Sunday Session: November 4, 2018

Roy Hargrove

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:

* Sonny Fortune, Stalwart Saxophonist Of New York, Dies At 79 (NPR)
* Open Land: Meeting John Abercrombie (ECM) - The late guitarist's gentle spirit is captured in a moving documentary (Jazz Times)
* Nate Wooley: Plays Whole With Others (NationalSawdust.org)
* Big in Japan: A History of Jazz in the Land of the Rising Sun, Part 1 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* This Danish Band Plays Music Underwater. The Results Are Eerily Spectacular (Time)
* REPORT: 35th Conference of the Radio Jazz Research Group, Salzburg. – " Improvisation: New Perspectives (London Jazz News)
* Guitarist Jimmy Page looks back at 50 years of Led Zeppelin (Associated Press)
* Even Classical Music Is Getting Faster These Days (Rolling Stone)
* Did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wait too long on Bob Marley? (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
* The Residents’ Co-Founder Hardy Fox Dead at 73 (Rolling Stone)
* Meet The Women Pushing UK Jazz Forward (ClashMusic.com)
* Festival Jazz International Rotterdam 2018 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Jason Moran: The Harlem Hellfighters review – the soldiers who brought jazz to Europe (The Guardian)
* Is Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram the Future of the Blues? (Rolling Stone)
* The Secret Jewish History Of Queen (The Forward)
* Bluesman Chris Thomas King says he’s been banned by the GRAMMYs (Offbeat)
* Adam O’Farrill Does Not Play Latin Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Resonance Records Marks 10-Year Anniversary at Birdland (DownBeat)
* Tuba in the House (Jazz Times)
* An Indie Music Expert Explains Why Artists Are Turning Away From Record Deals (Rolling Stone)
* Bob James Returns with Acoustic Trio Disc (DownBeat)
* Andrew Cyrille, Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the Vision Fest, Isn't Resting on His Laurels (WBGO)
* These Duck-Billed Dinosaurs Wore Their Instruments on Their Heads (LiveScience.com)
* What is All the Fuss About? Kenny Barron Takes Years of Experience and Plays in the Moment (VoiceOfOC.org)
* Life In Frank Zappa's Pad, 1968 (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Too much Christmas music can mentally harm you (BigThink.com)
* “The tyranny of collecting” – why I gave away my entire record collection (GetIntoThis.co.uk)
* Roy Hargrove, Grammy-Winning Jazz Trumpeter, Dies At 49 (NPR)
* Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: April 8, 2018

Cecil Taylor

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:

* Spotify Is Killing Song Titles (Medium.com)
* Branford Marsalis talks jazz, classical and playing with Miles Davis, Grateful Dead, Public Enemy (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Did Simon & Garfunkel Write The Jewish ‘Sgt. Pepper?’ (The Forward)
* Arcade Fire: 'People have lost the ability to even know what a joke is. It’s very Orwellian (The Guardian)
* You Can’t Find What You Don’t Look For: Spotify, Google, Pandora Can’t Find Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry–but what about Martha Stewart (MuscTechPolicy.com)
* The Festival Legend: George Wein – 64 Years Of Producing Festivals From Newport To New Orleans And Far Beyond (Pollstar.com)
* At Roulette, Admirers Gather To Honor John Abercrombie (DownBeat)
* The Lofty Optimism of Spotify and the Influence of the Streaming Revolution (The New Yorker)
* Instrumental Listens to 30,000 New Songs a Day to Find the Next Hit. So Why Do We Need A&R People, Again? (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The sample legacy of Sly And The Family Stone (TheVinylFactory.com)
* The Day Herbie Hancock Met the Electric Piano (OZY.com)
* Q&A with Norma Winstone: The Consummate Voice (DownBeat)
* Stream a 144-Hour Discography of Classic Jazz Recordings from Blue Note Records: Miles Davis, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman & More (OpenCulture.com)
* How a Calypso Anthem Became the Surreal Centerpiece of Beetlejuice (Pitchfork)
* Inside Jimi Hendrix’s blood-spattered record collection (NME)
* Venture Beyond a Walking Bass Line with the All-American Walter Page, in Deep Dive (WBGO)
* Can Biomusic Offer Kids With Autism a New Way to Communicate? (Smithsonian)
* Love, London, and an enormous Moog: how Simon & Garfunkel made Bookends (The Telegraph)
* How much will artists get paid from the major labels’ Spotify profits? (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* Avant-Garde Pianist Cecil Taylor Dies at 89 (DownBeat)
* Cecil Taylor Dies at 89 - Piano titan pioneered the jazz avant-garde with an utterly unique sound, technique and approach to improvisation (Jazz Times)
* Cecil Taylor (1929 - 2018) (The Free Jazz Collective)
* Cecil Taylor, Jazz Icon Of The Avant-Garde, Dies At 89 (NPR)
* Cecil Taylor, Pianist Who Defied Jazz Orthodoxy, Is Dead at 89 (New York Times)
* How The #VinylRevival Is Paradoxically Threatening Record Shop Survival (TheQuietus.com)
* What’s Up Tiger Lily?: The wild story of the tax scam record label run by the notorious Morris Levy (DangerousMinds.net)

