So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby recently took part in a "Before and After" listening session for Jazz Times magazine, published in their June issue and now available online. Osby last week also sat in with the Dave Matthews Band as they began their summer tour with a show in Camden, NJ.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold co-wrote, produced, and is featured along with hip-hop emcee Common and singers Gregory Porter and Andrea Pizziconi on "Running (Refugee Song)," a new single aimed at raising funds and awareness of the plight of more than 60 million displaced persons around the world.

* Saxophonist Harvey Lockhart has been named "Arts Educator of the Year" as part of the annual St. Louis Arts Awards presented by the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis. Lockhart is being lauded for his work as director of bands and performing arts with the Riverview Gardens school district, and for forming and directing the North County Big Band, a jazz group based at the Sheldon Concert Hall that includes students from several area high schools.

* A photo set from last Saturday's Chesterfield Jazz Festival has been posted to Facebook.

* Also now online: a Flickr gallery of pics from last Thursday's edition of the Bruxism experimental music series at the Schlafly Tap Room.

* Guitarist Horace Bray, a St. Louis native and alumni of Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program who recently released his debut album, was profiled by Aarik Daneilsen of the Columbia Daily Tribune.

* The Grand Center district, home to jazz venues including Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon Concert Hall, The Dark Room, and the Kranzberg Arts Center, was featured in a special edition of KETC's program Living St. Louis.

* Local NBC affiliate KSDK reported this week that the late blues pianist Johnnie Johnson (pictured), whose work with Chuck Berry helped define the sound of early rock & roll, will receive a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for his service in World War II with the Montford Point Marines, an all-African-American unit that integrated the Marine Corps.

Alarm Will Sound to perform free concert Sunday, October 19 at Public Media Commons

The acclaimed new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound* (pictured) will continue their third St. Louis season with a free concert featuring the world premiere of composer John Luther Adams' new work Ten Thousand Birds at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, October 19 at the new Public Media Commons in Grand Center.

Adams, who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his orchestral piece Become Ocean, is known for creating large-scale works that embrace public spaces. Ten Thousand Birds, composed with a grant from New Music USA, is based on the songs of birds native to Missouri and the western limit of the eastern hardwood forest, and "fully embraces the orchestral range of colors in the instrumentation of Alarm Will Sound."

St. Louis artist Michael Eastman will provide projected visuals to accompany the music, and St. Louis electronic musicians Eric Hall and NNN Cook will do brief individual sets to open the show. Cook’s piece, written especially for this performance, will include live instrumentation provided by five members of Alarm Will Sound.

The Public Media Commons, which officially opened in September, is a 9,000-square-foot space flanked by large-screen video walls—two stories high—on two sides. In addition to the video walls, the space also includes a performance stage, interactive touch screens, and a window into one of the Nine Network studios.

The performance will be Alarm Will Sound’s second of the weekend here, as the group also will be featured in the “250 Years of St. Louis Music” concert on Friday, October 17 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, playing a new work by pianist Peter Martin, inspired by the music Miles Davis, and another written specifically for the occasion by AWS cellist and University of Missouri professor Stefan Freund.

Admission to the Public Media Commons concert is free and open to the public, with no reservations required.

*As always when StLJN mentions Alarm Will Sound, we include some sort of disclaimer like this one, noting that yr. humble StLJN editor has since 2010 been paid by the PR firm Slay & Associates for tasks including helping AWS with publicity for their concerts in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. That said, given StLJN's usual focus, I'd be writing about AWS even if I had no personal connection to them, so rather than omit any mention of a concert that readers might enjoy, you get the article plus this disclosure of the conflict of interest.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The free concert featuring pianist Ptah Williams (pictured) this Sunday at Ivory Perry Park was previewed by Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American.

* Next week's St. Louis Cabaret Festival was previewed in an article on the website of St. Louis Public Radio, which also will cover the festival during the broadcast of the "Cityscape" program at noon today. You can hear it online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php.

