Sunday Session: May 31, 2020

Jimmy Cobb

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Jimmy Cobb, The Pulse Of 'Kind Of Blue,' Dies At 91 (NPR)
* Drummer Jimmy Cobb Dies at 91 (DownBeat)
* Anthony Davis’s Revolutionary Opera: “X” (The New Yorker)
* Superb-Lee: A JazzTimes Tribute to Lee Konitz (1927–2020) (Jazz Times)
* From Germany to Detroit and back: how Kraftwerk forged an industrial exchange (The Guardian)
* Little Richard statue to be built outside musician’s childhood home (NME.com)
* 'Like a tap being turned off': music magazines fight for survival in UK (The Guardian)
* The Many Faces Of Housekeeping: How Wealth & Privilege Are Distorting Underground Music (TheQuietus.com)
* 'Milli Violini': I was a fake violinist in a world-class miming orchestra (The Guardian)
* A Guide to the Mind-Bending Jazz of François Tusques (Bandcamp.com)
* Add some township jive! How London's jazz scene set itself apart (The Guardian)
* John Medeski Demonstrates Startling Adaptability (DownBeat)
* How Rahsaan Roland Kirk Modified Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Covid Confidential: Ben Goldberg’s Notes From a Pandemic (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram Are Each Launching Music-Tech Projects (Rolling Stone)
* Premiere: Watch A Video For ‘Desert Song,’ The Debut Single By Vocal Group säje (DownBeat)
* ‘Those Were Memorable Times. But I Don’t Want to Live There.’ Reggie Workman played with John Coltrane, won a Guggenheim at 82, and is tired of Zoom (Vulture.com)
* CM von Hausswolff curates seven sound installations for the web (The Wire)
* Why Public Musicology Matters (21cm.org)
* Michael McDonald: A Conversation in Lockdown Times (American Songwriter)
* Utility player (Rochester City Paper)
* The fast life of Buddy Featherstonhaugh (TheBlueMoment.com)
* Jimmy Cobb 1929–2020 (Jazz Times)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last surviving musician to have played on Miles Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, is ailing and need of financial assistance.

Cobb (pictured), who's now 91 years old, also played on Davis' Sketches of Spain as well as hundreds more sessions and thousands of live dates from the 1950s into the present day.

Cobb's daughter has put up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his medical and living expenses. You can find out more and, if you wish, donate here.

* STLToday has posted a photo album commemorating the day in 1952 when St. Louis expat and world-famous entertainer Josephine Baker came back home from France to perform at Kiel Auditorium.

* Clarinetist Bud Shultz was profiled by the Alton Telegraph.

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja is celebrating her most recent album Intuition-Songs from the Minds of Women being ranked #4 in Roots Music Report's Top 200 Jazz Albums of 2019.

* Ken Haller was interviewed on St. Louis Public Radio's "Cut and Paste" podcast about his cabaret singing and his "day job" as a pediatric physician.

* The Muny is looking for photos of Gaslight Square for use this summer in a production of Smokey Joe's Cafe, the "jukebox musical" built from the catalog of songwriter Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. The photos may be used for show promotion, a preshow element, and/or and could be featured in the production. Deadline to submit is Wednesday, April 1; for details, visit http://muny.org/smokeyjoescafe/photo-submission/

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's newly released recording of Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony" (pictured), also featuring the trumpeter and composer and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, was the subject of a short feature story by the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller.

* Speaking of new releases, singer and keyboardist Katarra Parson, one of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's 2019-20 music artists-in-residence, spoke with writer Thomas Crone for a St. Louis magazine article about her upcoming album Cocoa Voyage, which comes out in October.

* The Radio Arts Foundation (aka Classic 107.3) will raise funds next month with "Wine and Jazz Under the Stars," an event set for Friday, September 20 at the Columbia Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $95 per person, which includes wine, appetizers, and music from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris. For more details or to make a reservation, visit the station's website.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo announced this week via Twitter that she has signed a contract with Empire, a San Francisco-based label that releases hip-hop, R&B and more from a roster than includes rap veteran Snoop Dogg as well as many younger artists.

* To promote the theatrical release of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the film's producers have released another clip from the movie, with the first look at the excerpt appearing on the website of Billboard magazine.

* With this month being the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, there's been a flurry of related items showing up in the news, including historic overviews of the album and its significance from OpenCulture.com, Albumism.com and Counterpunch.

