So What: Local, News & Notes

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

* Saxophonist David Sanborn (pictured) has released a new episode of his "Sanborn Sessions" online video series with bassist Marcus Miller as his featured guest, plus drummer Billy Kilson and pianist Geoffrey Keezer.

* Jazz St. Louis is one of 16 independent music venues across the country that this week received a grant from the Live Music Society. The grants, which range from $10,000 to $50,000, are intended to help smaller venues stay financially viable as the music industry attempts a post-pandemic restart.

* STLtoday has posted an album of photos from the Galactic shows last weekend at The Big Top.

* St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin has written a story reporting on the reopening plans of local concert venues including The Sheldon, The Pageant, The Big Top, and others.

* Mikie Sellers, the impresario behind the new "Jazz and Cars" outdoor concert series on the grounds of Gateway Classic Cars in O'Fallon, IL, was interviewed on FOX 2's morning newscast.

* An article by Mark Beckford on TheGrio.com looks at the ultimately unsuccessful effort to preserve St. Louis native Josephine Baker's famed cabaret in Paris.

* DePaul William "Willy" Smith, who played saxophone with the Original Knights of Swing, the Meramec Jazz Lab Band, and other groups around town, has died at age 90.

* JAZZIZ magazine's "The Week in Jazz" column for this week has a couple of St. Louis mentions, noting the announcement of the "Music at the Intersection" festival and previewing a track from keyboardist Michael Silverman's forthcoming album.

* Radio station Classic 107.3 will raise funds next month with "Classical Cocktails," an online event to be held on Sunday, June 13. The festivities will include dinner and cocktails from Salt + Smoke, plus music from pianists Orli Shaham and Dominic Cheli, the Pro Arte Quartet, the Arianna String Quartet, and violinist David Perry. For more info or to make a reservation, visit https://classic1073.org/classical-cocktails/.

* As reported by the Post-Dispatch's Steph Kukuljan, a company called Gateway Studios LLC has announced plans to acquire 32 acres of land just north of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield to build an $88 million facilty for music, video and film production. Gateway Studios, which currently operates in Pennsylvania, will seek both tax incentives and publically financed bonds to help pay for the project.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Radio host, author and photographer Dennis Owsley and his new book St. Louis Jazz: A History were the subjects of a feature story in the Webster-Kirkwood Times. 

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn was interviewed by NextBop.com about Pyramids, the new album from his Royal Krunk Jazz Orchestra.

* Meanwhile, saxophonist Andre Delano (pictured) has released a new single, "Where Will You Go," an instrumental version of a tune by R&B crooner Babyface, for whom Delano currently serves as musical director and bandleader. 

*  Trumpeter Kasimu Taylor, members of the Saint Boogie Brass Band, and saxophonist Kwanae Johnson appeared Monday on the morning newscast at KTVI (Fox 2). They were promoting the benefit show this Sunday at .ZACK raising money for Johnson and his family, who recently lost their home to a fire. 

* Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard's opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which premiered last season at Opera Theater St. Louis, next year will be the first opera by an African-American composer ever to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

* At the New York opening weekend of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the film's director Stanley Nelson and writer Quincy Troupe, who co-authored Davis' autobiography, took part in a Q&A session, which was recorded and now has been posted on YouTube.

* Davis and his landmark album Birth of the Cool are the subjects of an essay in the latest Jazz Times by composer and arranger Ryan Truesdell

* The latest episode of the podcast "Jazz at 100" features music recorded by Davis' quintet and sextet between 1956 and 1959.

* Davis' late 1950s music also was the subject of a recent tribute concert by Richard Pite’s Jazz Repertory Company at Cadogan Hall in London, which was reviewed by London Jazz News.

* Lastly, the Miles Davis estate has announced the impending release of a new music video for "Moon Dreams," as recorded by Davis in 1949 for Birth of the Cool. The video is "influenced by Miles Davis’ own sketches and imagines a night in New York City through every era of jazz."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold this week was on NPR as a guest performer on singer Erykah Badu's Tiny Desk Concert.

* The latest episode of the cable TV series STL Live previewed Saturday's Hermann Wine & Jazz Festival.

* Saxophonist and educator Harvey Lockhart's HEAL Center for the Arts is one of several local organizations getting a grant for 2018-19 from the Arts and Education Council's Monsanto Creative Impact Fund.

* Singer and producer Wendy Gordon (pictured), saxophonist Kendrick Smith, and other cast members appeared on FOX 2's Thursday morning newscast to promote the latest installment of Gordon's "Jazz Heaven" series, happening this Saturday at the Florissant Civic Center Theater.

* Flute player and composer Fred Tompkins has reissued his late 1970s album Cécile on CD. The re-release includes all the tunes from the LP version, which feature performances from notable musicians such as bassist Anthony Jackson, guitarist Chuck Loeb, and others, plus some bonus tracks of more recent material.

* Thurman's in Shaw is adding a Sunday brunch, which will debut with a "soft opening" on Sunday, August 26. The venue also will celebrate two years of operations under the current ownership with an all-day event on Saturday, September 1 featuring live music, drink specials, and more.

Erin Bode featured on FOX 2 news

Singer Erin Bode was the subject of a feature last night on the newscast of St. Louis' Fox network affiliate KTVI (Channel 2). The story by anchor/reporter Dan Gray looked at Bode's work to raise money for a South African school and how the ongoing project has affected her religious faith. You can read the text version here, and see the video here.