So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Cool It If You Can, the most recent recording from Miss Jubilee and the Yas-Yas Boys, was reviewed by Michael Steinman for his Jazz Lives blog.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor was interviewed on local CBS affiliate KMOV for a story about his group The Baylor Project being nominated again this year for a Grammy.

* Euclid Records owner Joe Schwab appeared this past Sunday on NBC's Sunday Today program, being interviewed for a story about why vinyl record sales have boomed over the past year.

* Drummer Emanuel Harrold (pictured) is now an endorser for percussion accessories maker DrumDial, and has recorded a new promotional video for the company.

* One of St. Louis' most famous expatriates of the 20th century plays a major role in a new LitHub essay from writer Harmony Holiday, "A Dinner in France, 1973: Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, and a Very Young Henry Louis Gates, Jr."

* Bassist Darin Gray has a new recording, The Reduction (music for dance), set for release on April 2 in digital formats and as a limited-edition vinyl LP.

* Also with a new release this month is keyboardist and vocalist Jesse Gannon, whose recording Live at the Dark Room is out now as a digital-only album on Bandcamp.

* Trumpeter Josiah Burton, a former member of Jazz St. Louis' All-Stars student ensemble, was the subject of a feature story in the Greenville University campus paper The Papyrus.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured) and his wife, singer Jean Baylor, are among the musicians featured last week in an NPR story, "Alone Together: Jazz Couples (Stuck) at Home"

* Actor Ruth Negga will star as St. Louis native Josephine Baker in an upcoming limited series for television being produced by ABC Signature that will offer "a raw and unflinching look at the force of nature that was Josephine Baker, the biggest Black female artist of her time."

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts will present "Anatomy of a Contract," another in their ongoing series of business seminars for artists, at 6:30 p.m. next Monday, February 22. The online event will feature attorney David Kim of Stinson LLP and will "provide negotiation tips and cover contract basics." Get more info or sign up at STLVLAA's website.

* Jazz Times is showcasing on their website a track from drummer Dave Weckl's forthcoming album. "Big B, Little B" was recorded as part of the Weckl band's reunion gig in June 2019 at the Chesterfield Amphitheater, and the album, titled Live In St. Louis, will be released on Friday, April 9 by the Autumn Hill label.

* Students at Webster University affiliated with the Audio Engineering Society will present the university's annual Central Region Audio Student Summit from Friday, March 19 through Sunday, March 21. The online event will include guest speakers, panels, and demonstrations covering topics such as recording, mixing, and mastering; audio for film and visual; live sound; and more. It's open to industry professionals, high school and college students and teachers, and "others interested in the subject of Sound."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold this week kicked off Black History Month by putting together a "Black Lives Matter" playlist for Spotify.

* Also for Black History Month, SiriusXM will revive for a limited time only their Miles Davis Radio channel, with "music from over 100 of Davis’ albums and featuring alumni band members as hosts," including Marcus Miller, Lenny White, John Beasley, Joey DeFrancesco, and Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn Jr.

* Keyboardist Pete Ruthenburg talks about future plans for recordings and gigs in an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* The Post-Dispatch this week also published a photo feature commemorating the return of Josephine Baker (pictured) on February 3, 1952 to perform in her hometown for the first time since becoming internationally famous.

* Autumn Hill Records, the all-digital label operated by brothers Mike and Rob Silverman, has teamed up with Modern Drummer magazine to present "The Modern Drummer Drumology Playalong Contest."

Contestants are invited to download and record a video of themselves playing along with a track from Rob Silverman's recent solo recording, which also features fellow drummers Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl. Prizes for the contest, which ends on Sunday, Feburary 28, include a Spinelli "Floating Snare" and Drumology prize packs.

* And speaking of contests, the National Saxophone Museum (located within St. Louis woodwind dealer Saxquest) is sponsoring "a $5000 prize purse contest to give all saxophone players a chance to have some fun, showcase their art, and perhaps “cash in” on their passion."

Prizes range from $500 to $2,500 for the three top winners, and there also will be prizes awarded for young artists, honorable mention, and "People's Choice." Registration for the contest continues through Friday, April 30.

* Writing in the Los Angeles Times, former St. Louisan Randall Roberts looks at "The tortured, touching love saga of Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* A long-unheard audio interview with Miles Davis, conducted in 1969 at the trumpeter's NYC home for the Japanese publication Swing Journal, has resurfaced on YouTube.

