StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part four

Here's the fourth and final part of of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, featuring videos of jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the next several months. (You can see part one here, part two here, and part three here.)

Picking up the chronology at the point when part three left off, today's first video features trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, who will be coming back home to perform Wednesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 18 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Gunn's "Blackhawk Revisited" band celebrates Miles Davis' sound at the turn of the 1960s, as exemplified by the box set In Person Friday and Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, recorded in 1961 at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco.

On hand to lend authenticity to the proceedings will be Jimmy Cobb, the octogenarian drummer who played on the original Blackhawk dates and is the only musician from Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue still living. This video was recorded last October at Dizzy's in New York, and features Gunn, Cobb and bandmates Morgan Guerin (tenor sax), Kevin Bales (piano), and Corcoran Holt (bass) doing a full set of the Blackhawk material.

After the jump, it's singer Jane Monheit, who will perform Wednesday, November 29 though Saturday, December 2 at the Bistro. She's seen here singing "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" in May 2016 at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA.

The third clip features Battle Trance, the all-tenor-sax quartet who will be presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, December 2 at The Luminary. It's a video of the title track from their album Blade of Love, as performed in January at the Vandoren Studio in Los Angeles.

Next, it's pianist and singer Freddy Cole, seen here performing "Songs for Lovers" in February 2017 at Dizzy's. Cole and his band, with guest saxophonist Harry Allen, will be in St. Louis starting Wednesday, December 6 through Saturday, December 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

That same weekend, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra will make their St. Louis debut with a holiday-themed show called "Salsa Navidad" on Friday, December 8 at Sheldon Concert Hall. The sixth video depicts highlights from that show, as performed last year at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The penultimate video features vocal group Take 6, who will be back to perform starting Wednesday, December 13 through Saturday, December 16 at the Bistro. You can see them here singing "Stand By Me" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right," as recorded in August at the studios of Hawaii Public Radio. 

Last but not least, it's actor, singer, and Belleville native Lea DeLaria, who will perform her cabaret show on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. She's seen in the final video doing an impromptu version of "Since I Fell For You" last October at an NYC spot called the Duplex.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 5

This week, let's wrap up StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, with the fifth and final post featuring videos of bands and musicians who will be performing here in the next few months. (If you came in late, or just want revisit the previous installments, here are links to part one, part two, part three, and part four.)

Picking up roughly when part four concluded, today's edition begins with saxophonist Melissa Aldana, who will be making her St. Louis debut with a four-night gig starting Wednesday, April 27 and continuing through Saturday, April 30 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Aldana, who's originally from Chile and now is based in NYC, is a 2009 graduate of Berklee College of Music whose career got a big boost when she won the 2013 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. In the first video up above, you can see Aldana, bassist Pablo Menares, and drummer Francisco Mela performing a full set in 2013 at Berklee.

After the jump, there's a full set from pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who should be familiar to local jazz fans from his numerous previous appearances here over the past decade. Chestnut will be returning to perform on Saturday, May 7 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and today's video shows him with his trio at a concert in 2014 at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Next, it's guitarist Pat Martino, who will be back in St. Louis to play starting Wednesday, May 11 through Saturday, May 14 at the Bistro. Like Chestnut, Martino has been a fairly regular visitor here in recent years, performing most recently at the Bistro in December 2013. In the third video, you can see and hear his set from February 2014 at the Lotos Jazz Festival in Poland, accompanied by organist Pat Bianchi and drummer Carmen Intorre.

The final two videos feature pianist and singer Freddy Cole and saxophonist Harry Allen, who will revisit their team-up from 2013 and 2015 for a week of performances starting Wednesday, May 25 through Saturday, May 28 at the Bistro.

You can see Cole and his band performing a full set in 2014 at the Jazz San Javier festival in Spain and then, in the final video, Allen's first set from a gig in July 2015 at Dizzy's in Jazz at Lincoln Center, accompanied by pianist Ehud Asherie, bassist/vocalist Nicki Parrott, drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd, and percussionist Little Johnny Rivero.

In the coming weeks and months, some of the bands and musicians featured in this preview series will get a more extensive look, and of course, as additional jazz and creative music bookings for this year in St. Louis are announced, StLJN will have the news for you right here. In the meantime, you can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Notes from the Net: Miles from India reviewed; Ehrlich nominated for JJA award; St. Louisans at The Stone; Waits interviews himself; and more

From far and wide across the vastness of the Internets, here's the latest compilation of news bits about musicians with a St. Louis connection, recent visitors and coming attractions, plus a few other items of interest:

* Let's start, as we usually do, with some Miles Davis-related news. First up, AllAboutJazz.com has another review of the book Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post Bop. Next up are three reviews of the new two-CD set Miles from India, from Blogcritics' Richard Marcus, Nick Coleman of the UK Independent, and from an Indian blogger who uses the handle Amitdas. And finally, a fine art and memorabilia exhibition entitled "A Tribute to Miles Davis and Carlos Santana" opened May 15 at Lush Life Gallery in San Francisco.

