So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer and St. Charles native Dave Weckl announced this week on social media that he will present a free live online drum lesson at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow, Saturday, November 7.

Weckl (pictured) will "review hand technique, take your questions, and do some giveaways" via a livestream on his YouTube channel and Facebook page.

* Trumpeter Jim Manley was the guest on last Friday's episode of KTRS radio's "In The Know with Ray Hartmann."

* Bryan Dematteis, director of the documentary The Black Artists Group of St. Louis: Creation Equals Movement that is screening online this month as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

* In related news, Dematteis also recorded a brief video interview about his film with the Post-Dispatch's Ben Simon.

* Singer (and physician) Ken Haller's return performance last week at Blue Strawberry was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

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/

Blue Strawberry bringing cabaret sounds to Central West End starting October 31

Clockwise from top left: Haller, Sullivan, Ross, Watts & Dreyer

 

St. Louis is getting a new venue for cabaret-style entertainment with the debut next week of Blue Strawberry at 364 N Boyle in the Central West End.

Set to open on Thursday, October 31, Blue Strawberry is owned by Jim Dolan, who through his company The Presenters Dolan has been producing cabaret shows here since the mid-2000s in a variety of locations, the most recent being the Gaslight Theater, which has hosted several iterations of Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival just a few doors down the street on Boyle.

Blue Strawberry, which also will offer a full bar and food menu, will feature performances by a mix of local and touring singers on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with additional live music on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

St. Louis cabaret favorite Ken Haller will provide the entertainment for opening night with his new show "When I'm 65." Others scheduled for the first month include St. Louis' own Rosemary Watts and Joe Dreyer on Friday, November 1; singer and actress K.T. Sullivan with a tribute to the late Barbara Cook on Saturday, November 16; and the "Crown Prince of New York cabaret" Steve Ross with a show of Cole Porter songs on on Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 30.

You can see a complete schedule of upcoming performances and purchase advance tickets at the Blue Strawberry website or at LicketyTix.com.

Jazz this week: Ellen Fullman, Lonnie McFadden, Jazz Ambassadors, Tauk, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a performance on a unique instrument that's also an art installation, plus concerts in a variety of genres from vintage jazz to cabaret to funk and fusion.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, November 7
Singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's; Miss Jubilee plays at Schlafly Bottleworks; and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features TJ Muller at The Stage at KDHX along with the jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, November 8
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival's fall series resumes with Kansas City trumpeter and singer Lonnie McFadden (pictured, center left) performing for one night only at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Thursday, guitarists Dave Black and Farshid Soltanshahi with guest multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman will play at Joe's Cafe; singer Joe Mancuso and friends perform at 50/Fifty Kitchen; and saxophonist and singer Cary Colman's trio returns to Evangeline's.

Friday, November 9
Artist, musician and instrument inventor Ellen Fullman will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 560 Music Center.

Fullman (pictured, top left) is the creator of the Long String Instrument, which consists of dozens of wires 50 feet or more in length, stretched across a space and "bowed" with rosin-coated fingers, producing "a chorus of minimal organ-like overtones." For more about Fullman and some video footage of playing the Long String Instrument, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, keyboardist David Grelle's Playadors make their Bistro debut in the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis; the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer Anita Jackson performs for the late show at The Dark Room

Saturday, November 10
Singer Ken Haller reprises his show "Happy Haller Days!" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, and saxophonist Dave Stone's trio plays at Thurman's in Shaw.

Sunday, 
November 11
The US Army's "Jazz Ambassadors" (pictured, bottom left) will play a free matinee concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center

Monday, 
November 12
Dizzy Atmosphere will play swing and Gypsy jazz for diners at The Shaved Duck, and the Webster University Student Jazz Combos will show their stuff in a performance at Webster's Community Music School.