* In related news, Keyon Harrold joined fellow trumpeters Sean Jones, Jeremy Pelt, and Etienne Charles for a discussion on last week's episode of Jazziz magazine's "Miles Monday" podcast.

* Singer Robert Nelson (pictured) was the featured guest on last week's "Coffee Conversations" podcast from Shock City School of Music.

* Drummer Rob Silverman's latest album Drumology was reviewed by Glide magazine.

* Following the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus from Tower Grove Park, a report from St. Louis Public Radio's Shala Farzan says that the candidates being discussed for a possible replacement statue include singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker.

* Hasan Kenyatta Lake, son of saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, has died at age 48, according to a report in the St. Louis American. The younger Lake worked as a barber and also was involved in music, releasing a rap album, Laclede Town Survivor, in 2001.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

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

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

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

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

* Clarinetist Bud Shultz was profiled by the Alton Telegraph.

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

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

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Jan Shapiro's performance tonight at the Ozark Theatre features a reunion more than 40 years in the making, as drummer, former St. Louisan, and Wash U alumnus Henry Ettman will join Shapiro (plus pianist Dave Venn and bassist Ben Wheeler) on a local bandstand for the first time since the mid-1970s.

As Shapiro tells the tale in an email to StLJN:

"Henry Ettman was one of the drummers that played all around the St. Louis area in the 1970s. He played with jazz pianist Eddie Fritz, Dave Venn and other jazz musicians.

In 1975 Henry joined up with me and pianist Eddie Plitt. At that time, Eddie Plitt played the Hammond B3, piano (when there was one present) and electronic keyboards. Eddie often played bass using his feet to play the Hammond B3 bass pedals - while at the same time playing chord changes and soloing on the keys! So in those days we did not use a bass player very often. So during 1975 Henry Ettman played with us in St. Louis and traveled on the road with us. I recall we spent about 6 months in Florida during the ‘winter season.’"

After leaving St. Louis, Ettman has lived in Nevada, Oregon and Florida, working in education and continuing his involvement with jazz. "I have continued to keep in touch with Henry and am delighted that after so many years we will share the stage once again on June 7," said Shapiro, seen in the photo above with Ettman, who's holding a promotional pic of the two of them and Eddie Plitt from "back in the day."

* What happened to the trumpet that Miles Davis played on the sessions for his landmark album Kind of Blue? A story last week in the Greensboro, NC newspaper YES Weekly traces the horn's path from Davis to his friend, Arthur "Buddy" Gist, to its current home on display in the music building at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

* Elsewhere on the Miles Davis beat, the new biographical documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool was screened at the Sydney Film Festival in Australia, and the new box set documenting the Complete Birth of the Cool Sessions is out today.

* Sherry Jones, author of the historical novel Josephine Baker’s Last Dance, was in town for a signing and was interviewed about the book and Baker's life on St. Louis Public Radio's "St. Louis on the Air."

* Pianist and St. Louis native Dred Scott's latest album Rides Alone was reviewed by Glide magazine.

* The Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill offers a look at the St. Louis area's newest vendor of vinyl, the SOHO Record Shop, which opened recently in the Manhattan Antique Marketplace in St. Ann.

* In other record-retail news, Euclid Records recently acquired and is preparing for sale an 8,000-piece collection of jazz vinyl, including rare 1950s and '60s LPs from Blue Note, Prestige and other iconic labels. You can see a video "flip-through" of part of the collection with narration by Euclid's head honcho Joe Schwab here.

* Pianist Tom McDermott's latest album, which feature him performing a collection of Scott Joplin compositions, is the subject of a feature story by the New Orleans Advocate's Kieth Spera.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianist Ramsey Lewis, who's in town to perform tonight at the Sheldon's benefit gala, was interviewed about the show by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Meanwhile, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim's retrospective concert paying tribute to his early band The Jazz Epistles, which will be presented this Saturday night at the Sheldon, was the subject of a feature article on the website of Brooklyn Academy of Music (where Ibrahim will perform later this month).

* Singer Denise Thimes, who recently moved from St. Louis to Chicago, is featured on The Celebrity Front Page, an entertainment website based in her new home city.

