Sunday Session: January 27, 2019

Terri Lyne Carrington

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Houzz Tour: Rock Musician’s Tiny House Wakes Up the Neighborhood (Houzz.com)
* FIRST LISTEN: Brand new Snarky Puppy unveiled (JazzFM.com)
* Festival of New Trumpet Music West to debut in San Diego at eight venues in one week in January (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Pharoah Sanders – The Creator's Master Plan (Q&A) (Pollstar.com)
* Mark Mothersbaugh on his journey from Devo to Hollywood (AV Club)
* Scenes From the Winter Jazzfest: A Slide Show (WBGO)
* Makaya McCraven’s ‘Distillation of Ideas’ (DownBeat)
* Myra Melford: Both Sides Now (Jazz Times)
* Bob Clearmountain: Living in the Mix (Tape Op)
* Why won’t City Hall fight for Chicago’s homegrown music scene? (Chicago Reader)
* Hugh Masekela’s legacy can still be heard throughout South Africa (QZ.com)
* Donny McCaslin: ‘Just Be Brave’ (DownBeat)
* 'Swingin' in Seattle' Finds Cannonball Adderley at a Crossroads, Reaching Out and Speaking Up (WBGO)
* Spotify data shows how music preferences change with latitude (ArsTechnica.com)
* Eric Dolphy: It’s All Out There Now (Jazz Times)
* Terri Lyne Carrington Looks to Transform the Culture (DownBeat)
* Blue Note Records Presents The Tone Poet Audiophile Reissue Series (BlueNote.com)
* Jaco Pastorius Shares How He Learned Bass and Composition in Unpublished Interview (Reverb.com)
* We Analyzed Every Dang Song That Cracked the Billboard Top 5 in 2018 (Soundfly.com)
* ‘Magic baton’ helps blind musicians feel conductor (BBC)
* This mouth-controlled synthesizer is the wildest instrument I’ve ever heard (TheVerge.com)
* Michel Legrand, Oscar-winning composer, dies aged 86 (The Guardian)
* How Eric Dolphy Sparked My Love of Jazz (The New Yorker)

Sunday Session: September 30, 2018

Horace Tapscott

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Trane ’63: A Classic, A Challenge, A Change (WFIU)
* 10 Classic Vocal Jazz Duets (Jazz Times)
* The Absence Of Alice Coltrane – Reflections On Spiritual Eternal (TheQuietus.com)
* George Freeman still swinging hard — at 91 (Chicago Tribune)
* AudioFiles: The Controversy Over MQA (Jazz Times)
* Five Electronic Digital Instruments That Are Changing Music (Berklee.edu)
* SiriusXM buying Pandora Media in $3.5 billion deal (Associated Press)
* Terence Blanchard: Music, Social Justice and Raising Awareness About Violence Against Black People (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Pat Metheny still brings a unique voice to jazz guitar (Wisconsin Gazette)
* Interview with Cooper-Moore: My thinking is that intellect and emotion are part of what makes up the “Soul”: New video 2018, Photos (JazzBluesNews.space)
* Earning the Songs of Bill Withers (Jazz Times)
* Out of Dance, the Distinct Groove of Allison Miller and Carmen Staaf (DownBeat)
* Watch Paul Simon deliver an emotional farewell to fans during his last ever concert (NME.com)
* The Legend of Horace Tapscott and His Arkestra on Nimbus West Records (Bandcamp.com)
* The Smithsonian Robot Pepper Can Create Music from Visual Art. Now You Can Hear the Creepy Sample Tracks. (Washingtonian)
* A Brief History of Guitar Distortion: From Early Experiments to Happy Accidents to Classic Effects Pedals (OpenCulture.com)
* Streaming now accounts for 75 percent of music industry revenue (TheVerge.com)
* Tiny Desk Concert: Cécile McLorin Salvant (NPR)
* Wayne Shorter: Other Worlds (Jazz Times)
* ‘Love Is Here To Stay’: The Eternal Power Of Tony Bennett And Diana Krall (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* The Crosscultural Significance of Ornette Coleman (Jazz Times)
* Jazz isn’t dead: it’s just moved to new venues (TheConversation.com)
* Forgotten Giants: Willie Dixon - The Poet Laureate of Chess Records (Paste)
* Cosmic composers: how scientists helped reinvent Holst's Planets suite (The Guardian)
* Sony Music Faces Class Action Litigation for Allegedly Withholding Streaming Royalties (DigitalMusicnews.com)
* Q&A: Bridgette Wimberly tells the story of the Atlanta Opera’s “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” (ArtsATL.com)
* Bruce Iglauer Memoir Tells Story Of Blues Staple Alligator Records (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Sound Off: The Sonic Circuits Festival's Enduring Legacy (Washington City Paper)
* Herb Alpert Remembers Hugh Masekela (Afropop.org)
* Tia Fuller: The Brilliance of a Diamond (DownBeat)
* Sun Ra’s Afrofuturistic Album Covers (Flashbak.com)
* Branford Marsalis speaks his mind on music and politics, and he’s not holding back (Charlotte News-Observer)
* 40 years after Are We Not Men? we’re just now starting to get Devo (AVClub.com)
* Otis Rush, Seminal Chicago Blues Guitarist, Dead at 84 (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: April 22, 2018

