So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* KDHX has posted online a photo set from last Saturday's New Music Circle concert featuring pianist Johanna Ballou at 560 Music Center.

* Euclid Records, both in St. Louis and New Orleans, was featured in the Vinyl Lives section of GlideMagazine.com.

* Saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas’ band Soundprints, featuring St. Louis native and Berklee grad Lawrence Fields (pictured) on piano, is set to release their debut album Live at Monterey Jazz Festival, which includes two new Wayne Shorter compositions.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake's NYC Winter Jazzfest show with Trio 3 and guest pianist Vijay Iyer was reviewed by Feast of Music.

* Guitarist Farshid Soltanshahi aka Farshid Etniko will be performing a live soundtrack of original music for Upstream Theater’s upcoming production Bashir Lazhar. Described as "a timely and poetic piece about grief and healing, love and survival," the play tells the story of "an Algerian refugee in Montreal who is hastily hired as a substitute teacher for a class of sixth graders who, like him, have experienced recent trauma."

The production opens next Friday, January 30 and continues weekends through Sunday, February 15 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, with tickets on sale now via Brown Paper Tickets.

* The Arts & Education Council's video tribute to singer Denise Thimes, first shown Monday night at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel when Thimes was honored at the annual St. Louis Arts Awards ceremony, has been posted to YouTube.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby's latest blog post ruminates about the potential difficulties and rewards for musicians trying to deal with change.

* Singer and East St. Louis native Phil Perry has released a new album, A Better Man, on the Shanahachie label. The CD, which features guest musicians including saxophonist Kim Waters and trumpeter Rick Braun, is Perry's sixth for the label and eleventh overall.

* Pianist Peter Martin's New Year's Eve performance with singer Dianne Reeves and the New York Philharmonic has been posted online by PBS. (Martin's bit begins in the second half of the concert at about 1:15, with his piano solo on "Embraceable You" starting at 1:35:53.)

* Singer Wendy L. Gordon has announced details on new scholarships funded with proceeds from her "Jazz Heaven" series of concerts. The two LeeVert & Wendy Gordon Scholarships are worth $500 each, and will be awarded to a Sumner High School student (or students) attending Harris Stowe State University in the fall of 2015. (Both Gordon and her husband LeeVert are alumni of Sumner HS.)

The 2015 edition of "Jazz Heaven" is scheduled for Sunday, August 30 at the Florissant Civic Center's James Eagan Theater.

* The St. Louis Cabaret Conference has announced July 18-25, 2015 as the dates for its tenth anniversary, with more details promised next week. To get on the email list for conference information, just send a request to info@stlouiscabaretconference.com.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, Calvin Wilson's “Somethin’ Else” program will explore the influence of Charlie Parker via the bop stylings of alto saxophonists Frank Morgan, Jackie McLean, and Sonny Stitt. Wilson can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianist Johanna Ballou talked with St. Louis magazine about her New Music Circle-sponsored concert tomorrow night at 560 Music Center.

* Saxquest has posted on Facebook some photos of Victor Goines' appearance at the store on Wednesday night. Goines and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Group perform tonight and tomorrow night at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Singer Denise Thimes talked with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson about receiving a St. Louis Arts Award from the Arts and Education Council. Thimes will be among the honorees at A&E's $300-per-plate annual dinner Monday night at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

* Thanks to Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus for mentioning and linking to StLJN last week during TBP's four nights here at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake's new organ quartet album What I Heard was reviewed in Down Beat magazine.

* The live Miles Davis recording Olympia - March 20, 1960 gets an "extended analysis" from AllAboutJazz.com's C. Michael Bailey.

* Meanwhile, Miles Ahead, the upcoming movie about Davis directed by and starring Don Cheadle, is on IndieWire's list of "100 Most Anticipated Films of 2015." The film currently is in post-production, and the soundtrack will feature musical contributions from pianists Herbie Hancock and Robert Glasper, as well as trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold, whose photo in the studio with Cheadle and Glasper, taken from the latter's Instagram account, accompanies this post.

