St. Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival goes "on hiatus" for 2009

Cultural Festivals, the organization that produces the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, announced today that the event would be "on hiatus" for 2009. From the press release:

"Cultural Festivals, the not-for-profit organization that produces one-of-a-kind events such as the Saint Louis Art Fair, the Big Read, and the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, announced that the Jazz Festival will take a one year hiatus in 2009.

Cultural Festivals has produced the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival in Clayton’s Shaw Park since 2001. The one-day event featuring top local and national performers in jazz, blues, roots, rhythm & blues, is the only event sponsored by Cultural Festivals that does not offer free general admission. Ticket prices have ranged from $20 per person to $75 per person for access to the VIP hospitality tent and preferred parking.

“The Jazz Festival has been enjoyed by many people and the Board of Director’s decision to take a hiatus was a tough one to make. Cultural Festivals is currently in midst of conducting a search for a new executive director and is reviewing the organization’s structure. Unfortunately, we do not expect the new executive director to be hired and the organizational review to be completed in time to plan and book performers for a 2009 event,” said Laura Miller, who has been acting executive director since last June.

Miller added that the decision take a year hiatus with the Jazz Festival does not impact plans for the 16th annual Saint Louis Art Fair scheduled for September 11, 12 & 13, 2009 or the 4th annual Big Read festival scheduled for October 10, 2009.

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Jazz St. Louis, two original presenting partners of the Saint Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival, have had preliminary discussions to consider ways to collaborate on a jazz event in the summer of 2009. Whether Cultural Festivals will play a role in this event has yet to be determined."

This unfortunate news will take some time to fully digest, but it's worth noting what the release doesn't say - that the jazz festival was reduced from two days to one a couple of years back, in part due to reductions in funding from key sponsors; that attendance hasn't grown much over the event's lifetime; and, with bad weather a contributing factor, the crowds even have fallen off a bit the last two years from the peak four or five years ago.

It also occurs to yr. humble editor that "on hiatus" seems to be the current term of art used by the broadcast TV networks when they cancel a show forever, but, for whatever reason, don't want to just come out and say they're canceling it. Here's hoping that's not the case with the Jazz and Heritage Festival. However, assuming the event does come back after the hiatus, I'd also hope that the organizers will use the time off to make some changes for the better.

What sorts of changes should be made? Well, that's a subject that's been extensively discussed here at StLJN in the past - just plug the words "St. Louis" and "jazz festival" into the search engine at the top of the page, and you can see some of that discussion - and, given today's development, probably will be the subject of a future post.

The gist, though, is that I think the festival needs programming that is more musically substantive, diverse and distinctive. The event also could do more to explicitly celebrate St. Louis' rich musical heritage, and to involve more constituencies from within the community, thus becoming a real city-wide festival instead of just a nice day of music in the park.

I'll also be trying to find out more about the potential summer 2009 event mentioned in the news release, as that's certainly of significant interest. But in the meantime, what do you think? Please use the comments to add your thoughts on the jazz fest going on hiatus, and on what ought to be done in the future.

Cynthia Prost to head Arts & Education Council

The organization that produces the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival is losing its executive director. From Post-Dispatch gossip columnist Deb Peterson:

"PROST PRO: Cindy Prost has ankled her post as executive director of Cultural Festivals of St. Louis to become president of the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. Prost will succeed James F. Weidman, who is retiring. She will assume her new role at the end of the month. Prost became executive director of the St. Louis Art Fair in 1997 and grew it into an organization that also presents the St. Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival and The Big Read. Weidman has headed the council since 2002."

What does this mean for the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival? It's hard to say, at least until Cultural Festivals names a new executive director.

The organization has a small permanent staff, with just four employees (including Prost) listed on its Web site. Laura Miller, whose title is Director of Operations & Programming, would appear to be the highest ranking staff member after Prost. Will the organization will promote her to the top job, or look outside its current ranks for a new leader? With the Art Fair just three months away, it would seem that whatever they decide to do, they'll need to act quickly. (Readers who may have more insight into the situation are hereby invited to share their information, thoughts and/or opinions in comments.) StLJN will have more on this story as developments warrant.

