StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2019 jazz preview, part one

With fall fast approaching, it's time for the first autumn installment of StLJN twice-yearly jazz preview, featuring videos of noteworthy jazz and creative music performers who will be playing here over the next few months.

Today's preview starts on Labor Day weekend, for that's when pianist Edward Simon will be coming to town for a solo concert presented by Open Studio on Saturday, August 31 at Centene Center for the Arts.

You can see Simon in the first video up above, a trio set with drummer Adam Cruz and bassist Matt Brewer (billed as the "Festival New York Jazz All-Stars") that was recorded in 2016 at Teatro Ocampo in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Also in town over Labor Day weekend will be the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band from New Orleans, who will perform on Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1 at Focal Point. You can see them in the first video after the jump, a full set of music recorded in July of this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The next clip features another New Orleans group, Rebirth Brass Band, who will be in St. Louis the following week for a show on Friday, September 6 at Atomic Cowboy Pavilion. It's another full set, recorded in September 2018 at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta.

That same weekend, singer and pianist Diane Schuur will headline the Alton Jazz & Wine Festival on Saturday, September 7 at Alton Amphitheater, with locals Good 4 The Soul and the Funky Butt Brass Band as supporting acts. Schuur can be seen in the third video after the jump, singing George Gershwin's "S'Wonderful" with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra in February of this year at the Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina.

Also on Saturday, September 7, the "Smooth Jazz Cruise on Land" docks at the Chesterfield Amphitheater, with a crew that will includes multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson, saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly, and saxophonist Eric Darius, plus St. Louis' own Erin Bode and Tim Cunningham.

Culbertson can be seen next performing "Feelin' It/Funkin'" as recorded last year for his Colors of Love Tour - Live in Las Vegas concert video.

That's followed by Kelly, cutting tracks for her most recent album GO TiME: Brooklyn 2 live in the studio, and, last but not least, Darius playing Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" at an event last year for the Cannonball Saxophones company in Sandy, Utah.

Look for part two of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Jazz this week: Grace Kelly, J.D. Parran & K. Curtis Lyle, Eighth Blackbird, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy headliners in town, plus a whole bunch of shows from our hometown musicians, including a jam-packed Valentine's Day evening.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 13
Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly (pictured, top left) begins a five-night engagement at Jazz St. Louis, continuing through Sunday. Kelly's most recent album Go Time: Brooklyn 2, which came out last October, expands her musical palette a bit, with more pronounced influences from pop, electronic music, and more. For more about that, plus some videos of recent performances by Kelly, check out the video showcase post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, JSL's "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series continues with "Miles and Me: An Evening with Quincy Troupe," a free event at the St. Louis County Library's main branch on South Lindbergh. The poet, author, professor, St. Louis native, and Miles Davis biographer will speak about his work, his relationship with Davis, and more. For a preview, see Troupe's interview with Dan Durchholz for the Post-Dispatch.

Thursday, February 14
The evening of Valentine's Day offers more than dozen options for live jazz, so you'll probably want to visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes calendar to see the full range of options. 

If you're on a budget, the pick show might be the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University's presentation of "My Funny Valentine - Music of Miles Davis," a free concert featuring trumpeter Randy Holmes, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, bassist/guitarist William Lenihan, pianist Ken Kehner, and drummer Steve Davis. As a bonus, author and scholar Enrico Merlin will give a talk about Davis before the concert, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Also of note, singer Jan Shapiro and pianist Dave Venn, both of whom gig less frequently than many local listeners might like, will be performing along with bassist Ben Wheeler at Bar Italia.

Meanwhile, singer Erin Bode will meet the demand from her fan base with the first of two nights at Cyrano's, and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will be on a similar schedule playing Thursday and Friday at Gauge Cigar Club (the latest re-branding of what originally was Troy's Jazz Gallery.)

Friday, February 15
Chicago-based new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird returns for a concert at 560 Music Center.

Also on Friday, singer Chuck Flowers performs at 50/Fifty Kitchen; the Joe Bozzi Band returns to Evangeline's; and Cornet Chop Suey plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, February 16
Multi-instrumentalist and St. Louis native J.D. Parran (pictured, bottom left) will team up up with poet K. Curtis Lyle and trumpeter George Sams for a performance at Xavier Hall on the SLU campus.

