Sunday Session: May 3, 2020

Tony Allen

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

* Mark Guiliana Meets Kneebody (Jazz Times)
* Billboard's Coverage of 1918 PANDEMIC Reveals Eerie Similarities (Billboard)
* Charles Tolliver Set To Issue New Album Through UK Label Gearbox (DownBeat)
* Charlie Parker's Story to Be Told in Graphic Novel 'Chasin' the Bird' (Exclusive) (Hollywood Reporter)
* Because You're Mine: Searching For The Children Of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (NPR)
* How One Article Changed Fair Use (PlagiarismToday.com)
* How Aaron Parks Creates New Worlds On His Second Little Big Album (DownBeat)
* Jazz Artists Join Music Workers Alliance Call for Economic Justice Online (Jazz Times)
* Gary Bartz And Maisha Spark An Intergenerational Conversation (DownBeat)
* Why We Picked Erroll Garner’s Last Album As This Month’s Classics Release (VinylMePlease.com)
* A Month To Celebrate Jazz, Turned Tragic (NPR)
* Kurt Rosenwinkel: One World, One Music (Blues.gr)
* Donald Fagen is Keeping His Sense of Humor in Isolation (Rolling Stone)
* David Crosby on Live Music’s Uncertain Future — and Why He Hasn’t Given Up on Reuniting CSNY (Rolling Stone)
* Tony Allen, Pioneering Afrobeat Drummer, Has Died (Rolling Stone)
* Novelty and Identity: An Interview With Colin Stetson (PopMatters.com)
* Tony Allen, Afrobeat's Foundational Drummer, Has Died At Age 79 (NPR)
* At the drive-in: ENO to stage opera at a safe physical distance (The Guardian)
* The Music Industry Is About to Put Out a Lot of Very, Very Uplifting Songs (Rolling Stone)
* So Drive-In Concerts Are a Thing Now (LoudWire.com)
* Wayne Escoffery On Yale, Repertoire And Humble Warriors (DownBeat)
* Herbie Hancock and the recurring bridging of time (Johannesburg Mail & Guardian)
* How Do We Safely Reopen Music Venues? (Offbeat)
* 84% of Freelance Musicians Still Haven’t Received Government Relief (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Missouri Governor Says Concerts Can Resume Monday (Billboard)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Ben Wendel's "The Seasons"

This week, the StLJN video spotlight shines on saxophonist Ben Wendel, who's coming to St. Louis for a performance on Thursday, March 15 at The Ready Room.

Born in Vancouver, CA, raised in Los Angeles, and educated at the Eastman School of Music, Wendel now lives in NYC and probably is best known as a member of the collective Kneebody. who have played here in St. Louis a couple of times at Jazz at the Bistro, most recently in March 2017.

On his own, Wendel has recorded three albums as a bandleader, the most recent being 2016's What We Bring, and has made dozens of recordings as a sideman and collaborator with musicians such as pianists Gerald Clayton and Taylor Eigsti, bassist Linda May Han Oh, percussionist Adam Rudolph, and numerous others.

On his tour this spring, Wendel will be performing music from "The Seasons," a project he launched in 2015 as a tribute to 12 musical collaborators and friends, releasing videos of 12 different duets on a monthly schedule over the course of the year.

The tour, which kicked off this week at NYC's Village Vanguard, will feature full-band arrangements of "The Seasons" material, performed by Wendel, pianist Aaron Parks, guitarist Gilad Hekselman, bassist Matt Brewer, and, depending on the date, either Eric Harland, Henry Cole or Kendrick Scott on drums.

You can see three of the "Seasons" compositions in this post, starting up above with "November," featuring Wendel and Parks, and continuing after the jump with "April," a duet with Eric Harland, and "October," which pairs the composer with Hekselman. (All of "The Seasons" videos still are available on Wendel's YouTube channel.)

After that, you can see Wendel playing with a full band in two clips - first, a song called "Unforeseeable," recorded in June 2017 at Ronnie Scott's in London with pianist Shai Maestro, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Nate Wood, and then "Fall" from the What We Bring album, accompanied by Gerald Clayton, Henry Cole, and bassist Joe Sanders.

Finally, the last clip features Wendel showing off his multi-tracking chops with an arrangement of "Monk's Mood" for four overdubbed bassoons and tenor sax.