* North County's newest musical instrument store Low Key Music officially opened for business this week, and was featured Monday on the morning newscast at KTVI/Fox 2. The store also has posted to YouTube a brief video tour of their premises.

* The reality TV show Autopsy on the REELZ network last week ran an episode about the death of trumpeter Miles Davis (pictured), and RadarOnline.com has a video excerpt.

* On a happier note, if you're willing to give them an email address, BebopBootCamp.com has a free transcription from Davis' album Relaxin' intended for musicians who want to study or play along with a classic from the trumpeter's hard bop period. It's a sample from a series of transcriptions of Davis' mid-1950s sessions for Prestige published by the company; to get a copy, go here.

* Timeline.com has a short article spotlighting how singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker dealt with a particularly egregious episode of racial discrimination on a visit back to the United States in the 1950s after a couple of decades as an expatriate in Paris.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness have teamed up for a new podcast for aspiring musicians called "You'll Hear It," offering "a combo of actionable advice and occasional humor in just 10 minutes a day" via Martin's Open Studio Productions.

* Bassist Jim Widner, who heads the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri St. Louis and directs the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, has been named the Missouri Association for Jazz Education’s Outstanding Jazz Educator for 2018.  Widner, who previously won the award back in 1990, has announced that he plans to retire from UMSL next year.

* Metro Theater Company's production of "Bud, Not Buddy," the "concert play" with a score by trumpeter Terence Bradford, was spotlighted on the HEC-TV arts program Scope.

* Bassist Bob DeBoo and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor (pictured) promoted the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" in a segment on KMOV's Great Day St. Louis.

* The bossa nova and jazz trio The Bonbon Plot was featured in a story in the Alton RiverBender.

* St. Louis native Josephine Baker's trip back to her hometown in 1953 after decades living overseas was the subject of an archival St. Louis Post-Dispatch article posted this week on STLToday.com.

* Singer and Webster University alumna Alyssa Hegwood was featured in Webster U's campus paper The Journal.

* 80-year-old saxophonist Lee Trapp, who frequently practices outdoors on the Lindenwood University campus ala Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, was profiled in Lindenwood's online student publication The LindenLink.

* Keyboardist Jim Hegarty has posted to Bandcamp as a "name your price" download another of his "Secret Sessions" recordings, featuring percussionist Henry Claude, pianist Greg Mills, cornetist George Sams, guitarist Steven Thomas, and flute player Fred Tompkins, plus Hegarty on Moog Voyager.

He's also posted to Bandcamp a live album called Sky Water Smokestack, recorded just last week at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park. The performance was improvised to non-narrative films of scenes of the Mississippi River by an ensemble including Hegarty on piano and synthesizer, cellist Tracy Andreotti, clarinetist Eric Paul Mandat, and mallet percussionist Thomas Zirkle.

* CarolBrass representative Jim Bohm will be in St. Louis from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. next Tuesday, February 13 at UMSL, showing off the company's line of Bb, C, and piccolo trumpets, flugelhorns, and cornets and offering demonstration models for brass players to try.

* The weekly jazz performances at Thurman's in Shaw are briefly mentioned in a Riverfront Times food blog post about the bar's new menu.  

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Emanuel Harrold's new EP Look Forward is the subject of a brief feature on the website Sounds So Beautiful. In other news, Harrold also recently signed an endorsement deal with BAY Custom Drums.

* Guitarist/singer Tim Halpin and drummer Ron Sikes of the Funky Butt Brass Band were guests on the latest episode of Rock Paper Podcast.

* St. Louis native Josephine Baker (pictured) was profiled in an article on OpenCulture.com tracing her path "from homeless street performer to international superstar, French resistance fighter & civil rights hero."

* The Barnes and Noble bookstore in Ladue will host a fundraiser for New Music Circle on Saturday, December 16, with a percent of any in-store purchases made on that date, including books, magazines, coffee and food, going to support NMC.

The event also will include a pop-up concert at 4:00 p.m. in the art section of the shop. Online shoppers can contribute to NMC by using code #12272563 for any purchases made on B&N's website from December 16 through December 21.

* Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran has posted to YouTube a music video of the song "She Loves Me, Too!" from his forthcoming album.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Ally Hany has completed her basic training for the US Air Force, earning the rank of Airman First Class and taking a chair in the trumpet section in the Air Force's Band of the Golden West, which is based at Travis AFB in California.