Sunday Session: April 1, 2018

Lionel Loueke

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:

* Spring arts 2018: Meet musician Anthony Davis (San Diego Union Tribune)
* At 93, Roy Haynes Remains a Nuanced Drummer (DownBeat)
* Roxy Music: Legendary LA Shows Catch Zappa And The Mothers At Their Most Inventive (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Mud Morganfield Honors the Past and Chases the Future (AmericanBluesScene.com)
* A Tom Waits Listening Primer (Bandcamp.com)
* Can One Company Catalog Every Record Ever Made? (Paste)
* How Wes Anderson Perfected the Music-Nerd Soundtrack (Pitchfork.com)
* Physical music outsold digital downloads in the US last year (FactMag.com)
* SXSW: Music Journalism Panel Illuminates Streaming’s Impact on Editorial Decisions (Variety)
* Sony Music Overhauls Legacy Label to Adapt to Streaming World (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)
* The MPS Label Celebrates a Resurgence (DownBeat)
* Jazz's Bleeding Edge? You Can Find It, Briefly, In Eastern Tennessee (WBGO)
* Chad Lawson Wants To Revive Piano For The 'Spotify Generation' (NPR)
* Experimental music's reliance on Facebook is counterintuitive – but there are alternatives (The Guardian)
* Q&A with Guitarist Lionel Loueke: Signature Sound (DownBeat)
* 'It's like being a prizefighter': the busker who went viral on his new chance at fame (The Guardian)
* How Steinway's $133,000 Spirio self-playing piano engineered a symphonic turnaround (USA Today)
* Going to concerts helps you live longer, according to new research (The Independent)
* Jazz Legend Sonny Rollins Can No Longer Play His Horn, But He's Still Searching for His Sound (People)
* David Byrne on the Music That Made Him (Pitchfork.com)
* Musicians hit by 'management scam' (BBC)
* 'I'm 100 per cent myself': Fred Hersch's life is an open book (CBCMusic.ca)
* Cal Tjader: San Francisco to Portland with Seattle a Bust (Jazz Profiles)
* Braxton Issues 11-disc Rumination on Charlie Parker (DownBeat)
* iTunes Announces All Music Downloads Will Be Shut Down and It's Not a 'Black Mirror' Episode (BaebleMusic.com)
* Timeless New York Tribute As All-Star Line-Up Gathers In Celebration Of John Abercrombie (Jazzwise)
* The Roots Of Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks' (WBUR)
* Learning Through Listening: Shabaka Hutchings Favourite LPs (TheQuietus.com)
* The Bad Plus: Goodbye, Hello (Jazz Times)
* Q&A with Matthew Shipp: ‘Out of Nothingness’ (DownBeat)
* Wynton Marsalis Reflects on 30 Years of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Billboard)
* Mere Virtuosity - Variations on a Slippery Idea (VQRonline.org)
* Organ Grinding - When the audience revolted at Carnegie Hall (The American Scholar)
* The Defiant Ones’ Jimmy Iovine on the future of streaming and “stepping back” from Apple Music (FactMag.com)
* Treasure unearthed from late Houston jazz legend (Houston Chronicle)

