Jazz this week: Kenny Barron, Tyondai Braxton, Thurman Barker, an all-star band with Cohen, Wilson, Hill & Oh, and more

It's a terrifically busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of interesting musicians visiting town over the next few days. So let's skip the rest of the preamble and go straight to the highlights...

Wednesday, April 6
Pianist Kenny Barron returns to St. Louis for the first of two evenings with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro.

Officially designated as an NEA "Jazz Master," the 72-year-old Barron is a stylistically versatile pianist, albeit with a notable affinity for the music of Thelonious Monk, who possesses touch, technique, tone, and taste in abundance, and deploys them in a consistently satisfying fashion. For some samples of his playing, check out the video post that preceded his appearance last year at the Bistro.

Thursday, April 7
Percussionist Thurman Barker, a founding member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians who's played with some of the most significant figures of the past half-century of improvised music, will headline a ticketed concert ($10 GA, $5 students) for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Barker (pictured, top left) will be joined by saxophonist Joel Vanderheyden, trombonist Wayne Coniglio, and bassist Paul Steinbeck, who teaches at Wash U. He'll also perform in a separate event at Wash U on Friday (see below). For more about Barker, and some video samples of him performing in several different musical context, see this video post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Most weeks, Barker's performance would a shoo-in must-see for local fans of adventurous music, but that's complicated in this particular instance by the appearance of composer Tyondai Braxton in St. Louis on the same night for a solo performance at The Luminary.

Braxton, the son of famed composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton, has made a variety of music in his career, ranging from experimental rock with the group Battles to compositions for full orchestra to sound installations in museums. While it's not clear from the advance promotion exactly what's involved in one of his solo performances, based on his recent work and reputation, it should be worth hearing.

Elsewhere around town on Thursday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with St. Louis' own Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts performing "Nuance and Novelty" at the Gaslight Theater; singer Ralph Williams begins a monthly residency at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and The Gaslight Squares will play traditional jazz at Thaxton Speakeasy

Friday, April 8
This week, Jazz St. Louis has brought several well-known musicians to town for educational residencies, and to wrap up their stay, clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, drummer Matt Wilson, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Linda Oh will take the stage at Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of performances.

While an ad hoc ensemble like this one obviously doesn't have an established songbook to tap, Cohen (pictured, center left) and Wilson have both led their own bands at the Bistro before, offering ample energy and showmanship in the process, while Hill and Oh are regarded as two of the top up-and-coming players in jazz on their respective instruments. So, with a little help from Jazz St. Louis' own Phil Dunlap on piano, a good time should be had by all.

Meanwhile, over at Washington University, Thurman Barker, Joel Vanderheyden & Paul Steinbeck will improvise live music to silent films for "Sonic Visions: Experimental Film + Live Jazz", a free event presented in Brown Hall's Auditorium (aka Room 100) on the Wash U campus.

Also on Friday, jazz/fusion band Dreaming In Colour performs at the Kranzberg Arts Center; The Sidemen will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer, songwriter and pianist Steven Lutvak offers "A Gentleman's Guide to A Gentleman's Guide" for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater.

Saturday, April 9
The Bloomington, Indiana-based Liberation Music Collective (pictured, lower left) will be in town for two events at the Center for Social Empowerment and Justice, located at Wellspring Church, 33 S. Florissant Rd.

LMC is a self-described "socially conscious big band" featuring students and alumni of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Following "in the footsteps of Charlie Haden, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and many others, " the group is "dedicated to performing original compositions about contemporary social issues." They'll host an afternoon workshop for young musicians (middle school to college age), with a  "Jazz for Justice" concert that evening.Both events are free, with donations accepted.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Rahsaan Barber will be in town to present an afternoon performance and workshop at Saxquest, and The Wire Pilots will serve up their original jazz fusion that evening at the gallery and event space 1900 Park.

Sunday, April 10
If you're in the mood for some Gypsy jazz and swing this weekend, Sunday would seem to be the pick day and the Central West End the place, as Franglais are playing for the jazz brunch at Evangeline's, and Coco Rico will be doing an early evening performance at Nathalie's.

Monday, April 11
The Webster University Jazz Collective will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus

Tuesday, April 12
The Saxquest Nonet Jazz Orchestra will return for an early evening performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Thurman Barker

Today, let's look at some videos of drummer, percussionist, and composer Thurman Barker, who's coming to St. Louis to play two events in early April at Washington University. He'll perform first in a ticketed concert for the Jazz at Holmes series on Thursday, April 7, followed the next evening by a free event, improvising to silent films on Friday, April 8 at Wash U's Brown Hall.

Barker is a 68-year-old Chicago native whose involvement in creative music dates back to the mid-1960s, when he was a teenaged charter member of his hometown's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Over the years, he has collaborated with most of the major musicians associated with the AACM, as well as with pianist Cecil Taylor, saxophonists Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton, and many other notables of adventurous improvised music.

As his career progressed, Barker began to spend more time involved in composing and education, and since 1993, he's been an associate professor at Bard College in upstate New York.

Given that his two St. Louis performances will be mostly improvised music, there's really no way to "preview" them, so instead here's a selection of videos showing Barker playing in a variety of musical contexts, presented in reverse chronological order.

The first video up above captures a Barker drum solo, recorded in October 2015 during a concert at Bard College. Following the jump, you can see another solo improvisation, recorded in January 2013 at a benefit for percussionist Warren Smith at the Brecht Forum in NYC.