* Singer Sarah Ulrich of Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes was in the news the past week, but unfortunately, it wasn't for her music. Ulrich was interviewed Monday by local NBC affiliate KSDK's news department about an incident in which a gunshot shattered a historic glass door at her south St. Louis home, a renovated former drug store and medical office known as "The Deco Fortress."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The St. Louis International Film Festival has posted on Facebook a photo album from the fest's screening of the documentary Mr Handy's Blues and accompanying musical performance.

* Tomorrow night's performance by singer Cécile McLorin Salvant (pictured) at the Sheldon Concert Hall is previewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Yaqui's on Cherokee, which frequently features The Gaslight Squares and other local performers of vintage jazz, was featured in an article on the Regional Arts Commission website.

* The jazz program at UMSL, directed by bassist Jim Widner, has produced a new fund-raising video.

* The Funky Butt Brass Band's "Holiday Brasstravaganza" and new album are previewed in a St. Louis magazine article by Thomas Crone.

* Also in St. Louis magazine, another article by Thomas Crone previews this Sunday's debut performance by cornetist TJ Muller's Arcadia Jazz Orchestra.

* Singer Katie McGrath's Gaslight Cabaret Festival show was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Reaching back for some history about a St. Louis native, a new article in The Daily Beast looks back at "When Jazz Age Superstar Josephine Baker Spied on the Nazis."

Sunday Session: August 28, 2016

Wadada Leo Smith

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Reimagining Josephine Baker's Music in the Era of Black Lives Matter (New York Times)
* Is Sleep Music a Real Genre? (The Daily Beast)
* How Bad Urban Planning Led To The Birth Of A Billion-Dollar Genre (TheFader.com)
* Harmonica Virtuoso Toots Thielemans Dies at 94 (DownBeat)
* “Champeta is liberation”: The indestructible sound system culture of Afro-Colombia (FactMag.com)
* Zorn & Collaborators Hold Court in Engaging Vanguard Residency (DownBeat)
* Remembering Lou Pearlman: The Ponzi Schemer Who Spawned the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC & More (Billboard)
* A Visual History of Rock and Roll, Room by Empty Room (The New Yorker)
* How Sam Phillips Invented the Sound of Rock and Roll (Popular Mechanics)
* Grandmaster Flash on ‘The Get Down’ and how he used science to pioneer DJ techniques (Washington Post)
* ‘Sunday Night at the Vanguard’ by Fred Hersch Review - Looking at the special bond between a club and a composer (Wall Street Journal)
* Photography Book Documents Young Sinatra in New York (DownBeat)
* Divine disco: the beatific sub-genre that delivered sermons on the dancefloor (The Guardian UK)
* Why Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else in the world (QZ.com)
* Sample Clearance Expert Pat “The Detective” Shannahan is The Avalanches’ Secret Weapon - The behind-the-scenes force for records by the Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Beck and more on 20 years of tracking down samples (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* See the Photographs That Captured the Icons of Jazz (TIME)
* Wadada Leo Smith Celebrates National Parks with Double Album (DownBeat)
* Legendary Jazz Recording Engineer Rudy Van Gelder Dies at 91 (DownBeat)
* Postscript: Rudy Van Gelder (1924-2016), Modern Jazz’s Listener of Genius (The New Yorker)
* Herb Alpert Foundation to donate $10.1 million to LACC — making studies for music majors tuition-free (Los Angeles Times)
* Watch Dr. John Praise James Booker's Piano Genius (Rolling Stone)
* Angelo Badalamenti Reveals How He and David Lynch Composed the Twin Peaks‘ “Love Theme” (OpenCulture.com)
* Keeping the Blues Alive (Smithsonian)
* The Ballad of Big Freedia: How the New Orleans Bounce Icon Was Betrayed By Her City’s Housing Crisis (Pitchfork.com)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Wee Trio, which includes St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, has launched a crowd-funding campaign raising money to record their fifth album. The recording, titled WEE + 3, will feature guest appearances from pianist Fabian Almazán, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarist Nir Felder.

