So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Best wishes and healing thoughts to trumpeter Adam Hucke, who's back home and recovering today after being hit in the arm by a stray bullet early this morning at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

According to a report on KMOV, two cars were involved in a gun battle on Broadway near Gratiot around 2:00 a.m. when Hucke, who was working with blues guitarist and singer Mike Aguirre, was hit.

No other details about the incident are available, but Hucke, best known as a member of the Funky Butt Brass Band, was treated and released by a local hospital and expects to be OK.

* Miles Davis' Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums, the recent reissue of the trumpeter's early 1950s sessions for the label (pictured), was reviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Marc Davis.

* Meanwhile, in the latest news from Miles Ahead, actor Don Cheadle's forthcoming film about Davis, it seems that actress Zoe Saldana has dropped out of the project, but shooting still is scheduled to begin next month in Cincinnati.

* The Miles Davis Jazz Festival has posted on Facebook an album of photos from this year's fest.

* HEC-TV has posted online Don Wolff's video tribute to the late Mat Domber, founder of the jazz indie label Arbors Records.

* In related news, the audio version of Wolff's "I Love Jazz" program now can be heard on TuneIn.com.

* Bassist Jim Widner's big band camp for high school students was the subject of a feature story in the UMSL Current.

* The downtown bar and restaurant Lola, which occasionally presented jazz along with R&B, neo-soul and hop-hop, is closing. The story from the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson cites increased competition from other venues, as well as differences among the partners.

* The Big Little Band has posted on Facebook an album of photos from their performance last week at The Abbey in Belleville.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else”, host Calvin Wilson will spotlight the music of Duke Ellington's collaborator Billy Strayhorn as interpreted by musicians including saxophonists Joe Henderson and Branford Marsalis and pianist Matthew Shipp.

After that on "The Jazz Collective," host Jason Church will be spinning tunes by Brian Culbertson, Omar Hakim, Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra, Nathan East, The New Mastersounds, Chuck Mangione, Acoustic Alchemy, Wes Montgomery, Gato Barbieri, Jimmy Smith, Dave Panico, Jim Manley, and more.

Wilson's program airs at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Jim Pugh, Jeremy Haynes, Amina Figarova, Jazz St. Louis gala, Jeff Coffin, Chris Botti, Dan Thomas, and more

There's jazz and creative music happening early and often throughout this week in St. Louis, and so to help make sure that you don't miss anything, here's a special early edition of the weekly highlights post:

Tonight, trombonist Jim Pugh is in town for a free concert at at Maryville University presented by the St. Louis Low Brass Collective. Pugh is best known for his work with Woody Herman and Chick Corea, but also has been a top studio trombonist recording for film soundtracks, pop music sessions, and much more. The concert will feature Pugh backed by ten local jazz trombonists, a rhythm section, and the entire trombone section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, back downtown, drummer Jeremy Haynes and the Rhythm Is Life band will play at Lola. Haynes, a St. Louis native who's been part of five Grammy winning gospel recordings, is performing in support of the release of his first instrumental album Prodigal Son 2K.

Also tonight, Three Central gives a free concert at the St. Louis Public Library main branch downtown; and the Tommy Halloran Quintet plays for Lindy Hop St. Louis' weekly swing dance at Grandel Theatre.

Tomorrow night, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra brings their big band sound to West County at the Sky Music Lounge in Ballwin; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes perform at the Feasting Fox; and the Ann Dueren Trio is at Frontenac Grill.

On Thursday, pianist Amina Figarova (pictured) and her group will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Figarova's skills at writing for small ensembles prompted Jazz Times to call her "among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium." For more about her, and some vidfeo samples of her group in action, see this post from Saturday.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode is at Crave coffee house.

Update, 4:50 p.m. 2/21/13: Both the Amina Figarova concert for the Jazz at Holmes series and Erin Bode's performance at Crave have been postponed due to bad weather. Bode's gig will take place next Thursday at the same time; JAH organizers hope to reschedule Figarova some time next month.

