So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony, the seven-CD set drawn from the archives of saxophonist and Black Artists Group co-founder Julius Hemphill and released earlier this year, is the subject of a short feature/review for Jazz Times by Ted Panken.

* Trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, now based in Atlanta, has released the second recording from his band The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra. Titled The Sirius Mystery opus 4 no. 1, the album is out today via Ropeadope Records on all digital platforms, plus limited editions on CD and vinyl LP.

* Bassist Damon Smith, a recent transplant to St. Louis, also has a new recording, Houston 2012, out this week on digital and as a double CD. The album teams Smith with guitarists Keith Rowe and Sandy Ewen and the ensemble Gooseberry Marmalade.

* And speaking of new releases, a Miles Davis performance recorded in 1991 at La Villette in Paris, France will be released as The Lost Concert on digital services and as a two-CD set on Wednesday, September 29, the 30th anniversary of his death. The album (pictured) is the third in a series from Sleepy Night Records that started with Miles Davis: The Lost Quintet and continued with The Lost Septet, both released last year.

The Lost Concert is particularly noteworthy because Davis' then-current band was augmented for the date by numerous guest stars and former sidemen, including Chick Corea, Al Foster, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Darryl Jones, John McLaughlin, Jackie McLean, John Scofield, and Joe Zawinul.

* Gene Dobbs Bradford of Jazz St. Louis was interviewed about the organization's upcoming 2021-22 season by the St. Louis American's Danielle Brown.

* One of St. Louis' most acclaimed young talents is leaving town, as singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo this week announced in a Facebook post, "I have accepted a job as an audio engineer at a media group in Los Angeles. I’ll be driving from STL to LA this weekend." Saputo will play what she's calling her final show as a St. Louis resident tonight at Tower Grove Park (though she also is on the bill for the Music at the Intersection festival in September).

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keyboardist David Garfield (pictured) next month is releasing a new single, "Hunting Heads," that pays tribute to Herbie Hancock.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch went into their archives to republish vintage photos and a story about St. louis' 1960s entertainment district Gaslight Square.

* Singer Erika Johnson was interviewed for a profile on the site of women's shoemaket Walking Cradles.

* A travel article in USA Today touting Midwest sites of interest for music fans mentions notable St. Louis locations including BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, Broadway Oyster Bar, National Blues Museum, and Vintage Vinyl.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold and the mother of his son Keyon Jr. have filed a racial profiling lawsuit against the Arlo Hotels chain and Miya Ponsetto, the woman who in a widely reported incident last year accosted Harrold and his son at the hotel's NYC location and accused the younger Harrold of stealing her iPhone.

* Jazz St. Louis will share in the prize for "Arts Collaboration" when the Arts and Education COuncil of Greater St. Louis presents the 2021 St. Louis Arts Awards in an event on Monday, May 24 at the Big Top in Grand Center. The award will be shared with St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Nine Network of Public Media, and The Big Muddy Dance Company for the joint presentation of "Such Sweet Thunder" staged in October 2019 at the Nine Network's Public Media Commons.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo is featured on the latest episode of "Classical:BTS", a web video series produced by Illinois Public Media.

* The Don and Heide Wolff Jazz Institute and the National Black Radio Hall of Fame at Harris-Stowe State University will present the induction of four musicians into the Wolff Institute's St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame in a online ceremony at 3:00 p.m. this Saturday, March 27.

Trumpeter Clark Terry; pianist, singer and saxophonist Hugh 'Peanuts ' Whalum; and singer Kim Massie are the St. Louis performers scheduled to be honored, along with, for reasons that presently are obscure, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, a Memphis native and nephew of "Peanuts" Whalum. (No knock against Kirk Whalum, a fine player who has had a nice career, but apart from his uncle, he doesn't really have much to do with St. Louis.)

The event will be webcast from the National Blues Museum downtown, and can be viewed on the Facebook pages for the NBM or Harris-Stowe.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo (pictured) gave St. Louis Post-Dispatch readers a look into her living space in a recent feature in the paper's "At Home" series

* Saxophonist Greg Osby was interviewed by JazzFuel.com.

* Drummer Rob Silverman was one of the guests on last week's Modern Drummer Magazine video podcast.