* Speaking of the Cabaret Festival, the event's organizers and Metrotix are offering a $10 discount online for tickets to the festival's opening show next Wednesday, which will feature Broadway star Faith Prince performing in the Sheldon Concert Hall's upstairs ballroom. To take advantage of the discount, use this link to access the Metrotix site, and when prompted enter the promo code THEATER.

* A new episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz, hosted by Don Wolff, has been posted online. It includes performances and interviews from the concert paying tribute to Richard McDonnell, the late founder of the MAXJAZZ record label, that was presented in May at Jazz at the Bistro, as well as coverage of the Bistro's renovation and expansion plans. You can watch online here, or consult your TV provider's program guide for air times.

* Regarding the Bistro renovations, Ruth Ezell of KETC's Living St. Louis did a story on Monday's program on how the construction is progressing; and a seating chart posted online by Jazz St. Louis shows what the layout for the room will look like post-expansion.

* And speaking of Richard McDonnell, jazz-related artwork remaining from his personal collection after a sale last month can still be seen and purchased by appointment, according to Jeff Appel, the photography dealer who's managing the sale of collection for the McDonnell family. "We have found some great St. Louis collectors for probably around 1/4 of the collection, but hundreds of great pieces remain, from signed festival posters to a variety of framed photographs and etchings," he said. To arrange a viewing at the MAXJAZZ offices in Webster Groves, email Appel at photoaddictappel at gmail dot com, or call or text him at 314-520-1572.

* Drummer Kimberly Thompson took a bit of time from her duties with the house band on NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers to visit the makers of Gretsch drums and record a short promotional video.

* In this week's Miles Davis news, IndieWire has photos from the set of Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle's film about Davis that's now shooting in Cincinnati.

* On a related note, a post this week on the website Open Culture looked back at the night in 1970 when Davis opened a show for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

* And for those who'd like to delve even further into the trumpeter's history, a new website, Scaled In Miles, offers a unique interactive timeline view of Davis' recording career.

* Pianist Stephanie Trick, who's been performing this summer in England and Europe, recently met British royalty when Prince Charles and Lady Camilla attended a concert of hers in Scotland.

* The Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival once again will pick the opening act for this year's fest via a "Webster’s Got Talent" competition. The entry deadline is August 17, and applications are available for download at the festival's website.

Entrants will compete in public performances on Tuesday, August 26 and Thursday, August 28 at a location TBA, with the two winning bands from the semi-finals playing a final showdown on Thursday, September 4. The winner gets the first slot onstage at this year's OWJBF on Saturday, September 20. For more information, email webstersgottalent@gmail.com.

* Jazz radio update: On this week's edition of Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will pay tribute to the late bassist Charlie Haden, with recordings of Haden's work as a bandleader, his collaborations with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett, and more. "Somethin' Else" can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays 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 local news items of interest:

* Next Monday's episode of KETC's Living St. Louis will include an update from reporter Ruth Ezell and Jazz St. Louis executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford on the renovation and expansion of Jazz at the Bistro.

The program is broadcast at 7:00 p.m. Mondays on Channel 9; for cable or satellite channels, check your TV provider's program guide.

* There's a brief new interview with saxophonist David Sanborn posted on PledgeMusic.com. Sanborn is using the crowd-funding service to raise money for his next album, which reunites him with bassist Marcus Miller in the studio for the first time in 15 years.

* Voting is now underway in Down Beat magazine's 79th annual reader's poll. You can cast your vote for your favorite musicians, bands, and recordings here.

* Prestige Records' crop of jazz vinyl reissues hitting the shelves this week includes Miles Davis' The Musings Of Miles, originally released as Davis' very first 12" LP in 1955. The Davis LP (pictured) is one of 16 "classic" Prestige albums that will be reissued in conjunction with the label's 65th anniversary.

* Speaking of vinyl reissues, yet another new deluxe edition of Davis' Kind of Blue was reviewed by London Jazz News.

* And speaking of Davis, drummer and producer Anu Sun teased a tantalizing tidbit on Twitter this week about trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold and the soundtrack of Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle's film about Davis that's shooting now in Cincinnati: "Got @robertglasper & @keyonharrold in the studio working on the score for the Miles Davis movie. #FunTimes"

* Singer and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway's performance at the upcoming St. Louis Cabaret Festival is previewed by Hannah Botney of the Vital Voice.

