Jazz this week: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Nicholas Payton, Larry Ochs and Kinhoua, and more

From free improv to fusion to big band to neo-soul/hip-hop influenced experimentation, this week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis has a variety of offerings to suit different musical tastes. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, New Music Circle presents saxophonist Larry Ochs and Kihnoua in concert at Kranzberg Arts Center. In addition to Ochs, the group features Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, Dohee Lee on vocals, and special guest bassist Trevor Dunn.

Also tonight, trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton opens a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, fronting a trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Corey Fonville.

On Thursday, the reunited original lineup of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (pictured) will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can read more about the reunion and see some video footage of the Flecktones playing material from their most recent album here.

Also on Thursday, the Genesis Jazz Project plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Washington University's jazz combo students will perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series.

On Friday, cabaret performers Donna Weinsting and Lara Buck team up for the first of two nights of "Bold, Bawdy, Blonde - and Funny," a new show staged under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Also on Friday, the Saint Boogie Brass Band, a relatively new local group working in the New Orleans brass band tradition, plays at Robbie's; guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio with drummer Paul Shaw and bassist Chris Watrous at Cigar Inn; and the St. Louis Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Then on Saturday, Shades of Jade, a Kansas City band blending jazz with hip-hop and neo-soul, will perfrom at Robbie's; and singer Dean Christopher will do his "Rat Pack and More" thing with help from pianist Carolbeth True at Frontenac Grill

On Sunday, singer Erin Bode will perform in concert at St. Peter's United Church of Christ.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's jazz combo students will show off their semester's work in a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium; and Tom Byrne brings his Pat Metheny-inspired project Have You Heard? back to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)

Larry Ochs and Kihnoua to play Wednesday, March 28 at Kranzberg Arts Center

New Music Circle has announced that saxophonist Larry Ochs will be bringing his group Kihnoua (pictured, above left) to St. Louis for a performance at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 28 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

In addition to Ochs, the group features Scott Amendola on drums and electronics and Dohee Lee on vocals, plus bassist Trevor Dunn, who will be a special guest on their St. Louis date.

Kihnoua's sound is described as "music that intermingles the very new thoughts, sounds and structures of jazz (or perhaps better said as “Western improvised music”) with influences from very ancient sounds of Korea and from other folk-music/ blues influences of Asia, Africa and the USA."

Tickets for Larry Ochs and Kihnouha are $15 for general admission, $7 for students/artists with a valid ID, and can be purchased online at NMC's website or at the door.

NMC also has announced that singer Theo Bleckmann (pictured, below left) will be performing with drummer John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet at their previously scheduled concert on Friday, March 2 at 560 Music Center.

Bleckmann perhaps is best known for his 15 years with composer Meredith Monk's ensemble, but he also has released a series of critically acclaimed solo recordings and has collaborated with musicians and composers including Laurie Anderson, Uri Caine, Philip Glass, Sheila Jordan, Phil Kline, David Lang, Kirk Nurock, Ben Monder, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. He's a promising addition to what already was shaping up to be one this spring's most intriguing creative music shows.

Tickets for the Claudia Quintet concert also are priced at $15 and $7, and can be purchased from NMC's website or at the door.

Notes from the Net: the Miles Davis mega-box; music genres defined; plus news, reviews, interviews and 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:

* There are big doings on the Miles Davis front this week, with the imminent release of the boxed mega-set The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Collection, which brings together in one deluxe package the trumpeter's total output for the label, plus unreleased material, on 72 discs.

Meanwhile, the museum of the Cité de la Musique in Paris currently is featuring "We Want Miles," an exhibition celebrating Davis' life and work. If you're lucky enough to be in Paris, you can see the exhibit through January 17; if not, console yourself with this review from the Web site SoulCulture.co.uk.

In other Miles-related news, for the past week satellite radio customers have been able to tune into a temporary channel devoted to Davis. Hosted by the trumpeter's son, Erin Davis; his nephew, drummer Vince Wilburn Jr.; and bassist/producer Marcus Miller, Miles Davis Radio is featuring music from Davis' catalog, never-before-heard soundtrack music recorded by Davis for the 1986 film Wise Guys, and interviews with former Davis band members and various guests. The channel went on the air Friday and will continue until Wednesday, November 25, temporarily replacing Real Jazz on Sirius channel 72 and XM channel 70.

Davis' album Birth of the Cool was the subject of a program held in late October at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, with music by the Don Wilson Trio and a lecture by Bob Perkins. Read the AllAboutJazz.com review of the event by Victor L. Schermer here.