Post-Dispatch has reports from Jazz and Heritage Festival

The 2008 St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, held Saturday at Shaw Park in Clayton, once again this year was plagued by bad weather, bringing the set of pianist and Joe Sample and singer Randy Crawford to an early conclusion and forcing the cancellation of the performance by headliner Cassandra Wilson. The Post-Dispatch has two reports from the festival online: a blog post from pop critic Kevin Johnson detailing the event's weather woes, and a review, written by Terry Perkins, of the acts that were able to get their sets in before the rain came.

(Edited 6/4/08 to add a tag.)

Jazz this week: St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival; a tribute to Miles Davis; Lamar Harris CD release party; and more

This weekend's major jazz event is the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Clayton's Shaw Park. Singer Cassandra Wilson headlines, and the other mainstage performers are ex-Crusaders keyboardist Joe Sample (pictured) with singer Randy Crawford; Latin percussionist Tito Puente Jr.; and smooth jazz/fusion keyboardist Lao Tizer with guitarist Chieli Minucci and violinist Karen Briggs.

Local groups and musicians appearing on the festival's second stage will include pianist Ptah Williams, performing a tribute to Stevie Wonder; jam band singer-guitarist Teddy Presberg; the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, directed by bassist Jim Widner; singer Brian Owens; and Two Times True featuring pianist Carolbeth True and her son, drummer David True.

UPDATE, 5/29/08, 1:30 a.m.: The Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson has an interview with Cassandra Wilson in today's paper, available online here.

Elsewhere around town, on Friday trombonist Lamar Harris will have a release party for his latest CD at The Gramophone, and trumpeter Randy Holmes and his Quintet will present a tribute to Miles Davis at Cookie's Jazz and More. Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday singer Jeanne Trevor will perform a free concert at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park as part of the "Twilight Tuesdays" series

For more St. Louis jazz-related events 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. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

Jazz and Heritage Festival organizers defend 2008 lineup

It's becoming a seasonal rite, just like baseball spring training, or seeing the first robin of the year: The St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival announces its lineup, and the organizers then attempt to spin the news to make the musical menu seem more appetizing than it first appears.

While many dedicated local jazz enthusiasts have already made up their minds, perhaps some casual fans will be swayed by this year's spin control, as dutifully recorded by Post-Dispatch pop music critic Kevin Johnson in this story for the weekend paper.

One quote from Paul Reuter, executive director of the Sheldon Concert Hall and a member of the Festival's programming committee, seems especially noteworthy. Referring to headliner Cassandra Wilson, Reuter is quoted as saying, "It's great that we're able to attract national-level talent like this to the festival. We're becoming one of the majors in the Midwest that they want to play."

This statement raises a couple of questions. First, if major, national-level musicians are so eager to come play St. Louis, how'd the Festival end up this year with a lineup filled out by the likes of Lao Tizer and Tito Puente, Jr.? And second, just how does the phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" apply in this particular situation?

St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival announces 2008 lineup

The St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival has announced that singer Cassandra Wilson (pictured) will headline the 2008 edition of the event, which will take place in Clayton's Shaw Park on Saturday, May 31. Other touring acts on the bill will include ex-Crusaders keyboardist Joe Sample with singer Randy Crawford, Latin percussionist Tito Puente Jr., and smooth jazz/fusion keyboardist Lao Tizer with guitarist Chieli Minucci and violinist Karen Briggs.

Local groups and musicians appearing at the festival will include pianist Ptah Williams, doing a set of music composed by Stevie Wonder; jam band singer-guitarist Teddy Presberg; the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra; singer Brian Owens; and Two Times True featuring pianist Carolbeth True and her son, drummer David True.

At the risk of sounding repetitive to long-time StLJN readers, once again I am underwhelmed by the festival lineup. Wilson is a fine singer with a distinctive approach to interpreting contemporary songwriters, but she relies quite a bit on quiet, downtempo material and thus seems an odd choice for a show closer. Sample and Crawford are capable performers who may pull in some older smooth-jazz fans, but given that their one radio hit was 30 years ago, they won't do much to draw younger listeners.