* The nominees for the 2008 Jazz Journalists Association awards include St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich (pictured) for clarinetist of the year.

* The July schedule at John Zorn's NYC performance space The Stone will have a distinct St. Louis flavor, courtesy of multi-reedman J.D. Parran, who's co-curating the shows for the month. St. Louisans past and present who will be performing include Parran, Ehrlich, trumpeter Bruce Purse, guitarist Kelvyn Bell, multi-instrumentalist Mark Deutsch, trombonist Joe Bowie, saxophonist Oliver Lake, and poet Michael Castro.

* Turning to news of some recent visitors to St. Louis, the Los Angeles Times has a review of bassist Christian McBride's recent concert at LA's Disney Hall featuring 'The Movement Revisited" a four-section suite inspired by the civil rights movement. McBride was in St. Louis this spring with the Ray Brown Tribute band to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding, who played the Bistro last October, has a new CD Esperanza, reviewed here.

* Singer/pianist Freddie Cole and pianist Dave Brubeck recently performed on the same bill at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and AllAboutJazz.com has a review of the show here. Both Cole and Brubeck performed at the Sheldon Concert Hall this past season, and Brubeck has a return engagement at the Sheldon this fall.

* Saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman are reviving their Saxophone Summit project, with Ravi Coltrane joining in as a replacement for the late Michael Brecker. Coltrane played the Bistro in February.

* Pop/jazz singer Michael Buble, who performed at the Scottrade Center in March, continues his North American tour; a recent stop in San Jose, CA is reviewed here.

* Pianist Helen Sung recently was part of a "Women in Jazz" concert in Washington DC, reviewed here. Sung was a special guest at singer Denise Thimes' Mother's Day show at the Sheldon and will return to St. Louis in the fall to play Jazz at the Bistro with the Metta Quintet.

* Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and film director Spike Lee presented a program called "Jazz Goes to the Movies" at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, featuring excerpts from Blanchard's scores for Lee's movies Bamboozled, Inside Man, Clockers, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, 25th Hour, Mo' Better Blues,and When the Levees Broke. Blanchard returns to St. Louis next February for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro

* Lifecycle, the new collaborative album from the Yellowjackets and guitarist Mike Stern, is reviewed here. Stern was here to play the Bistro in March, and the Yellowjackets just wrapped up a four-night gig at the club. They'll return here to play the Bistro together next April 29 to May 2..

* Eccentric singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Tom Waits, who will be in St. Louis to play the Fox Theatre on June 26, recently did a rather amusing interview with himself about this summer's tour.

* And finally, a few miscellaneous items of interest, starting with the news that the city of Baltimore has accepted a bust of guitarist/composer Frank Zappa from FZ's Lithuanian fan club. Zappa was born in Baltimore, and his son Dweezil's project Zappa Plays Zappa will perform at The Pageant on Monday, June 9

* Here's another review of trombonist/composer George Lewis' new history of Chicago's Assocation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

* From freejazz.org comes an interesting discussion about why music goes out of print in the age of digital downloads. As it turns out, Amazon.com may have at least a partial solution to the problem with their new CreateSpace service, which duplicates out-of-print CDs and books on demand.

(Edited 6/3/08 to correct the date of the Zappa Plays Zappa show.)

Notes from the Net: Miles' On The Corner re-released; Oliver Lake reviewed, Marcus Baylor interviewed; and more

From near and far across the Internet comes this week's compilation of short news items, reviews and miscellania:

* The Complete On The Corner Sessions, a six-CD box set due out in September from Sony, will offer a expanded perspective on one of Miles Davis' most controversial and sonically challenging releases, and jazz critic Howard Mandel has a first reaction to the set over at his new blog, Jazz Beyond Jazz: "His all-star jam-band stills sounds prophetic after 35 years, and even unedited it's energies are razor sharp, infinitely more exciting than most of jazz (much less pop or new music composition) today."

* AllAboutJazz.com writer Ivana Ng has a review of Lake/Tchicai/Osgood/Westergaard, a recently issued session from 2003 recorded just after saxophonist Oliver Lake completed a brief tour of Denmark with tenor saxophonist John Tchicai, drummer Kresten Osgood and bassist Jonas Westergaard.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor (pictured) was featured in the local paper, the Daily Tribune, when the Yellowjackets played a show in Southfield, MI.