* Radio station WSIE, headquartered on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, recently reached the milestone of 50 years on the air, and trumpeter Jim Manley has written and recorded a new tune, "Blasting the Airwaves (50 Years of WSIE)," to commemorate the occasion.

* Singer Erika Johnson is hosting a new podcast, "My Black Auntie (MBA)," presenting what she calls "an educated Black woman's perspective with sass and class."

* The Black Artists’ Group of St. Louis: Creation Equals Movement, the new documentary that will get its local premiere next month at the St. Louis International Film Festival, was the subject of a feature story by the St. Louis American's Chris King.

* Pianist, singer and St. Louis native John McDaniel was home this past Sunday to do a performance and webcast from Blue Strawberry, and KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi reviewed the show.

* Miles Davis may have been known for "cooking" on the bandstand, but the trumpeter was no stranger to the kitchen either, according to the latest episode of Jazziz magazine's "Miles Monday" podcast, which features Davis' nephew, drummer and producer Vince Wilburn Jr. and "rising-star jazz musicians and culinary media personalities" Adeev and Ezra Potash.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist David Sanborn has released the fourth episode of his web series "Sanborn Sessions," with saxophonist and keyboard player Terrace Martin as the featured guest.

You can see Sanborn and Martin (pictured) in this latest episode via the embed at the bottom of this post, or visit the "Sanborn Sessions" YouTube page to catch the entire series to date.

* Pianist Peter Martin and multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo were among the performers interviewed for a St. Louis Public Radio story about how local musicians are coping with the COVID-19 shutdown.

* And speaking of Peter Martin, the pianist took questions from fans, friends, music students, and miscellaneous onlookers in a Reddit-style "Ask Me Anything" video recorded this past Tuesday.

* Drummer Dave Weckl now is offering private drum lessons for a limited number of students online via Zoom.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Performances by the Gaslight Squares last week at the Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival prompted two favorable reviews on the local website SmilePolitely.com.

* Miles Davis' custom-built "Moon and Stars" trumpet (pictured) last week was sold at auction for $275,000 to the owner of the Blue LLama jazz club in Ann Arbor, MI.

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, the trumpeter's paintings were the subject of a post on OpenCulture.com.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo was the subject of a brief profile in the Chicago Reader.

* Sousaphone and tuba player Matt Brinkmann, former member of the Funky Butt Brass Band, has been named as the new executive director of the not-for-profit organization Pianos for People. 

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's newly released recording of Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony" (pictured), also featuring the trumpeter and composer and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, was the subject of a short feature story by the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller.

* Speaking of new releases, singer and keyboardist Katarra Parson, one of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's 2019-20 music artists-in-residence, spoke with writer Thomas Crone for a St. Louis magazine article about her upcoming album Cocoa Voyage, which comes out in October.

* The Radio Arts Foundation (aka Classic 107.3) will raise funds next month with "Wine and Jazz Under the Stars," an event set for Friday, September 20 at the Columbia Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $95 per person, which includes wine, appetizers, and music from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris. For more details or to make a reservation, visit the station's website.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo announced this week via Twitter that she has signed a contract with Empire, a San Francisco-based label that releases hip-hop, R&B and more from a roster than includes rap veteran Snoop Dogg as well as many younger artists.

* To promote the theatrical release of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the film's producers have released another clip from the movie, with the first look at the excerpt appearing on the website of Billboard magazine.

* With this month being the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, there's been a flurry of related items showing up in the news, including historic overviews of the album and its significance from OpenCulture.com, Albumism.com and Counterpunch.

* In addition, drummer Jimmy Cobb, who at 90 years old is the only musician still living who played on Kind of Blue, was interviewed about the sessions by Billboard and the Associated Press.

* In related news, NPR asked bassist Christian McBride to take a look back at Davis' album Bitches Brew, which is 50 years old this summer.

* Lastly, Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. and his son Erin Davis were interviewed by CBC Canada about Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, and the trumpeter's musical legacy.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Ronnie Burrage (pictured) was interviewed in the August issue of The Wire.

* Trumpeter Ally Hany Albrecht wrote an essay for the blog El Paso Jazz Girls about her experiences being in an Air Force band.

* Billboard magazine presented the online premiere of "So Emotional," a track from the forthcoming "lost" Miles Davis album Rubberband (featuring vocals from Lalah Hathaway) that will be released on Friday, September 6.