As for the others, although Puente certainly comes from good stock, he has yet to create any truly memorable music on his own, and seems mostly to be trading on his family name. There are many other Latin jazz acts out there making better, more interesting, and more original music, and I doubt if they're all more expensive to book than is Puente Jr. And while I'm not familiar enough with the music of Lao Tizer to offer any intelligent commentary, the presence of Briggs, whose usual gig is working for easy listening schlockmeister Yanni, inspires fear and loathing rather than confidence or interest.

The lineup of local acts seems better balanced, though I'm puzzled by the selection of Presberg, whose music, from what little I've heard of it, bears only a vaguely tangential relationship to jazz. With only five slots open for local musicians, it's a curious choice.

Overall, I'm struck once again by the lack of any headliners playing mainstream straight-ahead jazz, bebop, or hard bop. Older, pre-war jazz styles and any music that might plausibly be called avant-garde, experimental or even adventurous are also noticeably absent. Other than Williams' tribute set, there's no thematic programming, and no programming created especially for the event. It adds up to a stylistically incoherent "festival" with no discernible artistic direction or point-of-view, no unique programming, and no real connection to the institutions, music history or traditions of the city it purports to celebrate.

At $25 for a general admission ticket, the StLJ&HF does offer an entire day of music at a bargain price, but it's only a bargain if you're actually interested in seeing any of the acts being presented. As a pleasant day of diversion in the park, the event may succeed in drawing enough paying customers to ensure its continued existence, but based on the booking choices they've made over the past couple of years, it would seem that the organizers are not really trying for much beyond that. The StLJ&HF's 2008 lineup might be acceptable for a town with no existing or historic ties to jazz, but given St. Louis' rich musical history, its knowledgeable jazz fans, and the many fine musicians who have called the area home over the years, our city deserves better.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Are you excited about the chance to see Wilson, Sample or any of the others? Is St. Louis getting the jazz festival it deserves? Am I being a big meanie by insisting that festival organizers could do better? Feel free to use the comments to express your thoughts and opinions...

St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival set for Saturday, May 31

The St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival has announced that their 2008 event will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m on Saturday, May 31 in Clayton's Shaw Park.

This will be the festival's eighth year, and its second year in the single-day format. The SLJHF's Web site says that the 2008 lineup of acts will be announced in February, and online ticket sales will begin March 1.

The 9 p.m. ending time for this year's event would seem to be a concession to the residential neighbors surrounding Shaw Park, who according to published reports have been unhappy with the sound levels coming from the festival grounds, which in turn prompted speculation that the event might have to relocate.

Also worth noting: Enterprise, the St. Louis-based car rental, leasing and sales company, is the festival's lead sponsor this year, with Emerson once again underwriting the main stage. Former lead sponsor U.S. Bank apparently is taking a much-reduced role in 2008; they're listed as one of 16 "sustaining sponsors," an eclectic group that includes both major corporations and small businesses.

Wheeler, Prost to receive awards from Grand Center

In a item in today's Post-Dispatch, gossip columnist Deb Peterson revealed that singer Mae Wheeler will be one of the recipients of a "Visionary Award" from Grand Center Inc. in a ceremony to be held in November. The awards, now in their fifth year, recognize women for their outstanding contributions to St. Louis' arts and cultural community. Wheeler will be getting a Lifetime Acheivement Award, and StLJN congratulates "Lady Jazz" on a well-deserved honor.

Also scheduled to be honored as Outstanding Arts Professional is Cynthia Prost, executive director of Cultural Festivals, Inc, the organization that produces the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, the St. Louis Art Fair, and the Big Read literary festival.

Oddly, Peterson's item mentions the Art Fair and the Big Read, but not the Jazz Festival. Was this an intentional omission by Prost or Peterson? Is Grand Center expressly excluding the Jazz Festival from the list of accomplishments making Prost eligible for the award? Or did one or more of the above just sort of forget that the Jazz Festival exists, or feel that it was too insignificant to mention? Whatever the reason, it certainly doesn't reflect well on the importance or the public profile of the event.

