Sunday Session: June 24, 2018

Eric Dolphy

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:

* Back in Swing: The Secret Subculture of Jazz Cafes (Japan Forward)
* The home of timeless music (CNet.com)
* George Clinton: ‘If people don’t like funk, it’s just the wrong time for them’ (The Guardian)
* Lorraine Gordon, 1922 — 2018 (EthanIverson.com)
* How Herbie Hancock Charted New Territory With ‘Empyrean Isles’ (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* This simple robot offers more cowbell (TechCrunch.com)
* Rutgers Acquires Count Basie Collection (Jazz Times)
* Gregg Allman's Son Devon Talks Carrying on the Family Legacy (Rolling Stone)
* Herbie Hancock Looks Back on Work with Indy Jazz Legends (Nuvo.net)
* Warner to Launch Elektra Music Group as Standalone Company (Variety)
* Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Named National Treasure (Pitchfork)
* 16 Years Late, $13B Short, but Optimistic: Where Growth Will Take the Music Biz (Redef.com)
* The Sound Of Silence: Female Composers At The Symphony (NPR)
* Eric Dolphy: Gone In The Air (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Systems Two Recording, A Prolific and Pivotal Studio in Brooklyn, Quietly Closes Its Doors (WBGO)
* Arturo Sandoval Features Pharrell, Grande and More on ‘Ultimate Duets’ (DownBeat)
* Clatskanie native Nate Wooley translated musical passion into thriving New York career (TDN.com)
* Revered Drummer Brian Blade Draws a Through-Line from Jazz to Gospel (KQED)
* Archaeologists Just Sifted Through the Woodstock '69 Festival Field (Billboard)
* Brötzmann Reflects on ‘Machine Gun’ as it Hits 50th Anniversary (DownBeat)
* Jazz Commentary: Greg Hopkins Big Band at Ryles — Whither Big Bands? (ArtsFuse.org)
* Crosscurrents: Converging Jazz And Indian Classical Music (NPR)
* A Lot of Energy—Remembering Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) (New Music Box)
* Meet the Italian composer who conducts the world’s biggest all-robot orchestra (KXXV)
* The Axe Murderer Who Loved Jazz (WBUR)
* Can You Measure How Good a Song Is? (New Republic)

Sunday Session: May 29, 2016

Charlie Parker

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Bobby McFerrin cancels 2016 tour (JazzFM.com)
* READ an Excerpt from ‘Small Town Talk,’ a History of Woodstock in the Wild Years (AcousticGuitar.com)
* Rock music is dead, says Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea (The Guardian UK)
* Dave Davies explains how he REALLY got the raw guitar sound on The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ (DangerousMinds.net)
* An Underground Supper Club Where Music Moves The Menu (NPR)
* Major Label CEO Confirms That ‘Playlist Payola’ Is a Real Thing (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Moers Festival Provides Jazz Artists an Opportunity to Branch Out (DownBeat)
* Jazz, soul, blues musicians reveal surprising pre-show rituals (AXS.com)
* To Really Appreciate Louis Armstrong's Trumpet, You Gotta Play it. Just Ask Wynton Marsalis (Smithsonian)
* Esperanza Spalding Scores, Stars in Short Film Gaze: Watch (Pitchfork)
* Researchers Are Digitizing Ancient Monk Chants Into a Massive Database (Vice.com)
* Eagle Rock to Release “Paco & John: Live at Montreux 1987” - Previously unreleased gem features acoustic mastery from Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin (Jazz Times)
* Moogfest 2016: A Futurism Weighted With History and Trepidation (The Atlantic)
* YouTube Users Are Reinventing The Way We Classify Music (Vocativ.com)
* Moogfest: Techno-Optimism and the Wide, Wide World of Weird Music (Billboard)
* Unheard Bird Features Dozens of Unreleased Charlie Parker Tracks (DownBeat)
* The Story Behind the Planet's Most Influential Road Map of "Weird Music" (LA Weekly)
* Why I give a hoot for competing dead jazz musician movies (The Guardian UK)
* What causes a song to be banned? (BBC)
* ​Who Really Invented the Electric Guitar? (Popular Mechanics)
* Average Annual Salary for a Spotify Employee: $168,747 (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Sax great Donny McCaslin expresses grief, gratitude over Bowie (San Francisco Chronicle)
* Jazz legend Wayne Shorter takes fans to unexpected places (Chicago Tribune)
* The Inevitable, Intergalactic Awkwardness of Time Capsules (Atlas Obscura)
* Brötzmann Reveals Expansive Range at Chicago Museum Show (DownBeat)
* B.B. King's Estate War: 15 Kids, 15 Moms and a "Totally Haywire" Fight (Hollywood Reporter)
* How the Toronto Symphony Orchestra uses graphic design to guide its audiences though its music (Creative Review.co.uk)
* George Lewis Leads Parade of Experimental Artists at FIMAV (DownBeat)
* Is Pop the Future of Jazz? (The Daily Beast)
* Rhys Chatham endows drone with dimension at SPACE Gallery (Portland Press-Herald)

