So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Kranzberg Arts Foundation this week announced the St. Louis Music Initiative, consisting of three related projects intended to promote the local music scene.

St. Louis Music Week, set for September 4 through September 13, 2020, will "actively market and promote music events at participating music venues...to showcase the depth and breadth of music offerings available throughout the region."

The week will conclude with Music at the Intersection, a three-day event featuring more than 60 local acts performing at various venues in Grand Center. Then in 2021, the foundation will present the Midwest Music Summit, which is "designed to build music industry infrastructure in St. Louis through panels, workshops, exhibitions and classes."

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja was the featured guest on last week's episode of Montana Public Radio's "Musician's Spotlight."

* Bassist, instrument inventor, and former St. Louisan Mark Deutsch (pictured) was the subject of a short Riverfront Times feature story by Thomas Crone. Deutsch will perform a solo concert on his instrument, the Bazantar, tonight at the Judson House.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed by AustralianJazz.net. Harrold is visiting the "land down under" this week, performing at the club Bird's Basement at Melbourne.

* Dizzy Atmosphere has posted to YouTube a playlist of videos from their concert last Saturday at the Focal Point.

* Cabaret singer and former St. Louisan Katie McGrath's appearance on Saturday in the show "Immigrant Song" at .ZACK was touted in a brief item by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Joe Holleman.

* Keyboardist Jim Hegarty has posted a video of his solo piano concert last month at Principia College on YouTube and the audio from the show as a free download on Bandcamp.

* In the latest development regarding the financial troubles of community radio station KDHX, the Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill reports that the Kranzberg Arts Foundation will take over the first floor of the KDHX building, which includes a performance space, The Stage at KDHX, and a bar/cafe that has gone through several iterations and operators since opening in 2014.

* More than a year after the last-minute cancellation of the Loufest music festival, St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin reports that the festival's former sound and lighting contractor Logic Systems is suing LouFest promoter Listen Live Entertainment and its managing partner Mike Van Hee for defamation, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Music and the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies at UMSL have named pianist and educator Adaron "Pops" Jackson as the university's new director of jazz studies. Jackson succeeds the program's founder, bassist Jim Widner, who retired at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn was interviewed by John Carney on Monday's episode of "The Carney Show" on KTRS (550 AM).

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo (pictured) was interviewed about her new album St. Lost by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. Saputo is promoting the release with a performance tonight at Sophie's Artist Lounge and Cocktail Club. St. Lost this week also was the subject of a short promotional feature on BassMagazine.com

* Inventor and audio engineer Bob Heil was profiled in a story by KSDK's Art Holliday.

* WSIE (88.7FM) will celebrate Miles Davis' birthday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. this Sunday, May 26 with a two-hour special about his life and music. Listeners outside the St. Louis area can catch the program via the station's online stream.

* The Black Rep's production of Nina Simone: Four Women was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn. The play with music, which includes singer Denise Thimes in the cast, continues through Sunday, June 2 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

* Vaughn also filed a story for the American about the funeral service for Shirley Bradley LeFlore, former St. Louis poet laureate who worked with many jazz and creative musicians.

* Pianist Phillip Graves will play the title role in Next to Normal: The Thelonious Monk Story, a play by Mariah L Richardson that will be performed at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 12 and Thursday, June 13 at Jazz St. Louis.

The production, which is presented by A Call to Conscience, Inc. and directed by Fannie Belle Lebbie, will celebrate Monk's music and career while also examining "issues of mental illness as it relates to disparities in health care, police interaction, education, and social acceptance."

The performance on June 12 will be followed by a talk and Q&A about Monk led by Washington University professor Gerald Early, and a panel discussion on living with and overcoming the challenges posed by mental illness. Admission to both performances is free, but RSVPs are requested via EventBrite.

* Remember the lawsuit filed by seemingly-defunct-music-festival LouFest against their former sound contractors? Well, per new reporting on Thursday by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin, the suit has been dropped.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Two St. Louis venues made it onto the music business trade publication Pollstar's list of the Top 200 Club Venues for worldwide ticket sales in 2018. The Pageant came in at number four on the list, while its sibling just down the street, Delmar Hall, was ranked at number 54.

* Keyboardist and singer Jesse Gannon was interviewed about his new eponymous album by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.

* Saxophonists Dave Liebman and Jeff Coffin are featured on On The Corner Live: The Music of Miles Davis, a tribute to Davis' "electric period" that will be released Friday, March 1 on Ear Up Records. Liebman was part of Davis' band from 1970 to 1974. The album (pictured), which was recorded live in 2015 in Nashville, also includes bassist Victor Wooten, drummer Chester Thompson, guitarist James DaSilva, and keyboardist Chris Walters.

