StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The BAG legacy, part 2

This week, let's check out some more videos featuring music made by former members of the influential Black Artists Group, which existed here in St. Louis from 1968 to 1972 and helped launch the careers of a number of notable creative musicians. Today's focus is on two of the most prominent BAG alumni, alto saxophonist Oliver Lake and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.

(You can see the first part of this series, featuring the only known online videos of a "core" BAG ensemble plus full sets of two of the groups it spawned, the World Saxophone Quartet and Bluiett's Clarinet Family, here. A third installment next week will feature videos from some other members of BAG.)

Today's first three clips show off some different aspects of the work of Oliver Lake, starting up above with a full set of his big band, recorded in October 2017 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY. While a number of different soloists including the leader are featured at various points, the compositions and arrangements are all Lake's, and together give a good sample of some of his ideas for large ensemble.

After the jump, you can see two more videos featuring Lake, both recorded in October 2014 when he was curating a week-long residency at the creative music performance space The Stone in New York City. The first is a trio set featuring Lake, drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Santi Debriano, and the second documents Lake's Organ Quartet, with trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, organist Jared Gold, drummer Chris Beck and special guest, tenor saxophonist Billy Harper.

The next three videos show Bluiett with three different ensembles, starting with a trio set recorded in January 2016 in NYC featuring Bluiett with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. Given Drake's affiliation with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), this group represents a meeting of improvisational styles forged among similarly minded musicians in both St. Louis and Chicago.

The following clip captures part of a set by a sextet led by Bluiett in 1999 at the Knitting Factory in NYC, in which the leader is joined by guitarist Ed Cherry, bassist Jaribu Shahid, percussionists Chief Bey and Leopoldo Fleming, and drummer Nasheet Waits.

Last but not least, there's a full set from the group billed as Hamiet Bluiett's Bio-Electric Ensemble, recorded during the annual Vision Festival in June 2013 at Roulette, and featuring Bluiett, Hamid Drake, pianist D.D. Jackson, bassist Harrison Bankhead, and what has to have been one of the first high-profile gigs for the young keyboard phenom Matthew Whittaker, then just 12 years old. (Whitaker, a New Jersey native who's still just 19 years old, headlined a weekend at Jazz St. Louis last season.)

Look for more videos featuring musicians associated with BAG next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The BAG legacy, part one

For the next couple of weeks, let's revisit part of St. Louis creative music history by looking at some videos featuring musicians who were part of the Black Artists Group, a multi-arts collective that produced music, poetry, dance, theater and visual arts here from 1968 to 1972.

Partly inspired by and operating similarly to Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), BAG helped launch the careers of a number of notable musicians, including saxophonists Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and J.D. Parran; trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, trombonist Joseph Bowie, drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw, and more.

At its peak, the group was getting funding from organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Danforth Foundation to present performances and educational programs in local schools, as well as from their headquarters at 2665 Washington Blvd in what's now the Grand Center district.

By 1972, much of that funding had dried up, and most of the BAG musicians moved on, some heading to Europe and subsequently to New York City, where a number of them would play significant roles in the "loft jazz" scene of the 1970s.

Though not much documentation survives of what BAG did during its busiest years, there was one "official" album credited to the group, In Paris, Aries 1973, which, as the title implies, was recorded in Europe while a number of the musicians were living there as expatriates.

The first video up above, also recorded in 1973 in Paris, is part of what seems to be the only footage available online of an ensemble billed as the Black Artists Group, in this case including Lake, Carroll, Bowie, guitarist Jimmy Jones, and drummer Donald Robinson. The performance continues after the jump in today's second video.

Even though BAG may have been relatively short-lived, its influence continued to be felt through the continuing careers of the musicians who were part of it. One of the most significant groups to emerge after BAG was the World Saxophone Quartet, formed in 1977 by Lake, Bluiett, Hemphill, and saxophonist David Murray.

Their innovations, combining free jazz with arranged material in a band without a traditional rhythm section, proved to be both artistically influential and relatively popular by the non-commercial standards of creative music.

You can see and hear the WSQ's original lineup in the third video, recorded in 1987 at JazzFest Berlin in Germany and featuring material from their 1986 album Plays Duke Ellington.

Around that same time, Bluiett pursued a somewhat-similar concept with his band Clarinet Family, bringing together a half-dozen clarinetists including fellow St. Louisan and ex-BAG member J.D. Parran for a 1984 recording on the Black Saint label and live performances including the fourth video, a full set of music recorded in November 1984, also in Berlin.

The fifth video is an interview of Lake and Bluiett, recorded in March 2014, and the final clip is an interview with Bluiett alone, recorded in 2016 under the auspices of instrument makers P Mauriat North America.

While these clips just begin to scratch the surface, the history of the Black Artists Group was documented extensively in the 2004 book BAG: Point from which creation begins: the Black Artists' Group of St. Louis, written by Benjamin Looker, then a graduate of Washington University working on a master's at Yale, now an associate professor of American Studies at St. Louis University.

You can listen to interviews with Looker, Parran and another former BAG member, playwright and poet Malinke Elliott, in a 2006 episode of St. Louis Public Radio's "St. Louis History in Black and White" podcast. In February of that same year, several ex-members of BAG and Looker also took part in a symposium at Washington University exploring BAG's history and legacy.

Lake spoke about his experiences with BAG in a 2017 interview with Bandcamp Daily, and also was interviewed briefly by Psychedelic Baby magazine in 2018 when In Paris, Aries 1973 got a limited-edition reissue from Aguirre Records.