Jazz this week: Peter Brötzmann Trio, Peter Martin & Vivian Sessoms, Kurt Elling, New Mastersounds, Jamie Cullum, and more

It's the first week of a new month, and a very busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy headliners in town. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the all-star free jazz trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, drummer Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker (pictured) performs at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

If you have any interest at all in free jazz, this concert is an absolute must-see, as all three of the players are adventurous, uncompromising improvisors with international reputations, and this is their first tour together in more than a decade. You can find out more and hear all three musicians, together and apart, via this recent Saturday video showcase post.

Also tonight, Chicago's Lowdown Brass Band will be at the Broadway Oyster Bar with the Funky Butt Brass Band as opening act; and pianist Peter Martin leads a quartet plus special guest singer Vivian Sessoms to kick off this year's Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

For more about that show and what else Martin has coming up in the near future, check out this article by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

On Thursday, Sessoms and Martin's trio will team up for another performance, this time spotlighting Sessoms in the intimate confines of the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Also on Thursday, the New Orleans Suspects, featuring musicians associated with the Neville Brothers, the Radiators, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and James Brown, will be back in town to play at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and Good 4 The Soul returns for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

On Friday, singer Kurt Elling, who's become a local favorite thanks to numerous appearances over the years at Jazz at the Bistro, will make his debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall, performing in a benefit for the Sheldon Art Galleries. Some concert-only tickets may still be available; call the Sheldon directly at 314-533-9900 for details.

Also on Friday, the British funk/jazz quartet The New Mastersounds will play at the Old Rock House, with Dopapod as opening act. For more about them, plus some performance videos, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, percussionist Craig Russo's Latin Jazz Project, based up the road in the Champaign/Urbana area, will be back in St. Louis to play at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will serve as the nucleus for the first in a prospective series of jam sessions at The Wolf in West County.

On Saturday, Carolbeth True and Two Times True are at Robbie's House of Jazz, and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present pianist Pat Joyce and his "All-Stars" at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport. Joyce will be aided and abetted by Jerry Epperson (reeds), Bob Ceccarini (trumpet), Jay Hungerford (bass), Joe Berger (drums) and Cody Henry (trombone).

Sunday evening, singer and pianist Jamie Cullum will be back in St. Louis for the first time in four years to perform at The Pageant. For more about Cullum and his latest album Momentum, plus recent performance videos and interviews, see this post from last Saturday.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Dean Christopher brings his "Rat Pack & More" show back to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar, and percussionist Joe Pastor returns to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Peter Brötzmann, William Parker & Hamid Drake

Today, we focus our video lens on the trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, bassist William Parker and percussionist Hamid Drake, who are coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 4 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center as part of LNAC's 20th anniversary celebration.

Bound by a web of musical associations stretching back more than 20 years, they first recorded and toured together under the name Die Like A Dog, and in the ensuing years have come to be known as something of a free-jazz all-star band. StLJN covered some of Brötzmann's back story in a Saturday video post before his first St. Louis appearance back in June 2009 at LNAC, while Parker was the subject of a similar post last October when he brought his quintet here to play a New Music Circle-sponsored concert at Mad Art Gallery.

That band also included Drake, and you can see him in several of the videos in the Parker post. The longtime Chicagoan has been a player on the international jazz and creative music scene since the late 1970s, leading his own groups and collaborating with a wide variety of musicians.

In addition to many recordings and tours with Brötzmann and Parker, both individually and together, Drake had a long musical association with saxophonist Fred Anderson, who drew him into Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and also has worked with Don Cherry, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, David Murray and Reggie Workman. Drake also has played reggae and world music throughout his career, and in fact made his very first recording as a member of Foday Musa Suso’s Mandingo Griot Society.