Sunday Session: September 24, 2017

Trombone Shorty

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Not Just Jazz: Inside Concord Music's Buying Spree (Billboard)
* Forget Carnegie Hall. Musicians rush to rural Colorado to play the Tank (Los Angeles Times)
* Have we reached peak Hans Zimmer? (The Guardian)
* How Fela Kuti Drummer Tony Allen Rediscovered His Jazz Roots (Rolling Stone)
* Marcus Miller: The Multi-Faceted Musician (Jazz Times)
* Monterey Jazz Festival 2017: Story of Some Grooves (Jazz Times)
* ‘Cash Me Outside’ Girl Signing Marks The Official Split of the Music Industry (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* We Are Never Getting Back Together: How Avoiding a Reunion Can Secure a Band’s Legacy (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Ravi Coltrane brings ‘Love Supreme’ to SFJazz (San Jose Mercury News)
* Why the star of California Symphony’s next concert looks like vacuum cleaner (San Jose Mercury News)
* Mary Hallock Greenewalt’s Illuminated Music (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound (Pitchfork.com)
* Remembering Grant Hart, 1961-2017 (City Pages)
* Concord Music Buys Savoy Label Group, Adding Jazz Recordings From Coltrane, Davis And Parker: Exclusive (Billboard)
* Harmonies That Welcomed Imagination—Remembering John Abercrombie (1944-2017) (New Music Box)
* Songs Of Discomposure: Quietus Writers Pick Their Most Disturbing Pieces Of Music (TheQuietus.com)
* Ann Richards: Dreams Have a Way of Fading (Jazz Times)
* Trombone Shorty Is Big On New Orleans, Music Education & Rap (Grammy.com)
* The 50 Best Jazz Singers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 'An All-Around Musician': Steely Dan Guitarists Share Their Experiences of Working With Walter Becker (Billboard)
* Genres Blur & Swirl in Monterey’s ‘Big Tent’ (DownBeat)
* The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains (NPR)
* Notes from the Custerdome: A Jazz Appreciation of Steely Dan (New Music Box)
* Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: The Inspiration(s) Behind John Coltrane's "Impressions" (WBGO)
* A Frank Zappa Hologram Is Going on Tour (Guitar World)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Ageless Corea & Gadd Dazzle at Blue Note in NYC (DownBeat)
* Pete Turner, Photographer with an Eye for Color and an Ear For Jazz, Dies at 83 (WBGO)
* Soul Singer Charles Bradley Dies at 68 (Billboard)
* Charles Bradley Remembered: A Great Soul Man Who Found the Light in Darkness (Billboard)

Sunday Session: August 27, 2017

DeeDee Bridgewater

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* How Did Pop Music Get So Slow? (Rolling Stone)
* Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, and One Night in New York City (The New Yorker)
* Where Have All the V Chords Gone? The Decline of ‘Functional’ Harmony in Pop (Soundfly.com)
* Sing Your Heart Out (Tedium.co)
* Monk and Coltrane Return to Vinyl - A Conversation with Producer Nick Phillips (PopMatters.com)
* PODCAST INTERVIEW: Martin Pearson (sound engineer for Swiss Radio and for Keith Jarrett) (London Jazz News)
* The Man-Machine: How bio-hacking can change the future of music (FactMag.com)
* Opinionated and Unpredictable: Louis Armstrong as music critic (Offbeat)
* YouTube Says It Pays $3 for Every 1,000 Views. A Musician Says He’s Making 1/50th of That. (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* As Jazz Fest Looks At 50, What Keeps It Alive? (NPR)
* Jack DeJohnette Recalls Stint in Bill Evans’ Trio (DownBeat)
* Q&A with Dee Dee Bridgewater: Memories of Memphis (DownBeat)
* John Abercrombie, Wry And Exploratory Jazz Guitarist, Dies At 72 (NPR)
* John Abercrombie, Guitarist and Composer, Dies - Inventive guitarist recorded over 60 albums as a leader or co-leader (Jazz Times)
* Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll (NPR)
* The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s (Pitchfork.com)
* Inside One Montreal Music Festival's (Unfortunately Rare) Dedication To Sound (NPR)
* Cécile McLorin Salvant looks for the contradictions in jazz (Los Angeles Times)
* Sounds Great! But It Sounds Very Familiar . . . Where to Draw the Line on Digital Sampling of Sound Recordings? (NOVA.edu)
* Alice Coltrane’s Songs of Bliss (New York Review of Books)
* Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington cross the generational divide at the Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles Times)
* Why Are So Many Bands Surprising Fans With Snail Mail This Year? (Stereogum.com)
* Did Technology Kill Your Local Music Scene? (HypeBot.com)
* Kenny Barron revels in the never-ending jazz journey (San Jose Mercury-News)
* Former Village Voice Editors And Writers Remember Its Outsized Impact On Music (NPR)
* The 50 Greatest Jazz Drummers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Vijay Iyer On Jazz's 'History Of Defiance,' His Influences And Playing In A Sextet (NPR)