* Elsewhere on the Miles Davis beat, NPR this week devoted the latest episode of their program "Jazz Night In America" to a retrospective look at Davis' album Bitches Brew, with music from bassist Marcus Miller's tribute to the trumpeter's electric bands.

* Guitarist Todd Mosby was featured in a story by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

* Also on St. Louis Public Radio, singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo was interviewed by "St. Louis On The Air" host Sarah Fenske.

* Tonina also is featured in a video released last week by the Lo-Fi Saint Louis project, which shows her performing "Mercy" at Earthbound Beer on Cherokee St.

* Trio 3, which includes saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake along with drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Reggie Workman, will receive a major grant from Chamber Music America.

Edited after posting to add Tonina video link.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Bernie Hayes wrote a column for the St. Louis American about the recent demolition of Archway Studios, which was the professional home to saxophonist and producer Oliver Sain and significant in jazz history as the place where saxophonist Julius Hemphill recorded his landmark album Dogon A.D.

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn is set to release Pyramids, a new album by his Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, on Friday, August 30.

* Guitarist Todd Mosby promoted the release of his new album Open Waters with a performance last week on KTVI - Fox 2's 9:00 am newscast.

* A recent show by singer Alicia Olatuja (pictured) at Dazzle in Denver, CO was reviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Geoff Anderson.

* The Lab, a new educational program for high school music students being run by multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris, was the subject of a feature in St. Louis magazine.

* Pianist Dred Scott's latest album Rides Alone was reviewed by the website PartTimeAudiophile.com.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo was a guest on a recent episode of the podcast "Nina Talks!"

* The Miles Davis official merchandise store is offering fans a chance to win a $100 shopping spree in exchange for an email address. You can enter the drawing here.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness (pictured) will present a special live-streaming version of their Open Studio podcast "You'll Hear It" next Friday, August 9.

* Thurman's In Shaw was reviewed by Sauce magazine, with a mention of the venue's live jazz offerings alongside the critique of its food and drinks.

* A previously unseen interview from the mid-1980s with drummer and St. Louis native Phillip Wilson has been published in the latest issue of the online 'zine Perfect Sound Forever.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo took time out from her just-concluded European tour to stop in Jazztone Studios in Valencia, Spain to record a music video of the song "Que Lio," originally made famous by Puerto Rican salsa singer Hector Lavoe.

* Singer Valerie Kirchhoff aka Miss Jubilee was one of the musicians interviewed for a Quad City Times article about this weekend's Bix Jazz Festival in Davenport, IA.

* A post on the UMSL Daily blog recounts the UMSL Jazz Ensemble's recent trip to Europe, which doubled as a farewell to outgoing director of jazz studies Jim Widner.

* The Brothers Lazaroff were interviewed about their new album and shows this weekend at Jazz St. Louis by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. (Link is paywalled)

* There's a new trailer out this week for director Stanley Nelson's documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, which will play starting later this month in selected theaters across the country.

* Davis also was the subject of a recent episode of MOJO magazine's "Innovators Podcast."

* Continuing on the Davis beat, the trumpeter this week was the latest musician discussed in The Guardian's recurring "20 Greatest Albums Ranked" feature.

* And finally, Jazz Journal has a review of Milestones, a new reissue of some familiar early Davis tracks by the French label Dreyfus Jazz.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* This year's Heineken Jazzaldia Festival is using a stylized image of bassist Jahmal Nichols (pictured) in promotional materials for the fest, which happens this weekend in San Sebastian, Spain.
 
* In observance of the 50th anniversary of the event, the website Jazz Desk took a look back at "Miles Davis in the eye of the storm – Newport Jazz Festival 1969."

* In other Miles Davis news, Rolling Stone premiered "Paradise," a track from Davis' "lost" 1980s album Rubberband, which finally will be released in September.

* Tonina Saputo's new album St. Lost was reviewed by CollegeMediaNetwork.com.

* The Riverfront Times' Daniel Hill has written an article about at recent personnel controversies and ongoing financial issues at community radio station KDHX.

* Pianist and former Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap was the subject of a feature story about his new job as head of the Broward Cultural Division in Broward County, FL.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* In conjunction with the release earlier this year of the Miles Davis set The Complete Birth Of The Cool, UDiscoverMusic.com gathered a panel in Los Angeles for a discussion of the album's impact, legacy and lasting influence; working with the master tapes to produce the new reissue; and Davis' fight for African-American rights. You can hear highlights from the discussion here.

