So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness have teamed up for a new podcast for aspiring musicians called "You'll Hear It," offering "a combo of actionable advice and occasional humor in just 10 minutes a day" via Martin's Open Studio Productions.

* Bassist Jim Widner, who heads the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri St. Louis and directs the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, has been named the Missouri Association for Jazz Education’s Outstanding Jazz Educator for 2018.  Widner, who previously won the award back in 1990, has announced that he plans to retire from UMSL next year.

* Metro Theater Company's production of "Bud, Not Buddy," the "concert play" with a score by trumpeter Terence Bradford, was spotlighted on the HEC-TV arts program Scope.

* Bassist Bob DeBoo and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor (pictured) promoted the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" in a segment on KMOV's Great Day St. Louis.

* The bossa nova and jazz trio The Bonbon Plot was featured in a story in the Alton RiverBender.

* St. Louis native Josephine Baker's trip back to her hometown in 1953 after decades living overseas was the subject of an archival St. Louis Post-Dispatch article posted this week on STLToday.com.

* Singer and Webster University alumna Alyssa Hegwood was featured in Webster U's campus paper The Journal.

* 80-year-old saxophonist Lee Trapp, who frequently practices outdoors on the Lindenwood University campus ala Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, was profiled in Lindenwood's online student publication The LindenLink.

* Keyboardist Jim Hegarty has posted to Bandcamp as a "name your price" download another of his "Secret Sessions" recordings, featuring percussionist Henry Claude, pianist Greg Mills, cornetist George Sams, guitarist Steven Thomas, and flute player Fred Tompkins, plus Hegarty on Moog Voyager.

He's also posted to Bandcamp a live album called Sky Water Smokestack, recorded just last week at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park. The performance was improvised to non-narrative films of scenes of the Mississippi River by an ensemble including Hegarty on piano and synthesizer, cellist Tracy Andreotti, clarinetist Eric Paul Mandat, and mallet percussionist Thomas Zirkle.

* CarolBrass representative Jim Bohm will be in St. Louis from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. next Tuesday, February 13 at UMSL, showing off the company's line of Bb, C, and piccolo trumpets, flugelhorns, and cornets and offering demonstration models for brass players to try.

* The weekly jazz performances at Thurman's in Shaw are briefly mentioned in a Riverfront Times food blog post about the bar's new menu.  

Jazz this week: Gateway Jazz Festival, MOAJE jam session, and more

As the dog days of August wind down and we look forward to the start of the fall presenting season, here's a look at some of the more noteworthy live jazz performances happening in and around St. Louis this Labor Day weekend.

On Friday night, singer Ann Dueren's trio will provide the music for the annual Queeny Park Art Fair; The Sidemen will play at Evangeline's; guitarist Tom Byrne's trio will perform at Thurman Grill; saxophonist Kendrick Smith leads a trio at Cigar Inn; and Boisiac will do a late-night set at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Saturday afternoon, British clarinet phenom Julian Bliss will present a free public clinic/workshop at Saxquest.

Saturday evening, singer Feyza Eren and pianist Carolbeth True will duet at The Wine Press; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Randy Bahr will perform at Mahogany Grille in the Omni Majestic Hotel downtown; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will take the stage at Thurman Grill; and drummer Montez Coleman leads a trio at Tavern of Fine Arts.

Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present their second "Gateway Jazz Festival" at the DoubleTree Hotel St. Louis at Westport, featuring sets from Cornet Chop Suey (pictured), Red Lehr's Powerhouse Five, St. Louis Stompers, Miss Jubilee and more during two sessions on Sunday and a daytime session on Monday. 

Also on Sunday, the Missouri Association for Jazz Education will sponsor a jam session at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; saxophonist Jim Stevens returns to The Loading Dock in Grafton; and vibraphonist 
Peter Schlamb will be back in town to lead a trio in a concert at the Kranzberg Arts Center

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the St. Louis Jazz Club's "Gateway Jazz Festival" continues during the day; and that evening the improvising ensemble Numbers, featuring pianist David Parker and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw, will perform at the Tavern of Fine Arts. 

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Last weekend's fundraising event for the Miles Davis Memorial Project was a success, according to an article published this week in the Alton Telegraph.

The group seeking to place a statue of Davis in Alton, where he was born, also has posted to their Facebook page an album of photos from the fundraiser. The project's IndieGoGo campaign continues until September 4, and a "trivia night" fundraiser is scheduled for September 12 at the Commons on the campus of Lewis and Clark Community College.

* On a related note, Prestige Records announced this week that their 65th anniversary reissue series also will include a box set compiling Davis' work for the label.

* Meanwhile, Miles Ahead, actor/director Don Cheadle's feature film about Davis, shot some scenes last week at the former city jail in Dayton, OH, and was scheduled to complete principal photography today in Cincinnati.

* Drummer Dave Weckl and his new acoustic band, which also includes St. Louis native Tom Kennedy on bass, started their tour this week with three dates in California. After that, they'll go to Phoenix, back to Los Angeles and then on Washington DC and NYC.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry has been named chair of the honorary committee for the 2015 Billy Strayhorn Centennial.

* Drummer Andre Boyd (pictured) was interviewed by drummer/journalist Mike Dolbear.

* The Missouri Association for Jazz Education announced this week that trombonist Steve Wiest will direct the 2015 Missouri All-State Jazz Ensemble. The group will perform at the MMEA Conference in January at the Lake of the Ozarks.

* New Music Box has published the second of my four guest blog posts scheduled this month. It's about opportunities for Missouri students grades K - 12 to get involved in new music via the University of Missouri's Creating Original Music Project (C.O.M.P.) and a collaborative program offered by Alarm Will Sound and the Community Music School of Webster University. 

* Jazz radio update:  This Saturday on Radio Art Foundation- St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will be spinning sounds from underappreciated jazz pianists including Sonny Clark, Andrew Hill and Herbie Nichols.The program con be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Then Sunday on KWMU, "Jazz Unlimited" host Dennis Owsley continues his 10-art documentary series on the history of St. Louis jazz with episode number six, covering the the 1970s and '80s. "Jazz Unlimited" is broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Sundays on KWMU (90.7 FM) and also can be heard online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php.