So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis has announced the winners of its 2020 St. Louis Arts Awards, and among the honorees will be pianist Adam Maness (pictured), who will receive the Arts Collaborator award at a banquet and ceremony to be held on January 27, 2020 at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

* The Miles Davis Jazz Festival, held last Saturday at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, was the subject of a feature story in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

* Stanley Nelson Jr., the director of the new Miles Davis documentary Birth of the Cool, was interviewed about the film by Jazz Times.

* Meanwhile, combination listening sessions and panel discussions on the new reissue of Davis' Complete Birth of the Cool, which was released last Friday, were presented in New York City and Los Angeles.

* Lastly, after putting out excerpts on a four-song EP for this year's Record Store Day, the Miles Davis estate and Rhino/Warner Records will release the full version of the trumpeter's "lost" album Rubberband, recorded in the mid-80s and then shelved in favor of what would become the album Tutu. The vinyl LP includes 11 tracks, which were completed by the original producers and Davis’ nephew Vince Wilburn Jr, with new vocals added by Lalah Hathaway and Ledisi.

* Fire Shut Up In My Bones, the new opera by trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard that premieres tonight at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, was previewed by Sarah Bryan Miller of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American.

* Pianist and former St. Louisan Tom McDermott wrote about the music of the late Dr. John for The Daily Beast.

* Former Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap, who left the organization last month to take a job as director of the cultural division of Broward County, FL, was profiled in the south Florida publication Art Hive.

* Snarky Puppy's performance last month at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion was reviewed by KDHX's Joseph Ferber.

Jazz this week: Shoshana Bean, Snarky Puppy, James Carter, Lamar Harris, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features some cabaret vocals from a Broadway star; a couple of stand-out saxophonists; a genre-straddling, Grammy Award winning fusion band; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 15
Jazz St. Louis closes out their cabaret series co-produced this season with Cabaret Project of St. Louis, presenting the first of two nights of performances by singer Shoshana Bean.

In addition to her work in cabaret, Bean is well-known as the star of several Broadway musicals, including the current hit Waitress, from which she's taking a brief break for her cabaret shows here.

Also on Wednesday, the aforementioned Cabaret Project of St. Louis presents their monthly "Singers Open Mic" at Sophie's Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club;  guitarist Brian Vaccaro plays at Evangeline's; and Miss Jubilee performs at Schlafly Bottleworks.

Thursday, May 16
NYC-based saxophonist Brian Krock, who went to music school up the road at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, performs in an early show at The Dark Room with his band Liddle, a subset of his big band Big Heart Machine.

Also on Thursday, singer Cheri Evans and CEEJazzSoul return to the Chase Club and Jon Thomas & Friends play at the The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, May 17
Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris performs for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Also on Friday, the Original Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom, trumpeter Jim Manley returns to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar, and drummer Kyle Honeycutt leads a trio for the late-night (actually early morning) gig at Mangia Italiano.

Saturday, May 18
The Funky Butt Brass Band plays their monthly show at the Broadway Oyster Bar, and keyboardist Mo Egeston delivers the late night grooves at The Dark Room.

Sunday, May 19
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents Cornet Chop Suey playing traditional jazz and vintage swing at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport.

Also on Sunday afternoon, saxophonist James Carter (pictured, bottom left) will perform with some help from pianist Peter Martin's at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Then on Sunday night, the jazz/funk/world fusion band
Snarky Puppy (pictured, top left) will play an outdoor show at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

They're touring in support of their latest album Immigrance, which came out in March. For more about that, and some video footage of recent performances including material from the new album, see this post from last Saturday.

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: Snarky Puppy's eclectic collective

This week, it's time to check out some videos of jazz/funk/world/fusion band Snarky Puppy, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform Sunday, May 19 at Atomic Cowboy's outdoor pavilion.

Sometimes described as "a loose collective" under the leadership of bassist and founder Michael League, with a lineup that can range in size from seven or eight musicians up to 25, Snarky Puppy draws on an eclectic mix of influences - most notably jazz and funk, but also a variety of other musics from around the world.

Thanks in part to relentless touring and in part to winning Grammy Awards in 2014, 2016 and 2017, their fortunes have risen rapidly in recent years. They've gone from playing small-to-medium-sized clubs to headlining major venues and festivals around the world, and in 2017 even started their own annual event, the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach, FL.

Snarky Puppy currently are touring in support of their most recent album Immigrance, which came out in March. You can hear some of the music from the album starting up above with the "official" video for "Bad Kids to the Back," which was done to promote the song's release as a single.