* In addition, drummer Jimmy Cobb, who at 90 years old is the only musician still living who played on Kind of Blue, was interviewed about the sessions by Billboard and the Associated Press.

* In related news, NPR asked bassist Christian McBride to take a look back at Davis' album Bitches Brew, which is 50 years old this summer.

* Lastly, Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. and his son Erin Davis were interviewed by CBC Canada about Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, and the trumpeter's musical legacy.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Russell Gunn's Blackhawk Revisited

Today, let's check out some videos featuring trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, who's bringing his "Blackhawk Revisited" project to St. Louis to perform starting next Wednesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 18 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The word "Blackhawk" in this case refers not to the hockey team, the comic-book hero, or the helicopter, but to the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco where Miles Davis in 1961 recorded In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, which turned out to be one of the more enduring live albums of his long career.

Since his death in 1991, musicians frequently have paid tribute to Davis by revisiting and sometimes re-imagining music from Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, and Davis' post-1967 electric bands. In contrast, this time period - between the recording of KoB and the formation of Davis' "Second Great Quintet" a few years later - has remained relatively under-examined, making Gunn's interest in it that much more notable.

The trumpeter's engagement with Davis' music from the turn of the '60s also gets a significant boost in authenticity from the presence of Jimmy Cobb, the 88-year-old drummer who's the last living participant from the Kind of Blue sessions and will be in the band for Gunn's shows at the Bistro.

So how close do they get to the sound of Miles' band in 1961? You can decide for yourself by checking out today's videos, starting up above with a clip of "So What" recorded in November 2015 at the Velvet Note in Atlanta, with Gunn, Cobb, pianist Kevin Bales, saxophonist Mike Walton, and bassist Kevin Smith.

After the jump, there's a version of Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't" - another staple of Davis' repertoire in the late 1950s and early '60s - recorded at the same gig.

Below that, there are two full sets of the "Blackhawk Revisited" band in action, the first featuring Gunn, Cobb, Bales, saxophonist Morgan Guerin, and bassist Corcoran Holt in October 2016 at Dizzy's Club in NTC's Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the second from the 2015 Atlanta Jazz Festival, with Gunn, Bales, Walton, Smith, and Kinah Botto Ayah in for Cobb on the drums.

Next up are three videos that show Gunn working out on three more tunes associated with Davis - "Solar," "Walkin'" and "Blue in Green" - recorded at various jam sessions in 2017 and 2016 at Churchill Grounds in Atlanta.

Finally, the last video features an interview with Jimmy Cobb, recorded in November 2014 at SubCulture in New York for NYU's Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series, in which Cobb discusses his career, his time with Davis, and other topics.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part four

Here's the fourth and final part of of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, featuring videos of jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the next several months. (You can see part one here, part two here, and part three here.)

Picking up the chronology at the point when part three left off, today's first video features trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, who will be coming back home to perform Wednesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 18 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Gunn's "Blackhawk Revisited" band celebrates Miles Davis' sound at the turn of the 1960s, as exemplified by the box set In Person Friday and Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, recorded in 1961 at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco.

On hand to lend authenticity to the proceedings will be Jimmy Cobb, the octogenarian drummer who played on the original Blackhawk dates and is the only musician from Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue still living. This video was recorded last October at Dizzy's in New York, and features Gunn, Cobb and bandmates Morgan Guerin (tenor sax), Kevin Bales (piano), and Corcoran Holt (bass) doing a full set of the Blackhawk material.

After the jump, it's singer Jane Monheit, who will perform Wednesday, November 29 though Saturday, December 2 at the Bistro. She's seen here singing "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" in May 2016 at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA.

The third clip features Battle Trance, the all-tenor-sax quartet who will be presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, December 2 at The Luminary. It's a video of the title track from their album Blade of Love, as performed in January at the Vandoren Studio in Los Angeles.

Next, it's pianist and singer Freddy Cole, seen here performing "Songs for Lovers" in February 2017 at Dizzy's. Cole and his band, with guest saxophonist Harry Allen, will be in St. Louis starting Wednesday, December 6 through Saturday, December 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

That same weekend, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra will make their St. Louis debut with a holiday-themed show called "Salsa Navidad" on Friday, December 8 at Sheldon Concert Hall. The sixth video depicts highlights from that show, as performed last year at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The penultimate video features vocal group Take 6, who will be back to perform starting Wednesday, December 13 through Saturday, December 16 at the Bistro. You can see them here singing "Stand By Me" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right," as recorded in August at the studios of Hawaii Public Radio. 

