Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Although David Sanborn has wrapped the "official" first season of his online video series "Sanborn Sessions," in recent weeks the saxophonist has added a couple of postscripts in the form of short "remote sessions" with keyboardist Cory Henry and singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke.
* Singer Mardra Thomas and her husband, pianist Reggie Thomas, both are part of the cast of "Day Dream," an online audio drama "inspired by the life of jazz artist and composer Billy Strayhorn." Reggie is handling the musical direction, while Mardra, appropriately, is playing the role of a jazz singer named Alice. Two of the eight planned episodes have been released so far, and can be heard at https://www.daydreamseries.com/.
* As reported by the Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill, The Monocle, the venue in the Grove neighborhood that sometimes featured cabaret and jazz performers as part of an eclectic entertainment policy, has closed permanently.
* In more venue news, according to a report from the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson, construction has begun on The Factory, a new concert club located at The District in Chesterfield, on the site of what was the Chesterfield Outlets mall. The facility, which will have a maximum capacity of 3,000 people, will present a variety of musical genres and is scheduled to open in May, 2021.
* Tomorrow will be the third and final "RSD Drops" day of 2020, replacing the annual Record Store Day celebration in April that was canceled due to the pandemic. For a list of participating stores in Missouri offering the special RSD releases, go here.
Summer definitely is sizzling in St. Louis this week, but if you're brave enough to venture out in the steamy weather, there are a number of noteworthy jazz and creative music shows happening this weekend, including several free concerts.
Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, July 12
Pianist Ptah Williams(pictured, top left) will perform in a free outdoor concert for the Missouri Botanical Garden's Whitaker Music Festival.
Also on Wednesday, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" proceeds as usual, featuring live jazz with no cover or admission charge at The Stage at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, Kranzberg Arts Center, Curtain Call Lounge and The Dark Room.
Well-grounded in the tradition thanks to jazz studies at East St. Louis HS (with noted educator Ronald Carter) and at SIU Edwardsville, and an early apprenticeship with the late Willie Akins, Johnson has a repertoire that ranges from Bird to the Beatles, and is one of the better scat singers among St. Louis female vocalists.
She often works in a duo format, but she'll have a full band at the Bistro, making these dates especially attractive for fans both old and new.
Saturday, July 15
The Jazz Troubadours will perform for brunch at Evangeline's, serving as the first half of a jazz double-bill there that also will feature an evening performance from the Joe Bozzi Band.
Sunday, July 16
Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran plays for brunch at The Dark Room.
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.)
While this weekend's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a number of noteworthy events, yr. StLJN editor's efforts remain hampered by my recent hand injury, which means today's post once again will be rather short and to the point.
Friday, September 16
Grand Center will present the final installment of this year's "Music at the Intersection" series, featuring local jazz and blues acts performing in various venues located near the intersection of Grand and Washington. The Funky Butt Brass Band gets thing started with a happy-hour set at Strauss Park, with more music from Montez Coleman, Anita Jackson, Bob DeBoo Trio, Miss Jubilee, Cafe Danza with Farshid Etniko, Jesse Gannon and the Dark Room All-Stars at venues including Jazz at the Bistro, Kranzberg Arts Center, Lucha, Curtain Call Lounge, Vito's, and The Dark Room.
Saturday, September 17
The Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival will feature nearly 12 hours of music on two outdoor stages in the Old Webster Business District, centered at the intersection of Lockwood & Gore.
This year's lineup for the free, "family friendly" event leans heavily toward the jazz side, with "Old Webster’s Got Talent" contest winner Liberation Organ Trio kicking things off at mid-day, followed by sets from Scott A.F.B's Shades Of Blue, Anita Rosamond, the Webster University Jazz Ensemble's “Tribute To Verve Records,” Bach To The Future, Hipjaz Quintet, Matthew Von Doran Trio, the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band, Feyza Eren, Alan Oxenhandler, and Tracer, plus the Green McDonough Band and guitarist and singer Marquise Knox leading a "Blues Revue".
Also on Saturday, Chicago-based singer Tammy McCann(pictured, bottom left) is back with a show called "Ella Loves Gershwin" at The Emerald Room at The Monocle; jazz/fusion band Koplant No will make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro; and new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound will present a full staging of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's "The Hunger" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.
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.)
This week, it's part one of StLJN's Fall 2016 jazz preview, in which we present videos featuring various touring jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the next several months.
Going in chronological order, the first clip showcases Chicago-based singer Tammy McCann, who will be presenting her cabaret show "Ella Loves Gershwin" on Saturday, September 15 at The Emerald Room at The Monocle under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan. McCann can be seen in the first video up above, which shows an excerpt from a set she did at Birdland in NYC in January of this year.
After the jump, you can see a video of organist Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Evolution, who will be in town from Wednesday, September 21 through Saturday, September 24 to kick off the fall season at Jazz at the Bistro.
