Jazz this week: Karrin Allyson, Olivia Block, Eric Marienthal, Tommy Halloran, and more

This week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a typically varied assortment of sounds and styles, with a couple of notable touring performers in the middle of the week. So, without further delay, let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday November 11 
Singer Karrin Allyson (pictured, top left) returns to St. Louis for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, touring in support of her recent release Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson sings Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The album has received generally positive reviews, and you'll find links to several of them, plus some videos of Allyson performing, in this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, electronic musician and composer Olivia Block performs at Foam, with Circuit des Yeux opening the show; and singer Eve Seltzer returns to Nathalie's.

Thursday, November 12
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival fall series continues with an encore performance from the duo Sleepy Kitty at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Thursday, the SIUE jazz faculty will feature saxophonist Jason Swagler in a concert entitled "Brazil and Beyond" at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus; and Wack-A-Doo returns to the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Friday,
November 13
Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran’s band Guerrilla Swing (pictured, center left) are regulars at Jazz at the Bistro, performing weekly for Sunday brunch, but they're also playing Friday and Saturday nights this week to promote the release of Halloran's new album State Streets.

Ticket buyers will get a free digital download of the album, which will be released on vinyl at a date TBA.

Elsewhere on Friday, singer Karen Oberlin explores the songs of Elvis Costello in the first of two performances of her show "His Aim Is True" at the Gaslight Theater; trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet featuring pianist Carolbeth True will pay tribute to trumpet legend Clifford Brown at the Ozark Theatre; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, November 14
On Saturday afternoon, saxophonist Frank Catalano will be in from Chicago for a free performance and workshop at Saxquest

That evening, saxophonist Eric Marienthal teams up once again with St. Louis' Bach to the Future, this time in a benefit for the Dillon International adoption agency at the Mandarin House Banquet Hall in U City; and trumpeter Jim Manley performs at Thurman Grill.

Also on Saturday night, percussionist Herman Semidey and Orquesta Son Montuno will play salsa, Latin jazz, and more at Club Viva; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Venice Cafe.

Sunday, November 15
The St. Louis Jazz Club will present Cornet Chop Suey playing traditional jazz and swing in a matinee performance at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport.

Also on Sunday, the Community Women Against Hardship's annual "Circle of Support Gala" will feature singer Kimmie Horne (pictured, lower left), a Detroit native and cousin of the legendary Lena Horne, at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the St. Louis Big Band gets ready for an upcoming road trip with a show at CJ Muggs in Webster Groves.

Monday, November 16
Guitarist Dave Black plays for diners at The Shaved Duck, and Webster University's student jazz singers will show off their skills in a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

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: Catching up with Karrin Allyson

This week, let's check out some videos featuring Karrin Allyson, who returns to St. Louis next week to perform on Wednesday, November 11 and Thursday, November 12 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Allyson, a Kansas City native now based in NYC, was a favorite of Jazz at the Bistro founder Barbara Rose, and performed here a number of times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her visits grew somewhat less frequent once she moved east, and it's been more than seven years since her last gig at the Bistro in May 2008.

Fast forward to Fall 2015, and Allyson is touring in support of a new album, Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson sings Rodgers and Hammerstein, in which she interprets songs from the team who created the music for Broadway hits including Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music.

Though no live videos of Allyson singing material from Many A New Day seem to have made it online yet, at the top of this post you can see a complete episode of Voice of America's program Beyond Category from September of last year, in which Allyson talks about her life and development as a jazz musician and performs some songs.

Also, last week while performing at Jazz Alley in Seattle, Allyson visited the studios of radio station KPLU, where she performed and was interviewed about the album by host Dick Stein.

After the jump, you can check out more songs Allyson recorded during previous visits to the KPLU studios, starting with "O Pato" and "Spooky," both from Halloween 2014 and featuring bassist Jeff Johnson and guitarist Rod Fleeman.

Below that, there's a version of "Smile" with Fleeman from 2011; "Blues In B Flat" with Johnson from 2013; and a medley of "I Want To Be Happy" and "What A Little Moonlight Can Do," recorded in 2012 as a duet with drummer Todd Strait.

