Music Education Monday: Summer 2016 jazz camps in St. Louis

While the official start of summer is still a couple of months away, it's not too early for aspiring young jazz musicians in the St. Louis area to make plans to enroll in one or more of the jazz camps being presented this year by local universities and organizations. Here are brief summaries of four programs:

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will hold its annual camp for students at "all levels, grades 8-12" from Tuesday, May 31 through Friday, June 3 on the SIUE campus. Classes are taught by members of the SIUE jazz faculty. For details or to sign up, go to https://www.siue.edu/artsandsciences/music/community/jazz-camp.shtml.

Bassist Jim Widner's big band will serve as the faculty for the annual University of Missouri - St. Louis jazz camp, with instructors including Widner, Mike Vax, Scott Whitfield, Dave Scott, Ken Kehner, Chip McNeill, Kim Richmond, Gary Hobbs, and others. The camp for middle school, high school and college students will be held Sunday, June 5 through Friday, June 10 on the UMSL campus. For more information or to enroll, visit http://gsljazzfest.com/JazzCamp.html.

Webster University's annual camp for "beginning, intermediate and advanced level jazz improvisers and instrumentalists" will take place from Monday, July 11 through Friday, July 15 on the Webster U campus, with instruction from the university's jazz faculty. You can find more information and a signup form at http://www.webster.edu/fine-arts/departments/music/summer-programs/jazz-camp.html.

St. Louis Children's Choirs will present a vocal jazz camp for "singers entering grades 9 – 12 and class of 2016 graduates" on weekdays from Tuesday, July 5 through Friday, July 15.

The camp will be led by Brian Parrish, director of SLCC's Chamber Singers, and held at the choirs' offices at 2842 North Ballas Road in Des Peres. For audition dates and more information, visit http://www.slccsing.org/vocaljazzcamp/.

Concert paying tribute to Ross Gentile set for Sunday, September 8 at SIUE

A concert paying tribute to the late Ross Gentile is scheduled for 8:00 p.m., Sunday, September 8 in the Meridian Ballroom, located in the Morris University Center on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Gentile (pictured) hosted the "Standards In Jazz" program on WSIE for 15 years, at one point working on-air for the station seven days a week. He also worked as a DJ for WIBV, KSHE and WZQZ, and was a regular presence as an MC at live jazz events in the St. Louis area. He died in February at age 60 after a heart attack.

Musical performers at the tribute concert will include the Gary Dammer Big Band, Rick Haydon, Denise Thimes, Sherry Drake, Joe Bozzi, and others. Also appearing will be friends and colleagues of Gentile's, including Dr. Ed Wolf, Marvin Cohen, Adam Tracy, Buddy Moreno, and Don Wolff.

Tickets for the Ross Gentile tribute concert are $20. For more information, call 618-409-1389. To purchase in advance, send a cashiers check, money order or check payable to "Dianne Turek" to Box #240, 407 Belt Line Rd., Collinsville, IL, 62234. Tickets also will be sold at the door.

Family members also have set up a "Standards in Jazz" website and Facebook page to promote the concert and Gentile's legacy.

Photo of Ross Gentile from standardsinjazz.com.

Erin Bode to headline SIUE Friends of Music benefit on Sunday, October 25

Singer Erin Bode will headline this year's benefit gala for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's Friends of Music organization, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 25 in the theater of SIUE’s Dunham Hall.

Tickets are $35, but can be had for just $30 if purchased by September 25. For an additional $15, concert-goers can attend a champagne reception with Bode before the event and will have special reserved seating during the concert. (Reserved seating is limited.)

The price of a ticket includes a $20 gift to the SIUE Friends of Music, which may be considered a tax-deductible contribution. The Friends of Music is a volunteer organization that supports the SIUE Department of Music; proceeds from this event will go to their endowment and scholarship funds for talented SIUE music students.

For reservations or more information, call the SIUE Department of Music at 618-650-3900, or toll-free from St. Louis at 888-328-5168, ext. 3900.

Russell Gunn to play this Saturday, May 3 at SIU-Edwardsville

Trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn will be back in the St. Louis area this Saturday, May 3, to do a clinic and concert at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville. The concert begins at 5:00 p.m. in the Meridian Ballroom on the first floor of SIU-E’s Morris University Center.