There's also a documentary film about BAG that's been in production for several years, with a trailer here and a Facebook page, though there's still no word about when the film might be released.

Next week, we'll take a look at some more music from Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett, as well as videos featuring other former members of the Black Artists Group. 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:

* Drummer Dave Weckl will be doing a live interview and taking listener calls for an hour on the "Around The Kit" podcast starting at 8:00 p.m. EDT this coming Sunday, April 5.

* The late baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) is the subject of a remembrance and tribute in the April issue of the New York City Jazz Record (.pdf link).

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Aaron Paschal.

* An article by Dan Hardie in Syncopated Times makes the case for St. Louis-born pianist Gus Haenschen as the "missing link" between the ragtime of Scott Joplin and early jazz.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo and the Mosaic Jazz Sextet were among the musicians seen - some very briefly - in a news story on local NBC affiliate KSDK about the effects of COVID-19 on the St. Louis music scene.

* In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the release of Miles Davis' landmark album Bitches Brew, Jazz Times asked 10 contemporary musicians for their thoughts on the recording's significance. 

* The Middle East English-language news site The National uses the recent documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool as a jumping-off point for an article about "9 Ways Miles Davis Changed the Music Scene Forever."

* In related news, the Davis documentary, which now is streaming on Netflix, was reviewed by TheArtsDesk.com's Tim Cumming.

* Last but not least, the latest episode of the Rhino Records podcast features an interview with Davis’ son Erin and nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. about life on the road with the trumpeter and the production of the recently released "lost album" Rubberband.

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 magazine's annual "A List" issue is out, and the winners in the readers poll include Vintage Vinyl for "Record Store," the Whitaker Music Festival for "Free Music Series," and singer Erin Bode for "Musical Artist, Female."

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo also got a special mention from the editors as a "Musician So Good, Barack Obama Loves Her." You can see the complete list of 2019 "A List" winners here.

* Following up his 2006 tome City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973, radio host, photographer, and author Dennis Owsley has written Jazz in St. Louis: A History, which he calls "a new book on St. Louis jazz that brings everything up to date." The book (pictured) comes out on Monday, July 15 from The History Press and can be pre-ordered here. (Full disclosure: StLJN and yr. humble editor are name-checked on page 122.)

* Guitarist Todd Mosby will release a new album, Open Waters, on Thursday, August 1.

* Saxophonists and former St. Louisans Oliver Lake, Marty Ehrlich, and the late Hamiet Bluiett are among the 33 musicians interviewed by bassist William Parker for his new book Conversations 3, now available (in English) from the French publishers RogueArt.

* With Opera Theatre of St. Louis' production of Terence Blanchard's opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones set to close this Saturday night, reviews still are coming in, including notices locally from the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn and KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz at Lincoln Center has announced four new inductees into its Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, including a former St. Louisan.

That would be saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer (pictured) who, while born in Carbondale, IL, grew up in St. Louis and did his first professional work as a musician here. He's joined in the class of 2019 by saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, singer Dinah Washington, and drummer Chick Webb.

* The 2019 edition of Fair U City, the community carnival held during the first weekend in June in Heman Park alongside the U City Jazz Festival, has been cancelled due to a dispute over financial and other matters between city government and the University City Community Foundation, the not-for-profit group that organizes the fair.

Responding to the cancellation announcement in a Facebook post, U City Jazz Fest organizer Michael Silverman said he's now looking for an alternate location to stage the event on Saturday, June 8. Watch this space for more as this story develops...

* Jazz St. Louis will team up this fall with three other local arts organizations for a production of "Such Sweet Thunder," an "avant-garde ballet" created by French choreographer Maurice Béjart in 1960 using the music from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's 1957 suite of the same name.

JSL will supply the sounds, Big Muddy Dance Company will create the choreography, and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will "weave the pieces together with Shakespearean scenes and sonnets." The fourth partner, Nine Network, will host three free performances of the work on October 3, 4 and 5 at its Public Media Commons.

* Singer Alicia Olatuja was interviewed about her new album Intiution on the podcast Doing Jazz with Lorens Chuno.

* St. Louis writer (and Jazz Journalists Association 2019 "Jazz Hero") Terry Perkins got a byline in the May issue of DownBeat with a feature story about singer Cyrille Aimée.

* House of Miles East St. Louis, the organization that has restored Miles Davis' childhood home as a museum and educational facility, was profiled for the website TheSTL.com by writer Daniel Durchholz.

* The final performance of the 2019 Vision Festival, set for June 9-16 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY, will be a tribute to the late saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, led by his friend and collaborator, pianist D.D. Jackson, and featuring U City native and drummer Ronnie Burrage, saxophonists James Carter and Darius Jones, bassist William Parker, and percussionist Juma Sultan.

* The story of the legal battle between seemingly-defunct music festival LouFest and their former sound and lighting contractors Logic Systems has been updated by St. Louis writer and musician Kevin Mitchell in a post on Medium.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* In their ongoing series of features about the best record stores in every state, VinylMePlease.com has named Vintage Vinyl (pictured) as the "Best Record Store in Missouri."

* As part of a group of "in memoriam" articles in the March issue of Jazz Times, saxophonist Oliver Lake offered a poetic tribute to his late friend and bandmate Hamiet Bluiett. Lake performs tonight at Xavier Hall on the St. Louis University campus.

