So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Regional Arts Commission is holding a workshop on how to apply for one of their Artist Fellowships at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 1 at RAC headquarters, 6128 Delmar Blvd.

Awarded annually, the fellowships recognize ten individuals with grants of $25,000 each, and are open to visual and performing artists from all disciplines.The workshop is free and open to the public; the application period for next year's fellowships ends on Thursday, August 10. For details or to RSVP, go here.

* The latest issue of the St. Louis Blues Society's Bluesletter includes writer Michael Kuelker's remembrances of Mark O'Shaughnessey, the late co-founder/owner of BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

* Pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes is the subject of a brief interview/feature written by musician Lamar Harris for St. Louis magazine.

Pinderhughes (pictured) will perform (with trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah as his special guest) next Thursday, July 20 at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

* DownBeat magazine has opened the voting in their 82nd annual Readers Poll. You can cast a vote for your favorites online here.

* Saxquest is posting to their YouTube channel more videos from their free monthly Saturday afternoon performance series, including the shows by Ben Reece's Unity Quartet in April and Hugh Jones in May.

* Pianist Jim Hegarty has posted another new free improv recording to his "Secret Sessions" BandCamp page, this time featuring clarinetist Eric Paul Mandat, pianist Greg Mills, trumpeter George Sams, and flute player Fred Tompkins.

* A couple of off-the-beaten-path items about Miles Davis showed up this past week in the media, as a story in Autoweek recounted the trumpeter's opinion on Ferraris, while OpenCulture.com compiled some of the insults hurled by Davis over the years at fellow musicians.

Mark O'Shaughnessy 1952 - 2017

Funeral services are set for Mark O'Shaughnessy, founder and co-owner of the St. Louis venue BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

O'Shaughnessy, a longtime advocate for St. Louis music and musicians who opened the first of the club's three incarnations back in 1976, died Saturday, May 27 in his apartment above BB's of complications of diabetes. He was 65.

Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. this Thursday, June 1 at Kutis Affton Chapel, 10151 Gravois Road. A funeral will be held at 9:15 a.m. Friday, June 2 at Affton Chapel, followed at 10:00 a.m. by a Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary, 4092 Blow Street.

BB's operations manager and partner John May told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson that the club will continue business as usual. While O'Shaughnessy (pictured) had announced plans to retire this year, negotiations to buy his share of the BB's business were still underway at the time of his death, May told StLJN.

On a personal note, I knew Mark for more than 35 years, first meeting him when I was one of about 15 audience members for a show by the great singer Betty Carter during BB's second chapter in the early '80s. Although we weren't close friends, he was very encouraging of my efforts in music and journalism over the years - as he was for countless others - and it was always good to see him and talk, however briefly. The St. Louis music scene and the musicians who inhabit it certainly owe him a "thanks" and a debt of gratitude, and though he'll be missed, he'll be remembered fondly.

Mark O'Shaughnessy is survived by his mother, Frances M. O’Shaughnessy of St. Louis; four daughters, Heather O’Shaughnessy of Maui, HI, Kerensia Blackman of Jefferson County, and Kelly Slavin and Megan Steen of St. Louis; a son, Richard VanGelder of Omaha, NE; and five grandchildren.