For more about Ben Wendel, read this interview in which he talks about the "Seasons" project, and this one in which he discusses composing, practice routines, and more.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden has announced its schedule for 2017, with ten free concerts in total, including performances from the trad jazz band Gaslight Squares on Wednesday, June 14 and pianist Ptah Williams on Wednesday, July 12.

* Kneebody keyboardist Adam Benjamin was interviewed for a brief article by St. Louis magazine's Erin Williams. The group continues their run at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday night.

* Riverbend Restaurant and Bar, the Richmond Heights spot that featured live jazz from trumpeter Jim Manley every Tuesday night alongside its creole and Cajun cuisine, has closed permanently.

* An album of pictures from percussionist Poncho Sanchez' shows last week at Jazz at the Bistro has been posted to Facebook by St. Louis trombonist Dave Dickey, who's friends with Sanchez and several members of his group and sat in with them at the Bistro.

* Electronic musician Nathan Cook (aka NNN Cook) was interviewed about his Rhizomatic series of recordings featuring St. Louis experimental musicians by Willis Ryder Arnold of St. Louis Public Radio.

* The website St. Louis Musicians Unite has a short feature about this weekend's events celebrating composer Scott Joplin, and also has put together a Spotify playlist collecting recordings by St. Louis jazz musicians.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Ally Hany has won second place in the jazz division of the 2017 National Trumpet Competition, held earlier this month at Metropolitan State University in Denver, CO. Hany, a graduate of Webster Groves High School and University of North Texas, currently is living in NYC, working on a master's degree at Manhattan School of Music and performing with ensembles including the MSM Jazz Orchestra and Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.

* Pianist Makini Morrison, a senior at University City High School, is one of 17 finalists in the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation's 2017 St. Louis Teen Talent Competition. Morrison (pictured) has been part of Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program and also has played with the North County Big Band. The competition finals will take place Saturday, April 8 at the Fox Theatre.

* Jack Snelling, a senior at Webster Groves High School, has won first place in the high school jazz division of the Mizzou New Music Initiative's 2017 Creating Original Music Project (COMP), a statewide competition for Missouri student composers in grades K-12. Snelling's winning work "Lovesick" will be performed along with this year's other winning compositions as part of the COMP Festival on Saturday, April 15 on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia.

* Worship Jazz, the St. Louis-based publisher of jazz arrangements of sacred music, has added a collection of 12 "jazz liturgies" to the five volumes of jazz hymns already in their catalog. The liturgical resources are "intended to help church musicians create their own jazz worship services, with each focused on a specific liturgical theme with a complete worship format."

* The Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville is looking for a new production manager. If you're interested, you can find more information about the job and how to apply at http://www.cityofedwardsville.com/.

Jazz this week: Kneebody, a tribute to Scott Joplin, "Sculptures in Sound," and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a century-spanning variety of sounds, ranging from a tribute to legendary composer who helped lay the foundation for jazz to a group offering their own contemporary version of a musical melting pot.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 29
The eclectic electro-acoustic fusion quintet Kneebody performs for the first of four nights continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

The group (pictured, top left) is touring in support of their latest recording Anti-Hero, their eighth studio album, released earlier this month. For more about Kneebody, plus videos featuring performances of some of the music from Anti-Hero, see this post from Saturday before last.

Elsewhere in Grand Center, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" proceeds with guitarist/singer Tommy Halloran at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, Farshid Etniko at the Curtain Call Lounge, the jam session with bassist  Bob Deboo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, the weekly jam session with pianist Curt Landes, bassist Glen Smith and drummer Chuck Kennedy continues at @Nesby's in South County.

Thursday, March 30
The Jazz at Holmes series presents a free concert by students from Washington University's jazz studies program; the Schlafly Tap Room hosts the March edition of the Bruxism experimental music series, this month featuring music from Ice, Catholic Guilt, and Beauty Pageant; and pianist Adam Maness' trio plays at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, March 31
Trumpeter Jim Manley returns to One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar, and singer Tony Viviano will perform at @Nesby's.

Saturday, April 1
Paying tribute on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Joplin's death, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present "Scott Joplin: A Centennial Reflection" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

The event will feature music by pianist John Reed-Torres (pictured, bottom left), members of the Confluence Chamber Orchestra, and vocalists from the University of Missouri St Louis, plus  speakers from UMSL's history department.

Saturday night, the St. Louis Artists' Guild's "Sculptures in Sound" series resumes with a concert from trumpeter Keith Moyer's quintet.