While there's not a whole lot of footage online of Drake, Brötzmann and Parker together, and the usual caveats about previews being of somewhat limited use when dealing with totally improvised music certainly apply, today's selection of clips at least should provide some idea of what to expect when they play at LNAC.

First up is a video showing Brötzmann, Parker and Drake together at a gig on November 28, 2004 at the Teatro Fondamenta Nuove in Venice, Italy. Down below the jump, we go back almost a full decade for a full set featuring Brötzmann, Parker, Drake and trumpeter Toshinori Kondo recorded in 1995 at Jazzfest Berlin.

Below that are several excerpts from more recent duo performances by Brötzmann and Drake. The first three were recorded at three different stops of their spring 2010 tour, on April 18 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center in NYC; April 23 at the Hideout in Chicago; and April 28 at the Victory Grill in Austin, TX. The fourth is from a show in April 2012 for the Europajazz Festival at La Fonderie in Le Mans, France.

The last two videos serve to provide a bit more background, both for these specific performers and for the musical world in which they operate. The seventh clip is an interview with Brötzmann recorded in 2013 before his performance at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

And for some broader context, check out the final video of Free The Jazz, a full-length, Hungarian-produced documentary in English directed by Czabán György that includes interviews and music from Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and many others.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center to celebrate 20th anniversary with concerts by Chicago Underground Duo, Peter Brötzmann Trio

The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is 20 years old this year, and to celebrate, they've booked a couple of concerts this spring that will be of special interest to StLJN readers.

* First up, the Chicago Underground Duo (pictured) will perform at LNAC at 8:00 p.m., Friday, April 25. Comprised of cornetist Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor, the group has roots dating back to 1996, when Mazurek started an experimental jazz workshop at the Chicago club The Green Mill.

The "Chicago Underground" sessions subsequently spawned a number of ensembles, starting with the Chicago Underground Orchestra, which has released several albums on Delmark. Mazurek and Taylor have continued to form groups under the Chicago Underground umbrella, performing as the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio and Quartet, and putting out several recordings on the Thrill Jockey label.

Their seventh, Locus, is out this month on the Northern Spy imprint, and features "experiments with new forms, washes of electronic ambiance, beats and free playing." Their St. Louis performance will be part of 17-date tour supporting the new album.

* Next, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and his trio will return to LNAC to perform at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. Brötzmann, who just turned 73, is a German who's been a major force on the free jazz and creative music scene in Europe and here in the US since the late 1960s, recording dozens of albums as a leader and appearing on many more as a sideman or collaborator.

Influenced by Albert Ayler and other "New Thing" players of the 1960s, Brötzmann is known for a high energy approach to improvisation; a forceful sound that can be sandpaper-toned at select times; and for being a prolific collaborator with musicians from all over the globe. He also has a Chicago connection, as from 1997 to 2012 he led a ten-piece group that was based there. He last played in St. Louis in a 2010 duo gig at LNAC with drummer Hamid Drake.

Tickets for both concerts will be $5 at the door.

There's more about LNAC's 20th anniversary after the jump...

Notes from the Net: "First times" with Miles; Oliver Lake's new CD; Boney James on the mend; 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 off, as is our custom, with a Miles Davis item, NPR's A Blog Supreme recently asked readers "What Was Your First Miles Davis Album"? and got "nearly 1,000 replies on NPR's Facebook page; 103 replies here on A Blog Supreme (an astronomical amount for us) and hundreds of tweets and re-tweets." The number one intro-to-Miles album was, unsurprisingly, Kind of Blue, which remains the best selling jazz album of all time; the runner-up was Bitches Brew, which is getting a 40th anniversary re-release this year.

* In news of other St. Louis natives, saxophonist Greg Osby will headline a live webcast for NPR's "Live at the Village Vanguard" program on Tuesday, August 3. (Episodes are archived online for later listening, too.)

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake (pictured) has a new CD called Plan featuring his Organ Trio with keyboardist Jared Gold, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix and drummer Jonathan Blake. Here's a review from Music and More blogger Tim Niland, who calls it "a very exciting and constantly compelling album."

* Turning to news of recent visitors, guitarist Jeff Beck, who played St. Louis' Fox Theatre in April, this week led a tribute to guitarist and inventor Les Paul at the intimate NYC club Iridium, where Paul had a steady Monday night gig for many years right up until his death in 2009. Here's another review, written by Bill Milkowski for Jazz Times.

