Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The concert by singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina that streamed live last Saturday from The Pageant now can be viewed online.
* The Kranzberg Arts Foundation has published the results of their survey asking audience members about what would make them feel safe returning to live performance venues in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic..
* Pianist Adam Maness' arrangement of "America the Beautiful" has been recorded by singer Malena Smith and musicians from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as part of "Songs of America," a new patriotic-themed video series from SLSO. You can see the music video for the song here, and the rest of the "Songs of America" series here.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Saxophonist David Sanborn(pictured) has released the third episode of his new online video series "Sanborn Sessions." It features Sanborn with singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke and guitarist Charlie Hunter, accompanied by drummer Billy Kilson and bassist Ben Williams, and can be seen in the embed window at the bottom of this post.
* The Circus Harmony band, which accompanies performances by circus pros and students at the City Museum and is directed by Webster University professor Jeffrey Carter, was the subject of a feature story in Webster's campus paper The Journal.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's newly released recording of Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony" (pictured), also featuring the trumpeter and composer and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, was the subject of a short feature story by the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller.
* The Radio Arts Foundation (aka Classic 107.3) will raise funds next month with "Wine and Jazz Under the Stars," an event set for Friday, September 20 at the Columbia Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $95 per person, which includes wine, appetizers, and music from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris. For more details or to make a reservation, visit the station's website.
* With this month being the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, there's been a flurry of related items showing up in the news, including historic overviews of the album and its significance from OpenCulture.com, Albumism.com and Counterpunch.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Bassist, composer, former St. Louisan, and SIU Edwardsville alumnus Dan Loomis(pictured) has launched a crowd-funding campaign to pay for a recording of his jazz song cycle "Job's Trials." You can read more about the project and, if you like, pledge your support here.
* Voting in the 2019 DownBeat Readers Poll is open, and you can cast your ballot here.
* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris is looking for young musicians in high school or their first year of college to participate in "From The Lab," a free educational program that will teach recording techniques, music business skills, and more. Applications for the first session starting in Fall 2019 are being accepted now on Harris' website.
* The St. Louis Symphony last weekend joined forces with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to perform Marsalis' "Swing Symphony" at Powell Hall, and the performances - which also were SLSO music director and conductor David Robertson's final concerts with the orchestra - were reviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller and KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.
* Trumpeter Jim Manley has released a new album, Retro 80s, which is on sale now on all the usual online outlets, with CDs also available starting next Tuesday, May 15. The album (pictured) includes 10 original tunes by Manley featuring ""solo trumpet with a horn section and sounds of the 80s." You can listen to a compilation of some brief sample clips here.
* Speaking of new recordings, flute player and composer Fred Tompkins has just added a new track to his Bandcamp page and "Ongoing Additions" Facebook page. "The Sun" is a six-minute vocal piece incorporating texts by Emily Dickinson that was performed for the recording by mezzo-soprano Johanna Nordhorn, pianist Maryse Carlin, and drummer Kyle Honeycutt.
* The Pocket, a combination bed-and-breakfast and rehearsal space geared to traveling bands and music fans, has opened for business in South St. Louis at 3501 Lemp, right next door to Off Broadway.
The third symphonic work written by Marsalis, "Swing Symphony" was commissioned jointly by the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and London’s Barbican Center and was premiered in June, 2010 by the Berlin Philharmonic. It received its US premiere in September 2010 in a performance by the New York Philharmonic in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center that was televised live on PBS.
In the first video up above, you can see Marsalis talking about the process of composition for "Swing Symphony" in a brief interview recorded for the New York Philharmonic at the time of the US premiere in 2010.
After the jump, you can see a more extensive interview with the composer about the work, recorded a few months later by Jazz at Lincoln Center in March 2011, and divided into four parts.
The final two videos are performances of "Swing Symphony," the first recorded by Marsalis, the JaLCO, and the Ceska Philhamonic with Wayne Marshall conducting in July of last year in Prague, Czech Republic. The second was recorded earlier this month by the Frankfurt (Germany) Radio Symphony and Frankfurt Radio Big Band, with Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting.
While both performances no doubt have some differences in interpretation and feel from what the audience at Powell Hall will hear next weekend, the two versions - one with the composer and his hand-picked band, the other an interpretation by musicians with no prior connection to the work - should provide some good opportunities for comparing and contrasting.
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* In case you missed it, St. Louisans who were part of Sunday night's Grammy Awards included drummer Mark Colenburg(pictured), who played on pianist Robert Glasper's Grammy winning Black Radio 2; Peter Martin, pianist and bandleader for Dianne Reeves, who won "Best Jazz Vocal Album" for Beautiful Life; and the St. Louis Symphony, who won the Grammy for Best Orchestral Recording for their album featuring composer John Adams' City Noir.