* Jazz St. Louis' program last week pairing a performance of music from drummer Max Roach's We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite with a discussion of jazz, race, and social justice issues was the subject of a feature story by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* New Music Circle will promote their upcoming 58th season with "an evening of drinks and DJs" from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 3 at the Tick Tock Tavern, 3459 Magnolia in the Tower Grove East neighborhood. The free event will feature Josh Weinstein and Jeremy Kannapell spinning records, plus raffles for various prizes including CDs, LPs, and tickets to upcoming NMC concerts. Proceeds from drinks purchased during the event will go to support NMC's various programs.

* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio Network has started a new podcast, "The Process," which will feature "interviews with the best players in jazz and beyond." The first episode, with Martin and drummer Gregory Hutchinson (pictured), is online now.

* Saxophonist and educator Harvey Lockhart and the other winners of the 2017 St. Louis Arts Awards were profiled on the website of the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.

* Legendary singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker's favorite places in France were the subject of an article in the New York Times travel section.

* The Regional Arts Commission is accepting applications for the next round of their $20,000 Artist Fellowships through Wednesday, August 10. A total of ten $20,000 fellowships will be awarded to individual St. Louis artists in any discipline as selected by an advisory committee of arts professionals, peers and RAC commissioners. RAC also is offering a workshop on how to apply for the fellowships on Tuesday, August 2 at the Vaughn Cultural Center.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* An early-week set at NYC's Village Vanguard from Trio 3, featuring former St. Louisan Oliver Lake on saxophone, Reggie Workman on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums, got a favorable review from the New York Times' Nate Chinen.

Trio 3 continues there, as noted by some of the Vanguard's characteristically idiosyncratic signage (pictured), through tomorrow night.

* The Sheldon has posted on Facebook a photo album from last Saturday's performance by the Dizzy Gillespie Afro Cuban Experience.

* And while we're talking photo albums, you can see some shots from the Funky Butt Brass Band's gig Wednesday at the World Chess Hall of Fame here.

* Sarah Ulrich of Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes and her residence, the Deco Fortress, are featured in an article in the April issue of Alive! magazine titled "Offbeat Abodes."

* "Josephine and I," a new one-woman show about the legendary entertainer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker now playing at Joe's Pub in NYC, is one of several current theatrical productions reviewed by The New Yorker's Hilton Als.

* Singer/actor Meghan Kirk's show last week for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor has booked two NYC dates for The Baylor Project in May, with gigs set for Friday, May 8 at the Apollo Music Cafe (part of the famed Apollo Theater) and Monday, May 18 at the Blue Note.

* The PledgeMusic campaign for David Sanborn's new album Time and the River is almost over, but you can still get a signed CD, autographed lead sheet, or another pledge premium if you contribute before the official release date on Tuesday, April 7. For more info, visit http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/davidsanborn/exclusives.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson “Somethin’ Else” celebrates 100 episodes with new music from Diana Krall, Bobby McFerrin, Bill Frisell, and more.

Then on "The Jazz Collective", host Jason Church will play tracks from Nathan Woodward, The JT Project, Ken Navarro, Rick Braun, Rock Candy Funk Party, Al Jarreau, Jesse Cook, Chuck Mangione, Rodney Franklin, Manhattan Transfer, George Benson, Common Time, 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.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The latest episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz with Don Wolff premieres this Sunday, February 8, and features the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The show also looks in on the recording of pianist Phil Dunlap's debut CD, and includes vintage video spotlighting the late alto saxophonist and clarinetist LeRoy Harris.

I Love Jazz can be seen on Charter channel 989 and AT&T U-verse 99 at noon on Wednesdays; 8:00 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays; and 4:00 p.m. Fridays. (For other TV providers, check your program guide.) You also can watch episodes, including the latest one, online at the HEC-TV website, or download them for free from the "Beyond University" section of iTunes U.

* Pianist Peter Martin's performance with guitarist Romero Lubambo last week at South on Main in Little Rock was reviewed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and also documented in a photo set posted to Facebook.

* Martin also will provide the music for the "Eleventh Annual Evening of Hope," a benefit for the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at Washington University School of Medicine to be held on Thursday, April 30 at the Sheldon. The evening includes cocktails, dinner, and the musical performance by Martin's trio and guest singer Brian Owens. For tickets or sponsorship information, call Hope Happens at 314-725-3888 or email them at info at hopehappens dot org.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake's latest album, a duet performance with bassist William Parker called To Roy, is out now on the Intakt label. The title is a dedication to the late trumpeter Roy Campbell, who died last January at age 61.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Andre "Dre Energy" Boyd has blogged about his experiences playing with Cirque du Soleil for Modern Drummer magazine.