* Trumpeter Terence Blanchard, in town last weekend for a series of events promoting the premiere of his opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones later this year at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, was interviewed by Don Marsh of St. Louis Public Radio.

* Also on St. Louis Public Radio, singer Beverly Brennan was interviewed about her cabaret show "Love and Marriage," which she'll perform tonight at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* Pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio has posted to YouTube a full-length video of last week's concert featuring guitarist Romero Lubambo, pianist Helio Alves, drummer Edu Ribeiro, and bassist Bob DeBoo.

* Voting in St. Louis magazine's annual "A-List" poll is now open, and while there are no jazz-specific categories, you can cast a ballot for your favorite music venues, festivals, and more here.

* Two former Miles Davis sidemen are getting attention for new projects paying tribute to their old boss, as saxophonist Dave Liebman was interviewed in DownBeat about his new album re-visiting Davis' music from On The Corner, while multi-instrumentalist/producer Marcus Miller was featured in Parade magazine for two Davis-related concerts this month at Jazz at Lincoln Center..

* Phil Dunlap, who has run education and community outreach programs for Jazz St. Louis for the past 12 years, is leaving the organization to take a new job as director of cultural affairs for Broward County, FL, running that county's equivalent to the Regional Arts Commission. Dunlap will depart JSL at the end of April; there's been no announcement yet about a successor.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Michael Castro, the well-known St. Louis poet who was a member of the STL Free Jazz Collective and had a long history of collaborating with jazz and creative musicians, died last Sunday, December 23, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/STLtoday and St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis American.

Castro (pictured second from right, with the Collective) recently had completed a term as St. Louis' first-ever poet laureate. He was 73 years old and had battled colon cancer for some time. Funeral arrangements are pending.

* Pianist and singer Harry Connick Jr's show last Thursday at the Stifel Theatre was reviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Dan Durchholz. The Post's website STLtoday also published online an "iParty" gallery of photos of concert-goers.

* Vocal group Take 6's performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, also last Thursday, was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn, and also was the subject of an STLtoday "iParty" gallery.

* Saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who died in October, was the subject of a year-end remembrance in the Detroit Metro Times. Bluiett also was mentioned in NPR Music's tribute to musicians who died in 2018.

* The story behind "Blue Xmas," trumpeter Miles Davis' one-off holiday collaboration with the late singer, pianist, and songwriter Bob Dorough, was recounted in an article in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Remembering Hamiet Bluiett

The jazz world and the St. Louis area both suffered a big loss last week with the death of Hamiet Bluiett, one of the greatest baritone saxophonists of all time and a co-founder of both the Black Artists Group and the World Saxophone Quartet.

While StLJN's obituary for Bluiett, published last week shortly after his death, covered the broad outline of Bluiett's career, there's much more to say, and media, fans, and fellow musicians have all paid tribute to the saxophonist in recent days.

Here in St. Louis, Bluiett's passing was noted by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis American.

Nationally and internationally, coverage included obits and/or tributes from the New York Times, NPR, Jazz Times, London Jazz News, and DownBeat - the latter penned by St. Louis' own Terry Perkins, who's preparing a more extensive article about Bluiett for an upcoming issue of the magazine.

In addition to the piece that aired on NPR, veteran jazz writer and radio host Gene Seymour wrote a tribute to Bluiett specifically for NYC public radio station WBGO.

Also, a number of musicians weighed in about Bluiett on social media and on their personal sites, including bassist Melvin Gibbs, with a good story about playing a blues gig early in his career with Bluiett; saxophonists Sam Newsome, Jaleel Shaw and Tony Kofi, bassists Dave Holland and Christian McBride, and guitarist Vernon Reid.

Perhaps the best way to remember Hamiet Bluiett, though, is through his music, and toward that end, StLJN has assembled some favorite online video clips of live performances featuring him, starting up above with a complete set of of the World Saxophone Quartet, recorded at near the height of their collective powers in 1987 at Jazzfest Berlin.

This is the original WSQ lineup, with Bluiett, Julius Hemphill (alto sax, soprano sax), Oliver Lake (alto sax, soprano sax) and David Murray (tenor sax), and the set contains several arrangements from their then-current album of arrangements of music by Duke Ellington.

After the jump, we leap back in time to July 1974, when Bluiett was part of Charles Mingus's band for a performance at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Todi, Italy.

The song is called "Flowers For A Lady," and after tenor saxophonist George Adams and pianist Don Pullen play their solos, at about the six-minute mark it's Bluiett's turn, and he comes in hard, shredding in the altissimo register while Mingus and drummer Dannie Richmond stoke the rhythm.

After that, there's a full concert of Bluiett's band Clarinet Family from 1984 in Berlin, featuring fellow St. Louisan J.D. Parran in the ensemble along with clarinetists Buddy Collette, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, John Purcell, Dwight Andrews, Don Byron, and bassist Fred Hopkins.

Next up is a video apparently shot in 2000 in Ghana, featuring Bluiett with some local players. There's not a whole lot of other information available about this clip, but Bluiett sounds good on it, and it's an interesting groove.

The fifth video documents a performance by Bluiett's Bio-Electric Ensemble in June 2013 as part of the Vision Festival at Roulette in New York City. Along with the leader, the group features Matthew Whittaker on electric keyboards, D.D. Jackson on piano, Harrison Bankhead on bass and Hamid Drake on drums.

That's followed by another set of music by Bluiett, Drake, and bassist William Parker, recorded in January 2016 in NYC.

