Jazz this week: SFJAZZ Collective, Bill Frisell, Tomas Fujiwara's The Hook Up, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features three noteworthy touring acts with widely disparate styles, plus a couple of Sunday big band performances, some free jazz, some vintage swing, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, 
April 26
The SFJAZZ Collective opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

The all-star ensemble's featured composer this year is Miles Davis, and they'll be performing a repertoire drawn from their latest album, which features eight new arrangements of music associated with the iconic trumpeter, plus new original music by each of the group's eight members.

You can see and hear the SFJAZZ Collective perform some of that material on video, and find out more about their Miles Davis project in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday night, singer Erin Bode will perform for the Chapel Concerts series at St. Vincent Home for Children in north county; the Grand Center Jazz Crawl offers live music at four different venues in the district, and the weekly jazz jam session at Nesby's in South County welcomes both players and listeners.

Thursday, April 27
Singer Brian Owens headlines "Evening of Hope," an event at the Sheldon Concert Hall benefiting the Hope Center at Washington University; and around the corner, pianist Ptah Williams, guitarist Eric Slaughter and company will be performing at The Dark Room.

Friday, April 28
Guitarist Bill Frisell (pictured, top left) will lead a trio with his frequent collaborators, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, in a performance at The Ready Room.

Recently the subject of a feature-length documentary about his life and music, the prolific Frisell last year released When You Wish Upon a Star, featuring interpretations of songs from Hollywood films and TV, and also did an album and a series of live dates with with saxophonist Charles Lloyd's latest group, The Marvels.

Frisell's next project, a series of duets with bassist Thomas Morgan called Small Town, is due out in May, but given his long history with Scherr and Wollesen, he could be pulling material from deep in his catalog for Friday's show, his first St. Louis performance since 2013.

Also on Friday, the STL Free Jazz Collective will present a free concert at the 14th Street Artist Community in the Old North neighborhood.

Saturday, April 29
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara’s The Hook Up (pictured, bottom left) will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

Fujiwara and guitarist Mary Halvorson played a concert for NMC in 2014 as part of the trio Thumbscrew, and in some ways, The Hook Up seems a bit like a superset of that band, with Adam Hopkins in for Formanek on bass and the addition of saxophonist Brian Settles and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson.

Starting in 2010, The Hook Up has released three recordings so far, the most recent being 2015's After All Is Said, which New York City Jazz Record described as “layered and cohesive, rhythmically diverse, with a lean but muscular sound that defines Fujiwara’s distinctive approach to melody and harmony,” and AllAboutJazz.com called “one of the most accessible, challenging and inventive recordings of recent vintage.”

Also on Saturday, trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet will celebrate the birth of Duke Ellington with a free concert of his music at the Ozark Theatre; and Evangeline's has a day-night double-header of live jazz, with The Sidemen performing at brunch and Wack-A-Doo during the evening.

Sunday, April 30
The St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will present their spring event at the American Czech Educational Center, and Folk School of KDHX will host their monthly traditional jazz jam session.

A little later in the day, the student performers of the North County Big Band will team up with the pros in the Gateway City Big Band for a joint concert at the The Sheldon. Meanwhile, out in St. Charles County, the Dave Dickey Big Band will play an early evening show at Brewskeez in O'Fallon, with the Pattonville High School Jazz Ensemble performing at intermission.

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 news items of local interest:

* A post at Marc Myers' JazzWax blog looks at how saxophonist and arranger Oliver Nelson wound up collaborating with Leo Gooden, owner of the Blue Note Club in East St. Louis, on the 1963 album Leo Sings With Strings.

* Jeff Schaefer (aka The Reapercussionist), the drum technician who hand-built the house kit now used at Jazz at the Bistro, was featured on KSDK's Show Me St. Louis.

* Speaking of KSDK, the station's longtime morning anchor and reporter Art Holliday was interviewed by Chris King of the St. Louis American about efforts to raise money for the music licensing needed to complete Holliday's long-awaited documentary film about the late pianist Johnnie Johnson.

