Jazz this week: Terence Blanchard, Matthew Whitaker, Trombone Shorty, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a couple of noteworthy free events, the local debut as a leader of an up-and-coming keyboardist, the return of one of New Orleans' favorites, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, June 5
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and his electric band, the E-Collective (pictured, top left), will play a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Blanchard has been a frequent visitor in recent months as Opera Theatre of St. Louis prepares to premiere his second opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, later this month. For this gig, he and the E-Collective likely will be leaning on material from their two Blue Note releases, 2015's Breathless and 2018's Live, but perhaps Blanchard will use the occasion to try out something new as well.

Also on Wednesday, keyboardist Matthew Whitaker makes his Jazz St. Louis debut as a bandleader with the first of five nights of performances continuing through Sunday.

A late addition to the season schedule to compensate subscribers for Dr. Lonnie Smith's cancelled dates last fall, Whitaker is an 18-year-old phenom originally from New Jersey. Although blind since birth, he has progressed rapidly to professional status after studying at Harlem School of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music's pre-college program.

Whitaker released his first album in 2017 with a supporting cast including heavyweights like bassist Christian McBride and saxophonist James Carter, and already has played major venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and the Apollo Theater.

Thursday, June 6
Pianist Adam Maness' trio is back at Thurman's in Shaw, fusion trio Tracer plays at  The Dark Room, and saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, June 7
Trombonist, trumpeter and singer Trombone Shorty (pictured, bottom left) and his band Orleans Avenue will perform at The Pageant.

You can see some recent video of Shorty (real name: Troy Andrews) and find out more about what he's been up to recently in this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Friday, singer Jan Shapiro and pianist Dave Venn, abetted by bassist Ben Wheeler, will reunite with an old friend, drummer Henry Ettman, for a show at the Ozark Theatre.

The gig brings together Shapiro, Venn and Ettman for the first time in more than 40 years; look for more on that in Friday's "So What" post.

Elsewhere around town, the Hard Bop Messengers return to Evangeline's; Tony Viviano sings music associated with Dean Martin at Table Three; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

Saturday, June 8
Due to conflicts between city government and the organizers of Fair U City, the U City Jazz Festival, for this year at least, has moved to Gazebo Park in Webster Groves and been renamed the Old Orchard Jazz Festival.

Featured performers at the free event, which runs from early afternoon through the evening, will include the Fusion Warriors, led by bassist Darrell Mixon, offering a "Tribute to Stanley Clarke," as well as Bach to the Future, Joe Mancuso, Soul Cafe, Mo Egeston All-Stars, The Avant-Gardians with Maurice Carnes, and Morphelonious.

If you're planning to attend, you may want to arrive early, as Gazebo Park is smaller than Heman Park, the fest's usual/previous site, and the event also is running concurrently with the Webster Arts Fair. The Arts Fair, with music by Dizzy Atmosphere, the Webster Groves HS Jazz Band, and various other acts on Saturday, will be happening just a few blocks to the west on the grounds of Eden Seminary, which means parking in the general vicinity could be scarce.

Update, 4:30 p.m. 6/5/19: Due to the possibly of bad weather on Saturday, the Old Orchard Jazz Fest has been moved indoors to the Ozark Theatre, located on Lockwood Ave to the east of gazebo Park, and will run from 2:00 p.m.  to 10:00 p.m.

Also on Saturday, the Alton Museum of History and Art presents their annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival, this year featuring saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald, guitarist Tim Jarden and singer Carmen Bonner, at Jacoby Arts Center

Sunday, June 9
Bassist and singer Janet Evra plays for brunch at The Dark Room, and the St. Louis Symphony with singers Dee Daniels and Denzal Sinclaire will pay tribute to the Cole family of pop/jazz fame with a program called "Unforgettable: Nat and Natalie" at Powell Hall.

Monday, June 10
Pianist and singer Jesse Gannon returns to The Dark Room.

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 Trombone Shorty

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue, who will be returning to St. Louis to perform next Friday, June 7 at The Pageant.

Since he last played here in 2015, Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) has continued to enjoy crossover success, touring frequently in the USA and overseas and putting out the album Parking Lot Symphony, released in 2017 on Blue Note Records.

This year, he also was selected as the closing act for New Orleans Jazzfest, a spot that traditionally has been reserved for the most popular local act, and was occupied for many years by the Neville Brothers. It was a passing-the-torch sort of moment, marking Trombone Shorty as a leader among his generation of NOLA musicians.

Given his multiple previous appearances and already-considerable fanbase here in St. Louis, today's collection of clips skips the introductions to focus on recent performances, starting up above with "Where It At?," recorded during Shorty's appearance in January of this year on the PBS series Austin City Limits.

After the jump, you can see two more performances, "Hurricane Season" and "Do to Me/When the Saints Go Marching In," that were recorded for that same Austin City Limits show but not included in the broadcast.

Next, you can see Shorty demonstrate his circular breathing technique on a version of the venerable standard "On The Sunny Side of the Street," as recorded in March of this year at a gig in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

That's followed by a full set of music recorded in February 2019 at Sweetwater Brewery in Atlanta, and finally, a version of "Tripped Out Slim" captured for posterity during a visit in August 2017 to the studios of radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, CA.

