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)

Garage A Trois to perform Friday, September 30 at 2720 Cherokee

Jazz/rock/funk group Garage A Trois (pictured) is returning to St. Louis for a performance at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, September 30 at 2720 Cherokee.

The group was last seen in St. Louis in September 2010 at the Old Rock House. Garage A Trois was formed in 1999 by drummer Stanton Moore, single-named saxophonist Skerik (nee Eric Walton) and guitarist Charlie Hunter. The band's current lineup includes Moore, Skerik, Mike Dillon on vibes and Marco Benevento on keyboards.

For this visit, they have a brand new album, titled Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil, which was recorded at Studio In The Country in Bogalusa, LA with the assistance of engineer/producer Randall Dunn and released in April in CD, vinyl LP and MP3 formats.

You can listen to some music samples from Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil on Garage A Trois' MySpace page. (Also, you can see some older video of Garage A Trois in performance in this StLJN Saturday Video Showcase post from last August.)

Although the show is listed on 2720 Cherokee's website, there's no price information or on-sale date yet. As soon as that information is released, we'll add it here.

Galactic returning to The Pageant on Thursday, March 17

The New Orleans funk/jazz/hip-hop band Galactic (pictured) is coming back to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, March 17 at The Pageant. Percussionist and singer Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and trombonist Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band will be featured as special guests.

Galactic was in St. Louis most recently in February 2010, playing The Pageant on a double bill with saxophonist Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. Drummer Stanton Moore has made a couple more trips to St. Louis this fall, performing at the Old Rock House with Garage A Trois and with his own trio at 2320 Cherokee.

Tickets for the all-ages show are $20 for general admission, with a $2 surcharge at the door for minors, and go on sale at 5:00 p.m. today, Friday, November 5 via the Pageant box office and Ticketmaster.

Jazz this week: Glenn Miller Orchestra, Stanton Moore Trio, Funky Butt Brass Band, Eric Mandat, and more

This week's schedule of jazz, creative music and related genres in St. Louis offers a grab bag of different styles, from traditional jazz, big band swing, and smooth jazz to cabaret, New Orleans-style brass band music, and jam-band funk. Let's go straight to the highlights...

Cabaret producers The Presenters Dolan return to action this weekend at the Kranzberg Arts Center, with pianist Joe Dreyer and singer Rosemary Watts doing their show "Everything Old Is New Again" on Thursday and Friday, and Barbara Parker Helmer singing about "Me and Miss Peggy Lee" for Saturday evening and Sunday matinee performances.

Elsewhere in the Grand Center neighborhood, the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured) will perform on Friday and Saturday to Jazz at the Bistro. Word is that they'll be premiering some new material at these gigs, but details are scarce beyond that. To see and hear video samples of some past FBBB performances, check out this post.

Meanwhile, over in Webster Groves, Robbie's House of Jazz will present guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio on Friday, and singer, pianist and saxophonist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum on Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, clarinet player Eric Mandat, an expert in extended techniques who specializes on contemporary repertoire, will present a free recital and master class at Saxquest. For more about Mandat and other upcoming master classes at Saxquest, see this post.

Also on Saturday, the Glenn Miller Orchestra will do matinee and evening performances of their familiar Swing Era classics at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, and the Stanton Moore Trio brings their instrumental funk to 2720 Cherokee. For some video of Moore and the trio in action, see this post.

Sunday is a busy day too, as the St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Pat Joyce in a concert of traditional jazz and swing at the Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center in Chesterfield; saxophonists Michael Anthony Fitzgerald and Readus Miller, keyboardist Jeremiah Allen and singer Anita Jackson team up for a "Jazz Cabaret on Broadway" at the Starlight Room; and the SIUE Friends of Music will host a Mississippi River cruise raising money for music scholarships for students in the SIUE jazz program.

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: The Stanton Moore Trio's "Groove Alchemy"

The subjects of our video scrutiny this week are the Stanton Moore Trio, who will be in St. Louis next Saturday, October 2 to play at 2720 Cherokee. Underpinned by Moore's hopped-up New Orleans-style grooves, the trio seems to draw considerable inspiration from NOLA's funk standard-bearers The Meters as well as from the 20th century tradition of jazz organ trios generally.

You can definitely hear those influences at work in the first video up above, a performance of "Pie-Eyed Manc" from Moore's most recent album Groove Alchemy, taped in May of this year at The Independent in San Francisco. Down below, you can see Moore, guitarist Will Bernard and organist Robert Walter performing "Pot Licker" and "Neeps and Tattles," two more songs from the Groove Alchemy CD, live in the studio at KEXP radio in Seattle.