Finally, you can view the profile of Bluiett done in 2008 by KETC's Living St. Louis program, and a nearly hour-long interview with Bluiett, conducted by saxophonist and latter-day WSQ member Bruce Williams in October 2016 at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

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:

* Saxophonist Ben Reece, keyboardist Mo Egeston, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor were interviewed on a recent episode of Rock Paper Podcast. 

* Bassist and singer Janet Evra appeared Tuesday on KTVI/Fox 2's morning newscast.

* In advance of his debut later this month at SFJAZZ in San Francisco, trumpeter Keyon Harrold's past collaborations are the subject of an article on SFJAZZ.org's website. 

* Cabaret singer and pianist Rick Jensen's performance last Saturday at the Kranzberg Arts Center was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* The family of the late Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) is trying to raise money via crowd-funding for burial and memorial expenses, as the baritone sax great died last week without life insurance. If you'd like to contribute, go to https://www.gofundme.com/683jk7k. (You also can help by sharing the GoFundMe page URL on social media and elsewhere.)

A funeral service for Bluiett will be held at 10:00 a.m. today (Friday, October 12) at Lovejoy Temple Church of God, 511 Canal Street in Brooklyn, IL, followed by burial at 12:30 p.m. at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

Hamiet Bluiett 1940 - 2018

Hamiet Bluiett, a native of Brooklyn, IL who co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet and redefined the capabilities of the baritone sax in improvised music, died Thursday, October 4 at St. Louis University Hospital. He was 78 years old.

Bluiett, whose birthday was September 16, had been gravely ill for some time, and according to a Facebook post from his daughter Anaya, was taken off respiratory support last week.

As a child, Bluiett (pictured) studied piano, trumpet, and clarinet before settling on baritone saxophone at the age of ten. He played his first local gigs in Brooklyn, East St. Louis, and elsewhere as a teenager, and after graduating from high school, served in the Navy band starting in 1961.

Returning to St. Louis after his stint in the Navy, Bluiett helped found the Black Artists Group, leading the BAG big band for two years before the group split up and some members moved to Europe.

Bluiett moved to New York City in 1969, working with Charles Mingus, saxophonist Sam Rivers' big band, and others. Then in December 1976, he played what was supposed to have been a one-off concert in New Orleans with alto saxophonists and former BAG members Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake and tenor saxophonist and clarinetist David Murray.

That led directly to the official founding in 1977 of the World Saxophone Quartet, which subsequently turned out to be a significant musical outlet for all four members, touring and performing at major festivals, concert halls and clubs all over the globe for the next 30 years.

With the WSQ and in other projects, Bluiett pushed the baritone sax beyond previously perceived limits, playing with speed, precision, range, and timbral variation rivaling that usually heard from the best alto and tenor players of his time. In mid-career, he also picked up the clarinet again and began incorporating it into some of his performances.

Further exploring the idea of groups of similar instruments playing together, Bluiett later formed the Bluiett Baritone Nation, made up entirely of baritone saxophones (plus a drummer), and Clarinet Family, a group of eight clarinetists playing clarinets of various sizes.

In all, Bluiett recorded more than 20 albums with the World Saxophone Quartet, plus nearly two dozen as a leader on labels including India Navigation, Black Saint, Soul Note, and Justin Time. He also recorded or performed with drummer Beaver Harris' 360 Degree Music Experience, saxophonist James Carter (a latter-day substitute member of WSQ, who Bluiett considered something of a protege), arranger and pianist Gil Evans, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and numerous others.

Beset with back problems and other ailments, Bluiett moved back to Brooklyn in 2002, then returned to New York City in 2012 for several years, until a series of strokes starting in 2014 led him to move back to the Midwest once again a couple of years ago.

Bluiett in 2006 was the subject of a video profile from the KETC program Living St. Louis, which can be seen online here.

He is survived by two sons, Pierre Butler and Dennis Bland, and two daughters, Ayana Bluiett and Bridgett Vasquaz; a sister, Karen Ratliff; and eight grandchildren. Bluiett was married twice, with one marriage ending with the death of his wife and the other in divorce.

On a personal note, I had the chance to interview Hamiet Bluiett a couple of times, once for the short-lived "New Music St. Louis" program on KDHX in the mid-1990s, and again (briefly) for the Riverfront Times in 2006 before the WSQ played at what then was called Jazz at the Bistro. He was an entertaining and informative interview subject, as well as an outstanding musician, and he'll be missed greatly.

A funeral service for Hamiet Bluiett will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, October 12 at Lovejoy Temple Church of God, 511 Canal Street in Brooklyn, IL, followed by burial at 12:30 p.m. at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

(Updated 10/7/18 with information about survivors and funeral services.)

GoFundMe campaign set up to raise money for saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett

Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett is ailing, and family members have set up a page at the website GoFundMe to raise money to help him.

From the message posted to the page by Bluiett's granddaughter Anaya:

"Recently, he's been hospitalized for several months because he has had numerous strokes and seizures. He was in the critical intensive care unit, then the hospital and two rehabs to help him get back to himself but it's still going to take some time. I am trying to raise money for him for his bills and traveling expenses, since he no longer will be able to work."

Considered by many fans and critics to be the top baritone saxophonist of his generation, Bluiett (pictured) originally is from Brooklyn, IL (aka Lovejoy), just across the river from St. Louis, and attended SIU-Carbondale.

Now 76 years old, Bluiett first gained wide recognition in the jazz world in the late 1960s as a member of the Black Artists Group, and then went on to form the World Saxophone Quartet with fellow BAG members Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill plus David Murray.