Long considered a jazz landmark, Birth of the Cool was one of three Davis albums on the London Telegraph's recently published list of the 100 best jazz recordings of all time. (Composer and saxophonist Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth was the only other St. Louis-related entry on the list.)...And here's another review of the recent reissue of Davis' 1950s sessions with Sonny Rollins for the Prestige label, written from AllAboutJazz.com by Chris May

* Moving on to news of other St. Louisans past and present, Marc Myers just wrapped up a multi-part interview for his JazzWax blog with saxophonist and composer/arranger Lennie Niehaus, who was born in St. Louis, helped establish the West Coast "cool jazz" sound and went on to a very successful career scoring films, most notably for director/actor Clint Eastwood. Read part one here, and follow the links therein for the rest.

* Here's a review of Femina, saxophonist and composer John Zorn's recent tribute to female artists, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Mark Corroto.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native David Sanborn and singer/guitarist (and frequent visitor to our town) John Pizzarelli will headline the eighteenth annual “All That Jazz" weekend in January at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, North Carolina.

* Speaking of coming attractions, here's a review from the Hartford Courant's Richard Kamins of Snap Shot: The Original Trio, a new CD from organist Joey DeFrancesco, who returns to St. Louis in March to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

* And here are two reviews of Vijay Iyer's new CD Historicity - one from AllAboutJazz.com's Chris Kompanek here, and one from Pitchfork here. Iyer (pictured), who will play the Bistro in January, also recently was featured on NPR's "Song of the Day."

* Singer Steve Tyrell, who will perform here in May at the Sheldon Concert Hall, just began an eight-week stand at NYC's Cafe Carlyle. Read the review of his show by the New York Times' Stephen Holden here.

* As we head for the exits of this installment of NftN, here's another review of Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core's recent CD Stone Shift, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Kurt Gottschalk. Ochs and the Core performed at the Sheldon in September.

* Last but not least, are you a music fan who is confused, amused and/or appalled by the continual proliferation of ever-more-specific nomenclature for musical genres, micro-genres and nano-genres? If so, check out NPR Music's "Genre Dictionary 2009," and perhaps you too will be able to comprehend the difference between "crabcore" and "grime."

(Edited after posting to add tags. Edited again 11/24/09 to fix a typo.)

Notes from the Net: Phil Perry recovering; the continuing legend of Miles Davis; plus news, reviews, interviews, and 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.

* Starting, as we usually do, with some Miles Davis items, it seems that the impending release of Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, the upcoming book The Blue Moment by Richard Williams, and the exhibit "We Want Miles" at the Cité de la Musique in Paris recently prompted the London Times to ask, "Why is Miles Davis so legendary?"

The answer, in part: "Miles’s celebrated urge to keep moving — to play music that was one minute beguiling, the next baffling (“It’s my curse”) is one reason...But music aside, Miles remains an eminently marketable star...Today’s jazz names — from Diana Krall to Pat Metheny — look a meek lot by comparison. "

In other Miles-related news, AllAboutJazz.com has a review by C. Michael Bailey of the recent reissue of Davis' 1950s sessions with Sonny Rollins, and another by George Kanzler covering the 50th anniversary reissue of Sketches of Spain plus a new tribute CD, Miles Ahead Live, by saxophonist Dave Liebman and the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra.

* Moving on to news of other locals past and present, singer Phil Perry, another former East St. Louisan, is recovering after collapsing while on stage in Connecticut with Pieces of A Dream on October 23. Perry spent three days in the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn and was equipped with a new defibrillator. Perry says he is doing fine and will be back on the road soon: “My heart is wired like the Energizer Bunny, with a nifty little defibrillator to keep me on beat and keep me on my feet.”

* Writing on the band's blog Do The Math, The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson recently linked to an interesting 1994 interview with the late saxophonist and former St. Louisan Julius Hemphill.

* The prolific saxophonist and composer John Zorn, who once studied at our town's Webster University, has a new CD called Femina, featuring an all-female ensemble performing a suite dedicated to women artists from various disciplines, such as Louise Bourgeois, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Plath, Meredith Monk and Yoko Ono. Here's a review from AllAboutJazz.com's Troy Collins.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, here's a review of Stone Shift, the most recent CD from saxophonist Larry Ochs & Drumming Core. Ochs and the Core were here last month for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* Moving on to the "coming attractions" file, bassist Christian McBride and his band Inside Straight, with St. Louis' Peter Martin on piano, will be featured on a live audio/video Webcast from NYC's Village Vanguard starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, November 11 (tomorrow evening). They'll be here in St. Louis next week for a four-night run at Jazz at the Bistro; meanwhile, you catch the Webcast on the site of NYC public radio station WBGO,

* An article by Nate Chinen in the latest Jazz Times calls singer Kurt Elling "the most influential jazz vocalist of our time." Elling will be in St. Louis in December to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Here's a review of singer/songwriter/pianist Nellie McKay's new CD Normal as Blueberry Pie, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Matt Marshall. McKay (pictured) is coming to St. Louis under the auspices of Cabaret St. Louis to perform next Wednesday and Thursday at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* Organist Joey DeFrancesco has a new disc called High Note, reviewed here by Music and More's Tim Niland. DeFrancesco returns to St. Louis at the end of March for four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Pianist Vijay Iyer, who will play the Bistro from January 20 through January 23, just wrapped up a gig at NYC's Jazz Standard, reviewed here by the New York Times' Ben Ratliff, and also was just featured on NPR's "Song of The Day."