Kamasi Washington

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Why the Hell Can’t Hollywood Make a Decent Music Festival Movie? (Los Angeles)
* A record shop life (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Cape Town Festival Honors Hugh Masekela (DownBeat)
* The Unlikely Pairing of Louis Armstrong With Ella Fitzgerald Is (Still) Pure Bliss (Mother Jones)
* Laurindo Almeida: Forgotten Genius of Guitar Arrangement (Acoustic Guitar)
* Bill Charlap: “I’m Not a Composer” (Jazz Times)
* Beyond 'Blurred Lines': How Forensic Musicology Is Altering Pop's Future (Rolling Stone)
* The State of the Music Cities Union (Medium.com)
* This Must Be David Byrne (GQ)
* Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN.' Wins Historic Pulitzer Prize In Music (NPR)
* Pulitzer Prize Administrator Explains How Kendrick Lamar Won (Billboard)
* This Year’s Other Two Pulitzer Finalists on Losing to Kendrick Lamar (Slate)
* What the classical-music world can learn from Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize (Washington Post)
* Should Artists Get a Cut When Their Songs Land On Branded Playlists on Spotify? (Billboard)
* Kamasi Washington on how South Central shaped his experiential new record (DazedDigital.com)
* My Amazing Day…and Night, with Jimi Hendrix (GovindaGallery.com)
* Los Tigres Del Norte Perform At Folsom Prison 50 Years After Johnny Cash (NPR)
* 10 of the Best Music Podcasts (Variety)
* Tiger Lily Records: The wild story of the tax scam label run by the notorious Morris Levy (Part II) (DangerousMinds.net)
* "Jazz & Social Justice": A Playlist by Angela Davis (SFJAZZ.org)
* Vinyl: Ornette Coleman’s Revolution (DownBeat)
* Global Recorded Music Revenues Grew By $1.4 Billion in 2017 (Music Industry Blog)
* Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD (KCRW)
* What Is HD Vinyl and Is It Legit? (Gizmodo)
* The great Record Store Day debate and why we like vinyl so much, anyway (Alternative Press)
* The Beatles: In Defense of Revolution 9 (Den of Geek)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya

This week, let's check out some videos featuring pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who will be appearing with his band Ekaya in a concert next Saturday, April 14 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Born in 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, Ibrahim grew up under his country's apartheid system of segregation, which was in place from 1948 to 1993. After briefly studying music at the University of Cape Town, in 1959 he formed the Jazz Epistles, a septet that featured the young Hugh Masekela on trumpet and recorded the first-ever jazz album by black South African musicians. Although the group was relatively short-lived, the influence of their music - a variant on the hard bop of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, garnished with a bit of local flavor - was significant in their home country.

