StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Jazz documentary film festival, part 2

With the schedule of touring jazz and creative musicians visiting St. Louis looking sparse for the next couple of weeks, this feature once again is back in "lazy summer" mode, setting aside the usual custom of previewing an upcoming concert to offer a mini-festival of jazz-related documentary films.

First up is Love You Madly, a documentary about Duke Ellington produced in 1965 for San Francisco public TV station KQED by famed jazz journalist, critic and author Ralph J. Gleason.

After the jump, you can see The Swing Thing, a BBC documentary from 2008 about the Swing Era.

That's followed by three films about three very different saxophonists, starting with Art Pepper: Notes from a Jazz Survivor, a critically acclaimed documentary from 1982 that offers an unflinching view of its subject.

That's followed by Jazz Goes To College, a BBC film from 1966 focusing on a performance by Stan Getz, and My First Name Is Maceo, the 1996 biographical film about jazz/funk saxophonist and former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker.

The final film is The Cry of Jazz, a 1959 documentary film by composer Ed Bland that "uses footage of Chicago's black neighborhoods and performances by Sun Ra and others to connect jazz to African American history."

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

Jazz this week: Maceo Parker, Barb Jungr & John McDaniel, Ryan Keberle, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features one of the godfathers of funk saxophone, cabaret interpretations of the music of the Beatles, the return of a popular free concert series, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 24
Saxophonist Maceo Parker opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Parker (pictured, top left) made his reputation in the 1970s and '80s as a member of James Brown's band, the JBs. He went on to play with George Clinton's P-Funk organization and numerous others, and over the last 20 years has developed a busy solo career extending and adding his own flavor to Brown's funk legacy.

Listeners at the Bistro can expect to hear interpretations of material like "Cold Sweat" and "Pass The Peas" from Brown's catalog as well as originals featuring Parker's tart, angular alto solos.

Also on Wednesday, the Ambassadors of Swing provide the music for "Shake And Shout Wednesdays," the first of what's projected as a monthly series of swing dance events at Tin Roof St. Louis; and Miss Jubilee and The Gaslight Squares perform on a double bill at The Bootleg at Atomic Cowboy as part of the venue's week of shows with free admission.

Thursday, January 25
Saxophonist Richard Deja leads a quartet in the first free concert of the semester from the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and singer Feyza Eren returns to Evangeline's.

Friday, January 26
Saxophonist Harvey Lockhart and The Collective play a late show at The Dark Room.

Saturday. January 27
Singer Barb Jungr and singer, pianist and Kirkwood native John McDaniel will present two performances of their cabaret show based on the music of The Beatles at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Sunday, January 28
Trombonist Ryan Keberle and his band Catharsis will perform at The Dark Room.

The NYC-based Keberle and band (pictured, bottom left) are in the Midwest for a week of one-nighters in support of their fourth album Find the Common, Shine the Light, which the Los Angeles Times called “a potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies.”

Monday, January 29
Members of Webster University's jazz faculty will present a program called "As If It Were the Seasons" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus. Singer Debby Lennon, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, pianist Nick Schlueter, bassist Ben Wheeler and drummer Nick Savage will perform a "repertoire that reflects on the distinct character of each of the four seasons," drawing on songs including "You Must Believe in Spring," "Summer in Central Park," "Autumn Nocturne" and more.

Tuesday, January 30
"Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective play their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2018 jazz preview, part 2

This week, it's part two of StLJN's winter/spring 2018 jazz preview, featuring videos of the jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the first few months of the new year. (You can see part one here.)

Picking up in mid-January where last week's installment ended, the first video up above features singer Storm Large, who will be returning to perform on Wednesday, January 17 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Large has presented her cabaret show here a couple of times before, but this concert will feature her band Le Bonheur, who back her up in this 2014 performance of "I've Got You Under My Skin."

That same week, The Bad Plus will return to St. Louis to present their first-ever live shows featuring their new pianist Orrin Evans, starting Wednesday, January 17 and continuing through Saturday, January 20 at Jazz at the Bistro.

With founding pianist Ethan Iverson' departure from the trio being a long-planned event, Evans already has recorded an album, Never Stop 2, with TBP, but will be making his live-performance debut with group during their St. Louis run.

Given those circumstances, there's really no way to "preview" their shows here, but after the jump, you can see a performance by the original TBP lineup from this year's Moers Festival in Germany, followed by a clip of Evans, rethinking the standard "Autumn Leaves" with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Obed Calvaire, in 2012 at NYC's Jazz Standard.

