Jazz this week: Trebor Tichenor memorial concert, Dave Dickey Big Band, and more

With tensions easing somewhat even as protest demonstrations continue in Ferguson, and hot, steamy weather settling in for a few days, it's starting to seem a bit more like a typical late August in St. Louis. And while the weather forecast has prompted cancellations of a couple of outdoor shows, there's still jazz happening around town during these "dog days." Let's go to the highlights...

On Friday, singer Anita Rosamond will be performing a free outdoor concert at Ferguson CityWalk, which is located in the old downtown area of Ferguson. Though the concert was scheduled long ago as part of a series of monthly shows promoting the downtown district, it should provide a welcome opportunity for people in the community to come together and, we hope, peacefully enjoy some of Rosamond's pop, R&B and jazz stylings.

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso leads a quartet at Nathalie's; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; jazz/fusion group Boisiac performs at Cigar Inn, singer Ann Dueren's trio will be back at Il Bel Lago; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to C.J. Muggs in Webster Groves.

On Saturday, while the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has scrubbed their show at Kirkwood Park Amphitheater in anticipation of a heat index of more than 100 degrees, performances taking place in air-conditioned comfort that evening will include singer Wendy Gordon at Choice Restaurant, saxophonist Rod Tate at DeLeo's Cafe & Deli, and saxophonist Jim Stevens with keyboardist Rocky Mantia at the River City Casino's 1904 Steakhouse. 

Outdoors on Sunday, Dizzy Atmosphere will play a set of string-band swing and Gypsy jazz at the Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park, an event that also features many other musical performances; and Cornet Chop Suey will be playing traditional New Orleans style jazz and swing in a free concert at Carondelet Park.

Indoors that afternoon, ragtime pianists and enthusiasts from all over will gather for an event paying tribute to the late pianist, historian and St. Louis native Trebor Tichenor (pictured) at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Performers will include pianists David Thomas Roberts, Terry Parrish, Rich Egan, Brian Keenan, Dave Majchrzak and John Hancock; Tichenor's long-running band, the St. Louis Ragtimers; his son Andy, a trumpeter, and daughters Virginia, a pianist, and Anna, a violist; and more.

Also on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, with an intermission set from the Columbia Jazz Orchestra.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer Dean Christopher will be bringing his "Rat Pack & More" show back to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar, while saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

On Tuesday, singer/pianist Jesse Gannon continues his weekly residency at the Engine Room, and jazz-fusion band Common Time will be at BB's.

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 the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Yesterday, the New York Times' City Room blog ran a short feature on saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, who's recovering from two strokes in the last two months, but nevertheless is planning to perform this Saturday.

Bluiett is living in NYC again after spending several years back home in southern Illinois, but according to the NYT article, continues to have financial as well as health difficulties and is getting help from the Jazz Foundation of America.

* The news is considerably better for fellow saxophonist, St. Louis expat, and World Saxophone Quartet co-founder Oliver Lake, who this week was named one of 20 winners of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award. The prize is worth a minimum of $225,000 over a three to five year period, with possible additional funding of another $50,000 if certain conditions are met.

* Enjoy The View, saxophonist David Sanborn's new album with Joey DeFrancesco, Bobby Hutcherson, and Billy Hart (pictured above with Sanborn), is now available for pre-order from iTunes, with immediate digital delivery of the preview track "Delia."

Meanwhile, Sanborn is wasting no time getting to work on his next recording, this week launching a PledgeMusic campaign to finance the costs. The album will reunite him with bassist Marcus Miller in the studio for the first time in nearly 15 years.

In addition to the usual premiums like downloads of the album, signed CDs, and VIP concert tickets, Sanborn is offering plenty of high-end options, too, including private concerts (which, for locations in the USA, start at $25K plus expenses) and the chance to have him play a solo on your recording ($7,500 when done from Sanborn's home studio).

* Trumpeter Clark Terry was the subject of a feature story in the New York Observer.

* Pianist and former St. Louisan Tom McDermott's collaboration with producer, songwriter and musician Van Dyke Parks was featured on New Orleans community radio station WWNO's "American Routes" program.

* Saxophonist Eric Person will take part in a tribute to the late drummer Chico Hamilton next Tuesday, April 29 at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC. Person worked with Hamilton for eight years and made several albums with him.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted on Facebook an album of photos from their recent performance at the Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

* Speaking of photo albums on Facebook, The Gramophone has posted one with shots from Davina and the Vagabonds' performance there last weekend.

* Singer Joe Mancuso is profiled in the new issue of Uptown magazine.

* The late St. Louis pianist and ragtime historian Trebor Tichenor is the subject of a tribute on the website West Coast Ragtime (incorporating StLJN's item on Tichenor's passing, with our permission according to Creative Commons licensing.)