Music Education Monday: John Abercrombie on jazz guitar improvisation

While guitarist John Abercrombie was in St. Louis last week to lead his quartet in a sold-out performance for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, he and pianist Marc Copland also did an afternoon master class on the Wash U campus.

Fortunately for those who missed out, a while back Abercrombie (pictured) recorded an instructional video for Homespun Tapes about his concepts for jazz guitar improvisation. That video has found its way onto YouTube and can be seen in the first embedded window below.

Also, for more about Abercrombie's influences, career, musical philosophy, and more, check out the second embed, which contains an extended conversation between Abercrombie and Dr. David Schroeder of NYU, recorded last July at SubCulture in New York as part of the university's Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A John Abercrombie sampler

This week, our video spotlight shines on guitarist John Abercrombie, who will be in St. Louis this coming Tuesday, April 7 to perform for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Abercrombie, who turned 70 last December, has been a significant force on the jazz scene since the turn of the 1970s, working with Billy Cobham, the Brecker Brothers, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and many other well-known musicians, and recording dozens of albums as a leader as part of a career-long association with ECM records. He's known for a somewhat idiosyncratic style which, though clearly based in traditional concepts of jazz guitar, is a bit more abstract and impressionistic, and until the last decade or so, frequently incorporated various electronic effects.

In St. Louis, he'll be playing with a quartet including pianist Marc Copland, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Joey Baron, which is the group heard on his most recent ECM album, 2013's 39 Steps. That recording marked the first time in 30 years that Abercrombie has recorded as a leader with a pianist in his  group, though he and Copland have worked together in other contexts since near the beginnings of their respective careers, and both also had bassist Drew Gress as a regular member of their respective bands.

Although he's been around for a long time, Abercrombie doesn't seem to have played in St. Louis any time recently, and not at all in the decade-plus that yr. humble StLJN editor has been chronicling the local scene. SO today, we've got a sampler of Abercrombie's performances that should serve both to acquaint the unfamiliar with his style and whet the appetite of those who already are fans.

The first video was recorded in April 1999 in Köln, Germany, and features Abercrombie fronting a quartet with pianist Bobo Stenson, bassist Lars Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen, all of whom share the guitarist's association with the ECM label. After a brief intro in German by the program's hosts, Abercrombie and band can bee seen playing "One, One, One" and "Spring Song"

After the jump, there a short promo video featuring some in-studio excerpts from 39 Steps. Next up is "Gesùi," as performed by in 2013 at the Montreal Jazz Festival by Abercombie, Gress, Baron and saxophonist Billy Drewes.

That's followed by a full set from October 2011 in Cormons, Italy, with Abercrombie, Baron, violinist Mark Feldman and bassist Thomas Morgan.

The fifth clip, recorded in 2010 in Montreal, features Abercrombie's solo on "Days of Wine and Roses," with backing from Morgan and Baron, and the final video is another trio set, featuring Abercrombie, drummer Adam Nussbaum, and organist Gary Versace in August 2014 at the Pancevo Jazz Festival in Serbia.

