Sunday Session: January 24, 2016

Ron Carter

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StLJN's inbox:

* Ten Pianists reflect on the enduring influence of Paul Bley (Notes on Jazz)
* Prototype Festival shows opera houses one path to new work (Washington Post)
* NYC Winter Jazzfest 2016 (AllAboutJazz.com)
* The New Thing: 5 Artists to Watch From Winter Jazzfest 2016 (Billboard)
* What We Loved At Winter Jazzfest 2016 (NPR)
* Revolutionary Recording Techniques Are Bringing Bach Back (Vice.com)
* New Orleans Jazz Fest Lineup Announced (Jazz Times)
* What Will the Sound of Jazz Be in 2016? (The Atlantic)
* Free Improvisation as Experience & Self-Disclosure (Artidolia.com)
* Washington, Porter, Kneebody To Headline Newport Jazz Festival (DownBeat)
* Canadian pianist Paul Bley played pivotal role in birth of free jazz (Toronto Globe and Mail)
* Spooner Oldham: Lord Loves A Session Man (American Songwriter)
* Stanley Jordan: “My Spirit Transcends Gender” - The guitarist speaks out about freedom and authenticity (Jazz Times)
* Chano Pozo: Legacy of the Ultimate Rumbero (SFJAZZ.org)
* Ron Carter earns world record as the most recorded jazz bassist in history (GuinnessWorldRecords.com)
* An Interview With Cécile McLorin Salvant - From Monk Competition winner to Grammy nominee (Jazz Times)
* The Grateful Dead Literary-Industrial Complex Is A Long, Strange Trip All Its Own (Deadspin.com)
* Old music is outselling new music for the first time in history (ChartAttack.com)
* Kamasi Washington’s Giant Step (New York Times)
* Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Orchestra Reneges on Promise to Pay Back Library Foundation (Offbeat)
* Jaco! The Story Behind Robert Trujillo's Intense New Documentary (Bass Player)
* Q&A: John Cale On Memorializing Lou Reed & Re-Making Music For A New Society (Stereogum)
* NYC Winter Jazzfest 2016: Comprehensive Coverage - "Jazz is not dead, but back with a vengeance" (Jazz Times)
* David Bowie: 7 Wild Quotes From the 'Station to Station' Era (Rolling Stone)
* Dan Wilson Talks John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory (TheTalkhouse.com)

Jazz this week: Stanley Jordan, a "family concert" from Metta Quintet, and more

This week's menu of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features everything from big bands to a stellar jazz guitarist who's practically a band all by himself. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, guitarist Stanley Jordan (pictured) returns to St. Louis to begin a four-night engagement with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro. Jordan is known for his distinctive two-hand tapping technique that enables him to play lead and accompanying parts simultaneously on a standard guitar, and in recent years, he's also started playing guitar and piano at the same time. For more about that, plus two entire concerts' worth of video footage of Jordan, see this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Freddie Washington will lead a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Washington is a fine modern jazz player who draws on influences such as John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, and on ballads you can also hear echoes of older guys like Lester Young and Ben Webster in his playing.

On Friday, singer Valerie Tichacek and her cohorts in Wack-A-Doo will bring their take on the pre-WWII swing sound to Robbie's House of Jazz, and guitarist Larry Brown Jr. will celebrate the release of his new CD with an early set at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups. (Brown and his band also will do an early set at BB's on Saturday night.) Also on Friday, pianist Nick Schlueter leads a trio with bassist Jessica Sacks and drummer Paul Shaw at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday, Robbie's will feature guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio with special guest Erika Johnson on vocals, performing in a fundraising event for St. Louis Business Resources.

On Sunday afternoon, Jazz St. Louis will present their first-ever "Family Concert," a performance by Metta Quintet at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The show, which costs just $5, is billed as "a fun, interactive introduction to jazz that illuminates the art form’s cultural origins, concepts about improvisation and creative self-expression and explores the role and responsibility of each individual member of the jazz ensemble and how they all must work together to serve and achieve the collective goal of making great music."