* Meanwhile, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, last seen here in March at the Sheldon Concert Hall, have headed across the Atlantic for a tour that includes four concerts in Berlin, three in London, and five in other UK cities.

* Singer and pianist Jamie Cullum, who also was in St. Louis in March to play the Roberts Orpheum Theatre, will be one of the headliners at the Carefusion Newport Jazz Festival in August.

* Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and percussionist Hamid Drake have a new eponymous duo CD, reviewed here by "Stef" of the blog Free Jazz. Their recent duo tour, the first in more than a decade, included a stop in April at St. Louis' Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

* As if he wasn't busy enough already, bassist Christian McBride is producing and playing on vibraphonist Warren Wolf's debut CD for Mack Avenue Records. McBride revealed on his Twitter feed that recent sessions in NYC also included drummer Greg Hutchinson, saxophonist Tim Green and, on piano, St. Louis' own Peter Martin, all of whom also have been associated with McBride's Inside Straight band. Last seen here in November at Jazz at the Bistro, McBride will play a duo concert with Martin in September at the Sheldon, and will return again next year in March for a Ray Brown tribute at the Bistro.

* Speaking of return engagements, trumpeter Chris Botti, who will return to St. Louis in February 2011 for a concert at Powell Hall with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, will perform next week at NYC's Carnegie Hall for the CareFusion Jazz Festival New York. Botti also will play the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival in August.

* Singer, pianist and songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway, who's coming back to the Gateway City next March to play at the Bistro, recently did a duo show with her sister, Broadway and cabaret performer Liz Callaway, at Town Hall in NYC. The program featured their interpretations of pop hits from the 1960s and 1970s; here's the review from the New York Times' Stephen Holden.

* Saxophonist Gerald Albright has a new CD, Pushing The Envelope, on sale next week. The funk-flavored release features special guest appearances by Fred Wesley on trombone, Earl Klugh on acoustic guitar and George Duke on acoustic piano, along with keyboardists Tracy Carter and Luther "Mano" Hanes, guitarist Ricky Watford and drummer Ricky Lawson. Albright is out on the road this summer with the Guitars and Saxes tour, which hits The Pageant in St. Louis on Friday, August 13.

* Singer Tierney Sutton was one of the headliners at last week's Isthmus Jazz Festival in Madison, WI, resulting in this interview with the local magazine that sponsored the event. Sutton will be back in St. Louis in October to play the Sheldon.

* Saxophonist Chris Potter has put online some free live music from his band Underground, via the website ArtistShare. Potter and Underground will play Jazz at the Bistro next March.

* Lastly, smooth jazz saxophonist Boney James is on the mend from being rear-ended in a recent car accident, in which he suffered a gash in his chin that resulted in 14 stitches, a fractured maxilla bone, and two broken front teeth. James is taking off several weeks for orthodontic repairs and recovery, but anticipates being able to play again the first week of July, which would be in time for him to make his show scheduled for Thursday, July 8 at the Bottleneck Blues Bar in St. Charles.

Some of James' canceled shows have been rescheduled, but for his date this Saturday in Sacramento, trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot will fill in and co-headline what's being billed as a "Get Well Soon Tribute" as part of their ongoing "RnR" tour, which comes to the Pageant on July 30.

(Edited after posting to clean up some typos.)

Notes from the Net: Miles Davis' Blue Moment; Clark Terry honored in KC; 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 Miles Davis news, "We Want Miles," the exhibit about the trumpeter's life and work first staged last year in Paris, has now opened in Montreal. We Want Miles also is the name of a new book, written by French jazz critic Vincent Bessières and just published here in the US, that includes photographs, handwritten musical scores, album covers, posters, and other visual material from the exhibit. (You can see some of the photos from the Miles-as-fashion-icon section of the book and exhibit here).

Another new book about Davis, The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music by Richard Williams, was featured recently on NPR. For good measure, here's another review of the tome, from Baltimore City Paper's Michaelangelo Matos.

Finally, we move from literature to libations, with news that the brewers at Dogfish Ale have commemorated the fortieth anniversary of Davis' album Bitches Brew with a special craft beer.

* Trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry (pictured) was honored by the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City a couple of weekends ago, accepting an award and performing briefly as part of a concert of Duke Ellington music. Bill Brownlee, proprietor of the KC jazz blog Plastic Sax, reviewed the concert for the Kansas City Star here. Meanwhile, our town's Dawn DeBlaze of DeBlaze & Associates was there too, enjoying the proceedings and shooting photos, including the one of Terry accepting his award from AJM CEO Greg Carroll that she has graciously provided to StLJN to accompany this post.

