Noisefest celebrates 10th anniversary

Experimental music fans from St. Louis and throughout the Midwest will be heading this weekend to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, as LNAC celebrates the 10th anniversary of Noisefest starting on Friday, November 1 and continuing through Sunday, November 3.

"This year we will expand the focus of the Festival to include workshops on electronics and the aesthetics and social impact of noise," said LNAC's Tom Hill in an email. "We also for the first time are including video artists whose work exemplify an experimental orientation and skill."

Billed as "the premiere Midwest experimental electronic noise Festival," Noisefest X kicks off with a concert at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 1 at the LNAC, 3301 Lemp. Another concert will take place at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, November 2, followed by a presentation of video art at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 3; and the final concert at 7:00 p.m. Sunday evening.

Admission is $7 per concert; weekend passes also are available for $20 at LNAC and Apop Records.

The annual "noise meeting," a free event, will take place at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, also at LNAC.

The full list of performers for the weekend includes Dear Satan, Nightgrinder, Within, Tony Renner, Noiseman433, Charlie, Sigulda, John Beabout, Eric Hall, Dan Wamhoff, Coppice, Mykel Boyd, Instinct Control, Peter Woods, Dave Stone, Kingston, Family Singers, John Tamm-Buckle, Jason Zeh (pictured), Of Course You Realize..., Rick Weaver, Chad Eivens, Kevin Harris, Brain Transplant, Josh Oberman, Clusterfuck, Ghost Ice, The Fluff of Murder, Lonely Procession, epicycle, Greg Farough, NNN Cook, and Matt Reis.

Noisefest organizers also have release a short promotional video for the event, which you can see and hear in all its static- and glitch-filled glory in the embedded window below...

Jazz-inspired art, photos accompanying Nu-Art Series' jazz composers concerts

The Nu-Art Series last Saturday kicked off a set of shows at the Metropolitan Gallery that will feature a dozen St. Louis musicians performing their own work and that of well-known jazz composers.

In keeping with Nu-Art's ongoing theme of "jazz and visual arts," there's also a new show up at the gallery, featuring jazz-inspired paintings by Tony Renner and photos of jazz artists in performance taken by longtime St. Louis American reporter/photographer Roscoe Crenshaw.

There will be an artists' reception for Renner and Crenshaw from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday, February 19 at the gallery, 2936 Locust St. downtown., and the exhibition and concert series both continue through April 17. For a complete schedule of Nu-Art's jazz composers series concerts, see this post.

Illustration: T. Renner, "Improvisation for Charlie Parker #2," 2008, acrylic on panel, 19" x 17.5".

Urban Eats Cafe hosting show of Tony Renner's jazz-inspired art

In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, improvising guitarist, DJ and friend o' this Web site Tony Renner is exhibiting his visual art during April at the Urban Eats Cafe and Bakery, 3301 Meramec Avenue in the Dutchtown neighborhood of south St. Louis.

The show includes his print of Dizzy Gillespie and other jazz-inspired works, and Renner will be at Urban Eats for brunch on Sunday, April 19 to meet, greet and eat with friends, art lovers, the merely curious, and any otherwise-innocent bystanders who happen to wander in looking for a bite. You'll find more details and a sample of Renner's art here.

Washington University launching free concert series at Kemper Museum

Washington University's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has announced a new series of free Friday night concerts featuring St. Louis musicians, and several of the shows may be of potential interest to jazz listeners.

The group Mmmelt, described as a fusion of "ambient, punk, world beat, jazz, electronics, avant-garde and spoken word" will kick off the series at 6 p.m., Friday, February 22, followed by jazz bassist and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) on Friday, February 29. Other upcoming performances will include Teddy Presberg and the Red Note Revivalists performing "improvisational acid jazz" on March 21, and guitarist Tony Renner's experimental trio learn, artist! on Friday, March 28.

All the concerts are free and open to the public, and will be held at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, which is located on the Wash U. campus at the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker in the spot formerly occupied by the Steinberg Gallery. For a complete schedule of performances, visit the museum's Web site, or for more information, you can call 314-935-5490 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.

(Edited after posting to add more tags.)

Renner brings "Scientific Method" to KWUR

Local music scene veteran Tony Renner sends word that he's now hosting a jazz radio program from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday mornings on KWUR (90.3 FM). The program is called "The Scientific Method" and features a mix of vintage and modern sounds; for example, the playlist for this week's installment ran the gamut from bebop tracks by Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke to more recent recordings from the likes of Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons Ensemble and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Renner's been involved in various aspects of the St. Louis music scene since the 1980s; his activities have included writing for the seminal local rock fanzine Jet Lag, working at community radio station KDHX, and playing guitar with various experimental/ambient/post-rock groups such as Tiger Mountain, Cenozoic and his current project learn, artist.

KWUR is the low-power radio station operated by Washington University. If you're close to the Wash U. campus and get decent FM reception on your radio of choice, you may be able to pick it up over the air; in other areas, your best bet probably is to access the online stream at the station's Web site.

(Edited 2/1/08 to fix a typo. Edited 2/18/08 to correct the URL for KWUR.)