After the jump, you can see the first live performance ever of "Xavi," another tune from Immigrance, as recorded in February at the band's GroundUp Music Festival. That's followed by another performance from this year's GroundUP event, "Thing of Gold," which was originally recorded for their 2012 album GroundUP.

Next, it's "Grown Folks," as recorded in July 2018 at the Festival Django Reinhardt in France, and then "Go," as captured in November 2018 at Sol de Sants Studios in Barcelona, Spain for the web series "The Furious Sessions."

Last but not least, you can see a full set from a show in June 2018 at The Fillmore in Philadelphia.

For more about Snarky Puppy and Immigrance, check out the interview and performances featured on this week's episode of NPR's "World Cafe", and Michael League's interviews from March of this year with Rolling Stone and Qwest.tv.

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

Sunday Session: January 27, 2019

Terri Lyne Carrington

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:

* Houzz Tour: Rock Musician’s Tiny House Wakes Up the Neighborhood (Houzz.com)
* FIRST LISTEN: Brand new Snarky Puppy unveiled (JazzFM.com)
* Festival of New Trumpet Music West to debut in San Diego at eight venues in one week in January (San Diego Union Tribune)
* Pharoah Sanders – The Creator's Master Plan (Q&A) (Pollstar.com)
* Mark Mothersbaugh on his journey from Devo to Hollywood (AV Club)
* Scenes From the Winter Jazzfest: A Slide Show (WBGO)
* Makaya McCraven’s ‘Distillation of Ideas’ (DownBeat)
* Myra Melford: Both Sides Now (Jazz Times)
* Bob Clearmountain: Living in the Mix (Tape Op)
* Why won’t City Hall fight for Chicago’s homegrown music scene? (Chicago Reader)
* Hugh Masekela’s legacy can still be heard throughout South Africa (QZ.com)
* Donny McCaslin: ‘Just Be Brave’ (DownBeat)
* 'Swingin' in Seattle' Finds Cannonball Adderley at a Crossroads, Reaching Out and Speaking Up (WBGO)
* Spotify data shows how music preferences change with latitude (ArsTechnica.com)
* Eric Dolphy: It’s All Out There Now (Jazz Times)
* Terri Lyne Carrington Looks to Transform the Culture (DownBeat)
* Blue Note Records Presents The Tone Poet Audiophile Reissue Series (BlueNote.com)
* Jaco Pastorius Shares How He Learned Bass and Composition in Unpublished Interview (Reverb.com)
* We Analyzed Every Dang Song That Cracked the Billboard Top 5 in 2018 (Soundfly.com)
* ‘Magic baton’ helps blind musicians feel conductor (BBC)
* This mouth-controlled synthesizer is the wildest instrument I’ve ever heard (TheVerge.com)
* Michel Legrand, Oscar-winning composer, dies aged 86 (The Guardian)
* How Eric Dolphy Sparked My Love of Jazz (The New Yorker)

Snarky Puppy to perform Sunday, May 19 at Atomic Cowboy Pavilion block party

Snarky Puppy, winners of three Grammy Awards and just named "Best Jazz Group" in this year's DownBeat readers poll, is returning to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, May 19 at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

While on record they're a loose collective of about 30 musicians under the leadership of bassist and composer Michael League, Snarky Puppy (pictured) usually features from eight to 12 players in their touring ensemble.

Their latest "official" recording is Culcha Vulcha, which came out in 2016 and won a Grammy for "Best Contemporary Instrumental Album," but they also document many of their live shows and put them out online as digital-only releases.

Snarky Puppy last played in St. Louis in May 2016 at the Ready Room, when the effects of their Grammy win that year were just beginning to be felt. Since then, they've headlined at major events including Newport Jazz Festival; toured in the US, South America and Europe; and generally seen their collective star rise precipitously. While another studio release reportedly has been in the works since last year, so far there's no definite word of a new album or possible release date, but that easily could change between now and next May.

Reflecting the band's increased draw, their upcoming St. Louis show will be the first "block party" of the season at Atomic Cowboy. The event format, which debuted this past summer, involves closing down the first block of Talmage Ave south of Manchester, allowing for up to 1500 attendees.

Tickets for Snarky Puppy at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion are $35 in advance, $40 day of show, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, November 30 via TicketWeb.

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)

Old Rock House adds shows from Dirty Dozen Brass Band, keyboardist Shaun Martin

Old Rock House today announced two summer shows of interest to StLJN readers.

Keyboardist Shaun Martin, known for his work with jazz-fusion band Snarky Puppy and gospel singer Kirk Franklin, is coming to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 10 at ORH.