Last but not least, it's actor, singer, and Belleville native Lea DeLaria, who will perform her cabaret show on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. She's seen in the final video doing an impromptu version of "Since I Fell For You" last October at an NYC spot called the Duplex.

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

Miles on Monday: "Bye Bye Blackbird" analyzed; vinyl reissue news; and more

Today for "Miles on Monday," more recent news items about the legendary trumpeter:

* JazzEd magazine's latest "Focus Session" offers a comparative transcription and analysis of five of Davis’ versions of “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” recorded over the eight-year period between 1955 and 1963.

* There's yet another special edition reissue of Davis' classic album, Kind Of Blue - this time on marbled blue 180 gram vinyl and limited to only 1500 foil-stamped units- - due out tomorrow from Legacy Recordings and Newbury Comics, a Boston area retailer.

* Jewish Currents last week noted the anniversary of the birth of the late surrealist artist Abdul Mati Klarwein, who created the famous cover art for Davis' albums Bitches Brew and Live-Evil (pictured), as well as numerous other jazz and rock albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

* A new revival of Needles and Opium, a 1995 theatrical work by Canadian actor/director Robert Lepage described as "a cinematic exploration of art, love and addiction...triggered by the art of poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau and American jazz artist Miles Davis" was reviewed by the Boston Globe.

* Drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last living survivor of the Kind of Blue sessions, will be joined by Davis' biographer Quincy Troupe and trumpeter Wallace Roney in "A Celebration of Miles Davis" for International Jazz Day on Thursday, April 30 at the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem.

Miles on Monday: 56 years of Kind of Blue

It was 56 years ago today that Miles Davis went into Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City to begin recording Kind of Blue, his best-known work that has been cited variously over the ensuing years as the best-selling, most influential, and greatest jazz album of all time.

During that first session on Monday, March 2, 1959, the tracks "So What," "Freddie Freeloader" and "Blue in Green" were recorded for side one of the original LP.

A few weeks later, on Wednesday, April 22, Davis and his band - saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb - went back in the studio to record "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches" for side two.

Kind of Blue was released by Columbia Records on August 17, 1959 and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. You can hear the album in its entirety by clicking on the embedded video window below.

Miles on Monday: Jimmy Cobb on Kind of Blue, 5 reasons to love Miles Davis, and more

This week for "Miles on Monday," let's catch up with a few recent Davis-related news items:

* Jimmy Cobb (pictured), who drummed on Kind of Blue and is the last living member of the ensemble that recorded Davis' historic work, spoke to the BBC about the "The Album That Changed Jazz" in a video interview that you can see here.

* Saxophonist Gary Thomas, who worked with Davis in the mid-1980s, talked about that experience (and also about working with Herbie Hancock) in an interview with the Baltimore Sun.

* Here's a review of the box set Chronicles: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951 - 1956, an eight-CD collection that pulls together 88 tracks of hard bop, blues and ballads that Davis recorded with musicians including John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Lee Konitz, and Charlie Parker.

* Lastly, for a perspective on the trumpeter from a different field of endeavor, check out VisualNews.com's "Five reasons to love Miles Davis."

Jazz this week: The Jazz Collective, Eric Person, The Sound Clinic, and more

This weekend's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis isn't as jam-packed as the last two, but there still are a number of noteworthy performances happening over the next few days. Let's go the highlights...

As it happens, the best-known musicians in town this week are performing under the somewhat generic-sounding name The Jazz Collective on Friday and Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

The all-star band includes drummer Jimmy Cobb, pianist Cedar Walton and bassist Buster Williams, three veteran sidemen who have worked with some of the most important jazz musicians of the past 50 years, and saxophonist Javon Jackson, who, though a generation younger than his bandmates, has some impressive credits of his own, including a partnership with keyboardist Les McCann and time in Cobb's Miles Davis tribute, the So What band. Given that Williams also was part of So What, don't be surprised if the group does some songs associated with Davis, along with original material and perhaps some favorites from the hard-bop repertoire.

You can read more about Jimmy Cobb and see videos of all four Jazz Collective members here. Also, Jazz St. Louis is running a two-for-one special on tickets, and you can get the details on that offer here.