* Multi-reed player and St. Louis area native Marty Ehrlich will duet with pianist Myra Melford as part of the fall schedule at Firehouse 12, an adventurous music venue in New Haven CT.

* A blog called Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches has a review of Benjamin Looker's book Point from Which Creation Begins': The Black Artists' Group of St. Louis.

* Saxophonist and jazz enthusiast John Hess, who once owned Shattinger Music here in St. Louis, passed away at age 86 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he had lived since 1980.

* Singer/pianist Freddie Cole, who's played St. Louis' Jazz at the Bistro and Sheldon Concert Hall in recent years, was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame as part of the Hall's class of 2007.

* Acoustic Alchemy guitarist Greg Carmichael, in St. Louis the week before last to play Finale Music and Dining, summed up the band's career for the local paper before a performance in Harrisburg, PA.

* They're lining up to buy tickets to hear Tony Bennett open the new Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA late next month. Bennett will perform at St. Louis' Fox Theatre in October.

* And finally, regular readers know I've had my gripes about the programming at the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and so it seems only fair to note that at least St. Louis does have actual jazz musicians playing at its jazz festival, unlike Baltimore. "All what jazz? Not at this fest" reads the headline in the Baltimore Sun for an article about the Paetec Jazz Festival, which includes headliners like Little Richard, B.B. King and AL Green, but "offers little of its namesake musical form". Said Andy Bienstock, a jazz radio DJ in Charm City, "I wish I knew why the word jazz has a larger folllowing than the music jazz." Indeed.

Jazz this week: Ahmad Jamal, Freddie Cole, Glenn Miller Orchestra, and more

It looks like a mainstream swing kind of week here for jazz fans in St. Louis, with three very familiar names in the area to perform over the bext several days.

Most notably, veteran pianist Ahmad Jamal (pictured) and his trio are at Jazz at the Bistro, doing two sets a night through Saturday night. While some critics may have derisively labeled him a "cocktail pianist" early on, that was some fifty-plus years ago, and Jamal is now recognized rightfully as a stylist who has maintained the integrity of his personal musical conception over a lengthy career. Though he's scheduled to be back in St. Louis next year to perform in concert at the Sheldon, true fans nevertheless will want to take advantage of the opportuniry to see him up close and personal in a club setting.

Speaking of the Sheldon, singer and pianist Freddie Cole will be playing a concert there on Saturday, mining roughly the same vein of swing, standards and the occasional blues as his more famous brother Nat, but fashioning the raw material according to his own designs. The Sheldon is offering a discounted tickets for this show, so if you've ever wanted to see Cole, this would seem to be a good time.

Also on Saturday, the Glenn Miller Orchestra will be performing in the Meridian Ballroom at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. While the current band consists almost exclusively of musicians who weren't even born yet when Miller passed away, the band's songbook obviously has an enduring appeal that keeps them working more than 60 years later.

Other shows worth noting this week include the return of Chicago-based singer Typhanie Monique and guitarist Neal Alger to Finale Music and Dining on Thursday night; Dizzy Atmosphere performing a free show at the Saint Louis Art Museum's Griggs Gallery early Friday evening; "Roadtrip USA," a program of travel-themed songs from singer Debby Lennon and pianist Carolbeth True on Saturday morning at the Sheldon; and a Sunday matinee performance sponsored by the Saint Louis Jazz Club featuring Jean Kittrell and the Old St. Louis Levee Band at the Swansea Improvement Association in Swansea, IL.

As always, these are just some of the week's highlights; to see a more complete list of jazz-related events for this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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. No attachments, please.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies:Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana," plus Freddie Cole sings "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me"

This week's featured videos offer previews of two veteran jazz musicians who will be performing in St. Louis next week.

First up is pianist Ahmad Jamal, who will take part in one of Jazz St. Louis' "Conversations With..." events on Tuesday and then play at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday through Saturday. This clip shows Jamal and his trio performing his signature tune "Poinciana" in July 2003 at the Baalbeck International Festival in Lebanon.

The second video features singer and pianist Freddie Cole, who will be doing a concert at the Sheldon next Saturday night. Here, he's seen singing "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me", which serves as a swinging rejoinder to those who would compare him to his famous older sibling Nat "King" Cole. The performance is from 2005, and was photographed by filmmaker Clay Walker for the documentary "The Cole Nobody Knows."

Sheldon offers $10 discount on Freddie Cole tickets

The Sheldon Concert Hall is offering a $10 discount on tickets for the show next Saturday, April 28 by singer and pianist Freddie Cole.

To get the discount, log on to metrotix.com/promotions and enter the promotion code APRDEAL07, or mention the promotion code when you order by phone at 314-534-1111 or in person at any MetroTix outlet. The offer may also be redeemed at the Sheldon box office between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on the night of the concert.