The same night TBP concludes their run, Grand Center also will be the site of a "Winter Jazz Fest" at the Grandel Theatre, featuring a headlining performance by Yellowjackets, plus saxophonist Eric Marienthal performing with St. Louis' own Bach to the Future, and more.

The next clip, shot by the prolific St. Louis videographer James Ross, shows Yellowjackets performing "Civil War" during their last visit here in September of this year at Jazz at the Bistro.

After that, there's a video of Marienthal playing Eddie Harris' "Cold Duck Time" at Vandojam 2017, an event presented by the reed and mouthpiece manufacturer Vandoren at the 2017 NAMM show in Los Angeles.

Next up is saxophonist Maceo Parker, who's playing Wednesday, January 24 through Saturday, January 27 at the Bistro, making his long-awaited debut at that venue. Parker can be seen in today's sixth clip performing "Pass the Peas" in August 2017 at the Music Box in San Diego, CA.

While Parker is funking up the Bistro on Saturday night, a couple of blocks away the Kranzberg Arts Center will present "Come Together - Barb Jungr & John McDaniel Perform The Beatles" on Saturday, January 27.

This is the St. Louis debut of a show that Jungr, a British-born cabaret singer, and McDaniel, the pianist, singer and Kirkwood native who gained national celebrity as musical director for Rosie O'Donnell's talk show, have been doing for a couple of years now. In the penultimate video, a promotional clip featuring excerpts from several songs, you can get an idea as to how they go about reinterpreting the Fab Four's catalog.

Last but not least, today's final video features pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who will be back with his trio to perform starting Wednesday, January 31 through Saturday, February 3 at the Bistro.

Chestnut, a familiar visitor to St. Louis who last played here in May, 2016 at The Sheldon, can be seen in fine form with bassist Michael Hawkins and drummer Neal Smith, playing a whole set recorded in August 2017 at the Montclair Jazz Festival in New Jersey.

Look for part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2018 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Maceo Parker to play Wednesday, January 24 - Saturday, January 27 at Jazz at the Bistro

Funk/jazz saxophonist Maceo Parker is coming to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, January 24 through Saturday, January 27 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Parker (pictured) probably still is best known for his time with "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, but he also has made significant contributions to recordings by George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Prince, and numerous others.

Since leaving Brown's employ in the late 1980s, he's enjoyed a successful solo career, fronting his own band and occasionally teaming up with fellow former JB sidemen Fred Wesley and/or Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis.  Parker's most recent recording, Soul Classics was released in 2012.

Tickets for Maceo Parker at Jazz at the Bistro are $40 for the Wednesday and Thursday shows, $45 for Friday and Saturday, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, November 24 via the Jazz St. Louis box office. 

Sunday Session: November 29, 2015

Mary Halvorson

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StlJN's inbox:

* The Langston Hughes Project, Barbican, review: Ice-T reinvents himself (The Telegraph UK)
* Why rap should share a stage with poetry and jazz (TheConversation.com)
* The Inside Story of David Bowie's Stunning New Album, 'Blackstar' (Rolling Stone)
* What do you get the collector who has everything? How about Ringo Starr’s ‘White Album’ No.0000001? (Dangerous Minds)
* Guitar Trailblazer Mary Halvorson Turns Jazz on Its Head (Rolling Stone)
* Maceo Parker: 98% Funky Stuff (SFJazz.org)
* INTERVIEW: David Amram (CD Box Set David Amram’s Classic American Film Scores 1956-2016 and UK appearances Nov 29 to Dec 3) (LondonJazzNews.com)
* How a Kid Running an Obscure Music Forum Became the Target Of the UK's Biggest Ever Piracy Case (Vice.com)
* What I Learned About The Record Industry By Carsharing With A Millenial (MusicThinkTank.com)
* Watch as Allen Toussaint gets the jazz funeral treatment he richly deserved (AV Club)
* Jazz Guitar Great Bucky Pizzarelli Recovering From Stroke (Jazz Times)
* Moran, Threadgill Lead Tribute to Cecil Taylor in Harlem (DownBeat)
* Interstellar Overdrive: A Heavy Music Fan’s Guide to Forgotten Synth Icons (Vice.com)
* How Kickstarter Helped a 60s Legend Preserve a Piece of Rock History (Vanity Fair)
* Manfred Eicher: the man who made ECM on working with Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich and Arvo Part (Irish Times)
* Train Songs, Freedom, The Blues and Country Music (UDiscoverMusic.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Summer 2015 jazz film festival