You can see a list of all the jazz Grammy winners here, and read more about the Symphony's win in this article from Sarah Bryan Miller of the Post-Dispatch.
* Local luthier Tritone Guitars is organizing a "Gear Expo" of St. Louis guitar makers to be held from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, March 21 in the common room of the Metropolitan Art Lofts, across Grand Ave from The Fox Theater. Participants will include K-Line Guitars, Landry Amps, ESB Guitars, Stage Craft Cabs, Rein Guitars, Hollow Tree Guitars, Don Lennon St. Louis Slides, Firebrand Studios, Certain Bass, Locomotive Audio, Bearfoot FX, WoC Guitars, Rock Road Custom Guitars, and Vintage Amp Restoration, plus artwork from local artists, beer from 4Hands Brewery, and more. The event is free and open to the public.
* Lindy Hop St. Louis is encouraging local swing dancers to sign up for a local screening of the new film Ctrl+Alt+Dance, billed as "a cinematic celebration of swing dancing." However, the event only will happen if enough people reserve tickets by February 15, which can be done online here.
* Jazz radio update: The jazz programming this weekend on Radio Arts Foundation is all about the love, as on Saturday's edition of “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will present his second annual Valentine's Day-themed show, featuring recordings by musicians including including Keith Jarrett, Norah Jones, Joe Lovano, and more.
After that on The Jazz Collective, host Jason Church continues the Valentine's Day theme with tracks from David Benoit, Herbie Hancock, Acoustic Alchemy, Paul Hardcastle, Tommy Halloran, Swing Out Sister, Michael Franks, Fourplay, Candy Dulfer, Al Jarreau, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, and more.
Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.
The show is part of the SLSO's just-announced "Live at Powell Hall" series of pops concerts for next season. The series also includes at least one more performance that may be of interest to jazz fans, as singer Cary Hoffman will present his show "My Sinatra" with the SLSO on Sunday, June 21.
Other "Live at Powell Hall" programs will include tributes to the music of rock bands including the Beatles, U2, Eagles, and Journey and to folk-rockers Simon & Garfunkel; an evening of music from the video game "Final Fantasy"; and "Lost in Space," featuring theme music from a number of science fiction and fantasy films and TV series.
Botti (pictured) was in St. Louis last in February, 2012 to play at the Peabody Opera House, and he previously performed with the SLSO in February 2011 as part of what then was called "SLSO Presents". This time around, he'll be playing mostly selections from his 2012 album Impressions, for which he received the 2013 Grammy Award for "Best Pop Instrumental Album."
Single tickets for Chris Botti and the rest of the "Live at Powell Hall series are priced from $25 to $99, and will go on sale Monday, August 11 by phone at 314-534-1700, online at http://stlsymphony.org/, and at the Powell Hall box office.
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is offering two tickets for the price of one for "The Gospel According to Swing," featuring trumpeter and singer Byron Stripling(pictured) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30 at Powell Hall.
As described by SLSO, the program ranges "from Mahalia Jackson to Aretha Franklin, with the influences of Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington," with selections including "Down by the Riverside," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and "He's Got the Whole World.”
The two-for-one offer is good only through next Thursday, May 15, and applies to seats regularly priced from $30 to $45 each.
To purchase tickets, click here or call 314-534-1700. Box seats and prior sales are excluded, and while there's no promo code as such, for phone orders you must mention the 2-for-1 offer.
Trumpeter and singer Byron Stripling will be making a return trip to St. Louis next year to perform with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 30, 2014 at Powell Symphony Hall.
Stripling, the artistic director and conductor of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, performed his show "Sounds of New Orleans: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong" with the SLSO in June, 2012. He also did an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis and two nights at Jazz at the Bistro in February, 2012. (For more about Stripling and some video samples of his playing, check out this post from last year.)
For his next appearance with the orchestra, which is part of the SLSO's "Live at Powell Hall" series, Stripling (pictured) will offer a program entitled "The Gospel According to Swing," exploring the link between gospel music and jazz through familiar songs such as "Down by the Riverside," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and "He's Got the Whole World.”
Tickets for Byron Stripling and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's presentation of "The Gospel According to Swing" are priced from $25 to $55, and are on sale now via the SLSO website.
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
* Cornetist and composer Taylor Ho Bynum had a few words with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson for a concert preview story now published online. Bynum also answered a few questions about his music during another interview that's now posted on New Music Circle's website. NMC will present Bynum and his sextet in a performance tomorrow night at the Luminary Center for the Arts.
* Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's recent visit to St. Louis included some time mentoring and performing with students from the East St. Louis High School jazz band in a concert at Washington University's 560 Music Center. Wash U's news service has a short article about the visit, along with a YouTube video, here.
* When he comes to town at the end of this month to play at Jazz at the Bistro, guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli(pictured) also will plug his new book World on a String: A Musical Memoir on the airwaves of KMOX radio. Pizzarelli's tome is the November selection for the KMOX/Fontbonne University Book of the Month Club, and he'll visit in person with the station's Charlie Brennan and listeners at an event at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 27 at the Heagney Theatre on the campus of Nerinx Hall, 530 East Lockwood in Webster Groves. There's no charge to attend, but reservations are required, and can be made by calling 314-444-1827. The interview also will be taped for airing on Brennan's program in December.
* The Metropolitan Artists Lofts in Grand Center will have a grand opening ceremony next Thursday, November 8. The building, just a short walk from Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon Concert Hall, Powell Symphony Hall and other venues in the district, has 72 units specifically designed as affordable housing for artists and musicians.
* Down Beat magazine has published their list of 2012 Reader's Poll winners, and as it turns out, a substantial number of them have played in St. Louis during the last couple of years. However, the only local actually to win an award this year was the late Miles Davis, who copped the "Historical Album" trophy for Miles Davis Quintet, Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 (Columbia/Legacy). See the complete results of the poll here.
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
* Pianist and St. Louis native Tom McDermott, who now lives in New Orleans, turned up again in last Sunday's episode of the HBO series Treme, which is set in the Crescent City. McDermott and Connie Jones were shown performing the pianist's composition “Kermit’s Rag” at The Columns hotel. You can read a brief interview about the show that McDermott (pictured) did recently with NOLA.com here.
* Meanwhile, New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis was in St. Louis last week, leading the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a performance of his composition "Swing Symphony" with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. While Marsalis and JaLCO were in town, they also spent some time teaching and playing with the East St. Louis High School Jazz Band. You can read more about that in Terry Perkins' article for the St. Louis Beacon, found here, and see some photos in an album posted on the SLSO's Facebook page.
* Jazz St. Louis will begin their first educational residency of the 2012-13 season next Monday, October 29 with a week-long return visit from well-known jazz educator Dr. Gene Aitken. A former winner of DownBeat Magazine’s Jazz Educator of the Year and a member of the International Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, Aitken will work with Jazz St. Louis’ JazzU ensembles, and conduct a series of lectures, workshops, and clinics at area schools including Ladue High School, Riverview Gardens High School, Seckman High School, Parkway South High School, Bishop DuBourg High School, and Webster Groves High School, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Webster University.
* And speaking of Jazz St. Louis, they've posted to their Facebook page an album of photos from last week's performances by yet another New Orleanian, trumpeter Christian Scott, at Jazz at the Bistro. Nextbop.com also just published an article on Scott's new quintet lineup here.
This week, we're taking take a look at, and a listen to, a single extended composition: Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony," written by the trumpeter to be performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra plus a full symphony orchestra. Completed in 2010, the work was premiered by Marsalis, JaLCO and the Berlin Philharmonic in June of that year. That concert was broadcast by PBS here in the USA, and "Swing Symphony" subsequently has been performed a number of other times, most notably in New York, Los Angeles and London.
Now St. Louis listeners will get a chance to hear "Swing Symphony" in person, as Marsalis and JaLCO are headed here to perform it with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra next Saturday, October 20 at Powell Symphony Hall.
In the first clip up above, you can hear Marsalis and the Berlin Philharmonic's conductor Simon Rattle talking about "Swing Symphony" in a conversation with composer and journalist Catherine Milliken, recorded in conjunction with the work's premiere.
Down below, you can see and hear that complete premiere performance of "Swing Symphony" from 2010, featuring Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Rattle. Below that, you can see Marsalis alone, talking directly to the camera about composing "Swing Symphony" in four segments that were recorded shortly after the Los Angeles Philharmonic performance.
For more about Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony," check out this review of American premiere in September 2010 by the New York Philharmonic, and this one of the Los Angeles performance in February 2011.
And if you haven't got your tickets yet for next Saturday's performance, you may be interested to know that the SLSO is offering a 20% discount on the remaining seats. You can get the details on that discount offer here.
The headline of this post refers to several things: It was the title of a best-selling but now out-of-print double album reissuing some of Armstrong's key early recordings; the subtitle of a biography of Armstrong by the noted jazz critic Gary Giddins; and, ultimately, it's a simple statement of fact.