Post has post-Fest report

Despite rain that forced a shutdown of the grounds for a couple of hours, the 2007 St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival wound up drawing 8,000 people in its first time as a one-day event. Organizers have termed this a success, and are planning a similar approach to next year's festival, which is scheduled for Saturday, May 31, 2008.

Those are the major bits of breaking news from a story in this weekend's Post-Dispatch, based on an interview pop critic Kevin Johnson did with Cynthia Prost, who's executive director of the event's producing organization, Cultural Festivals.

The rest of the piece recounts the troubles with rain at this year's festival, and winds up with Prost quoted as saying, "Our experiment of going to one day and using the funds to really book big acts worked."

It's good news that the event will live to see another year, but for those who think a St. Louis jazz festival ought to be more ambitious, it's a disappointment to hear that organizers are going forward next year with the same approach. Simply throwing money at the two or three biggest names who happen to be available doesn't seem like much of a way to build a coherent, relevant program or a long-term audience.

There's a saying, variously credited to Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - and as long as the St. Louis festival organizers simply pick programming "off the shelf" from any given summer's offering of touring artists, the event will continue to lack both creative direction and distinction, and the possibilities for growth seem rather limited.

Yes, it takes years of concerted effort and a whole lot of funding to build a jazz festival on the scale of the ones in Chicago or Detroit, but as presently constituted, the St. Louis event pales even in comparison to the jazz festivals in places like Indianapolis and Rochester, NY. Heck, even Iowa City offers a wider selection of music, with no really big names but with interesting musicians like Don Byron, Cuong Vu, Airto Moreira and Ray Anderson, and what's more, it's all free and open to the public.

St. Louis has a significant place in the history of jazz music, a distinguished roster of locals who have gone on to jazz stardom, and an active current community of bands, musicians, students, educators and fans; it also deserves an imaginatively programmed jazz festival that at least attempts to take those factors into account.

Jazz and Heritage Festival reviewed in Post-Dispatch

The ever-busy Terry Perkins has written a review for the Post-Dispatch of Saturday's St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and you can read it online here.

A video preview of this year's St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival

As promised, here are some videos featuring some of the musicians who will be performing at this year's St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which takes place from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday at Shaw Park in Clayton.

Up top, you'll find a clip of George Benson doing his version of what has become one of his signature songs, "On Broadway". This performance is from a 1998 appearance on the UK television program Later.

Down below is a "vintage" clip of Ramsey Lewis performing one of his first big hits, a very brief version of the McCoys' pop tune "Hang On Sloopy," from some time in the mid-1960s on the TV show Hullabaloo. If you can ignore (or be amused by) the goofy antics of the go-go dancers, this is a pretty good example of the hard-driving, blues- and gospel-influenced style that launched Lewis' career.

Below that is a clip featuring percussionst Poncho Sanchez, in some sort of all-star session that also involved the late vocalist Celia Cruz and the great Tito Puente on timbales, performing "Quimbara". Sanchez is actually third-billed on this clip, but given that Puente and Cruz are two of the all-time greats of salsa music, one can surmise that he probably didn't mind too much.

As for the local musicians performing at the Festival, thanks to the producers of Jazz @ Cookie's, there are complete half-hour programs online featuring both singer Jeanne Trevor and Latin-jazz group SL Son.

Each program is divided into three parts, so embedding all those windows might prove overly cumbersome. Instead, you can see the three parts of Jeanne Trevor's Jazz @ Cookie's episode here, here and here, and you'll find the three parts of SL Son's episode here, here and here.

Jazz this week: George Benson, Ramsey Lewis & Poncho Sanchez at the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, Dave Brubeck at the Sheldon, BAG II and more

Although this year's edition of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival has been cut back to a single day, it's still one of the major jazz events of the year. And there's still enough other music happening in town to provide a full and varied weekend of jazz if that's your pleasure.