Longtime StLJN readers may recall that in summer when there's a temporary dearth of touring acts scheduled to hit St. Louis in a given week, this space occasionally has been diverted from previewing upcoming shows to present an online festival of jazz films suitable for whiling away a few idle hours. And so it is once again this year, as we offer a half-dozen music-related movies for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

First up is Celebrating a Masterpiece: Kind of Blue, a 55–minute documentary from 2008 that tells the story behind Miles Davis' historic album through interviews and vintage performance footage. Produced for the 50th anniversary box set reissue of the album, the film was directed by Chris Lenz, written by the noted record producer and critic Michael Cuscuna, and co-produced by author and journalist Ashley Kahn, who in 2000 wrote a well-regarded book on the same subject.

After the jump, you can see Free the Jazz, a 2014 film by director Czabán György that looks at contemporary improvised music from the perspective of practitioners such as Matthew Shipp, Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee, and others.

That's followed by Jazz Legends in Their Own Words, a documentary from the BBC compiling clips from their archives with performances and interviews from musicians including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Moving from the famous to the not-so-famous, Joe Albany...A Jazz Life is a 1980 documentary film, shot in 16mm, that recounts the often-troubled life of the bop pianist best known for his recordings with saxophonist Charlie Parker. More recently, Albany's daughter A.J. wrote a book about her dad, Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales from Childhood that in 2013 was made into a feature film starring John Hawkes as Albany.

After that, you can see Maceo Parker - My First Name Is Maceo, a documentary about the life and music of the alto saxophonist known for his work with James Brown and George Clinton.

Last but not least, we keep it on the one with The Story of Funk - One Nation under a Groove, a BBC documentary that does a reasonably good job of recounting the rapid evolution of funk music from the prototypical sounds devised in the late 1960s by Brown and Sly Stone into one of the dominant musical styles of the 1970s.

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

Sunday Session: January 25, 2015

Maceo Parker

For your Sunday reading enjoyment and edification, here are some noteworthy items encountered during the past week about jazz, creative music, and more:

* The Piano Is Dead! Long Live the Piano! (The Daily Beast)
* For Musicians, a TV Series Underscores Diminishing Role (New York Times)
* Five Long Term Music Industry Predictions (And How Disney Will Rule The World) (Music Industry Blog)
* Blowin’ Heat: Maceo Parker On James Brown, ‘Get On Up,’ Ferguson, and Musical Unity (KQED)
* Netflix Producing Nina Simone Documentary from Liz Garbus, Set for 2015 (Variety)
* Sundance 2015 first look review: What Happened, Miss Simone? – a remarkable life, painted by numbers (The Guardian UK)
* Watch a human musician and his robots improvise together (Washington Post)
* Jazz Education Network Conference 2015: Sharing The Gift Of Jazz (KPLU)
* Jazz Connect & Winter Jazzfest – a New York state of mind (Seattle Times)
* 4-Disc Box of Coltrane’s 1961 European Tour Coming - Quintet recordings feature Eric Dolphy (Jazz Times)
* Bo Dollis, Mardi Gras Indians Big Chief, Dies at 71 - Prominent frontman of NOLA’s Wild Magnolias (Jazz Times)
* Meeting of New Music Minds at SF Gathering (New Music Box)
* Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock Announce World Tour (Billboard)
* Moog Announces System 55, System 35 & Model 15 Reissues (Future Music)
* Setting New Standards - American Songbook Series Reshapes the Canon (New York Times)
* Pro Tools Is Releasing a Free Version of Its Legendary Audio Software (Gizmodo)
* Music Bureaucrats’ Nomination Abomination (Wall Street Journal)
* When Bauhaus Met Lounge Music (The Atlantic)
* The Bad Plus puts its spin on a classic Ornette Coleman LP (Boston Globe)
* This Is What The Sound of Your Refrigerator Looks Like (Vice.com)
* Branford Marsalis, taking the long view (Boston Globe)

Jazz this week: Marissa Mulder, Jazz St. Louis benefit gala, Hamiet Bluiett & George Sams, Roger Ingram, and more

It's Mardi Gras weekend in St. Louis, and though the "official" Mardi Gras events in recent years have tended to feature rock cover bands and DJs rather than jazz and blues, there will be plenty of jazz and creative music around town this week, if you know where to look.

