Jazz this week: James Carter Organ Trio, Gary Peacock, Spektral Quartet, and more

As March comes into St. Louis in mostly lamb-like fashion, the first week of the new month offers several intriguing jazz and creative music headliners on local stages, plus an assortment of performances from local musicians in a variety of styles, and a rare chance to see a film scored by Miles Davis on the big screen.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, March 2
Saxophonist James Carter returns with his organ trio for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Carter (pictured, top left) brings plenty of soul and swagger to go with his prodigious technique on tenor, soprano, and baritone saxes, and more, and the spare instrumentation of this band, with just organ and drums behind him, offers him plenty of room to stretch out. For some recent samples of Carter in action, see this video post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, singer Tony Viviano and guitarist Dave Black will play for diners at Candicci's, and saxophonist Jerry Greene leads his Greene Jazz Project trio at Evangeline's.

Update - 5:00 p.m., 3/2/16:  Both Tony Viviano and Dave Black have posted messages on social media saying that their Wednesday gig has been moved to Patrick's Westport Grill.

Thursday, March 3
Bassist Gary Peacock's trio with pianist Marc Copland and drummer Mark Ferber will perform in a ticketed show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Peacock may be best known these days as a member of pianist Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio,"  but over the past half-century, he's played in styles from avant-garde to West Coast with notable musicians ranging from saxophonist Bud Shank to pianist Paul Bley and saxophonist Albert Ayler, and many more.

His own music, recorded since the 1970s mostly for the ECM label, has run the gamut from fairly conventional post-bop to the sort of spare, icy soundscapes frequently associated with that European imprint. Given Copland's piano style, which has been compared to both Jarrett and Bill Evans (another pianist that Peacock played with back in the day), the trio's set may lean more toward the former than the latter, but whatever they do should be worth hearing. . 

Also on Thursday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival begins their spring series with singer Emily West presenting her show "In From Nashville" for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Friday, March 4
The Schlafly Tap Room downtown will offer a multi-band lineup for their 2016 Stout & Oyster Festival that includes a headlining set from the Funky Butt Brass Band; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play for dancers at Casa Loma Ballroom; and drummer Marty Morrison leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

Saturday, March 5
The Schlafly Tap Room's stout-and-oyster-related festivities continue throughout the afternoon and evening, starting at noon with a set from The People's Key and including a headlining performance from New Orleans favorites Big Sam's Funky Nation.

Also on Saturday, the Spektral Quartet (pictured, center left) will make their St. Louis debut in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 560 Music Center.

The Chicago-based string quartet will be performing new music by composers Hans Thomalla and  Beat Furrer, and while they're here, they'll also be taking part in some free events: an "artists' talk" on Friday afternoon at Washington University, and an open rehearsal Saturday afternoon at Tavern of Fine Arts. For more about Spektral Quartet and some video samples of past performances, check out last week's Saturday video showcase.

That same evening, Cinema St. Louis' Classic French Film Festival will screen the 1958 Louis Malle film Elevator to the Gallows at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. The movie features an original score by Miles Davis (pictured lower left, with the film's star Jeanne Moreau.)

Sunday, March 6
The St. Louis Record & CD Collector Show will present their first event of 2016 at the American Czech Hall, and Good 4 The Soul plays an early evening show at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Monday, March 7
"Blind" Willie Dineen & the Broadway Collective return for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, March 8
The Saxquest Nonet Jazz Orchestra returns to the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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: Spektral Quartet to make St. Louis debut

This week, StLJN's is on the contemporary-composition beat with some performances on video by the Spektral Quartet, a Chicago-based group that will make their St. Louis debut in a concert presented by New Music Circle and the Washington University School of Music at 8:00 p.m. next Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music Center.

Formed in 2010, Spektral Quartet includes violinists Austin Wulliman and Clara Lyon, violist Doyle Armbrust, and cellist Russell Rolen. Serving as an ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago, they perform both "the great works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week." The quartet also "prioritizes immersion and inclusivity through close-proximity seating and delivers the majority of its Chicago concerts in vibrant, unconventional venues."

They've recorded three albums, the most recent being Serious Business, released in January of this year, as well as "Mobile Miniatures," a 2014 project for which they "commissioned more than 45 composers from around the country to re-imagine the world of ringtones, alerts, and alarms."