Tuesday, November 13
Funk and fusion quartet Tauk, touring in support of their new album Shapeshifter II: Outbreak that was released in September, return to the Old Rock House.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz St. Louis' Gene Dobbs Bradford is one of the 2018 St. Louis Arts Awards winners featured in an article on the website of the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis. The honorees will receive their awards at a ceremony on January 22 at the Chase Park Plaza.

* Drummer Emanuel Harrold (pictured) has a new promotional video out offering a preview of his forthcoming EP Look Forward.

* St. Louis based Entertainment Cruise Productions is offering special, limited-time two-for-one pricing on their upcoming "Blue Note at Sea" cruise. The cruise takes place January 27 - February 3,  and will feature performances from Charles Lloyd, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marcus Miller, Robert Glasper, St. Louis' own David Sanborn, Chick Corea, Dr. Lonnie Smith and many others.

* Singer Ken Haller's Gaslight Cabaret Festival show "Happy Haller Days" was reviewed by the Ladue News' Mark Bretz and KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* And speaking of KDHX, the station now has a page on VuHaus.com, "a non-profit, digital music video service that introduces emerging and established artists to new audiences. Through a website and mobile app, VuHaus aggregates performance videos and interviews from leading "Music Discovery" public radio stations from markets across the U.S."

Gaslight Cabaret Festival announces fall series

The Presenters Dolan have announced the fall 2017 series of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, which will include seven different shows over five weekends at the Gaslight Theater in the Central West End.

The series will begin with jazz singer Paula West on Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14.

West (pictured), who's known for her ability to interpret a wide range of material, from the Great American Songbook to contemporary pop and rock, will be accompanied by pianist and music director Bruce Barth, bassist Ben Wheeler, and drummer Montez Coleman.

Next up is Alice Ripley, who won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Next to Normal, and was in the original Broadway casts of Les Misérables, Sunset Boulevard, Side Show, The Rocky Horror Show, and American Psycho. She'll take the stage of the Gaslight Theater on Friday, October 20 and Saturday, October 21.

The following weekend, singer/pianist Eric Comstock and singer Barbara Fasano will present a show called "Downton Abbey Road: The Best of Britain" on Friday, October 27. As the name suggests, the show is built on songs from an eclectic selection of British songwriters, from Noel Coward and Anthony Newley to the Beatles and Sting.

After that, Ken Haller, one of two St. Louis performers in the series, will present a new holiday-themed show, "Happy Haller Days!" on Thursday, November 2 and Thursday November 9.

Singers Farah Alvin and William Michals will be the next to take the festival stage, bringing their show "Broadway's Greatest Hits of All Time" from Feinstein's in New York City to St. Louis on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4.

For the series' final weekend, former St. Louisan Katie McGrath, who moved to NYC last year, will return on Friday, November 10 with her show "Significant Others," and Emily Skinner, who's been nominated for Tony Awards for her work in Broadway shows including Side Show, Billy Elliot and The Full Monty, will wrap things up with a performance called "Broadway Her Way" on Saturday, November 11.

Single ticket prices for the Gateway Cabaret Festival range from $30 to $45, depending on the show, and there's a 10% discount for a subscription of five shows or more. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the Gaslight Cabaret Festival website.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz St. Louis is looking to hire a full-time Education Associate to help launch a new program for at-risk middle school students called Jazz Academy. For more information about the job and how to apply, go here.

* In advance of his gig tonight for The Sheldon's annual fundraising gala, guitarist and singer George Benson did a brief Q&A with St. Louis magazine's Erin Williams.

* Singer Joe Mancuso has organized an event to raise money for music scholarships in the name of the late saxophonist Willie Akins. Set up as a structured jam involving a couple of dozen St. Louis musicians, the "Willie Akins Jazz Festival" is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 28 at the Grandel Theatre, with an informal jam session at The Dark Room to follow. Mancuso also has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the scholarship fund.

* The Bosman Twins (pictured) were interviewed last week on the WSIE (88.7 FM) program "Voices," and their chat with host Hank Thompson has been archived online as an MP3 file here.

* The STL Free Jazz Collective has posted on Facebook a photo album from their recent show at the 14th St Artists Community.