* The Arts and Education Council is offering a $20,000 prize for arts entrepreneurs in the St. Louis region via its the third-annual stARTup Creative Competition. The purpose of the competition is "to identify and support organizations filling a hole in the local arts economy." The deadline to apply is Friday, March 1; for more information or to submit an application, go here.

* In what must be the weirdest local music-business story of the week, St. Louis media are reporting that organizers of the ill-fated Loufest are suing the firm that was contracted to provide sound and lights for the event. The suit claims intentional sabotage, and alleges an attempt to hijack the festival's concept after the 2018 event was cancelled.

* The Missouri History Museum has launched "The Townsend Piano Project," a campaign to raise $25,000 to restore a piano that belonged to the late St. Louis blues musician Henry Townsend and incorporate it into the museum's "St. Louis Sound" exhibition planned for 2021. The Museum is accepting donations online, and will stage a fund-raising concert on Sunday, May 26 at BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Following the last-minute cancellation of this weekend's LouFest music festival, a number of acts scheduled to play the event have managed to book replacement shows at various venues around town.

Most of the bands and musicians that were scheduled to perform on LouFest's jazz stage, plus some other local performers, now will be playing "The Sound of St. Louis" Showcase, a free event taking place from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 9 at the Grandel Theatre and The Dark Room.

The event will feature music from Ben Reece's Unity Quartet, Bob DeBoo, Jesse Gannon, Kasimu Taylor (pictured), Kevin Bowers' Nova, Mo Egeston, Owen Ragland, Ptah Williams Trio, and Tonina Saputo, as well as sets from The Burney Sisters, Dracla, Grace Basement, The Knuckles, The River Kittens, and Scrub & Ace Ha.

* Though local media outlets had to scrap many of their LouFest previews, the re-scheduling of many of the fest's jazz acts for the above-mentioned Sunday showcase did allow for the publication as originally planned of Kevin Johnson's Post-Dispatch feature on keyboardist Owen Ragland (link to Google cache).

* Also rescued from the LouFest-preview kill file, a feature story about drummer Kevin Bowers from the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.

* The late pianist and singer Jean Kittrell was the subject of a remembrance in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

* Also in the Intelligencer, a brief preview of Saturday's Alton Jazz and Wine Festival, which has been moved indoors to Argosy Casino's music hall due to a forecast of heavy rain for Saturday.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold's recent performance for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, NYC, was recorded for broadcast (and archived online) by radio station WBGO.

* Pianist Dred Scott, born here in St. Louis as Joseph Patrick Scott and now based in NYC, has a new album coming out on September 21. Titled Rides Alone, it features Scott playing solo on eight tracks of original music, and will be available as a CD or download from BandCamp.

* Thurman's in Shaw's new Sunday brunch was the subject of a brief feature by the Riverfront Times' Sarah Penske.

* The Davenport Lounge at the New Orleans Ritz Carlton hotel, which features music four nights a week from trumpeter, singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport, was mentioned in a CNN feature about celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's list of New Orleans "must-dos."

* Bach to the Future's concert tonight at the Miller Performing Arts Center in Jefferson City was previewed in the Jefferson City News-Tribune.

Loufest 2014 lineup includes Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Lettuce

While the first four years of Loufest have concentrated mostly on rock, pop and hip-hop, the festival's fifth anniversary lineup includes a couple of acts that may be of interest to local jazz fans as well.

Specifically, the 2014 edition of Loufest, set for Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7 in Forest Park's Central Field, will include appearances from Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (pictured) and the funk band Lettuce.

Other headlining acts this year will include Outkast, Arctic Monkeys, Cake, Grouplove, Matt & Kim, Portugal The Man, Future Islands, and Kelis. For the complete lineup, see http://www.loufest.com/.

Shorty's last appearance here was in November 2013 at the Old Rock House. As for Lettuce, while yr. humble StLJN editor is pretty sure they've played here at some point in their 20+ year history, I've been unable to locate any specifics on that.

VIP tickets for the two-day Loufest are priced at $350 per person and already are on sale. They include access to a VIP lounge with complimentary beer, wine, and specialty libations all day, catered food servings, air conditioned restrooms and more.

Regular two-day tickets are priced at $95 per person, inclusive of all fees, and go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 13 via http://www.loufest.com/tickets.