Moving to Europe in 1962, Ibrahim would be mentored by Duke Ellington, who helped him sign his first record deal in the USA with Reprise Records, and would go on to a major career as a pianist, composer and bandleader, touring the world and recording more than 70 albums over the next six decades.

Now 84, Ibrahim for the last couple of years has been revisiting his early years with a touring show paying tribute to the music of the Jazz Epistles. While Hugh Masekela originally was intended to be part of the proceedings, his failing health and eventual death in January of this year have led to Ibrahim employing several substitute trumpeters in his place, including Wadada Leo Smith, Terence Blanchard, and Freddie Hendrix, who will perform with Ibrahim in St. Louis.

You can see one of the Jazz Epistles tribute shows featuring Blanchard in its entirety, recorded at last summer's Jazzaldia festival in Spain, in the first video embed up above.

After the jump, there's a collection of various other clips featuring Ibrahim. The first two videos, both from the 2011 Jazzaldia festival, featuring the pianist and Ekaya performing "Water from an Ancient World" and "John."

Next is a video of another full show, featuring Ibrahim leading a trio in December 2016 at the Library of Congress, where he was a designated "Jazz Scholar" that year.

That's followed by two solo piano performances, "Triste - My Love" and "Blues For A Hip King," both recorded in June 2016 in the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA.

Last but not least, as a lagniappe you can see some of the earliest existing footage featuring Ibrahim. The video of the song "Jabolani" ("Joy") was recorded in 1968 for German television, and features the pianist with saxophonists John Tchicai and Gato Barbieri, bassist Barre Phillips, and drummer Makaya Ntshoko.

For more about Abdullah Ibrahim, check his 2011 interview with Marc Myers' Jazzwax blog, and his 2016 interview with the Irish Times.

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

Sunday Session: January 28, 2018

Hugh Masekela

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Never Alone: Reflections on the 2018 Winter Jazzfest (AllAboutJazz.com)
* World Music Influences on John Coltrane’s Music (KCRW)
* Havana’s acclaimed jazz festival sees big American presence (NBC News)
* Hear Lost Music from the Original Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (Garden and Gun)
* Where Are All the Female Music Producers? (Billboard)
* Fred Hersch And The Art Of Introspection (NPR)
* In Monterrey, Life Moves to the Rhythm of Cumbia (Vice.com)
* Geri Allen’s Spirit Fills Winter Jazzfest During All-Star Tribute (DownBeat)
* Questlove On The Benefits Of Silence, Controversy, And Chemistry (Fast Company)
* James Brown-Inspired Roller-Skating Is Alive and Well in Chicago (MelMagazine.com)
* Hugh Masekela obituary: South African jazz pioneer who fought the evil of apartheid (The Guardian)
* 20 Essential Hugh Masekela Songs (OkayAfrica.com)
* Hugh Masekela (04/04/1939 – 23/01/2018) (Jazzwise)
* 30 Fascinating Early Bands of Future Music Legends (Rolling Stone)
* From Sonic Youth to Sia, the surprising history of Starbucks’ record label (DazedDigital.com)
* What do smart speakers and voice assistants REALLY mean for music? (MusicAlly.com)
* 20 of the Most Innovative Musicians Working Today (Paste)
* After The Vinyl Revival, The Vinyl-Playing Jukebox Is Back (NPR)
* The Highlight Of My Career Is Still Being Out Here”: Dr Lonnie Smith On ‘All In My Mind’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* NMPA Claims Victory: CRB Raises Payout Rate from Music Subscription Services (Billboard)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Citing his ongoing treatment for prostate cancer, trumpeter Hugh Masekela has cancelled all of his upcoming appearances, including his scheduled performance in St. Louis on Saturday, April 14 at The Sheldon as part of the Jazz Epistles reunion with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya.

A statement released by The Sheldon said the concert still will go on as scheduled, with a replacement trumpeter to be announced at a later date.