Also on Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band plays an early set at Brandt's; and guitarist Dave Black's trio performs at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

Update - 5:20 p.m., 4/21/11: The Funky Butt Brass Band has just posted a message to their Facebook page saying that the Brandt's gig has been canceled by the venue.

On Saturday afternoon, The Sound Clinic will play the music of Ornette Coleman for the Nu-Art Series at Metropolitan Gallery. The group is co-led by trumpeter and Nu-Art Series director George Sams and Bay Area saxophonist Lewis Jordan, with Chicago's Yosef Ben Israel and St. Louisan Charles "Bobo" Shaw on drums.

On Saturday night, saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person returns home to front a trio with bassist Willem von Hombracht and drummer Demarius Hicks at Robbie's House of Jazz. Person's most recent CD The Grand Illusion was released in the fall of 2010, and his last performance here in St. Louis was back in 2009 at the Ambassador Events Center.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday drummer Joe Pastor's trio is at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, the Genesis Jazz Project big band performs in a free concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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.)

Jazz St. Louis offering 2-for-1 special on tickets for the Jazz Collective

Jazz St. Louis is offering a 2-for-1 special on tickets to see the Jazz Collective this Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The all-star group features pianist Cedar Walton, saxophonist Javon Jackson, bassist Buster Williams (pictured) and drummer Jimmy Cobb, the subject of our most recent StLJN Saturday Video Showcase.

The advertised ticket price is $35 each, but with the discount, buyers get two tickets for $35. The discount is available for both the 8:30 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. sets. Ticket buyers will get the best seats available at time of purchase. To take advantage of the offer, call Jazz St. Louis at 314-289-4030 and use the coupon code FC422.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Jimmy Cobb

This week, we train our video spotlight on the veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb, who will be in St. Louis next week to perform on Friday and Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. He'll be playing with saxophonist Javon Jackson, pianist Cedar Walton and bassist Buster Williams in a group billed as the Jazz Collective.

Cobb, who turned 82 in January, has been the subject of renewed public attention the past couple of years as the only surviving participant of the band that recorded Miles Davis' historic album Kind of Blue. For the 50th anniversary of the album's release in 2009, Cobb assembled the So What Band, which included Jackson and Williams as well as trumpeter Wallace Roney, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring and pianist Larry Willis, to perform Davis' music.

However, playing with Davis is far from Cobb's only claim to fame. The Washington DC native has performed with many other jazz greats in his 60+ year career, notably John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderly, Wynton Kelly, Stan Getz, and Joe Henderson, plus dozens more. Though Cobb rarely plays anything particularly loud, fast or flashy, he's always been greatly appreciated by fellow musicians and fans alike for for his steady time-keeping, swinging feel and encyclopedic knowledge.

Today's first clip features the So What band in 2009 at the Bridgestone Music Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, performing the first part of "All Blues"; you'll find part two down below. Below that, you can see Cobb, Walton and bassist David Williams doing "Body and Soul" with a brisk Latin feel, recorded in 2005 at the JazzAldia Festival in Spain.

After that, there are two very short videos of Cobb demonstrating his concise and decidedly unfussy style of soloing; an interview with Cobb, which seems to have been recorded last year and runs about 15 minutes long; and a short clip of Cobb and fellow drummer Butch Miles hanging out a drum shop in NYC and talking music.

Notes from the Net: Lester Bowie reissued; Jimmy Cobb's So What band reviewed; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest.

Starting off, as we usually do, with a couple of items about Miles Davis, it seems that Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb's So What band played last week at the Gem Theater in Kansas City, and the show was reviewed for the Kansas City Star by Bill "Plastic Sax" Brownlee here, for Pitch Weekly by Jason Harper here, and by local music blogger Joel Francis here.

In other Davis-related news, Monster, the company that makes premium-priced audio cables and similar products, is coming out with Miles Davis special edition headphones. The 'phones, which feature a silhouetted image of the trumpeter, have a "pre-sale price" of $399 (!) and go on sale in November.

* Turning to news of other St. Louis natives and former denizens, the late trumpeter Lester Bowie's first recordings as a leader, made in 1967 for the Nessa label, have been reissued on a two-CD set. All The Numbers: Complete Numbers 1 & 2 Sessions features Bowie, saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, and bassist Malachi Favors in the first documentation of what would soon become the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and includes everything from the original LP plus much previously unreleased material and outtakes.

* Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett performed with percussionist Kahil El’Zabar last weekend at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, NY.

