So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Sunday's Jazz St. Louis "Family Concert" with Metta Quintet at the Touhill Performing Arts Center was the subject of a short report from Art Holliday on local NBC affiliate KSDK's noon newscast.

* Meanwhile, guitarist Steve Schenkel (pictured) talked about his concert of the music of George Harrison next Monday at Webster University for this story by Christa Corrigan of the Webster-Kirkwood Times.

* The Post-Dispatch's Tim Bryant has an article about efforts to save the buildings formerly known as the Castle Ballroom and the Palladium, including some quotes from author, illustrator and blues historian Kevin Belford about the latter.

* Filmmaker and University City native Rod Milam is working on a documentary about the many musicians who have come from his hometown, and he's seeking funding to finish the movie via Kickstarter.

Jazz this week: Stanley Jordan, a "family concert" from Metta Quintet, and more

This week's menu of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features everything from big bands to a stellar jazz guitarist who's practically a band all by himself. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, guitarist Stanley Jordan (pictured) returns to St. Louis to begin a four-night engagement with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro. Jordan is known for his distinctive two-hand tapping technique that enables him to play lead and accompanying parts simultaneously on a standard guitar, and in recent years, he's also started playing guitar and piano at the same time. For more about that, plus two entire concerts' worth of video footage of Jordan, see this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Freddie Washington will lead a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Washington is a fine modern jazz player who draws on influences such as John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, and on ballads you can also hear echoes of older guys like Lester Young and Ben Webster in his playing.

On Friday, singer Valerie Tichacek and her cohorts in Wack-A-Doo will bring their take on the pre-WWII swing sound to Robbie's House of Jazz, and guitarist Larry Brown Jr. will celebrate the release of his new CD with an early set at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups. (Brown and his band also will do an early set at BB's on Saturday night.) Also on Friday, pianist Nick Schlueter leads a trio with bassist Jessica Sacks and drummer Paul Shaw at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday, Robbie's will feature guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio with special guest Erika Johnson on vocals, performing in a fundraising event for St. Louis Business Resources.

On Sunday afternoon, Jazz St. Louis will present their first-ever "Family Concert," a performance by Metta Quintet at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The show, which costs just $5, is billed as "a fun, interactive introduction to jazz that illuminates the art form’s cultural origins, concepts about improvisation and creative self-expression and explores the role and responsibility of each individual member of the jazz ensemble and how they all must work together to serve and achieve the collective goal of making great music."

Also on Sunday afternoon, there's a jam session and performance at BB's to benefit bassist Raymond Eldridge, who has played with many local jazz artists over the years but recently has been ailing and in and out of the hospital. (Full disclosure: Yr. humble StLJN editor has played a few gigs with Eldridge, who's a good guy as well as a good bass player. Here's hoping for a healthy turnout at the benefit, and better health soon for Eldridge himself.)

On Monday, guitarist Steve Schenkel leads a group playing jazz interpretations of the music of former Beatle guitarist George Harrison in a concert at Webster University.

Also on Monday (and just a bit down the road in Webster Groves), the Genesis Jazz Project will be performing at Robbie's House of Jazz, while at almost the same time downtown, the Sessions Big Band will be at BB's.

On Tuesday morning, pianist Carolbeth True and singer Christi John Bye will perform in a "Coffee Concert" at the Sheldon, with the program repeating on Wednesday as well.

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.)

Notes from the Net: Al Jarreau recovering; JazzReach gets funding; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Starting with some recent linkage related to the St. Louis area's most famous jazz musician, the Miles Davis exhibit in Montreal was reviewed by J.D. Considine of the Toronto Globe and Mail here. Meanwhile, JazzOnline's Miles Davis Podcast series, which features interviews with famous folk talking about Davis, in recent weeks has added segments featuring singer, actor and spoken word performer Henry Rollins, trumpeter Mike Metheny, bassist/producer Bill Laswell, trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Steve Kuhn and guitarist Nels Cline. You can access the whole series here. Finally, Riffs on Jazz blogger John Anderson muses on Davis' score for Louis Malle’s 1958 film Ascenseur pour l’échafraud (Elevator to the Gallows) here.

