So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Following last week's launch of "Dianne Reeves: Define Your Voice," a new online video course from singer Dianne Reeves, pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio Network has announced another new course coming soon, "Fundamentals of Jazz Saxophone," as taught by alto saxophonist Steve Wilson.

(Thanks to OSN manager Dan Martin, StLJN readers can get a 10% discount on these two courses or any of OSN's other offerings by using the promo code STLJAZZ.)

The company this week also announced that Peter Martin will present a free online masterclass/webinar for beginning jazz pianists at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, July 12. For more information or to sign up, go here.

* Keyboardist David Garfield, who grew up on the east side and currently serves as touring keyboardist and music director for George Benson, will release his latest album Jammin’ Outside the Box on Friday, July 20 on his own Creatchy Records label.

The album (pictured) features Garfield's arrangements of songs by Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Adele, Sting, Aretha Franklin, Toto, Isley Brothers, Rufus, Minnie Riperton, Bobby Caldwell and Joe Sample, performed by an all-star cast that includes Benson, David Sanborn, Smokey Robinson, Michael McDonald, Ray Parker Jr., Kirk Whalum, Rick Braun, Marcus Miller, Paul Jackson Jr., Eric Marienthal, Tom Scott, Vinnie Colaiuta, Greg Phillinganes, Steve Jordan, and more, plus members of the Zac Brown Band, Steely Dan, Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Chicago, Toto and Tower of Power.

* The results of DownBeat magazine's annual Critics Poll are out, and among the winners this year is Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 in the "Historical Album" category. You can see all the poll results here.

* On a related note, the 83rd edition of DownBeat's Readers Poll is open now for online voting, and you can cast your ballot here.

* Singer and bassist/guitarist Tonina Saputo was profiled by KDHX's Allison Woodworth.

* A story from St. Louis Public Radio highlights four branches of St. Louis County Library that now are offering musical instruments for checkout by library patrons. Currently, there are more than 20 instruments available, including ukuleles, acoustic guitars, banjos and bongos, with plans to add more.

* Also from St. Louis Public Radio, teenage keyboardist Owen Ragland is the guest on the latest episode of the station's "Cut & Paste" podcast.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A few minutes with Billy Childs

This week, let's spend a few minutes with some videos of pianist Billy Childs, who will be in St. Louis next week to play Wednesday, October 3 through Saturday, October 6 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although the gig is billed as the Billy Childs Quartet, the group - which includes alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade - is positioned as more of a cooperative effort than a typical leader/sidemen scenario. And though they've worked together before on a very limited basis, playing in Los Angeles and at the Blue Note in Tokyo back in March, there seems to be no online video footage of them playing together.

So instead, we're focusing on the nominal leader, who may be a bit under the radar of many music fans despite his numerous accomplishments. Childs, 55, grew up in Los Angeles and studied music at USC. He worked briefly with trombonist J. J. Johnson while still in college, then joined Freddie Hubbard's band from 1978 to 1984.

Since then, in addition to leading his own bands, Childs has performed and/or recorded with Dianne Reeves, Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Daniels, Bobby Hutcherson, Branford Marsalis, Joe Locke, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Harrison, and others. In recent years, he's also worked regularly with Chris Botti, playing in St. Louis with the trumpeter several times.

Drawing on his background in classical music, Childs has written arrangements for Botti, Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Gladys Knight, Michael Bublé, David Foster, Phil Ramone, Claudia Acuña, and others. He's also penned many commissioned pieces for a variety of ensembles, ranging from string quartet to full orchestra, and in 2009 received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

In 2000 Childs arranged, orchestrated and conducted Dianne Reeves' album The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, which won a 2002 Grammy award for "best jazz vocal CD." Childs also has won three Grammy Awards on his own, in 2006 (for "best instrumental composition" and "best arrangement accompanying a vocalist") and again in 2011 for "best instrumental composition."

He made his first album as a leader for Windham Hill Jazz in 1988 and since has recorded for several labels, including GRP, Shanachie and Metropolitan. Childs' most recent recordings for ArtistShare, Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010), combine jazz and classical elements.

Today's first clip up above, recorded late last year at Duc des Lombards in Paris, conveys some of the flavor of those two recent records, as Childs leads a sextet that include Blade on drums as well as Tim Garland (saxophones), Carol Robbins (harp), Larry Koonse (guitar) and Hamilton Price (bass).

Down below, you can see Childs with Price and drummer Gerry Gibbs, showing off some keyboard pyrotechnics on Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" in a clip recorded in 2007 at Steamers Jazz Cafe in Fullerton, CA. Below that, there's a video interview with Childs in four parts, recorded in 2009 for a Detroit-based program called eFactor.

For more about Billy Childs, check out his episode of NPR's "Piano Jazz", recorded in 2006.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on the Blue Note 7

We've super-sized this week's video post to bring you a preview of the Blue Note 7, who will be in St. Louis next Sunday, February 22 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall under the combined auspices of Jazz St. Louis and the Sheldon.

Because the band is an all-star group assembled specifically for a tribute album and 50-city tour commemorating the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, there's no video available online of them all playing together. However, someone did make a short clip to promote the album and tour, and you can see that in the embedded video window up above.

Down below, we've got videos of the various Blue Note 7 members in action, with the exception of tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who previously was the subject of a video post here when he brought his quartet to Jazz at the Bistro last year. You can check out that post for some samples of Coltrane's playing; below, you'll find the other members of the Blue Note 7 in this order:

* Trumpeter Nicholas Payton playing Milt Jackson's bebop standard "Bags' Groove."
* Guitarist Peter Bernstein playing a tune called "Bobblehead" at the NYC club Smoke.
* Alto saxophonist Steve Wilson doing a version of "But Not For Me," apparently with some substitute chord changes, during a show at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, MN.
* Pianist Bill Charlap and bassist Peter Washington playing "In The Still Of The Night" in a clip recorded at the Village Vanguard. (That's Kenny Washington, no relation to Peter, on drums.)
* Drummer Lewis Nash, as part of saxophonist Joe Lovano's quartet with bassist George Mraz and the legendary pianist Hank Jones, playing Lovano's "Bird's Eye View" at the Jazz Baltica festival.

The band's repertoire for the tour includes new arrangements of music associated with a number of jazz greats who recorded for Blue Note over the years, including Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson and others. The Blue Note 7 have been on the road since the first week of January, so they should definitely have their arrangements together and be firing on all cylinders when they get to St. Louis next week.