* Meanwhile, multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich's Rites Quartet with James Zollar on trumpet, Erik Friedlander on cello and Pheeroan akLaff on drums, just played a concert at NYC's Miller Theater.

* And way out West, we learn via LeRoy "The JazzCat" Downs that saxophonist Eric Person and Meta Four West just performed this past weekend at Santa Monica College.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn will be featured in January by the jazz series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. Sanborn just wrapped a four-night stand at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby (pictured) will lead a group of Berklee College of Music students on Monday for a gig in NYC at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola as part of the Lincoln Center Upstarts! program, where up-and-comers and veteran musicians jam together on one bandstand. Osby also is blogging now for the Web site Indaba Music, and his recent entry on the sartorial choices and mistakes of jazz musicians has attracted some attention and sparked some conversations among musicians and fans.

* Here's a review of saxophonist John Zorn's new Masada CD, which feature tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.

* Electronic/experimental/noise composer and former St. Louisan Andy Ortmann is now doing a podcast called "The Eternal Now" for NYC's eclectic public radio station WFMU. Get more info, subscribe to the podcast feed, or listen online here.

* Opening up the "recent visitors" file, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins and his band will perform a special benefit concert for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater in December at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY. Rollins played here last month at the Touhill Performing Arts Center under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis.

* New photos from DowntownMusic.net include shots of a recent concert by Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core at NYC's Roulette. The pics were taken just four days after their St. Louis performance, presented by New Music Circle at the Sheldon Concert Hall. And here's a review of Och's show, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Martin Longley and bundled with three other live reviews, including one of a Kenny Garrett set two weeks ago at NYC's Iridium. Garrett was in St. Louis this weekend to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

*Singer DeeDee Bridgewater, who also was here earlier this month at the Sheldon Concert Hall, is in Shanghai, China to perform with an international big band

* Catching up with the "coming attractions" file: From the Huffington Post, here's an interview with Nellie McKay about her new CD, which is a tribute to singer and actress Doris Day. McKay will be St. Louis on November 18 and 19 to perform for Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* Here's a review by the New York Times' Stephen Holden of the new duet show featuring singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey, at the Carlyle in NYC. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis in April to play at the Bistro.

* Also from the NYT, here's a feature story about bassist John Patitucci, who will follow Pizzarelli at the Bistro next spring.

*Singer Kurt Elling and pianist Bill Charlap were among the musicians featured on the recent 30th anniversary celebration of NPR's "Piano Jazz" program, hosted by Marian McPartland. Elling will be in St. Louis the first week in December to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, while Charlap comes to town the following week for four nights at the Kranzberg backing singer Sandy Stewart (who's also his mom).

* Our fave avant-jazz blog Destination: Out just featured a guest post from pianist Vijay Iyer with two tracks from his new CD. Iyer also recently performed live on the radio program "Studio Session," broadcast by WBGO radio in Newark NJ and available online here. And here's a review of Iyer's latest CD from Music and More's Tim Niland. Iyer will be here in January to play at the Bistro.

* In an interesting little review/essay, Popmatters' Will Layman muses about virtuosity in jazz as it applies to saxophonists Chris Potter and James Carter. Carter returns to St. Louis in May, bringing his organ trio to Jazz at the Bistro.

* Singer/pianist John Proulx, who has a new CD on the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label, just kicked off a new "After Hours" series at Feinstein's at Loews Regeny is NYC. performance Sunday, October 18 at 10:00PM. Meanwhile, another MAXJAZZ artist, singer and pianist Dena DeRose, was among the performers at the just-concluded Seasons Festival in Seattle.

*And finally, last week's "Hearing Voices" program on NPR featured excerpts from “The Bushy Wushy Rag,” a new composition by Phillip Kent Bimstein that combines sounds from a St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball game, motifs from Scott Joplin’s "Maple Leaf Rag," and the distinctive calls of veteran Busch Stadium beer vendor Robert Logan, a.k.a. "Bushy Wushy the Beer Man." Bimstein's piece was performed by the Equinox Chamber Players, who premiered the work here in St. Louis. Although "Hearing Voices" isn't broadcast over the air here - it runs on KWMU-2, a digital subchannel of the local NPR affiliate - you can hear the broadcast with "The Bushy Wushy Rag" online at the program's Web site.

(Updated on 10/26/09 to correct the price of the Miles Davis headphones.)