In addition to more than 20 albums with the WSQ, Bluiett has made a similar number of recordings as a bandleader, and also has performed or recorded with well-known jazz and improvisational musicians including Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Anthony Braxton, Kahil El'Zabar, the Music Revelation Ensemble, and many others.

(On a more personal note, as longtime StLJN readers may have noticed, yr. humble editor is a big fan of Bluiett's many musical contributions to our culture. I've also interviewed him a couple of times, and found him to be candid, funny, and very quotable.) 

To find out more or to contribute to the GoFundMe campaign supporting Hamiet Bluiett, go here.

St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame honoring five new inductees at gala on Sunday, October 23

Clockwise from top left: Bass, Bluiett, Lake and Washington

The St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame will induct five musicians in a ceremony to be held at 5:00 p.m. Sunday, October 23 at the Emerson Performance Center on the campus of Harris Stowe State University.

The hall, which is part of the Don and Heide Wolff Jazz Institute at Harris Stowe, will welcome three new living members - saxophonists Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, and Freddie Washington - and two posthumous inductees, singer Fontella Bass and trumpeter David Hines.

As most readers of this site will already know, Bluiett and Lake both were members of the Black Artists Group in the late 1960s and went on to co-found the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray and former St. Louisan Julius Hemphill. Both Bluiett and Lake continue to enjoy busy careers, recording and touring both nationally and internationally.

Washington has been a mainstay of the St. Louis scene for more than 50 years, teaching and performing regularly in local clubs and concert venues since the 1960s.

Bass, who died in 2012, was best known for her 1965 pop and soul mega-hit "Rescue Me," but also recorded jazz with the Art Ensemble of Chicago (which included her then-husband, St. Louis trumpeter Lester Bowie) and earned a Grammy nomination in 1995 for her gospel album No Ways Tired.

Hines was a highly regarded trumpeter, teacher and mentor who toured with Albert King, T-Bone Walker, Little Milton, Woody Herman, and Ray Charles, and worked frequently in St. Louis until his untimely death at age 49 in a 1991 motorcycle accident.

The induction ceremony is held in conjunction with the university's 18th annual "Homecoming Gold Gala" for alumni and supporters. Ronn Nichols, who serves as curator of the Wolff Jazz Institute, also will be honored with a "Lifetime Achievement Award."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist Eric Person has released a new CD, DuoScope, which features duet performances with drummer Shinnosuke Takahashi. The album (pictured) is available now via CD Baby.

* St. Louis Public Radio has added a jazz channel to their online and HD offerings. Jazz KWMU-2 is streaming syndicated programming produced by Jazz Works, which offers a mix of mainstream modern jazz, Latin jazz, vocals, and more. You can see some sample playlists from the JazzWorks service here.

* In this week's St. Louis American, staff writer Kenya Vaughn reviews the latest album from singer Cecile McLorin Salvant.

* Saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett will celebrate his 75th birthday next week with a concert on Sunday, September 20 at the Chicago Academy of Music.

* A video excerpt showing saxophonist Willie Akins playing the blues at his own benefit concert last Friday at the Kranzberg Arts Center has been posted to YouTube.

* The band Soul Cafe won the fourth annual "Old Webster's Got Talent" contest last week, and will open the 2015 Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, September 19 on the Allen Avenue stage.

* Saxophonist, composer and onetime Webster University undergraduate John Zorn was the subject of a feature story in the Wall Street Journal.

* In what a cynic would say has the appearance of a classic holiday weekend newsdump, Grand Center announced last Friday evening that there will be no First Night celebration this year. There's no word yet as to whether venues in the district, which includes Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon, and the Kranzberg Arts Center, will be putting on any New Year's Eve programming of their own. Stay tuned...

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The impending release of Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about Clark Terry - covered in this space most recently a couple of weeks ago - was noted by Jazz Times' Jeff Tamarkin.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn will be among the musicians back on board the Smooth Jazz Cruise in January and February of 2016. The just-announced lineup also will include singer Randy Crawford joining Joe Sample and the Crusaders for the first time at sea, plus bassist Marcus Miller, saxophonists Boney James and Candy Dulfer, keyboardist Brian Culbertson, and more.

* In this week's Miles Davis-related news, a set by the Miles Electric Band at the SFJAZZ Trumpet Festival was reviewed by Down Beat, AllAboutJazz.com, and BAM magazine.

* Also this week, Life magazine published online some previously unreleased photos from 1958 of Davis with John Coltrane, Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans, aka the sextet that would record Kind of Blue the next year.

* Meanwhile, drummer Dave Weckl is following in the footsteps of Davis and numerous other musicians by releasing some of his visual art to the public. You can check out what he calls "his new collection of rhythm-on-canvas" at http://www.davewecklart.com/.

* Weckl and keyboardist Jay Oliver also have put online a video of their version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground," which is one of the tracks on Weckl's new album Convergence.

* Speaking of putting new music online, saxophonist Oliver Lake has posted on SoundCloud a track, "Wiring," from the new collaborative release by Trio 3 (Lake, drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Reggie Workman) and pianist Vijay Iyer.

* Soprano Christine Brewer and members of the St. Louis Symphony will perform a new commissioned composition by pianist Peter Martin as part of the fourth annual "Arts & Faith" concert this Sunday at The Sheldon. The Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller has a preview here.

*  The winners of this year's "Webster's Got Talent" contest, and thus the opening act for the upcoming Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival, are The Spys.

