So What: Local News, Notes & LInks

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

* St. Louis Public Radio will honor broadcaster, author and photographer Dennis Owsley (pictured) for 35 years of service to the station and the local music community with a celebration to be held at 7:00 p.m. next Thursday, July 19 at UMSL at Grand Center, 3651 Olive St.

The event is free and open to the public, and will include live music from saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Steve Davis.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold's recent gig at Ronnie Scott's in London was reviewed by Jazz in Europe.

* Harrold also was profiled briefly as one of "18 New Artists in the SFJAZZ 2018-19 Season."

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo was the subject of a feature story by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

* Saxophonist, clarinetist and U City native Marty Ehrlich was interviewed in DownBeat on the occasion of the release of latest album, Trio Exaltation.

* A recent performance by Grant Green’s Evolution of Funk at the Jazz Standard in New York was reviewed by Jazz Times. The group, which features Green's son Grant Green, Jr on guitar, was formed in part to promote Resonance Records' recent release of previously unheard live recordings by the elder Green.

* Multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman has just released a new album titled Ukulele Nuthouse.  The recording features Weltman on ukuleles and harmonica with various accompanists, performing a mix of originals and covers,  and is available now from the usual digital outlets and from CD Baby.

* Keyboardist Ryan Marquez did a brief Q&A about jazz/funk band The People's Key's new album Unlocking Doors with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis has announced its grants for the coming presenting season, and some local arts organizations are upset about a new evaluation system that has resulted in 40 groups that previously had received money from RAC getting no funding at all for 2018-19.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake is featured in a new instructional video for Jazz at Lincoln Center's "Jazz Academy."

* Trumpeter/singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport's song "One Way Ticket to New Orleans," written to commemorate the city's tricentennial, was the subject of a feature story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

* Grant Green Jr. will take his father Grant Green's music on the road this summer to help promote Resonance Records' release of two previously unheard albums by the guitarist and St. Louis native (pictured).

In addition to Green Jr, who is Green's eldest son and also a guitarist, the band billed as "Grant Green's Evolution of Funk" will include saxophonist Donald Harrison, keyboardist Marc Cary and drummer Mike Clark, and will make their debut with performances from June 28 to July 1 at NYC's Jazz Standard.

* On a related note, London Jazz News has reviewed Green's two new Resonance albums, Live at Oil Can Harry's and Funk in France, which will be released officially this Saturday, April 21 for Record Store Day.  You can find much more on this year's RSD jazz releases in this article from DownBeat.

* Drummer Kevin Bowers was interviewed about his shows this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Multi-instrumentalist Adam Maness has composed and produced music for a new video honoring the St. Louis Cardinals' Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson on the 50th anniversary of his historic performance in 1968, aka "The Year of the Pitcher."

With some coaching from Maness and singer Brian Owens, kids from the not-for-profit LIFE Arts, Inc wrote and performed the lyrics for the video, which can be seen on Major League Baseball's site MLB.com.

* Speaking of baseball, the Cardinals' Ernie Hayes was among the MLB ballpark organists featured in a recent post by JazzWax's Marc Myers.

* The Sheldon Concert Hall has posted to Facebook an album of photos from Ramsey Lewis' performance at last Friday night's benefit gala and an album from last Saturday's performance by pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya.

* Singer Denise Thimes' Mothers Day show raising money to fight pancreatic cancer, which will be held this year at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, was previewed in an article by Ladue News' Emma Dent.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold has been on tour in the UK and Europe, and his show last week at Jazz Cafe in London got a rave review from Jazzwise magazine.

* Miles Davis was the subject this week of a BBC program hosted by Adrian Utley of the British "trip-hop" band Portishead. Also on the Miles beat, the recently released box set Miles Davis & John Coltrane — The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 was reviewed by the Village Voice's Michael J. Agovino.

* HEC-TV has produced a video featuring testimonials from two local students, Kendall Blumenthal and Brittany O'Reilly, who have benefited from music scholarships awarded by Jazz St. Louis.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Meet the Godfathers of Groove

This week, we've got four very short video clips featuring the Godfathers of Groove, who are coming to St. Louis to appear at Jazz at The Bistro starting next Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11. With the well-seasoned veteran Reuben Wilson on organ, legendary session man Bernard "Pretty" Purdie playing drums and Grant Green, Jr., son of legendary guitarist and St. Louis native Grant Green, on guitar, the Godfathers might be thought of as a sort of soul-jazz supergroup, with deep roots in the old-school organ-trio sound.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of video of them online, so we'll have to make do with some brief teaser-type clips. All together, these four excerpts from a performance last December at the Jazz Cafe in London total less than six minutes of running time, but they should provide at least a general idea of the group's vibe and what to expect next week at the Bistro.

Pollstar: Godfathers of Groove to play the Bistro in October

Although the 2007-08 seasons of St. Louis' various not-for-profit presenters still have three or four months to go, the process of booking acts for the 2008-09 season has been well underway for a while. As those upcoming dates are confirmed with the artists, some of them show up on the online concert information service Pollstar even before the local presenters have announced their schedules.

This time, Pollstar is showing that the Godfathers of Groove (pictured) have been booked to play at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11. The Godfathers are a billed a soul-jazz "supergroup" featuring organ player Reuben Wilson, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, and guitarist Grant Green, Jr.

While the band has just one CD out as a collective entity, Purdie is, of course, one of the most frequently recorded drummers of the last 35 or 40 years, performing on dozens of gold records and hundreds of acts ranging from Aretha Franklin, King Curtis and B.B. King to Miles Davis, Donny Hathaway and Steely Dan.

Wilson also has had a long recording career as a old-school Hammond B-3 player in the style of Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack McDuff, et al, and in the 1990s enjoyed a bit of a renaissance thanks to the "acid jazz" movement of that decade. Green Jr., who was raised in Detroit, is a bit less of a known quantity, but is touted as a blues- and funk-influenced player in the tradition of his famous father.

As always, these sorts of announcements from Pollstar, though often reliable, are subject to change, and should be considered unofficial until duly announced by the venue in question. Until those official schedules are forthcoming, StLJN will continue to pass along whatever information comes our way, with the appropriate disclosures & caveats, for your anticipatory and/or speculative enjoyment. .