You can get started on Thursday night, when trombonist Brett Stamps and his quartet take the stage for two sets at Finale Music and Dining. Then on Friday night, the Black Arts Guild aka BAG II concludes its spring season at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site with a free concert highlighting original music from the organization's "house band," The Group, which features bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya, percussionist Glenn "Papa" Wright and saxophonist Jerome "Jay-Dubz" Williams.

On Saturday, the headliners for the 2007 Jazz and Heritage Festival will be guitarist/vocalist George Benson (pictured), pianist Ramsey Lewis and percussionist Poncho Sanchez; local acts will include Latin jazz band SL Son, vocalists Kim Massie and Jeanne Trevor, trombonist Lamar Harris, and the SIU-Edwardsville Big Band.

The grounds in Clayton's Shaw Park will open at 11:30 a.m., and the music gets underway at noon. For those who are primarily interested in the national acts, you're in luck - this year they're scheduled sequentially on the same stage, with Sanchez will take the main stage at 4:30 p.m., followed by Benson at 6:30 p.m. and Lewis at 8:30 p.m.. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Borders locations in the St. Louis area, all MetroTix outlets, or at the festival gate on the day of the event.

(Since this year's festival is just one day, StLJN's coverage won't be quite as extensive as it has been the last two years. However, I'll have some video previews of some of the musicians in an upcoming post and, barring inclement weather, plan to take in and review as much of the event as I can.)

Benson and Lewis would be the biggest jazz names in town most weeks of the year - but not this particular week, because on Sunday night, legendary pianist and composer Dave Brubeck will appear at the Sheldon Concert Hall in a benefit performance for the Friends of the Sheldon.

Brubeck's current quartet includes Randy Jones on drums, Michael Moore on bass and Bobby Militello on saxophone and flute, and it's safe to assume that they'll be offering up such favorites as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk" as part of a musical menu that might also include a rendition of "St. Louis Blues," a longtime Brubeck favorite. This review of a Brubeck show last month in San Francisco may provide more of an idea of what to expect.

Though the patron seats are all sold, Metrotix still has regular tickets on sale at $45 for orchestra seats (the floor) and $40 for balcony seats. If you have any interest in seeing Brubeck, who's 87, in concert, you're probably not going to get a better chance than this.

If that's not enough music for you, on Monday evening the SIU-E jazz faculty will be giving a free concert at Durham Hall on campus, and the Sessions Big Band returns to the recently expanded stage at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups downtown.

As always, these highlights represent just a portion of the what's going on in St. Louis this weekend. For a more complete listing of local jazz events, please check the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

UPDATE - 10:20 p.m., 5/31/07: I've got a Critic's Pick on the Dave Brubeck show in this week's Riverfront Times, now online here, while my RFT colleague Christian Schaefer has written one on George Benson, available here. Also, Terry Perkins did a story for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday that previews the Jazz and Heritage Festival and examines the reasons why this year's event is one day instead of two. Read it online here.
(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.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: George Benson plays "All Blues" plus Ramsey Lewis' "Living For The City"

This week, let's take a look at music videos from the two main headliners for the 2007 St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which this year, regrettably, has been cut back to a one-day event to be held on Saturday, June 2 in Shaw Park in Clayton.

The first video shows guitarist and singer George Benson offering a tribute to Miles Davis with a cover version of "All Blues". While Benson has certainly recorded his share of subpar pop-oriented material over the years, he can still play quite well when given the opportunity to stretch out on a blues or jazz tune that provides a suitable platform for improvisation. When Benson played the festival in 2005, the event drew its biggest two-day growd ever; one can assume the fest organizers are hoping similar box-office lightning will strike again this year.

The second clip features pianist Ramsey Lewis, who's had his share of crossover successes, too, but is known more for his adeptness with grooves and hooks than for his virtuosity. As is the case with Benson, many of Lewis' best-known recordings are cover versions or interpretations of music written by others, and here he offers his take on Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City," in a performance recorded in 1990 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

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).