* Videographer Chad Eivins of Chizmo.tv has posted online a video documenting last February's New Music Circle-sponsored concert by Joshua Abrams and; Natural Information Society at Joe's Cafe Gallery.

* You can get a close-up look at some of the unusual musical instruments from the Hartenberger World Music Collection recently donated to the Sheldon Art Galleries via a video posted online this week by the Riverfront Times. An exhibit featuring instruments from the collection opens tonight in conjunction with Grand Center's "First Friday" series of free gallery openings and events in the district.

* The Saxophone Museum at Saxquest has just acquired the original sample model bell for the Buescher 400 tenor saxophone, and Saxquest owner Mark Overton explains why it's "the coolest find of the year" in an article published on the shop's associated site Saxophone.org.

* Singer, actress, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker (pictured) is just one of the black adventurers featured in a series of Black History Month illustrations recently created by comic artist Chris Schweizer. Baker, who spied for the resistance against the Germans in occupied France during World War II, is shown with her pet Chiquita the Cheetah.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will highlight music from composer Kurt Weill as performed by Michael Brecker, Nina Simone, Roy Hargrove, and more. The program airs at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Then on Sunday morning, WSIE's "Jazz Talk" will feature hosts Dick Ulett, Michael Silverman, and Rob Silverman chatting with drummer Ron Carr. The program airs from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on 88.7 FM, and also can be streamed online from the station's website.

2012 St. Louis International Film Festival to include music-related films, live performances

The schedule has been released for the 2012 St. Louis International Film Festival, and as in years past, the menu of movies includes several with musical subjects or themes.

This year's SLIFF will take place from Thursday, November 8 to Sunday, November 18, with films screening at venues including the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University's Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville.

Among the programs that may be of particular interest to StLJN readers:

* The 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, which was the feature film debut of singer, dancer and St. Louis native Josephine Baker (pictured). It will be shown at 7:00 p.m., Friday, November 16 at Webster University with live musical accompaniment by the Poor People of Paris.

* The Entertainers, a documentary about ragtime pianists competing for the title of "World’s Greatest Old-Time Piano Player." It will play at 3:00 p.m., Saturday November 15 at Webster University, with live performances from pianists Faye Ballard, Ethan Uslan, and former St. Louisan Donald "Four Arrows" Jacobs following the film.

* A program of films by Georges Méliès, including a restored version of his most famous movie, A Trip to the Moon (1902); a docudrama on the filmmaker; and a sampling of Méliès shorts with original musical accompaniment by the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra. The Méliès program will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 9 at Webster University and at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 10 at the Wildey Theatre

* Beware of Mr. Baker, about the innovative yet often irascible drummer Ginger Baker, who's played jazz at various stages of his career but is best known for incorporating African rhythms into rock music with bands including Cream, Blind Faith, and Air Force. The documentary, which features interviews with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, Carlos Santana, Alex Van Halen, Jack Bruce, and others, will be shown at 9:00 p.m. Saturday, November 10 at Webster University and at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, November 17 at the Wildey Theatre.

Other films incorporating music as a subject or theme will include the biographical documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America, as well as features such as A Late Quartet, the story of a fictional string quartet about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, starring Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener; Wagner & Me, in which British actor and writer Stephen Fry examines his enthusiasm for Richard Wagner's music and confronts the composer's associations with anti-Semitism and Hitler; Floating Oceans, the third installment in a surrealistic multimedia opera from musician, composer and animator Alexis Gideon; and Mariachi Gringo, which stars X-Men's Shawn Ashmore as a Nebraskan who moves to Mexico to become a mariachi singer.

In all, more than 400 features, documentaries and short films will be screened during the festival. For a complete schedule, plus ticket and venue information, visit the SLIFF Web site.

Notes from the Net: Win the Miles Davis 70-CD box set; Orchestrion unleashed; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

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

* We always like to start this feature with any news of St. Louis' most famous jazz musician, Miles Davis (pictured), and we've got several related items this week, starting with one from the blog Hot House offering the story behind Miles' recording Four And More: The Complete Concert 1964.