Sunday, February 17
Miss Jubilee will perform for brunch at Evangeline's, while guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran is at The Dark Room.

Monday, February 18
The Webster University Jazz Collective, featuring faculty members from Webster's music department, performs at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

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: It's "Go Time" for Grace Kelly

This week, let's check out some videos featuring saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly, who's coming to St. Louis to perform starting Wednesday, February 13 through Sunday, February 17 at Jazz St. Louis.

Already a music business veteran at age 26, Kelly grew up in the Boston area, recording and releasing her first album when she was just 12 years old. She subsequently earned her GED at 16, and went on to study at the New England Conservatory and Berklee, graduating from the latter at age 19.

Since then, Kelly has enjoyed increasing recognition both nationally and internationally, performing at major jazz venues and festivals all over the world, and getting occasional opportunities to cross over to a larger audience, such as her sit-ins with keyboardist Jon Batiste's band on Stephen Colbert's CBS talk show.

Kelly's most recent album, her 11th as a leader, is called GO TiME: Brooklyn 2. Released in October of last year, it incorporates elements of pop, funk, electronic music and more, moving Kelly a bit further away from the straight-ahead jazz she did as a teen being mentored by the likes of Phil Woods and Lee Konitz.

Still, you can hear a bit of that traditional vibe in the first video up above, which shows Kelly performing the bluesy ballad that served as the title song from her 2016 album Trying To Figure It Out, as recorded in October 2018 at the Jarasum Jazz Festival in South Korea.

After the jump, you can see live-in-the-studio videos of two songs recorded for GO TiME Brooklyn 2, "Unchain My Heart" and "Billie Jean" (though the latter apparently didn't make it on to the CD).

Next, it's "You Are My Sunshine," recorded in July 2018 at Paste Studios in NYC. The final two videos, "Amazing Grace" and "Lemons Make Lemonade," are from April 2017 and were made at the studios of public radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

For more about Grace Kelly, see her interview from October 2018 in the Korea Herald; from September 2018 in JazzEd magazine, and January 2018 on AllAboutJazz.com.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trombonist Steve Swell will present a free, public "artist's talk" at 4:00 p.m. today (Friday October 6) in Room 102 of Washington University's music classroom building.

Swell (pictured) is in St. Louis to lead his quintet in New Music Circle's season-opening concert on Saturday night at The Stage at KDHX.

* Speaking of Washington University, bassist, educator and author Paul Steinbeck will discuss Message To Our Folks, his book about the history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, as part of Wash U's library faculty book talk series at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 24 in room 142 of the Olin Library on the Wash U campus. The event is free and open to the public.

* Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly is the subject of a photo feature on the website Sound of STL, and her performance Wednesday night at Jazz at the Bistro was briefly reviewed on the website of Sophisticated Living magazine. Kelly continues at the Bistro through Saturday night.

* The Wee Trio's upcoming concert on Tuesday, October 17 at SIU Edwardsville was previewed by the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

* KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, which serves as one of the sites on the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl," is getting a new menu, a new operator, and a new name. According to reports published this week by Feast magazine and others, chef Rob Connoley will take over the restaurant, renaming it Squatter's Cafe, on Wednesday, November 1.

* The annual musical instrument drive sponsored by Music for Lifelong Achievement was the subject of a feature story on KTVI-Fox 2's morning news.

* "Wayfaring Traveler," a track from trumpeter Keyon Harrold's new album The Mugician that features guest performances from Jermaine Holmes, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Robert Glasper, this week made it onto Apple Music's jazz playlist "The A List."

* Singer Debby Lennon will star in the upcoming production of the musical comedy Souvenir being staged by Max & Louie Productions from Thursday, December 14 through Sunday, December 31 at The Marcelle in Grand Center.

The show tells the story of the notoriously tone-deaf Florence Foster Jenkins, "a real-life socialite who set elite eardrums in Manhattan a-trembling in a series of notorious private concerts during the 1930s and 1940s...Her flamboyant costumes and uninhibited love of music was as much her trademark as her inability to sing on key."  Jenkins' story also was the subject of an eponymous 2016 feature film starring Meryl Streep in the title role.