* Upcoming concerts by Thumbscrew and Survival Unit III were previewed by the Riverfront Times' Joseph Hess.

* Saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett will be honored next week with a "Friend of the Family" award and tribute concert from Y’All of New York, Inc, the arts organization founded and run by another former St. Louisan, saxophonist and composer James "Jabbo" Ware.

The concert on Saturday, September 13 at the Church for All Nations in NYC will feature Ware (pictured, at left, with Bluiett) and the Me, We and Them Orchestra performing "The St. Louis Experience," a new work described as "a tone parallel telling the story of the formative relationship and exchange between musicians in St. Louis and East St. Louis that did much to create a signature sonic sensibility along the banks of the Mississippi River."

* Jazz radio update: And speaking of New York, this Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, “Somethin’ Else” host Calvin Wilson will be spinning NYC-themed tunes as performed by Diana Krall, Eric Alexander, Mark Whitfield, and more.

Right after that, "The Jazz Collective" and host Jason Church return from summer repeats with a new program featuring tracks from Cindy Bradley, Paul Taylor, Citrus Sun, Morgan James, Bob Baldwin, Maynard Ferguson, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Chris Standring, Funky Butt Brass Band, Jesse Gannon, Anthony Hines, Tim Cunningham, and more.

Wilson's program can be heard 8:00 p.m., followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/liste

On Sunday, WSIE (88.7 FM) will debut their new program "St. Louis Jazz Talk" at 11:00 a.m. Hosted by WSIE's Dick Ulett and musicians Mike Silverman, Robert Silverman, and Erika Johnson, the program's first episode will feature pianists Ptah Williams and Jesse Gannon.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Yesterday, the New York Times' City Room blog ran a short feature on saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who's recovering from two strokes in the last two months, but nevertheless is planning to perform this Saturday.

Bluiett is living in NYC again after spending several years back home in southern Illinois, but according to the NYT article, continues to have financial as well as health difficulties and is getting help from the Jazz Foundation of America.

* The news is considerably better for fellow saxophonist, St. Louis expat, and World Saxophone Quartet co-founder Oliver Lake, who this week was named one of 20 winners of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award. The prize is worth a minimum of $225,000 over a three to five year period, with possible additional funding of another $50,000 if certain conditions are met.

* Enjoy The View, saxophonist David Sanborn's new album with Joey DeFrancesco, Bobby Hutcherson, and Billy Hart (pictured above with Sanborn), is now available for pre-order from iTunes, with immediate digital delivery of the preview track "Delia."

Meanwhile, Sanborn is wasting no time getting to work on his next recording, this week launching a PledgeMusic campaign to finance the costs. The album will reunite him with bassist Marcus Miller in the studio for the first time in nearly 15 years.

In addition to the usual premiums like downloads of the album, signed CDs, and VIP concert tickets, Sanborn is offering plenty of high-end options, too, including private concerts (which, for locations in the USA, start at $25K plus expenses) and the chance to have him play a solo on your recording ($7,500 when done from Sanborn's home studio).

* Trumpeter Clark Terry was the subject of a feature story in the New York Observer.

* Pianist and former St. Louisan Tom McDermott's collaboration with producer, songwriter and musician Van Dyke Parks was featured on New Orleans community radio station WWNO's "American Routes" program.

* Saxophonist Eric Person will take part in a tribute to the late drummer Chico Hamilton next Tuesday, April 29 at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC. Person worked with Hamilton for eight years and made several albums with him.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted on Facebook an album of photos from their recent performance at the Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

* Speaking of photo albums on Facebook, The Gramophone has posted one with shots from Davina and the Vagabonds' performance there last weekend.

* Singer Joe Mancuso is profiled in the new issue of Uptown magazine.

* The late St. Louis pianist and ragtime historian Trebor Tichenor is the subject of a tribute on the website West Coast Ragtime (incorporating StLJN's item on Tichenor's passing, with our permission according to Creative Commons licensing.)

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday's episode of Calvin Wilson's program "Somethin' Else" on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis will put the bass in the place with performances from Ron Carter, Gary Peacock, Esperanza Spalding, and more.

Then on "The Jazz Collective," Jason Church is offering tunes from Richard Smith, Les Sabler, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Stan Sargeant, John Klemmer, Fourplay, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Richard Elliot, and Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing.

Wilson's program airs at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Marissa Mulder, Jazz St. Louis benefit gala, Hamiet Bluiett & George Sams, Roger Ingram, and more

It's Mardi Gras weekend in St. Louis, and though the "official" Mardi Gras events in recent years have tended to feature rock cover bands and DJs rather than jazz and blues, there will be plenty of jazz and creative music around town this week, if you know where to look.

For the Funky Butt Brass Band, St. Louis' best known exponents of the New Orleans brass band sound, the next few days are the equivalent of the week before Christmas for Santa Claus' various helpers and stand-ins. The FBBB will kick off the weekend this evening at Blues City Deli's King Cake Party, then team up with NOLA R&B/zydeco tribute band Gumbohead for gigs on Saturday at the Old Rock House and Tuesday at the Broadway Oyster Bar.
 
Elsewhere around town tonight, singer Marissa Mulder (pictured) makes her St. Louis debut as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, performing her show "The Songs of Tom Waits" at the Gaslight Theater.  Mulder will do the show twice more, on Friday and Saturday, while the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues weekends through April 26. .