Via Miles Davis Online, here's an interview with artist Tobias Dahmm about painting pictures of Davis, and an item about a production from North Carolina A&T State University's theater department called Mad at Miles, penned by playwright Pearl Cleage and inspired by the troubles in Davis' marriage to Cicely Tyson.

Next up, here's a review by John Kelman of AllAboutJazz.com of Visions of Miles: The Electric Period of Miles Davis, a new CD of big band arrangements written by Colin Towns and performed by Germany's HR Big Band.

Finally, AOL's Luxist website is giving away a free copy of the 70-CD mega box set The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection (which costs a whopping $328.49 and is available only through Amazon.com), plus a Miles Davis T-shirt and a Miles Davis USB stick, to one lucky reader. To enter, leave a comment on the post linked here before 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Feburary 26. The winner will be selected in a random drawing.

* Turning to news of other St. Louis area residents past and present, singer and East St. Louis native Phil Perry is back performing again after some health problems, most recently serenading New Yorkers on a Valentine's weekend cruise.

* Perry's fellow former East St. Louisan trumpeter Russell Gunn has announced a new CD, Ethnomusicology Vol. 6: The Return of Gunn-Fu set to be released on April 9, with a digital download available on March 5. (Note that Gunn's dot-com address on the Web seems to have been domain-jacked, so his official site is now located at groidmusic.com, which, you should be duly warned, serves up some auto-playing audio when you load it. )

* The life of St. Louis native, singer, dancer and actress Josephine Baker is depicted in a current exhibit at the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach; Baker's son, Jean-Claude Baker, also recently lectured at the museum about her life and work.

* The Wee Trio, featuring former St. Louisan Dan Loomis on bass, are releasing their second CD, Capitol Diner Vol. 2 Animal Style.

* Saxophonist, composer and long-ago Webster University student John Zorn is conducting a two-night marathon of ten different versions of his band Masada at the Abrons Art Center in NYC, with featured musicians including percussionist Cyro Baptista, keyboardist Uri Caine, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and the Masada String Trio.

* Looking for news of recent visitors, we find that bassist Christian McBride, who was in St. Louis in December to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, was profiled here by the LA arts mag Venice. This past weekend, McBride presented his civil-rights-themed jazz opus "The Movement Revisited" in Detroit with the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, the Second Ebenezer Majestic Voices, and his quintet, which included East St. Louis' Terreon Gully on drums. While in the Motor City, McBride also answered five questions from the Detroit Free Press.

* Singer/songwriter, pianist and frequent visitor to St. Louis Ann Hampton Callaway once again will open the Great American Songbook for an upcoming gig at Dizzy's in NYC with pianist Ted Rosenthal, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Willie Jones III.

* Meanwhile, via the always useful Avant Music News, we learn that pianist Vijay Iyer is headed to London's Vortex Jazz Club next month for a duo performance with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Iyer was here in January to play four nights at the Bistro.

* Drummer Stanton Moore, who's in town tonight at The Pageant with Galactic, has a new trio CD called Groove Alchemy. It's part of a multimedia project, along with an instructional book and DVD of the same name, exploring the roots of funk drumming by examining the work of pioneers like James Brown's drummers John "Jabo" Starks and Clyde Stubblefield and The Meters' Zigaboo Modeliste.

* Opening the "coming attractions" file, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra saxophonist and arranger/composer Ted Nash has written a series of posts about his new "Seven Shades" suite for the Museum of Modern Art's website. The JaLCO have a new CD out that features the suite, and they'll play in St. Louis on March 13 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* Guitarist Jeff Beck's new album and tour elicited a feature article from the New York Times' Larry Rohter. Beck will be in St. Louis on Thursday, April 29 to play the Fox Theatre.

* Guitarist/mad scientist Pat Metheny has started his Orchestrion tour in Europe, and reviews are coming in. Here's one of a performance in the Netherlands, written by Philip Woolever for AllAboutJazz.com, and four from Metheny's show at the Barbican in London: from Rod Fogg for the LondonJazz blog; an unbylined review from AllAboutJazz.com; one from a seemingly unlikely source, the Financial Times, written by Mike Hobart; and a rather snarky one (subtitled "Time to pull the plug on this tousle-haired mechanic") written by Michael Church of the Independent. Metheny and the Orchestrion are coming to St. Louis to play the Touhill Performing Arts Center on May 13.