Also on Sunday afternoon, there's a jam session and performance at BB's to benefit bassist Raymond Eldridge, who has played with many local jazz artists over the years but recently has been ailing and in and out of the hospital. (Full disclosure: Yr. humble StLJN editor has played a few gigs with Eldridge, who's a good guy as well as a good bass player. Here's hoping for a healthy turnout at the benefit, and better health soon for Eldridge himself.)

On Monday, guitarist Steve Schenkel leads a group playing jazz interpretations of the music of former Beatle guitarist George Harrison in a concert at Webster University.

Also on Monday (and just a bit down the road in Webster Groves), the Genesis Jazz Project will be performing at Robbie's House of Jazz, while at almost the same time downtown, the Sessions Big Band will be at BB's.

On Tuesday morning, pianist Carolbeth True and singer Christi John Bye will perform in a "Coffee Concert" at the Sheldon, with the program repeating on Wednesday as well.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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: Stanley Jordan in concert, times two

It's shaping up to be a good week to be a jazz guitar fan in St. Louis. Tomorrow night, George Benson (who we covered in this space last week) will be in town to play at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, and then on Wednesday, Stanley Jordan comes to town for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro.

Jordan perhaps still is best known for his distinctive two-handed tapping technique, which lets him play lead and accompanying parts simultaneously on a standard six-string guitar. While he sometimes still does solo shows, his usual working group these days is a trio, often including drummer Kenwood Dennard and bassist Charnett Moffett; that's the format he'll be playing in for his Bistro gig.

Jordan has been to St. Louis at least a couple of times in the not-too-distant past, appearing at venues including the now-defunct Mississippi Nights and Finale Music and Dining, but this coming week will be his debut at the Jazz at the Bistro. Also of note is the fact that he's developed another unusual instrumental technique in recent years, sitting at the piano and playing it with one hand while also wearing a guitar and tapping it with the other hand.

Opinions may differ about the musical usefulness of this particular ability - to these ears, it's not so much that he's really doing anything that startling or different on either instrument, it's just that he's doing two! things!! at!!! once!!!! - but at the very least it's certainly an impressive and difficult-to-duplicate feat of coordination.

You can form your own opinions on that, though, because today, we've got ample audio-visual evidence for your consideration, in the form of two complete concert sets by Jordan totaling nearly two-and-a-half hours of playing time.

Up above is a video of a 2007 performance in Paris, with an hour and forty-five minutes worth of music from Jordan, Moffett and drummer David Haynes. Jordan does a some solo stuff, there's some fairly straight-ahead trio playing, and he also does the simultaneous guitar/piano bit, so overall it seems like a fairly representative sampling of the group's sonic palette.

For still more Jordan, check out the the second embedded video down below, which features him playing a 40-minute solo guitar set, recorded in 2010 at the Jarasum Jazz Festival in Korea. This performance features lots of his signature two-hand-tapping technique, and though the camera work is a little shaky, the view of Jordan's hands is pretty good most of the time, as is the audio quality.

Jazz this week: Nicholas Payton, Stanley Jordan, Kahil El'Zabar, Salty Dogs Jazz Band, and more

It's a busy weekend for jazz in St. Louis, with shows coming up from four touring ensembles in styles ranging from modern to traditional, plus plenty of activity from our local contingent of musicians. Let's go straight to the highlights:

Tonight, guitarist Stanley Jordan opens a four-night engagement that continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Jordan is no stranger to St. Louis audiences, having performed here in recent years at Finale Music and Dining, but if you'd like to see and hear some samples of his playing, check out the video post from last Saturday here.

On Thursday, saxophonist Willie Akins and his group will perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. That same evening, KWMU DJ and and jazz historian Dennis Owsley will begin his three-week class on "The Great Jazz Soloists" at the Ethical Society.