* While they're in town to do a concert for New Music Circle on Friday, December 4, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman also will take part in a free, public performance and Q&A session at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3 at Jackson Pianos, 4354 Olive St.

* The Vernacular String Trio's Alex Cunningham has posted to SoundCloud some audio from the group's set for the "3 Nights in September" festival at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

* The KDHX website has photos of saxophonist Eric Marienthal and Bach to the Future from last Saturday's benefit concert for Dillon International adoption agency.

* Turning to news of St. Louis expats, saxophonist Eric Person has posted to YouTube a video of a full set from his recent gig at the Blue Note in NYC.

* Singer Lynne Fiddmont (pictured) was interviewed on the web video series The Black & White Sessions.

* Trombonist and singer Joe Bowie has posted online the official video for "Voodoo Basics," a track from the new Defunkt album Mastervolt, which is currently available in Europe and will be released worldwide early next year.

* The Chicago Jazz Orchestra with guest soloists Wycliffe Gordon and Houston Person will pay tribute to the late trumpeter Clark Terry in a concert on Friday, December 18 at the Feinberg Theater in Chicago.

* Music for Lifelong Achievement (MFLA) and the Sheldon Concert Hall say that MFLA's recently concluded annual drive collected more than 50 used musical instruments, which will be refurbished as needed and then donated to local school and community music programs.

St. Louis area Starbucks stores served as collection points for the instrument drive, but MFLA also continues to accept donations of instruments and money year-round at the Sheldon and online at http://www.supportmfla.org/donations.php

* Two other programs working with local music students have launched online fundraising efforts via Gladitood.com: The North County Big Band, a group of students from several local school districts that rehearses and performs at The Sheldon; and Jazz St. Louis' "Jazz Academy," a new jazz education and training program developed specifically for middle school students in the Normandy, Riverview Gardens, and East St. Louis school districts.

* The Broadway Oyster Bar announced via Instagram that they've been named "Restaurant of the Year" by the Missouri Restaurant Association.

Victor Goines to perform benefit concert Sunday, December 6 at The Sheldon

Saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines is returning to St. Louis for a performance benefiting the North County Big Band at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, December 6 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Goines, a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1993, also directs the jazz studies program at Northwestern University and is active as a solo artist, performing and recording with his own quartet as well as with Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves, and more. He's played here in St. Louis several times over the past decade, both as a member of JaLCO and as a headliner at the Sheldon and Jazz at the Bistro.

For this performance, Goines (pictured) will accompanied by a rhythm section of St. Louis musicians including Adam Maness on piano, Jahmal Nichols on bass, and Montez Coleman on drums.

The North County Big Band, which will play an opening set before Goines, is made up of students from several St. Louis area high schools, including Riverview Gardens, Normandy, Hazelwood Central, Central Visual and Performing Arts, and University City. The group is led by saxophonist Harvey Lockhart, band director for Riverview Gardens HS, and has performed several times at the Sheldon and at community events since its inception earlier this year.

Tickets are $35 for general admission orchestra seats, $30 general admission balcony, and $15 for students, and are on sale now via MetroTix at 314-534-1111 and online.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The STL Free Jazz Collective's show this coming Tuesday at the Sheldon is previewed in an article by Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch.

* A bit later than originally anticipated, the National Blues Museum downtown (pictured) finally has an official opening day: April 2, 2016. The complete schedule of events for the opening will be revealed closer to that date.

* Jeffery M. Wright's performance last week at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by the website Critical Blast.

* St. Louis' newest record store, Planet Score, is now open for business in Maplewood.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn's latest album, Time and the River, has made it into the first round of Grammy nominations in the categories for Improvised Jazz Solo and Jazz Instrumental Album.

* Singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran has posted online a free sample song, "State Streets," from his forthcoming album. The recording will get a digital release in conjunction with Halloran's gig next weekend at Jazz at the Bistro, with a vinyl version to follow.

* The Sheldon's North County Big Band, directed by saxophonist Harvey Lockhart, has posted a brief promotional video to YouTube, in which some of the participating students talk about the impact of being  part of the ensemble.

* While you're on YouTube, you also can check out the promo clip for trumpeter Jim Manley's upcoming CD Groove Therapy. The album, Manley's 14th release as leader, will be available on Tuesday, November 17 via his website, iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon.

* The Friends of Scott Joplin have posted to YouTube a half-dozen videos from their fall "East Coast Meets West Coast" concert featuring pianists John Reed-Torres and Frank Livolsi. You can see all the footage on the Friends' YouTube Channel.

* Ten St. Louis pianists representing a variety of musical genres will perform in "100 Fingers," a fundraiser for the not-for-profit organization Pianos For People, on Sunday, November 22 at the Stage at KDHX.

Jazz this week: Dr. Lonnie Smith & Lionel Loueke, Alarm Will Sound, a tribute to Billie Holiday, and more

This week's lineup of jazz and creative music shows in St. Louis emphasizes collaboration, with several events presenting novel combinations of musicians for your listening enjoyment.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 27
Jazz St. Louis' latest combination of two headliners into one evening of music features organist Dr. Lonnie Smith teamed with guitarist and singer Lionel Loueke, who will perform this week through Saturday night at Jazz at the Bistro.

Both Smith and Loueke (pictured, top left) certainly share a penchant for grooves, and they have worked together before - you can see video evidence, plus each man leading his own band in several performance clips, in this post from last Saturday - but only briefly. The best guess here is that Smith's repertoire may predominate in terms of song selection, but whatever they end up playing, there should be some surprising moments for everyone this weekend onstage at the Bistro.

Budget-conscious fans take note: In addition to their evening performances, Smith and Loueke also will take part in a free, hour-long "performance and conversation" at noon on Friday at the Bistro. The Bistro won't have food or beverage service available, but listeners can bring in their own food and drink to enjoy along with the sounds.

Thursday, May 28
It's a night for large ensemble performances, as the Jim Widner Big Band plays a free concert at Chesterfield Amphitheater, while the new-music mini-orchestra Alarm Will Sound (pictured, center left) wraps up their third St. Louis season with a program of music from their "Alarm System" project at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The concert will feature the premieres of new works created with performers from several different musical genres, including St. Louis electronic electronic musician Adult Fur, Icelandic composer and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, and jazz/funk keyboardist John Medeski.

Adventurous music fans also may want to check out the Tavern of Fine Arts monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night," which this month will feature musicians improvising to new video works; or the triple bill featuring saxophonst Dave Stone, the Tory Starbuck Project, and electronic musician Kevin Harris at the Schlafly Tap Room

Friday, May 29
It's a busy night for female vocalists, as singer Debby Lennon and pianist Carolbeth True play a concert at Concord Trinity United Methodist Church in South County; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will swing the Venice Cafe, and Erin Bode returns to Nathalie's.

Elsewhere around town, Lindy Hop St. Louis presents their "West End Stomp," this month featuring live music from Robbie and the Rockin' Fools, at the Mahler Ballroom; and The People's Key will play at the house concert venue KindaBlue.

Saturday, May 30
Singer Kim Fuller and trumpeter Randy Holmes (pictured, lower left) will present a "Tribute to Billie Holiday" at the Ozark Theatre.

The celebration of the 100th anniversary of Holiday's birth also marks the return of jazz to the Ozark, which briefly presented local jazz musicians in a series of performances last fall.

Also on Saturday, Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Sunday, May 31
Students from several high schools in North County have joined together to form the North County Big Band under the leadership of saxophonist Harvey Lockhart, band director at Riverview Gardens High School, and they'll present a matinee concert showing off what they've accomplished over the past year at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

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.)