* And while we're on the subject of St. Louis trumpet players, the Lester Bowie tribute presented last year by the San Francisco organization Other Minds can now be heard online. The concert was organized by Bowie's daughter Sukari Ivester, and featured Bowie's Art Ensemble colleagues Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones and Famoudou Don Moye on drums, plus trumpeter Corey Wilkes, saxophonist James Carter (who's in St. Louis this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro), trombonist Frank Lacy, pianist Jon Jang and bassist Peter Barshay.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, DowntownMusic.net has photos of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Hamid Drake , taken at their NYC performance on the same tour that brought them to St. Louis' Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center last month. (Scroll down the page to see the pix.) After wrapping the duo tour, Brötzmann has since headed down under to play the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in Australia.

* Before playing the Touhill Performing Arts Center last Saturday, guitarist Pat Metheny took his Orchestrion home to Kansas City for a concert at the Uptown Theater, and Bill Brownlee reviewed the show for the Star here.

* Here's another review of drummer Stanton Moore's new CD Groove Alchemy, written for AllAboutJazz.com by Doug Collette. Moore and his band Galactic were in St. Louis most recently in February at The Pageant.

* The Clayton Brothers are giving fans an inside look at the production of their next album via the Internet, with rehearsal pictures, videos, interviews, sheet music and more. You can hear bassist John Clayton talk about the development of “Terrell's Tune" here. The Claytons played Jazz at the Bistro in April, and will be back in St. Louis later this month for the Jazz Education Network conference.

* Also performing at the JEN Conference will be bassist Rufus Reid, who has a new trio CD and also guests on the latest disc from Sweden's Norrbotten Big Band. Here's a review of both CDs, written by J. Hunter for AllAboutJazz.com, plus another review of the trio CD by frequent AAJ contributor Pico.

* Saxophonist Kirk Whalum will be one of the headliners at the 31st Detroit International Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend, performing music from Everything is Everything, his forthcoming tribute to singer, songwriter, keyboard player and St. Louis native Donny Hathaway that will be released in September. Whalum will be in St. Louis with this year's Guitars and Saxes tour in August to play The Pageant.

* Singer Michael Buble, who's performing in St. Louis on June 25 at the Scottrade Center, was one of the top winners at the Juno Awards, the annual Canadian music award ceremony held last month.

* Here's another review of guitarist John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension's new CD To The One , written for AllAboutJazz.com by Ian Patterson. McLaughlin will bring the fusion quartet to the Sheldon Concert Hall in November. McLaughlin also now has an official iPhone App, created by his record label Abstract Logix. You can get it for free by going to the App Store on your iPhone and searching for "John McLaughlin."

Jazz this week: Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake, Daryl Sherman, Erin Bode and more

After a jam-packed calendar of offerings last week, this weekend offers a bit more breathing room for St. Louis fans of jazz and creative music. Still, there are several events worth noting, so let's go right to the highlights:

For starters, it's the final weekend for the Black Rep's production of the Louis Jordan musical Five Guys Named Moe, which is playing through Sunday at the Grandel Theatre. The production was directed by Black Rep founder Ron Himes and stars Drummond Crenshaw, Sean Walton, Gary Vincent, Herman Gordon, Horace E. Smith and Anthony Tarvin, Jr, with Charles Creath as musical director.

If you like Jordan's music, or have any interest in the musical period when swing was morphing into jump blues and rock 'n roll, Five Guys... is good fun and, as usual with the Black Rep's musical productions, there are some killer singers in the cast.

On Thursday, singer and pianist Daryl Sherman plays at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan. Sherman is well-known in NYC's cabaret venues, particularly for her 15-year gig at the Waldorf Hotel, where she played a piano once owned by Cole Porter.

Her show "Lounging At The Waldorf" spotlights material written by Johnny Mercer, along with a few of Porter's songs. Bassist Dave Troncoso will back Sherman, with Don Wolff as MC. The Presenters Dolan also have two cabaret shows this weekend at the Kranzberg featuring St. Louis singers, with Alice Kinsella performing on Friday night and Robert Breig on Saturday.

On Friday and Saturday, singer Erin Bode returns to Jazz at the Bistro. Bode, who's rumored to have a new CD recorded and ready for release sometime soon, is always a good draw at the Bistro, so advance reservations are suggested.