For this tour, Moore, Bernard and Walter are being joined by singer/guitarist Anders Osborne, whose most recent CD American Patchwork was produced by Moore. In the fourth video window, you can see and hear them at the same San Francisco show performing Osborne's tune "Echoes of My Sins," which has more of a rock/Americana sound to it.

Stanton Moore Trio to play Saturday, October 2 at 2720 Cherokee

Drummer Stanton Moore, who was just in St. Louis with Garage A Trois last week to play at the Old Rock House, will return with his own eponymous trio to perform on Saturday, October 2 at 2720 Cherokee.

The New Orleans-based Moore (pictured) divides his time among Garage A Trois, the funk band Galactic, and the trio, which usually includes guitarist Will Bernard and organ player Robert Walter. For this show and the rest of their fall dates, they'll will be joined by guitarist and singer Anders Osborne, whose presence suggests a bluesier musical direction, and for whom Moore recently produced a CD, American Patchwork, on the Alligator label.

Showtime is 8:00 p.m.. Tickets for the Stanton Moore Trio at 2720 Cherokee are $15, with a $3 surcharge for minors, and are on sale now from show promoters Loyal Family.

Garage A Trois to play Tuesday, September 14 at the Old Rock House

The jazz/funk combo Garage A Trois (pictured) is coming to St. Louis on Tuesday, September 14 to perform at the Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St.

Garage A Trois was formed in 1999 by drummer Stanton Moore, single-named saxophonist Skerik (nee Eric Walton) and guitarist Charlie Hunter. The band's current lineup includes Moore and Skerik along with Mike Dillon on vibes and Marco Benevento on keyboards. Their most recent CD Power Patriot came out in October 2009.

For their performance at the Old Rock House, the doors open at 8:00 p.m., and show time is 9:00 p.m. It's an "all ages" show, and tickets are $15 general admission, plus a $2 surcharge for minors.

Notes from the Net: Russell Gunn's latest CD; awards for Clark Terry & David Sanborn; plus news, reviews, interviews and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Starting, as we usually do, with the most famous jazz musician ever to come from the St. Louis area, Miles Davis Online has news of a jazz festival named after Davis that takes place this week at the University of North Carolina - Greenville. The university also named its jazz studies program after the trumpeter and owns the horn Davis used on Kind of Blue.

Meanwhile, the "Night Lights" program on Indiana public radio station WFIU recently devoted a broadcast to “The Birth of the Cool Songbook,” featuring recordings by other artists of the music used for Davis' historic Birth of the Cool album. The program features tracks from Charlie Parker, Claude Thornhill, Bud Powell, Red Norvo, Bill Evans, Mark Murphy, Ahmad Jamal, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Gerry Mulligan and others. Read more and access the archived audio stream here

For more Miles, check out AOL Radio's list of their top 10 Miles Davis songs, and this review of Gerry Gibbs and the Electric Thrasher Orchestra's new CD Play the Music of Miles Davis 1967-1975, written for AllAboutJazz.com by "Pico."

* Via Plastic Sax, Kansas City's American Jazz Museum later this month will pay tribute to the legacy of Duke Ellington while honoring Ellington alumni and St. Louis native Clark Terry and KC's Ahmad Alaadeen. Events will include panel discussions on Thursday, April 29 (the 111th anniversary of Ellington’s birth) and Friday, April 30; an open rehearsal of the Ellington Alumni All-Stars; and a concert featuring Terry, Alaadeen, the Ellington All-Star Big Band and several student ensembles from the KC area.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn will receive the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards ceremony Friday, April 23 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Sanborn also will be one of the headliners this June at the seventh annual West Oak Lane Jazz Festival in Philadelphia.

* After being pushed back a couple of weeks, trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn's new CD Ethnomusicology Vol. 6: Return of Gunn Fu is scheduled to be released this Friday, April 16. Gunn (pictured) will be in St. Louis to perform on Sunday at the Sheldon Concert Hall as a guest artist with Ronald Carter and the NIU Jazz Ensemble.

* Here's another review of The Wee Trio's new CD Capitol Diner #2, written by J. Parker for AllAboutJazz.com. Former St. Louisan Dan Loomis plays bass for the Wee Trio.

* Opening the "coming attractions" file, here's a review of guitarist John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension's new CD To The One, written by John Kelman for AllAboutJazz.com. McLaughlin and 4D will perform at the Sheldon on November 19.

