Scofield will perform on Friday, featuring music from his most recent recording Combo 66 with a band including keyboardist Gerald Clayton, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummer Bill Stewart.
His last gigs in St. Louis were an October 2017 date with the group Hudson at The Sheldon, and a week co-leading a band with saxophonist Joe Lovano in April, 2018 at Jazz St. Louis.
Jones will play on Saturday, teaming up with choreographer, dancer and vocalist Brinae Ali to present "Dizzy Spellz," which is described as "an Afro-futuristic lens exploring the intersection of cultural and spiritual dilemmas within the African Diaspora through the music of Dizzy Gillespie."
A frequent visitor to St. Louis in recent years, Jones' most recent gig here was with the "Bistro All-Stars"(also including saxophonist Tia Fuller, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and pianist Peter Martin) in February of last year at Jazz St. Louis.
The GSLJF also includes two days of adjudication, clinics, and performances by area high school big bands on the Wednesday and Thursday preceding the public concerts. This year's festival will be the first under the direction of pianist and educator Adaron "Pop" Jackson, who took over leadership of the University of Missouri-St. Louis' jazz program last fall after the retirement of former director and festival founder, bassist Jim Widner.
Tickets for both concerts are scheduled to go on sale, prices TBA, on Friday, January 24 via the Touhill box office.
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the reunion tour of two major jazz stars; a rare visit from a famed bassist; a couple of tributes to Duke Ellington; and plenty of other sounds ranging from vintage to experimental. Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, April 25
Guitarist John Scofield and saxophonist Joe Lovano(pictured, top left) bring their quartet to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of four nights, continuing through Saturday.
Though their musical relationship goes back to the early 1990s, Scofield and Lovano both are so busy with their own projects that they've only been able to tour together occasionally, with their most recent reunion before this one coming in 2015. You can see some videos of performances from that tour and read more about them in this post from last Saturday.
Thursday, April 26
Pianist Ptah Williams, who usually plays on Fridays at The Dark Room, also will be there on Thursday this week, performing the music of George Gershwin and recording a promotional video for a prospective tour featuring Gershwin's songs.
Friday, April 27
Bassist Julian Vaughn, a Kansas City native who works mostly in smooth jazz and R&B styles, will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall, with St. Louis' Tim Cunningham opening.
Also on Friday, trumpeter Randy Holmes convenes a quintet and a ten-piece band for his "2nd Annual Duke Ellington Birthday Tribute" at the Ozark Theatre (which seems to have abandoned, at least for the time being, its attempt to re-brand as the "Webster Groves Concert Hall").
Elsewhere around town, the Hard Bop Messengers spread the gospel of Blakey, Silver et al at Evangeline's; saxophonist Harvey Lockhart returns to The Dark Room; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet is substituting this week for Dave Stone on his long-running gig at Mangia Italiano.
Saturday, April 28 The People's Key will play a mid-day matinee at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and drummer Kyle Honeycutt leads a trio at Thurman's in Shaw.
Sunday, April 29
Bassist Eddie Gomez(pictured, bottom left) will lead a trio with pianist and drummer Rodrigo Villanueva at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
Now 73 years old, Gomez still may be best known for spending more than a decade near the start of his career with the late pianist Bill Evans' trio. Over the ensuing years, he's also released more than dozen albums as a leader and has performed and recorded with many other notable jazz musicians, including Chick Corea, JoAnne Brackeen, Jeremy Steig, Steps Ahead, and many more.
Given that it's a chance to see a musician of Gomez' stature in an intimate venue (and the fact that, as best as can be determined, he's never played here before as a bandleader), this definitely is StLJN's pick for the "sleeper" show of the week.
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.)
Today, StLJN's video spotlight shines on the John ScofieldJoe Lovano Quartet, who will be in St. Louis to perform starting next Wednesday, April 25 through Saturday, April 28 at Jazz at the Bistro.
In terms of both popularity and musical accomplishments, both Scofield and Lovano rank in the upper echelon of current jazz players on their respective instruments, and their musical relationship dates back to the early 1990s, when they put together the first version of the quartet.
