So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Tomorrow's Cherokee Street Jazz Crawl was previewed in a segment on Fox 2's Thursday morning newscast that included a performance from singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran.

* There's a new interview with saxophonist Oliver Lake featured on Do The Math, the blog of The Bad Plus' pianist Ethan Iverson.

* Trumpeter and former East St. Louisan Russell Gunn (pictured) is the subject of an interview with the online program When We Speak TV.

* Miles Davis Online has news about the plot of Don Cheadle's proposed Miles Davis movie, which now seems to be more of a mystery/thriller than a straight-up musical biography.

* The Riverfront Times offers an overview of St. Louis' best noise and experimental bands.

* Jazz St. Louis and Webster Groves High School are teaming up with Jazz at Lincoln Center to host a regional Essentially Ellington high school jazz band festival on Thursday, January 30 at WGHS, 100 Selma Ave. The free, all-day festival will feature 10 local high school groups performing and getting critiques from visiting clinicians.  JSL education director Phil Dunlap is looking for participating bands now; for more details, go here. The deadline to register is Friday, January 3.

* Multi-instrumentalist and former St. Louisan Marty Ehrlich's newest album A Trumpet in the Morning, set for release next Tuesday, was reviewed by jazz radio host and blogger Richard Kamins. Erhlich will celebrate the release with a week-long residency at The Stone in NYC.

* In conjunction with its current exhibit of works by artist Rashid Johnson, the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University will present a lecture on Monday, November 18 examining the influence of legendary jazz bandleader and pianist Sun Ra on Johnson and other visual artists. The free event, featuring Huey Copeland, associate professor of art history at Northwestern University, begins with a reception at 6:00 p.m. in the museum and continue with the lecture at 6:30 in the museum's Steinberg Auditorium.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts continues their series of Business Edge workshops with "Your Art, Your Brand: An Artist's Guide to Being Noticeable and Getting Noticed" at 7:00 p.m. next Monday, November 11 at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar. The cost to attend is $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday's episode of Calvin Wilson's "Somethin' Else" on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis will feature the music of George and Ira Gershwin, as recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman and others.

Immediately after that on The Jazz Collective, host Jason Church will have new music from B.D. Lenz, Juris featuring Marcus Johnson, U-Nam featuring Nivo Deux, David Jones, The Brand New Heavies, and Herb Alpert; vintage tracks from Grover Washington Jr., Michael Franks, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Chick Corea and Miles Davis; and local music from Dawn Weber, Jesse Gannon, Jim Manley and Elliott Ranney.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., followed by Church's show at 9:00 p.m., via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Then Sunday night on KWMU (90.7 FM), "Jazz Unlimited" host Dennis Owsley will present "Live Jazz From Carnegie Hall-Part 1," featuring performances from a variety of jazz greats that were recorded at the famed NYC venue. The program airs from 9:00 p.m. to midnight and also can be heard online at http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/.

Emmy nomination in hand, Don Wolff's I Love Jazz is ready for a second season on HEC-TV

An episode of the HEC-TV series I Love Jazz, hosted by longtime St. Louis DJ and jazz advocate Don Wolff, has been nominated for a local Emmy Award in the category of "Special Event Coverage (other than news or sports) Live or Edited" by the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The nominated episode, "I Love Jazz Live," was a combined production of I Love Jazz and HEC-TV LIVE and originally was cablecast last October from the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on the campus of Washington University.

Using the Museum's then-current "Birth of the Cool" exhibit as a jumping-off point, the episode explored the interactions of jazz music, art and architecture during the 1950s via an interview with Michael Murawski of the Kemper Museum and music from an ensemble led by guitarist and Wash U faculty member William Lenihan. As host, Wolff shares the Emmy nomination with John Baker (Producer/Director), Kim Sturm (Technical Director), Dennis Riggs (Executive Producer), Tim Gore (Producer/Co-Host) and Madeline Dames (Associate Producer).

NATAS Mid-America is one of 19 regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and includes television markets in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois, plus neighboring cities in Kentucky, Iowa and Louisiana. This year's Emmy winners will be announced at a banquet to be held Saturday, October 3 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel downtown.