Also tonight, singer Denise Thimes performs at the Ethical Society of St. Louis; pianist Ptah Williams' trio will play a free concert featuring the music of Chick Corea for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music from keyboardist Jim Hegarty, flute player Fred Tompkins, and others.

Tomorrow night, Jazz St. Louis will hold their annual benefit gala at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Clayton, featuring the legendary funk saxophonist Maceo Parker as the headline entertainment, plus dinner, drinks, a silent auction, and more. As of this writing, there still are some tickets available, starting at $400 per person; call 314-289-4034 for details.

Also on Friday, pianist Pete Ruthenberg will play "The Music of Herbie Hancock" at the Kranzberg Arts Center; trombonists Doug Bert and Rodney Lancaster join forces for a gig at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer/pianist Jesse Gannon and his band Truth return to The Engine Room; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

On Saturday afternoon, trumpeter George Sams will re-start his Nu-Art Series by playing a duo concert with baritone sax great Hamiet Bluiett at a new location, the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site downtown.

Then on Saturday evening, Roger Ingram, known as lead trumpeter for Harry Connick Jr.'s big band and as as jazz educator much in demand, will be the featured guest performer at this year's Mineral Area College Jazz Festival down in Park Hills.

Also on Saturday evening and a bit closer to home, pianist Dave Venn and saxophonist Willie Akins will team up for a one-night-only performance at Jazz at the Bistro; the Coleman-Hughes Project with singer Adrienne Felton will play at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will return to The Wine Press, and pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will take the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will hold their first event of the year - January's show was canceled due to bad weather - at the usual location, the American Czech Hall at 4690 Lansdowne in south St. Louis.

Also on Sunday, trumpeter Russell Gunn will be back home, performing on a bill with singer Dionne Ferris of Arrested Development at the Casino Queen's Club Sevens.While the first show is sold out, a second show at 8:30 p.m. has been added.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Tom Byrne is at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; and on Tuesday, the St. Louis Community College at Meramec Jazz Combos will present a free performance at Meramec Theatre on 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.)

(Updated after posting with info on the Russell Gunn show.) 

Nu-Art Series returning with three concerts this spring

After more than a year of dormancy following the closing of its primary venue, the Metropolitan Gallery, the Nu-Art Series will return to presenting music starting next month with a series of concerts at the Scott Joplin House Historic Site, 2658 Delmar.

As frequently was the case in the series' past, the first set of performances in 2014 will present musicians wth a connection to the Black Artists Group and St. Louis' avant-jazz scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, the series' organizer, trumpeter George Sams, is taking a slightly different approach this time around, participating directly as a performer in all three concerts as well as producing them.

On Saturday, March 1, Sams will team with baritone saxophonist and clarinetist Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) for a duo performance. Then on Saturday, March 15, drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw and pianist David Parker will be featured along with Sams.

The spring series wraps up on Saturday, April 12 with another duo concert featuring multi-instrumentalist J.D. Parran and Sams.

All concerts start at 3:00 p.m., and admission is $10 at the door. For more information, call 314-340-5790.

StLJN Audio Archive: Hamiet Bluiett - Endangered Species

For this edition of the Audio Archive, we continue this weekend's focus on the great baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett by spotlighting Endangered Species, his recording debut as a leader.

Originally issued in 1976 by the now-defunct India Navigation label and out of print for many years, Endangered Species has been preserved online thanks to the efforts of music sharing blogs including Free The Music, where yr. humble StLJN editor found the file.

In addition to Bluiett on baritone sax and flute, the personnel on Endangered Species includes another St. Louis native, drummer Phillip Wilson, as well as Olu Dara (trumpet), Jumma Santos (balafon) and Junie Booth (bass). The album's tracks, all composed by Bluiett, are "Between the Raindrops," "Sobre Una Nube," "The Other Side of the World" and "Ayana Nneke."

Called "quite impressive" and "adventurous" by All Music Guide, Endangered Species was recorded after Bluiett left the employ of bassist Charles Mingus, right around the time he first joined forces with two other former St. Louisans, alto saxophonists Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill, and tenor saxophonist David Murray to form the World Saxophone Quartet. It's an important document in the career of the man that critics and fans have called the best baritone saxophonist of his generation, and you can download a copy of it for free here.

(Update, 5:10 p.m., 6/25/12: We've been informed that the download link above does NOT work as a regular "hot" link for some readers. If it doesn't work for you, you can try copying and pasting it into your address bar, as that seems to have been successful for at least one person. Or, you can download a different rip of the LP, of slightly lesser audio quality, here or here. Apologies for the glitchiness...)

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is to encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we urge you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise and, whenever possible, attending live performances.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A Hamiet Bluiett sampler

This week, we focus our video spotlight on baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who will be performing a rare local date next Wednesday June 27 at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The free outdoor concert, part of the Garden's Whitaker Music Festival, will feature Bluiett fronting an all-star band including pianist D.D. Jackson, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake.

Considered the preeminent baritone sax player of his generation, and one of the best in the entire history of jazz, Bluiett has played occasional gigs in St. Louis since moving back to his hometown of Brooklyn, IL in 2002. But this one should be particularly special, though, both for the quality of musicians accompanying him, and simply because it's a big, outdoor show featuring the sort of adventurous sounds often relegated to small and/or obscure venues.