Know your St. Louis jazz festivals

StLJN has been getting quite a few search requests over the last few days on assorted variations of the phrase "St. Louis jazz festival", so it once again seems like a good idea to compile the available information on five upcoming local events fitting that general description into one handy post for future reference. And so, in chronological order, here they are:

Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival
When: Wednesday, April 18 - Saturday, April 21
Where: Touhill Performing Arts Center and Jazz at the Bistro
Featured performers: Bobby Watson, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band (pictured), Mike Metheny, Steve Wiest, UMSL jazz faculty and student big band directed by Jim Widner.
Admission: $10-$15 for Wednesday night; $10-$35 for Friday and Saturday
For more information: www.jazzstl.org, www.touhill.org

Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival
When: Noon to 10 p.m., Saturday, June 2
Where: Shaw Park, Clayton
Featured performers: George Benson, Ramsey Lewis and Poncho Sanchez, plus local acts including Jeanne Trevor, Kim Massie, SL Son, Lamar Harris and the SIU-E Jazz Band.
Admission: $20 (Tickets available online for $15 before April 30.)
For more information: www.saintlouisjazzfest.com

Glendale Jazz Festival
When: 6:30 p.m., Friday, May 25
Where: Glendale City Hall, 424 N. Sappington
Featured performers: St. Louis Stompers, Bosman Twins, Jennifer David, Terry Thompson and Swing Alive
Admission: Free
For more information: www.glendalemo.org

Whitaker Music Festival (formerly known as the Whitaker Jazz Festival)
When: Wednesday nights beginning the first week in June
Where: Missouri Botanical Garden
Featured performers: 2007 lineup has not yet been announced. Jazz performers are featured during the month of June, with subsequent weeks given over to other musical styles. Featured jazz perfomers in 2006 included Peter Martin, St. Louis Stompers, Tom Byrne and Mardra and Reggie Thomas.
Admission: Free
For more information: www.mobot.org

Old Webster Jazz Festival
When: Noon to 10 p.m., Saturday, September 15
Where: Old Webster Groves business district, near the intersection of Lockwood and Gore
Featured performers: 2007 lineup has not yet been announced. Featured performers in 2006 included Billy Peek, Gumbohead, Uncle Albert, Erin Bode, Anita Rosamond, the USAF Big Band of Mid-America, Swing Cat Swing, the Webster University Jazz Band and the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band.
Admission: Free
For more information: www.oldwebsterjazzfestival.com

Know of any events that should be listed here, but are not?
If so, please email information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com.

St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival offering early ticket discounts

Once again this year the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival is offering discounts on early ticket purchases made online. By using one of the discount codes being circulated via the email lists of various area organizations, including Jazz St. Louis, you can get a $20 ticket to the event for just $15 if you act before April 30.

Just go to www.saintlouisjazzfest.com/Tickets.htm and enter the code JSL031 to purchase your discounted tickets. This year's Festival takes place on Saturday, June 2 in Clayton's Shaw Park, and will be headlined by George Benson, Ramsey Lewis and Poncho Sanchez.

Benson, Lewis, Sanchez to headline abbreviated 2007 jazz festival

In an apparent artistic retrenchment paralleling the event's financial and scheduling difficulties, guitarist George Benson, pianist Ramsey Lewis and percussionist Poncho Sanchez (pictured) will be the headliners and only national acts to appear at the 2007 edition of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which this year has been reduced to a one-day event that will be held Saturday, June 2 in Clayton's Shaw Park.

In the past, the two-day version of the event had mixed crossover performers with more musically substantive jazz acts such as saxophonist Joe Lovano, the Dave Holland Big Band, Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Dave Douglas Quintet. Last year's festival, while lacking a major headliner playing straight-ahead jazz, fielded an entertaining lineup topped by St. Louis native David Sanborn, and drew the best crowds in five years.

Unfortunately, it looks like with the loss of an apparently diminished role for former lead sponsor US Bank and the inability to find a suitable replacement, the situation has deteriorated to the point where all that's being offered is a bill that might make a nice summer evening smooth-jazz package at Riverport/UMB Pavilion/whatever-they're-calling-it-these-days. It's not that Benson, Lewis and Sanchez are bad musicians, or lack entertainment value - heck, I own records by all three, and paid cash money to see Benson in concert back in the day. But to book three acts that represent only a tiny fraction of what's going on in jazz today and then call it a festival pretty much makes a mockery of the concept.