Sunday, April 2
The Friends of Scott Joplin continue their observance of the centennial of Joplin's death with their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, and the Jazz Troubadours will perform and host a jam session at Evangeline's.

Monday, April 3
Student from the jazz program at Webster University will present a free concert at Webster's Community Music School.

Tuesday, April 4
Singer Kim Fuller performs "A Tribute to Nancy Wilson" in the first of two late-morning "Coffee Concerts" - there's a second show on Wednesday morning - at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

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: Kneebody offers fusion "For The Fallen"

Today, StLJN's video spotlight shines on the group Kneebody, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, March 29 through Saturday, April 1 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Formed in 2001 in Los Angeles by four former students at the Eastman School of Music - keyboardist Adam Benjamin, trumpeter Shane Endsley, bassist Kaveh Rastegar, and saxophonist Ben Wendel - plus drummer Nate Wood, Kneebody has a hard-to-pigeonhole sound that might be called contemporary fusion, an evolution from 1970s/80s-style fusion in that it incorporates not only jazz and rock, but many other musical influences as well.

Their St. Louis gigs will be in support of their latest recording Anti-Hero, which was released earlier this month and is their eighth studio album. You can see an "album trailer" for Anti-Hero in the first video up above, which includes excerpts from the track "For the Fallen".

After the jump, there's a clip of an in-studio performance of "Uprising", another song from Anti-Hero. That's followed by two videos from Kneebody's gig at the venue Subculture during the Winter Jazz Fest in New York City in January of this year, capturing the beginning of their set, followed by the song "The Balloonist".

The final two clips, both from 2014 in Boston, show that the material released on Anti-Hero has been in development for some time, as you can see Kneebody play the album's title track at the Beantown Jazz Festival, and then, a set of music from the album performed at the Berklee School of Music Performance Center.

For more about Kneebody and Anti-Hero, check out the interview with the band published in February on Vice.com; Rastegar's video interview with For Bass Players Only from last November; and Wendel's 2015 interview with Jazz Times.

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:

* St. Louis native Lawrence Fields (pictured) can be heard playing piano on the upcoming release Live at Monterey Jazz Festival by SoundPrints, the Wayne Shorter-inspired band led by saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas. The album goes on sale everywhere Tuesday, April 7.

* Jazz St. Louis has posted on Facebook a photo album from Kneebody's opening night this week at Jazz at the Bistro. The group performs there through Saturday, with two sets per night plus a FREE lunchtime set open to the general public at 12:00 p.m. today (Friday, March 21).

* Did the late pianist Johnnie Johnson get a fair shake from the courts fifteen years ago when he sued rock 'n roll legend Chuck Berry claiming joint authorship of some of Berry's most famous songs? In an article published this week in St. Louis magazine, Byron Kerman talked to attorney Tim McFarlin, who after all these years has a new take on the case's implications.

* In a related development, McFarlin will give a "Business Edge" presentation for St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts on Monday, March 30 titled "The Case of Johnnie Johnson v. Chuck Berry and What Artists Should Do Before They Collaborate."

* Now that City of Music, Nine Network's special about the history of St. Louis music, has had its broadcast premiere, you can watch both parts of the program online at Nine's website. The special, which was filmed last October at the Sheldon and features performances from Alarm Will Sound, Denise Thimes, Peter Martin, Billy Peek, Illphonics, Carolbeth True and more, also will get a repeat broadcast airing at 7:00 p.m. this coming Tuesday, March 25.

* The 2015 St. Louis Cabaret Conference has added two-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown as a guest faculty member and festival performer. Deadline for performers wishing to attend this year's conference to submit their audition materials is Monday, April 13.

* Last week's funeral services for singer and nightclub owner Gene Lynn were covered by local Fox affiliate KTVI (Channel 2)

* A post this week on the Riverfront Times' music blog spotlights New Music Circle's sliding scale ticket prices for "struggling artists."

* Drummer and St. Charles native Dave Weckl will be one of the instructors at a "Drum Fantasy Camp" to be held this summer from August 7 - 11 in Chicago at Vic's Drum Shop/Music Garage.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake will reunite with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille as Trio 3 for a week-long gig starting this coming Tuesday, March 24 at NYC's Village Vanguard.