However, since both are involved in multiple musical projects, their gigs together in recent years have been comparatively rare, with their most recent quartet tour coming back in 2015, and that's the time from which most of today's videos are drawn.
The best-produced documentation from that tour probably is the recording of Scofield, Lovano, bassist Ben Street and drummer Bill Stewart in November at the Leverkusener Jazztage festival in Germany, and you can see a version of Scofield's "Chariots" from that show in the first embedded video up above.
After the jump, there are three more performances from that same Leverkusener Jazztage show: "Slinky," "Hangover," and "Chap Dance."
The fifth clip is an audience-shot video that catches them a little earlier in the same tour, playing "Cymbolism" in late October at the Republic Theater in Salzburg, Germany.
Next, you can see a nearly hour-long interview with both men, recorded in October 2015 at the Blue Note in New York City for NYU's Steinhardt Interview Series.
Last but not least, there's a blast from the past that documents the long duration of the Lovano/Scofield partnership, in the form of a full set of the two of them with Stewart and the late bassist Dennis Irwin in 1993 at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
Today, it's the sixth and final part of StLJN's winter/spring 2018 jazz preview, featuring videos of jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the first few months of the new year. (If you missed the previous installments, you can see part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, and part five here.)
Resuming in chronological order where we left off last week, today's first video features the John Scofield - Joe Lovano Quartet, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform starting Wednesday, April 25 through Saturday, April 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. They're seen here performing a full set at the 2015 Leverkusener Jazztage festival in Leverkusene, Germany.
Unfortunately, though "Swing Symphony" has been performed a number of times in the USA and Europe, the only good video of the work is stuck behind a paywall. So instead, after the jump, you can see a clip of Marsalis discussing "Swing Symphony" with conductor Simon Rattle, recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie in June 2010.
A couple of days after Marsalis and company leave town, guitarist Dweezil Zappa will be back for a performance on Tuesday, May 8 at The Ready Room.
Given his ongoing legal dispute with the Zappa Family Trust, it's unclear at this time what material DZ will be performing on this year's tour. However, the next clip, a full show recorded in July 2016 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, features material spanning several decades of his dad Frank Zappa's career, and though the video (shot by an audience member) is a bit shaky, the audio is solid and serves as a good demonstration of his touring ensemble's capabilities.
That same week, trumpeter Terell Stafford will be here with his quintet to play Wednesday, May 9 through Saturday, May 12 at the Bistro. Stafford, who at one time recorded for the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label and has performed frequently here over the last decade, probably needs to introduction to local audiences.
Nevertheless, he and his band can be seen in today's fourth video, performing a tribute to the late Lee Morgan in October 2016 at Dizzy's Club in New York City. Along with the leader on trumpet and his fellow Philadelphian Tim Warfield on tenor sax, this edition of Stafford's group featured another MAXJAZZ alumnus, pianist Bruce Barth, along with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Billy Williams.
Next up, it's multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson, who will visit St. Louis on Saturday, May 12 for a show at The Pageant. He's seen here performing "Been Around The World" in October 2016 at the Aliante Casino in Las Vegas.
The following week, trumpeter Terence Blanchard will return for a concert on Sunday, May 20 at the Grandel Theatre. Blanchard will be accompanied by his band The E-Collective, which includes Charles Altura (guitar), Fabian Almazan (keyboards), Donald Ramsey (bass), and Oscar Seaton (drums). They're seen here performing a full set at the 2015 North Sea Jazz Fest in Rotterfam, Netherlands.
Today's final video features another familiar face, percussionist Poncho Sanchez, who's developed a following here over the years and will return for a four-night engagement from Wednesday, May 23 through Saturday, May 26 at the Bistro. The clip shows Sanchez and his band playing what he calls the "Poncho Sanchez Medley" at a show in December 2017 in Las Vegas.
That wraps up StLJN's winter/spring 2018 jazz preview, although if/when any other performers of interest are booked for concerts here in St. Louis, you'll find the latest news here. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
Pat Metheny and John Scofield(pictured) are two of the top guitarists and bandleaders in contemporary jazz, and today's Music Education Monday post features video sessions with each of them talking about their personal approaches to improvisation.