Notes from the Net: Another Miles Davis book; riding the "A" train with the Ellington Orchestra; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Brought to you a day late, courtesy of this spring's proliferation of pollen and the deleterious effects of same on yr. humble editor's sinuses, here's this week's compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* We've got several Miles Davis-related items this week, starting with the news that the album Sketches of Spain, one of the trumpeter's classic collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, is getting the deluxe 2-CD reissue treatment from Columbia/Legacy, along with Charles Mingus' Mingus Ah Um and Dave Brubeck's Time Out.

Also: Jazz.com's Jared Pauley recently attended a symposium at Columbia University on Davis' electric music, and wrote about it in a blog post titled "Reassessing Miles's Bitches Brew" which notes that "academic discourse and electric fusion don't always mix."

Drummer Jimmy Cobb (pictured), the sole survivor of the recording sessions that produced Miles' Kind of Blue, led a 50th anniversary tribute to KoB and Davis this past weekend at the at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

And Kind of Blue also will be the central topic of yet another Davis-related book coming out this summer. The Blue Moment: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music was written by the UK newspaper The Guardian’s chief sports writer and former Melody Maker editor Richard Williams, and will be published by Faber and Faber.

(This last item comes to StLJN via Miles Davis Online, a new blog started by Jeffery Hyatt, who also writes the Miles Davis Movie site that we linked to a couple of weeks ago. MDO has a bit of everything Miles-related, from artwork inspired by the trumpeter to a post linking to a video stream of Davis' guest-starring role in an episode of the 1980s TV series Miami Vice. While StLJN no doubt will be linking to MDO in the future, hard-core Miles fans are hereby advised to bookmark it for future reference.)

* In other news of natives of former denizens of the Gateway City, The Jazz Session series of podcasts produced by Jason Crane just did an interview with The Wee Trio, which includes former St. Louisan Dan Loomis on bass along with vibraphonist James Westfall and drummer Jared Schonig.

* The blog Art Decade recently posted a free downloadable .mp3 of guitarist and St. Louis native Grant's Green's verion of "I Can't Stop Loving You," recorded back in 1969.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, singer Tony Bennett, who will be in St. Louis this Thursday to perform at the Fox Theatre, was just in New Orleans, where he donated "dozens of new instruments Thursday to students at a charter school founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, hoping the tubas, trumpets and trombones would be used to carry on New Orleans' vibrant musical tradition." An accomplished visual artist, too, Bennett also recently donated a portrait he painted of Duke Ellington to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

* Speaking of the Duke, last week's celebration of his birthday in New York included an event that saw the present-day Ellington Orchestra riding and performing on the fabled "A" train to Harlem. You can read the New York Times' account of the trip here. The Ellington Orchestra played at the Touhill Performing Arts Center earlier this year.

* Catching up with news of other recent visitors to St. Louis, via Doug Ramsey's blog Rifftides, we learned that "Leonard Lopate of WNYC radio in New York invited Bill Charlap to drop by the studio where Lopate does his Please Explain program and talk about how jazz improvisation works. Seated at the piano, Charlap spoke clearly about the raw materials of music and showed what jazz players do with them in the act of creation." You can check out the archived broadcast here. Charlap was in St. Louis in February, performing with the Blue Note 7 at the Sheldon Concert Hall .

* From JamBase.com, here's a review by Will Nissen of a recent Medeski, Martin and Wood performance at Trocadero's in Minneapolis. MMW were in the STL a couple of weeks ago for the Loyal Earth Festival at the Old Rock House downtown.

* And from JazzPolice.com, here's a review by Pamela Espeland of a recent performance in the Twin Cities by The Bad Plus and singer Wendy Lewis. The Bad Plus played Jazz at the Bistro back in January..

* From the "general interest" folder, and following up on an item posted here a while back, it seems that business may be improving at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit as the venerable yet financially beleaguered jazz club celebrates 75 years in business. Or, depending on your point of view, maybe not.

* Finally, a recent article from BBC.com addressed something that's bugged yr. humble editor for a good long while now: "Why should we find modern music so difficult to appreciate - but not modern art? David Stubbs, author of Fear of Music - Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen, points out that the Tate Modern is one of the most popular galleries in Europe - but that an audience presented with the equivalent in music tends to screech." For more on why this is so - Stubbs suggests it's because music is time-based, and therefore harder to escape than a painting you're not enjoying - read the whole article here.

