So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Dark Room has announced new hours of operation, with the biggest change being that the venue will be closed on Mondays.

New hours for the rest of the week are 4:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays.

* Last Friday's New Music Circle concert by Merche Blasco (pictured) and Sarah Hennies at the Contemporary Art Museum was reviewed by Julio Prato of the blog St. Louis Music Report.

* The weeknight jazz series at the Gaslight Theater is featured in an article by the Jewish Light's Ellen Futterman about current businesses in the old Gaslight Square district.

* St. Louis County Library this month has reopened to new submissions their "Listen Up" program, which makes recordings from local musicians available as part of the library's streaming audio service. Musicians can submit their works now through the end of March at https://www.slcl.org/content/listen-up-stl.

* The recent documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (available free online for a limited time via streaming from PBS) was reviewed in the UK magazine Jazz Journal.

* The 2020 Carol Moore Memorial Jazz Festival, coming up next weekend at Mineral Area College with trombonist Michael Dease as featured guest, was previewed in a news release published by the Park Hills Daily Journal.

* Audition dates are set for student musicians from St. Louis area middle schools and high schools who would like to take part in Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program next year. The auditions for the 2020-21 school year will take place Monday, June 8 through Thursday, June 11 at JSL's HQ in Grand Center. For details and/or to sign up, go to https://jazzstl.org/education/jazz-u/2020-21-jazzu-auditions/.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* St. Louis radio gets a couple more hours of jazz each week starting at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, April 13, as The Jazz Collective debuts on the new Radio Arts Foundation station. Host Jason Church calls it "an all-inclusive Jazz program" featuring "all styles of Jazz: Straight-Ahead, Smooth, Acid, Bop, Fusion, Funk, Soul, World." Listen in via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, or online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

* Meanwhile, down the dial at 90.7 FM, Dennis Owsley, host of KWMU's Jazz Unlimited at 9:00 p.m. on Sundays, this week will present the second part of his audio documentary on St. Louis jazz history, covering the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II.

Featured musicians and groups include Red McKenzie and the Mound City Blue Blowers, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Johnson and the St. Louis Crackerjacks, Hayes Pillars and the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, George Hudson, Eddie Randle and the St. Louis Blue Devils, Shorty Baker, Clark Terry, Miles Davis’ trumpet teacher Elwood Buchanon, and Floyd Smith. Owsley also will reveal how Cab Calloway and Fats Waller were connected to St. Louis, the true story of the discovery of bassist Jimmy Blanton, and, as the saying goes, much more.

* The recently released Miles Davis album Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 2 was reviewed for Jazz Times magazine by Jim Miller.

* Speaking of reviews, the new Willie Akins/Montez Coleman disc The St. Louis Connection was the subject of a St. Louis Beacon article by Terry Perkins.

* Clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen was profiled by the Jewish Light's Marvin Glassman. Cohen and drummer Matt Wilson will play Thursday, April 18 at Jazz at the Bistro as part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival.

* Meanwhile, the Funky Butt Brass Band got a profile of their own in the St. Louis University student newspaper, the U News.

* Gus Knobbe of Webster Groves High School is the first-place winner in the High School - Jazz category of the 2013 Creating Original Music Project competition, a statewide music contest conducted by the University of Missouri's Mizzou New Music Initiative. Knobbe wins a scholarship to a summer composition camp at Mizzou, and he and his school get cash prizes courtesy of the competition's sponsor, the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. Winners from the elementary, middle school and high school divisions all will perform their works in a concert next Saturday, April 20 in Columbia; you can listen in online here.

* And speaking of winners, drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured) and one of his sponsors, Gator Cases, are conducting an online contest to give away some drum accessories. Winners will be selected in a random drawing next Friday, April 19, and the grand prize package includes a Gator GP-PC302 cymbal case, Artist Series stick bag, and a pair of Baylor's Signature Pro-Mark sticks.

* The Cabaret Project of St. Louis will host a trivia night at 7:00 p.m., Saturday , June 8 at the Jewish Community Center, with proceeds to benefit to benefit the upcoming 2013 St. Louis Cabaret Festival. The cost is $20 per person; to reserve a space, email info @ thecabaretproject.org or call 314-359-0786.

Don Wolff featured in Jewish Light

This week's edition of the St. Louis Jewish Light newspaper has a feature story about jazz radio personality Don Wolff and the cancellation of his Saturday night program by KMOX (1120 AM). You can read the article, written by Linda S. Lawson, online here.