For more about Abercrombie and his current quartet, check out this interview he did last February with the Ottawa Citizen. Note also that while most Jazz at Holmes performances are free of charge, tickets for the John Abercrombie Quartet will cost $25 at the door for general admission.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Guitarist John Abercrombie and pianist Marc Copland will present a free, public master class at 3:30 p.m. this coming Tuesday, April 7 at Washington University. The class will take place in the Goldberg Formal Lounge on the second floor of the Danforth University Center, 6475 Forsyth on the Wash U campus, with parking available in the adjacent garage.

(Note that while the master class is free and open to the public, it's $25 for a ticket to see Abercrombie's quartet perform at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night for Wash U's Jazz at Holmes series.)

* StLJN extends condolences to the family, friends and musical colleagues of St. Louis pianist and organist Eddie Plitt, who died suddenly this past Monday, March 30. A service will be held at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, April 4 at Stygar Florissant Chapel and Cremation Center, 13980 New Halls Ferry Rd., with interment at Oak Grove Cemetery to follow. An online guestbook can be found at the Stygar Chapel website.

* Don Wolff (pictured), host of the HEC-TV program I Love Jazz and a longtime jazz advocate and radio personality on several stations, has been named by the Jazz Journalists Association as one of 24 local "Jazz Heroes" from across the US for 2015. St. Louis JJA member and freelance writer Terry Perkins tells StLJN that efforts are underway to set up a public presentation of Wolff's award, at a time and location TBA.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts' next "Business Edge" workshop, "Anatomy of a Contract," is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. next Monday, April 6 at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar. The session presented by attorney Ryan Hardy will cover contract basics and "help you sharpen your negotiation skills." Get more info or register for the event by sending an email to vlaa@stlrac.org.

* The Bosman Twins' forthcoming album When Lions Roar, set for release next week, is the subject of a feature story from the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* KDHX has posted on their website some photos from last Saturday's New Music Circle concert by Matthew Shipp and Michael Bisio.

* A little further down the "photo set" aisle, saxophonist David Sanborn has posted on Facebook some pics from his sit-in Wednesday night with the band on The Late Show with David Letterman.

* Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch reviews some recent jazz CDs, including drummer Jack DeJohnette's all-star session Made In Chicago, here.

* Jazz radio update: And speaking of Wilson, Saturday's episode of his Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis program “Somethin’ Else” will use the 100th anniversary of Billie Holiday's birth on April 7 as an occasion to examine her musical legacy via her own recordings and those of others including Dexter Gordon and Marcus Miller.

After that on "The Jazz Collective," host Jason Church will be spinning tracks from Down To The Bone, Steely Dan, Chris Standring, Swing Out Sister, Gato Barbieri, Jamiroquai, Shakatak, Herb Alpert, Ramsey Lewis, Jesse Gannon, Funky Butt Brass Band, Jim Stevens, and more.

"Somethin' Else" can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by "The Jazz Collective" at 9:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Freddy Cole & Harry Allen, Eric Person, On Fillmore, John Abercrombie, and more

The first week of April brings a nice selection of jazz and creative music headliners to St. Louis, and that's no foolin'. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 1
Pianist and singer Freddy Cole (pictured, top left) and his quintet featuring guest saxophonist Harry Allen will begin a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro.

Cole and Allen worked together here previously in May 2013 at the Bistro, and though they are of different generations - Allen's in his late 40s, while Cole is 83 - both are on the same musical wavelength, emphasizing straight-ahead swing, jazz standards, and vintage repertoire from the Great American Songbook. Both men also previously have been the subjects of StLJN's Saturday video posts, so you can check out some samples of Cole in action here, and see and hear Allen performing here.

Thursday, April 2
Saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person (pictured, center left) returns home to lead a trio with bassist Bob Deboo and drummer DeMarius Hicks in a free show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. It's Person's first St. Louis performance in five years, and you can catch up on some of what he's been doing in the interim via this video post from last Saturday.

Elsewhere around town, guitarist Stuart Johnson returns to Thurman Grill. 

(Update, 4/2/15: The original version of this post had mentioned a Thursday night show at The Dark Room, but despite announcing last week on social media that they'd feature live music five nights a week starting in April, now it turns out that the Thursday gigs don't actually start until April 23. As Daffy Duck once said, "Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin."  Yr. humble editor will regard any such reports in the future with a greater degree of skepticism.)