* The website Sound of STL has photo coverage of the recent gig by Thomas Fujiwara's The Hookup presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

* Speaking of KDHX, singer Ken Haller's latest reprise of his cabaret entertainment "The Medicine Show" was reviewed for the station by Chuck Lavazzi.

* In the latest chapter in the saga of the Goldenrod Showboat, St. Louis Public Radio reports that the remains of the venerable venue - once home to performances of ragtime and vintage jazz on the St. Louis riverfront - are sinking in the flooded Illinois River. The flooding threatens the plans of preservationists who hoped to salvage artifacts and materials from the boat for display in a museum.

* The British music magazine The Wire has published an excerpt from Message To Our Folks, bassist and Washington University faculty member Paul Steinbeck's new book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

* "The Music Seen - Beyond the Stage," an exhibit featuring music-related images from seven different photographers, will open with receptions from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 9 and from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday, June 10 at Bullivant Gallery, 3321 Washington Blvd in Grand Center. The exhibit, which features work from Michael Eastman, David Godlis, Jason Lee, Charles Peterson, David Rocco, Dr. Ernest Withers, and Baron Wolman, continues through Friday, July 14.

* Just in time for Mothers Day, the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn interviews Shirley Harrold, a St. Louis mom whose flock of 16 children includes two young jazz stars, trumpeter Keyon Harrold and drummer Emanuel Harrold.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and educator Jan Shapiro has taken retirement from the faculty of Berklee College of Music and is moving from Boston back home to St. Louis.

Once she's resettled, Shapiro (pictured), who chaired the vocal department at Berklee from 1997 to 2010, will be accepting students for private voice lessons. For details on that, see her website.

* Jazz St. Louis is one of nine local arts organizations to receive a grant this year from the PNC Foundation. The "PNC Arts Alive" program will provide a total of $250,000 to the nine recipients, with JSL using their portion to produce a web video series, “Jazz from the 314 Presented by PNC Arts Alive,” with pianist Peter Martin as host.

* Singer, actor and impressionist Dean Christopher was profiled in a story on the St. Louis County Arts blog.

* Singer (and physician) Ken Haller's most recent performance of "The TV Show" last month at The Stage at KDHX was reviewed for CabaretScenes.org by Chuck Lavazzi.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's annual "GO! List" issue (in which readers and staff rate various St. Louis people, places and things) was released last week, and in what might be described as an upset victory, BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups was voted by readers as "Best place to hear jazz," while the staff pick in the same category was Joe's Cafe & Gallery.

* St. Louis based independent label Freedonia Music recently has made it onto Facebook, where they are posting "an endless stream of new and old CD releases from our catalog of Creative music, Free Jazz, Free Improv, Avant-garde Electronics and Spontaneous Combustion St. Louis Style." You can check out what they're sharing here.

Jazz this week: A benefit starring Johnny O'Neal, free outdoor concerts, and more

It's mid-summer in St. Louis, and though as usual for this time year, it's mostly another slow week with regard to touring musicians visiting St. Louis, the fine pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal (pictured) will be in town for a benefit show on Sunday.

And of course, St. Louis' hometown musicians keep on keepin' on no matter what, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening around town over the next few days.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, July 27
The Grand Center "jazz crawl" starts this week with singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, and continues as usual with bassist Bob DeBoo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's trio at The Dark Room.

Thursday, July 28
Singer Erin Bode will perform in a free outdoor concert at Kirkwood Station Plaza in downtown Kirkwood, and bassist Glen Smith will lead a trio in a concert at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center at Washington University, wrapping up this year's free "Jazz in July" concerts from Wash U's Jazz at Holmes series.

Also on Thursday, singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran and his Guerrilla Strings will be recording in public view at the Gaslight Lounge; and this month's edition of the Bruxism experimental music series, with Blank Thomas, Alberto Patino, Schievvf, will be presented at the Schlafly Tap Room.