Tickets for the all-ages show are $13 in advance, $15 day of show, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Thursday, May 3 via Metrotix.

Also, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (pictured), who in the 1980s helped re-invigorate the New Orleans brass band tradition and inspired a whole new generation of forward-thinking brass bands, will return here for the first time in nearly five years to perform at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, July 12 at Old Rock House.

Tickets for that all-ages show are $18 in advance, $20 day of show, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Friday, May 4.

Sunday Session: February 18, 2018

Snarky Puppy

Here's the 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:

* Olympic Figure Skaters Perform to Ed Sheeran, 'Wonderwall' & More Pop Songs After Rule Change (Billboard)
* Q&A with Adam Nussbaum: The Drum Thing (DownBeat)
* Portraits In Black: Jazz Tributes To African-American Heroes (WFIU)
* Laurie Anderson Details How Hurricane Sandy & Loss Influenced Her New Album & Book (Billboard)
* Why is the price of vinyl albums at a record high? (Toronto Star)
* Systemic Discrimination: the Burden of Sameness in American Orchestras (ICareIfYouListen.com)
* Honor Society: The Importance of Tributes in Jazz (Jazz Times)
* Gibson ‘running out of time — rapidly’ (Nashville Post)
* The Life and Times of the Late, Great CD (DigitalTrends.com)
* When Quincy Jones Covered The Beatles (And Other Insights From a Shrewd Jazz Career) (WBGO)
* Second Line Blues: A Brief History of New Orleans Brass Bands (Reverb.com)
* Exalting Blackness Amid White Noise: Afro-Latino Artists Speak on Navigating the World & Music Industry (Billboard)
* Why Madison Square Garden Thinks It Has Designed the Venue Of the Future (Billboard)
* Scott LaFaro, how one man redefined the piano trio (Jazz in Europe)
* Iyer Excels in Disparate Settings at Four-Day SFJAZZ Run (DownBeat)
* Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Why Rock Stars Are Suddenly Retiring (Rolling Stone)
* This DC Taxi Driver Was a Superstar in Ethiopia (Vice.com)
* The 50 Greatest Rock and Roll Movies of All Time (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Music Snobs Could Save the Music Industry, But They Won't (TrackRecord.net)
* A Primer on Weird Vinyl Design (Magenta.as)
* 99% of All Music Streaming Comes from Just 10% of Available Songs (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Stream the “Complete” John Coltrane Playlist: A 94-Hour Journey Through 700+ Transformative Tracks (OpenCulture.com)
* Snarky Puppy’s GroundUP Fest Grows in its Second Year (DownBeat)
* Music streaming is booming… So what happens next? (MusicAlly.com)
* Meet the Eccentric Master of Jazz Melody (Ozy.com)
* Who Was Andrea Davis? Revealing Minnie Riperton’s Secret History (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* Gilles Peterson: 'The boundary between club culture and jazz is finally breaking' (The Guardian)

Sunday Session: May 28, 2017

Terrace Martin

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* How the record industry crisis of 1925 shaped our musical world (The Guardian)
* Composer Angelo Badalamenti, Master Of Mood, Returns To 'Twin Peaks' (NPR)
* The Keys to Snarky Puppy's Success (Keyboard)
* Inside the Offices Where the Music Never Stops and Everyone Is DJ (Bloomberg.com)
* By Any Name, Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda Was A Force (NPR)
* 7 pieces of gear that helped shape Radiohead’s timeless OK Computer (FactMag.com)
* How Did Toby Keith Get To Do A Concert In Saudi Arabia? (NPR)
* Donny McCaslin: The David Bowie Connection (SFJAZZ.org)
* Watch: Alvin Lucier Talks Brain Waves, Marching Bands and John Cage (WQXR)
* Fela Kuti built his music around a distrust of Nigeria's elites. Now they're the audience for the musical about his life (Los Angeles Times)
* Cultural commissioner Mark Kelly moves to reshape Chicago Jazz Festival (Chicago Tribune)
* Yes, L.A. Has Lost Many of Its Jazz Clubs — but Other Venues Are Stepping In (LA Weekly)
* Q&A with Ronald Bruner Jr.: Squad Goals (DownBeat)
* At The Dawn Of Recorded Sound, No One Cared (NPR)
* How data is transforming the music industry (TheConversation.com)
* Night Time, My Time: The Pervasive Musical Influence Of Twin Peaks (ClashMusic.com)
* Confessions Of An MP3 Blogger (TheFader.com)
* Mickey Roker, Dynamic Hard-Bop Drummer and Philly Jazz Institution, Dies at 84 (WBGO)
* Why Remix 'Sgt. Pepper's'? Giles Martin, The Man Behind The Project, Explains (NPR)
* Reviving Alice Coltrane’s Ecstatic Music in New York City (DownBeat)
* Frankie & Johnny, Helen & Morgan (Jazz Times)
* Electronic pioneer Morton Subotnick subject of new documentary Subotnick (FactMag.com)
* Terrace Martin Talks New Jazz Supergroup, Producing for Herbie Hancock (Rolling Stone)
* We no longer know who the biggest pop star in the world is (QZ.com)
* Quincy Jones Reflects on Artists He Loves, Wished He'd Worked With During Intimate Launch of New Headphones (Billboard)
* Social Music: ‘Jam of the Week’ Builds Online Jazz Community (DownBeat)
* Everybody Digs Ralph Towner - The veteran guitarist on solo performance, Bill Evans and Oregon (Jazz Times)
* Kansas City's Oldest Jazz Institution Isn't Afraid Of New Beats — Or Other Challenges (KCUR)
* Joan La Barbara: Finding the Right Words to Inspire Sound (TheLogJournal.com)