* In advance of their show with Douglas Ewart this Saturday, STL Free Jazz Collective members Jim Hegarty and "Baba" Mike Nelson talked with writer Thomas Crone for a feature story in the Riverfront Times.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold's new album The Mugician (pictured) was reviewed favorably by Jazz Times and PopMatters.com.

* Drummer Mark Colenburg has released a new instructional book and video, The Beat Matrix Unlocked, which is described as creating "a new template for the art of hip-hop drumming."

* The subscription service Vinyl Me Please has made an LP reissue of Miles Davis' 1967 album Sorcerer their "record of the month" for December 2017.

The reissue was remastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl colored "orchid purple," and includes an eight-page booklet with liner notes by former New York Times scribe Ben Ratliff plus a 12" x 12" original art print by Santiago Carrasquilla.

Sunday Session: April 30, 2017

Hugh Masekela

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* UK music industry braced for Brexit (BBC)
* Nudity, chimps, and Dolly Parton's disembodied head: are these the worst album covers of all time? (The Telegraph)
* Trombone Shorty Pushes Tradition Forward (NPR)
* Preservation Propagation: Preservation Hall Jazz Band has left the museum behind (Offbeat)
* Hancock, Spalding, McBride Celebrate Shorter in Hometown (DownBeat)
* Review 'Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary' serves the jazz legend well (Los Angeles Times)
* Jazz Giant Wadada Leo Smith on Four Recent Collaborations (Bandcamp.com)
* Afrobeat Legend Tony Allen Honors Jazz Great With 'Tribute to Art Blakey' EP (Rolling Stone)
* Interview: Hugh Masekela on No Borders, Satchmo and reuniting the Jazz Epistles (BestOfNewOrleans.com)
* From the Magazine: Sipiagin Soars on New Sextet Album (DownBeat)
* Q&A: Henry Threadgill - Master improviser speaks on sustaining creativity (Austin Chronicle)
* Ella Fitzgerald: Beyond Words (Merriam-Webster.com)
* Duke Ellington And Copyright: Five Things You Should Know (JDSupra.com)
* Record Store Day Is Boon for Vinyl Sales (DownBeat)
* Remembering Ella Fitzgerald, Who Made Great Songs Greater (NPR)
* Stax Records Plots Massive 60th Anniversary Campaign (Rolling Stone)
* The Hidden Legacy of The Jazz Epistles, South Africa's Short-Lived But Historic Band (WBGO)
* What Controversial Changes at Harvard Mean for Music in the University (TheLogJournal.com)
* Ashok and Vijay Squeeze Blood from a Drum Machine (AAWW.org)
* The Story of Science Faction, the Company That Brought Lasers to Rock and Roll (Vice.com)
* A Jazz Classic Becomes a Picture Book (TabletMag.com)
* Q&A: Miles Mosley - The fiery, soulful bassist, singer and composer launches his Uprising (Jazz Times)
* Blue Note Jazz Festival Announces Lineup - Concerts by Metheny, Glasper, Collier, Hiromi, Tyner, Ponty and many more (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: October 25, 2015

