So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The nascent Music at The Intersection festival in Grand Center, which originally was scheduled for September of this year but postponed due to the pandemic, has announced dates for 2021. The event, part of a proposed "St. Louis Music Week" sponsored by the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and the Steward Family Foundation, will take place the weekend of September 10-12.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn (pictured), who contributed memorably to David Bowie's 1975 hit "Young Americans' and the subsequent tour, will join other distinguished alumni of Bowie's band and some famous friends for "A Bowie Celebration," a tribute concert that will stream online on Friday, January 8.

* Singer Denise Thimes was interviewed about her holiday show on Sunday at Blue Strawberry by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Bassist Larry Kornfeld is the subject of a short feature in Bass magazine, highlighting the track "Pusherman" from Rhythm City, the recent Autumn Hill release from Kornfeld, pianist Ptah Williams, and drummer Rob Silverman.

* Mangia Italiano, the long running bar and restaurant on South Grand that for years featured jazz on Friday nights among its varied musical offerings, will close at the end of this month.

* Fictional Characters, the new release from guitarist Scott Jones, was reviewed by Mike Jacobs at AllAboutJazz.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Post-Dispatch business reporter Tim Bryant writes today that the Music Center of Kirkwood (once known as Mel Bay Music) will relocate later this year from downtown Kirkwood to a former paint store on Watson Rd. in Crestwood. The new store, to be renamed City Music and Education Center, will be triple the size of the current Kirkwood location - and, interestingly, less than a mile from one of two Guitar Center stores in the St. Louis area.

* St. Louis magazine's Stefene Russell has an article from the mag's March issue now online about Jazz St. Louis' 15th anniversary and upcoming benefit gala.

* Back at the Post, Terry Perkins reviewed last Saturday's concert by Chris Botti with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. For a contrasting view, read this blog entry about the trumpeter's St. Louis show from blogger Amy Zopfi, a blogger from Las Vegas who's planning on following Botti across the country for an entire year's worth of concerts.

* The remodeling of Mangia Italiano is done, and the South Grand restaurant and bar reopened this week, with saxophonist Dave Stone's trio set to resume their long-running Friday night gig this evening.

* The St. Louis-based traditional jazz and swing band Cornet Chop Suey (pictured) is on the road this weekend, heading west to Seaside, OR, where they'll be one of 11 bands performing for the 28th annual Oregon Dixieland Jubilee. The festival starts today and continues through Sunday.

* Jay Landesman, former owner of the Crystal Palace nightclub in St. Louis' famed Gaslight Square entertainment district, died this week in London at age 91. You can read the Post-Dispatch obituary by Deb Peterson here, and a piece about Landesman from the Riverfront Times' Aimee Levitt here.

(Edited 2/28/11 to add the blogger's name to the item about Chris Botti.)

Jazz this week: Special "dog days" edition

It's the dog days of August here in St. Louis, and so we've got at least one more comparatively slow weekend in store before jazz concert and club activity begins to ramp up again. Next weekend brings "A Night of Jazz Greats" to Harris Stowe State University; Jazz at the Bistro resumes Labor Day weekend with clarinetist Scott Alberici, and after that, we're into September, with a number of shows scheduled that have already stirred up lots of interest, including Sonny Rollins at the Touhill and Chris Botti at the Fox.

But let's get back to this weekend. With many summer series wrapped up, fall series yet to begin, and no touring performers of note scheduled here for a few days, it's a good time to check out one or more of the recurring weekly gigs around town, like Dave Stone's Friday night hit at Mangia Italiano, Willie Akins' long running Saturday matinee at Spruill's, or the New St. Louis Jazz X-Tet's regular Sunday night session at Riddle's. You'll find all of these and a bunch more recurring gigs featuring local musicians listed on the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

Note: If you should encounter a minor glitch in calendar operations, it may be because yr. humble editor will be taking advantage of this relative lull in jazz concert action over the next several days to update the calendar with all the fall-season schedule information received so far here at StLJN HQ. In the meantime, as always, if you're wondering what's going on with a particular venue or musician, you can always check out their site directly by following the links over on the sidebar.

Once the calendar mega-update is complete, I hope next week to have not only the regular weekly highlights post, but also another post with a sort of preview/overview of upcoming jazz and creative music for the entire fall season. Stay tuned.

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, budget-friendly local listening, and more

The first part of January typically is a slow time of year for touring bands, and so The Bad Plus (pictured) have the local field virtually to themselves in that regard this week, as they return to St. Louis to perform through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Almost always entertaining and/or interesting, occasionally controversial, the Bad Plus have proved to be one of the more buzzworthy groups in jazz over the last few years, re-conceiving the piano trio format to their own specifications and doing improvisational interpretations of unexpected songs with origins in pop, rock and techno. For more about on The Bad Plus, check out the Jazz St. Louis podcast interview with the band, as well as last Saturday's video post here at StLJN.

The Bad Plus may be the only major touring jazz group in St. Louis this week, but they're far from the only band worthy of your attention, as many of our local stalwarts also are working diligently at their usual gigs. Note also, O cash-strapped and recession-wary music lovers, that most of these local gigs are very affordable, with some fine music available for a modest cover and/or the cost of a couple of drinks or, in some cases, absolutely free.

For example, if you're a big band fan or a swing dancer, a few bucks will get you in to see the Original Knights of Swing big band on Friday at Casa Loma Ballroom. If you like soulful singers, on Saturday vocalist Kim Massie brings her potent brew of blues, jazz, pop and whatever else she feels like singing to Brandt's.

