Sunday Session: December 20, 2020

Stanley Cowell

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* “Up From the Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music” Documentary Debuts Today (Offbeat)
* A Marvelous Marble Machine for Making Music (Kottke.org)
* Art Tatum on V-Disc (Jazz Times)
* Sir Barry Gibb: 'Christmas songs haven't been appropriate for 50 years' (BBC)
* Watch Legendary Saxophonist Azar Lawrence Share His Favorite LPs (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 50 Years Later, 'Feliz Navidad' Still Delivers On Its Bilingual Message (NPR)
* "My goal is to reach people on an emotional level" — The Kenny Barron interview (Ottawa Citizen)
* Danny Jonokuchi & The Revisionists Win Inaugural Count Basie Contest (DownBeat)
* An Examination of Black Coffee by Peggy Lee (Jazz Times)
* Brilliant Acting Makes ‘Ma Rainey’ A Transcendent Film (DownBeat)
* Chicago blues harmonica player Sugar Blue: Running one step ahead of the coronavirus around the world (Chicago Tribune)
* How Branford Marsalis recreated the perfectly imperfect style of 1920s blues for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ (GoldDerby.com)
* In Memoriam: Jazz Night in America Remembers 10 Musicians Who Altered Shape Of Jazz (NPR)
* 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' composer Branford Marsalis says blues legend Rainey commanded attention (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
* The Mutual Musicians Foundation is fighting the gentrification of Jazz in Kansas City (ScalawagMagazine.org)
* Big Data will analyse the mystery of Beethoven's metronome (Phys.org)
* Stanley Cowell, Pianist, Composer and Educator with a Kaleidoscopic View of Jazz, Is Dead at 79 (WBGO)
* Nels Cline Double-Sizes The Singers (DownBeat)
* Jeff Clayton 1955–2020 (Jazz Times)
* Black Mystery School Pianists (New Music Box)
* Jeff Clayton, Versatile Saxophonist and Flutist, and Devoted Jazz Educator, Has Died at 66 (WBGO)
* A Christmas Waltz with Duke Ellington (Jazz Times)
* For midsized music venues, ‘thoughts & prayers’ won’t be enough (Buffalo News)
* Stanley Cowell, Pianist, Composer and Educator with a Kaleidoscopic View of Jazz, Is Dead at 79 (WBGO)

Sunday Session: November 24, 2019

Hazel Scott

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Who’s Fighting for Racial Equity in Classical Music? (21cm.org)
* Asleep at the Wheel Plot 50th Anniversary Album, Reunion Shows (Rolling Stone)
* Pat Metheny back with epic new album From This Place - Track Preview (Jazzwise)
* Above the World: Manhattan in June with Lee (AzureMilesRecords.com)
* Flying teapots and electric Camembert: the story of Gong, prog's trippiest band (The Guardian)
* Why You’ve Never Heard of One Of the Jazz Industry’s Royalty — Hazel Scott (Medium.com)
* Roy DeCarava: The Sounds He Saw (Jazz Times)
* In Praise of the Greatest Trombone Part in Broadway History (Slate)
* Guimarães Jazz Fest Doesn’t Play It Safe (DownBeat)
* A Deluxe Reissue of the Band’s Cozy Self-Titled LP (Has Surely Come) (Rolling Stone)
* Bossa Nova for the World - Sergio Mendes interview (SFJazz.com)
* Is there a Blackout at WBGO? (NJ.com)
* Grammy Awards Nominations: The Complete List (Variety)
* Artist in Residence (GuernicaMag.com)
* Dave Douglas Refines His Political Message with ‘ENGAGE’ (DownBeat)
* Learning from greats, teaching others, Kenny Barron is a guardian of jazz (Charleston Post and Courier)
* What happens to the brain when jazz musicians improvise? (Futurity.org)
* Why I Didn’t Give My Music to the Oxford American (Oxford American)
* The Flute In Jazz: Window On World Music (Jazz Journal)
* Leonard Cohen And Harry Nilsson Are Releasing New Albums, Whether They Like It Or Not (NPR)
* A Toast To 'My Way,' America's Anthem Of Self-Determination (NPR)
* The True Story of Erroll Garner, the First Artist to Sue a Major Label and Win (Variety)
* Gregg Rolie Looks Back on His Days With Santana, Journey, and Ringo Starr (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: September 29, 2019

