So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja (pictured) has signed a contract with Resilience Records, which will release her next album Intuition - Songs from the Minds of Women on February 1, 2019.

* Trumpeter Chris Botti, who performs with the St. Louis Symphony tonight at Powell Hall, was interviewed by Kevin Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* "1968: Let The Sunshine In," the new cabaret show by St. Louis native John McDaniel and Barb Jungr, is the subject of a brief feature on BroadwayWorld.com. The show plays this Saturday (October 27) at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* The concert by pianist and singer Jon Batiste last Saturday at The Sheldon was reviewed by Daniel Durchholz for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

* Also for the Post-Dispatch, Durchholz interviewed singer, songwriter and pianist Jimmy Webb, who's performing in sold-out shows on Sunday and Monday for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival.  

* The Baylor Project, led by drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor and his wife, singer Jean Baylor, was the subject of a brief feature in the Pittsburgh Current.

* Electronic musician Eric Hall has posted to Bandcamp an album of live recordings made during various tour dates this fall in Chicago, Louisville, Indianapolis, and elsewhere.

* Singer and pianist Billy Stritch will headline a fund-raising event for The Cabaret Project of St. Louis on Friday, December 7 at the St. Louis Club in Clayton.

* The results of this year's DownBeat Readers Poll are out, and there's a winner with a St. Louis connection, as Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 got the most votes in the "Historical Album" category.

* Saxquest will present their 2018 Woodwind Musical Instrument Expo from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 17 at the Donald D Shook Fine Arts Building on the campus of St. Charles Community College.

Participating manufacturers will include Buffet-Crampon, Selmer, Yamaha, Yanagisawa, Keilwerth, P. Mauriat, Eastman, Haynes, Powell, Muramatsu, Fox, Loree, BG, D'Addario and Vandoren, and attendees at the free event can pre-register to get access to a private sound room and more.

* The 2018 St. Louis International Film Festival, which will take place Thursday, November 1 through Sunday, November 11 at various venues around town, will include a couple of documentaries that may be of particular interest to StLJN readers.

The Jazz Ambassadors, which premiered earlier this year on PBS, will be shown at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, November 4 at Brown Hall on the Washington University campus. It tells the story of how American jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie toured the world during the Cold War on behalf of the US Government, examining the contradictions they faced in promoting the ideal of equality abroad while enduring segregation at home.

Also of interest, Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes will be screened at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, November 11 at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus, followed immediately by a performance by pianist Adam Maness' trio. The film "explores the vision behind the iconic American jazz label...through current recording sessions, rare archival footage, and conversations with iconic Blue Note artists."

Jazz this week: Jon Batiste, Gaslight Cabaret Festival fall series opens with "Broadway's Greatest Hits," and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers the chance for a close-up look at a top TV bandleader, the start of this fall's Gaslight Cabaret Festival, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 17
Since it doesn't seem to have been publicly announced anywhere else, this seems like a good place to note that organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, who previously was announced as performing Wednesday through Sunday of this week at Jazz St. Louis, last month cancelled a number of upcoming performances, including his St. Louis dates, due to illness.

While we all no doubt wish Smith a speedy and complete recovery, the late-breaking nature of this unfortunate development means that the Bistro, presumably unable to secure a suitable replacement in time, will be dark for the next week.

However, the weekly  "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" continues as usual, with Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor and band at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Singers Open Mic" at Sophie's Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club; Wright's Project plays fusion and funk at Al's Lounge; and trumpeter Jim Manley is back for his weekly performance at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, October 18
The Poor People of Paris will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and singer Joe Mancuso is back at 50/Fifty Kitchen.

Also on Thursday, saxophonist Harvey Lockhart and the Collective will perform at The Dark Room, and the Stephen Haake Trio returns to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, October 19
The fall series of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival begins with the first of two nights of "Broadway's Greatest Hits of All Time," as performed by singers Lianne Marie Dobbs and William Michals at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Friday, keyboardist Ryan Marquez, his trio, and special guest vocalist Lola will play at the Kranzberg Arts Center; bassist and singer Janet Evra performs at Evangeline's; drummer Steve Davis brings his "Super Band" with singer Feyza Eren to the Ozark Theatre; and singer Erin Bode performs (with only a few seats left for purchase at the door) at Focal Point.

Saturday, October 20
Keyboardist Jon Batiste (pictured), the New Orleans native known for leading the house band on CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, will officially open this season's jazz series at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and guitarist Todd Mosby will play a solo concert at the Webster Groves Garden Cafe.