Jazz this week: Grace Kelly, Steve Swell Quintet, Kevin Eubanks, a benefit for Puerto Rico, and more

The fall presenting season is gathering some momentum this week, as the calendar of jazz and creative music for the next few days in St. Louis includes three significant touring headliners - two of whom are making their local debuts - plus a benefit raising money for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 4
Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly (pictured, top left) makes her St. Louis debut in the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

For more about Kelly and some video samples of recent performances, take a look at this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Wednesday, guitarist Dave Black plays solo at Evangeline's, and the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features saxophonist Andy Ament at KDHX's Magnolia Café, a jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 5
Singer Kim Fuller will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, percussionist Joe Pastor leads a trio at The Dark Room, and saxophonist Vince Sala brings his trio to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, October 6
The Puerto Rican Society of St. Louis presents "STL Stands Up For Puerto Rico," a benefit performance to raise money for hurricane relief on the island, at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park. The event will feature music from Orquestra Son Montuno, Farshid Etniko, Clave Sol, Mark Holland, and more.

Saturday, October 7
Veteran free-jazz trombonist Steve Swell makes his St. Louis debut, leading an all-star quintet in a concert presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

Swell's band (pictured, bottom left) features pianist Dave Burrell, bassist William Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, and saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, and you can find out more of them and see some video performances here.

Sunday, October 8
Guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who's gotten very good notices for his post-Tonight Show efforts both on stage and on records. returns to the St. Louis area to perform in the intimate confines of the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. 

Also on Sunday night, the Coleman Hughes Project plays an early evening show at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The "TAP Dynamics" show this Saturday and Sunday at the Grandel Theatre, which features dancers performing to live music from a jazz trio led by drummer Allison Miller, was previewed by Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American, and by Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

* Wilson also has a story in the Post previewing next week's appearances by saxophonist/singer Grace Kelly (pictured) at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold's new album The Mugician is being released today, and as part of the roll-out, the entire album was previewed on AllMusic.com and Harrold was interviewed by Salon.com.

* Music for Lifelong Achievement's annual musical instrument drive was featured in a report on local CBS affiliate KMOV (Channel 4).

* The deadline for applications for Regional Arts Commission's Artist Support Grants for this year is Thursday, October 12. RAC is presenting a free workshop on how to apply on Monday, October 2; for more on that, and details on the grant program, go to https://racstl.org/grant/artists-support-grants/.

* Composer and flute player Fred Tompkins is offering free downloadable and streamable music, both previously unreleased and from his back catalog, via a new Bandcamp page.

* The Gateway Jazz Festival, a day-long smooth jazz event that debuted this July at Chesterfield Amphitheater, has announced a date for 2018. The fest will return for a second year on Saturday, July 21, 2018, and discounted "early bird" tickets are on sale now at http://www.gatewayjazzfest.com/.

* The Riverfront Times' annual "Best of St. Louis" issue is out this week, and the winners in the annual Readers' Choice poll include the Broadway Oyster Bar for "Best Restaurant" and Record Exchange for "Best Record Store". You can see all the results of the RFT's Readers Choice poll here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Saxophonist & singer Grace Kelly to make St. Louis debut

This week, let's get acquainted via video with saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly, who will make her St. Louis debut with shows starting Wednesday, October 4 through Saturday, October 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

While these will be her first performances in St. Louis, Kelly, 25, already is a music business veteran. She's performed in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, at venues including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Jazz Standard, and Blues Alley in the USA, and at Ronnie Scott's, Duc des Lombard, Porgy & Bess, and more overseas, as well as major jazz festivals in Detroit, Newport, Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Born and raised in the Boston area, Kelly was something of a prodigy, releasing her first CD at age 12. During her teen years, she jammed with and befriended respected jazz elders like Phil Woods and Lee Konitz, both of whom wound up recording with her. Kelly earned her GED at 16 and went on to attend Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2011 when she was just 19. In all, she has recorded a total of ten albums as a leader, the most recent being 2016's Trying To Figure It Out, which finished second in the "Jazz Album of the Year" category in DownBeat's 2016 Readers Poll.