For more of the latest about Trombone Shorty, read his interview from earlier this year with UDiscoverMusic.com; the recent feature story about him at Relix.com; and a review of his show last New Year's Eve in Washington DC.

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

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue to perform Friday, June 7 at The Pageant

New Orleans multi-instrumentalist and singer Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue are returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Friday, June 7 at The Pageant.

Shorty (pictured) last played here in August 2015 at Ballpark Village. His most recent album Parking Lot Symphony was released in 2017 on the Blue Note label.

Tickets for Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue are $40 for reserved seats, $30/$35 for general admission (advance/day of show), with a $2 surcharge for minors, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, March 22 via Ticketmaster.

Sunday Session: September 24, 2017

Trombone Shorty

Here's the roundup of various music-related items of interest that have appeared in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Not Just Jazz: Inside Concord Music's Buying Spree (Billboard)
* Forget Carnegie Hall. Musicians rush to rural Colorado to play the Tank (Los Angeles Times)
* Have we reached peak Hans Zimmer? (The Guardian)
* How Fela Kuti Drummer Tony Allen Rediscovered His Jazz Roots (Rolling Stone)
* Marcus Miller: The Multi-Faceted Musician (Jazz Times)
* Monterey Jazz Festival 2017: Story of Some Grooves (Jazz Times)
* ‘Cash Me Outside’ Girl Signing Marks The Official Split of the Music Industry (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* We Are Never Getting Back Together: How Avoiding a Reunion Can Secure a Band’s Legacy (ConsequenceOfSound.net)
* Ravi Coltrane brings ‘Love Supreme’ to SFJazz (San Jose Mercury News)
* Why the star of California Symphony’s next concert looks like vacuum cleaner (San Jose Mercury News)
* Mary Hallock Greenewalt’s Illuminated Music (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound (Pitchfork.com)
* Remembering Grant Hart, 1961-2017 (City Pages)
* Concord Music Buys Savoy Label Group, Adding Jazz Recordings From Coltrane, Davis And Parker: Exclusive (Billboard)
* Harmonies That Welcomed Imagination—Remembering John Abercrombie (1944-2017) (New Music Box)
* Songs Of Discomposure: Quietus Writers Pick Their Most Disturbing Pieces Of Music (TheQuietus.com)
* Ann Richards: Dreams Have a Way of Fading (Jazz Times)
* Trombone Shorty Is Big On New Orleans, Music Education & Rap (Grammy.com)
* The 50 Best Jazz Singers Of All Time (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* 'An All-Around Musician': Steely Dan Guitarists Share Their Experiences of Working With Walter Becker (Billboard)
* Genres Blur & Swirl in Monterey’s ‘Big Tent’ (DownBeat)
* The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains (NPR)
* Notes from the Custerdome: A Jazz Appreciation of Steely Dan (New Music Box)
* Deep Dive with Lewis Porter: The Inspiration(s) Behind John Coltrane's "Impressions" (WBGO)
* A Frank Zappa Hologram Is Going on Tour (Guitar World)
* Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj (Billboard)
* Ageless Corea & Gadd Dazzle at Blue Note in NYC (DownBeat)
* Pete Turner, Photographer with an Eye for Color and an Ear For Jazz, Dies at 83 (WBGO)
* Soul Singer Charles Bradley Dies at 68 (Billboard)
* Charles Bradley Remembered: A Great Soul Man Who Found the Light in Darkness (Billboard)

Sunday Session: June 18, 2017

Ornette Coleman

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Trombone Shorty: Living for the Crescent City (Jazz Times)
* 10 Musicians Look Back on the Albums They Don’t Remember Recording (SPIN)
* Web Exclusive: Hal Blaine (Modern Drummer)
* Tom Oberheim On The Art Of Synthesizer Design (Synthtopia.com)
* After 7 Decades, Sonny Rollins Can't Get Music Off His Mind (NPR)
* Charlie Parker's Yardbird review – beauty, anger and poetry, but the jazz great's genius eludes us (The Guardian)
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Guitars? Exploring the Future of Musical A.I. (Pitchfork.com)
* Interview: Airto Moreira (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2018 Class of NEA Jazz Masters (Arts.gov)
* Gregg Allman: The Wild Times, Lost Years and Rebirth of a Southern-Rock Legend (Rolling Stone)
* Transcending genre labels, Vijay Iyer leads the Ojai Music Festival toward bold new territory (Los Angeles Times)
* Go-Go Forever - The rise, fall, and afterlife of Washington, D.C.’s ultimate rhythm (MTV.com)
* Steve Earle: 'My wife left me for a younger, skinnier, less talented singer' (The Guardian)
* This interracial couple endured discrimination and bullying — but loved each other until the end (Washington Post)
* All That Jazz: The Business Of Over 35 Years At The Blue Note Jazz Club (Forbes)
* Guest Editorial: Why Musicians Don’t Get Paid—A New Orleans Musician’s View (Offbeat)
* A new generation of jazz comes to the fore at Tokyo Lab (Japan Times)
* Who killed the contemporary Christian music industry? (The Week)
* 2 guitars returned to Muddy Waters' heirs in ongoing estate battle (Chicago Tribune)
* Gibson Brands transforms guitar-making into diverse 'music lifestyle' firm (Los Angeles Times)
* Celebrate Ornette Coleman: Artists pay homage to the legendary avant-garde saxophonist (TheVinylFactory.com)