Sunday, October 21
Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran plays for brunch at The Dark Room, while Annie and the Fur Trappers will perform for the brunch crowd at Evangeline's.

Monday, October 22
Dizzy Atmosphere returns to The Shaved Duck.

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.)

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2018-19 season

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced their season schedule for 2018-19.

Keyboardist Jon Batiste will kick off the hall's jazz subscription series on Saturday, October 20. Other concerts in the series will feature singer Dee Dee Bridgewater (pictured), performing music from her recent release paying tribute to Memphis soul (Saturday, November 17); singer Dianne Reeves (Saturday, February 9); and pianist Eliane Elias (Saturday, March 2).

In addition, saxophonist James Carter will return to perform with pianist Peter Martin's trio in a non-subscription "special concert" on Sunday, May 19.

The hall's "Coffee Concerts" series, presented on select Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, also will feature some musicians of potential interest to StLJN readers, including Cornet Chop Suey (October 9 & 10); singer Feyza Eren (November 13 & 14); and The Gaslight Squares (April 9 & 10), while the Saturday matinee series will include concerts from singer Anita Jackson (February 2) and guitarist Dan Rubright of the Wire Pilots (April 6).

Season tickets for the jazz series are $160 orchestra, $145 balcony; Coffee Concerts are $70 orchestra, $60 balcony; and Saturday Matinee tickets are $25 for adult subscriptions, $10 per child. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 14 and continue through the first concert in each series via the Sheldon's website or by phone at 314-533-9900.

Single tickets, which range in price from $30 to $50 for concerts in the jazz series, will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 11 at the Sheldon and all MetroTix outlets.

Sunday Session: June 7, 2015

Oscar Peterson

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Music critics should be more tolerant of individual interpretations (The Strad)
* VIDEO: Building A Shipping Container Studio (Pro Sound News)
* Apple to announce $10-per-month on-demand music service, will retain Beats Music for now - report (Apple Insider)
* 10 of the best: redesigned pianos (The Guardian UK)
* Corea, Barron among jazz greats saluting Oscar Peterson on upcoming album (Montreal Gazette)
* Five musicians see how Austin’s economy is squeezing the creative class (Austin American-Statesman)
* Always a rotten apple': BB King, poison and the daughters of an infertile legend (The Guardian UK)
* Threadgill Releases New Zooid Album on Pi Recordings Label (DownBeat)
* Remembering the Revolutionary Life Of Gil Scott Heron (BlackThen.com)
* Jazz at Lincoln Center Changes Hiring Policy (NextBop.com)
* Steve Albini: Copyright Has Expired (Billboard)
* Colbert Picks Jon Batiste as ‘Late Show’ Bandleader (New York Times)
* Digital Underground - Who Will Make Sure The Internet's Vast Musical Archive Doesn't Disappear? (NPR)
* 12 Essential Archives For Internet-Era Music Historians (NPR)
* The hot Harlem club making 1940s jazz cool again (New York Post)
* ‘Charlie Parker’s Yardbird’ Ties Jazz and Opera Together in Philadelphia (New York Times)
* Philip Glass Never Stops Writing (The New Yorker)
* Miles is to Picasso as Who is to Whom (Brilliant Corners, A Boston Jazz Blog)
* Universal publishing chief addresses questions around direct licensing of digital (CompleteMusicUpdate.com)
* Are We All Mistuning Our Instruments, and Can We Blame the Nazis? (The Daily Beast)
* Exposing the employment ploy at concert promoter Live Nation (Los Angeles Times)

Jazz this week: Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Jahmal Nichols CD release, and more

If you're looking to shake the mid-winter doldrums this weekend, your options for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis include the local debut of an up-and-coming New Orleans performer; an album release event featuring the first recording as a leader from one of our town's busiest bassists, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Lew Winer III leads a trio at The Engine Room, while singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black play at Nathalie's, a new restaurant on Lindell in the building that formerly housed Salt, and before that, Savor and the Cabaret at Savor.

Tomorrow night, bassist Jahmal Nichols will make his Jazz at the Bistro debut as a bandleader for the first of two nights promoting the release of his first album, 2 Worlds 1 Mind.

The band for the gig will include saxophonist Kendrick Smith, guitarist Eric Slaughter, keyboardists Cory James and Andre Thomas, and drummer Andrew Exum, plus "special guests," but advance information about the record is scarce, other than a YouTube video that lists the musicians who played on the CD over an excerpt of a unnamed track evoking  early Stanley Clarke. (In a coincidence of particularly unfortunate timing, Nichols' website appears either to have been recently domain-jacked or gone 404, so no help there, either.)