Jazz this week: Dave Holland Quintet, Jimmy Cobb, Harry Connick Jr. and more

With spring in the air and St. Patrick's Day coming up, it's not just a great time to be Irish - it's also a fine week to be a jazz fan in St. Louis, with three major names in the jazz world performing in town and several other interesting events going on as well.

Let’s take the headliners in chronological order of shows, starting with the Dave Holland Quintet, who will be playing at Jazz at the Bistro for two sets a night starting tonight and running through Saturday. Holland, who broke into the big time in the late 1960s as a member of Miles Davis’ band, has gone on to become one of the most important bassists, bandleaders and composers in jazz. He also leads a very accomplished and critically acclaimed band, making this gig stand out as a potential highlight of the year. For a preview of Holland’s Bistro appearance, go here, and to see all of StLJN’s previous coverage of Holland, go here.

As fate would have it, another jazz legend known for performing with Miles Davis is also in town this week. Of course, drummer Jimmy Cobb has played with many other giants of the music, but I’m sure his work on Miles’ Kind of Blue is bound to come up when he speaks Thursday afternoon at an open forum/discussion on the SIU-Edwardsville campus. That night, Cobb will give a free concert on campus, playing with some of the local pros from the SIU-E jazz faculty. For more about his talk and the performance, see this post.

The third headliner is singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. (pictured), who’s bringing his big band to the Fox Theatre on Saturday night as part of a tour supporting two recently released CDs devoted to the music of his hometown, New Orleans.

While I can take or leave him as an actor and/or crooner, Connick is at his best as a pianist, bandleader and advocate for New Orleans music and culture, and it seems as if the format for this show will allow him ample opportunity to showcase his considerable skills in those areas. Connick also hires good players, including St. Louis native Neal Caine, who’s been a mainstay on bass for Connick’s large ensemble over the last ten years or so. Given Connick’s crossover popularity, I’m sure the Fox has sold a lot of tickets for this show, but as of this morning, there still seem to be ducats available via their official source, Metrotix, as well as the inevitable high-markup offerings from various brokers.

UPDATE - 8:04 a.m., 3/15/07: The always astute Daniel Durchholz has an article in today's Post-Dispatch about Connick's recent New Orleans-themed CDs, making the case that the pianist's post-Katrina advocacy for his hometown has given his work additional gravitas. Read the whole thing here.

While these three musicians are justifiably the focus of much attention this week, there are, as mentioned above, some other noteworthy events of interest to St. Louis jazz fans. On Thursday, saxophonist Chip McNeil, who teaches jazz up at the University of Illinois’s Champaign/Urbana campus, comes to town to play two shows at Finale Music and Dining. McNeil has worked extensively with Maynard Ferguson’s band as well as many others, and currently gigs and records with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in addition to teaching.

Also worth noting are some locals who are headlining special concerts over the next several days. On Sunday, longtime St. Louis favorite Jeanne Trevor will sing with the Webster Symphony Orchestra in a performance at the Community Music School in University City, and on Monday night, saxophonist Mike Karpowicz will lead his group in a performance at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Going even farther beyond the weekend, on Tuesday night the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble will join Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director David Robertson and SLSO percussionists John Kasica and Tom Stubbs for an all-percussion concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, performing “music from Africa, Cuba, Burma, Bulgaria and the United States.” NPE leader/co-founder Henry Claude is a very creative and resourceful musician, as are his colleagues in the group, and it’s good to see NPE getting a high-profile showcase like this. I just wish they’d perform a bit more often.

That’s certainly a lot of music to absorb in a few days, but if you’d like to know what else is coming up in St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, where you’ll find an extensive list of concerts, club dates and more.

(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. No attachments, please.)

Drum legend Jimmy Cobb to speak, perform at SIU-E this Thursday

Legendary jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member of the ensemble that recorded Miles Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, will be in the St. Louis area this Thursday, March 15 to speak and perform in a free concert on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Cobb will take part in a open forum/discussion starting at 12:30 p.m. in the Dunham Hall Theater at SIU-E, and then that night, he'll perform at 7:00 p.m. in the same place with an ensemble drawn from the university's music faculty, including Reggie Thomas (piano), Rick Haydon (guitar), Tom Kennedy (bass), Jason Swagler (alto sax), Brett Stamps (trombone) and Zeb Briskovich (bass). Both events are free and open to the public.

Thanks to Phil Dunlap for the news tip.

(Edited after posting to correct the time of the evening concert.)