Update, 5:10 p.m. 2/21/13:Tonight's shows featuring Miss Jubilee at Thaxton Speakeasy and Downstereo at Atomic Cowboy have been cancelled due to bad weather. Both are recurring weekly gigs, so both bands should be back at work at the same venues next Thursday.

On Friday, Jazz St. Louis will present their annual fundraising gala at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, featuring music from David Sanborn and "surprise musical guests." The event is effectively sold out, but if you've got the price of admission - tickets start at $400 per person and go up from there - you can see if any spaces have opened up by calling JSL's director of development Kate Francis at 314-289-4037 or emailing her at katef @ jazzstl.org.

For those on a more modest budget on Friday, saxophonist Jeff Coffin will be back in town to present a free early-evening performance and workshop at Saxquest; Kansas City saxophonist Dan Thomas plays for the first of two nights at Robbie's House of Jazz; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor leads a quartet at Cigar Inn.

Update: 1:30 p.m., 2/21/13: The previously announced dates for Dan Thomas have been removed without explanation from the Robbie's House of Jazz website. The site now lists saxophonist Jerry Greene's trio playing on Friday, and drummer Gerald Warren's group on Saturday.

On Saturday, trumpeter Chris Botti and his band will perform with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Hall. (Given Botti's popularity, this one also is probably close to a sellout by now, so if you're interested in going, don't count on being able to get tickets at the door - call the box office first.)

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Willie Akins, drummer Montez Coleman and band will promote the release of their new album The St. Louis Connection with two sets at Jazz at the Bistro; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom. 

Then on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly show at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, this month featuring an intermission set from the St. Louis Metrobones.

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.)

(Edited after posting to fix a garbled sentence and correct some formatting.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* In a week that started with news of the closing of the south side cafe Rue Lafayette, it looks like another local presenter of jazz may be shutting its doors, too. In a story in the St. Louis Beacon, George Sams of the Nu-Art Series told writer Terry Perkins that Saturday's concert featuring Quincy Troupe will be his final production at the Metropolitan Gallery downtown. (Sams did leave the door open to presenting shows at other locations, and StLJN will be following up with him about that.)

* In a related development that could be seen either as ironic or just a coincidence, Live In Berlin, the final album by Sams' old band United Front that originally was released in 1983 on the FMP label, has just been digitally reissued.

* Pianist Kris Davis, whose quintet will play in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 560 Music Center tomorrow night, spoke with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson for a brief preview of the show. Meanwhile, Davis' concert with the same band on Sunday in Washington DC was reviewed by the Washington Post.

* Also in the Post, drummer Jeremy Haynes (pictured) talked with pop music reporter Kevin Johnson for a  preview story about Haynes' performance next Tuesday night at Lola; and classical music writer Sarah Bryan Miller had an interesting feature about how local musicians are using their iPhones and iPads to replace sheet music, metronomes, tuners and more.

* MilesDavis.com reports that the commemorative postage stamp depicting the trumpeter was the USPS' top-selling stamp featuring a celebrity in 2012.

* Finally, Mardi Gras may be over for another year, but the Funky Butt Brass Band have posted a few memories online, including a video from their performance last Thursday at Blues City Deli (featuring a medley of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" and "When The Saints Go Marching In") and a Facebook photo album from Friday's show with Big Sam's Funky Nation at the Old Rock House.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* New Orleans funk/jazz/hip-hop group Galactic (pictured) will be in St. Louis next week to perform on Valentine's Day at The Pageant, and the group's bassist Robert Mercurio talked to writer Daniel Durchholz for a short preview story in the Post-Dispatch.

* Here's a review of The Wee Trio's set at last weekend's Ottawa Jazz Festival, written by the Ottawa Citizen's Peter Hum. The group will be performing and recording for an upcoming live album tonight and tomorrow at Jazz at the Bistro.

* HEC-TV this week premiered a new episode of I Love Jazz, featuring performances from the archives by musicians including The Cunninghams, Jim Manley, Reggie and Mardra Thomas, Bach to the Future, and Rick Haydon. Check your TV provider's program guide for dates and times, or view it online at http://www.hectv.org.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake has a new album out on the Intakt label. All Decks was recorded live in November 2011 in Zurich, Switzerland, and features Lake with bassist Christian Weber, drummer Dieter Ulrich and trombonist Nils Wogram.