Named after Smith's most recent album, which features a horn section and second drummer added to the organist's usual trio, Evolution is seen here playing "Straight No Chaser" in October 2015 at BRIC JazzFest in Brooklyn. (Alas, the touring version of the band is a five-piece that only includes one drummer, so St. Louis audiences won't get a chance to hear the sort of interplay between the percussionists that's featured here.)
Right after Smith concludes his run at the Bistro, guitarist Pat Metheny will return to St. Louis with a brand new quartet featuring drummer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Linda Oh, and pianist Gwilym Simcock for a performance on Sunday, September 25 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Metheny is seen here with his Unity Group (Sanchez, bassist Ben Williams and saxophonist Chris Potter) performing the song "Kin" in 2014 at the the Five Angels Theater in New York.
Next up is pianist Bill Charlap, who will perform with his trio on Wednesday, September 28 and Thursday, September 29 at Jazz at the Bistro. The third clip after the jump shows Charlap's entire set from the 2015 Jazz San Javier festival in Spain.
That same week, the Bistro features one of their major "gets" of the season, as singer Al Jarreau checks in for two evenings of intimate duo performances on Friday, September 30 and Saturday, October 1. In today's video, you can see Jarreau singing "Take Five" with an all-star band at the 2016 International Jazz Day concert, held in April at the White House in Washington DC.
That particular weekend is shaping up to be a busy one, as percussionist Jason Marsalis' Vibes Quintet also will be performing here on Saturday, October 1 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Marsalis, who recently moved from his native New Orleans to France, is seen here playing "Offbeat Personality" in 2015 at the Blue Note in Milano, Italy.
And as if those two shows weren't enough for one evening, New Music Circle also will begin their season on Saturday, October 1 with a concert featuring duo performances by pianists Craig Taborn and Kris Davis at the 560 Music Center.
Since the Taborn/Davis tour hasn't even started yet, there's no video of the two of them playing together. So instead, in the next two clips you can see Taborn with his trio in 2015, playing "All True Night" and "Future Perfect" at the Salle Poirel in Nancy, France; and Davis and her trio playing in January 2015 at Klaviersalon MERTA in Linz, Austria.
Today's penultimate video features drummer, singer and songwriter Jamison Ross, who will be making his St. Louis debut as a leader with shows from Wednesday, October 5 through Saturday, October 8 at Jazz at the Bistro. The clip features Ross and his band performing "These Things You Are to Me" in February of this year at the studios of KPLU in Tacoma, WA.
The final video features guitarist Dweezil Zappa, who will return with his band to perform on Thursday, October 13 at The Ready Room. Though currently fighting a legal battle with his family over the rights to perform his father Frank Zappa's music, Dweezil is using the current tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of FZ's debut album Freak Out. You can hear what that sounds like in the video, an entire show show as shot by an audience member on July 8, 2016 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Part two of the Fall 2016 jazz preview will appear next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
It's mid-summer in St. Louis, and though as usual for this time year, it's mostly another slow week with regard to touring musicians visiting St. Louis, the fine pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal (pictured) will be in town for a benefit show on Sunday.
And of course, St. Louis' hometown musicians keep on keepin' on no matter what, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening around town over the next few days.
Thursday, July 28
Singer Erin Bode will perform in a free outdoor concert at Kirkwood Station Plaza in downtown Kirkwood, and bassist Glen Smith will lead a trio in a concert at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center at Washington University, wrapping up this year's free "Jazz in July" concerts from Wash U's Jazz at Holmes series.
Also on Thursday, singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran and his Guerrilla Strings will be recording in public view at the Gaslight Lounge; and this month's edition of the Bruxism experimental music series, with Blank Thomas, Alberto Patino, Schievvf, will be presented at the Schlafly Tap Room.
Sunday, July 31
The Community Women Against Hardship will present their annual jazz benefit concert at the Ferring Jazz Bistro, this year featuring pianist and singer Johnny O'Neal.
The Detroit native, now based in NYC after many years living in Alabama, has been compared to Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. Now 59 years old, O'Neal worked early in his career with Clark Terry and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but geography, bad health, and bad luck mostly kept him from gaining wider recognition until this decade, when he re-established his presence on the NYC scene with weekly gigs in Manhattan.
For this show, O'Neal will be accompanied by a contingent of St. Louisans including singer Anita Jackson, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Jerome “Scrooge” Harris.
Monday, August 1
Singer and impresisonist Dean Christopher will present his "Rat Pack & More" show at One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar.
Tuesday, August 2
The Jazz Troubadours, featuring vibraphonist Tom Rickard, bassist Guy Cantonwine, and drummer Steve Helfand, have begun a weekly Tuesday late-night gig and jam session at Evangeline's, continuing until further notice.
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.)
