It's been a few weeks since the last installment of this feature, which compiles short news items and links about musicians with connections to St. Louis, plus coming attractions, recent visitors, and other stories from the worlds of jazz. There's lots to share, so let's get to it:
* We'll start this installment, as usual, with a few
Miles Davis-related items, including a
review of the recent book
Miles Davis, Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post Bop from All AboutJazz.com, and
two reviews of the new two-CD set
Miles From India. In addition, Rifftides'
Doug Ramsey recently did a
post ruminating on the role of mid-sized ensembles in jazz, including as one of his examples Miles' "Birth of the Cool" group.
* Miles' fellow trumpeter and St. Louis native
Clark Terry was
featured recently on the public radio program
Riverwalk Jazz, and Terry's new big band album with
Louis Bellson,
Louis and Clark Expedition Vol 2, is
reviewed here.
* The Atlanta weekly
Creative Loafing recently had a
feature about trumpeter and former East St. Louisan-turned-Atlantan
Russell Gunn, who was
in town this weekend to perform at SIU-Edwardsville.
*Here's a
review of a recent performance by
Hamiet Bluiett with
Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio.
* Pianist
Tom McDermott, a St. Louis native who's lived in New Orleans for more than 20 years and has become something of a specialist in that city's musical traditions, has a new CD,
Creole Nocturne, with cornetist
Connie Jones, reviewed
here. McDermott was also the subject of a
feature story in the New Orleans music magazine
Offbeat.
* There's lots of news on the always-prolific
John Zorn, who once studied music here at Webster University, including
two reviews of a live performance of his "pocket concerto" entitled "The Prophetic Mysteries of Angels, Witches, and Demons"; a review of his
show for New Music Now in Boston and one of his
new CD, The Dreamers. Zorn also revisited his famous piece "Cobra," as a
benefit for for the NYC performance space Roulette, and the
hatHut label is reissuing his acclaimed CD
News for Lulu with guitarist
Bill Frisell and trombonist/electronic musician
George Lewis.* Multi-reedman, composer and St. Louis native
Marty Ehrlich also is
busy this month, with NYC
gigs for his quartet, sextet and all-alto-saxophone ensemble.
*
Tom Kennedy, who splits his time between NYC and St. Louis, is playing bass on smooth jazz guitarist
Ken Navarro's new CD
The Grace of Summer Light. The CD is due out in mid-June, but can be heard for free right now via an
audio stream from Navarro's Web site.* Here's a
review of jazz critic and St. Louis native
Bob Blumenthal's new book
Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music, written for AllAboutJazz.com by
David Rickert.
* Turning to the "coming attractions" file, singer and former Kansas Citian
Karrin Allyson will be in St. Louis this week to perform at Jazz at the Bistro. Here's a
review of
new CD
Imagina: Songs of Brazil, and a
review of her recent four-night stand at NYC's Birdland.
* When bassist
Stanley Clarke is here next month to perform at the
Fox Theatre with
Return to Forever, you can call him "Dr. Clarke," since he recently
received an honorary Doctorate of Fine arts from his alma mater, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
* By way of catching up with some musicians who have recently performed in the Gateway City, here's a
review of pianist
Brad Mehldau's recent live trio CD, and a
review of a performance in Cleveland. Mehldau was in St. Louis last month for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro.
* One of our favorite West Coast jazz bloggers,
LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs, recently
interviewed saxophonist
Billy Harper, who was in town last weekend to play a show in
George Sams' Nu-Art Series.
* Pianist
Taylor Eigsti, who also played the Bistro earlier this year, has a
new CD called
Let It Come To You.* And finally, a few items of more general interest to jazz enthusiasts, starting with what was perhaps the biggest jazz-related news story of the past few weeks, the collapse of the
International Association for Jazz Education due to financial troubles.
Paul DeBarros of the
Seattle Times broke the story
here;
LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs has the letter sent to the group's members by IAJE president
Chuck Owen here; Secret Society's
Darcy James Argue compiled reactions from the jazz blogosphere
here, and
Ben Ratliff of the
New York Times weighs in on the debacle
here.
* The aforementioned
George Lewis (pictured) has finally
completed his book on the history of Chicago's groundbreaking musicians collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). It's called
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Expermental Music, and you can read an excerpt from it
here and a feature story about Lewis, the AACM and the book, written by the
NYT's
Nate Chinen here.
* Last but not least,
Improvisation, Community and Social Practice is an international research project headquartered at the University of Guelph that "explores musical improvisation as a model for social change". Their journal
Critical Studies In Improvisation has, as you might expect, an academic orientation and flavor, but also includes articles of potentially wider interest; for example, the most recent issue has an interesting feature on saxophonist and educator
Jackie McLean and an interview with improvising guitarist
Fred Frith.