As for the local acts announced so far, singers Kim Massie and Jeanne Trevor are both reliable performers with good fan followings, and although both are skilled entertainers, neither could be called particularly adventurous. Somewhat more likely to deliver something novel are trombonist Lamar Harris, a repeat booking from 2006; Latin-jazz group SL Son; or the SIU-Edwardsville Big Band, which presumably may have a few faculty guest stars salted in amongst the student players.

Meanwhile, under the category of "WTF?" bookings, there's the Collin Community College Jazz Band, which apparently will be coming all the way from the jazz hotbed of Plano, Texas for the gig, and, in what seems almost like a purposeful insult to St. Louis musicians who have to work for a living, another group that shall go unnamed here but who are most notable for being fronted by an amateur singer whose wealthy husband is a generous donor to many local arts organizations, including the StLJ&HF.

The Post-Dispatch article by pop critic Kevin Johnson announcing the festival lineup contains a number of attempts by organizers to put the best possible face on things, but the arguments advanced seem unpersuasive:

"Cynthia Prost of Cultural Festivals emphasizes that even though the festival will be one day, the music will not suffer. The event will open three hours earlier than usual to welcome more acts."

In fact, this year will feature fewer hours of music and fewer bands and musicians in total than in the past. So, except for there being less of it, the music won't suffer?

"Whenever you get three performers of this stature on the same stage on the same weekend, it's a tremendous value for anyone who loves jazz."

Unless you happen to be someone who loves traditional jazz, bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, fusion, avant-garde or one of the other styles once again unrepresented in this year's festival lineup, in which case: not so much.

And finally, after a passage about the difficulties negotiating with the city of Clayton for the use of Shaw Park:

"Prost says the new date also is better because the weather probably won't be as hot. It also puts more time between the jazz festival and Fair St. Louis, and it gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

The notion that a jazz festival ought to or does compete for crowds with an event like Fair St. Louis seems profoundly misguided. But let's read that last clause again, because therein lies, as Frank Zappa used to say, the crux of the biscuit: "gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

It's hard not to take that as tacit confirmation of what many in the local jazz community have long suspected: namely, that this event was created not by or for people who truly enjoy and understand jazz, but rather to provide the staff of Cultural Festivals with gainful employment between Art Fairs.

I could go on for several more paragraphs about how the 2007 festival is falling short of what it's been in the past, what it could or should be, what's offered in other cities of comparable size and/or historic musical importance, and what St. Louis deserves. But frankly, I'm loathe to expend all that effort once again writing about an event seemingly relegated by its own organizers to a position of little importance.

Since the mission here is to cover as much local jazz-related news as possible, StLJN will undoubedly revisit the subject again as June 2 draws near, but for now, use the comments to share your thoughts. Are you excited about seeing Benson, Lewis and/or Sanchez? Or are you as underwhelmed by this lineup as yr. humble editor? Does St. Louis deserve a bigger, better, hipper jazz festival? If so, should it be run by an organization dedicated to presenting music, rather than as an afterthought by a group whose primary purpose is unrelated to jazz? The floor is open.

UPDATE - 11:30 a.m., 3/17/06: I see from perusing the festival's newly updated Web site that US Bank is still involved as a sponsor, though their billing has moved from above the title of the event to below it. The original version of this post said they were no longer a sponsor. I regret the error, and have corrected it.

Still, related questions remain. The difference between being above the title and below can be anywhere from a few thousand dollars to, in the case of very large events, millions. If US Bank's new billing is indicative of a reduced financial committment, then it follows that a reduced budget would be one reason for the cutbacks in this year's festival. That's not one of the reasons for shrinking the event mentioned in the Post article. On the other hand, if US Bank and the other sponsors are paying the same as before, where's the financial need to cut back the festival? And wouldn't they be getting less for their money when the event runs one day instead of two?

(Edited after posting to correct the spelling of "Poncho," edited again correct information about festival sponsorship, and edited again to fix some typos. Man, I hate it when a screed goes awry.)