Friday, July 29
Soul-jazz/funk quartet The Service returns for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; and guitarists Farshid Soltanshahi and Dave Black will team up with multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman for a concert at Focal Point.

Elsewhere around town, the Midwest Jazz-tette performs West Coast-style cool jazz at Evangeline's; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and trumpeter Jim Manley will be back at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.

Also on Friday, singer Ken Haller presents his cabaret performance "The TV Show" at The Emerald Room at The Monocle. Haller will return to the same venue on Saturday night to perform his show "Song by Song by Sondheim".

Saturday, July 30
Take your pick of R&B-influenced saxophonists doing free outdoor concerts, as Tim Cunningham performs at Carondelet Park while Jim Stevens plays at Lafayette Park.

Also on Saturday, the Funky Butt Brass Band will play their monthly gig at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday, July 31
The Community Women Against Hardship will present their annual jazz benefit concert at the Ferring Jazz Bistro, this year featuring pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal.

The Detroit native, now based in NYC after many years living in Alabama, has been compared to Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. Now 59 years old, O'Neal worked early in his career with Clark Terry and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but geography, bad health, and bad luck mostly kept him from gaining wider recognition until this decade, when he re-established his presence on the NYC scene with weekly gigs in Manhattan.

For this show, O'Neal will be accompanied by a contingent of St. Louisans including singer Anita Jackson, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Jerome “Scrooge” Harris.

Monday, August 1
Singer and impresisonist Dean Christopher will present his "Rat Pack & More" show at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.

Tuesday, August 2
The Jazz Troubadours, featuring vibraphonist Tom Rickard, bassist Guy Cantonwine, and drummer Steve Helfand, have begun a weekly Tuesday late-night gig and jam session at Evangeline's, continuing until further notice.

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.)

Presenters Dolan set fall schedule of cabaret shows at Gaslight Theater

The Presenters Dolan have announced their fall schedule of cabaret shows, featuring 15 different acts performing over seven weekends in October and November at the Gaslight Theater, 358 Boyle Ave in the Central West End.

Though apparently without the "Gaslight Cabaret Festival" branding used recently, the series will welcome several new performers, including Wendee Glick, the New Hampshire-based jazz singer who gave the final performance in June 2014 at Robbie's House of Jazz; folk-influenced singer-songwriter Susan Werner; and Kat Edmondson (pictured), a one-time American Idol contestant who has sung with Lyle Lovett and toured as opening act for Jamie Cullum.

There also will be encores from several acts featured previously, including Lina Joutrakos and Rick Jensen, Storm Large, Jeffrey Wright, and Ken Haller, as well as cabaret debuts from the acappella group One Too Many, rock duo Sleepy Kitty, and more.

Here's the complete schedule in chronological order:

Thursday, October 8: Wendee Glick - "Moon Over The Mississippi"
Friday, October 9: Maxine Linehan - "An Immigrant’s Journey From Ireland To America"
Thursday, October 15: Shanara Gabrielle - "Rated SG"
Friday, October 16: One Too Many
Saturday, October 17: Chuck Flowers - "Popping In"
Thursday, October 22: Dean Christopher - "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime: A Tribute to Dean Martin"
Friday, October 23: Ken Haller - "Mama's Boy"
Saturday, October 24: Jeffrey M. Wright
Sunday, October 25: Lina Koutrakos and Rick Jensen - "Two For The Road"
Thursday, October 29 & Friday, October 30: Kat Edmonson - "The Big Picture"

Thursday, November 5: Sleepy Kitty (Paige Brubeck and Evan Sult)
Friday, November 6 & Saturday, November 7: Storm Large
Thursday, November 12: Sleepy Kitty (Paige Brubeck and Evan Sult)
Friday, November 13 & Saturday, November 14: Karen Oberlin - "His Aim Is True - The Songs of Elvis Costello"
Thursday, November 19: Brian Owens - "The Soul of Cash - Johnny Cash"
Friday, November 20 & Saturday, November 21: Susan Werner

All shows start at 8:00 p.m.. Prices for most performances range from $25 to $35, except for Storm Large, which is priced at $45 and $40. Tickets are on sale now via LicketyTix.com.