In addition to the Emmy nomination, I Love Jazz recently received four Telly awards, which recognize local, regional, and cable television programs and commercials; video and film productions; and work created for the Web. The "I Love Jazz Live" episode won two Silver Telly awards (the competition's top honor) in the categories of Cultural and Live Event, while an earlier episode featuring singer Jeanne Trevor and Dave Venn won Silver Tellys in the Cultural and Entertainment categories.

Associate producer Madeline Dames said I Love Jazz will kick off its second season on Thursday, September 3 with a program featuring pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True and pianist/singer Curt Landes.

Other episodes in the new season will feature singer Denise Thimes (pictured with Don Wolff), taped in June at the Sheldon Concert Hall; guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli, who was recorded in April at the Touhill Performing Arts Center; and performances from "A Night of Jazz Greats," the benefit concert for the Wolff Jazz Institute featuring Clark Terry and an all-star band that will be held this coming Saturday at Harris-Stowe State University.

In addition, Dames said the I Love Jazz team also has produced another program called A Conversation with... that features an hour-long interview between Wolff and pianist Peter Martin. This show, recorded last summer at Jazz at the Bistro, also will premiere during September.

I Love Jazz can be seen on HEC-TV at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays and 8:00 a.m. Saturdays; HEC-TV is found on Channel 26 on Charter Cable and Channel 99 on AT&T's U-Verse network. Episodes of the program also can be downloaded for free by visiting http://www.hectv.org/ or from Apple's iTunes U. (Look under the "Beyond University" tab, then go to "H" for HEC-TV).

Regarding the latter, Dames said that I Love Jazz is the HEC-TV program most frequently downloaded from iTunes. In July, the show was featured in the "Hot News Headlines" section of the home page at Apple.com, resulting in more than 47,000 Web visitors and more than 15,000 free downloads of I Love Jazz episodes and its companion curriculum.

(Edited after posting to fix a typo.)

Examiner reviews Randy Holmes concert

Trumpeter Randy Holmes' concert last Saturday at the Kemper Museum was reviewed by writer Lisette Dennis for the news and entertainment Web site the St. Louis Examiner. You can read the review of Holmes' tribute to Chet Baker here.

Jazz this week: BAG II's farewell, Good 4 The Soul, Bhob Rainey, Randy Holmes, and more

Looking to hear some jazz or creative music amid the holiday hustle and bustle? Here's what's going on in St. Louis over the next few days:

Tonight, free-improvising saxophonist Bhob Rainey (pictured) will perform a solo concert at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. You can see a couple of short video samples of Rainey's playing here. (The Tuesday night jazz series at The Gramophone is on pause this week as the club hosts a private party.)

On Friday and Saturday, the band Good 4 The Soul brings their fusion of jazz, r&b, funk, soul and gospel influences to Jazz at the Bistro. Also on Friday, singer Kim Massie will be at Brandt's, and saxophonist Dave Stone and his trio play at Mangia Italiano.

On Saturday, trumpeter Randy Holmes and his trio offer a tribute to trumpeter and singer Chet Baker to wrap up the free "Birth of the Cool" concert series at the Kemper Museum on the Washington University campus, and saxophonist Willie Akins will, as far as we know, be doing his usual Saturday thing at Spruill's.

Sunday brings another free concert, as BAG II gives its farewell presentation at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site featuring music from Zimbabwe Nkenya; poetry from Shirley LeFlore, Michael Castro and others; and more. It's a shame the new incarnation of BAG is coming to an end; here's hoping that Nkenya and the others who have been involved in the organization will stay active on the local scene.

Looking beyond the weekend, singer Erin Bode and her band will appear at the restaurant Revival, 3800 Chouteau, on Tuesday night. That same evening, The Gramophone is hosting what's being billed as the "Jazz St. Louis open jam"; for the latest info, go directly to their Web site.

As for New Year's Eve activities, an initial survey of the available options here in the Gateway City suggests a meager number of choices that are of specific interest to jazz fans. As has been the case for the last several years, Jazz at the Bistro will be dark on NYE as the First Night event takes over the Grand Center neighborhood.