Armstrong was the first international jazz superstar, a virtuoso soloist who set the bar for every jazz musician who followed him, an innovative vocal stylist, and one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century. Though he may have lacked formal education, there's no question that Armstrong was a genius, and nearly 40 years after his death, his music remains both worthy of extended study for musicians and composers and genuinely entertaining to just about everyone.
Although the short glimpses of Armstrong seen on film and TV throughout his career could only capture a portion of that genius, it's a portion that's still worth revisiting and appreciating, and so today, we have a half-dozen clips of Armstrong in action.
The first video up above dates from 1934, and shows Armstrong and band performing "I Cover The Waterfront," "Dinah" and "Tiger Rag" in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Down below is a clip of "Stompin at the Savoy" from a 1959 performance in Stuttgart, Germany. Armstrong is backed by Trummy Young (trombone), Peanuts Hucko (clarinet), Billy Kyle (piano), Mort Herbert (bass) and Danny Barcelona (drums).
Below that, it's a rather relaxed version of "When The Saints Go Marching In," taped in March, 1963 in Sydney, Australia and featuring Armstrong, Young, Kyle, Barcelona, clarinetist Joe Darensbourg and bassist Arvell Shaw.
Next up, it's the classic "Basin Street Blues," recorded in February, 1964 for the US TV program The Bell Telephone Hour: The American Song. It's the same band as the 1963 clip, except with trombonist Russell "Big Chief" Moore in place of Young.
The fifth clip features Armstrong and country music great Johnny Cash performing "Blue Yodel No 9" in 1970 on Cash's TV show. Armstrong appeared as an unbilled guest star on the original version recorded in 1930 by Jimmie Rodgers.
And just to close out with a local reference, the final clip is a version of "St. Louis Blues" recorded in 1959 in Belgium by the same band seen in the "Stompin' at the Savoy" clip, plus vocalist Velma Middleton.
Tickets for Byron Stripling and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's tribute to Armstrong are priced from $25 to $55, and are on sale online at www.stlsymphony.org or by phone at 314-534-1700.
Having just completed an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis back in February, trumpeter and singer Byron Stripling already has gotten his ticket punched for a return trip here. The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will present Stripling (pictured) in "Sounds of New Orleans: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 9 at Powell Symphony Hall.
Stripling first became known for performing Armstrong's music back in 1988, when he was selected to play the lead in the musical Satchmo: America's Musical Legend. He subsequently developed his own show based on Armstrong and has performed it with orchestras all over the country to good reviews. For more about Stripling and some video samples of his playing, check out this post from back in February.
Under the baton of resident conductor Ward Stare, the SLSO and Stripling will perform a program including “St. Louis Blues," “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “What a Wonderful World” and “When the Saints Come Marching In” and other songs associated with Armstrong and New Orleans jazz.
Tickets for Byron Stripling and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra are priced from $25 to $55, and are on sale now online at www.stlsymphony.org or by phone at 314-534-1700.
As part of its "Live at Powell Hall" series, the SLSO will present a program called "The Music of Ray Charles" on Friday, September 21. Charles' vast catalog certainly provides plenty of material to work with, and with the right songs and vocal soloists, it could be a solid program - as long as no one at the SLSO makes the mistake of thinking they can sound credible trying to play Charles' early rhythm and blues material.
Much more problematic, however, is the booking of Kenny G to perform with the orchestra the following evening, Saturday, September 22. Given the near-universal critical revulsion of the saxophonist, the rather insubstantial nature of his material, and the bland mediocrity of his playing, it's hard to see this show as anything but a blatant, pandering money grab, unless you choose to view it as a carefully studied insult to the tastes of both local jazz enthusiasts and the SLSO's own patrons. Either way, it seems a terrible lapse in artistic judgment that one can only hope won't ever be repeated.
(And yes, yr. humble editor remembers writing back in 2010 that all the critical vitriol expended on the G-Man was basically a waste of everyone's time. However, it's one thing for him to play his own show somewhere, and another thing entirely for him to be endorsed by an ostensibly serious musical organization like the SLSO.)
On a more harmonious note, the SLSO has booked trumpeter Wynton Marsalis(pictured) and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as the musical main attraction for the organization's annual fundraising gala, which will be held on Saturday, October 20 at Powell Hall. The concert will feature the St. Louis premiere of Marsalis’ Swing Symphony, which received its world premiere in 2010 in Berlin and later was broadcast as a PBS special.
The SLSO also has set a return appearance for trumpeter Chris Botti, who will perform with the orchestra on February 23 at Powell Hall. Botti appeared with the SLSO last February, and will be here in a couple of weeks on Friday, February 24 to play the Peabody Opera House.
