So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Tonight's 7:30 p.m. set by Sammy Miller and the Congregation at Jazz at the Bistro will be streamed live online by Jazz St. Louis. You can see it on JSL's website, their Facebook page, or on UStream.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was named one of "10 New Artists You Need To Know" in the October issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Harrold (pictured) also was featured on a recent episode of B-Side, a web series produced and curated by the BRIC arts and media nonprofit in Brooklyn, NYC.

* A recent show by saxophonist Dave Sanborn, and his kindness to a young fan, are the subjects of a feature story on AllAboutJazz.com.

* New Music Circle will present a free program of short films by composer and electronic musician John Wiese at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, November 9 at the Moolah Theatre & Lounge. Wiese will be in town for a concert presented by NMC on Saturday, November 11 at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

* In conjunction with a talk this week at Washington University, bassist, author and educator Paul Steinbeck was interviewed about Message to Our Folks, his book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby was interviewed on a recent episode of the Neon Jazz podcast.

* The Sheldon has posted to Facebook a set of photos from the Hudson concert earlier this month.

* Euclid Records has released a free smartphone app, with a barcode scanner that provides access to sound samples, plus info on new releases and store events, and more. The app is available for both Android and iPhone via Google Play and the iTunes app store.

* Actor and singer Alice Ripley's show last weekend for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* The remains of the hull of the Goldenrod Showboat - which for decades on the St. Louis riverfront served as the site for performances of traditional jazz and ragtime - were destroyed in a fire last week in Calhoun County, IL.

* The Regional Arts Commission is surveying the St. Louis arts and culture community in conjunction with EVOKE, a new initiative described as "a cultural planning process that seeks to elicit, inspire and explore how the arts can become more relevant in addressing St. Louis’s cultural challenges...The outcome of the conversations, studies, data gathered and ideas shared will be a regional cultural plan designed to guide RAC’s work and evolve our vision for a more vibrant and equitable future for St. Louis." You can weigh in by taking the survey online here.

* Chasing Trane, the documentary about saxophonist John Coltrane that briefly played in movie theaters earlier this year, will be broadcast as part of the PBS series Independent Lens and will air in St. Louis at 10:00 p.m. Monday, November 6 on Nine PBS (aka KETC).

Jazz this week: John Pizzarelli, Sammy Miller and the Congregation, a tribute to Thelonious Monk, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the St. Louis debut of an up-and-coming young band; a tribute to a distinctive jazz composer and pianist; the return of a longtime local favorite for a benefit performance; and more. 

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 25
Pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Montez Coleman will salute one of the greatest composers in jazz in the first of two nights of a "Thelonious Monk Centennial Celebration" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Wednesday, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features cornetist and singer T.J Müller at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, a jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 26
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents "Streams of Extremity II," a free concert featuring pianist Ptah Williams, guitarist/bassist William Lenihan, drummer Steve Davis, and a string trio performing and improvising based on the music of Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and more.

Elsewhere around town, New Orleans keyboardist and singer John "Papa" Gros returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a quintet at The Dark Room

Friday, October 27
Drummer/singer Sammy Miller and the Congregation (pictured, center left) will make their St. Louis debut and wrap up a week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

For more about Miller and his band of twenty-somethings, plus some sample performances on video, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival presents singer and pianist Eric Comstock and singer Barbara Fasano in a one-night-only performance of their cabaret show "Downton Abbey Road: The Best of Britain" at the Gaslight Theater.

Elsewhere around town, the Midwest Jazz-tette returns to Evangeline's, and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, October 28
Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli (pictured, top left) will perform for the annual "ArtSounds" benefit gala at the Sheldon Concert Hall. (For those interested in just hearing the music, the Sheldon may have some concert-only tickets available; check with their box office for details.)

Also on Saturday, the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday October 29
The Folk School of KDHX presents their monthly traditional jazz jam session; the Bosman Twins (pictured, bottom left) will headline a benefit at the Sheldon raising money for the Royal Vagabonds scholarship fund; and the students of the JazzU Big Band will perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

Monday, October 30
Saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead a quintet of members of the Webster University jazz faculty in "1967: Jazz in Transition" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

The program will feature performances of songs first released in 1967 by artists including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Lloyd, Gary Burton, Sam Rivers, Chick Corea, and more.

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: Sammy Miller and the Congregation

This week, let's get acquainted via video with drummer Sammy Miller and his band, the Congregation.

The NYC-based group will make their St. Louis debut next week as part of an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, wrapping up their time here with performances on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Along with Miller on drums and vocals, the Congregation includes Alphonso Horne (trumpet), Ben Flocks (tenor sax), Sam Crittenden (trombone), David Linard (piano), and John Snow (bass).

Their debut album The Mixtape, released earlier this year, contains a mix of originals and covers, including several familiar standards. "It isn’t traditional jazz, but perhaps there’s this idea of joyful jazz: music that’s medicinal and can uplift people,” Miller said in an interview with Jewish Journal.

You can see for yourself what that's like in today's videos, starting with the first clip up above, which features Miller and the Congregation performing Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley's "Black and Tan Fantasy" in 2015 at Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem.

After the jump, there's a video of them doing the New Orleans standard "Li'l Liza Jane," recorded in 2017 at Live at The Woods in Brooklyn, New York.

That's followed by two tracks recorded in April of this year at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Antonio," and “Blues Don’t Bother I,” recorded in January 2016 at Sofar New York.

The final video shows a full set of Miller and the Congregation recorded in April 2016 at the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part two

This week, it's part two of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, featuring videos of noteworthy performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the next several months. (You can see part one, published last week, here.)

Picking up the chronology in mid-October where part one left off, today's first video features trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who will be back in St. Louis to perform on Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video shows a full set from Sandoval and his band, recorded in February of this year in Moscow, Russia.

After the jump, it's singer Paula West, who will open the fall series of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 13 and Saturday October 14 at the Gaslight Theater. West is seen here performing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as part of a tribute to Bowie in February 2016 at Feinstein's in San Francisco.

Next, it's the recently formed "supergroup" Hudson, featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John Scofield, keyboardist John Medeski, and bassist Larry Grenadier. They'll perform here on Saturday, October 14 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and can be seen in today's third clip vamping for a few minutes on the title track from their eponymous first album, as recorded on June 30 of this year at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The fourth video features the young Cuban-born pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa, who will make his St. Louis debut here with performances starting Wednesday, October 18 through Saturday, October 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. He's seen here performing music from his most recent album El Viaje in March of this year at the Banlieues Bleues Festival in Seine-Saint-Denis, France.

The fifth video features actor and singer Alice Ripley, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star who will perform as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 20 and Saturday October 21 at the Gaslight Theater. The video shows Ripley singing "As If We Never Said Goodbye" (from the musical Sunset Boulevard) and was recorded on June 5, 2017 at Feinstein's/54 Below in NYC.

Today's final clip spotlights Sammy Miller and the Congregation, a young band from New Orleans who will cap off a week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with shows on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. Miller and his flock are seen here performing "Ain't Misbehavin'" in April of this year at the studios of radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

Look for part three of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...