Touted as a potential crossover success, Kelly has gained wider exposure as a recurring guest performer with keyboardist Jon Batiste and the house band for CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and as a member of the house band for the NBC variety show Maya & Marty. She also recently was featured in a second-season episode of Amazon's cop show Bosch, playing herself and performing a song in a scene filmed at the Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles.

You can see and hear some recent samples of Kelly's playing and singing in today's videos, starting up above with "Lemons Make Lemonade," recorded in April of this year at the studios of public radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

In this clip, and in the one of her funked-up version of the hymn "Amazing Grace" immediately after the jump, she's backed by her working band, which includes keyboardist Julian Pollack, bassist Julia Pederson, and drummer Ross Pederson.

The third video is a full set of Kelly and band recorded in August 2017 at the Cape Cod Jazz Festival in Massachusetts. Given that this set happened just a few weeks ago, it would seem to be a reasonable facsimile of what St. Louis listeners might expect when she gets here.

Kelly shows off a different look and sound in the fourth video, in which she guest-stars with the high-concept cover band Postmodern Jukebox on what's described as a "retro jazz version" of vocal group Fifth Harmony's 2015 pop hit "Worth It." While this sort of thing may raise a few eyebrows among the stodgiest jazz purists, it's an entertaining showcase for (at least some of) her skills that potentially could reel in some new fans.

In the fifth video, Kelly guest-stars on a episode of the web series Studio Jams for a version of the standard "Georgia On My Mind," recorded back in March 2016.

The final clip offers a glimpse of Kelly from earlier in her career. Recorded in 2012, it shows her sitting in on a set at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston with St. Louis' own David Sanborn, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Byron Landham, playing Hank Crawford's "The Peeper" and the blues standard "Let The Good Times Roll."

For more about Grace Kelly, you can check out her 2016 interview with WGBH in Boston; the 2014 episode of Voice of America's Beyond Category that features her, and recent interviews with Las Vegas magazine and AFM's magazine International Musician.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview

As the end of August approaches, it's time once again for StLJN's fall jazz preview, offering some video samples of the most noteworthy jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the next few months.

Since Rebirth Brass Band's Labor Day weekend show at Atomic Cowboy got a post of its own a couple of weeks ago, let's get started with a video from trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold, who will be coming home on Saturday, September 9 to headline the first-ever Alton Jazz and Wine Festival at the Riverfront Amphitheater in Alton.

You can see Harrold up above in a full set recorded in June 2016 for Revive Music's 10th anniversary "Blue After Dark" event at the Boiler Room in NYC.

After the jump, you can check out the current lineup of the British jazz-fusion band Brand X, who will be back in St. Louis to perform on Wednesday, September 13 at the Old Rock House. The clip - recorded by an audience member, so it's not quite what you'd call "broadcast quality" - shows them performing "And So to F" in June of this year at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA.

Next, it's Yellowjackets, who will return to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, September 20 through Saturday, September 23 at Jazz at the Bistro. The third video shows their set from Java Jazz Festival 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and features their current/latest bassist Dane Alderson, who had just joined the band before their last St. Louis gig in 2015, also at the Bistro.

The fourth clip features saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly, who will make her St. Louis debut performing Wednesday, October 4 through Saturday, October 7 at Jazz at the Bistro. Kelly is seen here doing the title track from her latest album, "Trying To Figure It Out," in April of this year at KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA.

Today's penultimate video features trombonist Steve Swell, who will lead an all-star quintet with bassist William Parker, saxophonist Jameel Moondoc, pianist Dave Burrell and drummer Chad Taylor in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, October 7 at The Stage at KDHX.

While this quintet set from the 2012 Vision Festival in NYC features a completely different band from the one Swell will have in St. Louis (which seems to be unrepresented in online videos), it's the same instrumentation, and so at least should provide some idea of Swell's trombone sound, compositions, and approach as a bandleader.

Last but not least, it's Moon Hooch, who will return to perform Friday, October 13 at Old Rock House. The saxophones-and-drums trio is seen here in a full set recorded February 4, 2017 at Otus Supply in Ferndale, MI.

Look for part two of StLJN's fall 2017 jazz preview next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...