassadors" (pictured, bottom left) will play a free matinee concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center

Monday, 
November 12
Dizzy Atmosphere will play swing and Gypsy jazz for diners at The Shaved Duck, and the Webster University Student Jazz Combos will show their stuff in a performance at Webster's Community Music School.

Tuesday, November 13
Funk and fusion quartet Tauk, touring in support of their new album Shapeshifter II: Outbreak that was released in September, return to the Old Rock House.

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: Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument

Today, let's check out some videos featuring artist, musician, and instrument inventor Ellen Fullman, who will be in St. Louis next week for a residency sponsored by New Music Circle, culminating in a performance on Friday, November 9 at 560 Music Center.

While she's here, Fullman also will make public presentations about her work on Wednesday, November 7 at St. Louis University and the 560 Music Center, and on Thursday, November 8 at Washington University's Sam Fox School; see the New Music Circle website for details.

Ellen Fullman is known for inventing and performing on the Long String Instrument, described as "an installation of dozens of wires 50 feet or more in length, tuned in Just Intonation and "bowed" with rosin-coated fingers, producing a chorus of minimal organ-like overtones."

Currently based in the San Francisco area, Fullman is a native of Memphis, TN who studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute. She began working on the Long String Instrument in 1981, and over the years has developed various performance techniques as well as a specialized notation system to choreograph the performer's movements while playing the LSI.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies. and has performed at venues and festivals in Europe, Japan, and the Americas, including the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, Other Minds, Walker Art Center and Donaueschinger Musiktage.

Fullman has made a number of recordings, including Ort, with Berlin-based collaborator Jörg Hiller, which was selected by The Wire as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004, and Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté, which made The Wire's top 50 of 2008.

You can see and hear Fullman and the LSI in action in the first video up above, recorded in June 2017 at the Tectonics Music Festival in Athens, Greece.

After the jump, there are clips from two more performances - the first by Fullman and cellist Theresa Wong in 2017 at the Nief Norf Summer Festival in Knoxville, TN, and the second in April 2016 at the Sonic Protest Festival in Paris.

Next is a short video from 2009, in which Fullman talks about the development of the Long String Instrument and shows off some of its capabilities.

The last two clips both come from Fullman's residency in March 2013 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). There's a video of her performance with Wong, cellist Abby Alwin and trumpeter James Cornish, followed by a video of her artist's talk, "Constructing a Musical Phrase from the Ground Up," in which she "shares the concepts, stories and techniques behind the construction of the Long String Instrument, culminating in an audience participation demonstration."

For more about Ellen Fullman, read the interview with her published in 2016 by The Guardian.

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