Kenny Barron

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Paul Simon Has 50 Ways to Charm an Audience (Smithsonian)
* Celebrating John Coltrane with Cultural Documentarian Steve Rowland (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Fred Anderson (BurningAmbulance.com)
* Robert Glasper previews his two-week residency at the Kennedy Center (CapitalBop.com)
* Kenny Barron on Compatibility, Writing and Mulgrew Miller (DownBeat)
* Deep Dive: The Presence of the Past in John Coltrane's Expressive and Searching Music (WBGO)
* Standard Deviation (Art Forum)
* 1 of B.B. King’s ‘Lucille’ guitars sold for $280K at auction (Associated Press)
* Berry Gordy announces retirement; Motown founder bows out after 6 decades in showbiz (Detroit Free Press)
* To Understand The Company Of The Future, Head To A Jazz Club (Forbes.com)
* Lydia Pense & Cold Blood: The Endless Summer of Love (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Got any Horrific Child? Discover the list of the world's 291 weirdest bands (The Guardian)
* A Renewed Spotlight on Anthony Braxton (DownBeat)
* Harry Connick Jr. Performs Cole Porter Tribute Ahead of Show’s Broadway Debut (DownBeat)
* How Composer John Cage Transformed the Piano—With the Help of Some Household Objects (Smithsonian)
* The Music Business Wants to Blow Up Copyright—and the Trump Administration Is On Board (Bloomberg.com)
* Hitting the right note: Jazz legend Roland Wiggins reflects on a lifetime of musical expression (C-ville.com)
* Benny Golson: in the maternity ward (Jazz Journal)
* The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet (Rolling Stone)
* Artist’s Choice: David Amram and the French Horn in Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Carl Stone: Plugging into the sounds of the changing city (Japan Times)
* A Thing Of Beauty, A Crime Scene: Matana Roberts Interviewed (TheQuietus.com)
* Mary Halvorson Wins MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant (Jazz Times)
* An L.A. jazz legend pays homage to Jackie Robinson, with a pitch from a library assistant (Los Angeles Times)
* The Day After #MeToo at Monterey Jazz (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* How One Of Music's Biggest Stars Almost Disappeared, And How Her Legacy Was Saved (NPR)
* Exclusive premiere: Sun Ra Arkestra "Children of the Sun" Live in Kalisz 1986 (MusicIsMySanctuary.com)
* Jane Bunnett: Cuban Music's Canadian Connection (NPR)
* How a Newspaper Article Saved Thousands of Black Gospel Records From Obscurity (AtlasObscura.com)
* The Record Industry Gave Everything Away to Spotify. Could It Change Its Mind? (Rolling Stone)

Sunday Session: November 25, 2018

Ambrose Akinmusire

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Billy Harper charges up Church Of Sound (Jazzwise)
* REVIEW: Ethan and the British Composers at Kings Place (2018 EFG LJF) (London Jazz News)
* Alice Coltrane’s Ashram Lost in California Wildfires (Pitchfork.com)
* Why the Hideout is vital to Chicago’s music scene (Chicago Tribune)
* Blood on the Tracks: Canonizing Bob Dylan’s Human Opus (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Joshua Redman keeps Old and New Dreams alive (Vancouver Sun)
* Spinal Tap to reunite, will presumably be billed above puppet show this time (AV Club)
* Jazz great 'Sweet Papa’ Lou Donaldson’s has sports memories to treasure (New York Daily News)
* This Tiny Record Player Plays Oreo Cookies…Kinda (Food and Wine)
* More Evidence That Trained Musicians Are Superior Thinkers (Pacific Standard)
* This is the story of how Africa and slavery have influenced Brazilian music (RedBull.com)
* How Brainfeeder Leads The Charge For Esoteric Funk, Hip-Hop, Pop, & Jazz (Bandcamp.com)
* How a small Philadelphia record company gave an Oscar contender its sound (Philadelphia Inquirer)
* Live Review: 2018 JazzMi Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* Laurin Talese Wins Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition (Jazz Times)
* Ambrose Akinmusire’s Jazz of Pure Possibility (The Nation)
* The Largest Sun Ra Retrospective Yet is Hidden on the Top Floor of the Portland Art Musuem (Willamette Week)
* What is All the Fuss About? Kenny Barron Takes Years of Experience and Plays in the Moment (VoiceOfOC.org)
* Robert Glasper On How To Get More Young People Into Jazz (NPR)
* Legendary Jazz Guitarist Explains Why ‘The Beatles’ Are Better Than ‘Rolling Stones’ (MetalheadZone.com)
* The Invisible Hit Parade: How Unofficial Recordings Have Flowered in the 21st Century (Wired)
* The History of Play-A-Long (and More) (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: November 4, 2018

Roy Hargrove

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* Sonny Fortune, Stalwart Saxophonist Of New York, Dies At 79 (NPR)
* Open Land: Meeting John Abercrombie (ECM) - The late guitarist's gentle spirit is captured in a moving documentary (Jazz Times)
* Nate Wooley: Plays Whole With Others (NationalSawdust.org)
* Big in Japan: A History of Jazz in the Land of the Rising Sun, Part 1 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* This Danish Band Plays Music Underwater. The Results Are Eerily Spectacular (Time)
* REPORT: 35th Conference of the Radio Jazz Research Group, Salzburg. – " Improvisation: New Perspectives (London Jazz News)
* Guitarist Jimmy Page looks back at 50 years of Led Zeppelin (Associated Press)
* Even Classical Music Is Getting Faster These Days (Rolling Stone)
* Did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wait too long on Bob Marley? (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
* The Residents’ Co-Founder Hardy Fox Dead at 73 (Rolling Stone)
* Meet The Women Pushing UK Jazz Forward (ClashMusic.com)
* Festival Jazz International Rotterdam 2018 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Jason Moran: The Harlem Hellfighters review – the soldiers who brought jazz to Europe (The Guardian)
* Is Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram the Future of the Blues? (Rolling Stone)
* The Secret Jewish History Of Queen (The Forward)
* Bluesman Chris Thomas King says he’s been banned by the GRAMMYs (Offbeat)
* Adam O’Farrill Does Not Play Latin Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Resonance Records Marks 10-Year Anniversary at Birdland (DownBeat)
* Tuba in the House (Jazz Times)
* An Indie Music Expert Explains Why Artists Are Turning Away From Record Deals (Rolling Stone)
* Bob James Returns with Acoustic Trio Disc (DownBeat)
* Andrew Cyrille, Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the Vision Fest, Isn't Resting on His Laurels (WBGO)
* These Duck-Billed Dinosaurs Wore Their Instruments on Their Heads (LiveScience.com)
* What is All the Fuss About? Kenny Barron Takes Years of Experience and Plays in the Moment (VoiceOfOC.org)
* Life In Frank Zappa's Pad, 1968 (PleaseKillMe.com)
* Too much Christmas music can mentally harm you (BigThink.com)
* “The tyranny of collecting” – why I gave away my entire record collection (GetIntoThis.co.uk)
* Roy Hargrove, Grammy-Winning Jazz Trumpeter, Dies At 49 (NPR)
* Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music (Rolling Stone)