Gunn (pictured) is performing as part of a day-long event honoring the music of Miles Davis. At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, local high school bands will take part in clinics conducted by Ron Carter, saxophonist and director of the jazz program at Northern Illinois University, and trumpeter and educator Anthony Wiggins, who was a student of Carter's when he taught at Lincoln High in East St. Louis. (Wiggins and Gunn, who also graduated from Lincoln, are cousins.) Gunn will conduct a clinic at 1:00 p.m., and the evening concert also will include music from members of the SIU-E jazz faculty and the SIU-E Concert Jazz Band.

The clinics, which also are being held in the Meridian Ballroom, are free and open to the public. Admission to the 5 p.m. concert is $5 per person. For more information, call the SIU-E music department at 618-650-3900.

Jazz this week: Ahmad Jamal, Freddie Cole, Glenn Miller Orchestra, and more

It looks like a mainstream swing kind of week here for jazz fans in St. Louis, with three very familiar names in the area to perform over the bext several days.

Most notably, veteran pianist Ahmad Jamal (pictured) and his trio are at Jazz at the Bistro, doing two sets a night through Saturday night. While some critics may have derisively labeled him a "cocktail pianist" early on, that was some fifty-plus years ago, and Jamal is now recognized rightfully as a stylist who has maintained the integrity of his personal musical conception over a lengthy career. Though he's scheduled to be back in St. Louis next year to perform in concert at the Sheldon, true fans nevertheless will want to take advantage of the opportuniry to see him up close and personal in a club setting.

Speaking of the Sheldon, singer and pianist Freddie Cole will be playing a concert there on Saturday, mining roughly the same vein of swing, standards and the occasional blues as his more famous brother Nat, but fashioning the raw material according to his own designs. The Sheldon is offering a discounted tickets for this show, so if you've ever wanted to see Cole, this would seem to be a good time.

Also on Saturday, the Glenn Miller Orchestra will be performing in the Meridian Ballroom at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. While the current band consists almost exclusively of musicians who weren't even born yet when Miller passed away, the band's songbook obviously has an enduring appeal that keeps them working more than 60 years later.

Other shows worth noting this week include the return of Chicago-based singer Typhanie Monique and guitarist Neal Alger to Finale Music and Dining on Thursday night; Dizzy Atmosphere performing a free show at the Saint Louis Art Museum's Griggs Gallery early Friday evening; "Roadtrip USA," a program of travel-themed songs from singer Debby Lennon and pianist Carolbeth True on Saturday morning at the Sheldon; and a Sunday matinee performance sponsored by the Saint Louis Jazz Club featuring Jean Kittrell and the Old St. Louis Levee Band at the Swansea Improvement Association in Swansea, IL.

As always, these are just some of the week's highlights; to see a more complete list of jazz-related events for this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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. No attachments, please.)

SIUE faculty, students have three jazz events coming up

From the StLJN mailbox: Brett Stamps, local trombonist of note and Director of Jazz Activities at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, sends word of some upcoming events involving the University's jazz program.

First up is an evening promoting the recent release of Stamps' own debut CD In Your Own Sweet Way, which came out in February on the St. Louis-based Victoria Records label. Stamps premiered material from the CD that month at the Sheldon, and on Thursday, May 17 he'll do more of it during two sets at Jazz at the Bistro, accompanied by Rick Haydon on guitar, Zeb Briskovich on bass and Miles Vandiver on drums.

Then, as previously mentioned here, on Saturday, June 2 the SIUE Concert Jazz Band (which features primarily students along with some guest musicians drawn from the faculty) will perform from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the main stage at the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival in Clayton's Shaw Park.

Finally, on Monday June 4, members of the SIUE Jazz Faculty will give a free concert on their campus as part of the university's Summer Arts series. The event is open to the public, and begins at 7:00 pm in room 1109 of SIUE's Dunham Hall. Featured performers will include Stamps, Haydon and Vandiver along with Jason Swagler (alto saxophone), Reggie Thomas (piano) and Tom Kennedy (bass).

Drum legend Jimmy Cobb to speak, perform at SIU-E this Thursday

Legendary jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, the only surviving member of the ensemble that recorded Miles Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, will be in the St. Louis area this Thursday, March 15 to speak and perform in a free concert on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Cobb will take part in a open forum/discussion starting at 12:30 p.m. in the Dunham Hall Theater at SIU-E, and then that night, he'll perform at 7:00 p.m. in the same place with an ensemble drawn from the university's music faculty, including Reggie Thomas (piano), Rick Haydon (guitar), Tom Kennedy (bass), Jason Swagler (alto sax), Brett Stamps (trombone) and Zeb Briskovich (bass). Both events are free and open to the public.

Thanks to Phil Dunlap for the news tip.

(Edited after posting to correct the time of the evening concert.)