Sunday Session: April 30, 2017

Hugh Masekela

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* UK music industry braced for Brexit (BBC)
* Nudity, chimps, and Dolly Parton's disembodied head: are these the worst album covers of all time? (The Telegraph)
* Trombone Shorty Pushes Tradition Forward (NPR)
* Preservation Propagation: Preservation Hall Jazz Band has left the museum behind (Offbeat)
* Hancock, Spalding, McBride Celebrate Shorter in Hometown (DownBeat)
* Review 'Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary' serves the jazz legend well (Los Angeles Times)
* Jazz Giant Wadada Leo Smith on Four Recent Collaborations (Bandcamp.com)
* Afrobeat Legend Tony Allen Honors Jazz Great With 'Tribute to Art Blakey' EP (Rolling Stone)
* Interview: Hugh Masekela on No Borders, Satchmo and reuniting the Jazz Epistles (BestOfNewOrleans.com)
* From the Magazine: Sipiagin Soars on New Sextet Album (DownBeat)
* Q&A: Henry Threadgill - Master improviser speaks on sustaining creativity (Austin Chronicle)
* Ella Fitzgerald: Beyond Words (Merriam-Webster.com)
* Duke Ellington And Copyright: Five Things You Should Know (JDSupra.com)
* Record Store Day Is Boon for Vinyl Sales (DownBeat)
* Remembering Ella Fitzgerald, Who Made Great Songs Greater (NPR)
* Stax Records Plots Massive 60th Anniversary Campaign (Rolling Stone)
* The Hidden Legacy of The Jazz Epistles, South Africa's Short-Lived But Historic Band (WBGO)
* What Controversial Changes at Harvard Mean for Music in the University (TheLogJournal.com)
* Ashok and Vijay Squeeze Blood from a Drum Machine (AAWW.org)
* The Story of Science Faction, the Company That Brought Lasers to Rock and Roll (Vice.com)
* A Jazz Classic Becomes a Picture Book (TabletMag.com)
* Q&A: Miles Mosley - The fiery, soulful bassist, singer and composer launches his Uprising (Jazz Times)
* Blue Note Jazz Festival Announces Lineup - Concerts by Metheny, Glasper, Collier, Hiromi, Tyner, Ponty and many more (Jazz Times)

Sunday Session: March 19, 2017

Chuck Berry

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Hail and farewell: Rock legend Chuck Berry dies at 90 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
* $7.5 million guitar sale questioned by professionals (USA Today)
* Play Paul Simon’s Piano or Croon Into Elvis’ Mic at These Seven Historic Recording Studios (Smithsonian)
* Paul Shaffer Releases ‘Most Dangerous’ Album (AmericanBluesScene.com)
* Metheny Celebrated at Alternative Guitar Summit (DownBeat)
* The Fate of the Critic in the Clickbait Age (The New Yorker)
* Last Call (About Last Night/ArtsJournal.com)
* SoundCloud’s Valuation Has Dropped 75% In Less Than a Year (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* Cornelia Street Cafe Struggling With High Rent After 40 Years In Village (DNAInfo.com)
* Tommy LiPuma, Grammy-Winning Producer & Record Exec, Dies at 80 (Billboard)
* Ride the Feedback: A Brief History of Guitar Distortion (Vice.com)
* Ornette Coleman’s Inspired Soundtrack for “Who’s Crazy?” (The New Yorker)
* Return of the Composer-Performer: A Rough Guide to New Music by Virtuoso Musicians (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Rock Band: An Electromechanical Sound Machine That Makes Music With Rocks (ThisIsColossal.com)
* Late musician Tony Conrad in the documentary 'Completely in the Present': 'I wanted to end composing — get rid of it' (Los Angeles Times)
* Kamasi Washington Follows ‘The Epic’ With a New Work in Whitney Biennial (New York Times)
* Alice Coltrane: Her Sound and Spirit (BBC)
* When East Meets West: Hear What Happened When Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass Composed Music Together (OpenCulture.com)
* In Oakland, Trombone Shorty & Chili Peppers Create Red Hot Groove (DownBeat)
* The UK jazz invasion: 'I’m sure that some purists wouldn’t even call it jazz' (The Guardian)
* The Francis Brothers: African Record Center (Afropop.com)
* REVIEW: John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension at Ronnie Scott's (LondonJazzNews.com)
* The Art of Tour Managing (Projection, Lights And Staging News)
* Enter the SoundBox: How the SF Symphony Turned a Dreadful Room Into Sonic Paradise (Wired)
* John Coltrane Documentary ‘Chasing Trane’ Gets Release Date (Variety)
* James Cotton Dies at 81 (DownBeat)
* The Real Cost of Abolishing the National Endowment for the Arts (The Atlantic)

