So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* A new blog post from saxophonist Greg Osby, "Who's In The Band?", skeptically examines how a group's lineup of musicians can affect the way presenters view and market them.

* Sibling Revelry, the cabaret show featuring sisters Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway that played last week at Jazz St. Louis, was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* "The Moon Is Ours Tonight," a new song written and recorded on commission by singer Erin Bode with multi-instrumentalist Viktor Krauss, was the subject of a feature on KSDK's Show Me St. Louis.

* Saxophonist, music educator and St. Louis native Keith Fiddmont (pictured) will conduct the Santa Monica College Jazz Band in a concert "dedicated to the music contributed to the jazz lexicon by musicians from St. Louis, Missouri" on Sunday, October 21 at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA. The band will perform compositions by Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins, Oliver Nelson and Miles Davis.

* The Baylor Project, led by drummer Marcus Baylor and singer Jean Baylor, is featured in the first episode of "Live From The Lobby," a new video series from JustJazzTV

* As recounted in a story from Washington University's news service, Holmes Lounge, which is the venue for the university's Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts, recently was refurbished with new furniture and carpeting.

* Nottelmann Music has started a blog and a podcast with content aimed at music educators in the St. Louis area, with both audio and text pieces compiled on a single page for easy access.

* Get It How You Live, the recent album release from trumpeter Russell Gunn's Royal Krunk Jazz Orchestra, was reviewed by JazzWeekly.com.

* Audri Bartholomew, a former student in Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program who's now attending Milliken University, is a contestant on this season of the NBC TV series The Voice.

* AllAboutJazz.com is polling readers on the "Top 100 Jazz Venues" for 2018, and you can cast a ballot here.

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...

Jazz this week: Liz Callaway, the Sheldon's "Mardi Gras Mambo," Good 4 The Soul, Jeanne Trevor's "Love Notes," Dan Rubright, and more

It looks like this weekend will bring a break in the winter weather here in St. Louis, so it should be a good time to go out an here some live music. Here's a brief look at what's happening over the next few days:

The new not-for-profit presenter Cabaret St. Louis resumes its inaugural season this week with shows by Liz Callaway on Thursday and Friday upstairs at the Sheldon. Like many cabaret performers, Callaway's background is more in musical theater than in jazz - she's performed in a number of Broadway shows, including a long run in Cats - but she also seems to share a sense of humor, some serious vocal chops and an ability to swing with her sister, singer, pianist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway, who is well-known to St. Louis listeners from appearances at the Sheldon, Jazz at the Bistro and elsewhere. .

Also this evening, there's a free Jazz at Holmes concert at Washington University that was not mentioned in the news release referenced in the post here yesterday. (I only found out about via an email listserv.) The featured performers are 4 City Saxes, and I wish I could tell you more about them, but there's not much information available from Wash U, or anywhere else online. Google does tell me they performed as pre-show entertainers last summer at the Muny, and were part of UMSL's woodwind festival in December, but beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. .

On Friday and Saturday, Good 4 The Soul bring their mix of jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop and various other genres to Jazz at the Bistro, replacing trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who was originally supposed to play this week but had to postpone until May. Also on Friday, singer Jeanne Trevor teams up with pianist/singer Kevin Kurth for a Valentine's themed show called "Love Notes" at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand (at Olive, in the Big Brothers-Big Sisters building).

Sunday night brings the Sheldon Concert Hall's big "Mardi Gras Mambo" benefit gala, with music from the Neville Brothers and Dr. John and the Lower 911. Single tickets for this show have been sold out for several weeks now, but it's possible there still may be some of the $250 and $150 "patron" tickets left. For the latest information, call the Sheldon directly at 314-533-9900.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Dan Rubright and Tangole are performing at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. This particular project is new to me, but judging from the name, it seems to have something to do with tango and/or Latin music. Regardless of genre, Rubright is a fine player with wide-ranging musical ideas and tastes, so it's probably going to be worth hearing.

On Tuesday, it's the monthly meeting of the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club at Borders in Brentwood. Dr. Gerald Early of Washington University and Gene Dobbs Bradford of Jazz St. Louis. will discuss the "golden age" of the Blue Note label and the compilation CD The Best Blue Note Record in the World. Also on Tuesday, the quartet Utter Chaos plays a no-cover-charge show at The Gramophone.

Then on Wednesday, there's another free event presented by Jazz St. Louis, as keyboardist Reggie Thomas and his Hammond organ-jazz ensemble OGD will put on a concert dubbed "A Celebration of Blue Note Records" at Third Baptist Church, 620 N. Grand (just across Washington Ave from the Bistro).

As always, these are just a few of the highlights of what's going on around town, so for more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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.)