Both first came to prominence in the late 1970s, and both share a connection to Berklee School of Music, where Scofield studied as an undergraduate and Metheny once served as a teaching assistant to his mentor, vibraphonist Gary Burton.
Scofield first became widely known in the heyday of fusion as a member of the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band, and made a couple of recordings as a leader before joining Miles Davis' band for three years in the 1980s. That gig helped raise his profile significantly, and his subsequent mid-80s electric albums like Blue Matter and Loud Jazz cemented his status as a significant and popular voice on his instrument. More recently, Scofield has emphasized his funk and gospel influences on record and in concert, also forming a recurring partnership with the jam band trio Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Metheny, who grew up in Lee's Summit, MO near Kansas City, got his first significant exposure playing in Burton's quartet. After a couple of early solo recordings, he joined with keyboardist Lyle Mays to form the first edition of the Pat Metheny Group in 1978, enjoying immediate success with both jazz and rock audiences. That band continues, albeit with different personnel, into the present day, though Metheny also has been involved in many other projects, from the free-jazz influenced Song X project with Ornette Coleman in the 1980s to his solo Orchestrion tours of recent years.
* Legendary trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry has won this year's Satchmo Award from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. The award "was created as a tribute to the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong and his passion for jazz and excellence matched only by his joyous love of life and children,” and is accompanied by a check for $5,000.
* Saxophonist Oliver Lake celebrated his 70th birthday last weekend with a series of shows at the Jazz Standard, and you can see a photo set from the festivities here.
* The St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts are getting ready for another series of "Business Edge" workshops for individual artists, this time covering subjects including "Career Planning for Artists" (Monday, October 8); "Using Time Wisely" (Monday, October 15), and "Marketing & Professional Presentation" (Monday, November 5). The workshops will be held at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar; the cost for each session is $10 in advance or $15 at the door. For more details or to sign up, visit VLAA's website.
VLAA also is teaming up with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri to co-sponsor a series of free workshops for those contemplating starting a not-for-profit organization. The five-part series begins at 12:30 p.m. next Wednesday, October 3 at the St. Louis Public Library's Schlafly branch. Call 314-539-0357 for details.
* Music for Lifelong Achievement kicks off their annual musical instrument drive next Monday, October 1. MFLA is a not-for-profit organization based at the Sheldon Concert Hall that donates used and new musical instruments to school and community music programs serving disadvantaged young people. Local Starbucks stores will serve as collection points for the drive. For more information or to make a donation, call The Sheldon at 314-533-9900 or visit www.supportmfla.org.
There's lots of jazz and creative music going on this weekend in and around St. Louis, including visits from a New York keyboardist, a Chicago bassist, a singer from Texas, and the return of one of the top guitarists in electric jazz. Let's go the highlights...
Tonight, keyboard player Marco Benevento brings his trio to the Old Rock House, with the Mike Dillon Band opening. (Given that Dillon also is the percussionist in Garage A Trois, which also includes Benevento, perhaps they'll jam a bit together as well.) For more about Benevento and video samples of his music, check out this post from last Saturday.
Tomorrow night, guitarist Vince Varvel and bassist Eric Stiller will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also on Thursday, bassist Dave Troncoso leads a trio at the Wine Press; and it's "Avant Garde Arts Night," featuring live improvised music, at the Tavern of Fine Arts.
On Friday, Chicago bassist Matt Ulery's LOOM Trio plays a free concert in the Grigg Gallery at the St. Louis Art Museum. Ulery is a busy participant in Chicago's jazz and improvised music scenes, and for this gig, his band will be augmented by members of the new music ensemble eighth blackbird, some of whom were involved in Ulery's crticially acclaimed album By A Little Light, released earlier this year. (Note that although it's a free show, tickets are required, and can be picked up at the Museum's information desk.)
Also on Friday evening, guitar great John Scofield returns to town for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Last year, Scofield brought a quartet to St. Louis; this time around, it's his trio (pictured) with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart, which has been together long enough to achieve a near-telepathic level of interplay among its members.
On Saturday afternoon, the Bosman Twins will play a free show outdoors on the quad at Webster University, sponsored by Wesbter's African American Alumni Associations.