This year's First Night lineup (.pdf file) does have some performers of interest, including Kim Massie, the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble, Farshid Etniko, Jeanne Trevor, El Caribe Tropical, and the Urban Groove Project. However, as anyone who's been knows, the First Night experience is qualitatively quite different from going to a club, concert or hotel, and thus may not be your particular cup o' tea.

Local concert stages are, for the most part, dark as well on New Year's Eve, though The Sheldon once again will be a venue for First Night. Looking at some of the clubs around town that regularly feature jazz, it seems that Brandt's, which last NYE featured a triple bill of Trevor, "Peanuts" Whalum and Mae Wheeler, is going with rock/Latin/pop singer Javier Mendoza this year, while The Gramophone will feature funk band Hazard To Your Booty. There's still some research to do with regard to jazz-related NYE options at local hotels and restaurants, though, and so look for updated info on that in a future post.

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.)

Don Wolff's I Love Jazz to cablecast live from the Kemper Museum next Tuesday, October 14

As the longtime host of the "I Love Jazz" radio program, currently heard Friday nights on KFUO (99.1 FM), Don Wolff has done many a live radio broadcast in his day. Now Wolff will be doing real-time television when the video version of I Love Jazz is cablecast live next Tuesday, October 14 from the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on the Washington University campus.

Wolff tells StLJN that the series' third episode will focus on the museum's current "Birth of the Cool" exhibit and will include a segment on Miles Davis as well as live music from William Lenihan (guitar), Randy Holmes (trumpet), Kara Baldus (piano), Ben Wheeler (bass) and Miles Vandiver (drums). Also on tap are interviews with Lenihan, who teaches at Washington University and is involved with both the Kemper Museum's jazz programming and Wash U's Jazz at Holmes series; and Patrick Burke, author of the book Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street and an assistant professor of music at the University.

The event gets underway with a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by the live cablecast from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend, and it's free. However, because space is limited, you must make a reservation by calling Jayne at HEC-TV at 314-531-4455.

Of course, I Love Jazz also can be seen on the HEC-TV cable channel - consult your cable or satellite provider's program guide for specifics on how to find it on your TV - and presumably this episode will be rerun as previous ones have been. No word yet on whether or not the cablecast also will be streamed on HEC-TV's Web site, but someone's supposed to be getting back to me with further details, so watch this space for updates.

(Updated 8/9/08 with the names of the musicians performing on the show.)

"Birth of the Cool" exhibit reviewed in Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch visual arts critic David Bonetti's review of the new exhibit at the Kemper Museum is now online. "Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury" includes a "jazz lounge' where visitors can hear music and see videos featuring jazz musicians of the late 1950s, and the museum also is presenting a jazz concert series in conjunction with the exhibit. You can read Bonetti's review here.

Kemper Museum announces fall concert series

As mentioned here back in June, this fall the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is presenting an exhibition entitled Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, accompanied by a series of free jazz concerts.

Now the Kemper Museum has announced the lineup for the concert series, which will begin on Saturday, September 27 with the BAG Trio, led by bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured). Guitarist William Lenihan and his Quartet will perform on Saturday, October 25, followed by singer/guitarist Teddy Presberg and the Red Note Revivalists on Saturday, November 22. The series concludess with trumpeter Randy Holmes' Trio on Saturday, December 27.

Each of the participating groups will present a program ostensibly inspired by a musician from the era of "cool jazz," with the BAG Trio drawing on the work of Miles Davis, Lenihan looking to Wes Montgomery, and Holmes basing his show on Chet Baker. However, the concept seems to break down a bit with Presberg's show, which supposedly will be inspired by "the Birth of the Cool era" rather than by a specific musician. (This sounds like a rather awkward attempt to shoehorn Presberg into the pre-existing concept. Will his guitar-bass-drums trio be offering compressed arrangements of the harmonically complex scores of, say, "Jeru" or "Darn That Dream"? I think not; a 15-minute funk vamp on the two chords of "So What" seems much more likely...)