For the Funky Butt Brass Band, St. Louis' best known exponents of the New Orleans brass band sound, the next few days are the equivalent of the week before Christmas for Santa Claus' various helpers and stand-ins. The FBBB will kick off the weekend this evening at Blues City Deli's King Cake Party, then team up with NOLA R&B/zydeco tribute band Gumbohead for gigs on Saturday at the Old Rock House and Tuesday at the Broadway Oyster Bar.
 
Elsewhere around town tonight, singer Marissa Mulder (pictured) makes her St. Louis debut as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, performing her show "The Songs of Tom Waits" at the Gaslight Theater.  Mulder will do the show twice more, on Friday and Saturday, while the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues weekends through April 26. .

Also tonight, singer Denise Thimes performs at the Ethical Society of St. Louis; pianist Ptah Williams' trio will play a free concert featuring the music of Chick Corea for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music from keyboardist Jim Hegarty, flute player Fred Tompkins, and others.

Tomorrow night, Jazz St. Louis will hold their annual benefit gala at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Clayton, featuring the legendary funk saxophonist Maceo Parker as the headline entertainment, plus dinner, drinks, a silent auction, and more. As of this writing, there still are some tickets available, starting at $400 per person; call 314-289-4034 for details.

Also on Friday, pianist Pete Ruthenberg will play "The Music of Herbie Hancock" at the Kranzberg Arts Center; trombonists Doug Bert and Rodney Lancaster join forces for a gig at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer/pianist Jesse Gannon and his band Truth return to The Engine Room; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

On Saturday afternoon, trumpeter George Sams will re-start his Nu-Art Series by playing a duo concert with baritone sax great Hamiet Bluiett at a new location, the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site downtown.

Then on Saturday evening, Roger Ingram, known as lead trumpeter for Harry Connick Jr.'s big band and as as jazz educator much in demand, will be the featured guest performer at this year's Mineral Area College Jazz Festival down in Park Hills.

Also on Saturday evening and a bit closer to home, pianist Dave Venn and saxophonist Willie Akins will team up for a one-night-only performance at Jazz at the Bistro; the Coleman-Hughes Project with singer Adrienne Felton will play at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will return to The Wine Press, and pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will take the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will hold their first event of the year - January's show was canceled due to bad weather - at the usual location, the American Czech Hall at 4690 Lansdowne in south St. Louis.

Also on Sunday, trumpeter Russell Gunn will be back home, performing on a bill with singer Dionne Ferris of Arrested Development at the Casino Queen's Club Sevens.While the first show is sold out, a second show at 8:30 p.m. has been added.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Tom Byrne is at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; and on Tuesday, the St. Louis Community College at Meramec Jazz Combos will present a free performance at Meramec Theatre on campus.

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.)

(Updated after posting with info on the Russell Gunn show.) 

Maceo Parker to headline Jazz St. Louis fundraising gala on Friday, February 28

Saxophonist Maceo Parker will be the featured musical entertainment  for Jazz St. Louis' annual fundraising gala, to be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, February 28 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, 100 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton.

Parker (pictured) is best known for helping define the funk genre while working with James Brown and in various combinations with fellow former Brown sidemen Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis.

Since launching his solo career in 1990 after nearly two decades with Brown, Parker also has played with musicians such as Ray Charles, Prince, Ani Difranco, James Taylor, De La Soul, Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His most recent album Soul Classics was recorded with the WDR Big Band in Germany and released here in the USA in 2012.

The benefit gala will begin with a cocktail hour featuring music from Jazz St. Louis' JazzU students, followed by a dinner and live auction; the performance by Parker; and a post-show cabaret with singer Denise Thimes.

So how much are tickets? Well, neither the announcement in Jazz St. Louis' email newsletter nor the page about the event on their website makes any mention of prices, which suggests that it's one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" type of deals.

We can tell you that tickets for previous JSL galas have started at $500 per person, so it seems likely this year's event will cost at least that much. StLJN will try to get that detail nailed down and this post updated at first opportunity, but if money's no object and you're ready to reserve a spot right away, you can do so any time between now and February 21 by calling JSL development associate Daniel Hodges at 314-289-4034 or sending an email to daniel@jazzstl.org.

In the meantime, we leave you to contemplate the theoretical notion of a crowd of folks in formalwear who have paid $500 (and up!) apiece responding to Maceo's exhortations to "Shake Everything You Got":