* In news of another St. Louis native, multi-instrumentalist J.D Parran was part of two "Jazz Meets Classical" concerts presented last weekend by the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at Columbia University's Miller Theater. The performances - reviewed here by Steve Smith of the New York Times, with a photo of Parran accompanying the online version of the story - were the culmination of a weeklong series of seminars bringing together musicians from the jazz and classical worlds.

* Turning to news of coming attractions, bassist Christian McBride is doing a trio tour this summer with pianist Chick Corea and drummer Brian Blade. McBride will be back in St. Louis in September for a duo concert at the Sheldon with pianist Peter Martin, and then again in March for a Ray Brown tribute at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Singer Al Jarreau (pictured) is recovering after being admitted to a hospital in France late last Thursday, July 22. Jarreau, 70, collapsed on stage with respiratory problems during a performance, and was taken to the intensive care unit of a clinic in the southern Alpine town of Gap, where he initially was listed in critical condition. Jarreau's condition subsequently improved enough for him to be moved by helicopter on Sunday to a hospital in Marseilles, where he is expected to continue to rest and undergo tests for several more days. His management is posting updates about Jarreau's condition on the singer's website. Jarreau is scheduled to come to St. Louis in February for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Everything Is Everything, saxophonist Kirk Whalum's CD of the music of singer/songwriter/pianist and St. Louis native Donny Hathaway, is set for release next month. Whalum will be back in St. Louis on August 13 for the Guitars and Saxes concert at the Pageant.

* The Preservation Hall Jazz Band also has a new CD, Preservation, a compilation featuring an eclectic selection of more than 20 guest artists, including Angelique Kidjo, Tom Waits, Del McCoury, Terence Blanchard, Pete Seeger, Dr. John, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard, Bobby McFerrin and more. The disc was recorded at Preservation Hall, with proceeds to benefit the historic New Orleans venue and its Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program. The PHJB and McCoury will perform in October at the Family Arena in St. Charles.

* JazzReach, Inc. is one of 79 NYC-based arts organizations to receive "a significant infusion of funding" from the Open Society Foundations, which last week announced $11 million in grants to support community and educational arts initiatives. The two-year operating-support grants ranging from $65,000 to $250,000. Founded in 1994 by drummer Hans Schuman, JazzReach is a nationally recognized not-for-profit organization that promotes a greater appreciation, awareness and understanding of jazz music through multi-media educational programs for young audiences. JazzReach's resident ensemble Metta Quintet will return to St. Louis in November to play at the Touhill under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis.

* Guitarist John McLaughlin will be one the headliners at The New Universe Music Festival, an event to be presented by his current record company Abstract Logix on November 20 and 21 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Guitarist Jimmy Herring and drummer Lenny White also will play the fusion-filled fest. McLaughlin will be in St. Louis earlier that same month to play at the Sheldon.

* Here's a review of drummer Stanton Moore's latest CD Groove Alchemy, written by Phillip Booth for his blog Between The Lines (via AllAboutJazz.com). Moore will be in St. Louis with Garage a Trois in September to play at the Old Rock House.

* Finally, a couple of online resources for your further edification and/or amusement during these steamy dog days: The venerable jazz mag Cadence recently beefed up its online presence considerably, and the BBC's Radio 3 has just put online much of their extensive archive of "world music" programming.

Jazz this week: Metta Quintet, Lenihan & Williams, and more

Whether it's because of Halloween, the impending end of Daylight Savings Time, pre-Election Day activities, the economic recession, or something else entirely, it's a relatively slow weekend for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with just a handful of shows to highlight:

Tonight, guitarist William Lenihan and pianist Ptah Williams will play music from Miles Davis' album Bitches Brew in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also tonight, percussionist Thomas Zirkle gives a free concert at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park's Mildred E. Bastian Performing Arts Center. The concert will feature Zirkle's compositions for solo marimba as well as new music for the duo HaZMaT, which teams Zirkle with fellow percussionist Matt Henry.

