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.
* Let's start with our usual helping of
Miles Davis-related news - specifically, some more
details about the upcoming 70-CD set reissue of all of Davis' albums on Columbia/Sony.
Next up, the blog Hidden Track has a
free download of a previously unissued set by
Davis' late 1960s "Lost Quintet," with
Chick Corea (keyboards),
Jack DeJohnette (drums),
Dave Holland (bass) and
Wayne Shorter (saxophones). The recording was made November 9, 1969 in Rotterdam for Radio Netherlands, and contains versions of "Directions," "Bitches Brew," "Sanctuary" and "Masqualero."
In other Davis-related news, the UK classical music blog Overgrown Path has an interesting
post about the new book by
Richard Williams,
The Blue Moment: Miles Davis and The Remaking of Modern Music; Davis' former bassist and producer
Marcus Miller did a
tribute to the trumpeter over the weekend at the Indianapolis Jazz Festival; and, via the always useful
Miles Davis Online, there's news of
an exhibition devoted to Davis at the Cité de la Musique in Paris. It's organized into rooms dedicated to various periods in Miles’ life, from his upbringing in East St. Louis all the way to the retrospective concert he did at La Villette in Paris a few weeks before his death
* Turning to news of other St. Louisans past and present,
Baikida Carroll is among the trumpeters appearing at this years
Festival Of New Trumpet music (FONT) in NYC.
*
Roscoe Mitchell and
Famoudou Don Moye of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the
James Carter Quartet and saxophonist
Fred Ho will
pay tribute to the late trumpeter and St. Louis native
Lester Bowie in a concert on Friday, October 9 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.
* Trumpet player, singer and St. Louis native
Jeremy Davenport, who now holds down the house gig at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, recently joined some of the hotel's employees to help
rebuild homes in Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish. Davenport will return to his hometown in November for a Thanksgiving weekend gig at
Jazz at the Bistro.
* NYC's New Languages festival includes a tribute to former St. Louisan
Julius Hemphill from his friend and admirer, saxophonist
Tim Berne. Read about it in
this article from the
Wall Street Journal's
Martin Johnson.
* From the "coming attractions" file, saxophonist
Kenny Garrett (
pictured) is featured in the
latest episode of the online TV show
Jazz it Up! Garrett, who will be in St. Louis in October to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, was filmed during a gig at NYC's Iridium. (Bonus St. Louis content: The episode also features the vocal group Take 6 with interpretations of songs from Miles Davis’
Kind of Blue.)
* Singer, pianist and songwriter
Nellie McKay, who will be here in November to perform for
Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Arts Center, has a
new CD called
Normal As Blueberry Pie - A Tribute To Doris Day* A recent gig by singer-guitarist
John Pizzarelli recreating his Radio Deluxe program live on stage is reviewed
here by
R. J. Deluke for All About Jazz.com. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis in April at
Jazz at the Bistro.
* Finally, let's wrap up with a few more items loosely related to the latest outbreak of the recurring "is jazz dead?" meme.
One thing to keep in mind about the whole controversy is that there is a great of subjectivity involved. Case in point: In a recent
post on his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog, veteran jazz journalist and Chicago native
Howard Mandel sang the praises of the current scene in his hometown, calling it "the best American city for jazz."
The very same week, an unbylined
piece headlined "Chicago Jazz Scene" on AllAboutJazz.com offered a much gloomier view, citing the closings of the Jazz Showcase and Hot House clubs, the cancellation of the jazz studies program at Northwestern University, and the elimination of jazz from radio station WPEZ (91.5 FM). "These are truly dark days for the first truly American art form. We hope for better days ahead," it concludes, before segueing to a fairly extensive listing of venues and upcoming shows. Maybe it all really does depends on your perspective...
(Digressing for a moment on the general subject of jazz clubs, here's an entertaining
feature story written by
Michael Pronko for
Japan Times about what is alleged to be the smallest jazz club in the world, Tokyo's Hot House. )
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the USA, "the jazz-club circuit is shrinking. Increasingly, jazz is presented at arts centers and universities," notes the
Wall Steet Journal's
Larry Blumenfeld in
a piece recounting the growth of Jazz at Lincoln Center into an institution with a $38 million annual budget. While some might see this as decidedly a good thing for jazz, not everyone agrees:
"Five years ago, some feared that machine would swallow a chunk of the New York jazz scene. That hasn't been the case. "They make our business even better," said Lorraine Gordon, whose Village Vanguard celebrates its 75th year in 2010. "It creates a positive attitude and it educates people. I think it's an asset...
Within the jazz industry, some are troubled by Mr. (Wynton) Marsalis's dominance in that arena. "What if all that funding was spread across the entire spectrum of jazz," asked Scott Southard, whose International Music Network specializes in jazz, "instead of concentrated in one spot?" Then again, some credit Mr. Marsalis with engendering such support. For Randall Kline, who heads the San Francisco-based SFJazz, "Jazz at Lincoln Center was important in establishing legitimacy. Before, there were no models for jazz in the institutional world."
One observer who's particularly skeptical of the JALC model is
Chris Rich, who blogs at Brilliant Corners, A Boston Jazz Blog, and calls the
WSJ piece "a typical rationalization of a begging incrementalism where if you are a first rate suck up and career player or some hallowed jazz geezer ready for your boat ride across the Styx you'll get a shot of some of that 38 million bucks they blow each year on this funerary stuff."
In a series of
scathing, yet often
funny posts, Rich mocks Marsalis and a number of other well-known jazz figures, while lamenting that much of the money that goes to large institutions ends up getting spent to maintain and enhance their prestige and their physical facilities - some refer to this as "the edifice complex" - and to preserve the past, instead of being used to pay musicians and composers to create the future.
So, could that $38 million possibly do more if it were spread around instead of concentrated in one spot? Sure, but the problem is that the corporations and foundations who supply much of that sweet, sweet funding generally prefer to deal with institutions, which they perceive to be stable and relatively accountable, rather than individual artists, who are often seen as difficult and unreliable. The notion of hundreds of smaller presenters fostering musical innovation all over the country certainly is appealing; I'm just not how to get there from our present reality. Please feel free to offer your thoughts, observations and/or rants in the comments...
(Edited 9/30/09 to fix a garbled sentence.)