For more about Many A New Day, you can check out the promotional video for the album from record label Motema Music, and read reviews from Jazz Times magazine and the blog Rifftides, plus the New York Times' review of a recent live show by Allyson.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2015 jazz preview, part 4

We continue this week with part four of StLJN's video preview of jazz and creative music performers who are coming to St. Louis this fall. (You can see part one here, part two here, and part three here.)

Our first video today features percussionist Poncho Sanchez, who will be back in town to play Wednesday, November 4 through Saturday, November 7 at Jazz at the Bistro. The clip up top is an excerpt from an outdoor show Sanchez played in July of this year for the "Hollywood And Highland" series in Los Angeles.

The same week Sanchez hits town, singer Storm Large also will return to St. Louis to headline performances for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7 at the Gaslight Theater. Large can be seen in the first video after the jump performing "I've Got You Under My Skin" at a gig last year at the Triple Door in Seattle.

Also on Saturday, November 7, New Music Circle will present minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine in a performance at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Grand Center. Palestine is featured in the second video after the jump, giving a solo concert on piano and organ in March of this year at The Lab performance space in San Francisco.

And if all that weren't enough for one week, pianist Ramsey Lewis also will me making a return appearance here that same Saturday, November 7, headlining the annual "ArtSounds!" benefit at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can catch Lewis in the third clip after the jump, playing "The In Crowd" this past May at Daley Plaza in Chicago during a TV appearance promoting his 80th birthday celebration.

Next up is singer Karrin Allyson, who's coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, November 11 and Thursday, November 12 at Jazz at the Bistro. Allyson will be presenting music from her latest album, Many A New Day: Karrin Allyson Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein, and the fourth video after the jump is the electronic press kit (EPK) for that album.

Today's final video features singer Karen Oberlin, who will perform her show "His Aim Is True - The Songs of Elvis Costello" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 at the Gaslight Theater. Oberlin is seen here with her frequent collaborator, guitarist Sean Harkness, singing "More Than You Know" at the Broadway World Cabaret Awards Show in February 2015 at Joe's Pub in NYC.

Look for the fifth and final part of StLJN's Fall 2015 jazz preview, covering the rest of November and December, next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Jazz this week: Mwata Bowden, a David Sanborn tribute, "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60," Alarm Will Sound, and more

Events have conspired to make this week's preview of jazz and creative music shows in and around St. Louis both rather terse and somewhat behind schedule. so let's go straight to the highlights....

Tonight, multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, performs a free concert with bassist Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. For more about Bowden and some video samples of him performing, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and The Freedom plays smooth jazz and fusion at The Engine Room.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jim Stevens teams up with jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 the Soul for the first of two nights in which they "Play the Music of David Sanborn" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode provides the musical entertainment for "Heart 2 Heart," a benefit for the organization Education 4 All, Inc, at Gallery 400 on Washington Ave; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald returns to Jazz on Broadway; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and the Lindenwood University Jazz Band, with special guest soloist Marshall Gilkes on trombone, will wrap up the first-ever Lindenwood University Jazz Festival with a performance at the Scheidegger Center for the Arts on campus.

On Saturday, singer Joe Mancuso and pianist Adam Maness will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Coleman Hughes Project performs at The Rustic Goat; and husband-and-wife cabaret performers Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts will reprise their show "Swing Into Spring" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show, having been postponed due to bad weather twice already this year, will present their first show of 2014 at the usual location, the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway. Also on Sunday afternoon, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" tribute show, which has been touring for the past two months, arrives at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The ensemble (pictured) features St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, along with clarinetist/saxophonist and music director Anat Cohen, singer Karrin Allyson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Also on Sunday evening, singer Steve Lippia will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" at Powell Symphony Hall.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School building on campus; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound resumes their St. Louis season at a new venue, performing music from Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Steve Reich at The Pageant. For more details, check out this preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

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 3

This week, it's an extra-large part three of StLJN's video preview of jazz musicians and bands coming to St. Louis in the first part of 2014. (In case you missed them, here's part one and part two.)

