Sunday Session: July 15, 2018

Brian Blade

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:

* 'You can't judge a generation's taste': making Now That’s What I Call Music (The Guardian)
* Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band Leaves Michael Bourne Mouth Agape in Montreal (WBGO)
* Kamasi Washington, the wisest man on Earth (TheFader.com)
* How did Irvin Mayfield, the man with the golden trumpet, end up in the poorhouse? (New Orleans Advocate)
* The Adventurous World of Brazilian Experimental Music (Bandcamp.com)
* MIT Develops AI That Can Isolate and Edit the Individual Instruments in a Song (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* An AI system for editing music in videos (MIT.edu)
* ‘Skyrockets in flight/Afternoon delight’: The story behind Starland Vocal Band’s one big hit (Washington Post)
* In Istanbul, a Display of National Music Culture (DownBeat)
* NEA Announces 2019 Jazz Masters (Jazz Times)
* Coltrane, Kamasi and the art of looking both directions at once (TheVinylFactory.com)
* Synths may be spared worst of US trade war – for now (CDM.link)
* Global Notation: a new notation system for world music (Sheffield.ac.uk)
* The Jazz Pianist Who Made One Masterpiece And Disappeared (VinylMePlease.com)
* Before Björk, There Was the Last Incan Princess (MessyNessyChic.com)
* How Ads Get Away with *Almost* Plagiarizing Existing Music (Vice.com)
* 10 Essential One-Track Albums (TrebleZine.com)
* “A Band At The Top Of Their Game”: Ravi Coltrane Talks John’s “Classic Quartet” (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* New $50,000 prize in improvised music gives its first awards to Joe McPhee and Susan Alcorn (Chicago Reader)
* Ellis Marsalis Jazz Piano Competition Winners Announced (Jazz Times)
* The GroundUP Festival Brings Even More Heat to Miami, on Jazz Night in America (WBGO)
* Who Is Benefitting From the Nostalgic Vintage Releases in African Music? (OkayAfrica.com)
* The Sonic Arts Union’s Handmade Electronic Music, 1966-1976 (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker (Chicago Reader)
* A Conversation with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Jung Hee Choi (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)

Sunday Session: September 24, 2017

Trombone Shorty

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Not Just Jazz: Inside Concord Music's Buying Spree (Billboard)
* Forget Carnegie Hall. Musicians rush to rural Colorado to play the Tank (Los Angeles Times)
* Have we reached peak Hans Zimmer? (The Guardian)
* How Fela Kuti Drummer Tony Allen Rediscovered His Jazz Roots (Rolling Stone)
* Marcus Miller: The Multi-Faceted Musician (Jazz Times)
* Monterey Jazz Festival 2017: Story of Some Grooves (Jazz Times)
* ‘Cash Me Outside’ Girl Signing Marks The Official Split of the Music Industry (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* We Are Never Getting Back Together: How Avoiding a Reunion Can Secure a Band’s Legacy (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Ravi Coltrane brings ‘Love Supreme’ to SFJazz (San Jose Mercury News)
* Why the star of California Symphony’s next concert looks like vacuum cleaner (San Jose Mercury News)
* Mary Hallock Greenewalt’s Illuminated Music (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound (Pitchfork.com)
* Remembering Grant Hart, 1961-2017 (City Pages)
* Concord Music Buys Savoy Label Group, Adding Jazz Recordings From Coltrane, Davis And Parker: Exclusive (Billboard)
* Harmonies That Welcomed Imagination—Remembering John Abercrombie (1944-2017) (New Music Box)
* Songs Of Discomposure: Quietus Writers Pick Their Most Disturbing Pieces Of Music (TheQuietus.com)
* Ann Richards: Dreams Have a Way of Fading (Jazz Times)
* Trombone Shorty Is Big On New Orleans, Music Education & Rap (Grammy.com)
* The 50 Best Jazz Singers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 'An All-Around Musician': Steely Dan Guitarists Share Their Experiences of Working With Walter Becker (Billboard)
* Genres Blur & Swirl in Monterey’s ‘Big Tent’ (DownBeat)
* The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains (NPR)
* Notes from the Custerdome: A Jazz Appreciation of Steely Dan (New Music Box)
* Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: The Inspiration(s) Behind John Coltrane's "Impressions" (WBGO)
* A Frank Zappa Hologram Is Going on Tour (Guitar World)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Ageless Corea & Gadd Dazzle at Blue Note in NYC (DownBeat)
* Pete Turner, Photographer with an Eye for Color and an Ear For Jazz, Dies at 83 (WBGO)
* Soul Singer Charles Bradley Dies at 68 (Billboard)
* Charles Bradley Remembered: A Great Soul Man Who Found the Light in Darkness (Billboard)

Sunday Session: October 18, 2015

Jack DeJohnette

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* RCA Records' Peter Edge and Tom Corson on Why the Label Downsized and its Place in Sony's Big Picture (Q&A) (Hollywood Reporter)
* Rob Mazurek: Sound Affects (Jazz Times)
* The Inside Story Behind the Making of Frank Sinatra's Ambitious and Wacky 1980 Three-Disc Album, 'Trilogy' (Billboard)
* Russia’s wedding playlist: 7 must-have hits (Russia Beyond The Headlines)
* Is ‘Artisanal’ Music the Next New Thing? (The Daily Beast)
* Monk Institute Vocal Competition Semi-Finalists Announced - Finals set for Nov 14-15 in L.A. (Jazz Times)
* The Devaluation of Music: It’s Worse Than You Think (Medium.com)
* Two-Thirds of U.S. Homes Stream Audio Over Broadband, With Amazon in a Surprising Lead (Billboard)
* Review: Sun Ra And His Arkestra - To Those Of Earth... And Other Worlds (The Quietus)
* Legacy to Release 4-CD Live Weather Report Box (Jazz Times)
* Elling To Salute Sinatra in NYC (DownBeat)
* Harry Connick Jr. Syndicated Daytime Show Set for Fall 2016 (Billboard)
* An Ancient Indonesian Music Tradition Gets an Electronic Update (Hyperallergic.com)
* Digital Orphans: The Massive Cultural Black Hole On Our Horizon (TechDirt.com)
* DeJohnette, Coltrane, Garrison Forge Deep Bond in Brooklyn (DownBeat)
* Postage Stamps from Bhutan That Double as Playable Vinyl Records (OpenCulture.com)
* Jazz-playing robot will provide insight into how computers communicate with humans (University of Illinois)
* Documenting the women of LA's 70s rock scene (Vice.com)
* What Does Minecraft for Music Look Like? (Medium.com)
* The unrest is silence: why ‘classical’ music traditions are under threat (The Guardian UK)

Sunday Session: March 1, 2015

William Hooker

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* In Oscar Nominations For Best Score, Some Hear Sour Notes (NPR)
* “Birdman” Score Snubbed: Why Oscar Hates Drummers (Medium)
* Apple Hiring More Music Journalists and A Sea of Freelancers (HypeBot.com)
* Tears and fears as two stars are forced to give up their violins (Slipped Disc)
* From dirt to the divine: 50 years of 'A Love Supreme' (Creative Loafing Atlanta)
* Reminder: Fair Use Is A Right -- And Not 'An Exception' Or 'A Defense' (TechDirt)
* Friday is the New Official Release Day for Albums (Paste)
* International Jazz Day Names Paris as This Year’s Host City (Jazz Times)
* The dangers of digital: Brian Eno on technology and modern music (The Vinyl Factory)
* Ramsey Lewis: Perpetually Reaching Out Through Music (DownBeat)
* The Musical Brain: Novel Study of Jazz Players Shows Common Brain Circuitry Processes Both Music and Language (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
* William Hooker and Oscar Micheaux, visionaries across eras and art forms (Washington Post)
* Copyright Mixtape: How The "Blurred Lines" Lawsuit Could Change Music Forever (Ratter.com)
* Composing for Hollywood (The New Yorker)
* Ravi Coltrane takes his own giant steps in the jazz world (Sunday Herald)

Sunday Session: January 11, 2015

Vijay Iyer

For your Sunday reading enjoyment and edification, some noteworthy items from the past week about jazz, creative music, and more:

* In Music, Uniformity Sells (The Atlantic)
* Paris classical music row intensifies as new concert hall prepares to open (The Guardian UK)
* Mahanthappa, Lake, Iyer To Play 2015 New York Winter Jazzfest (Down Beat)
* Vijay Iyer to Host 12-Set Residency in NYC (JazzTimes)
* Vijay Iyer Hates the Toys 'R' Us Ferris Wheel (New York)
* A history of New Music in NYC, 1972-82. Tom Johnson's Village Voice articles (Ubu.com, PDF)
* Thom Yorke likely made millions from torrenting his new record (AV Club)
* The Original Funky Drummers On Life With James Brown (NPR)
* Nashville's musical middle class collapses (Nashville Tennessean)
* 6 Predictions For The Music Industry In 2015 (Hypebot.com)
* Nielsen Music's Year-End: Streaming Is Not Killing the Record Business (Billboard)
* Music tech through the ages (Mashable.com)
* Ravi Coltrane Pays Moving Tribute to His Father at SFJAZZ Celebration of A Love Supreme (Down Beat)
* R.I.P. Andrae Crouch: Remembering the Gospel Great's Immense Influence (Billboard)
* Video demonstrates how mind-numbingly formulaic and shitty Country pop music has become (DangerousMinds.net)
* Ornette Coleman Quietly Releases New Album (Jazz Times)
* Disco Mystic: Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli and Science Fiction (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* The 2015 Jazz Connect Conference in Photos (Jazz Times)

Ravi Coltrane interview now online

Saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who's in St. Louis through Saturday to play at Jazz at the Bistro, kindly spent some time on the phone with me earlier this week for a brief interview that's now been published on the Riverfront Times' RFT Music Blog. You can read more about how in 2012 Coltrane is shaking up his band, his repertoire, and lots more, here.

Jazz this week: Ravi Coltrane, Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, a new big band debuts, and more

The tenor sax plays a major role in this week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with two of the instrument's most prominent current exponents in town, plus several other noteworthy shows including the debut of a new big band as well. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane (pictured) opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Coltrane, the son of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane, last played the Bistro with his own group in 2008, and then returned the following year to perform with the Blue Note 7 at the Sheldon. He's been through some changes since then, and talked about them a bit in an interview I did with him on Monday that should be going live on the Riverfront Times music blog any time now. (Update - 3:30 p.m., 1/19/12: The interview is online here.)

Until then, for more about Ravi Coltrane, check out this video showcase post from a couple of Saturdays ago; this St. Louis magazine blog post by Dennis Owsley, which compares Coltrane with his famous father; and this article by the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson, which ponders the elder Coltrane's influence on his son and on Branford Marsalis (who will be here on Sunday - see below). Also, you can hear Coltrane's complete set from last summer's Newport Jazz Festival as archived online by NPR here.

Also tonight, Erin Bode is at Cyrano's; saxophonist Larry Johnson and singer Charlie B. will be playing their new weekly gig at Bartolino's near Hampton and 44; and singer Ralph Butler and pianist Gigi Darr perform in an early evening show at Jazz on Broadway in Alton.

On Thursday, Coltrane will be at Webster University's Community Music School to do a workshop with Webster students; the event, held in CMS room #10, also is open to the public, free of charge. Also on Thursday, the Dixie Dudes bring their traditional New Orleans jazz sound back to Jazz on Broadway.

Then on Friday, trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet (aka Hard Bop Heritage) will play at Robbie's House of Jazz; saxophonist Rod Tate returns to the Halls Ferry Inn Jazz Cafe; and drummer Paul Shaw's trio with pianist Ptah Williams and bassist Bob DeBoo is back at the Cigar Inn.

Saturday evening, the Funky Butt Brass Band will perform at the new multi-genre venue Plush, which is located at 3222 Locust in Midtown. (For a bit more about this venue, which seems to be booking mostly rock, blues and R&B so far, see this blog post from the RFT's Kiernan Maletsky.)

On Sunday, saxophonist Branford Marsalis and pianist Joey Calderazzo will be in St. Louis to perform as a duo at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Both were here last for a Marsalis quartet show at the Touhill in February 2010, but this tour is a follow-up to the duo album Tales of Mirth and Melancholy released last year by Marsalis and Calderazzo. For more about that, see this video showcase post from last Saturday.

Also on Sunday, trombonist Dave Dickey, a veteran musician but relatively recent transplant to the area who's played with a host of name jazz and Latin artists, debuts the new St. Louis version of his Big Band at the Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; and the Webster Groves middle and high school jazz bands will perform their annual "Cool Nights, Hot Jazz" concert over at The Pageant.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen brings his Broadway Collective back to the stage of BB's Jazz, Blues and 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: Catching up with Ravi Coltrane

This week, our video spotlight shines on saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who's returning to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, January 18 through Saturday, January 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Coltrane, the son of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane, played here most recently in 2009 at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part fo the Blue Note Seven, and also performed with his quartet in 2008 at the Bistro. (For more on Coltrane's back story, check out the video showcase post than ran before that week at Bistro.)

Since then, he's put out his sixth CD as a leader, 2009's Blending Times, and has continued to work steadily with his band, which usually includes pianist Louis Perdomo, bassist Drew Gress and drummer E.J. Strickland. To catch up with what Coltrane and company have been into lately, today we've got videos from three different shows in 2011.

The first clip is from September, and shows Coltrane at an outdoor festival in High Point, North Carolina working out on his father's composition "Lonnie's Lament," accompanied by a rhythm section including drummer Gerry Gibbs, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and pianist David Virelles.

Down below, you can see an excerpt from another gig in September, featuring Coltrane with Perdomo, Gress and Strickland at the Peperoncino Jazz Festival in Calabria, Italy. The songs is called "Cs" and the performance is split into two parts.

Below that, there are two songs from Coltrane's gig in July at New Morning in Paris: "The Message," also split into two parts; and a tune labeled simply "Ballad" that's reportedly been a staple of his live sets for the past couple of years.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on the Blue Note 7

We've super-sized this week's video post to bring you a preview of the Blue Note 7, who will be in St. Louis next Sunday, February 22 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall under the combined auspices of Jazz St. Louis and the Sheldon.

Because the band is an all-star group assembled specifically for a tribute album and 50-city tour commemorating the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, there's no video available online of them all playing together. However, someone did make a short clip to promote the album and tour, and you can see that in the embedded video window up above.

Down below, we've got videos of the various Blue Note 7 members in action, with the exception of tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who previously was the subject of a video post here when he brought his quartet to Jazz at the Bistro last year. You can check out that post for some samples of Coltrane's playing; below, you'll find the other members of the Blue Note 7 in this order:

* Trumpeter Nicholas Payton playing Milt Jackson's bebop standard "Bags' Groove."
* Guitarist Peter Bernstein playing a tune called "Bobblehead" at the NYC club Smoke.
* Alto saxophonist Steve Wilson doing a version of "But Not For Me," apparently with some substitute chord changes, during a show at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, MN.
* Pianist Bill Charlap and bassist Peter Washington playing "In The Still Of The Night" in a clip recorded at the Village Vanguard. (That's Kenny Washington, no relation to Peter, on drums.)
* Drummer Lewis Nash, as part of saxophonist Joe Lovano's quartet with bassist George Mraz and the legendary pianist Hank Jones, playing Lovano's "Bird's Eye View" at the Jazz Baltica festival.

The band's repertoire for the tour includes new arrangements of music associated with a number of jazz greats who recorded for Blue Note over the years, including Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson and others. The Blue Note 7 have been on the road since the first week of January, so they should definitely have their arrangements together and be firing on all cylinders when they get to St. Louis next week.

Notes from the Net: Miles from India reviewed; Ehrlich nominated for JJA award; St. Louisans at The Stone; Waits interviews himself; and more

From far and wide across the vastness of the Internets, here's the latest compilation of news bits about musicians with a St. Louis connection, recent visitors and coming attractions, plus a few other items of interest:

* Let's start, as we usually do, with some Miles Davis-related news. First up, AllAboutJazz.com has another review of the book Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post Bop. Next up are three reviews of the new two-CD set Miles from India, from Blogcritics' Richard Marcus, Nick Coleman of the UK Independent, and from an Indian blogger who uses the handle Amitdas. And finally, a fine art and memorabilia exhibition entitled "A Tribute to Miles Davis and Carlos Santana" opened May 15 at Lush Life Gallery in San Francisco.

* The nominees for the 2008 Jazz Journalists Association awards include St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich (pictured) for clarinetist of the year.

* The July schedule at John Zorn's NYC performance space The Stone will have a distinct St. Louis flavor, courtesy of multi-reedman J.D. Parran, who's co-curating the shows for the month. St. Louisans past and present who will be performing include Parran, Ehrlich, trumpeter Bruce Purse, guitarist Kelvyn Bell, multi-instrumentalist Mark Deutsch, trombonist Joe Bowie, saxophonist Oliver Lake, and poet Michael Castro.

* Turning to news of some recent visitors to St. Louis, the Los Angeles Times has a review of bassist Christian McBride's recent concert at LA's Disney Hall featuring 'The Movement Revisited" a four-section suite inspired by the civil rights movement. McBride was in St. Louis this spring with the Ray Brown Tribute band to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding, who played the Bistro last October, has a new CD Esperanza, reviewed here.

* Singer/pianist Freddie Cole and pianist Dave Brubeck recently performed on the same bill at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and AllAboutJazz.com has a review of the show here. Both Cole and Brubeck performed at the Sheldon Concert Hall this past season, and Brubeck has a return engagement at the Sheldon this fall.

* Saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman are reviving their Saxophone Summit project, with Ravi Coltrane joining in as a replacement for the late Michael Brecker. Coltrane played the Bistro in February.

* Pop/jazz singer Michael Buble, who performed at the Scottrade Center in March, continues his North American tour; a recent stop in San Jose, CA is reviewed here.

* Pianist Helen Sung recently was part of a "Women in Jazz" concert in Washington DC, reviewed here. Sung was a special guest at singer Denise Thimes' Mother's Day show at the Sheldon and will return to St. Louis in the fall to play Jazz at the Bistro with the Metta Quintet.

* Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and film director Spike Lee presented a program called "Jazz Goes to the Movies" at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, featuring excerpts from Blanchard's scores for Lee's movies Bamboozled, Inside Man, Clockers, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, 25th Hour, Mo' Better Blues,and When the Levees Broke. Blanchard returns to St. Louis next February for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro

* Lifecycle, the new collaborative album from the Yellowjackets and guitarist Mike Stern, is reviewed here. Stern was here to play the Bistro in March, and the Yellowjackets just wrapped up a four-night gig at the club. They'll return here to play the Bistro together next April 29 to May 2..

* Eccentric singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Tom Waits, who will be in St. Louis to play the Fox Theatre on June 26, recently did a rather amusing interview with himself about this summer's tour.

* And finally, a few miscellaneous items of interest, starting with the news that the city of Baltimore has accepted a bust of guitarist/composer Frank Zappa from FZ's Lithuanian fan club. Zappa was born in Baltimore, and his son Dweezil's project Zappa Plays Zappa will perform at The Pageant on Monday, June 9

* Here's another review of trombonist/composer George Lewis' new history of Chicago's Assocation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

* From freejazz.org comes an interesting discussion about why music goes out of print in the age of digital downloads. As it turns out, Amazon.com may have at least a partial solution to the problem with their new CreateSpace service, which duplicates out-of-print CDs and books on demand.

(Edited 6/3/08 to correct the date of the Zappa Plays Zappa show.)

Jazz this week: Ravi Coltrane, experimental video with live music, and more

With performances ranging from a traditional New Orleans-style combo to an experimental blend of video and avant garde sounds, this week's schedule of jazz and creative music offers several noteworthy events, starting with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane (pictured), who's playing at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday. You can read my Riverfront Times Critic's Pick on Coltrane here, and check out the recent StLJN video post on the saxophonist here.

For those on a budget, there are couple of free concerts on the Washington University campus, as the Jazz at Holmes series presents a performance by pianist Kara Baldus and her trio on Thursday, and the new "Kemper Presents" series at the Kemper Art Museum has a show by Zimbabwe Nkenya, performing on the mbira (a.k.a. thumb piano or kalimba), on Friday.

Also on Friday, New Music Circle presents "Synaesthesia," a program of original experimental music and video, at the Saint Louis Art Museum auditorium. The event will feature music by James Hegarty, Rich O'Donnell, Tom Hamilton and the Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble (S.A.N.E.) set to videos created by Van McElwee, Roy Zurick and Peter Rose.

Wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present the traditional jazz of trumpeter Bob Ceccarini and the River City Ramblers in a performance at the Moolah Shrine Center, 12545 Fee Fee Rd. in Maryland Heights.

As always, these are just a few of the highlights happening around town, so for more jazz events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar. (Note also that with a new month beginning on Saturday, there will be some updates made to the calendar as March schedules come in over the next few days.)

(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.)

Ravi Coltrane featured in Post-Dispatch

Saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who will appear this Wednesday through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro, is the subject of a feature story written by Calvin Wilson that appears in today's Post-Dispatch. Read it online here.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies:Ravi Coltrane carries on the family tradition

As the son of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane and keyboardist/composer Alice Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane is heir to a powerful jazz legacy. Yet the younger Coltrane, who's coming to St. Louis to perform February 27 through March 1 at Jazz at the Bistro, seems at ease with the notion of following in such famous footsteps. Like his dad, he plays tenor and soprano sax, and he isn't afraid to invite further comparison by sometimes performing some of his father's music. He even worked for several years in the band of drummer Elvin Jones, who anchored the elder Coltrane's classic quartet of the 1960s.

This week's videos offer some insight into how Ravi Coltrane is continuing his father's work while also asserting his own identity, as they show him performing two pieces of music closely associated with his dad. The first clip is an excerpt from a live performance of "Impressions" by Ravi's quartet, filmed last September at EZ's Woodshed in Harlem, NYC. Although the audio/video quality is pretty rough, I think it's worth checking out because it shows Ravi cutting loose and expending some raw energy in a manner that very much recalls his father's late-career work. The other musicians are Rudy Royston, a bit overmiked here, on drums, pianist Lewis Porter and bassist Ratzo Harris.

The second clip is of much better A/V quality, and shows Ravi performing alongside fellow saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman - both also heavily influenced by Trane - in the ensemble Saxophone Summit. In this video, also from September 2007, they're playing John Coltrane's composition "Expressions". That's Randy Brecker joining the front line and soloing on trumpet, with pianist Phil Markowitz, drummer Billy Hart and bassist Cecil McBee in the rhythm section.

Pollstar: Coltrane, Elling added to Bistro's 2007-08 season

According to information just posted on Pollstar, two more acts have been booked for Jazz at the Bistro's 2007-08 season.

The online source for tour information says singer Kurt Elling will have a return engagement at the Bistro from November 14-17, 2007. Elling is considered to be one of the top male jazz singers working today; his last St. Louis appearance was at the Bistro in May 2006, and you can read StLJN's review of one of his sets here.

The site also indicates that saxophonist Ravi Coltrane has been booked to perform at the Bistro February 27 - March 1, 2008. Coltrane, the son of saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane, has worked as a sideman to Elvin Jones, Geri Allen and Kenny Barron, among others, and has developed into a well-respected musician and bandleader in his own right. As far as I know, he's never played St. Louis before.

As always, readers are reminded that these way-in-advance notices from Pollstar are subject to change, and should not be considered confirmed until the dates are announced officially by the venue.