On Friday and Saturday, Chicago-based percussionist Kahil El'Zabar and his Ritual Trio return to take the stage Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, New Orleans-born trumpeter Nicholas Payton (pictured) performs at the Sheldon Concert Hall, with piano phenom Taylor Eigsti as part of his band. You can see some videos of Payton in action here, read an interview with him here, and find information on how to get tickets for the show at half-price here.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club welcomes the long-running Salty Dogs Jazz Band for a concert of traditional jazz at the Sheraton Westport Hotel. Then on Sunday evening, New Music Circle presents composer and producer Rob Voisey's 60 x 60 Project at Mad Art Gallery. The event will feature 60 one-minute performances from local dancers and choreographers set to 60 different pieces of music created by 60 different composers and curated by Voisey.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday morning the St. Louis Ragtimers will do the first of two "Coffee Concerts" at the Sheldon, with the program repeating on Wednesday morning. And on Tuesday night, Jazz St. Louis' CD Listening Club will meet at Borders in Brentwood, with singer Erin Bode and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford leading the discussion of the featured CD for the month, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.

For information on more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar, or by clicking here. Also, you can follow St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes and become a "fan" by signing up 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: Spotlight on Stanley Jordan

This week, our video spotlilght shines on guitarist Stanley Jordan, who will be in St. Louis to perform next Wednesday, November 4 through Saturday, November 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Jordan is known for his two-handed tapping technique, which he developed as a teenager in the 1970s and is used to produce simultaneous melody, chords and/or bass lines. He's played in St. Louis a number of times before, notably at Mississippi Nights and Finale Music and Dining, but this will be his debut at the Bistro.

These four clips show Jordan applying those impressive chops to a variety of material. Up above, you'll find his take on John Coltrane's "Cousin Mary," recorded in the early 1990s, as was the second video just below this text, a version of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby."

The other two clips are more recent, and a big rougher in terms of audio/video quality, but offer some interesting performances. The third clip was recorded in 2007 at the International Guitar Festival in Santo Tirso, Portugal, and shows Jordan improvising in sort of a Spanish guitar style. And in the fourth clip, dated 2008, Jordan plays around with what's identified as a theme from Mozart. (Can any of you astute StLJN readers identify the pieces in videos #3 and #4? If so, please share your info in the comments.)

For yr. humble editor, Jordan is a little bit like Art Tatum, or a fancy restaurant's elaborate, impossibly rich dessert that take many hours to prepare: The quality is undeniably high, and you can't help but admire the skill involved, but a small portion usually is enough to satisfy. Of course, your tastes may vary, and if you're one of those who can't get enough of Jordan, you've got eight sets to look forward to next week.

Stanley Jordan featured in latest Jazz St. Louis podcast

Hot on the metaphorical heels of their recent podcast featuring bassist Christian McBride, Jazz St. Louis is rolling out another installment in their ongoing series of audio interviews with jazz artists who are coming to St. Louis.

The newest podcast features a conversation between JSL's Gene Dobbs Bradford and guitarist Stanley Jordan, who will be in town next Wednesday, November 4 through Saturday, November 7 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro. You can download the podcast or listen to an audio stream here.

Jazz this week: Stanley Jordan, Frank Vignola's Gypsy Grass, Airmen of Note, and more

It's a good weekend in St. Louis for fans of jazz guitar, as two very fine players are doing multi-night stands here in the Gateway City.

Stanley Jordan (pictured) will show off his distinctive two-handed tapping style at Finale Music and Dining on Thursday and Friday nights. This is the third time Jordan has played Finale in the last couple of years. From what I understand, he's been been a good draw for them, and so I'd expect a good turnout for these shows as well.

While Jordan is known for a very particular style of playing and specifically for his solo work, fellow plectrist Frank Vignola has toured and recorded in a variety of contexts, from straight-ahead concepts like his recent all-Gershwin CD for St. Louis-based Mel Bay Records to the Frank and Joe Show, which incorporated everything from Sinatra covers to TV cartoon theme songs into a more entertainment-oriented presentation. Vignola has also worked quite a bit with "dawg music" mandolinist David Grisman, and some of that same bluegrass-meets-hot-jazz sensibility is evident in Vignola's own group Gypsy Grass, which will perform at Jazz at the Bistro Wednesday through Saturday.