Sunday Session: December 18, 2016

Dr. John

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Nile Rodgers Reflects on Working With Prince & David Bowie: 'Both Saw the World In Ways Unlike We See the World' (Billboard)
* Eating raccoon with Dr. John (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
* Chuck Jones’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on Records (CartoonResearch.com)
* Before & After With Snarky Puppy's Michael League - Lots of insight, on little sleep (Jazz Times)
* Giving a Great Jazz Storyteller His Due (The New Yorker)
* Buddy Bolden house in danger (CradleOfJazzTour.com)
* Stanton Moore: Keeping Time and Making Time (JazzEdMagazine.com)
* WFMT expands, rebrands Jazz Network (RobertFeder.com)
* 'The Jingle King' Tracks Decline Of Original Music In Advertising (NPR)
* Jazz and Classical—Musical, Cultural, Listening Differences (New Music Box)
* High Notes: This Year Was Terrible, but at Least Local Jazz Labels Are Thriving (Village Voice)
* Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer: In Search of Cosmic Rhythm (TheLogJournal.com)
* Mack Avenue Expands Roster with Graves, Childs & DeFrancesco (DownBeat)
* Jazz Musicians the Beat Poets and French Existentialists Loved (KCRW)
* Picking Up the Piedmont Blues (Oxford American)
* John Luther Adams on Translating Birdsong and Paying Attention to the World’s Immensity (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* The Doors Reflect on Earliest Concerts, Jim Morrison's Genius (Rolling Stone)
* How ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ Brought an Obscure, Avant-Garde Piece of Classical Music to Rikers Island (FlavorWire.com)

Jazz this week: Pat Martino, Snarky Puppy, a tribute to Mae Wheeler, and more

This week's notable jazz and creative music shows in St. Louis include return appearances from a top guitarist and one of the hottest young bands in jazz, plus a rare visit from some prog-rock veterans and a tribute to a fondly remembered local vocalist and mentor. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 11
Guitarist Pat Martino (pictured, top left) returns to St. Louis for the first of four nights continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Martino's guitar/organ/drums trio continues to capture the classic sound and feel associated with that instrumentation, but the leader's harmonically adventurous playing also adds another dimension beyond the blues-based fare that's often a staple of the format. For some recent samples on video of Martino in action, see this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the band Stick Men, featuring former King Crimson members Tony Levin on Chapman Stick and Pat Mastelotto on drums, plus Stick player and guitarist Markus Reuter, performs at the Old Rock House; and pianist Pat Joyce plays at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Thursday, May 12
Trumpeter Jim Manley continues his regular Thursday night gig at Momo's Greek Restaurant, and the quartet Danbury Street plays at Nathalie's.

Friday, May 13
Pianist Carolbeth True's trio will team up with singer Kim Fuller to interpret material associated with Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, and more in "Songs from the Ladies," the first of two shows featuring True this weekend at the Ozark Theatre.

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso and Dave Black play at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel's newly renamed Sidecar Lounge (formerly Chaser's Lounge); The Sidemen return to Evangeline's; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, May 14
Carolbeth True and Two Times True will be joined by singer Debby Lennon for "Mercer, Mancini and Mandel" at the Ozark Theatre, while singer Erin Bode will provide the music for "A Night In The Stacks at SIUE,", a fundraiser held at the Lovejoy Library on the SIUE campus.

Sunday, May 15
The Oikos Ensemble will present "Earth Walk: A Concert for Mother Earth" at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves.