* MilesDavis.com has been compiling the reviews of the newly released recordings featuring Davis' "Lost Quintet" of the late 1960s, and they're "stellar."

* The downtown music venue/bar/restaurant Lola is recalibrating after the departure of partner/music booker Chris Hansen for the new venue The Demo. The Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson has the story on Lola's new direction here.

* Lindy Hop St. Louis is looking for sponsors for the Cherokee Street Jazz Crawl, a part of the Nevermore Jazz Ball, which will be held this year from November 7 through November 10. The Crawl showcases St. Louis traditional jazz and swing musicians in a free-to-the-public event on Cherokee Street. Sponsoring businesses will get recognition in program materials, and donations are tax-deductible. Businesses or organizations interested in becoming sponsors can contact Christian Frommelt of Lindy Hop St. Louis via email at christian @ lindyhopstlouis.org.

* Finally, did you know that St. Louis Jazz Notes has a page on YouTube? If you'd like to see only the StLJN posts that contain online music videos, you can find them all collected for your viewing and listening enjoyment here.

February brings homecoming gigs for Quincy Troupe, Jeremy Haynes, Ronnie Burrage

Given what St. Louis weather usually is like in February, there may be better times to visit. But cold, snow and slush notwithstanding, there are three noteworthy St. Louis expats returning home this month with shows of interest to local jazz fans:

* Poet, author and teacher Quincy Troupe will lead another edition of his "SoundArt" project in a performance at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, February 16 at the Metropolitan Gallery, 2936 Locust St. downtown.

Troupe, who's originally from St. Louis and collaborated with Miles Davis on the trumpeter's 1989 autobiography, has brought SoundArt home twice previously - in 2009, performing with guitarist Kelvyn Bell and drummer Ronnie Burrage at Robbie's House of Jazz, and in 2011 with Bell at the Metropolitan Gallery.

This time, Troupe will be joined by saxophonist Stan Coleman and bassist Darrell Mixon. The event is presented by the Nu-Art Series, and general admission will be $20 at the door.

* Drummer Jeremy Haynes, a St. Louis native who's made his fame playing gospel music, will show off another side of his musical personality with his show "Return of the Prodigal Son" at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 19 at Lola. The gig is in support of Haynes' recent jazz album Prodigal Son 2K, which is available for purchase on iTunes and CD Baby. Haynes' band Rhythm is Life includes keyboardists Eric W. Catron and Jarrell "JDot" Little and bassist Jermaine Hall.

Haynes (pictured) began his career at age 12, drumming with St. Louis' famed gospel singers the O’Neal Twins, and recorded his first album with them at 15. Haynes went on to play in the Broadway production of “God’s Trying to Tell You Something” and has continued to work with well-known gospel acts including Kevin Bond, Karen Clark Sheard, Kirk Franklin and Donnie McClurkin. To date, Haynes has performed on four movie soundtracks and been part of more than 150 gospel recordings, which have received a total of five Grammys and 12 Stellar Awards and accounted for 15 #1 hits on the Billboard gospel charts. Tickets for Haynes' show at Lola will be $15 at the door.

* Lastly, there are more details on the upcoming events featuring drummer Ronnie Burrage first described several weeks ago in this post.

Rehearsals for Burrage's trio gig on Thursday, February 28 for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series will be held on campus on Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday February 27 at a location TBA. The rehearsals with Burrage, bassist Darrell Mixon and pianist Ptah Williams will be open for student observation from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. each day. The performance is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Thursday, and is free and open to the public; Burrage tells StLJN that there will be some Wash U. students invited to sit in on the gig as well.

The set times for Burrage's shows on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 at The Office, 5719 Delmar, have been confirmed as 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The band for those shows will include Burrage, saxophonist Freddie Washington, guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Darryl Mixon.

Advance ticket prices have been finalized at $30.00 for the "VIP" package, which includes a ticket to an "all you can eat" buffet; $20 for general admission, which includes one drink; and $25.00 per person for a special Valentine's Day "lovers" offer, which includes a champagne toast. Tickets for groups of 20 or more are priced at $25 for the VIP package and $15 for general admission.