UPDATE - 3:15 p.m., 10/18/07: I see that the Bistro's Web site has deleted previous references to the Gypsy Grass band and is now billing this week's engagement as the Frank Vignola Quintet; ditto the the Bistro's weekly promotion email. I have no specific information about why this particular change was made, but usually, this sort of billing revision means there's been a last-minute change by the artist due to specific musicians not being available, illness, or other circumstances beyond their control.

The Bistro's parent organization Jazz St. Louis is actually competing with itself one night this week, since they also are presenting the Airmen of Note in a free concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Wednesday night. This show is part of JSL's effort to reach out to local band directors and their students, and from what education director Phil Dunlap tells me, plenty of both will be in the audience to see the group billed as the U.S. Air Force's premiere jazz big band. If you're interested in attending but don't already have tickets, I'd suggest calling ahead.

Other noteworthy gigs this weekend: On Saturday, pianist Ptah Williams will be leading his trio at Cookie's Jazz and More, while big band aficionados can check out the Tommy Money Orchestra at Finale. Sunday evening offers a couple of free concerts - BAG is presenting drummer Gary Sykes doing a tribute to fellow drummers Phillip Wilson, Joe Charles and Sonny Hamp at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe, and guitarists Steve Schenkel and Dan Rubright will duet on jazz versions of sacred songs at Emmanual Episcopal Church in Webster Groves.

Beyond the weekend, the annual TKT Memorial Scholarship Concert, which benefits music scholaships for students at Webster University, takes place Monday night at Webster's Winifred Moore Auditorium. This year's event features singers Debby Lennon and Sherry Drake performing "Music from the Movies" with the Webster Faculty Jazz Ensemble. Last but not least, on Tuesday Jazz St. Louis and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will team up to present another free show, a triple bill headlined by bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding at Lucas School House.

For a more extensive listing of local jazz-related events, 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.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Stanley Jordan plays "Eleanor Rigby" plus the Airmen of Note's "No, I Don't Fly Planes"

Once again, this week's videos are devoted to previews of upcoming jazz performances in St. Louis. One clip features a big band, the other a guitarist who often manages to sound like an entire band all by himself.

The guitarist is Stanley Jordan, whose solo playing involves a two-handed tapping technique similar to, but developed independently of, the method used to play the Chapman Stick. Here, Jordan is doing his version of the Beatles' tune "Eleanor Rigby," and he'll be in St. Louis to perform at Finale Music and Dining on Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19.

The big band is the Airmen of Note, the official jazz band of the U.S. Air Force, who will be in town to do a free concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Wednesday, October 17. In this clip from a performance on August 29, 2007 at the Air Force Memorial in Washington DC, they're playing an original chart called "No, I Don't Fly Planes," a title that sounds like something that must have come from some band member's real-life experience.

Person, Jordan added to Finale fall schedule

Finale Music and Dining has announced its schedule for most of the remaining dates in 2007, and there are a number of shows of interest to jazz fans.

In addition to the previously announced return of singer and pianist Diane Schuur, the biggest news is that saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person and guitarist Stanley Jordan (pictured) both will be performing return engagements at the Clayton club this fall. Person and his band Meta-Four will play Finale on Saturday, October 13, with Jordan coming in the next week for a two-night stand on Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19.

Finale will also continue its practice of booking themed evenings of entertainment, with new entries including holiday shows featuring Debby Lennon (Saturday, December 15) and Anita Rosamond (Saturday, December 22) and a tribute to Chet Baker from the band Hard Bop Heritage (Thursday, December 27).

The club also announced return engagements for a number of other local and regional artists, including Rod Tate (Saturday, October 6); Tim Cunningham (Friday, October 12; Saturday, November 10; and Friday, December 7); the Tommy Money Orchestra (Saturday, October 20); Kim Massie (Saturday, October 27; Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 29); Dean Christopher's Rat Pack and More (Thursday, November 1 and Friday, December 14); Erin Bode (Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17); and the Sinatra Songbook (Friday, November 23).