Monday, May 16
The jazz/funk/world music ensemble Snarky Puppy returns to St. Louis to perform at The Ready Room,
with guitarist Charlie Hunter as opening act.

Now touring in support of the albums Family Dinner, Vol. II, which was released in February, and Culcha Vulcha, which came out a couple of weeks ago, Snarky Puppy (pictured, bottom left) has been moving up to larger venues in many cities they've played before, so this chance to see them here in a relatively small space may be the last for a while if their star continues to rise. In any event, even though the show is on a Monday, advance purchase of tickets is highly recommended.

Also on Monday, saxophonist Jerry Greene's Greene Jazz Project will play at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, May 17 
Singer Wendy Gordon has recruited an eclectic lineup of St. Louis vocalists including longtime local favorite Jeanne Trevor for "A Tribute to Mae Wheeler" at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Also joining Gordon and Trevor for the "Unforgettable Legends" show will be singers Linda Kennedy, Diane Vaughan, Mary Dyson, Marty Adbullah, Jeff Hardin, 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.)

Snarky Puppy to perform Monday, May 16 at The Ready Room

The funk/jazz/world music band Snarky Puppy is returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m., Monday, May 16 at The Ready Room.

After playing St. Louis in 2012 at The Gramophone, in 2013 at what was then called The Demo and at the Old Rock House, and again in 2014 at the ORH, Snarky Puppy (pictured) skipped our town last year, and, as fate would have it, have grown substantially in popularity since that last gig here.

In October, 2014 they signed with Impulse! Records, and in May 2015 released their ninth album Sylva, a collaboration with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra.

That recording made multiple Billboard charts and in February of this year won the band their second Grammy, for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. (They had won Best R&B Performance in 2013 for "Something," a track from their live DVD/CD Family Dinner, Volume One featuring guest vocalist Lalah Hathaway.) Their latest recording, Family Dinner - Volume 2, was released in February.

Snarky Puppy's show at The Ready Room is all-ages, with tickets priced at $32 in advance, $35 day of show, and set to go on sale at 10:30 a.m. this Wednesday, March 16 via Ticketfly.

Sunday Session: September 27, 2015

Mary Lou Williams

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

* Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (Oxford American)
* Coltrane “A Love Supreme Complete Masters” to Be Released - Impulse!/Verve to issue 2- and 3-CD editions (Jazz Times)
* A Hidden Hero of Jazz (The New Yorker)
* Play It Again (for the First Time) (The New Yorker)
* Is Stevie Wonder Cheating a Dead Man? (Daily Beast)
* To the barricades! Why rhythm is the heartbeat of revolution (The Guardian UK)
* Bar-Kays trumpeter Ben Cauley dies (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
* Panoramical will change the way you conceive of sound (Boing Boing)
* From the Club to the Cathedral: Revisiting Duke Ellington’s Controversial ‘Sacred Concert’ (KQED)
* Why looking at music from a tech and business perspective makes no sense (FactMag.com)
* Kamasi Washington On World Cafe (NPR)
* The EDM Ennio Morricone - How Junkie XL went from making junior varsity electronica to blowing cinematic minds with his scores for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘Black Mass’ (Grantland)
* London, Meader, Pramuk & Ross Showcase Vocalese at Historic Birdland Summit (DownBeat)
* Jaco Pastorius Documentary Set to Premiere Nov. 27 (Jazz Times)
* Inside Bob Dylan's Massive New Sixties Bootleg Series Trove (Rolling Stone)
* What Critics Want (21cm.org)
* Music Coverage Endangered as Writers From USA Today, Times-Picayune, New York Daily News Exit (Billboard)
* 9 Behind-the-Scenes Stories From Darlene Love, the Greatest Backup Singer Ever (Vulture.com)
* Gigantic wooden megaphones amplify the sounds of the forest in Estonia (Inhabitat.com)
* Snarky Puppy: the latest supergroup ripping up the genre rulebook (Irish Times)
* The Secret Jewish History of Joni Mitchell (Forward.com)
* Soul Set Free: The Lost Legacy Of David Ruffin (Trunkworthy.com)
* Louie Pérez and Los Lobos: Still howlin' after all these years (KPCC)
* First Fusion: Jazz-Rock Before Bitches Brew (WFIU)
* Music Heals: MedRhythms Uses Music To Treat Traumatic Brain Injury (Forbes)
* A Brief History of Scratching (FactMag.com)
* The Coltrane Home in Dix Hills (The Paris Review)

Jazz this week: Joe McPhee & Survival Unit III, Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival, Snarky Puppy, and more

It should be another good weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several free shows featuring local performers, plus a couple of noteworthy touring acts coming to town. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, there are a couple of free concerts, as guitarist Vincent Varvel plays for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and trumpeter/singer Dawn Weber performs as part of the "Not So Quiet" concert series at the main branch of the St. Louis Public Library downtown.