Hugh Masekela

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Tubby Hayes: British jazz’s forgotten genius is being rediscovered, thanks to fans including Martin Freeman (The Independent UK)
* Review - Echoes of a master fill a tribute to Charlie Haden at CalArts (Los Angeles Times)
* The New Explosion of Bootleg Vinyl (Pitchfork)
* Classical music isn't a secret society unless we allow it to be (The Guardian UK)
* How to get a gig as a game music composer (SoundOnSound.com)
* These Portraits of Southern Blues Musicians Prove That Blues Is Not Dead (Time)
* What’s wrong with the classical concert experience in the 21st century? (Gramophone)
* The Vision Festival: From Upstart to Institution (Jazz Times)
* What’s That Sound? It’s Tough to Tell (New York Times)
* 3 Cohens, Masekela Celebrate Heritage at South Africa’s Joy of Jazz Fest (DownBeat)
* Meet Composer Caroline Shaw, Kanye West’s New Pulitzer Prize-Winning Collaborator (Pitchfork)
* Videogames are helping to keep the symphony orchestra afloat (KillScreenDaily.com)
* “We did it, Mom!”: Frank Zappa’s Roxy The Movie Premieres in LA (Relix.com)
* When Iggy Pop can’t live off his art, what chance do the rest have? (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* NEA Announces Recipients of Jazz Masters Award (DownBeat)
* Vocalist Mark Murphy Dies at 83 (Jazz Times)
* Independent Musicians Find Unexpected Rewards in Streaming (New York Times)
* Why Everyone Wants To Record 'Live At The Village Vanguard' (NPR)
* Rudresh Mahanthappa’s tribute to Charlie Parker soars (Washington Post)
* Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”: The Full Story (Vanity Fair)
* Giving United Sound, Detroit's other landmark music studio, its due (ModelDMedia.com)
* Incredibly Strange Music: The Untold Story of Asphodel Records (FactMag.com)
* The Life And Death Of Tower Records, Revisited (NPR)
* Midnight In The Drum Machine Of Good And Evil (NPR)
* Music Download Site eMusic Gets Acquired Again, This Time By Israeli Media Startup TriPlay (TechCrunch.com)
* The Outrageous Auction Prices of Vintage Blue Note Vinyl Records (Collecting Blue Note Records)

Jazz this week: Hugh Masekela, a new look for Jazz at the Bistro, a tribute to Floyd LeFlore, Moon Hooch, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with the big news story being the re-opening of the renovated and expanded Jazz at the Bistro with two sold-out performances - one tonight for subscribers and VIPs, the other tomorrow for the general ticket-buying public - by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Though both nights have been sold out for weeks, if you don't have tickets already, you still can watch the performances streamed live over the Internet; see this post for details.

Elsewhere around town tonight, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio is playing a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; guitarist Dave Black and friends are at Nathalie's; and over on the east side of the Mississippi, saxophonist Jason Swagler will perform his faculty recital at Dunham Hall on the SIU Edwardsville campus.

On Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis will present their monthly "West End Stomp" at the Mahler Ballroom, this month featuring music for dancing by Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes. For more danceable music that evening, you can check out the Original Knights of Swing at the Casa Loma Ballroom, or Miss Jubilee at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Those in more of a listening mood on Friday night can catch pianist Brad Ellebrecht's quartet with singer Diane Vaughn at the Ozark Theatre, or guitarist Tom Byrne and singer Erika Johnson dueting at the downtown location of Robust Wine Bar.

On Saturday, famed trumpeter/flugelhornist Hugh Masekela (pictured) and fellow South African, singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela, will perform in celebration of "20 Years of Freedom" at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Although the program's historical theme no doubt will guide most of the evening's musical selections, it's hard to imagine that Masekela won't be able work "Grazing In The Grass" in there somewhere.

Also on Saturday night, Big Sam's Funky Nation will be in town from New Orleans for a return visit to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and the Twin Cities-based jump blues and swing band Davina and the Vagabonds, who performed last month at the Monterey Jazz Festival, will take the stage at BB's.

Coming from a bit closer to home, trumpeter/vibraphonist Joe Bozzi and his band will be at Evangeline's, and saxophonist Sam Hargadine's quartet with singer Feyza Eren will play at Bar Italia.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present pianist Dave Venn and singer Sherry Drake at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the improvising ensemble Numbers will present a tribute to the late trumpeter and Black Artists Group co-founder Floyd LeFlore at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Also on Monday, the trio Moon Hooch, whose groove-based music played by two saxophonists and a drummer has gotten a lot of media attention of late, will be in town for a performance at 2720 Cherokee. You can get a pretty good idea of what they're about by checking out the Tiny Desk Concert they recorded earlier this year for NPR.

(My take is that while Moon Hooch's ensemble cohesion and energy level certainly are impressive, every time I've heard a recording of their music, I get about five minutes in and start wishing fervently that they had a bass player. Your mileage may vary, of course, and based on their background as buskers, they seem to be pretty good at engaging a crowd, so their live show may be a qualitatively different experience.)