Sunday Session: February 5, 2017

Maria Schneider

Here are some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* How Chic’s ‘Good Times’ Launched Rap (Wall Street Journal)
* What would it take to make audio 'cool' again? (CNet.com)
* The story of Ash Koosha, now banned from the USA (DazedDigital.com)
* Volnovod is a robot sculpture that uses wire to make sound visually (CreateDigitalMusic.link)
* David Byrne's New Doc 'Contemporary Color' Shows Off 'Art Sport' And Indie Stars (NPR)
* From The Critic's Desk: A Preview Of 2017 In Jazz (NPR)
* Newport Jazz Festival Announces First Wave of Artists for 2017 (Jazz Times)
* Bob Dylan's New Triple Album Reimagines The Classics (NPR)
* ‘Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague’: A fanboy’s appreciation of Frank Zappa’s ‘Uncle Meat’ (DangerousMinds.net)
* Unreleased Bill Evans Trio Album To Be Released March 24 (DownBeat)
* How a pair of former Detroit Lions helped inspire one of Marvin Gaye’s most defining records (TheUndefeated.com)
* First Listen: Miguel Zenón, 'Típico' (NPR)
* Trombone Shorty Signs with Blue Note, To Release Label Debut in April (DownBeat)
* Colleagues, Collaborators Remember Michael Brecker in NYC Concert (DownBeat)
* How Embattled LA DIY Venue The Smell Is Using VR to Preserve Its Legacy (Vice.com)
* For The Last Time: Rock Is Not Dead, You’re Just Not Paying Attention (Uproxx.com)
* Is the era of weird instruments over? (Perfect Sound Forever)
* From Joni Mitchell to Laura Marling: how female troubadours changed music (The Guardian)
* Maria Schneider ‘Attacking the Data Lords’ (DownBeat)
* Is Spotify Going Bankrupt In 2017? Wall Street Delivers Another Red Flag (DigitalMusicNews.com)

Sunday Session: February 7, 2016

Maurice White

For your Sunday reading, some interesting music-related items that have turned up recently in StLJN's inbox:

* Esperanza Spalding on Her Alter Ego and Being Inspired 'By Stuff People in Suits Don't Give a Shit About' (Billboard)
* For the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Monday Becomes an All-Week Affair (New York Times)
* Who Should Pay for the Arts in America? (The Atlantic)
* Inside the Strange, Hidden World of Offstage Touring Musicians (LA Weekly)
* The Riffs And Rhythms That Led To Jazz As We Know It (NPR)
* Five Questions With Jason Kao Hwang (Textura.org)
* Cash-Strapped Spotify Is Desperately Seeking a $500 Million Loan (DigitalMusicNews.com)
* All On A Mardi Gras Day: New Orleans’ unique carnival traditions (Offbeat)
* Interview: Trombone Shorty on refining Supafunkrock, the future of jazz, and playing for Obama (Vanyaland.com)
* If Rihanna Can Go Platinum Giving ANTI Away For Free, What Does Platinum Even Mean? (Stereogum)
* The Art of Blue Note (UDiscoverMusic.com)
* SFX Entertainment files for bankruptcy in the US (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* A Conversation with Randy Weston - The African connection (Jazz Times)
* Pianist Aaron Goldberg Tells the Story of How Expatriate Drummer Leon Parker Returns and Begins His Next Chapter at National Sawdust (ZealNYC.com)
* Maurice White, Earth, Wind & Fire Singer and Co-Founder, Dead at 74 (Rolling Stone)
* Maurice White: The Audacity Of Uplift (NPR)
* Good time: the greatest moments of Maurice White and Earth, Wind & Fire (The Guardian UK)
* How David Liebman got the keys to the jazz kingdom (Irish Times)
* Hear the Experimental Music of the Dada Movement: Avant-Garde Sounds from a Century Ago (OpenCulture.com)
* Vinyl revival: Canadian company reinvents the record pressing plant (The Globe and Mail)
* The Biggest Session Drummer Of All Time Is Ready For The Spotlight (Buzzfeed.com)
* Marshall Allen Spreads Enlightenment with Arkestra (DownBeat)
* Bowie: follow the changes (Jazz Journal)
* A Fearless Soprano's Case For Contemporary Music (NPR)

Sunday Session: November 1, 2015

Trombone Shorty

For your Sunday reading, here are some interesting music-related items that have hit StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* YouTube's pay TV service makes video-creators a deal they literally can't refuse (Boing Boing)
* Why Record Labels Are Making Rappers Dance For Dollars (The Daily Beast)
* Trombone Shorty Did the Adult Voices for the Peanuts Movie (Offbeat)
* Watch Tim Burton and Danny Elfman Talk 'Batman' Score (Rolling Stone)
* CBS Radio Says That It Doesn't Play Pre-1972 Music, Because All Its Old Songs Are Remastered (TechDirt.com)
* The Greatest Week in the History of Avant-Garde Jazz (RedBullMusicAcademy.com)
* Bennett, Corea Among Winners in 2015 DownBeat Readers Poll (DownBeat)
* The oldest written song ever discovered — The Hurrian Hymn (c. 1400BC)(Disinfo.com)
* Why pop-turned-jazz stars just ain't got that swing (The Guardian UK)
* Soundtrack of a Movement (Berlin Jazz Festival)
* Vijay Iyer - Degrees of choice (Innerviews)
* How Losing My Record Deal Helped Me Feed My Family (Idobi.com)
* Meet Alan Howarth, the Composer Who Invented What Halloween Sounds Like (Vice.com)
* Shirley Scott, 'Queen Of The Organ' (NPR)
* McPherson Revisits Bebop Roots in New York (DownBeat)
* The Brief and Bizarre Life of the Fake Amazon Bandcamp Page (Consequence Of Sound)
* SONGS Music CEO Matt Pincus: Why Music Publishing's Two-Class System Could Spell the End for New Indie Firms (Billboard)
* A New day for jazz vinyl & delivery (OpenSkyJazz.com)
* We Are Still Rattling Chains and Crunching Leaves To Signal It's Halloween (Atlas Obscura)
* The Feeling Of Space: How Sun Ra Integrated Sci-Fi in Music (Paste)
* Ellen Fullman and the avant garde drone of ‘The Long String Instrument’ (Dangerous Minds)
* The entire musical world is in crisis: John McLaughlin (Times of India)
* Brian Eno’s Music For Airports Adds Sweetness To Din (Classical Voice America)