On Sunday, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and drummer Hamid Drake (pictured) will perform at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Brötzmann, who's originally from Germany, has been a significant figure on the European and North American free improv scenes for nearly 40 years now; Drake first gained prominence with Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, but now also plays around the world with a variety of free improv and jazz performers.

Their current duo tour is said to be the first such series of shows in a decade. Their concert at the LNAC would seem to be a must-hear for fans of free jazz, improv, noise, avant garde and experimental music, but, given Brötzmann's uncompromising approach and often-harsh sonorities, it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday the Genesis Jazz Project plays a free show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

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.)

Peter Brötzmann and Hamid Drake to perform Sunday, April 25 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (pictured) is returning to St. Louis for a duo performance with percussionist Hamid Drake at 8:00 p.m. Sunday, April 25 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

Brötzmann played at the LNAC last June with his trio as part of the venue's "Jazz to the Wall" festival. Drake, who like Brötzmann is based in Chicago but tours around the world, has been part of the improvised music scene since the 1970s, working with Fred Anderson, David Murray, William Parker, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Ken Vandermark and many others.

For more on Brötzmann's recent activities, check out this article published last month in the Chicago Reader. You also can see some video of him in action here.

Regarding tickets, the LNAC website says that "All shows are all ages and $5.00 unless otherwise noted," and currently there are no other notations specific to the Brotzmann/Drake show. More details if/when we get 'em...

UPDATE - 11:20 a.m., 4/10/10: According to the press release received today at StLJN HQ, tickets for the Brötzmann/Drake performance will be $12 at the door.

Jazz this week: Peter Brötzmann, St. Louis Stompers, Linda Presgrave, "Simply Sinatra," Adaron "Pops" Jackson, and more

Whether you like your jazz to be old-school, modern or free-form, there's something for you this weekend somewhere around the St. Louis area. Here's a brief look at the local jazz and creative music highlights for the next several days:

Tonight, the St. Louis Stompers will perform traditional New Orleans-style jazz in a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Tomorrow night, the summer Jazz at Holmes series gets underway with a free concert by pianist, composer and St. Louis expat Linda Presgrave, who will perform with a quintet including her husband, saxophonist Stan Chovnick, and trumpeter Randy Holmes.

Friday brings the Jazz to the Wall Festival to the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, featuring the Full Blast Trio with legendary German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (pictured), drummer Marino Pliakas and electric bassist Michael Wertmueller. Brötzmann and Full Blast will perform at 7:00 p.m., with a separate show featuring Yowie, Aleuchetistas and Upsilon Acrux at 9:00 p.m. This week's Riverfront Times has a brief preview story by Paul Friswold on the Brötzmann show, which you can read online here. For some video samples of Brötzmann's work, see this previous post.

Also on Friday, pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson of Good 4 The Soul opens a two-night run at Jazz at the Bistro. Though G4TS is known for mixing jazz with funk, R&B and other genres, word is that Jackson's gig this weekend will feature a quartet playing straight-ahead jazz. Friday is also when the Sheldon Art Galleries will host a free opening reception for its summer exhibits, including the extension of the "Visions of Sound" exhibit of musical instruments.

On Saturday, singer Steve Lippia will perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Symphony Hall.

Then on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Michael Lacey and his New Orleans Swing at the Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville, and singer Erin Bode and her band will perform in a free outdoor concert at Sunset Park in Festus.

As usual, time and space constraints mean that these are just some of the notable performances happening over the next few days; for more listings of jazz-related events in St. Louis 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.)

Notes from the Net: Miles on MySpace; Zorn bio analyzed; the wages of swing; plus news, reviews 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:

* In keeping with this feature's tradition of starting with a Miles Davis-related item or two, it seems there's now a page for the trumpeter on MySpace. This in itself is no big deal - lots of celebs, dead and alive, seem to be represented by pages they didn't personally put up - but the interesting part is that since it apparently is authorized by Sony, visitors with sufficient bandwidth can stream dozens of Miles' albums and compilations directly from the page.

For as long as it lasts, it would seem to be a very handy, low-cost way to investigate Davis' extensive catalog, or to turn a new fan on to some of your favorite Miles moments.

Also, Marc Myers' JazzWax blog also recently had a Miles-related entry in his new Photo Story series. (For more frequently updated Miles-related content, StLJN heartily recommends Jeffrey Hyatt's fine site Miles Davis Online.)