StLJN has featured Bluiett a couple of times before in this space; for today's installment, we've got a whole new bunch of performance clips that serve to demonstrate his considerable skills as a soloist. We get started up top with an improvised Bluiett solo from a performance in November, 2009 in Mt. Ranier, MD. Down below, you can see a duo piece from the same show featuring the saxophonist and his frequent collaborator Kahil El'Zabar on drums.

Below that, there are three seldom-seen clips featuring Bluiett and the great drummer Ed Blackwell, a New Orleans native known for his work with Ornette Coleman, Old and New Dreams, and others. Taped on Valentine's Day 1987 at an NYC venue called Jazz Track, the clips are rough in terms of audio/video quality, but the quality of the music and the energy flowing from the two musicians makes them all worth watching. Although the performance clearly is improvised, you'll hear bits of familiar tunes, as in the start of the second clip, which features John Coltrane's composition "Cousin Mary." Also, dig Bluiett's entrance from the wings in the first clip, a nicely executed bit of showmanship and swagger.

The sixth video is from Bluiett's performance at the 2008 Vision Fest in NYC. The group was billed as "Bio-Electric," and features the late violinist Billy Bang (another frequent collaborator of Bluiett's), bassist Harrison Bankhead, and drummer Hamid Drake (plus a trumpeter and pianist who were unidentified in the notes for the clip, but look awfully familiar). The song is the Billy Strayhorn composition "Take The 'A' Train," and while most of the band plays it straight, Bluiett just kind of explodes all over the track, splattering notes and upper-register shrieks in a way that suggests something a bit more exciting that a simple subway ride.

The seventh and final clip was recorded earlier this year at a concert at the Jefferson Center in Roanoake, VA paying tribute to the late pianist Don Pullen, who grew up in that area. Pullen and Bluiett worked together in Charles Mingus' band in the early 1970s, and remained friends and musical collaborators until the pianist's death in 1995. The clip shows Bluiett and an all-star band - saxophonist James Carter, pianist Jason Moran, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Nasheet Waits - performing a composition identified as Pullen's "1529 Gunn Street." Bluiett's solo starts at about the 4:45 mark.

For more about Hamiet Bluiett, check out this profile on him that ran in 2008 on the KETC program Living St. Louis, and this 2011 feature story about him, written by St. Louis magazine's Stef Russell.

Jazz this week: Charlie Hunter, Hamiet Bluiett, "Cool Like That: A Tribute to Miles Davis," and more

It's the first official week of summer, and there are plenty of jazz-related events coming up in and around St. Louis over the next seven days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the inaugural St Lou Fringe Festival opens with an evening of performances that will include the first of four stagings of Cool Like That: A Tribute to Miles Davis, an event that incorporates spoken word, music, and dance to pay tribute to the legendary trumpeter.

Also tonight, there's another jazz-meets-theater experience in the offing as Stages St. Louis' production of the Fats Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin' continues through the weekend (and on until the end of the month). Other gigs tonight include saxophonist Jim Stevens playing an early set at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; and singer Tony Viviano performing at Fortel's, 15483 Clayton Rd. in Ballwin.

On Friday, guitarist Charlie Hunter returns to St. Louis to open a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. Known for his distinctive technique that lets him play melody, chords and basslines all at once, Hunter will be performing in a duo with drummer Scott Amendola. For more about Hunter, and lots of video footage of him in action, check out this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode plays a free outdoor concert sponsored by Ferguson CityWalk at the Plaza at 501, 501 S. Florissant Rd; trumpeter Jim Manley brings a quartet to Robbie's House of Jazz; guitarist Dave Black will lead a trio at Cigar Inn; and singer Anita Jackson will perform at Jazz on Broadway.

On Saturday afternoon, Hunter will present a master class at City Music; see the link for enrollment details.

Then on Saturday night, there are a couple more free outdoor events on tap, as the Gateway City Big Band plays a free concert at Kirkwood Amphitheater; and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis will present a free screening of the 1967 Jacques Tati film Play Time with live musical accompaniment from guitarist Curt Brewer, bassist Ben Wheeler, and drummer Marty Morrison.

Also on Saturday, Robbie's will feature a tribute to Billie Holiday from singer Sarah Jane Ulrich and saxophonist Jerry Greene.

On Sunday, the Saint Louis Jazz Club presents the Funky Butt Brass Band in a matinee concert at the Doubletree Hotel at Westport. When that winds down, you should have enough time to get over to the Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, where the Dave Dickey Big Band will be playing their monthly show, joined this time by special guest trumpeter Roger Ingram.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday drummer Rob Silverman (of Bach to the Future) and his band will play a free concert at Heman Park in University City, and on Tuesday (see update below), the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Avant Garde Arts Night" featuring improvised live music. UPDATE, 11:30 p.m., 6/25/12: The Tavern of Fine Arts' "Avant Garde Arts Night" now has been moved from the fourth Tuesday to the the fourth Thursday of every month, starting this week.

Last, but by no means least, next Wednesday night the great baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) will perform a free outdoor concert as part of the Whitaker Music Festival series at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Bluiett's local gigs are rare enough that any one of them can be considered an occasion, but this one should be particularly special, as he'll be leading an all-star band that is scheduled to include pianist D.D. Jackson, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake.

Bluiett remains one of the most influential and important modern players on his chosen instrument, and with three such distinguished and experienced collaborators, the sparks really ought to be flying on Wednesday night. If you've heard Bluiett play before, you're likely already making plans to be there. If you haven't heard him, this is your chance to check out a truly world-class musician and St. Louis legend for free, and you definitely should take advantage of the opportunity.

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.)

(Edited after posting.)