Today's first clip features singer Marissa Mulder, who will make her St. Louis debut as one of the headliners of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, performing "The Songs of Tom Waits" from Thursday, February 27 through Saturday, March 1 at the Gaslight Theater. In this clip, Mulder can be seen singing "Day After Tomorrow," written by Waits and Kathleen Brennan, during a show in March of this year at the Metropolitan Room in NYC.

Down below, the next video shows off trumpeter Sean Jones playing his song "Transitions" at the 2011 Detroit Jazz Festival. Jones will return to St. Louis once again this spring to play Wednesday, March 5 through Saturday March 8 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The third video features another act that's visited St. Louis frequently in recent years, the New Orleans funk/jazz group Galactic. They'll be back on Thursday, March 6 to play at The Pageant, but in the meantime, you can watch their entire set from this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Below that, the fourth clip present another of the visiting headliners for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, singer/actress Emily Bergl, whose performances of "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" from Thursday, March 13 through Saturday, March 15 at the Gaslight Theater will be her first here in St. Louis. Bergl, an acclaimed musical theater performer who also had a recurring role on ABC's Desperate Housewives, is seen here singing "42nd Street" at the Cicada Club in Los Angeles.

In the fifth video window, you can see an NPR Music "Tiny Desk Concert" featuring alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, who will be making his St. Louis debut Wednesday, March 19 through Saturday, March 22 at Jazz at the Bistro. Mahanthappa, who leads several different ensembles, is seen here performing "Killer" and "Playing With Stones" with guitarist Rez Abbasi, bassist Rich Brown, and drummer Rudy Royston.

The last five clips all relate to a single concert, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" ensemble that will play the final date of a 17-city tour on Sunday, March 30 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The group includes St. Louis' own Peter Martin (who should be quite familiar to regular StLJN readers by now) as pianist, and will be directed by clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen, who was featured in this space last year when she and her quartet played a week at the Bistro.

Also taking part will be singer and Kansas City native Karrin Allyson, seen here performing "The Shadow of Your Smile" with her quartet; trumpeter Randy Brecker, who in his clip is playing "Round Midnight" in a 2011 performance with Washington DC's Jazz Academy Orchestra; and guitarist Mark Whitfield, offering his version of "In a Sentimental Mood" this part June at the JazzAscona festival in Switzerland (with some help from bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Troy Davis).

Providing the foundation for the band will be bassist Larry Grenadier, who is seen in the ninth video soloing at a clinic in June of this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and drummer Clarence Penn, who's featured in today's tenth and final clip playing a solo in 2010 at the Blue Note club in Poznań, Poland.

Look for part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview here next week.

Jazz this week: Karrin Allyson, Ann Hampton Callaway, Denise Thimes with Helen Sung and Rickey Woodard, James Davis Quintet, and more

It's mostly about the ladies this weekend in St. Louis, as three of the most significant jazz events happening over the next few days will feature talented female vocalists.

First, there's singer Karrin Allyson (pictured), who's performing two sets a night at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday. Allyson's star has been rising since she moved from Kansas City to New York a few years ago, and her current CD Imagina: Songs of Brazil seems to be getting lots of favorable attention. Freelance writer & friend o' this site Terry Perkins talked to Allyson about the CD and playing St. Louis for an article in today's Post-Dispatch, available online here. For a couple of video samples of Allyson's work, see this post from a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday, singer, pianist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway headlines a benefit for WSIE (88.7 FM) radio personality Ross Gentile at Royale Orleans Banquet Center, 2801 Telegraph Rd. in South County. Gentile has had some health problems recently, and the proceeds from the event will help pay for some of his medical costs and other expenses. Reggie Thomas and his trio will back Callaway, and the Gary Dammer Sextet will open the evening's festivities with a pre-dinner set featuring several special guests. There will be no ticket sales at the door, so if you'd like to attend, you'd best hurry up and secure your spot via Ticketmaster.