On Friday and Saturday, the Metta Quintet performs at Jazz at the Bistro. The NYC-based ensemble led by drummer H. Benjamin "Hans" Schumann has been in town all week for an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, and they've brought a lineup that's significantly different from the one described on their Web site and in a post here last Saturday.

Schumann and bassist Joshua Ginsburg remain with the ensemble, but saxophonists Marcus Stickland and Mark Gross and pianist Helen Sung are gone. For their St. Louis gig this week, the Metta Quintet instead is featuring trumpeter Phillip Dizack, a 2007 graduate of Manhattan School of Music who's worked with saxophonist Greg Tardy and done freelance jazz and Latin gigs around NYC; alto saxophonist Sharel Cassity (pictured), who went to Juilliard and has worked with the Diva Jazz Orchestra, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and guitarist Mark Whitfield; and the fine young pianist Lawrence Fields, a St. Louis native and recent graduate of Berklee College of Music.

Fields is, as many local listeners already know, an enormously promising player who has performed and/or recorded with notables such as Alvin Batiste, Branford Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Terri Lynne Carrington and Nicholas Payton. You can see a profile of him done by Ruth Ezell for Living St. Louis, the local newsmagazine show of PBS affiliate KETC, in the embedded video window below.

As for Dizack and Kassity, I honestly can't tell you much beyond what you can see for yourself on their respective Web sites, though Jazz St. Louis director of operations Bob Bennett, a saxophonist himself, did note in an email that he digs Kassity's bop-flavored sound.

This just in: Jazz St. Louis is offering a two-for-the-price-of-one deal on tickets for Friday night's sets by the Metta Quintet. To take advantage of the special offer, order your tickets by calling the Jazz St. Louis offices at 314-289-4030 and using the coupon code METTA0801.

Looking beyond the weekend, the Sessions Big Band will be back at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups on Monday night, and on Tuesday, The Gramophone features saxophonist Bennett Wood along with election returns on the big-screen TV.

As usually happens at the end of one month and the beginning of another, gig information from both venues and musicians is still arriving at StLJN HQ. You'll find the latest updates on more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond on 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Helen Sung, Marcus Strickland and the Metta Quintet

This week, we've got a grab-bag of videos related to the Metta Quintet, who will be in St. Louis next week to do an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, culminating in performances at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday, October 31 and Saturday, November 1.

As the the official resident ensemble of JazzReach Performing Arts & Education Association in NYC, the Metta Quintet spends a good deal of time in educational settings, but the group's members - pianist Helen Sung, saxophonists Marcus Strickland and Mark Gross, bassist Joshua Ginsburg and drummer/JazzReach founder H. Benjamin Schumann - are all accomplished working players with substantial musical resumes outside the group as well. (Past members of the Metta Quintet include saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, both of whom have led their own groups at the Bistro in recent years, and pianist George Colligan.)

Unfortunately, there seem to be no readily available videos online that feature the entire quintet in action, so instead, let's take at look at some clips featuring two of the group's better-known members. First up is a video featuring pianist Helen Sung performing "Blues Connotation" at the Perugia jazz festival in Italy earlier this year, backed by bassist Giuseppe Bassi, drummer Sangoma Everett and saxophonist Roberto Ottoviano.

The next video embed features an excerpt from a performance by saxophonist Marcus Strickland's group Twi-Life in April 2008 at Small's in NYC. The video quality is not great, as the clip was shot using only ambient light in a dark club, but the sound certainly is good enough to hear what Strickland is playing, ably abetted by guitarist Lage Lund, bassist Carlos Henderson and drummer E.J. Strickland.

Finally, since the Metta Quintet will be giving school performances and working with music students during their visit to St. Louis, today's final clip is an excerpt from a workshop in which they coach student musicians at the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT through some basic improvisations on the standard "C Jam Blues." Although the objective musical value of this clip is slight (assuming you're not one of the students involved, or a proud parent of same), it does provide a glimpse of how the Metta Quintet helps young musicians get acquainted with jazz concepts, as well as the enthusiasm they bring to the task.