* Drummer Dave Weckl (pictured), who was back home here last month to play at rthe Chesterfield Jazz & Wine Festival, has added a new 2.5 hour drum recording course to his online school at daveweckl.teachable.com.

* Radio station WSIE and its general manager Jason Church were the subjects of a feature story in the Alton-area news site Riverbender.com

* Saxophonist Carlos Brown Jr. was interviewed about his gig this weekend at Jazz St. Louis by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. (Link is paywalled.)

 * As reported by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn, multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo is one of three local musicians featured in Nature of Sound, a new short film produced and directed by St. Louisan Jon Alexander.

* Nearly a decade after ending their first attempt at podcasting, Jazz St. Louis is trying again with a podcast called "Jazz Happens," with production outsourced to Konfluenz Studios, a St. Louis based company that produces several other podcasts, none music-related.

Unfortunately, while the format is on point - interviews with touring musicians who are in town to play gigs at the Bistro - and the production values are solid enough, the podcast's hosts* seem to know very little about jazz, or even the basics of how to conduct an interview. Even worse, they seem to have done very little to no research about their subjects.

The results, as sampled in brief snippets of various episodes by yr. humble editor, range from insipid to awkward to downright cringeworthy, as in the interview with Anat Cohen, which begins with one of hosts asking her if she still lives in Tel Aviv (her hometown).

Cohen, clearly not amused, replied that, no, she's lived in the USA for more than 20 years - a fact both essential to her current career, since it was her move here in 1996 to study at Berklee that set up her subsequent accomplishments, and easily gleaned from the bio on her website, most of the interviews and feature stories published about her, or her Wikipedia page.

To sum up, while StLJN's journalistic mission compels us to inform you of this podcast's existence, it is not recommended that you listen to it. If you must, the eight episodes produced to date are archived on the Jazz St. Louis website.

Jazz this week: The Bosman Twins, Nick Colionne, Chesterfield Jazz Festival, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis puts local talent in the spotlight, with homegrown performers and returning expats headlining a diverse schedule of shows at a variety of venues. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, June 12
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo performs in a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Update, 3:30 p.m., 6/12/19: The concert by Tonina Saputo at Missouri Botanical Garden has been postponed due to the possibility of bad weather, and has been rescheduled for Wednesday, August 9.

Also on Wednesday, Next to Normal: The Thelonious Monk Story, a play with music starring pianist Philip Graves in the title role, is presented with free admission for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Thursday, June 13
Guitarist Mark Tonelli, an assistant professor of music at Millikin University in Decatur, IL, visits to lead his trio in a show at The Dark Room.

Also on Thursday, Miss Jubilee performs at Joe's Cafe; singer Cheri Evans and CEEJazzSoul return to the Chase Club; and guitarist Dave Black and friends play at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, June 14
Multi-instrumentalists The Bosman Twins (pictured, top left) perform for the first of three nights, continuing through Sunday at Jazz St. Louis.

Also on Friday, the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Erin Bode interprets material from the Great American Songbook in a concert at the Wildey Theatre
in Edwardsville; and singer Anita Jackson performs the late show at The Dark Room.

Saturday, June 15
The Chesterfield Wine & Jazz Festival runs from mid-afternoon through the evening at Chesterfield Amphitheater, featuring music from drummer Dave Weckl and his band, featuring St. Louisans TOm Kennedy on bass and Jay Oliver on keyboards, plus Bach to the Future with saxophonist Eric Marienthal and guitarist Dave Black, singer Kim Fuller, the Steve Davis Band with singer Feyza Eren, and Tracer.

You can see some recent videos featuring headliner and St. Charles native Dave Weckl (pictured, bottom left) in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Nick Colionne with special guest, singer and St. Louis native Lynne Fiddmont, performs in the "Eta Boule Foundation Salute to Fathers & Mentors" at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard's latest opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, has its world premiere at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, with five more performances scheduled this month.

Sunday, June 16
Possibilities for jazz brunch this Father's Day include pianist Adam Maness playing solo at Thurman's in Shaw, and singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran and band at The Dark Room.