Jazz this week: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Tom McDermott, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis includes shows from a couple of New Orleans acts - one a former St. Louisan - as well as a diverse assortment of performances from local musicians.

Let's go to the highlights....

Thursday, August 6
Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be swinging in the swanky confines of the Ritz Carlton Hotel's Lobby Lounge, and guitarist Dave Black and friends, including singer Joe Mancuso, will perform at Nathalie's.

Friday, August 7
Pianist Tom McDermott,  a St. Louis native who since the 1980s has made his home in New Orleans, will be back town to perform at the Tavern of Fine Arts. McDermott (pictured, top left) has earned a reputation as an expert on historic New Orleans jazz and blues piano styles, mixing in classical music, Brazilian choro, and more as the mood strikes him.

Meanwhile, Jazz at the Bistro will host the first of two nights of "Saturday Night Fish Fry," featuring blues guitarist and singer Mike Aguirre (pictured, center left) and a backing group including members of the Funky Butt Brass Band, musicians who have played with Albert King and Chuck Berry, and Jazz St. Louis' own Bob Bennett on tenor sax.

Elsewhere around town, singer Eve Seltzer performs at Evangeline’s; and pianist Ptah Williams and guitarist Eric Slaughter will play at Thurman Grill.

Saturday, August 8
Also from New Orleans, multi-instrumentalist and singer Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (pictured, lower left) will perform outdoors at Ballpark Village's City View Concert Stage.

With a galvanizing live show, Shorty has crossed over successfully to jam-band and rock audiences, and given his increasing popularity plus the availability of cheap general admission tickets, this gig should draw a large crowd. You can check out some sample live performances from Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue in this video post from last week.

Also on Saturday, singer Joe Scalzitti and the St. Louis Big Band begin the final weekend of their tribute show "Sinatra at 100" at the Kranzberg Arts Center; guitarist Vincent Varvel and pianist Adam Maness will play at Tavern of Fine Arts; and trumpeter Jim Manley's All-Star Group returns to Nathalie's.

Sunday, August 9
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents a matinee performance by pianist Pat Joyce at the Ozark Theatre, and Gypsy jazz duo Coco Rico will play an early evening show at Nathalie's.

Monday, August 10
Trumpeter Keith Moyer plays at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, August 11
Singer Feyza Eren will perform at Evangeline'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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from Trombone Shorty

Today, we check in on the New Orleans multi-instrumentalist and singer Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty, who's returning to St. Louis next weekend to play on Saturday, August 8 at Ballpark Village.

Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue have been playing here once a year or so since 2008, turning up most recently last September as one of the headliners for LouFest in Forest Park. If you're not familiar with his back story, you can glean the essentials from the video showcase posted here before his November 2013 show at the Old Rock House.

Today, though, you can see some more recent clips of Trombone Shorty in action. Up top, there's a good portion of the set he played at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and after the jump, you'll find another full show, recorded in 2013 at the Olympia in Paris.

In the third video, Shorty and company are joined by a special guest, the late Travis "Trumpet Black" Hill, to perform "Go To The Mardi Gras" and "Let's Go Get 'Em" this past February in Delray Beach, FL. (Hill, who was just 28, died suddenly in May as the result of a tooth infection.)

That's followed by a version of "St. James Infirmary" from the 2014 Jazzaldia festival in Spain, and an excerpt from Shorty's set at the 2015 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show, held in January in Anaheim.

Last but not least, you can check out an interview that Shorty did in 2014 with veteran TV journalist Dan Rather.

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

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue to play Saturday, August 8 at Ballpark Village

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue are returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, August 8 at Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave downtown.

The New Orleans-based trombonist, trumpeter and singer (pictured) and his band last played here in St. Louis in August 2014 at LouFest in Forest Park. His most recent album, Say This To Say That, was released back in 2013 on Verve Records.

Having already crossed over to the rock/pop audience, Shorty (real name: Troy Andrews) now seems to be turning into something of a multimedia phenomenon. In April, he and illustrator Bryan Collins put out a children's book, Trombone Shorty, described as "an autobiography about how Shorty followed his dream of becoming a musician despite the odds." In addition, his remake of Neal Hefti's classic theme song was used this spring in CBS' reboot of the sitcom The Odd Couple.