* Here's a review by Tom Greenland for AllAboutJazz.com of John Brackett's new book John Zorn: Tradition and Transgression. (Zorn studied at our town's Webster University in the 1970s.)

* Zorn also will be one of the featured performers at this year's Warsaw Summer Jazz Days in July, along with the World Saxophone Quartet, featuring St. Louis' own Hamiet Bluiett and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake (pictured).

* Turning to news of coming attractions, here's a feature from Pittsburgh City Paper on saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, who will be in St. Louis this Friday to perform at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

* And here's a review for AAJ.com by Andrew Velez of Pizzarelli Party, a new CD release featuring the whole Pizzarelli clan, including guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli; his dad Bucky on guitar, brother Martin on bass, and his wife Jessica Molasky on vocals, plus pianist Larry Fuller and others. John Pizzarelli has been a frequent visitor to St. Louis in recent years, and the online tour information service Pollstar currently shows him returning again in 2010 to play Jazz at the Bistro.

* Latin/jazz group Tiempo Libre, who will perform next year at the Edison Theatre in St. Louis, this week are playing Dizzy's at Lincoln Center in NYC.

* The Chicago Afrobeat Project, who played The Gramophone at the end of May, will be touring extensively from the end of June through September. (There's no return St. Louis date on the schedule, but there are some spaces in the tour into which one conceivably could fit.)

* A look at the "recent visitors" file shows that guitarist John Jorgenson, who wrapped up the Sheldon Concert Hall's jazz series this year, is back home in California for a concert at a community college in Riverside.

* Lastly, a couple of items of general interest: National Public Radio's Web site is sporting a brand new jazz blog and it's a good one, with daily entries plus centralized, convenient access to NPR's various jazz programs, online streams, etc. Check out the modestly named A Blog Supreme here.

* Canadian jazz journalist Peter Ham asked the working musicians among his readers how much they make for a gig. The results - while somewhat depressing overall, as they show working musicians' wages generally remaining flat for years or even decades - reveal that St. Louis seems about on a par with cities of similar size. Read the whole thing here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Peter Brötzmann

This week, we've got some video clips featuring saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, who will be coming to St. Louis next week to perform on Friday, June 12 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

Brötzmann has been a significant force on the free jazz and creative music scene in Europe since the late 1960s, winning a small but enthusiastic following in the USA as well. In recent years, he's been a frequent visitor to Chicago, where he has a ten-piece band featuring musicians from that city's burgeoning improv scene. Influenced by Albert Ayler and other "New Thing" players of the 1960s, Brötzmann is known for a high energy approach to improvisation; a forceful, even aggressive sound; and for working with musicians from all over the globe on a variety of projects, ranging from spare, basic duos and trios to more elaborate settings like his Chicago tentet. Remarkably, next week's gig with his Full Blast trio at the LNAC will be his first St. Louis appearance ever, and so today we offer some brief video samples of his playing in small group settings.

Up top, there's a clip from 2006 that shows Brötzmann and his longtime collaborator, drummer Han Bennink, in a duo performance in Amherst, MA. Down below, there's a video from 2005 of Brötzmann with two more frequent playing parners, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. The final clip is from an October 2006 performance in Copenhagen, and shows Brötzmann in a quartet with (according to the YouTube comments) Peter Friis Nielsen (bass), Peter Ole Jørgensen (drums) and Mikołaj Trzaska (alto sax).

Peter Brötzmann to perform Friday, June 12 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center

Via the RFT's Annie Zaleski and her blog "A to Z," news comes that German free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Peter Brötzmann (pictured) will make his long overdue St. Louis debut as the first half of a double-header of shows next Friday, June 12 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Brötzmann and his Full Blast Trio will perform at 7:00 p.m., followed at 9:00 p.m. by a separate concert featuring St. Louis-based Yowie along with touring acts Aleuchatistas and Upsilon Acrux.

Originally trained as a painter and conceptual artist, the 68-year-old Brötzmann got involved with music in the late 1960s, absorbing influences ranging from Sidney Bechet to Albert Ayler, and has gone on to become one of the most important avant-garde jazz musicians in Europe. Over the years, his collaborators have included notables such as Han Bennink, Peter Kowald, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, Cecil Taylor, Ken Vandermark, WIlliam Parker, Hamid Drake.and many others.

Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door for Brötzmann; $6 in advance, $8 at the door for the Yowie/Aleuchitistas/Upsilon Acrux show; or $12 in advance for both.
For more information, go here.