Then on Sunday evening, singer Feyza Eren and her quartet perform at the house-concert venue Judson House.

Monday, June 17
Keyboardist Ryan Marquez brings his trio to The Dark Room.

Tuesday, June 18
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True plus guest vocalist Kim Fuller perform at the Gaslight Theater.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Marcus Baylor and singer Jean Baylor of the Baylor Project (pictured) were interviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's K. Shackelford

* Capitalizing on the St. Louis Blues' run for the NHL's Stanley Cup, singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo has recorded a video of her cover version of "Gloria," the 1982 hit by singer Laura Branigan that has become the team's victory anthem. You can see the video here.

* Pianist Ethan Leinwand was interviewed briefly about Monday's St. Louis Piano Festival by Kevin Johnson of the Post-Dispatch.

* Singer Alicia Olatuja was the featured guest on a recent episode of NPR's "In Black America."

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn was interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting about the performance of his Royal Krunk Jazz Orchestra at the Atlanta Jazz Festival. You can see some photos and a video from the show this past Sunday at LibroMusica.com.

* The 93rd anniversary of the birth of trumpeter Miles Davis last week was noted in a brief story on KTVI-Fox 2's newscast featuring an interview with the co-founders of House of Miles East St. Louis, the museum that now occupies Davis' childhood home.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The University of Missouri-St. Louis Department of Music and the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies at UMSL have named pianist and educator Adaron "Pops" Jackson as the university's new director of jazz studies. Jackson succeeds the program's founder, bassist Jim Widner, who retired at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn was interviewed by John Carney on Monday's episode of "The Carney Show" on KTRS (550 AM).

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo (pictured) was interviewed about her new album St. Lost by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson. Saputo is promoting the release with a performance tonight at Sophie's Artist Lounge and Cocktail Club. St. Lost this week also was the subject of a short promotional feature on BassMagazine.com

* Inventor and audio engineer Bob Heil was profiled in a story by KSDK's Art Holliday.

* WSIE (88.7FM) will celebrate Miles Davis' birthday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. this Sunday, May 26 with a two-hour special about his life and music. Listeners outside the St. Louis area can catch the program via the station's online stream.

* The Black Rep's production of Nina Simone: Four Women was reviewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn. The play with music, which includes singer Denise Thimes in the cast, continues through Sunday, June 2 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

* Vaughn also filed a story for the American about the funeral service for Shirley Bradley LeFlore, former St. Louis poet laureate who worked with many jazz and creative musicians.

* Pianist Phillip Graves will play the title role in Next to Normal: The Thelonious Monk Story, a play by Mariah L Richardson that will be performed at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 12 and Thursday, June 13 at Jazz St. Louis.

The production, which is presented by A Call to Conscience, Inc. and directed by Fannie Belle Lebbie, will celebrate Monk's music and career while also examining "issues of mental illness as it relates to disparities in health care, police interaction, education, and social acceptance."

The performance on June 12 will be followed by a talk and Q&A about Monk led by Washington University professor Gerald Early, and a panel discussion on living with and overcoming the challenges posed by mental illness. Admission to both performances is free, but RSVPs are requested via EventBrite.

* Remember the lawsuit filed by seemingly-defunct-music-festival LouFest against their former sound contractors? Well, per new reporting on Thursday by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin, the suit has been dropped.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Shirley Bradley LeFlore, St. Louis poet laureate and member of the Black Artists Group who performed throughout her career with the city's jazz and creative musicians, died this past Sunday, May 12. She was 79 years old.

Formerly married to the late trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, she performed and/or recorded at various times with musicians including her ex-husband, saxophonists Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett, J.D. Parran and Don Byron, pianist Ptah Williams, trumpeter George Sams, and more. Ms. Bradley LeFlore's funeral will take place today (Friday, May 17), with a visitation at 11:00 a.m. followed by services at noon at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust St. downtown.

* Drummer Dave Weckl (pictured) was interviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Jim Worsley.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo is releasing a new album, St. Lost, that comes out today, and was interviewed Monday about the recording and her career by KSDK's Art Holliday.

* The new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool was the subject of a review/reminiscence by FYIMusicNews' Bill King.

* Speaking of Miles Davis, a 1979 interview with pianist Bill Evans unheard for 40 years has re-surfaced online, in which Evans discusses his work with Davis and the recording sessions for the trumpeter's landmark album Kind of Blue.