Tickets for Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue at Ballpark Village are $11 for general admission, with a "VIP Upgrade" available for an additional $25, and are on sale now via ticketfly.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Guitarist Mary Halvorson was interviewed for an article on the New Music Circle website. NMC is presenting Thumbscrew, featuring Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, in concert tonight at Joe's Cafe.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn has sold his NYC townhouse for $11 million. The property has been on the market since 2009 as part of a reported effort by Sanborn to downsize to slightly more modest quarters.

* Pianist and St. Louis expat Linda Presgrave (pictured) and her husband, saxophonist Stan Chovnick, have posted online a video of their duo concert recorded last week at Michiko Studios in NYC. The complete show can be seen for free until October 5.

* The reissue of composer/flute player Fred Tompkins' Fanfare 8: The Early Works was reviewed by blogger Grego Applegate Edwards of the blog Gapplegate Music Review, who called Tompkins "one of the greatest, if lesser known, of the so-called "third-stream" composers."

* Last weekend's LouFest set by Trombone Shorty was discussed in reviews of the event from the Riverfront Times and KDHX's Kevin Korinek.

* The Cherokee Street music and art venue Blank Space is expanding, as detailed in this story by the RFT's Joseph Hess.

* St. Louis Volunteer Attorneys and Accountants for the Arts and Missouri Arts Council have put online a video of their "Copyright Basics" workshop.

* The St. Louis swing dance community this week is mourning the death of veteran dancer Tommy Russo, who passed away last week at age 98.

* As part of their 65th anniversary promotion, Prestige Records has released online a short video interview with producer Ira Gitler, who describes what really happened during one of the Miles Davis sessions included among the label's recent reissues.

* Writing for the St. Louis American, James Ingram (not the singer, but rather a columnist for the paper) wonders why Don Cheadle couldn't have filmed his Miles Davis movie in East St. Louis rather than Cincinnati.

(Actually, I think I know the answer to this one. Presumably, one big reason is because ESL lacks sufficient locations that could double for NYC in the 1970s, which was cited as a key reason Cheadle chose Cincinnati. Ingram's essay mentions having room in ESL to construct sets and facades, but the modest budget of Miles Ahead would have precluded that option no matter where it was shot. The film also reportedly received tax incentives from the city and from the state of Ohio, which Illinois and/or ESL may have been unwilling or unable to match.)

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” host Calvin Wilson will feature tracks from saxophonist Sonny Rollins' recent series of “Road Shows” recordings. The program can be heard 8:00 p.m. on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

A bit farther down the dial, this week's edition of "St. Louis Jazz Talk" at 11:00 a.m. Sunday on WSIE (88.7 FM) will feature an interview with drummer Steve Davis.

Loufest 2014 lineup includes Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Lettuce

While the first four years of Loufest have concentrated mostly on rock, pop and hip-hop, the festival's fifth anniversary lineup includes a couple of acts that may be of interest to local jazz fans as well.

Specifically, the 2014 edition of Loufest, set for Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7 in Forest Park's Central Field, will include appearances from Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (pictured) and the funk band Lettuce.

Other headlining acts this year will include Outkast, Arctic Monkeys, Cake, Grouplove, Matt & Kim, Portugal The Man, Future Islands, and Kelis. For the complete lineup, see http://www.loufest.com/.

Shorty's last appearance here was in November 2013 at the Old Rock House. As for Lettuce, while yr. humble StLJN editor is pretty sure they've played here at some point in their 20+ year history, I've been unable to locate any specifics on that.

VIP tickets for the two-day Loufest are priced at $350 per person and already are on sale. They include access to a VIP lounge with complimentary beer, wine, and specialty libations all day, catered food servings, air conditioned restrooms and more.

Regular two-day tickets are priced at $95 per person, inclusive of all fees, and go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 13 via http://www.loufest.com/tickets.

Jazz this week: Ann Hampton Callaway, Nevermore Jazz Ball, Trombone Shorty, and more

This week's highlights in jazz and creative music include the return to St. Louis of a singer, songwriter and pianist who's been a longtime local favorite, and a funky New Orleans trombonist who's rapidly becoming one, plus a weekend-long event that attracts swing dancers from around the country, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

On Wednesday, the aforementioned singer, songwriter and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Callaway (pictured) has played St. Louis many times before, most recently in March 2011 at the Bistro, and has a substantial and loyal fan base here. This time, she'll be showcasing material from her forthcoming CD From Sassy to Divine: A Celebration of Sarah Vaughan, which is scheduled for release next year. Given Callaway's continued popularity in St. Louis, advance reservations are strongly suggested.

Tomorrow night, the weekend-long Nevermore Jazz Ball kicks off with a "welcome" evening of music from Wack-A-Doo at the Schlafly Brewery & Tap Room. The ball continues with more dances, classes, contests and other activities through Sunday; read on for more about the other musical performances.

Also on Thursday, singer Denise Thimes will present her annual benefit for the Mildred Thimes Foundation, performing the music of the late Phyllis Hyman at the Sheldon Concert Hall; multi-instrumentalist Jeff Anderson, concentrating on tenor sax for the evening, leads a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and Sandy Weltman will showcase his virtuoso skills in a harmonica workshop at Mozingo Music in O'Fallon.

On Friday, the Nevermore Jazz Ball gets going in earnest with an afternoon performance from singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran at City Museum and an evening of dancing to music from Miss Jubliee at the Casa Loma Ballroom. Also on Friday, singer Wendy Gordon performs at DeLeo's Café & Deli, 2782 N. Lindbergh; drummer Robert Tucker leads a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; guitarist Tom Byrne brings his trio to Thurman Grill; and singer Zena Star will hold forth at the Cigar Inn.