Friday, April 3
New Music Circle presents On Fillmore, the duo project of percussionist Glenn Kotche and bassist Darin Gray, at The Stage at KDHX. While both men (pictured, lower left) share an association with singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy and his alt-rock band Wilco, On Fillmore is something very different musically, described by NMC as "stretching the very definition of the term “rhythm section” by their use of upright bass, exotic percussion, vibraphone, various small instruments and the superimposition of field recordings."

Also on Friday, saxophonist Freddie Washington leads a trio at Cigar Inn; saxophonist Tim Cunningham returns to Troy's Jazz Gallery; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be playing swing and hot jazz at Thurman Grill.

Saturday, April 4
Singer Erin Bode will perform in concert at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; and pianist Matt Villinger leads a trio at Thurman Grill.

Sunday, April 5
Good 4 The Soul will play their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Monday, April 6
Webster University's student jazz combos will perform at the Community Music School on the Webster campus; and singer Erika Johnson and guitarist Tom Byrne are at BB's.

Tuesday, April 7
Guitarist John Abercrombie (pictured, lower left) will make a rare St. Louis appearance to lead a quartet in a special ticketed show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. One of the most distinctive guitarists to arise in the 1970s, Abercrombie has been a key artist on the ECM label for 40 years, recording more than 30 albums for them as a leader over that time.

While he incorporates aspects of fusion and free improv into his playing, ultimately Abercrombie's sound is hard to pigeonhole, and that somewhat elusive quality has served him well in his work with iconic musicians including Jack DeJohnnette, Dave Holland, Charles Lloyd, the Brecker Brothers, and many others. For this date, Abercrombie's group will include his longtime collaborator, pianist Marc Copeland, along with bassist Drew Gress and the outstanding Joey Baron on drums.

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.)

Jazz at Holmes updates winter/spring schedule

The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has updated their schedule of free concerts for the winter and spring of 2015. A story published by StLJN on January 8 cited a version of the schedule published that day on the Jazz at Holmes Facebook page, but as it turns out, that iteration wasn't quite ready for public release.

In the final version of the schedule, posted to Facebook last Friday, bassist Eric Warren and his band will kick off this semester's series starting this coming Thursday, January 22. That means saxophonist Kristian Baarsvik now will perform on Thursday, February 19, and the gig featuring Kara Baldus, Bill Lenihan and Steve Davis originally announced for that date has been bumped a week to Thursday, February 26.

Also, StLJN's previous story mentioned a special performance by guitarist John Abercrombie (pictured) and his quartet on Tuesday, April 7 without noting that, unlike most Jazz at Holmes concerts, there will be an admission charge. Though the exact price is yet to be determined, Bill Lenihan, guitarist and Wash U faculty member who curates the Jazz at Holmes series, tells StLJN that it likely will be along the lines of $10 for students with ID, $20 for the general public.

Both the StLJN calendar and the previous story have been revised to reflect these changes. And as soon as there's more specific information released on ticket prices and the onsale date for the John Abercrombie Quartet concert, we'll have it for you here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, part 4

Today, we continue with part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, covering the touring bands and musicians who will be be performing here during the first half of the year. (Parts one through three can be found here, here, and here.)

For this week's edition, we turn the calendar ahead to the third week of March, when a band fronted by saxophonist Lou Marini, trombonist Steve Wiest, and trumpeter Clay Jenkins will headline the show on Friday, March 20 for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Up above, you can see Marini back in 2009, playing the head and soloing on the Crusaders' "Bayou Bottoms" at a 2009 gig in Los Angeles with an ensemble apparently called California Roll.

Down below, you can see Wiest at a show in June 2014 with Denver's Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, taking one of the featured roles in "Superbone Meets The Badman," which composer/arranger Jay Chatterly wrote back in the 1970s for Maynard Ferguson.

In the third clip, you can see Jenkins playing the Tadd Dameron bebop standard "Hot House," accompanied only by student drummer Stockton Helbing at a masterclass in November 2013 at Oklahoma State University.

Video number four features the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, who will headline the closing show of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival on Saturday, March 21 at the Touhill.