If small combo jazz is more your speed, there's saxophonist Dave Stone's trio on Friday at Mangia Italiano; saxophonist Willie Akins' group on Saturday at Spruill's; a Sunday jazz brunch with trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Mark Friedricks at Jimmy's on the Park; and the Sunday evening session with the St. Louis New Jazz X-Tet at Riddle's.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band does their first gig of 2009 at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, Utter Chaos returns for another no-cover-charge show at The Gramophone.

Also on Tuesday, the Des Lee Big Band Jazz Festival takes place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. This free event featuring three student jazz ensembles - a high school honors band and groups from McKinley Classical and Academic Middle School and St. Gabriel the Archangel School - in concert "performing big band standards as a culminating activity of an all-day festival of clinics, master classes and rehearsals."

And coming up on Wednesday, the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club has its monthly meeting at Borders, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd in Brentwood. This month, KMOV-TV anchor/reporter Russell Kinsaul and Jazz St. Louis' Gene Dobbs Bradford will discuss Dave Brubeck's landmark album Time Out with the assembled throng.

For more jazz-related events in the St. Louis area 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.)

Jazz this week: Jacky Terrasson, Manhattan Transfer, the final week for Cookie's, and more

The week before Christmas is a busy one for many people, but if you've got the time, and are willing to brave the colder-than-usual weather, there's definitely some music worth hearing around St. Louis over the next few days, starting with the two well-known touring jazz headliners who will be in town this weekend.

First up, there's pianist Jacky Terrasson (pictured), who opens a four-night stand tonight at Jazz at the Bistro and continues through Saturday. You can find out more about Terrasson and see some video clips of him performing in this post from last Saturday.

Then on Friday, the singing group Manhattan Transfer once again brings their annual holiday show to the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Some jazz critics find the Transfer's slickness a bit off-putting, but I've always enjoyed them for what they are, and in an era when so many singers seem to traffic exclusively in melismatic over-emoting, their overall musicality and general good taste in songs, musicians and arrangements stands out even more.

This also marks the final week for the Webster Groves music venue Cookie's Jazz and More, which is closing after Saturday's show. (There is potential for the space to reopen under new ownership; more about that in an upcoming post.) The club's final three nights will feature a jam session with Sound Unlimited on Thursday; Trio Tres Bien with singer Danita Mumphard on Friday; and a no-cover-charge evening of smooth jazz with Three Central on Saturday.

Elsewhere around town, on Thursday singer Erin Bode returns to the Tenderloin Room (inside the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel). Somehow, Bode's delicate vocals seem like they'd be a mismatch for the Tenderloin's old-school steakhouse atmosphere, but this is, in fact, just the latest in a series of gigs for her there, so obviously it must be working out OK for both band and venue.

On Friday, Louisiana-based steel guitarist Dave Easley will be sitting in with the Dave Stone Trio during their regular Friday gig at Mangia Italiano. Easley's got some nice credits - he's performed and/or recorded with a wide variety of jam bands and jazz artists, including the Brian Blade Fellowship, Dave Liebman, Kenny Garrett, Howard Levy, Charlie Byrd, Seamus Blake, Dr. John, members of the String Cheese Incident, the Greyboy Allstars and Tiny Universe, and more. The slippery sound of steel guitar ought to provide an interesting complement to Stone's somewhat elliptical style on tenor sax, and given Easley's diverse experiences and Stone's willingness to go outside as well as inside, I'm thinking this gig very well could be the hidden gem of the week. In an email telling StLJN about Easley's sit-in, drummer Kyle Honeycutt also notes that Stone's trio plays until 2:30 a.m., which is good news for those in search of late-night sounds.

On Saturday afternoon, you can check out a couple of free in-store performances at Webster Records, which will host sets from singer and pianist Anita Rosamond at 1:00 p.m. and guitarist Art Ruprecht at 3:00 p.m.. On Sunday night, the St. Louis New Jazz Xtet continues their weekly gig at Riddle's, and on Monday, the Sessions Big Band is back at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Due to the Christmas holiday, the next "Jazz this week" post likely will go up late next Monday or early Tuesday. In the meantime, you can find more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond by visiting 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.)

(Edited after posting to delete a sentence fragment.)

Jazz this week: A new jazz interpretation of Porgy and Bess; Matthew Von Doran; and more

Both the Internet in general and Blogger in particular are acting rather spiteful and capricious right now, so this will be a short post.

Two particularly noteworthy gigs this weekend: First, the local debut of the new guy in town, guitarist Matthew Von Doran, as he plays a free concert and clinic tonight at Fazio's Frets and Friends with drummer Miles Vandiver and bassist Bob Deboo.

And on Sunday, the Ivory Perry Park summer concert series wraps up its season with a jazz version of Porgy and Bess, performed by a group led by saxophonist Aaron "Strayhorn" Parker and including Raymond Eldridge, Jr., Jerome "Scrooge" Harris, Clifton McBride, Mike Nelson and Dennis Block. The concert is free and open to the public; Ivory Perry Park is located at 800 Belt (at Cabanne) in west St. Louis.

In between those two shows, Jeff Anderson's Positive Energy Quartet is at Brandt's tonight; Dave Stone performs as usual at Mangia Italiano on Friday; and Willie Akins holds forth at Spruill's early Saturday evening. Meanwhile, Cookie's Jazz and More presents a trio of female vocalists over the weekend, with trumpeter Dan Smith and his quintet featuring singer Debby Lennon performing this evening, Kim Massie on Friday and Trio Tres Bien with Danita Mumphard (pictured) on Saturday.

For an expanded list of local jazz-related events, please see the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which will be getting some major updates over the next week, as September gig info arrives from bands and venues and presenters like Webster University and Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series announce their schedules for the rest of the year.

(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.)