On Sunday, singer Denise Thimes presents her annual Mothers' Day performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The late-afternoon performance will be preceded by a buffet supper, and as usual, Thimes has lined up some special guests for the concert, namely up-and-coming pianist Helen Sung, the winner of the Kennedy Center 2007 Mary Lou Williams Competition, and veteran saxophonist Rickey Woodard. Reservations for the buffet and show are available through Metrotix.

And while this feature usually focuses strictly on live performances, we would be remiss not to note that this Friday also marks the return to St. Louis airwaves of Don Wolff, who will be bringing a new iteration of his radio program I Love Jazz to KFUO (FM 99.1) from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. every Friday from here on out.

Looking beyond the weekend, the student musicians from Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program are presenting their end-of-semester demonstration on Monday. On Tuesday, singer and pianist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum performs at Brandt's, while something called the Universal Sound Ensemble plays at The Gramophone. Whalum is a old favorite in St. Louis, but I can't tell you much about the Universal Sound Ensemble except that I like the name, and their show, like all the Tuesday night jazz sets at The Gramophone, is free, without cover charge or admission fee.

On Wednesday, the Chicago-based James Davis Quintet will be in town to perform at the Underground @ Red Sea, otherwise known as the basement of the Red Sea restaurant, located at 6511 Delmar in the Loop. Davis, the trumpet playing leader of the group, is a graduate of the well-regarded music program at the University of North Texas, and the band's impressive debut CD Angles of Refraction contains some smart, well-played original music that reflects a variety of classic jazz influences, from hard bop to West Coast cool to an almost ECM-like impressionism, through a 21st century lens. Miles Davis' mid-Sixties band circa Nefertiti would seem to be another important influence, both sonically and conceptually.

Davis has a pleasing tone and a nice melodic sense as a soloist, and keyboardist Sean McCluskey's Rhodes electric piano is featured prominently throughout, evoking the likes of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Bob James and Uri Caine without directly imitating any of them. Saxophonist Caroline Davis contributes several incisive solos, and bassist Jeff Greene and drummer Jon Deitemeyer are a solid and sensitive rhythm section. Though I haven't heard the band live, based on their CD I'd say the James Davis Quintet are definitely worth a listen and rank as the "sleeper" pick of the week.

For more St. Louis jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar

(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.)

(Edited after posting.)

Notes from the Net: Davis, Terry, Zorn, Allyson & Mehldau reviewed; George Lewis' new book on the AACM; the collapse of IAJE; and more

It's been a few weeks since the last installment of this feature, which compiles short news items and links about musicians with connections to St. Louis, plus coming attractions, recent visitors, and other stories from the worlds of jazz. There's lots to share, so let's get to it:

* We'll start this installment, as usual, with a few Miles Davis-related items, including a review of the recent book Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post Bop from All AboutJazz.com, and two reviews of the new two-CD set Miles From India. In addition, Rifftides' Doug Ramsey recently did a post ruminating on the role of mid-sized ensembles in jazz, including as one of his examples Miles' "Birth of the Cool" group.

* Miles' fellow trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry was featured recently on the public radio program Riverwalk Jazz, and Terry's new big band album with Louis Bellson, Louis and Clark Expedition Vol 2, is reviewed here.

* The Atlanta weekly Creative Loafing recently had a feature about trumpeter and former East St. Louisan-turned-Atlantan Russell Gunn, who was in town this weekend to perform at SIU-Edwardsville.

*Here's a review of a recent performance by Hamiet Bluiett with Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio.

* Pianist Tom McDermott, a St. Louis native who's lived in New Orleans for more than 20 years and has become something of a specialist in that city's musical traditions, has a new CD, Creole Nocturne, with cornetist Connie Jones, reviewed here. McDermott was also the subject of a feature story in the New Orleans music magazine Offbeat.

* There's lots of news on the always-prolific John Zorn, who once studied music here at Webster University, including two reviews of a live performance of his "pocket concerto" entitled "The Prophetic Mysteries of Angels, Witches, and Demons"; a review of his show for New Music Now in Boston and one of his new CD, The Dreamers. Zorn also revisited his famous piece "Cobra," as a benefit for for the NYC performance space Roulette, and the hatHut label is reissuing his acclaimed CD News for Lulu with guitarist Bill Frisell and trombonist/electronic musician George Lewis.