* And speaking of Birth of the Cool, an article in DownBeat has more details on the new LP box set Complete Birth of the Cool Sessions, which will be released on Friday, June 7.

* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris' shows this weekend at Jazz St. Louis are previewed in an article by Kevin Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in an interview with Harris published on the Jazz St. Louis website.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Jazz St. Louis will raise scholarship money for college-bound local music students with “Swing For The Scholars,” an event at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at JSL's HQ, aka the Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz.

Musical entertainment for the evening will include the Adam Maness Trio, the Route 66 Alumni Band, Good 4 The Soul, singer Anita Jackson, and students from the organization's JazzU program.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLToday.com this week published their annual "Go List," and the staff picks in the "Music" section included a nod to singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo for "Best Shout-Out," referencing the inclusion of her song "Historia De Un Amor" on President Barack Obama's 2018 list of favorite songs.

In the reader's poll section of the "Go List," BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups won both "Favorite place to hear jazz" and "Favorite place to hear the blues."

* Drummer Dave Weckl is offering a free two-and-a-half-hour DVD, "Flies On The Studio Wall," to new subscribers to his Dave Weckl Online School who sign up before May 1.

* Prompted by the 60th anniversary of the original recording sessions for the album, writer Eric Schewe of JStor Daily looks at "Why Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” Is So Beloved."

* Pianist Peter Martin's "Ask Me Anything" session that was webcast last Friday via the Open Studios Facebook page has been posted to YouTube.

* Singer and East St. Louis native Phil Perry (pictured) will be inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Saturday, June 23 in Detroit. Perry's fellow inductees this year will include Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Ray Parker, Jr., Stephanie Mills, and more.

* And speaking of halls of fame, public voting for new members of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame is open until 11:59 p.m. this coming Monday, April 29. The 2019 nominees include Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Kenny Clarke, Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill, Cecil Taylor, Frank Trumbauer, Dinah Washington, Chick Webb, and Teddy Wilson.

* General manager Jason Church's efforts to put radio station WSIE on firmer financial footing are the subject of a story in the SIU Edwardsville campus newspaper The Alestle.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Today is the release date for The Sound of St. Louis - Jazz Compilation Volume 1, an album featuring original music from the nine participants in the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's music artists-in-residence program.

The album (pictured) will be available on streaming services, as a digital download, and as a CD, which will be sold locally at Vintage Vinyl, Music Record Shop, and Euclid Records, and at various KAF-affiliated venues such as Sophie’s Artist Lounge and The Dark Room.

* In more album-release news, singer Erin Bode is reissuing her 2016 album Here and Now as a vinyl LP, and will perform on Thursday, April 11 at The Sheldon to commemorate the event. 

* One of singer Marilyn Maye's performances last week with the Jazz St. Louis Big Band was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja was interviewed about her new album Intuition by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Also as reported in the American, four branches of St. Louis County Library now offer musical instruments, including guitars, keyboards and hand drums, that can be checked out by library patrons for free.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina was profiled for a new local website, TheSTL.com, by writer Daniel Durchholz.

* NPR once again this year is holding a contest for unsigned musical acts that would like to perform in a Tiny Desk Concert, filmed at the network's HQ in Washington DC. Local affiliate St. Louis Public Radio has details on the contest and how to enter here.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist Fred Walker, a longtime veteran of the local music scene, is facing some serious health issues, having spent time earlier this year in the hospital for a collapsed lung.

Since doctors have told Walker that he no longer can perform on the saxophone, friends have set up a page on GoFundMe to help raise money for his medical and living expenses. There also will be a benefit concert for Walker featuring local blues and jazz performers from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 17 at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

* Steve Pick of KDHX and Euclid Records has teamed up with fellow St. Louis writer Amanda Doyle to author St. Louis Sound, a newly released "illustrated timeline" of local music history.

Publishers Reedy Press are promoting the book (pictured) with a series of five shows this month featuring local musicians grouped by genre at different venues. It gets underway Saturday, March 23 with a jazz concert at the Grandel Theatre featuring the Adam Maness Trio, trumpeter Danny Campbell, singer Anita Jackson, and singer/multi-instrumentalist Tonina, with subsequent evenings focused on rock, blues, hip-hop, and Americana.