* The latest remastered vinyl reissue of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue gets an "extended analysis" from AllAboutJazz.com's Nenad Georgievski.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will be spinning contemporary pop tunes given jazz interpretations by musicians including Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, and Jason Moran. "Somethin' Else" can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience, Kneebody, Jazz Edge Big Band, and more

It's looking like the busiest weekend so far this year for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of touring bands and musicians passing through town in the next few days, as well as some particularly noteworthy shows from local players.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 18
The eclectic quintet Kneebody makes their St. Louis debut, opening a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Although their instrumentation (trumpet, sax and rhythm section) may seen familiar, Kneebody pulls in a lot of influences from beyond the jazz tradition, ranging from punk rock to contemporary classical. You can see and hear the results for yourself in this video showcase post from last Saturday.   

Also tonight, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at the Tavern of Fine Arts

Thursday, March 19
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Friday, March 20
The 2015 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival opens with a concert featuring a ad hoc group fronted by saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini, trombonist Steve Wiest, and trumpeter Clay Jenkins at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The UMSL Jazz Ensemble will open the show. 

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; and the Sentimental Journey Dance Band performs at Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, March 21
The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Led by Dizzy Gillespie’s long-term bassist John Lee, the group pays tribute to Gillespie’s pioneering efforts to fuse jazz and Latin music in the 1940s and 50s, with a repertoire featuring the trumpeter's compositions as well as contemporary Latin jazz that draws on the tradition he helped establish.

Back at the Touhill, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival continues with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Led by bassist John Clayton, his brother, saxophonist Jeff Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton, and often featuring St. Louis native Keith Fiddmont in the saxophone section, the Los Angeles-based big band is a hard-swinging outfit with original charts that puts contemporary touches on the mainstream tradition, not unlike a West Coast version of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

Also on Saturday, singer/actress Anna Blair will perform music composed by a famous former St. Louisan in her show "Inside Story - The Songs of Fran Landesman" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be swinging at the Backstreet Jazz and Blues Club at Westport; guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio adds singer Feyza Eren as special guest for a gig at The Wolf; and drummer Montez Coleman and Friends play at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Sunday, March 22
The Jazz Edge Big Band will present a "Salute to St. Louis Women in Jazz" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Inspired by Women's History Month, the concert will feature the 17-piece band and guest performers including singers Marsha Evans and Denise Thimes, trumpeter/singer Dawn Weber, pianist Carolbeth True, and saxophonist Hope Walker playing "jazz standards and also a few soon to be standards."

Monday, March 23
Guitarist and St. Louis native Daryl Darden, who's been based on the West Coast in recent years, will be back home for a performance at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and pianist Matt Villinger will play while artist Vesna Delevska paints at Tavern of Fine Arts.

Tuesday, March 24
Keyboardist Jim Hegarty doubles down on his Off Topic trio to launch STL, The Free Jazz Septet with a debut performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts. In addition to Hegarty, the septet includes Off Topic members Paul Steinbeck on bass and Gary Sykes on drums, plus "Baba" Mike Nelson (trumpet, shells, poetry), Jay Dubz (alto sax, percussion, vocals), John Tamm-Buckle (electronics), and Michael Castro (poetry).

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: Six from Kneebody

This week, our video showcase features some clips from Kneebody, who will be making their St. Louis debut this coming Wednesday, March 18 through Saturday, March 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Formed in 2001, Kneebody includes four former students at the Eastman School of Music - trumpeter Shane Endsley, saxophonist Ben Wendel, bassist Kaveh Rastegar and keyboard player Adam Benjamin - plus drummer Nate Wood, who met Benjamin when the keyboardist transferred to CalArts. After graduating from Eastman, the other members moved to Los Angeles and the five of them began working together soon after, writing original material and developing their own specific sound as a unit.

Though all five also have maintained solo careers, they've been making music as Kneebody ever since, with a catalog of recordings that includes five studio albums, the most recent of which is 2013's The Line, plus three live albums and a studio record of Charles Ives songs with singer Theo Bleckman. Nate Chinen of the New York Times called them "a resolutely un-pindownable band" that "uses a common jazz instrumentation to make a somewhat less common amalgam of urban-signifying genres, from electro-pop to punk-rock to hip-hop."

And indeed, Kneebody's music represents something of a departure from the usual for Jazz at the Bistro, one that might not appeal to the older and/or more traditionally minded portion of their subscription audience. The hope is, one presumes, that there will be compensatory gains in attendance and enthusiasm among younger and more adventurous listeners who might not turn out in large numbers for, say, John Pizzarelli or Freddy Cole.