(Edited 2/18/10 to correct the description of Tobias Dahmm, who is a painter, not a photographer.)

Notes from the Net: Gary Bartz on Miles Davis; more on Kind of Blue's 50th anniversary; plus news, reviews, and more.

It's time for this week's compilation of news and links related to jazz in St. Louis, including musicians from the Gateway City, recent visitors and coming attractions - plus assorted other items of interest:

* Here's another review of the deluxe 50th Anniversary edition of Miles Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue, from AllAboutJazz.com's Jeff Stockton, and, from Blogcritics, a review of the two-CD "Legacy" edition of KoB, which includes two discs of music but omits the 12" box and the fancy book.

* Ben Ratliff of the New York Times reviews a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert paying tribute to KoB and John Coltrane's Giant Steps, another jazz milestone that's also 50 years old in 2009: "The albums don’t need respectful glosses, performances that harden them into the status of luxury goods; they need challenging and taking apart. And Thursday night’s concert at Rose Theater, built around the albums (and repeated on Friday), did that rather elegantly."

* On another Davis-related note, the Jazz Video Guy (a.k.a. Bret Primack) recently posted an interview with Gary Bartz in which the veteran saxophonist talks about his time as a member of Miles' ground-breaking electric ensemble. You can see it in the embedded video window at the bottom of this post.

* Pianist and St. Louisan-turned-New Yorker Linda Presgrave (pictured) has a new CD, Inspiration, which features interpretations of songs from female jazz composers. Read a review here.

* St. Louis native, singer, dancer and actress Josephine Baker figures prominently in "The Jazz Century," a major exhibition opening next month in Paris that examines the influence of jazz on artists ranging from Baker to the Dutch modernist painter Piet Mondriaan.

* Saxophonist, composer and one-time Webster University student John Zorn is heading west in March for a run of shows at Yoshi's in San Francisco.

* The Bad Plus, who opened 2009 here at Jazz at the Bistro, recently were featured on the National Public Radio program "Jazz Set with Dee Dee Bridgewater." Also, from the Jazz and Blues Reviews blog, here's another review of their new CD For All I Care.

* With the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival officially "on hiatus" for 2009, yr. humble editor's thoughts occasionally are wandering to the notion of how a resurrected St. Louis fest might be improved. Perhaps we could learn something from the Detroit jazz festival, a free event held every year over Labor Day weekend that will celebrate its 30th anniversary by commissioning a major new work about the city and its jazz legacy from its 2009 artist-in-residence, bassist and composer John Clayton. The Detroit fest is also making an effort to hire more local musicians and to involve other arts groups in town, two things I've repeatedly encouraged St. Louis' festival organizers to do. Read all about it here.

* Despite the efforts of Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) to bar any funding for the arts from the economic stimulus bill currently before the U.S. Congress, we learn via Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise that the final version of the legislation will indeed include $50 million in additional money to preserve jobs and programs at arts institutions that may be hurt by the economic downturn. As composer, bandleader and blogger Darcy James Argue notes here, score one for the good guys.

USPS featuring Josephine Baker in new stamp series

An image of Josephine Baker is part of a new series of stamps honoring Vintage Black Cinema being issued this month by the United States Postal Service. The Baker stamp (pictured) features a reproduction of the poster artwork for the 1935 movie Princess Tam-Tam, one of four feature films to star the St. Louis native.

All five stamps in the series are based on vintage movie posters. The USPS' news release says, "Whether spotlighting the talents of entertainment icons or documenting changing social attitudes and expectations, these posters now serve a greater purpose than publicity and promotion. They are invaluable pieces of history, preserving memories of cultural phenomena that otherwise might have been forgotten."

To mark the occasion in Baker's hometown, the USPS and The Sheldon are holding a First Day of Sale Event at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 16 at the The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Blvd. Admission is free.

The Sheldon Art Galleries presented a major exhibition devoted to Baker's life and work in 2006, the 100th anniversary of her birth. The Sheldon's email didn't specify exactly what will take place at the July 16 event, but presumably there will be some sort of ceremony; plus the opportunity to purchase first-day issues of the stamp, which usually are of interest to collectors.