Then on Tuesday, Samba Bom will play Brazilian jazz, samba, and more at a "Notes From Home" show at the Sheldon.

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: Fall 2014 jazz preview, part 2

Today, it's part two of StLJN's video preview of the touring jazz and creative music performers who will be playing in St. Louis this fall. You can find part 1, which covered the month of September, here.

The first videos up above feature trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who will be returning here on Thursday, October 2 and Friday, October 3 to re-open the newly renovated and expanded Jazz at the Bistro. These two clips represent a complete show from the 2013 Jazz San Javier festival.

(For more footage of Marsalis and JaLCO, see this post about their touring production "Abyssynian," which played here last October; this one, about Marsalis' "Swing Symphony," which they performed here in 2012 with the St. Louis Symphony; and the video showcase posts previewing their appearances here in 2008 and 2010.)

(Update, 9/7/14: The Thursday performance by Marsalis and JaLCO is for Jazz St. Louis donors only, and Friday's is now sold out. Contrary to the info in the original version of this post, there is no performance scheduled on Saturday. StLJN regrets the error.)

After the jump, you can see fluegelhornist Hugh Masekela, who will team with singer Vusi Mahlasela to perform their show "20 Years of Freedom" on Saturday, October 4 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. This video shows Masekela and his band performing a show titled "Celebrate Mama Africa" for the 2011 Estival Jazz Lugano in Switzerland.

Next, it's alto saxophonist (and Kirkwood's own) David Sanborn, peforming "Comin' Home Baby" in 2012 at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. Sanborn will be back home again to play with an all-St. Louis rhythm section of Peter Martin (piano), Chris Thomas (bass), and Montez Coleman (drums) starting Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11 at Jazz at the Bistro.

(For more Sanborn on video, you can check out the showcase posts that preceded his appearances here in 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2008, as well as this post about Quartette Humaine, his 2013 album with Bob James.)

That same week, the Rebirth Brass Band will return to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, October 9 at The Gramophone. They're seen here in a video of a full set recorded in 2012 at the club Howlin' Wolf in their hometown of New Orleans.

On Friday, October 11, pianist Chick Corea will be in town for a solo performance at The Sheldon. Corea, who has performed here in recent years with banjo player Bela Fleck and with Return to Forever, is seen in a clip from 2009 playing his composition "Alegria" at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Dortmund, Germany.

A few days later, bassist Stanley Clarke will be here with the latest version of his electric band to play on Tuesday, October 14 at The Pageant. The video here shows Clarke's touring band from last year, with keyboardists John Beasley and Nick Smith, drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., and violinist Zach Brock, performing in August 2013 at the Telluride Jazz Festival in Colorado.

Next up, it's the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, who will begin their third St. Louis season by taking part in the "250 Years of St. Louis Music" concert on Friday, October 17 at The Sheldon.

Along with performances from Denise Thimes, Kim Massie, Billy Peek, the St. Louis Ragtimers, and other St. Louis jazz and blues favorites, AWS* will play a set including a new work composed by Peter Martin specifically for the occasion. In this clip, you can see them in 2013 giving the world premiere performance of a very different sort of piece, composer Jason Thorpe Buchanan's "Asymptotic Flux Second Study in Entropy," at the Mizzou International Composers Festival in Columbia.

Also on Friday, October 17, singer Karen Mason will be in town for the first of two performances for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater. Mason, who will do her show "Secrets of the Ancient Divas" again on Saturday, October 18, is seen here singing a medley of "My Favorite Things" and "Count Your Blessings" from a performance last December in Norwalk, CT.

Below that, you can see guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli playing a solo version of "The Way You Look Tonight" recorded in August of this year in the offices of Fretboard Journal magazine. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis to perform Wednesday, October 22 through Saturday, October 25 at Jazz at the Bistro. You can see more of him on video in previous posts from 2012 and 2013.

