So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Music and the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies at UMSL have named pianist and educator Adaron "Pops" Jackson as the university's new director of jazz studies. Jackson succeeds the program's founder, bassist Jim Widner, who retired at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn was interviewed by John Carney on Monday's episode of "The Carney Show" on KTRS (550 AM).

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo (pictured) was interviewed about her new album St. Lost by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. Saputo is promoting the release with a performance tonight at Sophie's Artist Lounge and Cocktail Club. St. Lost this week also was the subject of a short promotional feature on BassMagazine.com

* Inventor and audio engineer Bob Heil was profiled in a story by KSDK's Art Holliday.

* WSIE (88.7FM) will celebrate Miles Davis' birthday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. this Sunday, May 26 with a two-hour special about his life and music. Listeners outside the St. Louis area can catch the program via the station's online stream.

* The Black Rep's production of Nina Simone: Four Women was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn. The play with music, which includes singer Denise Thimes in the cast, continues through Sunday, June 2 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

* Vaughn also filed a story for the American about the funeral service for Shirley Bradley LeFlore, former St. Louis poet laureate who worked with many jazz and creative musicians.

* Pianist Phillip Graves will play the title role in Next to Normal: The Thelonious Monk Story, a play by Mariah L Richardson that will be performed at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 12 and Thursday, June 13 at Jazz St. Louis.

The production, which is presented by A Call to Conscience, Inc. and directed by Fannie Belle Lebbie, will celebrate Monk's music and career while also examining "issues of mental illness as it relates to disparities in health care, police interaction, education, and social acceptance."

The performance on June 12 will be followed by a talk and Q&A about Monk led by Washington University professor Gerald Early, and a panel discussion on living with and overcoming the challenges posed by mental illness. Admission to both performances is free, but RSVPs are requested via EventBrite.

* Remember the lawsuit filed by seemingly-defunct-music-festival LouFest against their former sound contractors? Well, per new reporting on Thursday by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin, the suit has been dropped.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Shirley Bradley LeFlore, St. Louis poet laureate and member of the Black Artists Group who performed throughout her career with the city's jazz and creative musicians, died this past Sunday, May 12. She was 79 years old.

Formerly married to the late trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, she performed and/or recorded at various times with musicians including her ex-husband, saxophonists Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, J.D. Parran and Don Byron, pianist Ptah Williams, trumpeter George Sams, and more. Ms. Bradley LeFlore's funeral will take place today (Friday, May 17), with a visitation at 11:00 a.m. followed by services at noon at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St. downtown.

* Drummer Dave Weckl (pictured) was interviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Jim Worsley.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo is releasing a new album, St. Lost, that comes out today, and was interviewed Monday about the recording and her career by KSDK's Art Holliday.

* The new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool was the subject of a review/reminiscence by FYIMusicNews' Bill King.

* Speaking of Miles Davis, a 1979 interview with pianist Bill Evans unheard for 40 years has re-surfaced online, in which Evans discusses his work with Davis and the recording sessions for the trumpeter's landmark album Kind of Blue.

* And speaking of Birth of the Cool, an article in DownBeat has more details on the new LP box set Complete Birth of the Cool Sessions, which will be released on Friday, June 7.

* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris' shows this weekend at Jazz St. Louis are previewed in an article by Kevin Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in an interview with Harris published on the Jazz St. Louis website.

ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival coming to St. Louis on Tuesday, November 24

ROCKPILE is coming to St. Louis. No, not the late 1970s/early 1980s rock band with Dave Edmonds, Nick Lowe, Terry Williams and Billy Bremner - it's the ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival, a collaboration between traveling and local performers that will take place at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 24 in the performance space at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar.

ROCKPILE is the brainchild of poet, musician, and essayist David Meltzer (pictured) and Michael Rothenberg, a poet, songwriter and editor of Big Bridge Press. Inspired by "the tradition of the troubadour" and "the spirit of improvisation and collaboration," Meltzer and Rothenberg are traveling to eight U.S. cities to perform poetry, composed on the road, with local musicians in each city.

St. Louis will be the seventh stop of the ROCKPILE tour, which also will have visited New York City, Chicago and New Orleans before wrapping up in San Francisco. Meltzer and Rothenberg are documenting the tour online at http://www.bigbridge.org/rockpile/ with daily performance clips, journal excerpts, interviews, video and audio files.

Performers in St. Louis will include musicians Zimbabwe Nkenya (bass, mbira), Dave Black (guitar) and Bob Malone (piano), plus poets Michael Franklin, Shirley LeFlore, Michael Castro, K. Curtis Lyle, David Jackson, Alexander Balogh, Sean Arnold, Terri Carrion, Howard Schwartz, and Philip Gounis.

Admission is to the St. Louis ROCKPILE performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-863‐5811 or visit the ROCKPILE Web site.

Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett to perform on Sunday, September 14 as part of "BAG and Beyond" at Metropolitan Gallery

Via St. Louis American editor Chris King's personal blog Confluence City, there's news of a weekend of events next month celebrating the musical and artistic legacy of St. Louis' original Black Artists Group.

"BAG and Beyond," a production of the Nu-Art Series, will take place Friday, September 12 through Sunday, September 14 at the Metropolitan Gallery, 2946 Locust St. in downtown St. Louis. The weekend kicks off Friday evening with an opening reception for an art exhibit featuring the work of BAG co-founder Oliver Jackson. (See K. Curtis Lyle's article in last week's American for more on Jackson.) A VIP reception, which costs $20 per person, will begin at 5:00 p.m., with the doors opening to the general public at 6:00 p.m.

At 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 13, "BAG and Beyond" continues with a concert featuring trumpeter Rasul Siddik with pianist Katy Roberts, saxophonist Freddie Washington, trumpeter Marlon Bonds, poets Eugene Redmond and K. Curtis Lyle, and more. And at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 14, the weekend wraps up with a concert featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake (pictured), who will perform with percussionist Tayammum Falah and poet Shirley LeFlore on a bill that also includes Lake's fellow BAG and World Saxophone Quartet co-founder, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, plus poet and author Quincy Troupe and others.

Tickets for the Saturday and Sunday concerts are $20 per person for each show, and will be available at the door. If you attend the reception on Friday evening, you can purchase a combined ticket for both the Saturday and Sunday concerts for $35. For more information about "BAG and Beyond," call 314-535-6500.