* Last but not least, from the "miscellaneous items of interest file": A new research paper done by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) with support from the Nielsen Company challenges many of the myths about how people today listen to music. The study tracked 752 days of audio media usage last year by participants in five markets and found that "from broadcast radio to MP3 players, some popular notions about listening in the digital age appear to be horribly off the mark." Read more about "How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio" here.

Notes from the Net: Lester Bowie reissued; Jimmy Cobb's So What band reviewed; plus news, reviews, interviews, and 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.

Starting off, as we usually do, with a couple of items about Miles Davis, it seems that Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb's So What band played last week at the Gem Theater in Kansas City, and the show was reviewed for the Kansas City Star by Bill "Plastic Sax" Brownlee here, for Pitch Weekly by Jason Harper here, and by local music blogger Joel Francis here.

In other Davis-related news, Monster, the company that makes premium-priced audio cables and similar products, is coming out with Miles Davis special edition headphones. The 'phones, which feature a silhouetted image of the trumpeter, have a "pre-sale price" of $399 (!) and go on sale in November.

* Turning to news of other St. Louis natives and former denizens, the late trumpeter Lester Bowie's first recordings as a leader, made in 1967 for the Nessa label, have been reissued on a two-CD set. All The Numbers: Complete Numbers 1 & 2 Sessions features Bowie, saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, and bassist Malachi Favors in the first documentation of what would soon become the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and includes everything from the original LP plus much previously unreleased material and outtakes.

* Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett performed with percussionist Kahil El’Zabar last weekend at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, NY.

* Meanwhile, multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich's Rites Quartet with James Zollar on trumpet, Erik Friedlander on cello and Pheeroan akLaff on drums, just played a concert at NYC's Miller Theater.

* And way out West, we learn via LeRoy "The JazzCat" Downs that saxophonist Eric Person and Meta Four West just performed this past weekend at Santa Monica College.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn will be featured in January by the jazz series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. Sanborn just wrapped a four-night stand at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby (pictured) will lead a group of Berklee College of Music students on Monday for a gig in NYC at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola as part of the Lincoln Center Upstarts! program, where up-and-comers and veteran musicians jam together on one bandstand. Osby also is blogging now for the Web site Indaba Music, and his recent entry on the sartorial choices and mistakes of jazz musicians has attracted some attention and sparked some conversations among musicians and fans.

* Here's a review of saxophonist John Zorn's new Masada CD, which feature tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.

* Electronic/experimental/noise composer and former St. Louisan Andy Ortmann is now doing a podcast called "The Eternal Now" for NYC's eclectic public radio station WFMU. Get more info, subscribe to the podcast feed, or listen online here.

* Opening up the "recent visitors" file, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins and his band will perform a special benefit concert for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater in December at the Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY. Rollins played here last month at the Touhill Performing Arts Center under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis.

* New photos from DowntownMusic.net include shots of a recent concert by Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core at NYC's Roulette. The pics were taken just four days after their St. Louis performance, presented by New Music Circle at the Sheldon Concert Hall. And here's a review of Och's show, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Martin Longley and bundled with three other live reviews, including one of a Kenny Garrett set two weeks ago at NYC's Iridium. Garrett was in St. Louis this weekend to play at Jazz at the Bistro.

*Singer DeeDee Bridgewater, who also was here earlier this month at the Sheldon Concert Hall, is in Shanghai, China to perform with an international big band

* Catching up with the "coming attractions" file: From the Huffington Post, here's an interview with Nellie McKay about her new CD, which is a tribute to singer and actress Doris Day. McKay will be St. Louis on November 18 and 19 to perform for Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

* Here's a review by the New York Times' Stephen Holden of the new duet show featuring singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey, at the Carlyle in NYC. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis in April to play at the Bistro.

* Also from the NYT, here's a feature story about bassist John Patitucci, who will follow Pizzarelli at the Bistro next spring.

*Singer Kurt Elling and pianist Bill Charlap were among the musicians featured on the recent 30th anniversary celebration of NPR's "Piano Jazz" program, hosted by Marian McPartland. Elling will be in St. Louis the first week in December to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, while Charlap comes to town the following week for four nights at the Kranzberg backing singer Sandy Stewart (who's also his mom).