It's a full concert performance, recorded in 2011 at Jazzwoche Burghausen in Germany, and features guest vocals and guitar on a number of tunes by St. Louis favorite John Pizzarelli, who recorded his album Dear Mr. Sinatra with the CHJO.

(Alas, Pizzarelli won't be along for the GSLJF show, but St. Louisans will have another chance to catch him and Jane Monheit this spring when they headline the annual benefit gala for the Sheldon Concert Hall on Saturday, April 18.)

Next up is pianist and singer Freddy Cole, who will return to our town to perform Wednesday, April 1 through Saturday, April 4 at Jazz at the Bistro. Cole, the brother of singer and pianist Nat "King" Cole, is a familiar figure to St. Louis audiences from numerous appearances here over the years, but if you haven't seen him perform before, there's a complete show, undated but recent, recorded at New Morning in Paris that will give you a good idea of what to expect.

Today's penultimate clip features saxophonist Eric Person, who of course is originally from St. Louis but has made his home in NYC for the past couple of decades. He'll be back, though, on Thursday, April 2 to play with a trio in a free show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Person can be seen here with bassist Joseph Lepore and drummer Shinnosuke "Shin" Takahashi playing Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Black Diamond" in 2011 at Smalls in NYC.

Last but certainly not least today is guitarist John Abercrombie, who will be here the following Tuesday, April 7 to do a free performance with his quartet, also for the Jazz at Holmes series. We'll be doing a video showcase specifically about Abercrombie closer to the show date, but for now you can check out some very brief excerpts from a show he did in October in Japan with pianist Marc Copland, bassist Phil Donkin and drummer Anthony Pinciotti.

Look for part five of the 2015 winter/spring jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

John Abercrombie, Eric Person to headline winter/spring Jazz at Holmes schedule

The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has announced its schedule of free concerts for the winter/spring semester of 2015, and along with the usual sampling of local working musicians, the roster features two particularly noteworthy shows from visiting headliners.

Saxophonist Eric Person, a St. Louis native now living in Brooklyn whose credits include work with McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton and the World Saxophone Quartet, will lead his trio in a Jazz at Holmes performance on Thursday, April 2. Person (pictured, top left) has released nine albums as a bandleader, the most recent being the Kickstarter-fueled 2012 big band release Thoughts on God, and last gigged here in his hometown back in 2010.

The following week, guitarist John Abercrombie (pictured, bottom left), who has collaborated with jazz luminaries such as Jack DeJohnette, Charles Lloyd, and Dave Holland, will lead a quartet in a concert on Tuesday, April 7. Abercrombie's most recent release as a leader is 39 Steps, a quartet date with pianist Marc Copland, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Joey Baron that came out in 2013 on the ECM label.

Update, 1/20/15: Unlike most Jazz at Holmes shows, there will be an admission charge for the John Abercrombie concert. Though the exact price is yet to be determined, Bill Lenihan, guitarist and Wash U faculty member who curates the Jazz at Holmes series, tells StLJN that it likely will be along the lines of $10 for students with ID, $20 for the general public. More details on that when we get 'em.

Also, the schedule posted below now lists different dates for three of the concerts than were published here originally, reflecting an updated version of the semester schedule that was posted to the Jazz at Holmes Facebook page on Friday, January 17.

Here's the complete schedule* for the semester:

Thursday, January 22: Eric Warren
Thursday, January 29: Ptah Williams

Thursday, February 5: Chris Burchett
Thursday, February 12: Tim Fischer
Thursday, February 19: Kristian Baarsvik 
Thursday, February 26: Kara Baldus, William Lenihan, and Steve Davis

Thursday, March 5: Scott Alberici, Steve Schenkel & Ric Vice
Thursday, March 19: Carolbeth True and Two Times True
Thursday, March 26: The Poor People of Paris

Thursday, April 2: Eric Person Trio
Tuesday, April 7: John Abercrombie Quartet
Thursday, April 9: Wash U jazz performance program students

Presented most Thursday evenings when school is in session, the Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public. Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, located on Washington University’s campus at the west end of the Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives.

* Schedule revised as of 1/17/15