Also on Friday, the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren fronts a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; percussionist Kaleb Kirby's Animal Children perform at The Engine Room; vibraphonist Tom Rickard leads a trio at Cigar Inn; and the Webster Groves High School jazz ensembles will present their annual fund-raising concert at The Pageant. 

On Saturday, the Joe Bozzi Band will play a lunchtime matinee at Talayna's of Chesterfield.

That evening, New Orleans pianist and singer Jon Batiste (pictured) and his band Stay Human will make their St. Louis debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can hear an interview with Batiste, recorded in December for NPR's "Weekend Edition," and some samples of  his music here.

Elsewhere on Saturday, pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play at Robbie's House of Jazz, and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns for their monthly show at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Miss Jubilee at the Doubletree Hotel at Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist John Farrar's Park Avenue Jazz trio now are doing a regular weekly gig at Evangeline's Bistro and Music House; and fellow six-stringers Tom Byrne and Eric Slaughter will take the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

On Tuesday, the Miles Davis Memorial Project will hold a mixer and informational meeting at Bossanova Martini Lounge and Restaurant in Alton.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 1

As 2013 draws to a close, this week we're looking ahead to 2014 with the initial installment of a series previewing some of the touring jazz musicians who will be coming to St. Louis during the first part of next year.

Once again in 2014, The Bad Plus will return to our town to be the first touring act of the year at Jazz at the Bistro, performing there starting Wednesday, January 8 and continuing through Saturday, January 11. Given their many appearances in St. Louis in recent years, including a performance of their version of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" this October at Chaminade College Prep, it's likely that most StLJN readers are familiar with them - but if not, you can catch up on our previous coverage of them here. For today, there's a video of them playing "Re-Elect That" from their most recent album Made Possible, recorded in May 2013 at a venue called Porgy & Bess in Vienna. 

The following week, up-and-coming New Orleans pianist Jon Batiste and his band Stay Human will play on Saturday, January 18 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Batiste and the band, including saxophonist Eddie Barnash, drummer Joe Saylor and tuba player Ibanda Ruhumbika, can be seen in the video immediately below the text playing "St. James Infirmary" at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The week after that, drummer Matt Wilson will return to perform on Wednesday, January 22 through Saturday, July 25 at the Bistro, this time bringing his eponymous quartet plus a special guest, pianist John Medeski of Medeski, Martin and Wood fame.

Today's third clip shows Wilson's quartet, with Jeff Lederer, saxophone; Kirk Knuffke, cornet; and Chris Lightcap, bass; playing the rocking "Schoolboy Thug" to close out the band's 15th anniversary show last year in NYC. (The other two saxophonists are former members Andrew D’Angelo and Joel Frahm.) Medeski, who in April of this year released his first-ever solo piano album, "A Different Time," can be seen in the fourth video, playing the title track from the record at a gig in August at Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Germany. 

At the end of January, four members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be in town for a week of workshops, master classes and performances at local schools under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis' education programs. Then to close out their week in St. Louis, trombonist Vincent Gardner, tenor saxophonist Walter Blanding, trumpeter Kenny Rampton and drummer Herlin Riley will team up to play on Friday, January 31 and Saturday, February 1 at Jazz at the Bistro.

You can see Gardner in today's fifth video, which was recorded in 2011 and shows him performing "Just In Time" with a quintet including Ali Jackson (drums), Mark Groos (alto sax), Joris Teepe (bass), and Lewis Porter (piano). Below that, you can see Blanding fronting a quartet at Duc des Lombards in Paris, featuring Jackson, Dan Nimmer (piano), and Carlos Henriquez (bass).

As for Rampton, though he's had plenty of high-profile gigs with the likes of Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus Big Band, Ray Charles and others, the best clip online of him by himself seems to be a short instructional video he made for JALC about the roles of trumpet players in big bands, so that's what you'll find in the seventh video embed. In today's final clip, Riley is seen leading his quartet in a gig this past April at Snug Harbor in New Orleans, playing a spiteited version of Randy Weston's "Hi-Fly." Along with the leader on drums, that's Derek Douget on tenor sax, Kyle Roussel on pianos, and Jasen Weaver on bass.

Look for part 2 of StLJN's winter/spring jazz preview next week.