Closing out our jazz preview of October in St. Louis is singer and pianist Steve Ross, who will return to perform as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25. Although Ross has been a fixture on the cabaret scene for decades, oddly there's almost no video online of him performing, so a very brief clip of him singing "You Were Never Lovelier" by Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern will have to suffice for now.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump. Look for part three of the fall 2014 jazz preview here next week.

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2014-15 season schedule

The Sheldon Concert Hall today announced the schedules for their various 2014-15 subscription series and special concerts, and as usual, there's some programming that will be of interest to StLJN readers.

With regard to the Sheldon's main jazz series, as tipped here on StLJN back in December 2013, it will get underway this fall with concerts featuring pianist Chick Corea (Saturday, October 11) and guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo (Saturday, November 15).

Also on tap for the jazz series is the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience (Saturday, March 21, 2015), which is led by the late, legendary trumpeter's former bassist John Lee. The current iteration of the group also includes Mario "Machito Jr." Grillo, son of the famed percussionist, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's played in the Gillespie memorial big band and worked with former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, among others; plus saxophonist Sharel Cassity, guitarist Yotam Silberstein, and drummer Robby Ameen.

Perhaps the most intriguing jazz series offering is the final one, as the much-talked-about singer Cécile McLorin Salvant (pictured) will make her St. Louis debut at the Sheldon on Saturday, May 2, 2015.

Winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Vocals Competition, the 24-year-old Salvant was raised in Miami but went to Paris to study music. After winning the Monk competition, her career gained momentum in the States thanks to her work with pianist Jacky Terrasson and with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and took off in earnest with the release last year of her American debut album WomanChild.

As for the rest of the Sheldon's 2014-15 schedule, pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series with concerts on Friday, November 21 and Friday, February 27, with the specifics of both programs TBA.

Also returning will be the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound*, whose first performance of their third St. Louis season will be as part of "250 Years of St. Louis Music: American Music at its Best!" a special event on Friday, October 17 that also will include jazz, blues, ragtime and more from Denise Thimes, Peter Martin, Kim Massie, Billy Peek, and other St. Louis favorites.

On their own, AWS will perform in concert on Saturday, December 11 - tentatively scheduled to be the North American premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's extended work The Hunger - and on Friday, January 23 and Thursday, May 28, 2015.

The Coffee Concerts series will include performances from Cornet Chop Suey (Tuesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 8) and Swing Set (Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22, 2015), and the St. Louis Stompers will play a non-subscription Coffee Concert on Tuesday, February 10, 2015. Miss Jubilee also will put in an appearance, playing an 11 a.m. Saturday matinee on March 7, 2015.

Lastly, a couple of the "special concerts" may be of interest as well. South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela will perform with singer Vusi Mahlasela in a program called "20 Years of Freedom" on Saturday, October 4, and though the evening ostensibly will focus on "South Africa’s Freedom Songs," I'll bet you a nickel that Masekela finds a way to work in a bit of "Grazin' In The Grass" before the night is over.

Also, fans of big band, Latin jazz and/or Brazilian music may want to check out SpokFrevo Orquestra on Sunday, November 2. Led by Brazilian saxophonist Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, aka Spok, the 18-piece big band mixes jazz with frevo, a carnival rhythm and musical genre popular in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

Subscription tickets for the jazz series are $150 orchestra, $135 balcony. Subscriptions also are available for the Coffee Concerts and Peter Martin series. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 12 and continue through the first concert in each series.

Single tickets for the jazz series range from $35 to $50, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday,August 9 via MetroTix. You can find all the details on subscriptions, single ticket prices, and all the various series at the Sheldon on their website. 

* As mentioned here several times before, yr. humble StLJN editor is employed by a local public relations firm to, among other things, assist Alarm Will Sound with publicity in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. However, given the scope of StLJN's coverage, I'd be mentioning them even if I wasn't working for them. Now that you know this information, I trust that you, the reader, are capable of making your own judgments about any AWS-related hype and/or potential conflicts of interest.