Then on Saturday evening, singer Feyza Eren is at the Wine Press; and the student ensemble Jazz In Outer Space takes the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz. Also on Saturday, and of special interest to those of you in West County or the western exurbs: pianist Dave Becherer brings his trio to Bugsy's, a bar and restaurant out in Union, MO that's now presenting live jazz on some weekend evenings with a booking assist from trumpeter Keith Moyer.
On Sunday evening, Texas-based singer Bett Butler will be in town to do a performance called "Words and Music" with writer Pamela Houston at the Ethical Society. Butler has an interesting sort of post-modern take on the classic style of jazz vocalizing exemplified by Ella Fitzgerald, which she'll employ in what's billed as "an evening of story, song, and adventure."
Sunday also will bring the debut of a weekly, early evening gig at Club Klymaxx in the Ambassador Entertainment Center featuring First Call, a new band including Jeff Anderson (bass), Danny Campbell (trumpet), Marty Morrison (drums), Eric Slaughter (guitar) and Chad Evans (saxophones). $5 gets you in the door and includes your first drink.
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.)
This week, we present part two of StLJN's fall jazz preview, featuring video samples of some of the musicians who will be coming to St. Louis to perform between now and the end of the year. (You can see part one of the preview here.)
Today's first video up top features guitarist John Scofield playing "Trio Blues" with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart in November 2010 in Leverkusen, Germany. Scofield will be back here in St. Louis to perform Friday, September 28 and Saturday, September 29 at Jazz at the Bistro
Down below, you can see and hear singer Bett Butler (vocals) performing an excerpt from "Come Rain or Come Shine" at the Elephant Room in Austin, TX during this year's SXSW festival. Though she's accompanied here by Joël Dilley (bass), Paul Klemperer (sax), and Philip Marshall (drums), Butler will be in St. Louis with writer Pam Houston to present a collaborative program called "Words and Music" on Sunday, September 30 at the Ethical Society.
Below that , it's pianist Billy Childs playing a solo piece called "The Red Wheelbarrow" in May 2010 at WNYC radio in New York. Childs is coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday October 3 through Saturday October 6 at Jazz at the Bistro with an all-star quartet that also will include drummer Brian Blade, saxophonist Steve Wilson, and bassist Scott Colley.
Next up, we've got a clip showcasing the first of four stellar trumpeters who will be visiting St. Louis during a four-week stretch this fall. It's the Cuban-born virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, playing "There Will Never Be Another You" in January of last year in the studios of Seattle radio station KPLU. His band in the clip includes Mahesh Balasooyria (piano:) Zane Musa (saxophone), John Belzaguy (bass) and Johnny Friday (drums). Sandoval returns to St. Louis for a concert on Saturday, October 6 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
Then, it's New Orleans native and trumpeter Christian Scott, doing his tune "Spy Boy" last November at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Scott's band here features Berklee grad and St. Louis native Lawrence Fields on piano, plus Matthew Stevens (guitar), Kris Funn (bass) and Jamire Williams (drums). He'll be in St. Louis to perform Wednesday, October 17 through Saturday, October 20 at Jazz at the Bistro.
Right on Scott's metaphorical heels is trumpeter Terell Stafford, seen here with his quintet playing "Blues for J.T." at the 2006 Jazz Baltica festival in Salzau, Germany. Stafford's accompanists in the clip include Tim Warfield (tenor sax, soprano sax), Martin Wind (bass), Matt Wilson (drums) and Mulgrew Miller (piano). For his upcoming St. Louis gig, which will take place Wednesday, October 31 through Saturday, November 3 at Jazz at the Bistro, Stafford will be showcasing music from This Side of Strayhorn, his 2011 release on St. Louis' MAXJAZZ label.
Today's final video features cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's sextet performing a piece called "Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths" at the 2010 Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Germany. Along with Bynum, the group's current lineup includes Jim Hobbs (alto saxophone), Bill Lowe (bass trombone, tuba), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ken Filiano (bass) and Chad Taylor (drums), and they'll be playing Saturday, November 3, at the Luminary Center for the Arts in a concert presented by New Music Circle.
Join us again in this space at the same time next week for the third part of StLJN's Fall 2012 jazz preview...
* Bassist and luthier David Certain sends word that bassist and St. Louis native Mark Peterson will be playing a CertainBass Model One on an upcoming recording with pianist Bob James. You can see Peterson and his instrument with singer Ben E. King's band here.
* In more celebrity recording news, keyboardist Michael Silverman of the Classical Jazz Quartet says that famed fusion guitarist Scott Henderson has agreed to record on CJQ's next album project, The Rebirth of Fusion. Henderson, known for his work with Tribal Tech and Chick Corea's Elektrik Band, will lay down his tracks in January.
* St. Louis Kids magazine is giving away four tickets to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's November 27 performance of the "The Nutcracker Meets Jazz," featuring music by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington. The performance is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, and specifically designed to introduce children to the symphony. To enter the drawing for the free tickets, go here.
* NPR's Kevin Whitehead last week reviewed the new, limited-edition CD reissue of saxophonist Julius Hemphill's landmark debut album Dogon A.D., with the NY Times Ben Ratliff weighing in on the disc here. The reissue is limited to 1,500 copies, and was done by the small International Phonograph label, which earned plaudits for its earlier re-issue of another long-out-of-print session, trumpeter Bill Dixon's Intents and Purposes. The reissue already is out of stock or back-ordered at some online retailers, but if you like, you still can download and hear a free .mp3 rip of the original recording via this StLJN Audio Archive post from back in August.
It's shaping up to be another fairly busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, particularly for the good folks at Jazz St. Louis, who are presenting touring headliners at two different venues, but there's lots going on elsewhere, too. Let's go to the highlights:
Tonight, guitarist John Scofield opens a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. For this visit, Scofield is downplaying his usual tendencies toward funk, and bringing a quartet playing relatively straightforward swing and featuring pianist Michael Eckroth, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Greg Hutchinson, who was here most recently back in March to do a Ray Brown tribute at the Bistro with Christian McBride and Benny Green. Scofield's new CD A Moment's Peace is just out, so expect to hear some selections from that recording. For more about that project and some videos of Scofield and the quartet in action, check out this post from last Saturday.
On Thursday, singer and St. Louis native Jan Shapiro comes home from Boston, where she heads the vocal department at Berklee College of Music, to perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Shapiro's accompanists will include guitarist William Lenihan and pianist Ptah Williams.
Also on Thursday, singer Billy Valentine will be in town to join Denise Thimes in her annual performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall to raise money for the Mildred Thimes Foundation for pancreatic cancer research. That same evening, the funk/jazz/rock/fusion band Kung Fu, which features musicians associated with Jazz is Dead, RAQ, The Breakfast, and Deep Banana Blackout, will play at 2720 Cherokee.
On Friday, percussionist Herman Semidey leads his Orquesta Nitro Son Montuno for a night of Latin jazz and dancing at Robbie's House of Jazz; traditional jazz group the Dixie Dudes play at Jazz on Broadway in Alton; and guitarist Mason Baran leads a quartet with bassist Ryan Chamberlain, drummer Jerry Mazzuca and saxophonist Austin Cebulske at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.
On Saturday morning, bass players and aspiring bassists may want to head down to the "Ultimate Bass Clinic" at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, featuring instruction from electric bassists Alvin Clark, Philip Burton, John King, Vince Clark and Jahmal Nichols.
That afternoon, the Nu-Art Series presents the up-and-coming young alto saxophonist Kendrick Smith and his group at Metropolitan Gallery. Then on Saturday evening, singer Joe Mancuso performs at Robbie's, and saxophonist Rod Tate plays at the Halls Ferry Inn Jazz Cafe.
Then on Sunday evening, Jazz St. Louis continues their "Legends of Jazz" series with a double bill at the Touhill Performing Arts Center featuring singer Dianne Reeves (pictured), whose band includes St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, and the veteran pianist Ahmad Jamal. Reeves and Jamal are scheduled to do separate sets, though one supposes a spontaneous collaboration cannot be completely ruled out. Either way, it's a chance to see two well-known headliners for one price.