Time will tell how that plays out. But in the meantime, you can watch, listen and form your own impressions of Kneebody from today's selection of music videos, starting up above with "Uprising," recorded earlier this year at Berklee College of Music's high school jazz festival at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

After the jump, you'll see two clips from 2014: "Trite," recorded at a venue called Musig-im-Ochsen in the Hotel Ochsen in Muri, Switzerland, which features some interesting rattly cymbal stuff from Nate Wood; and "Drum Battle," recorded at Kulturzentrum Schlachthof in Bremen, Germany, which, as the name suggests, also features Wood.

Next up are "Lowell" and "Work Hard Play Hard Towel Hard," both recorded in 2013 at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, and last but not least, a live version of "Dr. Bouchef, Penguin Dentist" from the band's 2007 album Low Electrical Worker.

For more about Kneebody, check out this interview that bassist Kaveh Rastegar did in 2013 with Westword and this review from London Jazz News of their UK debut last November, plus their 2011 video interview with The JazzLine.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2015 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part three of StLJN's preview of touring jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the first part of 2015. (You can see parts one and two, covering January and the first part of February, here and here.)

Our first two clips feature cellist Okkyung Lee and saxophonist Lotte Anker, who will be performing separate sets in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 21 at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave.

The video up above is from Lee's performance at the High Zero 2014 festival, held in September at a venue called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in Baltimore. After the jump, you can see Anker perform a rather unusual piece for saxophone and bow, recorded October 21, 2014 at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. (For lots more of Anker, see this previous video showcase posted before her appearance here in St. Louis in March, 2013.)

After the edgy improvisations of Lee and Anker, you can enjoy some more traditional sounds courtesy of trumpeter Byron Stripling, who will perform for one night only on Saturday, February 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. Stripling played here in St. Louis most recently in May 2014, doing his "Gospel According to Swing" show with the St. Louis Symphony. 

In this clip from 2013, he's fronting the Naples Jazz Orchestra in a version of the standard "Bourbon Street Parade." For more of Stripling, see this post, which ran before last appearance at the Bistro in 2012.

The next video features singer Rene Marie, who was a familiar face in St. Louis in the early 2000s. She made a number of live appearances here while signed to the locally based label MAXJAZZ, for whom she recorded five albums between 1999 and 2004. She'll return for the first time in a decade to perform Wednesday, March 4 through Saturday, March 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Those gigs likely will feature some material from I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt), her most recent recording released in 2013 on the Motema Music label. This live-in-the-studio clip of "I'd Rather Be Burned As a Witch" from that album features a band including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and trumpeter Etienne Charles.

The following week, New Music Circle will present On Fillmore, aka percussionist Glenn Kotche and bassist and Belleville, IL native Darin Gray, in a concert on Saturday, March 14 at The Stage at KDHX.

The duo have made four albums and a couple of soundtracks together since first joining forces in 2000, and gained additional notice in 2013 when they toured with "Apocalyptical," a live show produced by the makers of public radio program "Radiolab." In this clip, recorded in 2013 at Audio Rebel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they're playing a piece called "Complications."

Today's sixth clip features Kneebody, who will be making their St. Louis debut with performances from Wednesday, March 18 through Saturday, March 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. Band members Adam Benjamin (keyboards), Shane Endsley (trumpet), Ben Wendel (tenor sax) and Kaveh Rastegar (bass) first met in the late 1990s while they all were students at the Eastman Conservatory.

With drummer Nate Wood, they formed Kneebody in 2000 and since then have recorded nine albums of eclectic instrumental music that touches on styles from jazz to punk rock to the compositions of Charles Ives. In this clip, they're playing "Cha Cha" from their 2013 album The Line in a gig at the Blue Whale in Los Angeles.

Today's seventh and final video features the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience, who will be in St. Louis to perform on Saturday, March 21 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The tribute group is led by bassist John Lee, who played with Gillespie for many years, and also includes percussionist Mario Grillo, aka "Machito Jr," son of the famed Latin bandleader Frank "Machito" Grillo.

The band's front line features trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's played frequently with former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, and saxophonist Sharel Cassity, with guitarist Yotam Silberstein and drummer Robby Ameen completing the lineup. They're seen here in an excerpt from a show in 2013 in Sofia, Bulgaria, playing "Manteca," the seminal Latin-jazz number composed in 1947 by Gillespie, percussionist Chano Pozo, and Gil Fuller.

Look for part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2015 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump.