Sunday Session: September 23, 2018

John Scofield

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:

* Sons of Kemet frontman Shabaka Hutchings: 'I trust in my ability to write really dope s***' (The Standard)
* R.I.P. Big Jay McNeely, April 29, 1927-Sept. 16, 2018 (LA Weekly)
* A conversation with DJ Amir Abdullah about newly unearthed Charles Mingus recordings (TrebleZine.com)
* Congressional Black Caucus Honors Jazz Players During Annual Washington Concert (DownBeat)
* Jazz From Monterey: 1958, The Birth Of A Festival (WFIU)
* Music from many if not all points of the compass: Rhys Chatham interviewed (Freq.org.uk)
* New Orleans Jazz Makes Room for All the Grooves (64Parishes.org)
* Fired or retired? What happens to the aging orchestral musician (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
* The Guide to Getting into John Coltrane's Quasi-Religious Ecstasy (Vice.com)
* The Women of Detroit Music, Living and Gone, Take Spotlight at Detroit Jazz Festival (Billboard)
* Tiny Desk Concert: GoGo Penguin (NPR)
* Vinyl Is Bigger Than We Thought. Much Bigger (Forbes)
* Tracing The Genetic Code Of New Orleans Funk Music (LiveForLiveMusic.com)
* The Poetic Inspiration of Pianist Lynne Arriale (DownBeat)
* 5 Vibraphonists You Should Know About (Revive-Music.com)
* Music Modernization Act Passes, Despite Music Industry Infighting (Rolling Stone)
* India's singing village, where everyone has their melody (France24.com)
* Americans Listen to 151 Minutes of Music Each Day (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Spotify to Allow Indie Artists to Upload Music Directly to Service, Bypassing Distributors (Billboard)
* Comprehensive history of KC Women’s Jazz Festival (JazzJournalists.org)
* How David Crosby Found a New Harmony (Rolling Stone)
* The Fat Lady Is Singing - Is American opera in terminal condition? (Commentary)
* Roy Babbington on the 50-Year Evolution of Soft Machine (DownBeat)
* Imagine: Previously Unseen Footage Of John Lennon And George Harrison (NPR)
* Ticketmaster stung by undercover journalists, who reveal that the company deliberately enables scalpers and rips off artists (BoingBoing.net)
* John Scofield's Outside-In Approach To Jazz (SFJAZZ.org)
* Founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts in critical condition after 'freak accident' (NBC)
* Live Review: 2018 Chicago Jazz Festival (Jazz Times)
* "Three Is One": Thelonious Monk's Influence On Joanne Brackeen, Kris Davis & Helen Sung (SFJAZZ.org)
* The San Francisco Tape Music Center Was an Early Home to the Avant-Garde (Bandcamp.com)
* Tracing Ska Music’s Great Migration (AtlasObscura.com)
* How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music (Pitchfork.com)

Sunday Session: July 9, 2017

Miguel Zenon

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

* The real motor of the performing arts isn’t vision. It’s the board, stupid. ​(Washington Post)
* Like it or not, we are in the midst of a second arts revolution (Chicago Tribune)
* Nora Holt - The pioneering African-American composer and critic left little trace of her work, making it – as Matthew Guerrieri writes – all the more important to celebrate her story (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Jazz Greats in Paris (The New Yorker)
* A room where sound goes to die — and scientists go to study (Seattle Times)
* Redefining the rock god - the new breed of electric guitar heroes (TheConversation.com)
* Churches struggling to find organists (Baltimore Sun)
* Hats Off To The Hammond (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Assessing 'Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan' (WBGO)
* Hudson’s Collective Groove Exceeds Expectations at Montreal Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* INTERVIEW: Rhys Chatham On Tony Conrad (TheQuietus.com)
* Jazz fest: Robert Glasper takes teamwork cues from Miles Davis (Montreal Gazette)
* Brain Music: How 'Fly Me To The Moon' Can Explain Your Brain On Anesthesia (WBUR)
* The Music Industry's Still Off Key (Bloomberg.com)
* A 60-year run at Royal Studios in Memphis--recording hits with 1960s vacuum-tube technology (KCBX)
* Guitarists Explore Music of Monk in NYC Concert (DownBeat)
* Everything You Need to Know About Music Sales in 2017 (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Why prog rock still deserves your time (The Economist)
* Scrapbook from the Apple (Jazz Journal)
* How to Double Vinyl Record Sales In 2 Years or Less (Guaranteed!) (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* The final bar? How gentrification threatens America's music cities (The Guardian)
* Global Swing: Catching Up with Miguel Zenón in Spain (DownBeat)
* Jane Bunnett & Maqueque: 21st Century Women (Jazz Times)
* The Sound of Avant Garde Jazz: Stream 35 Hours of Experimental Jazz by Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane & More (OpenCulture.com)
* Ornette Coleman: A Jazz Visionary Ready for Prime Time (NBCNews.com)
* 'Baby Driver's' true theme song is 'B-A-B-Y' and Carla Thomas loves it (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Stars turning out for tribute to famed SF nightclub Keystone Korner (San Jose Mercury-News)

Jazz this week: Peter Martin, Bobby Watson & Angela Hagenbach, Rhys Chatham, and more

This week's lineup of jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis includes a rare nightclub appearance by a favorite hometown pianist, several noteworthy touring performers, and a rather eclectic selection of tribute shows.

Let's go to the highlights....

Wednesday, May 18
Pianist Peter Martin will lead his trio for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, the first time he's played the room since it was expanded and renovated in 2014.

Martin (pictured, top left) will be joined by bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, both first-rate players who contributed to his most recent album What Lies Ahead and have been working with him on some touring dates as well, so they should be primed and ready from the first downbeat. Given Martin's local popularity - he grew up in U City, and continues to live in St. Louis while touring internationally as music director for singer Dianne Reeves - tickets may be hard to get, so advance reservations are recommended.

Also tonight, the experimental noise-rock duo Ahleuchatistas return to headline a four-band bill at 2720 Cherokee, and Cabaret Project St. Louis will celebrate the fourth anniversary of their "Open Mic Night" at the Tavern of Fine Arts

Thursday, May 19
The New Orleans-based band Nutrio makes their St. Louis debut at Evangeline's. The group, which includes saxophonist and clarinetist Byron Asher, bassist Trey Boudreaux, and drummer Shawn Myers, is touring the Midwest in support of their self-titled debut EP.

Also on Thursday, singer Feyza Eren and friends will perform at Nathalie’s

Friday, May 20
The Jazz Edge Orchestra will present a concert paying tribute to Kansas City jazz at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, featuring as special guests the veteran alto saxophonist Bobby Watson (pictured, center left), who once was a key part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and now co-leads the jazz program at UMKC's conservatory of music; and vocalist and KC native Angela Hagenbach.

Elsewhere on Friday, the funk/jazz quartet Good 4 the Soul will join forces with keyboardist Reggie Thomas for the first of two nights of a tribute to the late keyboardists Joe Sample and George Duke at Jazz at the Bistro; Western swing favorites Asleep At The Wheel will be in town to perform at the Old Rock House, and guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Glen Smith will play duets at Tavern of Fine Arts.

Saturday, May 21
Saxquest continues their series of free performances and workshops with a matinee from the New Horizon Saxophone Quartet, which features faculty members from the University of Cincinnati, Drake University, and Colorado State University and "combines the rhythmic and improvisatory language of jazz with elements of modern chamber composition."

Then on Saturday night, trumpeter Kasimu Taylor leads a quintet playing the music of Miles Davis at Kranzberg Arts Center, while the Funky Butt Brass Band will turn their monthly show at Broadway Oyster Bar into a tribute to Prince. Also on Saturday, trumpeter Jim Manley and guitarist Randy Bahr's All-Star Band returns to Nathalie's, and Wack-A-Doo plays swing, vintage pop and Americana at Evangeline's.

Sunday, May 22
On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Cornet Chop Suey in a matinee performance of traditional jazz and swing at the Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westport.

Sunday night, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Chatham will be visiting for a rare solo performance at The Luminary, with St. Louis' Vernacular String Trio as opening act.

A seminal figure in NYC's experimental music scene of the 1970s and '80s, Chatham (pictured, bottom left) has lived in France for the past 30 years, and his appearances stateside are infrequent and often confined to the coasts. For more about Chatham and some video samples of his music, see this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Sunday night, the Dave Dickey Big Band will play their regular monthly show at Jazz at the Bistro, with an intermission performance from the Sperring Middle School Jazz Ensemble.

Monday, May 23
Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck.

Tuesday, May 24
Two groups associated with improvising pianist Greg Mills, the Mount Everest Trio and the Perihelion Ensemble, will share an evening 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The music of Rhys Chatham

Today, let's look at some videos featuring the music of Rhys Chatham, who's coming to St. Louis to perform a solo show on Sunday, May 22 at The Luminary.

Chatham, who's 63 years old, is a composer, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist who's been a notable figure in American avant-garde and minimalist music for nearly five decades. Living in France since 1987, he tours only occasionally in the United States, lending his gig here next week an additional sense of importance.

A native New Yorker, Chatham studied while still a teenager with electronic composer Morton Subotnick and minimalist pioneer La Monte Young, and in 1971 he became the first music director of the experimental NYC performance space The Kitchen. There, he produced concerts by artists ranging from composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass to experimental improvisors like guitarists Fred Frith and Arto Lindsay, and helped establish the space's reputation as an incubator for some of the era's most intriguing sounds.

Influenced by NYC's punk rock and "No Wave" bands, in the late 1970s Chatham began writing music for ensembles of electric guitars, starting with pieces composed for a handful of guitarists and eventually moving up to orchestra-sized groups of 100 or more. These large-scale works helped him gain recognition internationally, and probably are still what he's best known for today.

More recently, Chatham has returned to creating music for small ensembles and solo performances, often incorporating flute (his first instrument as a child), trumpet (which he began playing in the 1980s), and electronic keyboards and effects along with guitar.

You can see one of those solo performances, recorded last June in Berlin, in the first video up above. After the jump, you can see an excerpt from another solo piece, "30ix15," also recorded last year by Chatham in his studio.

That's followed by a video of part of a duo performance by Chatham and guitarist Nico Guerrero last July in Paris at a venue called Détail, and one of a trio performance by Chatham, drummer Rune Kielsgaard and bassist Jeppe Skovbakke at the Click Festival, held in May 2015 in Elsinore, Denmark.

The last two videos feature examples of Chatham's works for multiple electric guitars. The fifth clip, "Drastic Classical Music for Electric Instruments," is a relatively early example, recorded in April 1981 at The Kitchen that features four guitarists and a drummer.

The sixth video is a recording of "A Secret Rose," written by Chatham in 2006 for an ensemble of 100 guitars, and seen here in a recording made at the 2014 Frontiers Festival in Birmingham, England.

For more about Rhys Chatham, check out the interview with him published in 2014 by The Quietus; his 2013 interview with A Closer Listen; and his 2013 interview with Blurt magazine.

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

Rhys Chatham to perform Sunday, May 22 at The Luminary

Guitarist, trumpeter and composer Rhys Chatham, known since the late 1970s for his experimental works orchestrating large ensembles of electric guitars, is coming to St. Louis to perform at 9:00 p.m. Sunday, May 22 at The Luminary. The Vernacular String Trio will open the show.

Chatham (pictured), who was the very first music director of the famed NYC performance space The Kitchen, has lived in France since 1987. His influence can be heard in several subsequent generations of musicians in a variety of genres, including adventurous rock acts such as Sonic Youth, Tortoise, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

The 63-year-old has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years, touring in the US and Europe, writing new commissioned works for large ensembles, and making several new recordings on both guitar and trumpet, which he began playing in 1983. His most recent album Harmonie Du Soir came out in 2013 on the Northern Spy label.

Tickets for Rhys Chatham at The Luminary are $15 in advance, $17 day of show, and are on sale now.