* On a related note, actress and singer Faith Prince, who also will be performing during the Cabaret Festival, was a guest on the latest episode of KDHX's "Break A Leg".

* The blog Music Taster's Choice has a short review and some photos of a recent performance by Miss Jubilee at the Blues City Deli.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday night on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will present "Ladies with Verve," spinning tracks recorded by singers Abbey Lincoln, Shirley Horn and Betty Carter late in their careers for the Verve label.

"Somethin' Else" can be heard 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, KWMU's "Jazz Unlimited" will be re-broadcasting part three of host Dennis Owsley's ten-part documentary on the history of St. Louis jazz. The episode, covering World War II and the aftermath, features recordings from the period plus interviews with Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Eddie Randle, Ernie Wilkins, and Charlie Menees, the first jazz DJ in St. Louis.

"Jazz Unlimited" is broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Sundays on KWMU (90.7 FM), and also can be heard online at http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* NPR's Fresh Air this week had a review by Kevin Whitehead of a recent Clark Terry reissue pairing two 1960s Impulse! albums, The Happy Horns of Clark Terry and It's What's Happenin', on a single CD (pictured).

* Multi-instrumentalist/Internet provocateur Nicholas Payton, who's playing next week at Jazz at the Bistro, did an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson.

* The Webster University Journal has an article about Monday night's concert on the Webster campus paying tribute to jazz DJ, photographer and historian Dennis Owsley, who recently donated his personal collection of more than 3000 jazz recordings to the university.

* Meanwhile, Owsley writes about the donation and about physical media vs. digital storage of music in his latest blog entry for St. Louis magazine.

* The St. Louis magazine website also now has up a photo album from last Friday's Jazz St. Louis fundraising gala, as well as a reader poll using elimination brackets in the style of the NCAA basketball tournament to determine "The Best St. Louis Musician of All Time."

* Illuminating another aspect of St. Louis' historic Club Plantation, Kevin Belford blogs about guitarist Floyd Smith and the real origin of the electric guitar solo on record.

* At his concert last Sunday at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, Herbie Hancock spoke for a few minutes about helping establish International Jazz Day, which will be celebrated for the first time on April 30 of this year. Here's the scoop on what that celebration will entail.

* Finally, if you missed KETC's broadcast of the 2012 St. Louis Arts & Education Awards ceremony, which featured pianist Peter Martin as one of this year's honorees, you now can watch the program online.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* This week brings several items about trumpet legend and St. Louis native Clark Terry, starting with some cautious but positive news on his medical situation. In a blog post this week, Terry's wife Gwen reported that surgery to amputate his left leg was completed last Thursday, February 23 with no complications. After 24 hours in the ICU, Terry was transferred last Friday to a hospital room, where "he continued to improve and his spirit remained high."

Also, Living St. Louis, the weekly magazine show on local PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9), this week aired a profile of Terry, reported by Ruth Ezell. You can watch it online here.

Lastly, William Paterson University this week announced the reissue of the trumpeter's book Terry Tunes, a collection of 57 of his compositions that was originally published in the 1970s but has been out of print for years. This new version corrects some notation errors from the original edition, and has added material about Terry's "doodle-tonguing" method. Part of the proceeds from sales of the book go to support the Clark Terry Archive on the William Paterson campus in New Jersey.

* Pianist Peter Martin and drummer Terreon Gully have been on the road this week performing with singer Dianne Reeves, and their concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center last week was reviewed here by the New York Times' Stephen Holden. Their recent travels also included a stop at the White House, where they performed in the East Room for President and Mrs. Obama and visiting state governors. While at the White House, Martin also Tweeted a picture of himself playing an historic antique Steinway piano with wooden legs carved in the shape of eagles.

* Down Beat magazine reports that Hamiet Bluiett was among the participants in a tribute to the late pianist Don Pullen, held last weekend in Pullen's hometown or Roanoke, VA.