* Multi-reedman, composer and St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich also is busy this month, with NYC gigs for his quartet, sextet and all-alto-saxophone ensemble.

* Tom Kennedy, who splits his time between NYC and St. Louis, is playing bass on smooth jazz guitarist Ken Navarro's new CD The Grace of Summer Light. The CD is due out in mid-June, but can be heard for free right now via an audio stream from Navarro's Web site.

* Here's a review of jazz critic and St. Louis native Bob Blumenthal's new book Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music, written for AllAboutJazz.com by David Rickert.

* Turning to the "coming attractions" file, singer and former Kansas Citian Karrin Allyson will be in St. Louis this week to perform at Jazz at the Bistro. Here's a review of new CD Imagina: Songs of Brazil, and a review of her recent four-night stand at NYC's Birdland.

* When bassist Stanley Clarke is here next month to perform at the Fox Theatre with Return to Forever, you can call him "Dr. Clarke," since he recently received an honorary Doctorate of Fine arts from his alma mater, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

* By way of catching up with some musicians who have recently performed in the Gateway City, here's a review of pianist Brad Mehldau's recent live trio CD, and a review of a performance in Cleveland. Mehldau was in St. Louis last month for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro.

* One of our favorite West Coast jazz bloggers, LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs, recently interviewed saxophonist Billy Harper, who was in town last weekend to play a show in George Sams' Nu-Art Series.

* Pianist Taylor Eigsti, who also played the Bistro earlier this year, has a new CD called Let It Come To You.

* And finally, a few items of more general interest to jazz enthusiasts, starting with what was perhaps the biggest jazz-related news story of the past few weeks, the collapse of the International Association for Jazz Education due to financial troubles. Paul DeBarros of the Seattle Times broke the story here; LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs has the letter sent to the group's members by IAJE president Chuck Owen here; Secret Society's Darcy James Argue compiled reactions from the jazz blogosphere here, and Ben Ratliff of the New York Times weighs in on the debacle here.

* The aforementioned George Lewis (pictured) has finally completed his book on the history of Chicago's groundbreaking musicians collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). It's called A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Expermental Music, and you can read an excerpt from it here and a feature story about Lewis, the AACM and the book, written by the NYT's Nate Chinen here.

* Last but not least, Improvisation, Community and Social Practice is an international research project headquartered at the University of Guelph that "explores musical improvisation as a model for social change". Their journal Critical Studies In Improvisation has, as you might expect, an academic orientation and flavor, but also includes articles of potentially wider interest; for example, the most recent issue has an interesting feature on saxophonist and educator Jackie McLean and an interview with improvising guitarist Fred Frith.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Karrin Allyson sings "Moanin'" and "O Barquinho (Little Boat)"

This week's videos feature singer and pianist Karrin Allyson, who's coming to St. Louis to perform at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, May 7 through Saturday, May 10.

In these two clips, recorded in 2003 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, you can see and hear her singing the hard bop standard "Moanin'" (above) and demonstrating her affinity for Brazilian music with "O Barquinho (Little Boat)" (below).

Notes from the Net: "Miles from India"; Clark Terry in KC; Allyson interviewed; your brain on jazz; and more

It's spring, and while birds are gathering material for their springtime nests, little kids have been out hunting Easter eggs, and the St. Louis Cardinals search for a couple of healthy starting pitchers, yr. humble editor has been doing the hunt-and-gather thing all over the Internet, collecting items of interest about musicians from St. Louis, coming attractions, recent visitors, and so on:

* First, someone's actually come up with a new twist on the well-worn notion of a tribute to Miles Davis, as NYC's Town Hall will host the world premiere of "Miles From India: Celebrating the Works of Miles Davis" on Friday, May 9. The concert and a forthcoming two-CD set will feature an ensemble of Davis alumni and Indian classical and jazz musicians reinterpreting compositions associated with the trumpeter, including “All Blues," “Spanish Key," “So What," and “Jean Pierre." Also on the Miles front: From OperaToday.com, of all places, a review of of the recent book Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post-Bop; and from the NY Times Book Review, a brief review of The Miles Davis Reader.