The 2012-13 season also will include performances of contemporary orchestral works by Thomas Adès, Cindy McTee, John Adams and Christopher Rouse, as well as a continuation of the SLSO-sponsored concerts at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, which also have featured music by living composers. To see the entire season schedule and purchase tickets, visit the SLSO's website.
If you're looking to follow your Turkey Day dinner with some jazz and creative music this weekend in St. Louis, here's what's on the menu:
On Friday and Saturday, Jeremy Davenport returns to Jazz at the Bistro for his annual Thanksgiving week homecoming shows. The trumpeter, vocalist and University City native continues to serve as the house act for the Davenport Lounge in New Orleans' Ritz-Carlton Hotel, but he'll be back home this weekend, accompanied by fellow U Citians Peter Martin on piano and Chris Thomas on bass plus two musicians from his New Orleans band, drummer Troy Davis and saxophonist Aaron Fletcher.
You can see some video footage of Davenport performing in this post from a couple of years ago, and for more about what he's been up to to lately, check this interview that Terry Perkins did with the trumpeter that was published yesterday by the St. Louis Beacon.
And although it's not a jazz show, some readers of this site also may be interested in Friday's fifth annual edition of the Soulard Blues Band's St. Louis Blues & Soul Revue at the Sheldon Concert Hall's upstairs ballroom. For more about that, see this piece I wrote for the RFT Music blog and published earlier today.
On Saturday night, saxophonist Freddie Washington, back in town after a hiatus, leads a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; and saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald performs at Jazz on Broadway in Alton.
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.)
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, working in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, will perform Duke Ellington's "Nutcracker Suite" as part of a "family concert" at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 27 at Powell Symphony Hall. The suite, which is Ellington's jazz interpretation of "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky, originally was recorded for Columbia Records and released in 1960.
The concert will be conducted by Ware Stare, SLSO's resident conductor and director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra (SLSYO), and also will include George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" and Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town." Tickets are priced from $7 to $16 and are on sale now at the Powell Hall box office, by phone at 314-534-1700, or via the SLSO's website.
You can see excerpts from a studio performance of the "Nutcracker Suite" by the Duke Ellington Orchestra and a brief promotional interview with Ellington about the project in the embedded video window below.
* Bassist and luthier David Certain sends word that bassist and St. Louis native Mark Peterson will be playing a CertainBass Model One on an upcoming recording with pianist Bob James. You can see Peterson and his instrument with singer Ben E. King's band here.
* In more celebrity recording news, keyboardist Michael Silverman of the Classical Jazz Quartet says that famed fusion guitarist Scott Henderson has agreed to record on CJQ's next album project, The Rebirth of Fusion. Henderson, known for his work with Tribal Tech and Chick Corea's Elektrik Band, will lay down his tracks in January.
* St. Louis Kids magazine is giving away four tickets to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's November 27 performance of the "The Nutcracker Meets Jazz," featuring music by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Duke Ellington. The performance is presented in partnership with Jazz St. Louis, and specifically designed to introduce children to the symphony. To enter the drawing for the free tickets, go here.
* NPR's Kevin Whitehead last week reviewed the new, limited-edition CD reissue of saxophonist Julius Hemphill's landmark debut album Dogon A.D., with the NY Times Ben Ratliff weighing in on the disc here. The reissue is limited to 1,500 copies, and was done by the small International Phonograph label, which earned plaudits for its earlier re-issue of another long-out-of-print session, trumpeter Bill Dixon's Intents and Purposes. The reissue already is out of stock or back-ordered at some online retailers, but if you like, you still can download and hear a free .mp3 rip of the original recording via this StLJN Audio Archive post from back in August.
Here's the latest wrap-up of links and short local news items of interest that you may have missed:
* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra last Saturday night premiered "Aurora," a new orchestral composition by Wayne Shorter, as part of their annual fundraising gala, and the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller was there to review the performance. You can read her article online here.
* Saxophonist Joshua Redman (pictured), in town this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro, was featured yesterday on the afternoon newscast at local CW affiliate KPLR (Channel 11). You can see the segment online here.
* The St. Louis branch of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 2-197, is at odds with the Family Arena and the rock band Kansas over the use of a student orchestra from Truman State University for an upcoming concert at the St. Charles venue. The Riverfront Times' Aimee Levitt has the story here.
* The P-D's Kevin Johnson reports that a tribute to the late St. Louis percussionist and singer Blake Travis will be held on Sunday, October 17 at the Broadway Oyster Bar.