* Brass Poison Too, the latest release from trumpeter Jim Manley (pictured), was reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello of AllAboutJazz.com.

* Saxophonist Jim Stevens was the subject of a brief profile on the website OpenBeast.com.

(Edited after posting.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Veteran music scribe Dan Durchholz has written a preview story for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday about next Wednesday's concert by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (pictured) and Del McCoury Band at the Family Arena; read it online here.

* St. Louis musicians will stage a benefit performance to help raise money for relief efforts in Japan next Monday, April 11 at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive. Performers will include members of the Saint Louis Symphony, Arianna String Quartet, Dave Black, Erin Bode, Farshid Etniko, Todd Mosby, Dawn Weber, and many others. There will be two sets, at 7:30 and 9:30. Tickets are $15, cash at the door only, and include two drinks. All performers are donating their services, and 100% of the proceeds from the ticket sales and a silent auction will go to Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Fund. For more information call 314-721-0943.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m., 4/8/11 - Terry Perkins has more details on the Japan relief concert in an article for the St. Louis Beacon here.

* The Art & Air Festival is looking for performers for this year's event via the "2011 Art & Air Idol" contest. Selected contestants will compete on Wednesdays in May in preliminary rounds held at Llywellyn’s Pub in Webster Groves. The winner gets a chance to perform on the main stage at Art & Air 2011, which will be held June 3-5 on the grounds of Eden Theological Seminary in Webster. The contest is open to "acoustic-oriented musicians, solo to small group," and organizers tell StLJN they're looking specifically for some jazz performers. The deadline for entry is April 20; you can find out more and submit an application here.

* While back in his hometown last month to perform at the Kranzberg Arts Center, singer and St. Louis native Craig Pomranz was profiled by local PBS affiliate KETC's program Living St. Louis and reporter Ruth Ezell; check out the YouTube video of the segment here.

* The P-D reports that the historic Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville is set to reopen next week as venue for movie and live performances, and that pianist Jean Kittrell, apparently coming out of retirement for the occasion, will perform at the venue's open house next Tuesday, April 12.

* Radio station KWMU, home to Dennis Owsley's Sunday night program Jazz Unlimited, next week will break ground on their new headquarters and studios in Grand Center. The facility is expected to be ready in 2012.

Tickets now on sale for Jamie Cullum's March 14 show in St. Louis

Tickets are now on sale for the performance by singer/pianist Jamie Cullum on Sunday, March 14 at the Roberts Orpheum Theatre.

Seats for Cullum's St. Louis show were first offered as premiums in a recent pledge drive by local PBS affiliate KETC, and are now available to the general public for $35 and $40 at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 800-745-3000.

Jamie Cullum to perform Sunday, March 14 at Roberts Orpheum Theater

This just in: British singer/songwriter/pianist Jamie Cullum (pictured) will return to St. Louis on Sunday, March 14 to perform at the Roberts Orpheum Theater downtown.

As of right now, tickets are available only as premiums from local PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9), which is airing Cullum's special Live at Blenheim during its current pledge drive. Cullum's last appearance here in March 2006 also was welcomed by KETC.

A $120 contribution to KETC will get you two tickets to the March 14 show, with additional tickets available for another $60 each. Members pledging at the $60 level get a copy of Cullum's CD The Pursuit, while an $80 pledge gets you the Live at Blenheim DVD. (You can see a clip from the special of Cullum perfoming his song "Twentysomething" in the embdedded video window below.)

Members pledging $120 or more also get a KETC/Channel 9 MemberCard, which gets you discounts from participating merchants. Ticket vouchers are guaranteed for holiday delivery, but KETC will not guarantee delivery of the CD or DVD.

If you'd rather just buy tickets to the show without contributing to KETC, you'll have to wait and see if any are made available for sale to the general public after the current pledge drive wraps up. Tickets for shows at the Roberts Orpheum Theater are handled by Ticketmaster.

Living St Louis feature on Mel Bay now online

Living St. Louis, the local magazine show broadcast by KETC (Channel 9) has put online its recent feature story about Mel Bay, who founded a local music store bearing his name that eventually grew into a leading publisher of music instruction materials as well as a record label specializing in jazz guitarists.