On Saturday afternoon, the Nevermore Jazz Ball will present the Cherokee Street Jazz Crawl, a free, open-to-the-public event featuring nine different St. Louis bands and soloists playing at venues and businesses along a stretch of Cherokee St, from roughly the 2300 block up to the 2800 block. Participating performers and locations this year include Saxquest’s nine-piece jazz orchestra at Saxquest; Tommy Halloran’s Guerrilla Swing at Retro 101; Miss Jubilee at Foam; Tom Hall at Scarlett Garnet Jewelry; Wack-A-Doo at Black Bear Bakery; Devil’s Dream at I Scream Cakes; Swing Deville at MELT; the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars at Blank Space; plus the Saint Boogie Brass Band, who presumably will be roaming about. 

The ball continues on Saturday evening with another dance featuring trumpeter and pianist Ben Polcer’s Nevermore Jazz Band at Casa Loma, plus a late night event at the Grandel Theatre featuring banjo player Jake Sanders' Arcadian Serenaders.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing, traditional jazz and jump blues at Malle's, 3506 Hampton Ave; and pianist Carolbeth True brings the quartet version of her band Two Times True to Robbie's House of Jazz. That same evening, singer Ann Dueren's trio is at Il Bel Lago; and saxophonist and percussionist "Raven Wolf" C. Felton Jennings II will team up with poet Dwight Bitikofer and some other friends to play the Stone Spiral Coffee House.

On Sunday, Kirkwood United Church of Christ continues its monthly "Inner Jazz" series with the Oikos Ensemble, led by saxophonist Rev. Cliff Aerie and this month featuring guest singer Kim Fuller. Later that evening, the Nevermore Jazz Ball concludes with a final performance from Ben Polcer and band at 2720 Cherokee.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday New Orleans' own Trombone Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) will be back in town with his band Orleans Avenue to play at the Old Rock House. For more about Shorty and lots of video of him and the band in action, please see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Monday, percussionist Joe Pastor's trio returns to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and music students from Webster University will be doubly busy, as the student jazz combos present another free performance at the Community Music School, while the singers involved in the cabaret program will have their annual showcase and benefit at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

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: Saying this 'n that with Trombone Shorty

Stepping into our video spotlight today is Troy Andrews, better known as Trombone Shorty, who will be in St. Louis with his band Orleans Avenue on Monday, November 11 to play at the Old Rock House.

Mixing New Orleans jazz and funk with hip-hop and rock, Shorty's energetic live performances have made him a rising star in the jazz world and beyond. He's been to St. Louis several times in the last few years, most recently in May 2013 to perform at the Bluesweek festival, and is touring this fall in support of his third major-label album Say This To Say That, which came out on the Verve label in September. The record was produced by Raphael Saadiq of the neo-soul group Tony Toni Tone, and features a reunion of the original Meters on a cover of their song "By My Lady."

Still just 27 years old, Trombone Shorty grew up in New Orleans' Treme neighborhood, and first gained national attention while still a teenager, touring as part of the horn section for rocker Lenny Kravitz; performing with U2 and Green Day on Monday Night Football; and memorably playing "O Holy Night" with a group of displaced New Orleans musicians on a post-Katrina, pre-Christmas episode of NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Since then, he's also been a semi-regular on the HBO series Treme, appearing in six episodes that he somehow squeezed into an increasingly busy schedule of live shows throughout the US and Europe. Given that prolific touring activity, there's a lot of video footage of Trombone Shorty online, and so today we are able to bring you a hefty sample of his music, including four complete shows.

The first of those full sets is up above, and was recorded in New Orleans in 2012, just after the release of Shorty's second Verve album For True.

Down below is a more recent show, recorded in June of this year at the famed Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater in Colorado. Unfortunately, this video has been heavily "monetized" by its producers, resulting in frequent commercial interruptions, but it's a high quality recording and the most recent full show available online.

For who don't want to watch a whole set, you can get a smaller sample of Trombone Shorty in the thrid clip, which includes just three songs - "Dumaine St.", "Lagniappe" and "Do To Me" - and was recorded in 2011 as part of NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert" series.

The fourth and fifth videos are of two more complete concerts, recorded in 2011 at Jazz Baltica and the Montreux Jazz Festival. While there's obviously some overlap in material between these two shows and with the other full sets, they're not identical by any means, and for those who are really into it, it can be interesting to note the differences in song selection, pacing and so on.

To close things out, we set the controls of the "wayback machine" for the year 2000 to retrieve the sixth and final clip, which shows a 13-year-old Trombone Shorty soloing on the NOLA standard "Second Line" with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

For more about Trombone Shorty and Say That To Say This, check out this video interview he did earlier this month with the UK's Jazz FM, and this interview published in September on the website Complex.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Pianist and St. Louis native Tom McDermott's latest album is the subject of a feature in New Orleans' Offbeat magazine.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted on Facebook a photo set from Tuesday's recent "Notes From Home" performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* On a related note, the Rt66JO's re-organization after budget cuts forced them to leave their longtime home at St. Louis Community College - Meramec was the subject of a St. Louis Beacon feature story written by Terry Perkins.