Also tonight, there's an eclectic bill of improvised and electronic music at Blank Space, featuring Alex Cunningham, Beauty Pageant, Dave Stone, Eric Hall, Stone Hen, and Willis.

On Friday, you can catch more avant-jazz and free improv from multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee (pictured), cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and percussionist Michael Zerang, aka Survival Unit III, at Joe's Cafe.

The trio performed here in 2011 under the auspices of New Music Circle, and it went well enough that NMC's Jeremy Kannapell set up this return date for them as an independent production. If you missed that show, you can get a preview of Friday's action via a video of a full set by McPhee, Lonborg-Holm and Zerang included in part one of StLJN's fall 2014 jazz preview.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, writer and poet Michael Castro leads his "poetrio" in a show at Tavern of Fine Arts; Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren and pianist Curt Landes perform at The Wine Press; and saxophonist Austin Cebulski leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday, the annual Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival will take place in the Old Webster business district surrounding the intersection of Lockwood and Gore Avenues in Webster Groves. This year's edition of the free, all-day event will have two stages featuring performances from the Funky Butt Brass Band; the Webster University faculty jazz ensemble; The 442s with Erin Bode; an ad hoc group assembled for the occasion and dubbed the St. Louis Jazz All-Stars; the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band; trumpeter Jim Manley and Wild, Cool and Swingin'; and more.

Also on Saturday, singer Gene Lynn brings his smooth sound to Evangeline's; fusion band Koplant No plays at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and keyboardist Adam Maness and drummer Irvin Neal will perform at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

On Sunday, the jazz/funk/world music ensemble Snarky Puppy (pictured) will be back in town for an encore performance at the Old Rock House. Since their last gig here in May 2013 at The Demo, they've stayed quite busy, spending this past summer playing the festival circuit in the USA, Europe and Asia and promoting their sixth album, We Like It Here, which came out in February. You can read more about them and see a couple of videos of them in action (though several other clips have disappeared due to link rot) in this post made before their last St. Louis appearance.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead a sextet performing his original compositions in a concert at Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus.

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: Fall 2014 jazz preview, part 1

This week, StLJN presents the first part of our video preview of the fall 2014 season of jazz and creative music in St. Louis. Today's installment covers the touring bands and musicians visiting during the month of September.

First up is a clip featuring Roomful of Teeth, the Grammy winning new music vocal ensemble, performing Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw's "Passacaglia" in June 2009 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. They'll be in St. Louis for a concert next Friday, September 5 at 560 Music Center.

After the jump, you'll find a video of the trio Thumbscrew performing bassist Michael Formanek's "Still...Doesn't Swing" at a gig in April 2012 at Sycamore in Brooklyn, NYC. Formanek, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and guitarist Mary Halvorson will play here on Friday, September 12 at Joe's Cafe in a concert presented by New Music Circle.

Below that, it's Pieces Of A Dream jamming out on their "Mount Airy Groove" in January of this year at the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival. The group, which in this clip includes original members Curtis Harmon (drums) and James Lloyd (keyboards) plus Tony Watson Jr. (saxophone, keyboard), Rohn Lawrence (guitar), and David Dyson (bass), will be the headlining act at the free outdoor U City Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 13 in Heman Park.

In the fourth slot, you can see a full set by saxophonist Joe McPhee, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and percussionist Michael Zerang, aka Survival Unit III, recorded in December 2013 at the Jazzhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. The trio will be in St. Louis on Friday, September 19 to play at Joe's Cafe.

Next up, it's a full set from the eclectic groove band Snarky Puppy recorded live at the 2014 Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. They'll return here to perform on Sunday, September 21 at the Old Rock House.

The next clip features singer Storm Large, who will kick off the fall edition of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Saturday, September 27 at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups. Large is seen here singing "Angels In Gas Stations" in June of this year at the Faculty Club of the University of California - Berkeley.

Today's final video features percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and a performance of his Gong Orchestra project in 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland. Nakatani will return on Tuesday, September 30 to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center for another performance of the Gong Orchestra, for which he recruits a cast of musicians in each city where the work is performed.

Look for part two of the 2014 fall jazz preview next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Snarky Puppy to perform Sunday, September 21 at Old Rock House

The peripatetic funk/jazz/world music ensemble Snarky Puppy (pictured) will returning to St. Louis for the first time in 2014 to perform at 8:00 p.m. Sunday, September 21 at the Old Rock House.