* Though the Clark Terry documentary Keep On Keepin' On was snubbed in the 2015 Academy Award nominations, the film did receive a couple of other awards this week, winning the Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and "Best Film - Inspiration" at the Waimea Ocean Film Festival in Hawaii.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts will present another free seminar for artists, "Navigating Healthcare Reform," next Tuesday, January 20 at KDHX in Grand Center. The program will explain relevant aspects of the Affordable Care Act for self-employed artists and "provide strategies for acquiring quality and affordable health care coverage, including tax credits and subsidies." Admission is free, but because space is limited, advance registration is required.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,”  host Calvin Wilson will highlight the drumming and compositions of the late Tony Williams.

Right after that on "The Jazz Collective," host Jason Church will be spinning music from Groove Ltd., Brian Culbertson, Paul Brown, Ken Navarro, U-Nam, Melissa Manchester, Funky Butt Brass Band, Jim Manley, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes, Jim Stevens, Sonny Rollins, Chuck Mangione, Michael Franks and Eumir Deodato.

Wilson can be heard 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.

Congratulations also go out to Church and radio station Hip 96.3 HD-3, as the HD sub-channel service, for which Church programs a mix of contemporary jazz, R&B and pop, celebrated five years on the air this week

Jazz this week: Stooges Brass Band, Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, Bonerama, Johanna Ballou, and more

For the middle of January, it's a comparatively busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with tastes of NYC and New Orleans on the musical menu along with plenty of home-cooked favorites. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 14
Saxophonist/clarinetist Victor Goines, one of the group of Jazz at Lincoln Center musicians doing an educational residency this week for Jazz St. Louis, will present a free performance and clinic at Saxquest.

Also tonight, singer Eve Seltzer (pictured, top left), a St. Louis native who with her husband, guitarist Ben Wood, recently moved back home after nearly twenty years living and working in New York, will perform at Nathalie's in the first instance of what's projected as a recurring monthly show for her.

Thursday, January 15
New Orleans' Stooges Brass Band, known for infusing the city's venerable brass-band tradition with a serious dose of hip-hop, will play at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and guitarist Dave Black and friends, including singer Feyza Eren, will be at Nathalie's.

Friday, January 16
Billed as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Group for their two nights this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro, Victor Goines, trumpeter Terell Stafford (pictured, center left), trombonist Chris Crenshaw, and drummer Alvin Atkinson all are veterans of the JALC Orchestra who are in town leading workshops and master classes with local students as part of Jazz St. Louis' education program.

As is customary, the clinicians are finishing their week by joining forces to perform, and while the ad hoc nature of the ensemble makes their precise repertoire difficult to predict, expect feature numbers for each member drawn from their own personal song catalogs, with perhaps some additional standards in the mix, too. Regardless, the standard of musicianship no doubt will be high, and you can at least get a sense of what each of the front-line players can do via this video showcase post from a few Saturdays ago.

Also on Friday, the Broadway Oyster Bar presents another slice of New Orleans, courtesy of the trombone-centric funk-rockers Bonerama; singer Nnenna Freelon appears in the multi-media performance “The Clothesline Muse” at Washington University's Edison Theatre; and the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, January 17
New Music Circle presents St. Louis pianist Johanna Ballou (pictured, below left) playing a program of music from contemporary composers at the 560 Music Center. One of the selections, Frederic Rzewski's "Les Mountons de Panurge," involves some audience participation, which will be facilitated by an open rehearsal of it at noon Saturday at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will be joined by singer Feyza Eren for a performance at the south side house concert venue KindaBlue, 6101 1/2 Idaho.

Sunday, January 18
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents Miss Jubilee in a matinee performance at the Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westport; and jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 The Soul plays an early evening gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Monday, January 19
Guitarists Eric Slaughter and Tom Byrne will co-lead a quartet at BB's.

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.)