Fall edition of Gaslight Cabaret Festival starts Saturday, September 27

The fall season announced by cabaret producers The Presenters Dolan will include return performances from singers Steve Ross, Storm Large, and Karen Mason, as well as a weekend of shows from Chicago-based performers; encores and new shows from several St. Louisans; and more.

Billed once again as the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, the slate encompasses 19 performances by 15 different acts over eight weekends. Storm Large (pictured) will kick off the festivities at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 27 with a performance of her show "Le Bonheur (Good Times)" at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

The rest of the performances will be presented at the Gaslight Theatre, starting with a reprise of Katie McGrath's "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity" on Saturday, October 11. Next up is Mason with "Secrets of the Ancient Divas" on Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18.

"An Evening with Steve Ross" will be presented on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, while the weekend of Chicago performers will include Beckie Menzie & Tom Michael's "That 60's Show" on Friday, November 7 and Joan Curto singing songs by Cole Porter on Saturday, November 8.

The following weekend will feature shows by New York-based performers Sheri Sanders, a veteran of numerous Broadway rock musicals, on Thursday, November 13; and Carole J. Bufford, who will present her show "Body & Soul" on Friday, November 14 and Saturday, November 15.

St. Louis performers in the festival will include Ken Haller, Joe Dreyer & Rosemary Watts, Christopher Limber, Meghan Kirk (who recently returned from Los Angeles), Antonio Rodriguez (who recently moved to Chicago), and Lara Teeter, who will wrap things up with an encore of his show "Lucky To Be Me" on Saturday, November 22.

All shows (except for Storm Large) will start at 8:00 p.m. at the Gaslight Theater. Ticket prices range from a top of $45 for Large to $35 and $40 for the other visiting performers and $22 or $25 for local acts. You can see a complete schedule of shows and prices here.

Gaslight Cabaret Festival to be held February 22 - April 26 at Gaslight Theater

Cabaret producers The Presenters Dolan yesterday announced a new series of performances called the Gaslight Cabaret Festival that will begin February 22 and continue through the end of April at the Gaslight Theater, 358 Boyle in the Central West End.

Twelve acts are booked for a total of twenty-two performances, including three touring headliners - Marissa Mulder (pictured), Emily Bergl, and rocker/reality-TV-star Storm Large - making their St. Louis debuts, as well as a number of St. Louis' favorite homegrown performers.

The schedule in chronological order is:

Saturday, February 22:  Tim Schall - "1961"
Thursday, February 27 - Saturday, March 1:   Marissa Mulder - "The Songs of Tom Waits"

Thursday, March 6:  Ken Haller - "The TV Show"
Friday, March 7:  Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts - "Swing Into Spring"
Saturday, March 8:  Connie Fairchild - "Down By The River"
Thursday, March 13 - Saturday, March 15:  Emily Bergl - "Until the Real Thing Comes Along"
Saturday, March 29:  Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts - "Swing Into Spring"

Thursday, April 3:  Morgan A. Faulkner - "I Got It All From My Mother"
Friday, April 4:  Katie McGrath - "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity"
Saturday, April 5:  Todd and Kelly Decker - "They Can't Take That Away from Me: Songs and Stories of George and Ira Gershwin"
Thursday, April 10:  Taylor Pietz - "If I Only Had a Brain"
Friday, April 11 & Saturday, April 12:  Storm Large - "Taken By Storm: songs of seduction and obsession"
Friday, April 25 & Saturday, April 26:  Lara Teeter - "An Evening With..."

Four-show subscriptions are available at $139 for premium seating, $121 for regular seating, while single tickets are priced from $22 to $45, depending on the performance and seating option selected. Subscriptions and single tickets for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival are on sale now via http://www.licketytix.com or by phone at 314-725-4200, ext 10.