So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of links and short local news items of interest that you may have missed:

* Trumpeter Jim Manley's latest CD Brass Poison is reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello at AllAboutJazz.com

* Singer and pianist Anita Rosamond is the latest musician profiled in the St. Louis Beacon's series on local summer music festivals.

* The Riverfront Times' Chrissy Wilmes interviewed KSDK newscaster Art Holliday about his long-awaited documentary on St. Louis blues/rock piano great Johnnie Johnson.

* St. Louis-based blues label Broke & Hungry Records will band together with Cat Head and Mudpuppy Recordings to create a new organization for marketing and distribution called Three Forks Music. The three labels previously collaborated on the award-winning blues film M For Mississippi (pictured).

The Three Forks Music catalog will be distributed in the United States by City Hall Records, an independently owned and operated national independent music distribution company located in San Rafael, California. Each label will continue to offer new titles individually, and they also will collaborate on larger projects under the Three Forks Music brand.

* As part of its upcoming renovation, the Kiel Opera House also gets a new name - the Peabody Opera House, after corporate sponsor Peabody Energy (formerly Peabody Coal) - and a new logo.

* Speaking of the Kiel, the St. Louis Blues Society this week announced the first-ever St. Louis Bluesweek, which will take place August 26 through September 5. The series of events includes the Market Street Blues Festival, a pair of free concerts on August 27 and 28 that will feature St. Louis talent on an outdoor stage in front of the Kiel/Peabody. For more details, visit http://stlbluesweek.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of links and short local news items of interest you may have missed:

* Jazz St. Louis has posted some photos on their Facebook page from Erin Bode's CD release shows last weekend. (You don't have to be a Facebook member to view the page.)

* St. Louis' classical music radio station KFUO, sold to new owners and destined to be reformatted with contemporary Christian music, signed off for the final time Tuesday night, as fans held a candlelight vigil outside the studio. To help fill the void left by the sale of KFUO, local NPR affiliate KWMU has added a third HD channel, 90.7 KWMU-3, featuring classical music; it can be heard for free over the air if you have an an HD radio, and also streams online at http://stlpublicradio.org/classical.

* Meanwhile, Don Wolff, whose program "I Love Jazz" aired Friday nights on KFUO and thus also was displaced by the sale of the station, will do his first Internet-only live broadcast this Friday night.

* The renovation of the Kiel Opera House (pictured) downtown will get started with a public event on Monday, and to commemorate the occastion, the Post-Dispatch offers a video tour of the hall.

* The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries seek volunteers for the 2010-2011 season. Duties range from seating patrons at concerts and welcoming guests to the art galleries to helping out with mailings and other office tasks. If you're interested in helping, call the Sheldon volunteer coordinator at 314-533-9900, ext. 30 or visit the Sheldon's website to sign up online.