The group played here twice last year, first in May at The Demo, then in August at the ORH. All in all, 2013 was something of a breakthrough year for Snarky Puppy, as they got favorable notice in mainstream media outlets such as the BBC, Village Voice, Guardian, and Boston Herald while logging nearly 200 performances and workshops on four continents, including appearances at North Sea Jazz, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz á Vienne, Blue Note Tokyo, and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

They also earned their first Grammy Award this year, winning Best R&B Performance for "Something," a track from their live DVD/CD Family Dinner, Volume One featuring guest vocalist Lalah Hathaway. Their latest album, We Like It Here, was released in February and documents four nights of live-in-the-studio performances last year in The Netherlands.

Tickets for the all-ages show are $20 in advance, $22 day of show, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Wednesday, May 21.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* KDHX has posted on their site some photos shot by Joanna Kleine of last Friday's Snarky Puppy show at the Old Rock House.

* Speaking of photo sets, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted one to their Facebook page featuring pix from their concert last week at Kirkwood Park.

* Former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas, now teaching jazz at Michigan State University, will be the pianist in the band backing contestants in the 2013 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, which will be held on September 15 and 16 in Washington DC.

* Drummer Rob Silverman and keyboardist Mike Silverman of Bach to the Future, Silverman Productions and Autumn Hill Records have released a new digital single on iTunes, a version of Paul Desmond's "Take Five," that features performances from famous friends Eric Marienthal on sax, John Patittucci on bass and Randy Brecker on trumpet.

* And speaking of getting famous, Mark Colenburg's national profile continues to rise, the most recent evidence being a promotional video in which the drummer and St. Louis native (pictured) talks about his endorsement deal with Yamaha.

* Would you like $50 worth of free stuff from Saxquest? Well, all you have to do is enter and win this month's saxophone trivia contest on their website.

* The Sheldon Concert Hall still is accepting entries in the songwriting contest they're sponsoring in conjunction with the STL250 celebration. The winning composer of a St. Louis inspired song gets a cash prize, a performance at First Night in Grand Center, Inc and more. Get the details at http://www.thesheldon.org/songcontest.asp

* Saint Louis University is sponsoring the first annual Kwame Foundation Jazz Composition Competition for high school seniors and college students. The top three scores in each division get a performance and recording of their composition at a concert next year. The high school winner also will receive a $2,000 scholarship to SLU, and the college division winner gets a $500 cash prize.

The competition is open to all students and is not limited to music majors. Submissions must be received before September 1, and can be made online as Finale or PDF files at http://slu.edu/jazzcompetition. For more details, visit the site or email jazz-competition@slu.edu.

* The Miles Davis Memorial Project will have a booth at the Alton Block Party this Saturday, August 17. Volunteers will be sharing information about the statue of Miles Davis planned for downtown Alton, and selling commemorative bricks to pay for it. In addition, actor Joshua Young will be on hand to portray Davis.

The Project will operate a similar booth at the Alton Farmers' & Artisans' Market from 8:00 a. m. to noon on Saturday, August 31. The commemorative bricks, which will be installed in the area surrounding the statue, also can be purchased via the website of Pride, Inc and in person or by mail from the organization's offices at 5800 Godfrey Road, Godfrey, IL 62035.

* Jazz radio update: Over at the Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, Saturday's edition of Calvin Wilson's “Somethin’ Else” highlights jazz interpretations of popular music, with artists including pianist Vijay Iyer, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts and guitarist Charlie Hunter offering their takes on tunes from Pink Floyd to Radiohead.

That same evening, Jason Church's "The Jazz Collective" will offer a tribute to George Duke, plus music from Jeff Lorber Fusion, The Brand New Heavies, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, the Brian Vaccaro Trio, Jim Manley, Tim Cunningham and Hugh 'Peanuts' Whalum.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. and Church's at 9:00 Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Jazz this week: Snarky Puppy, a tribute to Marvin Gaye, Route 66 Jazz Orchestra, Don Schroeder's Happy Go Lucky Jazz Band, and more

Though the "dog days" of summer have arrived in St. Louis so far mostly without the traditional blistering heat and soupy humidity, they still bring the usual annual slowdown in the number of touring jazz musicians passing through St. Louis.

However, there's still live jazz and creative music out there to be found all over the area - if you know where to look. And so, let's go to the highlights... 