Jazz this week: Kenny Barron Trio, Brandon Seabrook Trio, Anthony Braxton, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the much-anticipated local debut of the iconic saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and conceptualist Anthony Braxton, plus some superlative mainstream jazz piano from an NEA Jazz Master, new music from an adventurous, genre-busting guitarist, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 3
Pianist Kenny Barron (pictured, top left) and his trio will perform for the first of five nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Barron, named an NEA Jazz Master in 2010, has played with many jazz greats over the last 50+ years, and also is known as a premiere interpreter of the music of Thelonious Monk, thanks in large part to his membership in the group Sphere in the 1980s and 90s. You can see some samples of more recent performances by Barron, with his trio and playing solo, in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra performs at the Ozark Theatre.

Thursday, October 4
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert of "Early Jazz & Blues - Music of the St. Louis Riverboats" as performed by an ensemble including trumpeter Randy Holmes, guitarist William Lenihan, trombonist Wayne Coniglio, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, drummer Steve Davis, pianist Ken Kehner, and bassist Paul Steinbeck.

Also on Thursday, saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, October 5
Saxophonist Tim Cunningham returns to Troy's Jazz Gallery, and pianist and singer Jesse Gannon will play the late show at The Dark Room.

Saturday, October 6
The Funky Butt Brass Band will play a matinee at the Blues City Deli.

Then on Saturday night, guitarist Brandon Seabrook brings his new trio to the Schlafly Tap Room, with locals Pat Sajak Assassins and Apathist opening the show.

Seabrook (pictured, center left) explicitly incorporates metal and punk influences into his improvisations, sounding quite unlike most traditional conceptions of "jazz guitar."

His latest album Convulsionaries features an all-strings lineup, but with no drums, as detailed in a recent feature in Rolling Stone magazine and as seen and heard on this tour.

Also on Saturday, pianist Greg Mills, cellist Tracy Andreotti and clarinetist Eric Mandat will present a free convert of improvised music in the recital studio of St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

Sunday, October 7
Singer Anita Jackson performs for brunch at The Dark Room, and the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

Later on Sunday, drummer Montez Coleman's "Jazz All-Stars" will team up with the Coleman Hughes Project for two performances of the "Music of Grover Washington & Phyllis Hyman" at .ZACK in Grand Center.

Monday, October 8
New Music Circle presents the St. Louis debut of multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, who will be performing with harpist Jacqueline Kerrod at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

It's a little hard to believe that Braxton (pictured, bottom left), who's traveled around the world playing music many times over the last 50 years, has never done a gig here before, even in the late-1960s heyday of the Black Artists Group. But according to NMC, StLJN's own research, and a consultation with St. Louis jazz historian Dennis Owsley, that seems to be the case.

Still, better late than never, and on Monday, the St. Louis audience finally will get a chance to hear in person one of the most talked-about (and often, argued-about) composers, improvisors and thinkers in contemporary music. StLJN will have more on Braxton in this week's Saturday video post...

Also on Monday, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, singer Debby Lennon, and pianist Nick Schlueter will perform at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

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: Spotlight on Kenny Barron

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring pianist Kenny Barron, who's coming here to perform starting next Wednesday, October 3 through Sunday, October 7 at Jazz St. Louis.

A 75-year-old native of Philadelphia (and the younger brother of saxophonist Bill Barron), Kenny Barron first gained wide public recognition in the early 1960s for his work with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

He's made nearly 50 albums as a leader and countless more as a sideman, including multiple recordings with notable musicians such as Gillespie, saxophonists Stan Getz, James Moody, and Yusef Lateef, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter, and many others. Named an NEA Jazz Master in 2010, he's also an important interpreter of the music of Thelonious Monk, recording Monk's compositions with the group Sphere on seven albums in the 1980s and 1990s.

Barron last played here with his trio in April 2016 at Jazz St. Louis. His most recent recording, a quintet album called Concentric Circles, came out earlier this year on the Blue Note label.

You can see and hear some samples of his playing in today's videos, starting up above with a trio version of Barron's song "Calypso," recorded in 2015 at Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

After the jump, Barron can be seen performing "Triste" in April 2015 at the University of Miami, accompanied by bassist Chuck Bergeron and drummer Evan Hyde.

Next up is a version of another Barron original, "Cook's Bay," recorded in August, 2014 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA.