* Speaking of Tonina, she recently was the subject of a feature story in Alive! magazine.

* Clarinetist and former St. Louisan Chloe Feoranzo was the subject of a Riverfront Times feature by Thomas Crone. Feoranzo, who's now based in New Orleans, will be back in St. Louis for a concert next Wednesday, March 13 at Focal Point.

* Saxophonist and educator Harvey Lockhart got a nice mention in the South Florida Times for bringing the Point of View Ensemble, made up of his students from Riverview Gardens High School, to the 22nd annual Melton Mustafa Jazz Festival in Miami, FL.

* Jazz St. Louis is now accepting applications from middle- and high school student musicians for the 2019-20 year of their JazzU program. The deadline to apply is Saturday, April 26.

* 50/Fifty Kitchen, the south side restaurant that also served up live jazz weekly from singer Joe Mancuso and others, has closed.

* In a week marking 60 years since Miles Davis started recording his most famous album, an article in The Independent takes a look at "Kind of Blue: The jazz album by Miles Davis that transformed music," while author and critic Ted Gioia has recorded a video asking, "How Important Really Is Miles Davis’s "Kind Of Blue"?"

* Also on the Miles Davis beat: A remastered 180-gram vinyl LP reisssue of his 1957 album 'Round About Midnight is included among the just-announced list of special releases for this year's Record Store Day on Saturday, April 20; the trumpeter's mid-1950s recordings for the Blue Note label are the subject of an article just published on UDiscoverMusic.com; and representatives of the Davis estate will be at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX later this month, promoting various projects via the Miles Davis House.

Jazz this week: Cyrus Chestnut, a salute to Richard Henderson, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes the return of a popular pianist, a tribute to one of the city's most visible longtime jazz fans, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 20
Pianist Cyrus Chestnut (pictured, top left) leads his trio in the first of two nights (plus a "coffee concert") at Jazz St. Louis.

Among current jazz pianists, Chestnut would seem be one of the most prominent exponents of the virtuoso tradition of Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson, as you can see in this collection of videos in a post from when he played the Bistro in 2016. If you're planning on going, though, do keep in mind that this time around, due to the "coffee concert" performance, Chestnut will playing one set only each evening, starting at 7:30 p.m..

Also on Wednesday, Cabaret Project of St. Louis presents their monthly "Singers Open Mic" at Sophie's, and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" includes Gypsy jazz band Coco Rico at The Stage at KDHX, the weekly jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, February 21
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present a free concert showcasing the talents of student jazz musicians; singer Joe Mancuso returns to 50/Fifty Kitchen; and pianist Adam Maness leads his trio at Thurman's in Shaw.

Friday, February 22
Jazz St. Louis pays tribute to a recently deceased St. Louis "jazz hero" with the first of two nights of  "Swingin' at the Bistro: A Salute to Richard Henderson," described as "an all-star weekend of swing in remembrance of a dear friend."

Performers celebrating Henderson (pictured, center left) will include drummer Montez Coleman, bassist Bob DeBoo, trumpeter Danny Campbell, vibraphonist Peter Schlamb, guitarist Eric Slaughter, saxophonist Kendrick Smith, keyboardist Matt Villinger, and on Saturday only, keyboardist Adam Maness.

Also on Friday, Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom, and singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo returns to The Dark Room.

Saturday, February 23
Keyboardist Mo Egeston plays the late show at The Dark Room.

Sunday, February 24
The Folk School of KDHX presents their monthly "Traditional Jazz Jam Session," and the Genesis Jazz Project performs at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups

Monday, February 25
"Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, 
February 26
The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra (pictured, bottom left) plays a "Notes From Home" concert at The Sheldon.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. (pictured) talked about his holiday show next Thursday at the Stifel Theatre for a Post-Dispatch story by Dan Durchholz.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo came in at number eight on NPR's list of "Best New Artists of 2018."

* Singer Storm Large's "Holiday Ordeal" show this past Tuesday at the Sun Theatre was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio's Don Marsh about his musical direction for Metro Theater Company’s “Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure,” which runs through December 30 at the Grandel Theatre.

* St. Louis Symphony oboist Callie Banham's new Christmas album, which includes musical contributions from pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Montez Coleman, is the subject of a feature story by the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.