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday's episode of Calvin Wilson's program "Somethin' Else" on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis will put the bass in the place with performances from Ron Carter, Gary Peacock, Esperanza Spalding, and more.

Then on "The Jazz Collective," Jason Church is offering tunes from Richard Smith, Les Sabler, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Stan Sargeant, John Klemmer, Fourplay, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Richard Elliot, and Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing.

Wilson's program airs at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Trebor Tichenor 1940 - 2014

Trebor Tichenor, the St. Louis native who became internationally known as a ragtime pianist and historian, has died. He was 74. An obituary in Tuesday's Post-Dispatch says he died Saturday at Laclede Groves in Webster Groves after having suffered a stroke in December.

As pianist for the St. Louis Ragtimers, Tichenor (pictured) was a regular performer on St. Louis stages and at ragtime and traditional jazz festivals across the country for five decades. He accumulated what was said to be one of the world's largest collections of ragtime, totaling more than 10,000 piano rolls and pieces of sheet music.

Tichenor also wrote a noted book, Rags and Ragtime, on the history of ragtime; composed a series of original rags that were published in three folios; and for many years hosted radio programs and taught college classes about the music he loved. To paraphrase the title of an article former Post-Dispatch music critic James Wierzbicki wrote about Tichenor for Ragtimer magazine in 1978, he "lived, breathed and collected ragtime music."

The Post-Dispatch obit, linked above, has a good overview of Tichenor's life and career, and there are more details at Tichenor's Wikipedia page. Tichenor discussed his youth, early influences, and St. Louis' ragtime history in a November 2010 article for St. Louis magazine. Also, St. Louis Ragtimers fan Bob Whiteside has compiled some vintage photos and audio of the group at a tribute website.

Survivors include a daughter, Virginia Tichenor, also a ragtime pianist, of Oakland, CA; a son, Andy Tichenor, a trumpeter living in Edwardsville; a brother, Bruce Tichenor of Concord, CA; and two granddaughters. His wife Ethel Taft Tichenor died in 1986.

Visitation will be from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. Thursday at Kutis Affton Chapel, 10151 Gravois Road. The funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. Friday at same location, with burial at Sunset Cemetery.

In the first embedded video window below, you can see and hear Trebor Tichenor playing "Maple Leaf Rag," one of the most famous compositions by one of his favorite musicians, Scott Joplin. The second clip shows the St. Louis Ragtimers performing "Red Rose Rag" for the Saint Louis Jazz Club in July, 2011. In addition to Tichenor, the band includes Al Stricker (banjo & vocal), Don Franz (tuba), Bill Mason (cornet), Eric Sager (clarinet), and Joe Thompson (trombone).

The third video window features a recording of Tichenor playing "Boomtown Echoes" from his LP of the same name, accompanied by a slide show of photos of the pianist, his family, friends and fellow musicians, which according to the accompanying notes were taken by George C. Willick at Tichenor's home between 1979 and 1981.

Update, 9:00 a.m., 3/14/14: KWMU's "CityScape" program last week aired an hour-long tribute to Tichenor, which can be heard online here.

Thimes, Massie, Tichenor to be featured on KETC's May 17 Grand Center special

Singers Denise Thimes and Kim Massie and pianist Trebor Tichenor and the St. Louis Ragtimers will be among the featured musicians on Live From Grand Center, a live television broadcast from the Sheldon Concert Hall that will air on local PBS affiliate KETC (Channel 9) at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The hour-long program will showcase St. Louis musical talentin a variety of styles, with the lineup also including blues/rock guitarist and singer Billy Peek, gospel group Something Special and bluegrass band the Flying Mules. Tickets for the concert are $75 for floor seats and $55 for balcony seats, but you can get a discount by going online to www.metrotix.com/promotions and entering the promotional code GCLIVE07.

Although it would be pure, unsupported speculation, one can't help but wonder if this might be a sort of back-door pilot or proof-of-concept for a potential series. Certainly, with venues such as Powell Hall, Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon and the Fox Theatre, there's plenty of musical talent, both local and national, being showcased in the Grand Center neighborhood on a regular basis. And now that KETC has moved their studios into the area, they certainly have a more vested interest in its success than when the station was located just off the Washington University campus.

Given the long-running success of shows such as Austin City Limits, Soundstage and others, the notion of a public TV music series originating from St. Louis doesn't seem entirely far-fetched. Of course, it wouldn't be cheap to produce, either, but one would think there are ample opportunities for corporate underwriting there, as well as potential revenue resulting from selling the show to other PBS affiliates. It will be interesting to see what sort of audience, both live and watching on TV, this program garners, and if it then spawns a sequel or sequels.