Their announced program for St. Louis includes "Bagatellen for String Quartet," a new commissioned work from Hans Thomalla, a German-born composer now living in Chicago; and Swiss composer Beat Furrer's String Quartet No. 3. Also of note is that in addition to their concert on Saturday evening, they'll be holding an open rehearsal from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

In this video sampler, you can see Spektral Quartet playing music by some other contemporary composers, starting with a rendition of George Crumb's famous "Black Angels," written in 1970 for electrified string quartet and seen here in a recording made in May, 2012 in Chicago.

After the jump, there's a video of the quartet playing Philip Glass' String Quartet No 2, aka "Company," recorded in January 2015 in Chicago.

After that, you can see videos of two works by composer David Reminick. "Bring a Dead Man Back Into Life" was recorded by an audience member at a performance in January of this year at SubCulture in NYC, while "Oh My God, I'll Never Get Home" is from a concert in October 2014 at Constellation in Chicago.

The last two clips both were recorded in December 2011 at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University as part of a program of quartets by Northwestern faculty and students, with violinist Aurelien Pederzoli substituting for Lyon. Both works - "Albumblatt" by Hans Thomalla, and String Quartet No. 1 by Eliza Brown - were included on Spektral Quartet's debut album.

For more about Spektral Quartet, check out the feature story about them that ran last month in the Chicago Reader, and for a bit more about their new album, read the review from NYC new music radio station WQXR.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 3

Today, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, giving you an advance look at some of the noteworthy bands and musicians who will be playing in St. Louis during the next several months. (You can see part one here and part two here.)

Following the chronological progression established in those first two installments, the first video up above features the Chicago-based group Spektral Quartet, who will be coming to town to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, March 5 at the 560 Music Center. The quartet, which plays both new works by contemporary composers and interpretations of canonical classical music, is seen here in a 2015 performance of Philip Glass' String Quartet No 2 "Company".

After the jump, you can see a video of singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, who will be co-headlining shows starting Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, March 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Bridgewater and Mayfield last year joined forces to record an album of New Orleans music called Dee Dee's Feathers, and have been touring together in support, playing shows including the one last summer in San Sebastian, Spain that's documented here.

The following weekend, trumpeter Byron Stripling will return to front the Jazz St. Louis Big Band for a "Tribute to Clark Terry" on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 at the Bistro. In the third clip, you can see Stripling, who very early in his career played in Terry's big band, being interviewed about his former employer in conjunction with another tribute to Terry presented last year by the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, which Stripling directs.

The week after that, the all-star SFJazz Collective will return to St. Louis for the first time since 2007 as part of their tour featuring interpretations of music made famous by the late singer and self-proclaimed "King of Pop," Michael Jackson. They'll play Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2 at Jazz at the Bistro, and can be seen here performing a Warren Wolf arrangement of Jackson's "Working Day And Night" at last year's Winter Jazz Festival in NYC.

Next to visit our city will be the veteran pianist Kenny Barron, who's returning with his trio on Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7 to the Bistro. Barron, who played the Bistro last year in a duo with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, is seen here playing "Triste," backed by bassist Chuck Bergeron and drummer Evan Hyde in a performance last spring at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Later that same week, the Bistro will host another ad hoc group of musicians brought to St. Louis to work with students in Jazz St. Louis' various educational programs, as clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh join forces to perform on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Since the group is being assembled specifically for the occasion, the only way to preview it would seem to be to take a look at each of the individual musicians in turn, starting with the sixth video, which shows Cohen performing "In The Spirit of Baden" with her quartet in November 2015 in the studios of KPLU in Seattle.

Below that, you can see Hill's set from the semifinals 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition - which he eventually won - recorded in November, 2014 at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles, California. Hill is accompanied by the 2014 competition band, with former St. Louisan Reggie Thomas on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Carl Allen on drums.

Then, you can see Oh leading her quartet in a performance of her original composition "Yoda," recorded in June of last year for the podcast BreakThruRadioTV. Today's final clip features Wilson (who was just at the Bistro in December with his Christmas Tree-O) and his band Arts and Crafts performing "Free Range Chicken" in 2013 at radio station KMHD in Portland, OR.

Next week, it's part four of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...