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.)
As observed here a few weeks ago, it's been a pretty good fall in St. Louis for fans of jazz guitar, with George Benson, Stanley Jordan and Ralph Towner all playing here during the month of October. Next up, and in our video spotlight today, is guitarist John Scofield, who will return to St. Louis next week with a quartet to play Wednesday, November 2 through Saturday, November 5 at Jazz at the Bistro.
Scofield has played here a number of times in the last 15 years with different configurations of musicians, most often emphasizing the funky, groove-oriented music for which he is best known. This time, however, he's bringing a mostly acoustic quartet that offers a more straight-ahead, swinging approach, playing standards as well as Scofield's original compositions.
For his recent quartet shows, Scofield's frequent collaborator Bill Stewart has been a constant on drums, with either Ben Street or Scott Colley on bass, and Mulgrew Miller or Michael Eckroth, who will be in St. Louis with Scofield next week, playing piano.
The first clip up above was recorded in April 2010 in Paris, and features Scofield, Stewart, Street and Eckroth playing Charlie Parker's "Steeplechase." Down below, it's Scofield, Stewart, Colley and Miller, recorded in July of this year in San Sebastian, Spain, playing Scofield's "Simply Put."
Below that, there are two clips recorded in September 2011 at a show in Buenos Aires with the Scofield/Stewart/Steet/Eckroth lineup, featuring the Scofield original "Still Warm" and "The Night has a Thousand Eyes." The final clip is from this year's Jazz in Marciac festival in France, and features Miller and Colley with Scofield and Stewart on an angular 6/8 blues.
For more about Scofield's recent activities and his new CD release, the ballad-oriented A Moment's Peace, check out this review of the CD by Jazz Times' Philip Booth; this interview the guitarist recently did with Jambands.com's Randy Ray; and this just-published interview conducted by Jason Shadrick for the November issue of Premier Guitar magazine.
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
* Radio host and jazz historian Dennis Owsley's latest blog post for St. Louis magazine looks at the career of little-known local jazz pioneer Jesse Johnson.
* Trumpeter Clark Terry continues to recover in an Arkansas hospital; the good news in this week's blog entry from his wife Gwen is that Terry is being moved to the rehab unit, which is the next necessary step before he'd be able to go home.
* Speaking of St. Louis trumpet greats, the website The Revivalist celebrates its first anniversary with an interview with Erin Davis and Vincent Wilburn, the son and nephew, respectively, of Miles Davis, talking about the newly issued CD/DVD set Miles Davis Second Great Quintet Live in Europe 1967.
* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person has just one month to go in his effort to fund his next recording project via Kickstarter. The proposed project, Thoughts On God, is a jazz chamber suite for an 11-piece ensemble. You can find out more about it and pledge your support here. As of today, Person has 68 backers who have pledged $2,656 toward the goal of $20,580.
* The Riverfront Times' Joseph Hess reports on electronic musician Eric Hall's upcoming November 12 performance at Laumeier Sculpture Park, and the announcement that Hall will do a year-long residency at the park in 2012.
* St. Louis' own Funky Butt Brass Band is mentioned, and FBBB guitarist Tim Halpin quoted, in an article by Zachary Young in New Orleans' Offbeat magazine about non-NOLA brass bands.
For your Monday reading pleasure, it's StLJN's weekly compendium of brief items of interest from around the Web:
* Bassist Jimmy Blanton (pictured), who lived and worked in St. Louis for a couple of years just before he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, was remembered on the anniversary of his death in a brief article at AllAboutJazz.com.
* Speaking of the Bistro, the new band Waverly Seven will play there from November 28 - December 1, and the NYC news station NY1 has a feature story about them and their first CD, an appreciation of the music of Bobby Darin.
* Pianist Jason Moran, who's playing the Bistro next year from January 30 through February 2, will be among the many participants in the "Following Monk" festival to be held this fall at Duke University.
* Last but certainly not least, an article from the New York Times examines how working musicians in New Orleans are trying to rebuild their lives and careers. Meanwhile, the Musicians Village project, built by Habitat for Humanity and championed by Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr., is getting its first residents.