* Our fave avant-jazz blog Destination: Out just featured a guest post from pianist Vijay Iyer with two tracks from his new CD. Iyer also recently performed live on the radio program "Studio Session," broadcast by WBGO radio in Newark NJ and available online here. And here's a review of Iyer's latest CD from Music and More's Tim Niland. Iyer will be here in January to play at the Bistro.

* In an interesting little review/essay, Popmatters' Will Layman muses about virtuosity in jazz as it applies to saxophonists Chris Potter and James Carter. Carter returns to St. Louis in May, bringing his organ trio to Jazz at the Bistro.

* Singer/pianist John Proulx, who has a new CD on the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label, just kicked off a new "After Hours" series at Feinstein's at Loews Regeny is NYC. performance Sunday, October 18 at 10:00PM. Meanwhile, another MAXJAZZ artist, singer and pianist Dena DeRose, was among the performers at the just-concluded Seasons Festival in Seattle.

*And finally, last week's "Hearing Voices" program on NPR featured excerpts from “The Bushy Wushy Rag,” a new composition by Phillip Kent Bimstein that combines sounds from a St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball game, motifs from Scott Joplin’s "Maple Leaf Rag," and the distinctive calls of veteran Busch Stadium beer vendor Robert Logan, a.k.a. "Bushy Wushy the Beer Man." Bimstein's piece was performed by the Equinox Chamber Players, who premiered the work here in St. Louis. Although "Hearing Voices" isn't broadcast over the air here - it runs on KWMU-2, a digital subchannel of the local NPR affiliate - you can hear the broadcast with "The Bushy Wushy Rag" online at the program's Web site.

(Updated on 10/26/09 to correct the price of the Miles Davis headphones.)

Jazz this week: Houston Person; "Rapology" with Troupe, Bell and Burrage; Larry Ochs; "A Jazz Heaven"; and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, so let's go right to the highlights:

Tonight, saxophonist Houston Person (pictured) opens a four-night stand that continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. A seasoned veteran who's had a lifetime of experience wrapping blues, bop and ballads into a crowd-pleasing package, Person was in St. Louis most recently at the end of August to perform in a benefit concert at Harris Stowe State University for the Wolff Jazz Institute.

You can see a video sample of his playing in a post previewing that show here, and hear a podcast interview with Person here. Note also that tickets for some of Person's sets will be available at half price if purchased in advance via Metrotix.

Also tonight, the Washington University Music Department presents its "Chance Aesthetics" concert at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. The free event will feature performances of music by John Cage and Terry Riley, plus an improvised piece.

On Thursday, guitarist William Lenihan leads a tribute to Miles Davis' classic album Birth of the Cool in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University

There are three noteworthy shows on Friday, starting with the first of two nights of the Quincy Troupe/Kelvyn Bell/Ronnie Burrage collaboration "Rapology" at Robbie's House of Jazz. For more about Troupe, Bell and Burrage plus some video samples of all three in action, see this post.

Also on Friday, New Music Circle presents saxophonist Larry Ochs' Sax and Drumming Core at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Ochs, who's known for his work with the Rova Saxophone Quartet, will be joined by drummers Donald Robinson and Scott Amendola, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Satoko Fujii on synthesizer and piano to perform a mix of original compositions and collective improvisations.

That same evening, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra presents "Swing, Swing, Swing" a program of swing music including songs made famous by Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, just around the corner from the Sheldon at Powell Symphony Hall.

On Saturday night, the Chicago Afrobeat Project returns to The Gramophone.

Then on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents clarinetist Bud Shultz and the You Can't Beat Experience Jazz Band in a matinee performance of traditional New Orleans style jazz and swing at the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield.

Also on Sunday afternoon, singer Wendy Gordon and a cast of musicians and singers including longtime local favorite Jeanne Trevor will perform Gordon's cabaret musical A Jazz Heaven at the Kranzberg Arts Center. For more about the production, which pays tribute to jazz icons including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis, see these two posts.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Chicago-based guitarists Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic will perform a duo show at The Gramophone.

Tuesday evening brings the monthly meeting of Jazz St. Louis' CD Listening Club at Borders bookstore, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd. in Brentwood. This month's featured CD, Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, will be discussed by JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford and Dr. Gerald Early of Washington University.

Then on Wednesday evening, Jazz St. Louis will present a free concert of Hancock's music by keyboardist Adaron "Pops" Jackson and his group at the Community Music School of Webster University, 535 Garden Avenue in Webster Groves.

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

(Edited after posting to fix a formatting problem. Edited again to add a couple of Houston person-related links.)