That's followed by Barron doing a solo medley of Duke Ellington tunes, including "Lotus Blossom," "Single Petal of a Rose," "Melancholia," and "Star-Crossed Lovers," recorded in 2010 at the Jazz in Marciac festival in Marciac, France.

The fifth video is a full set of Barron's trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Francisco Mela, recorded in 2008 at the Heineken Jazzaldia in Donosti, Spain.

Last but not least, you can see a short video interview with Barron, in which he discusses his formative years working with Gillespie, Getz and others.

For more about Kenny Barron, read the interview he did in 2010 at the Smithsonian on the occasion of being named an NEA Jazz Master, his 2016 interview with Keyboard magazine, and a joint interview with fellow pianist Benny Green that was done earlier this year by Ethan Iverson.

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

Sunday Session: June 25, 2017

Ahmad Jamal

Here's the weekly roundup of various music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* 'It’s just me, on the phone in my son’s bedroom.' The church hall that became contemporary music’s hottest venue (The Guardian)
* Thelonious Monk: Lost Liaison - Inside the Forgotten 1959 Studio Session (Jazz Times)
* Is the Printed Circuit Board a Form of Musical Notation? (New Music Box)
* The Story Behind ‘I’ll Be Around’ (Wall Street Journal)
* Alice Coltrane: “The Gifts God Gave Him” (Jazz Times)
* Team-Ups & Supergroups Power San Francisco Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* In New Orleans, Party Buses Drive The Legacy Of Bounce Music (TheFader.com)
* Generation Next: Four Voices From Seattle (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The Story of Tropicália in 20 Albums (Pitchfork.com)
* Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah On World Cafe (NPR)
* Money Ain’t a Thang: 11 of the Most Expensive Albums Ever Produced (Soundfly.com)
* Philadelphia Orchestra composer Hannibal finds humanity amid the loss (Philly.com)
* Tony Bennett to Receive Library of Congress Gershwin Prize (Rolling Stone)
* Ann Hampton Callaway Says Her Return to Singing Is ‘Scary and Thrilling’ (Playbill)
* Q&A with Ahmad Jamal: Continuum of Influence (DownBeat)
* "My goal is to reach people on an emotional level" — The Kenny Barron interview (Ottawa Citizen)
* Paul McCartney on making music with Kanye West: ‘You basically don’t write songs’ (NME.com)
* Why my guitar gently weeps - The slow, secret death of the six-string electric. And why you should care (Washington Post)
* Mills College’s Plan to Ax Jazz Legend Roscoe Mitchell Draws International Outrage (East Bay Express)
* Red Hook Jazz Festival: Neighborhood Feel, Avant Sound (DownBeat)
* The Secret Lives of Playlists (CashMusic.org)
* What I'm Listening to Now: Mats Gustafsson (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Why didn’t famous composers write national anthems? (Classical-Music.com)
* The Ethereal Genius of Craig Taborn (New York Times)
* Artist’s Choice: Bobby Watson on Unsung New York Masters - The saxophonist and educator reflects on his mentors (Jazz Times)
* Langston Hughes Creates a List of His 100 Favorite Jazz Recordings: Hear 80+ of Them in a Big Playlist (OpenCulture.com)
* Bon Iver’s Dad Helped Me Discover the Secret Jazz History of His Hometown (Vice.com)
* Is Jazz Still Sexist? (Jazz Times)
* The Weird World Of One-Hit Wonders (UDiscoverMusic.com)

Sunday Session: September 25, 2016

Kenny Barron

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

* Don't mention the J-word: how Spotify gifted my jazz tune two million hits (The Guardian UK)
* Brainfeeder Showcase Fuses Enlightened Funk, Innovative Jazz (DownBeat)
* Words and Music: Why Liner Notes Matter (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Metheny Leads New Quartet on Nostalgic Trip at Lobero Theatre (DownBeat)
* Building a better electronic trumpet (Phys.org)
* The 'Fifth Beatle', an unpublished will and a family being torn apart (The Telegraph UK)
* T Bone Burnett: Treading on Hallowed Ground – Google, the Ryman, and The Future of Nashville Music (Nashville Tennessean)
* Rock'n'roll suicide: is TV's bromance with rock nostalgia finally over? (The Guardian UK)
* In 'Latin American Songbook,' Edward Simon Rethinks The American Jazz Standard (NPR)
* 'The Jazz Loft' Is a Fleeting, Marvelous Look at Lost Bohemia (Village Voice)
* A Tribe Called Quest Sparked Hip-Hop’s Love Affair With Jazz on ‘Low End Theory’ (Observer.com)
* The New Classical: how the next generation of composers and labels is challenging classical music’s status quo (The Independent UK)
* A Tribute to Bernie Worrell in Words and Images (Keyboard)
* Monterey Jazz Festival Offers Bounty of Youthful Talent (DownBeat)
* Massive digital archiving project means these unique musical recordings will live forever (DigitalTrends.com)
* Interview: Kenny Barron (Keyboard)
* Fish recorded singing dawn chorus on reefs just like birds (New Scientist)
* Why Marvel and Other Hollywood Films Have Such Bland Music: Every Frame a Painting Explains the Perils of the “Temp Score” (OpenCulture.com)
* Q&A: Vocalist Al Jarreau - A no-holds-barred conversation (Jazz Times)

Jazz this week: Kenny Barron, Tyondai Braxton, Thurman Barker, an all-star band with Cohen, Wilson, Hill & Oh, and more

It's a terrifically busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of interesting musicians visiting town over the next few days. So let's skip the rest of the preamble and go straight to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 6
Pianist Kenny Barron returns to St. Louis for the first of two evenings with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro.

Officially designated as an NEA "Jazz Master," the 72-year-old Barron is a stylistically versatile pianist, albeit with a notable affinity for the music of Thelonious Monk, who possesses touch, technique, tone, and taste in abundance, and deploys them in a consistently satisfying fashion. For some samples of his playing, check out the video post that preceded his appearance last year at the Bistro.

Thursday, April 7
Percussionist Thurman Barker, a founding member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians who's played with some of the most significant figures of the past half-century of improvised music, will headline a ticketed concert ($10 GA, $5 students) for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Barker (pictured, top left) will be joined by saxophonist Joel Vanderheyden, trombonist Wayne Coniglio, and bassist Paul Steinbeck, who teaches at Wash U. He'll also perform in a separate event at Wash U on Friday (see below). For more about Barker, and some video samples of him performing in several different musical context, see this video post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Most weeks, Barker's performance would a shoo-in must-see for local fans of adventurous music, but that's complicated in this particular instance by the appearance of composer Tyondai Braxton in St. Louis on the same night for a solo performance at The Luminary.

Braxton, the son of famed composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, has made a variety of music in his career, ranging from experimental rock with the group Battles to compositions for full orchestra to sound installations in museums. While it's not clear from the advance promotion exactly what's involved in one of his solo performances, based on his recent work and reputation, it should be worth hearing.

Elsewhere around town on Thursday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with St. Louis' own Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts performing "Nuance and Novelty" at the Gaslight Theater; singer Ralph Williams begins a monthly residency at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and The Gaslight Squares will play traditional jazz at Thaxton Speakeasy

Friday, April 8
This week, Jazz St. Louis has brought several well-known musicians to town for educational residencies, and to wrap up their stay, clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh will take the stage at Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of performances.

While an ad hoc ensemble like this one obviously doesn't have an established songbook to tap, Cohen (pictured, center left) and Wilson have both led their own bands at the Bistro before, offering ample energy and showmanship in the process, while Hill and Oh are regarded as two of the top up-and-coming players in jazz on their respective instruments. So, with a little help from Jazz St. Louis' own Phil Dunlap on piano, a good time should be had by all.

Meanwhile, over at Washington University, Thurman Barker, Joel Vanderheyden & Paul Steinbeck will improvise live music to silent films for "Sonic Visions: Experimental Film + Live Jazz", a free event presented in Brown Hall's Auditorium (aka Room 100) on the Wash U campus.

Also on Friday, jazz/fusion band Dreaming In Colour performs at the Kranzberg Arts Center; The Sidemen will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer, songwriter and pianist Steven Lutvak offers "A Gentleman's Guide to A Gentleman's Guide" for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Saturday, April 9
The Bloomington, Indiana-based Liberation Music Collective (pictured, lower left) will be in town for two events at the Center for Social Empowerment and Justice, located at Wellspring Church, 33 S. Florissant Rd.

LMC is a self-described "socially conscious big band" featuring students and alumni of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Following "in the footsteps of Charlie Haden, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and many others, " the group is "dedicated to performing original compositions about contemporary social issues." They'll host an afternoon workshop for young musicians (middle school to college age), with a  "Jazz for Justice" concert that evening.Both events are free, with donations accepted.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Rahsaan Barber will be in town to present an afternoon performance and workshop at Saxquest, and The Wire Pilots will serve up their original jazz fusion that evening at the gallery and event space 1900 Park.

Sunday, April 10
If you're in the mood for some Gypsy jazz and swing this weekend, Sunday would seem to be the pick day and the Central West End the place, as Franglais are playing for the jazz brunch at Evangeline's, and Coco Rico will be doing an early evening performance at Nathalie's.

Monday, April 11
The Webster University Jazz Collective will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus

Tuesday, April 12
The Saxquest Nonet Jazz Orchestra will return for an early evening performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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 2016 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, giving you an advance look at some of the noteworthy bands and musicians who will be playing in St. Louis during the next several months. (You can see part one here and part two here.)

Following the chronological progression established in those first two installments, the first video up above features the Chicago-based group Spektral Quartet, who will be coming to town to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music Center. The quartet, which plays both new works by contemporary composers and interpretations of canonical classical music, is seen here in a 2015 performance of Philip Glass' String Quartet No 2 "Company".

After the jump, you can see a video of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who will be co-headlining shows starting Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Bridgewater and Mayfield last year joined forces to record an album of New Orleans music called Dee Dee's Feathers, and have been touring together in support, playing shows including the one last summer in San Sebastian, Spain that's documented here.

The following weekend, trumpeter Byron Stripling will return to front the Jazz St. Louis Big Band for a "Tribute to Clark Terry" on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 at the Bistro. In the third clip, you can see Stripling, who very early in his career played in Terry's big band, being interviewed about his former employer in conjunction with another tribute to Terry presented last year by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, which Stripling directs.

The week after that, the all-star SFJazz Collective will return to St. Louis for the first time since 2007 as part of their tour featuring interpretations of music made famous by the late singer and self-proclaimed "King of Pop," Michael Jackson. They'll play Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2 at Jazz at the Bistro, and can be seen here performing a Warren Wolf arrangement of Jackson's "Working Day And Night" at last year's Winter Jazz Festival in NYC.

Next to visit our city will be the veteran pianist Kenny Barron, who's returning with his trio on Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7 to the Bistro. Barron, who played the Bistro last year in a duo with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, is seen here playing "Triste," backed by bassist Chuck Bergeron and drummer Evan Hyde in a performance last spring at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Later that same week, the Bistro will host another ad hoc group of musicians brought to St. Louis to work with students in Jazz St. Louis' various educational programs, as clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh join forces to perform on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Since the group is being assembled specifically for the occasion, the only way to preview it would seem to be to take a look at each of the individual musicians in turn, starting with the sixth video, which shows Cohen performing "In The Spirit of Baden" with her quartet in November 2015 in the studios of KPLU in Seattle.

Below that, you can see Hill's set from the semifinals 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition - which he eventually won - recorded in November, 2014 at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles, California. Hill is accompanied by the 2014 competition band, with former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Carl Allen on drums.

Then, you can see Oh leading her quartet in a performance of her original composition "Yoda," recorded in June of last year for the podcast BreakThruRadioTV. Today's final clip features Wilson (who was just at the Bistro in December with his Christmas Tree-O) and his band Arts and Crafts performing "Free Range Chicken" in 2013 at radio station KMHD in Portland, OR.

Next week, it's part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Sunday Session: June 7, 2015

Oscar Peterson

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Music critics should be more tolerant of individual interpretations (The Strad)
* VIDEO: Building A Shipping Container Studio (Pro Sound News)
* Apple to announce $10-per-month on-demand music service, will retain Beats Music for now - report (Apple Insider)
* 10 of the best: redesigned pianos (The Guardian UK)
* Corea, Barron among jazz greats saluting Oscar Peterson on upcoming album (Montreal Gazette)
* Five musicians see how Austin’s economy is squeezing the creative class (Austin American-Statesman)
* Always a rotten apple': BB King, poison and the daughters of an infertile legend (The Guardian UK)
* Threadgill Releases New Zooid Album on Pi Recordings Label (DownBeat)
* Remembering the Revolutionary Life Of Gil Scott Heron (BlackThen.com)
* Jazz at Lincoln Center Changes Hiring Policy (NextBop.com)
* Steve Albini: Copyright Has Expired (Billboard)
* Colbert Picks Jon Batiste as ‘Late Show’ Bandleader (New York Times)
* Digital Underground - Who Will Make Sure The Internet's Vast Musical Archive Doesn't Disappear? (NPR)
* 12 Essential Archives For Internet-Era Music Historians (NPR)
* The hot Harlem club making 1940s jazz cool again (New York Post)
* ‘Charlie Parker’s Yardbird’ Ties Jazz and Opera Together in Philadelphia (New York Times)
* Philip Glass Never Stops Writing (The New Yorker)
* Miles is to Picasso as Who is to Whom (Brilliant Corners, A Boston Jazz Blog)
* Universal publishing chief addresses questions around direct licensing of digital (CompleteMusicUpdate.com)
* Are We All Mistuning Our Instruments, and Can We Blame the Nazis? (The Daily Beast)
* Exposing the employment ploy at concert promoter Live Nation (Los Angeles Times)

Jazz this week: Kenny Barron & Stefon Harris, No BS! Brass Band, Branford Marsalis, and more

Considering that it's still mid-winter and pre-Mardi Gras, it looks like there's a nice variety of jazz and creative music over the next few days in St. Louis, with everything from intimate duets to roaring big bands on the musical menu. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 4
Pianist Kenny Barron and vibraphonist Stefon Harris (pictured, top left) begin a four-night run of duo performances at Jazz at the Bistro. You can get a close-up look and listen to Barron's considerable pianistic skills in this video post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra offers "A Tribute to Stan Kenton" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Thursday, February 5
Guitarist Chris Burchett will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, while guitarist Stuart Johnson plays standards at Thurman Grill.

Friday, February 6
The Ambassadors of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Joe Mancuso fronts a trio at EdgeWild Restaurant & Winery; and keyboardists Matt Villinger and Adam Maness will team up to perform at Thurman Grill.

Over on the east side of the Mississippi, the Midwest Jazz-tette will bring their West Coast "cool jazz" inspired sound to The Abbey Espresso Bar & Cafe in Belleville; and pianist Dave Becherer leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

Saturday, February 7
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play the house concert venue KindaBlue, 6101 1/2 Idaho;  trumpeter Jim Manley and pianist Arthur Toney will be at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar; the Sidemen will play vintage swing at Evangeline's; and singer Feyza Eren will lead a quartet in concert at The Chapel.

Sunday, February 8
Inspired by the New Orleans brass band tradition but hailing from Richmond, Virginia, the No BS! Brass Band (pictured, lower left) will perform at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Also on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro, with an intermission performance by the Ft. Zumwalt North HS Jazz Band.

Monday, February 9
While saxophonist Branford Marsalis' one-nighter at Jazz at the Bistro has been sold out for some time now,  there are several other jazz performances happening on Monday, including pianist Kim Portnoy's trio at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; singer Dean Christopher's "Rat Pack & More" at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar; and Animal Children at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, February 10
The Sheldon Concert Hall will be presenting jazz both morning and night, with the St. Louis Stompers playing a "Coffee Concert" in the morning, and vocal group Java Jived teaming up with the Midwest Jazz-tette for a "Notes From Home" concert in the evening.

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: Spotlight on Kenny Barron

Today, let's take a look at some video clips featuring pianist Kenny Barron, who will be performing with vibraphonist Stefon Harris starting next Wednesday, February 4 through Saturday, February 7 at Jazz at the Bistro. This will be his first time playing at the Bistro since 2010, when he did a run of duo piano performances with the late Mulgrew Miller. He also led his own group there back in 2006.

Now 71 years old, Barron is a Philadelphia native who first gained wide attention in the early 1960s working with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He's also performed and recorded with Stan Getz, Yusef Lateef, James Moody, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and many other significant jazz musicians, and is known for exploring the music of Thelonious Monk as a co-leader of the group Sphere.

When not engaged in these sorts of collaborations, leading his own bands, or playing solo, Barron also is a jazz educator who taught music for more than 25 years at Rutgers University and currently teaches at Juilliard. Though perhaps not quite as well-known among casual jazz fans as his contemporaries Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, or McCoy Tyner, Barron is a versatile and technically accomplished player who's very well-regarded among his fellow musicians, and he was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2010.

In the first video up above, you can see and hear him playing "Autumn Leaves" in a trio with bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Alan Dawson (undated but presumably from the early 1990s, as Dawson passed away in 1996). After the jump, there's a clip of Barron playing "Have You Met Miss Jones" with Cranshaw and Grady Tate on drums, recorded in 1995 in Japan 

That's followed by two duets with bassist Dave Holland, another recurring collaborator of Barron's in recent years. They're seen here playing "Billie's Bounce" and "Calypso" in 2012 at the Jazz à la Villette festival in France.

The last two videos are solo performances - first, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," recorded in 2000 at the Jazz à Marciac festival, also in France, followed by a medley of Duke Ellington songs including "Lotus Blossom," "Single Petal of a Rose," "Melancholia,' and "Star-Crossed Lovers," recorded in 2010 at Marciac.

For more about Kenny Barron, check out this interview from 2013; this 2013 compilation from writer Ted Panken of a 2005 Down Beat feature and WKCR Interviews From 1991 and 2004; and this 2003 "fireside chat" from AllAboutJazz.com.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianist Kenny Barron (pictured), who's performing next week with vibraphonist Stefon Harris at Jazz at the Bistro, is the subject of a preview story by Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch.

* Reviews of the recently released Miles Davis box set All of You: The Last Tour 1960 are in from the Free Jazz Blog and Jazz Times' Jeff Tamarkin.

* Pianist Peter Martin's special guest at his next performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Friday, February 27 will be keyboardist Federico González Peña, who's played with Marcus Miller, Gregoire Maret, Sting, and other well-known musicians. Also new this week, Martin's piano lessons on video, available previously via his website, now have been collected into a "curated course" on the website MusicGurus.

* The local musician-owned bass maker CertainBass has launched a Kickstarter to fund a new original electric bass design called the Svelte Bass. The campaign is intended to raise money to pay for CNC programming, raw materials and components, and other costs for a first production run of 20 basses. Details on the Svelte Bass, the Kickstarter campaign, and the various incentives offered to contributors are here.

* The Hartenberger World Music Collection of musical instruments recently donated to The Sheldon was the subject of a feature story last week on the newscasts of KPLR and local Fox affiliate KTVI.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts' "Every Artist Insured" awareness campaign continues with free presentations next Monday on "Navigating Health Care Reform" and on how the Affordable Care Act can affect your taxes, plus four free one-on-one enrollment sessions in early February. For more information or to sign up, visit VLAA's website.

* Jazz St. Louis is looking to hire an accountant. You can see a job description and information on how to apply here.

* Music Record Shop in the Grove is seeking local bands and musicians interested in performing in-store.  To find out more, email them at musicrecordshop at gmail dot com.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, Calvin Wilson's “Somethin’ Else” program will feature the music of trumpeter Dave Douglas. Wilson 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.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, part 2

Today, we continue with part two of StLJN's winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, this time covering musicians and groups who will be visiting St. Louis during the first part of February. (To see part 1, which covers January, go here.)

The month will begin with a series of performances featuring pianist Kenny Barron and vibraphonist Stefon Harris, starting Wednesday, February 4 and continuing through Saturday, February 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Though Barron and Harris have paired up before, this short clip featuring a Barron solo from the 2013 Marciac Jazz Festival seems to be the only video documentation online. So instead, we've got clips here featuring each of them individually. Barron can be heard up top with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Carl Allen playing his composition "Cook's Bay" in October 2013 at the Jarasum International Jazz Festival in South Korea. Down below, Harris and his band, including Nic Payton on trumpet and David Sanchez on saxophone, perform "Ninety Miles" at the 2012 Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

After that, you can check out the No BS! Brass Band playing their version of Charles Mingus' "Haitian Fight Song" in August 2013 for the web series Audiotree Live. They'll be here in St. Louis on Sunday, February 8 to play at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Next up is saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who brings his band to St. Louis the very next evening (Monday, February 9) for a one-nighter at Jazz at the Bistro. Marsalis is seen here sitting in on a gig led by his pianist Joey Calderazzo this past summer at Pizza Express in London, in which the two of them plus bassist Orlando Le Fleming and drummer Donald Edwards take on "The Mighty Sword" from Marsalis' 2012 album Four MFs Playin' Tunes.

On Saturday, February 14, actors and cabaret singers Liz Callaway (the sister of longtime St. Louis favorite Ann Hampton Callaway) and Jason Graae will perform their show "Happily Ever Laughter: A Valentine's Party" at 560 Music Center for Washington University's "Ovations" series.

In addition to her live performances, Callaway over the years also has been the singing voice of a number of characters in animated movies, and here she can be seen in a audience-filmed clip from this past July performing "Journey to the Past" from the 1997 film Anastasia. That's followed by Graae singing "The Moment Has Passed," also filmed this past July as part of a tribute to Off-Broadway musicals staged in NYC by the indie label and production company Kritzerland.

Today's final video features keyboardist Jeff Lorber, who will bring his band featuring saxophonist Eric Marienthal and bassist Jimmy Haslip to St. Louis from Wednesday, February 18 through Saturday, February 21 to play at Jazz at the Bistro. They're seen here playing Lorber's song "Rain Dance" at a gig in June 2013 at Spaghettini in Los Angeles.

Look for part three of the winter/spring 2015 jazz preview here next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Notes from the Net: The Miles Davis Radio Project reissued; Sanborn plays through pain; plus news, reviews, interviews & more

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

* Let's start, as we usually do, with news of Miles Davis. Via Miles Davis Online comes word that Davis, who in the 1970s recorded an album called On The Corner, soon may have an actual NYC street corner named after him. Also: the Miles Davis Radio Project, an eight-part, 16-hour audio documentary about the trumpeter first recorded nearly 20 years ago, is now available for purchase as a series of digital downloads; Toronto trumpeter Brownman Ali just completed a five-week series of concerts paying tribute to Davis; and images of Davis and other members of the band that recorded Kind of Blue apparently are sufficiently cool to be featured on some new skateboards and sneakers.

* In news of other former St. Louisans, saxophonist and clarinetist Marty Ehrlich (pictured) has teamed with trombonist Ray Anderson to co-lead a quartet on a new CD called Hear You Say, out now on Challenge Records. Here's a review of the disc from AllAboutJazz.com's Bruce Lindsay, and another perspective from the UK Guardian's John Fordham.

* Singer, actor, comic and Belleville native Lea DeLaria also has a new CD, Be A Santa, out on the Warner Classics & Jazz label. AAJ's Bruce Lindsay reviewed DeLaria's disc, calling it "an album full of festive standards that swings like a sleigh bell on a Christmas tree and entertains in stylish fashion."

* Via Avant Music News: Saxophonist, composer and onetime Webster University student John Zorn will present a performance of his classical works later this month at Bard College in upstate New York.

* Another saxophonist and former St. Louisan, David Sanborn, played the Blue Note in NYC last month with his trio, and got a nice review from the Times' Nate Chinen. Sanborn's performance seems even more remarkable in retrospect, given the recent news that he's been performing for months now while suffering acute pain from a kidney stone.

* In other medical-related news, pianist Dave Brubeck, who had to cancel his October performance here at the Sheldon Concert Hall for health reasons, recently underwent surgery to have a pacemaker installed. There's good news, too, though - after the operation, Brubeck's doctors said he should be able to resume practicing and performing soon. Brubeck also is the subject of a new documentary film, directed by Clint Eastwood and set to premier next month on the BBC.

* Meanwhile, drummer Max Weinberg, who did make it here with his new Big Band to perform last month at the Argosy Alton Casino, recently talked to the website Popeater about his own recent heart surgery, his decision not to join Conan O'Brien's new show on TBS, and more.

* Pianist Kenny Barron, seen in St. Louis last month in duet with fellow pianist Mulgrew Miller at Jazz at the Bistro, talked with NPR's A Blog Supreme about his recent listening habits here.

* Also recently at the Bistro was guitarist Russell Malone, who did a four-night stand to celebrate the release of his latest CD Triple Play on the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label. Now, reviews of the disc are coming in, including favorable mentions from the New York Times, DownBeat and DustyGroove.com.

* Violinist Regina Carter, who was here last week at the Bistro, played the previous week at Regatta Bar in Boston; here's an article about the gig, from the Harvard Crimson.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, pianist Vijay Iyer, who will be in St. Louis this Saturday to perform with Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet at 560 Music Center, recently was a guest on NPR's "Fresh Air".

* Speaking of Wadada Leo Smith, he's got a new disc out, recorded as a duo with drummer Ed Blackwell, called The Blue Mountain’s Sun Drummer. Read a review here, courtesy of Burning Ambulance blogger Phil Freeman.

* Zappa Plays Zappa, set to play The Pageant on December 8, recently celebrated what would have been Frank Zappa's 70th birthday with a concert in London. In related news, keyboardist George Duke, who worked with FZ for several years in the 1970s, will join ZPZ onstage for the first time ever in an upcoming show in Los Angeles.

* Last but not least, Lisette Dennis of Regional Arts Commission kindly emailed with the news that the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City wants to hire a Grants Development Officer. Interested individuals can find out more about the position and how to apply here.