All the concerts are free and open to the public, and will take place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, located on the Washington University main campus near the northwest corner of the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker.

Jazz concert series will accompany fall exhibition at Kemper Museum

A news release sent out by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University says that the museum "will sponsor free Saturday afternoon jazz concerts throughout the fall" in conjunction with the exhibition Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury.

The exhibition, which will be on display at the Kemper from September 19 through Jaunary 5, "takes a look at the broad cultural zeitgeist of "cool" that influenced the visual, graphic, and decorative arts, furniture, architecture, music, and film produced in California in the 1950s and early 1960s."

It's listed on the "Upcoming Exhibitions" page of the Kemper's Web site, but there's nothing more specific about the concert series, such as a schedule of performances, either in the news release or, so far, anywhere else on the Kemper's Web site. Still, it sounds like a promising notion, and so yr. StLJN editor will monitor the situation and have more info here when it's released.

Jazz this week: Terell Stafford, Michael Wolff, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass, and more

This week brings another diverse selection of jazz and creative music concerts to St. Louis stages, starting with trumpeter Terell Stafford, who performs at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday and Saturday.

Stafford has worked as a sideman with McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride, John Clayton, Steve Turre, Dave Valentin, and Russell Malone as well as being a member of Matt Wilson's critically acclaimed band Arts and Crafts. He also has recorded as a leader for the locally based MAXJAZZ label, and is spending this week doing an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, playing school concerts and working with student musicians. To see a couple of videos featuring Stafford in action, check out this previous post.

The other touring act in town this week is pianist Michael Wolff, who's playing at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Saturday. Wolff may be best remembered as the leader of the house band on Arsenio Hall's talk show, but he also had plenty of serious jazz credits in his pre-Posse days, including work with Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Airto Moriera and Flora Purim’s Fingers band, and Cal Tjader. As a bandleader, Wolff has concentrated on small ensembles, as on his most recent CD Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, a collection of standards performed by a trio that also includes electric bassist John B. Williams and drummer Victor Jones. For his St. Louis concert, Wolff's group also will feature tabla player Badal Roy, who worked with Miles Davis back in the day.

This week's free Jazz at Holmes concert on Thursday night at Washington University features a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass from singer Jan Shapiro, a former St. Louisan who now teaches at Berklee College of Music in Boston, along with guitarist William Lenihan and pianist Kara Baldus.

Another free show happens at Washington University on Friday, when the group Mmmelt, described as a mix of "ambient, punk, world beat, jazz, electronics, avant-garde and spoken word," kicks off the concert series at the new Kemper Art Museum. For more experimental improv, post-rock and other genre-defying sounds, you also can check out Tony Renner's trio learn, artist! and Eric Hall's band Peanuts on Friday at the Schlafly Brewery and Tap Room downtown.

On Sunday, the BAG Trio commemorates Black History Month with a free concert called "From Ragtime to No Time" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site. And looking beyond the weekend, on Monday night the Webster University Big Band and the Genesis Jazz Project will team up at Webster's Winifred Moore Auditorium for a program called "The St. Louis Blues & All That Jazz."

As always, these highlights are just some of what's happening around town; for more local jazz-related events 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.)

(Edited 2/21/08 to correct the day of the Michael Wolff show.)

Washington University launching free concert series at Kemper Museum

Washington University's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has announced a new series of free Friday night concerts featuring St. Louis musicians, and several of the shows may be of potential interest to jazz listeners.

The group Mmmelt, described as a fusion of "ambient, punk, world beat, jazz, electronics, avant-garde and spoken word" will kick off the series at 6 p.m., Friday, February 22, followed by jazz bassist and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) on Friday, February 29. Other upcoming performances will include Teddy Presberg and the Red Note Revivalists performing "improvisational acid jazz" on March 21, and guitarist Tony Renner's experimental trio learn, artist! on Friday, March 28.

All the concerts are free and open to the public, and will be held at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, which is located on the Wash U. campus at the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker in the spot formerly occupied by the Steinberg Gallery. For a complete schedule of performances, visit the museum's Web site, or for more information, you can call 314-935-5490 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.

(Edited after posting to add more tags.)