Tonight, Good 4 The Soul will back singer Brian Owens in a performance of the music of Marvin Gaye at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and singer Joe Mancuso continues his run of Thursday nights at Cafe Eau in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

The week's big headliner arrives on Friday, when the jazz/funk/Latin/worldbeat ensemble Snarky Puppy (pictured, with special guest James T. Kirk at center) plays at the Old Rock House. It's the group's third St. Louis appearance in the last year, and you can find out more about them and see and hear samples of some performances in this post, which ran before their most recent gig here in May. The band's bassist and leader Michael League also talked with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson for a short preview article on the show, which you can read online here.

Also on Friday, Bach to the Future plays a free outdoor concert at Creve Coeur Park; guitarist Dave Black and saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will duet at the Tavern of Fine Arts; saxophonist Kendrick Smith leads a trio at Cigar Inn; and the Funky Butt Brass Band performs at the Broadway Oyster Bar, featuring a late night set of Allman Brothers Band covers (!).

On Saturday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham plays an afternoon gig at the Mount Pleasant Estates winery out in Augusta.

Then on Saturday evening, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra will perform in a free outdoor concert at Kirkwood Park; Miss Jubilee plays at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood; and singer Sarah Jane Ulrich takes the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz, this time without her Blue Notes, but with a cast of friends including Jerry Greene on saxophones, Joe Bozzi on vibes and trumpet, Tim Garcia on piano, and Mark Hochberg on bass and violin.

On Sunday, your "jazz brunch" options include guitarist Tom Byrne and reedman Sam Hagardine at Bar Italia, and trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Mark Friedricks at Jimmy's Cafe on the Park. That afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents a matinee of traditional jazz from drummer Don Schroeder's Happy Go Lucky Jazz Band at Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville.

And looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band checks in at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups for their every-other-month gig there.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* If you missed trumpeter Kermit Ruffins when he was in St. Louis last week to play at The Gramophone, you're in luck.

While Ruffins was here, he made it into the studios of KDHX to do some recording, and you also can see pictures from his Wednesday night gig online at the site of photographer Tim Bottchen.

* From the the "Shows we'd like to see in St. Louis" file, saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille - known collectively as Trio 3 - will team up with pianist Vijay Iyer next Wednesday through Saturday for a gig at Birdland in NYC.

* Snarky Puppy's performance Monday night at the Manchester Jazz Festival in England was reviewed by Adrian Pallan of London Jazz News. The band (pictured) will play here in St. Louis next Friday, August 9 at the Old Rock House.

* A post on St. Louis magazine's Look/Listen blog recounts recent progress towards putting up a statue honoring Miles Davis in his birthplace of Alton, IL.

Meanwhile, the folks behind the statue, the Miles Davis Memorial Project, are looking for volunteers to work information booths on August 17 at the Alton Block Party and August 31 at The Alton Farmers' & Artisans' Market. Prospective volunteers can call 618-467-2375 or contact board member Derrick Richardson via email at derrickdrichardson at gmail dot com.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg, who's currently playing with the Robert Glasper Experiment among others, has signed an endorsement deal with Remo. Glasper's next album Black Radio Volume 2 will be released on October 29.

* The Ozark Theatre in Webster Groves is booking music acts for the fall. For more information and available dates/times, call owner Dan Stevens at 314-962-7000.

* Saxquest is encouraging St. Louis players to enter Keilwerth's "Saxophone Idol" contest, in which saxophonists will compete before a panel of judges including famed tenor man Ernie Watts. The prize package include a Keilwerth sax; mouthpiece and reeds from Van Doren; subscription to Down Beat; and a chance to perform with Watts at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. The entry deadline is September 30.

* Jazz radio update: This week's episode of Calvin Wilson's "Somethin' Else" will feature blues-influenced music from singer Cassandra Wilson, drummer Joey Baron and saxophonist J.D. Allen. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Meanwhile, NPR will be broadcasting live this weekend from the Newport Jazz Festival from noon to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4. This year's Newport fest features performances from Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, and more.

Snarky Puppy returning to Old Rock House on Friday, August 9

From the Dept of "Well, That Didn't Take Long": Snarky Puppy (pictured), who just played in St. Louis earlier this month at The Demo, already have booked a return trip in the form of a gig at 8:30 p.m. Friday, August 9 at the Old Rock House.

This will be the the third St. Louis appearance in the last 12 months for the Texas-born, now Brooklyn-based funk/jazz/world music ensemble  (who, incidentally, were featured on StLJN in a Saturday video post before their last gig here.)

Tickets for the all-ages Snarky Puppy show at Old Rock House are $15 for general admission, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Thursday, May 23.