* Also in the Beacon, readers wax nostalgic about the Goldenrod Showboat, which served for many years as a live music venue on the St. Louis riverfront but now finally may be headed for the scrap heap.

* Trombonist William Cepeda's concert last Friday at the Sheldon was briefly reviewed (en Espanol) and photographed by the website Diario Digital. (Google translation of the text to English is here.)

* Organizers of the Miles Davis Memorial Project seeking to put up a statue of the trumpeter in downtown Alton have put online a new promotional video for their fund-raising campaign.

* Speaking of videos, Trombone Shorty (pictured), who will play here in St. Louis on November 11 at the Old Rock House, has released a clip of the song "Fire and Brimstone" from his new album Say That To Say This.

* And speaking of new releases, Vintage Vinyl will hold a "listening party" (complete with free pizza and beverages) to check out Black Radio 2, the new album from pianist Robert Glasper, at 7:00 p.m. next Wednesday, October 30.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2013 jazz preview, part 4

Today, it's part 4 of StLJN's Fall 2013 jazz preview, in which we offer video samples of the various jazz and creative musicians coming to our town before the end of the year. (Here's part one, part two, and part three.)

Our preview resumes at the beginning of November with guitarist Peter Bernstein, who will be appearing with pianist Peter Martin on Saturday, November 2 at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of Martin's eponymous concert series there. Bernstein, whose notable credits include stints with Diana Krall, Lou Donaldson, the all-star Blue Note 7, and many others, is seen in the first clip up above playing "Penthouse Serenade" in June 2012 at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music.

Down below, the next clip offers a look at trumpeter and pianist Ben Polcer, who will be leading the band providing music for this year's Nevermore Jazz Ball Saturday night dance, also on November 2. Polcer, who lives in New Orleans, will assemble a group specifically for the St. Louis gig; he's seen here with the band known as His Swingin' Six, including vocalist Mischa Lake, performing "24 Robbers."

The following week, singer and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway returns to St. Louis to perform Wednesday, November 6 through Saturday, November 9 at Jazz at the Bistro. Callaway, who last played the Bistro in 2011, is seen here in the studios of KPLU radio in Seattle, improvising song lyrics based on words and phrases suggested by the audience, which on this occasion included "sunshine in Seattle," "home for wayward girls," "basketball" and "snuffleupagus."

A couple of days later, Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue return to St. Louis to play Monday, November 11 at the Old Rock House. Shorty, aka Troy Andrews, last played here for the Bluesweek festival in May; in this clip, you can see him performing "Big 12."

Next up, it's violinist Regina Carter, who's returning to play Wednesday, November 20 throguh Saturday November 23 at Jazz at the Bistro. When she was here to play the Bistro a couple of years ago, Carter performed with the the band from her album Reverse Thread, with whom she can be seen here playing “Zerapiky,” a folk song from Madagascar. The quartet for this fall tour includes the drummer from that band, Alvester Garnett, as well as pianist Xavier Davis and bassist Jesse Murphy, which, absent Reverse Thread's accordion and kora, suggests at least a partial return to a more straight-ahead sound.

The week after Carter is town, trumpeter, singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport will return home from new Orleans to play his annual post-Thanksgiving dates here on Friday November 29 and Saturday, November 30 at Jazz at the Bistro. In today's sixth clip, shot by an audience member at the French Quarter Festival in April of this year, Davenport offers his version of the standard "Bourbon Street Parade."

The following week, guitarist Pat Martino will play Wednesday, December 4 through Saturday, December 7 at the Bistro. Martino, who's been to St. Louis many times and last played the Bistro in 2010, is seen in the sixth clip performing Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" earlier this year at a jazz festival in Salerno, Italy.

The next show on the calendar is a bit harder to preview, as pianist Marc Copland, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Joey Baron aren't really a regular working unit and thus there's no video online of them all playing together. So, to give you at least taste of what to expect when they join forces to play Friday, December 6 at 560 Music Center, we've got two clips. The first features Copland and guitarist John Abercrombie dueting on "Speak to Me" at a concert last year in Vienna; the second is a profile of Baron, produced for German television.

Today's final video features two more musicians who should be quite familiar to local audiences, singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli, who's done more gigs here in the last decade than just about any other touring jazz musician, and his dad, the legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. For this visit to our town, the Pizzarellis will team up for performances on Wednesday, December 18 through Saturday, December 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video is a short feature story about them, with musical excerpts, produced by a New Jersey public TV station and filmed at the Shanghai Jazz Club in Madison, NJ.

Trombone Shorty returning to perform Monday, November 11 at Old Rock House

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews (pictured) and his band Orleans Avenue are returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m., Monday, November 11 at the Old Rock House.

Andrews' new album, Say That To Say This, will be released tomorrow (September 10) on Verve Records. Co-produced by Andrews and Raphael Saadiq, it's his third record for the label, and features a guest appearance by all the original members of New Orleans' legendary Meters on Andrews' cover of their tune "Be My Lady."

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue last appeared in St. Louis in May at the Bluesweek festival. Tickets for their all-ages show on Monday, November 11 at Old Rock House are $27.50 in advance, $30 day of show, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Wednesday, September 11.