* Catching up with some other famous St. Louisans, we learned that Clark Terry will perform with the Kansas City Youth Jazz Orchestra on May 3 and 4 at Unity Temple in downtown KC. Terry also has a new big band record with drummer Louis Bellson, Louie & Clark Expedition 2, reviewed by Jack Bowers for AllAboutJazz.com here.

* Saxophonists and former St. Louisans Greg Osby and Oliver Lake are each the subject of a volume in a new series of 12 books called "Photonality", in which photographer T.E. Priemon "uses the medium of jazz music integrated with the properties of photography to create visual music compositions."

* Speaking of Lake, here's another review of his recently reissued CD Zaki. Also, Lake's band Trio 3, with bassist Reggie Workman, drummer Andrew Cyrille and special guest pianist Geri Allen, did a weekend at NYC's Jazz Standard earlier this month.

* Meanwhile, saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person recently performed at Edinboro University in Erie, PA

* Verve has just reissued Oliver Nelson's Fantabulous, a 1964 session recorded in Chicago featuring Nelson, Phil Woods and Jerome Richardson on saxophones, plus trumpeters Snooky Young and Art Hoyle, bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Grady Tate. Nelson fans also may want to grab this free download of the song "The Meeting" from his 1961 album Screamin' the Blues.

* Saxophonist John Zorn , who once studied at Webster University, has another new CD release called The Dreamers, and has been doing a series of performances on the East Coast, reviewed here, here and here. DowntownMusic.net also has some recent Zorn photos. (Scroll down and click to see them.).

* St. Louis natives Jack Kent (flugelhorn, keyboards) and Ray Kennedy (piano) will perform for Seton Hall University’s Jazz‘n the Hall series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, April 1.

* Turning to recent visitors, trumpeter Terell Stafford, who just played at Jazz at the Bistro earlier this month, opened for Wayne Shorter at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia

* Another recent visitor to the Bistro, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, was interviewed about creativity and collaboration for the Baltimore online magazine The Urbanite.

* And The Bad Plus, who were at the Bistro in January, were profiled in Philadelphia Daily News, and had a recent performance in New Zealand reviewed by the paper there.

* West Coast jazz blogger LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs has photos and a review of a recent performance by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Marsalis and the JalCO were in St. Louis in February to play the Sheldon Concert Hall. Downs also just did a radio interview with pianist and MAXJAZZ recording artist Mulgrew Miller, which should be showing up soon online in MP3 format here.

* Jazz.com has a new interview with singer Karrin Allyson (pictured), who just came out with a new CD of Brazilian music. Allyson will be in St. Louis in May to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Jazz-fusion band The Yellowjackets, with St. Louis native Marcus Baylor on drums, also will be in St. Louis in May to play the Bistro. Then they'll move on to play June 15 (Fathers Day) at the OC Pavilion.

* Finally, a couple of items that have been making their way around the blogosphere, but are worth checking out if you haven't seen them yet. First, check out this snark-filled look at the record industry's 20 biggest, stupidest mistakes over the years.

* And last but not least, scientists have found that during performance, jazz musicians unconsciously switch off regions of the brain involved in self-censorship, and fire up the area linked to self-expression. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders scanned the brains of jazz musicians as they played a specially-designed keyboard:

"The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, Limb suggests. The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says (professor Charles) Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”"

Pollstar: Allyson, Sinatra Jr. coming to St. Louis in 2007-08

According to information just posted on Pollstar, singers Frank Sinatra Jr. and Karrin Allyson (pictured) are the latest two acts to book appearances at St. Louis venues for next season.

The online tour information service shows Sinatra Jr., who served as his father's conductor and now continues in his musical footsteps, booked at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 7 of this year. It also says that Allyson, a former Kansas City resident who has gained significant national and international attention in recent years, is booked to play Jazz at the Bistro on May 7-10, 2008.

As always, information from Pollstar is subject to change, and these dates should not be considered confirmed until they are officially announced by the venues.