* Via Doug Ramsey's Rifftides, the 2010 Brubeck Festival happened last weekend at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and Paul Conley of Capitol Public Radio in Sacramento interviewed Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola about the history of the institute. To hear the conversation, go here and click on "Listen." Brubeck is scheduled to return to St. Louis on October 17 to perform at the Sheldon.

* Guitarist Pat Metheny continues to tour with his Orchestrion project and is getting plenty of press coverage. Here's an interview he did with writer Philip Booth for the St. Petersburg Times (the link is to an extended version on Booth's blog) and another feature story about Metheny from Jordan Levin of the Miami Herald. Also, Metheny and speaker company Martin Logan are offering fans a chance to win a pair of Purity loudspeakers and an IPod filled with a collection of Metheny’s most popular tracks. The giveaway continues through April 30; for more information, go here. Metheny will be in St. Louis on May 8 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, who played here in St. Louis in February at The Pageant, has a new CD, DVD and instructional book on New Orleans-style grooves. Moore talked about the project with the Huffington Post's Sal Nunziato here, and also recently did a podcast interview with The Jazz Session, which you can access here.

* Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who played at the Touhill in February, has written the score for the first Broadway revival of Fences, the 1987 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play by August Wilson. The production stars Denzel Washington and opens later this month at the Cort Theatre in New York.

* Pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who performed at the Sheldon last Saturday, will headline the Billy Taylor Jazz Festival next weekend in Greenville, NC.

* Dave Samuels of the Caribbean Jazz Project, who played in St. Louis last month at Jazz at the Bistro, was interviewed by the local paper before a concert in his hometown of Fairfield, CT.

* Pianist and singer Jamie Cullum, who played here last month at the Roberts Orpheum Theatre, now is touring on the other side of the world, with recent stops (and accompanying interviews) in Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

* Lastly, the eclectic multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore, who played a couple of St. Louis shows last year, now has several albums online as free downloads via the Free Music Archive. Read more about it here, and see listings of the available tracks here.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Stanton Moore Trio plus Jeff Coffin

This week's videos feature a couple of musicians who will be performing in St. Louis at Lucas School House in the next couple of months. Up top, there's a clip of the Stanton Moore Trio, featuring Moore on drums along with guitarist Will Bernard and keyboardist Wil Blades. It was recorded in May of this year at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and shows the band playing a new tune called "5-7-1," which is taken from Moore's forthcoming CD with Bernard and keyboardist John Medeski. The Stanton Moore Trio will be in St. Louis on Wednesday, September 3.

The video down below depicts a mostly unaccompanied solo from saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who comes to town on Thursday, August 21. It's from a performance at Beavercreek High School in Ohio, and shows Coffin going pretty far outside to deploy some extended techniques, followed by a demonstration of his prowess at playing two saxophones at once. Coffin does a lot of school performances and clinics for young musicians, and assuming this clip is any indication of what he's teaching, it's good to see someone exposing the youth of America to some good old-fashioned free-jazz skronk.

Stanton Moore Trio, Chicago Afrobeat Project to perform in September at Lucas School House

Lucas School House has scheduled two shows in September that may be of interest of St. Louis area jazz fans. Drummer Stanton Moore (pictured), best known as a founding member of the New Orleans funk/jam band Galactic, will bring his Trio to the venue for a concert on Wednesday, September 3, followed by the Chicago Afrobeat Project on Saturday, September 6.

Moore's recent trio CD Emphasis (on parenthesis), which features guitarist Will Bernard and keyboard player Robert Walter, has received good notices from the New York Times, AllAboutJazz.com, JazzReview.com and other media outlets. Moore has done a number of tour dates with the Trio this year in between gigs with Galactic, and the St. Louis show comes at the end of a string of dates for the group, so they should be well in the groove by the time they get to the Gateway City.

The Chicago Afrobeat Project is a nine-piece band that "keeps true to the mix of respect to the tradition and forward-thinking experimentation," incorporating influences from funk, rock, jazz, afro-cuban, highlife and juju music. Group members include Graham Czach (bass), Kevin Ford (keyboards), Angelo Garcia (tenor sax), David Glines (guitar), Marshall Greenhouse (drum set), Garrick Smith (baritone sax), Mark Thomson (trombone) and Danjuma Gaskin (percussion). You can see and hear a sample of their work in the embedded video window below, which has a rough-but-watchable clip of them performing Fela Kuti's "Palmwine Sound," recorded just a couple of weeks ago on June 25 at a show in Boise, Idaho.