Sunday Session: April 15, 2018

Nina Simone

Here's a roundup of various music-related items of interest that have shown up in one of StLJN's various inboxes or feeds over the past week:

* The British jazz explosion: meet the musicians rewriting the rulebook (The Guardian)
* Monika Herzig’s SHEroes Addresses Gender in Jazz (DownBeat)
* Why Hip-Hop Is Taking Center Stage On Netflix's Original Music Programming (Forbes.com)
* At Tiny Telephone music studio, recording to tape is not a metaphor (KALW)
* MATA at 20 (New Music Box)
* How Drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath Learned to Play Jazz (Westword)
* Philadelphia native James Mtume returns to celebrate 35th anniversary of ‘Juicy Fruit’ (New Pittsburgh Courier)
* Jimmie Vaughan’s B-3 Vibe (Jazz Times)
* The Deceptively Accessible Music of Cecil Taylor (The Atlantic)
* Illuminating Cecil Taylor with Pianist Jason Moran, on The Checkout (WBGO)
* Turning The Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women (As Chosen By You) (NPR)
* “All at Full Fullness”: Remembering Cecil Taylor - Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Matthew Shipp and Wadada Leo Smith pay tribute to an avant-jazz icon (Jazz Times)
* All That Jazz: A #JazzAppreciationMonth Podcast Round-up (Arts.gov)
* Music Publishers Win Major Copyright Fight Over Streaming of Legendary Rock Concerts (Hollywood Reporter)
* Composer Tyondai Braxton: 'I'm at war with myself. That's what the piece sounds like' (The Guardian)
* Spotify could kill Jazz, Soul and Classical music. Really. (SoulTracks.com)
* Q&A with Al Di Meola: In a Good Place (DownBeat)
* The New Jazz Torchbearer: Kamasi Washington on His Musical Message (Rolling Stone)
* Cecil Taylor and the Art of Noise (The New Yorker)
* The Revolutionary Genius of Cecil Taylor (The New Yorker)
* The British Guitar Embargo: When Brits Were Banned from Buying American (Reverb.com)
* How Nina Simone Captivated a New Generation (Rolling Stone)
* In Memoriam: Cecil Taylor (DownBeat)
* ‘It’s an insane project’: Toronto resident documenting city’s live-music history through posters (The Globe and Mail)
* Esperanza Spalding: Redefining Production - The bassist, composer and bandleader on her innovative recent "pop-up" album, "Exposure" (Jazz Times)
* How Musicians Are Using Field Recordings to Capture the Politics of Place (Pitchfork.com)
* ‘A Singular Sound, A Singular Force’: Artists Remember Jazz Great Cecil Taylor (BedfordAndBowery.com)
* Saxophonist Kamasi Washington Announces New Album 'Heaven and Earth' With Two Teaser Videos (NextBop.com)
* Hitting Reboot: Manhattan Transfer (DownBeat)
* American orchestras: Revamping the model, or embracing the obvious? (Washington Post)

Jazz this week: Keith Fullerton Whitman, Scratch, Mark O'Connor, a tribute to women in jazz, and more

There's an eclectic selection of jazz and creative music coming up on St. Louis stages over the next few days, from classic bop to contemporary electronics. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert by an ad hoc ensemble dubbed "St. Louis Bebop," featuring trumpeter Randy Holmes, saxophonist Jason Swagler, pianist Ken Kehner, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Marty Morrison playing music associated with bop pioneers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

Also tonight, the Chicago-based saxophonist Mark O'Connor is in town, playing at Robbie's House of Jazz to promote his new CD release Suspended Reality. O'Connor will be joined by pianist Lara Driscoll, trumpeter Chris Davis, drummer Todd Howell and bassist Willem von Hombracht.

On Friday, the Crusaders tribute band Scratch performs for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, featuring a lineup of St. Louis area players including trombonist and arranger Cody Henry, saxophonist Ben Reece and pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Jerry Greene and his group perform at Robbie's, and vibraphonist Dustin Sholtes leads a quartet at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday afternoon, there are a ouple of free educational opportunities for local musicians, as saxophonist Bob Reynolds gives a free master class at Saxquest, and electronic musician Keith Fullerton Whitman (pictured) will present a free workshop at the Luminary Center for the Arts.

Then on Saturday evening, Whitman will perform at White Flag Projects in a concert presented by New Music Circle. For more about Whitman and some performance videos of him in action, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Robbie's will present a concert paying tribute to "women in jazz," featuring three performers visiting from Indiana: pianist Monika Herzig, singer Janiece Jaffe and violinist Carolyn Dutton. Herzig, who teaches at the University of Indiana, was in St. Louis most recently for a couple of gigs last May; Jaffe and Dutton will making their local debuts.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the Funky Butt Brass Band at the SLJC's customary east side venue, Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band plays at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, and student jazz combos from the music program at Webster University will perform at Webster's Community Music School.

Then on Tuesday, the SIUE Concert Jazz Band, under the direction of trombonist Brett Stamps, will play at Dunham Hall on the SIU-Edwardsville campus. The set list will include music from the Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, Clayton-Hamilton, Rob McConnell, and Tonight Show big bands, with featured performances from SIUE vocal jazz majors Zelina Bott-Goins and Nicole Jonas.

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.)

Pianist Monika Herzig schedules two St. Louis performances in May

The German-born jazz pianist Monika Herzig, who teaches music a couple of states over at the University of Indiana, is coming to the St. Louis area for two performances in May.

Herzig, who played here most recently at last year's St. Louis Art Fair, will back singer Jeff Hall for a gig at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20 at Lone Wolf Coffee Company, 15480 Clayton Road in Ballwin. Hall is a protege of the well-known Kansas City jazz vocalist Kevin Mahogany, and has just released his first recordings on the Mahogany Digital label. There will be a $5 cover at the door.

The pianist then will headline her own show starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 22 at Robbie's House of Jazz. Herzig will be joined by a band including drummer Steve Davis, bassist Peter Kienle, singer Janiece Jaffee, and "possibly other surprise guests." Admission will be $10 for adults, $5 for students with valid I.D.

In addition to teaching, Herzig also has performed at many clubs and festivals in the U.S. and Germany. She has recorded with the fusion group BeebleBrox and produced four albums of acoustic jazz as a leader, with another release planned for 2011.