After that, there are three videos of Barker leading different ensembles. The first features his quartet with Alex Hood (trumpet), Michael Foster (tenor sax, baritone sax), and Eric Silberberg (bass), and was recorded in April 2013 at a concert for the Evolving Music Series at the NYC venue Arts for Art.

The next clip is of Barker's group Time Factor, with pianist Rob Schwimmer, bassist Jerome Harris, and guitarist James Emery, and was made in October 2012 in NYC. That's followed by a performance by the drummer's Organ Trio, with tenor saxophonist Patience Higgins and organist Lonnie Gasperini, recorded in September, 2006 in NYC.

The final clip is an excerpt from a performance Barker did with Cecil Taylor in 1995 in Frankfurt, Germany.

For more about Thurman Barker, check out this 1985 interview done originally for NYC radio station WKCR; a brief interview from 2008 on the website Tokafi.com; and this 2012 conversation with New York City Jazz Record.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

April gets adventurous with concerts by Fred Lonberg-Holm & Frode Gjerstad, Tyondai Braxton, and Thurman Barker

Three shows recently added to the St. Louis concert calendar mean the first full week of April could be a busy one for local fans of adventurous jazz and creative music:

* Chicago-based cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad (pictured, top left) will team up for a concert of improvised music at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 5 at Jackson Pianos, 4354 Olive St.

Lonberg-Holm is an active participant in Chicago's busy free-improv and jazz scenes, and has collaborated there and around the globe with musicians including Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Chris Corsano, Lotte Anker, Mats Gustafsson, Glenn Kotche, Jim O'Rourke, Jeff Parker, Michael Zerang, and many more. He's also contributed to recording projects by rock groups such as Califone, Freakwater, God-is-my-co-pilot, L'altra, Smog, Super, US Maple, Wilco, and others.

Gjerstad, who concentrates on alto sax but also plays clarinet and flute, has contributed to more than 50 recordings since beginning his career in the 1970s. He too has played with Peter Brötzmann, and also has performed with many other well-known improvising musicians, such as William Parker, Borah Bergman, Derek Bailey, and Evan Parker.

Admission to the Fred Lonberg-Holm/Frode Gjerstad performance will be "$10-$15 suggested" at the door, a price that includes "free beer/wine/food."

* Composer Tyondai Braxton will perform at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, April 7 at The Luminary.

Braxton, former front man for the experimental rock band Battles and the son of famed saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, has created a wide variety of music during his career, ranging from a recent duo collaboration with Phillip Glass to symphonic works such as his album Central Market, which has been performed live by orchestras including the London Sinfonietta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

His multimedia installation "HIVE" recently premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, with an accompanying soundtrack set for release next month on Nonesuch Records.

Braxton (pictured, center left) will perform solo at The Luminary, with St. Louis' Hylidae as opening act. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 day of show.

* Another well-known, Chicago-based improviser, drummer Thurman Barker, already was scheduled to be in St. Louis that same week to perform on Thursday, April 7 for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series.

Now, Wash U has announced another performance by Barker (pictured, bottom left), a free event at 7:00 p.m. Friday, April 8 in the auditorium (aka Room 100) of Brown Hall, which for many years has been a site for film screenings on campus.

"Sonic Visions: Experimental Film + Live Jazz" will feature Barker, saxophonist Joel Vanderheyden, and bassist and Wash U faculty member Paul Steinbeck creating improvised scores for silent films by Stan Brakhage, Tomonari Nishikawa, and Walter Ruttmann.

Jazz at Holmes series announces winter/spring 2016 concert schedule

The Jazz at Holmes series of concerts at Washington University has announced their schedule for the winter/spring semester of 2016.

The ten concerts will include three performances featuring visiting musicians, perhaps most notably drummer Thurman Barker, a longtime member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and veteran of the 1960s free jazz scene, who will bring a trio to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, April 7.

A professor at Bard College in New York since 1993, Barker (pictured) spends most of his time these days teaching and composing, but his extensive resume includes past performances and recordings with many important free jazz musicians, including Joseph Jarman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Pheeroan akLaff, Anthony Braxton, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Sam Rivers, and others.

The Jazz at Holmes schedule also including return dates for bassist Gary Peacock and pianist Marc Copland, who did an off-campus concert sponsored by the series in 2013 at 560 Music Center; and for German-born, Zurich-based saxophonist Nicole Johänntgen, who played a Jazz at Holmes show back in 2010.

Here's the complete schedule for the semester:

Thursday, February 4: Ken Kehner, Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris
Thursday, February 11: STL Free Jazz Collective
Thursday, February 18: Paul DeMarinis Group
Thursday, February 25: Jay Oliver, William Lenihan, and Steve Davis

Thursday, March 3: Gary Peacock, Marc Copland, and Mark Ferber
Thursday, March 10: Mosaic Whispers & Java Jived
Thursday, March 24: Montez Coleman Quartet

Thursday, April 7: Thurman Barker Trio
Thursday, April 14: Nicole Johänntgen with William Lenihan, Jay Oliver & Steve Davis
Thursday, April 21: Kasimu Taylor Quartet

While most Jazz at Holmes concerts are free and open to the public, the Marc Copland/Gary Peacock and Thurman Barker performances will be ticketed events, priced at $25 and $10 respectively. Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, located on Washington University’s campus at the west end of the Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives.

Edited after posting.