To access the .wmv (Windows Media) file directly, go here. If for some reason that link doesn't work for you, you can also go the program's archive and scroll down the list of recent stories to access the link.

WSIE contemplates on-air fund drive

According to an article in the Post-Dispatch, jazz radio station WSIE (89.9 FM) soon may have to do its first on-air fund drive in 10 years to raise money for operations. Although WSIE is affiliated with and receives some support from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, the article says the station "faces a money crunch as grants are cut and expenses rise."

The piece also takes a look at the on-air fund raising practices of other area public broadcasting entities, including radio stations KDHX (88.1 FM) and KWMU (90.1 FM) and local PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9). If WSIE does have to fundraise on-air, here's hoping that the implementation is more like the twice-yearly drive on KDHX, which ;eaves the regular schedule relatively intact, rather than KETC's practice of pre-empting regular programming for weeks at a time to run the same handful of "specials" over and over and over again. Read the whole thing here.

Mel Bay to be subject of Living St. Louis segment on November 19

Speaking of press coverage of local record labels, Jerry Miller of Mel Bay dropped a note to say that company will be featured in a segment of the local news magazine show Living St. Louis on KETC (Channel 9) at 7 p.m., Monday, November 19.

Mel Bay is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The company started as a retail music store and has grown into one of the world's largest publishers of music instructional books, also spawning a label, Mel Bay Records, that specializes in recordings of jazz guitarists. KETC typically makes Living St. Louis segments available on the Web after they've aired, so if you can't catch the program on November 19, you'll eventually be able to see the Mel Bay story online here.

Living St. Louis profiles Jeanne Trevor

Singer Jeanne Trevor, a St. Louis favorite since the Gaslight Square era, was recently profiled by local PBS affiliate KETC's magazine show Living St. Louis, and the segment is now available as streaming video online here. (The link is to a .wmv file; if it won't play, go here, scroll down to Trevor's name and then click.)

Thimes, Massie, Tichenor to be featured on KETC's May 17 Grand Center special

Singers Denise Thimes and Kim Massie and pianist Trebor Tichenor and the St. Louis Ragtimers will be among the featured musicians on Live From Grand Center, a live television broadcast from the Sheldon Concert Hall that will air on local PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9) at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The hour-long program will showcase St. Louis musical talentin a variety of styles, with the lineup also including blues/rock guitarist and singer Billy Peek, gospel group Something Special and bluegrass band the Flying Mules. Tickets for the concert are $75 for floor seats and $55 for balcony seats, but you can get a discount by going online to www.metrotix.com/promotions and entering the promotional code GCLIVE07.

Although it would be pure, unsupported speculation, one can't help but wonder if this might be a sort of back-door pilot or proof-of-concept for a potential series. Certainly, with venues such as Powell Hall, Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon and the Fox Theatre, there's plenty of musical talent, both local and national, being showcased in the Grand Center neighborhood on a regular basis. And now that KETC has moved their studios into the area, they certainly have a more vested interest in its success than when the station was located just off the Washington University campus.

Given the long-running success of shows such as Austin City Limits, Soundstage and others, the notion of a public TV music series originating from St. Louis doesn't seem entirely far-fetched. Of course, it wouldn't be cheap to produce, either, but one would think there are ample opportunities for corporate underwriting there, as well as potential revenue resulting from selling the show to other PBS affiliates. It will be interesting to see what sort of audience, both live and watching on TV, this program garners, and if it then spawns a sequel or sequels.

Wheeler featured on KETC, will be honored by U. City

Singer Mae "Lady Jazz" Wheeler was featured on this week's episode of Living St. Louis, the arts and entertainment program produced by St. Louis' PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9). You can view a Windows Media stream of the segment about Wheeler here.

In related news, the veteran vocalist, who will be celebrating her birthday with a performance at Brandt's on Sunday, May 20, also is set to receive a proclamation from University City Mayor Joe Adams declaring May 15 (her actual date of birth) to be "Mae Wheeler Day." Congratulations and best birthday wishes to Ms. Wheeler.