In addition, the first 20 advance ticket purchasers for the shows at The Office will receive a free CD from Burrage. Tickets are on sale now via his website at www.ronnieburrage.biz.

Jazz this week: Bhob Rainey, Rodney Lancaster & Doug Bert, Marcus Baylor & Free Day, and more

As one might expect given that a number of local venues are closed for the Christmas holidays, the calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis is a bit sparse over the next week, but there still are a few performances worth noting wrapped around the holiday weekend. Let's go to the highlights...

On Thursday night, the annual "Noel-A-Thon" concert takes place at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups. The seven-hour show features an eclectic mix of St. Louis musicians playing short sets of blues, jazz, folk, rock and more, with proceeds from the $5-per-person cover charge going to local charities.

On Friday, the improvising saxophonist Bhob Rainey will be in town for what has become an annual pre-Christmas concert at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Also on the bill are St. Louis' own Andrew Hefner, Jack Callahan and epicycle.

Also on Friday, drummer Montez Coleman will lead a trio with bassist Bob DeBoo and pianist Ptah Williams at the Cigar Inn; singer Charlie B. and trumpeter Jim Manley will perform for a "Rat Pack" themed dinner and show at LoRusso's Cucina; and trombonists Rodney Lancaster and Doug Bert will team up for a gig at Robbie's House of Jazz, backed by a band including bassist Willem von Hombracht, pianist Rick Zelle, and drummer Kevin Gianino.

On Monday evening, saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen of the Voodoo Blues Band will step out front to lead his own band, the Broadway Collective, in a performance at BB's.

On Tuesday night, drummer, ex-Yellowjacket and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured) returns home to perform with his new band Free Day at Lola. The group also includes his wife Jean Baylor, a singer who had some R&B hits a few years back as part of the group Zhane.

Also on Tuesday, Robbie's will host their weekly jam session, with a larger-than-usual crowd anticipated due to people visiting and/or returning home for the holidays.

On Wednesday afternoon, Bob Coleman's Legacy Big Band will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Their "Sinatra Hit Parade!" show will feature singer Tom Heitman, plus a guest appearance by trumpet player Susan Slaughter, who retired last year after 40 years with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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.)

Marcus Baylor to perform Tuesday, December 27 at Lola

Drummer and St. Louis native Marcus Baylor (pictured) is coming home for the holidays to perform with his new band Free Day at 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 27 at Lola, 500 N. 14th St. downtown.

After a decade as the drummer for the jazz fusion group Yellowjackets, Baylor left the band in 2010 to pursue new musical directions. One of those directions was the opportunity to work with his wife Jean Baylor, who's the vocalist for Free Day.

Tickets for Marcus Baylor and Free Day featuring Jean Baylor at Lola are $10 in advance, $15 at the door, and are available now via www.ticketweb.com.

You can see a video of Baylor and Free Day performing the song "Chicken Soulchild" in the embedded window below.

Todd Clouser to play at Lola on Tuesday, February 22

Jazz-rock guitarist Todd Clouser (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 22 at Lola, 500 N 14th St downtown.

Clouser, who's from Minneapolis but now is based in Baja, Mexico, is touring with his band in support of their new CD A Love Electric, just released by the indie label Ropeadope Records.

Described as "a blend of 70's rock, Curtis Mayfield funk, and modern jazz," A Love Electric features a guest appearance from NYC slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who leads the bands Sex Mob and Millennial Territory Orchestra and with whom Clouser has toured in Mexico for the past two years. The CD features eleven original compositions plus covers of Harry Nilsson’s “One” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

Clouser's touring group, a collective also named A Love Electric, includes trumpeter Adam Meckler, bassist Chris Bates, and drummer Greg Schutte.

The show listing at Lola's website (Warning: autoplay music with no apparent way to mute it) doesn't indicate if there's a cover or admission charge; we're seeking further details, and will update this post as circumstances warrant.

UPDATE - 11:45 p.m., 2/13/11: The cover charge for Todd Clouser at Lola will be $5 at the door.