So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Last Saturday's concert by bassist Ron Carter's Golden Striker trio at the Touhill Performing Arts Center was reviewed here by Calvin Wilson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In conjunction with his performance for the Greater St. Louis jazz Festival, Carter also was interviewed by Don Wolff for his "I Love Jazz" program and by radio station WSIE (MP3 file).

* WSIE also got an interview with singer Vanessa Rubin before her performance at SIUE on Monday.

* Post-Dispatch gossip columnist Deb Peterson did a Q&A session last week with saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.

* Singer Erin Bode will be the musical guest on A Prairie Home Companion when the public radio program broadcasts live from the Fox Theatre on Saturday, April 30. The program airs from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturdays on local NPR affiliate KMWU (90.7 FM)

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Yellowjackets, Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Del McCoury Band, Vanessa Rubin, and more

It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of touring musicians and groups performing here over the next several days in styles ranging from traditional New Orleans jazz to big band to fusion to free improv. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the electric jazz/fusion group Yellowjackets returns to St. Louis to open a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. The 'Jackets have been regular visitors to St. Louis, though this will be their first time here since former drummer Will Kennedy returned to the fold last year to replace St. Louis native Marcus Baylor, who spent ten years with them. Given their substantial local fan base, they should draw a good-sized crowd even with everything else going on this week, so advance reservations definitely are recommended.

Also tonight, the highly anticipated tour featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and bluegrass star Del McCoury's band comes to the Family Arena. (The show originally was scheduled for last fall, then postponed until this week.) If you're curious as to what this combination of roots music talent sounds like, the collaborative CD American Legacies featuring both groups has just been released this week, and you can listen to it stream online for free here. Local music freelancer Dan Duchholz also wrote a nice preview story about the show for the Post-Dispatch, and you can read that online here.

Rounding out tonight's musical offerings is percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, who will organize and perform with a "Gong Orchestra" comprised of local improvising musicians at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Nakatani also will teach a free master class on improvisation and extended percussion techniques at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon at LNAC.

Tomorrow night, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University wraps up its spring 2011 series with the music of the Crusaders performed by a group billed as Scratch (which is the title of one of the Crusaders 1970s recordings.) Oddly, JaH has released no information about the specific lineup of players, other than the so-vague-as-to-be-useless description of "some of St. Louis' best musicians," so there's not much more to say about this show.

Update, 10:50 a.m., 4/14/11 - Just got a Facebook invite to the Scratch gig from one of the musicians involved, and it looks like the band is made up mostly of musicians associated in some way with SIUE: Ben Reece (tenor sax), Cody Henry (trombone), Phil Ring (guitar), Adaron "Pops" Jackson (keyboards), Nick Jost (bass) and Miles Vandiver (drums).

Also on Thursday, Simon Shaheen will play at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom. Shaheen, a Palestinian-American oud and violin player and composer who mixes Arabic music with Western sounds and has performed with Bill Laswell, Henry Threadgill and the Klezmatics, is appearing as part of SIUE's Arts and Issues series.

On Friday, the public portion of the 2011 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival begins with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra playing at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Descended from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, the VJO has been a Monday night fixture at NYC's Village Vanguard for more than 40 years, serving as a proving ground for several generations of players and arrangers. The UMSL Jazz Ensemble will open the festival's shows on both Friday and Saturday, and they'll by joined onstage by the legendary Clark Terry, who, though no longer able to play trumpet due to health issues, will pick up the mic to sing his famously mushmouthed blues "Mumbles."

Also on Friday, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio will hold forth at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

The GSLJF continues on Saturday as bassist Ron Carter (pictured) returns to St. Louis for the first time since the mid-1980s to perform at the TouPAC. One of the most recorded and most influential bassists of the past 50 years, Carter will play with his Golden Striker trio, featuring pianist Mulgrew Miller and guitarist Russell Malone. For more about them and the VJO, and some video samples of both groups, please see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, New Music Circle present the premiere of its Laptop Orchestra Project at the William A. Kerr Foundation, which is at 21 O'Fallon St on the riverfront, just north of Laclede's Landing. The event will feature musicians Jim Hegarty, Steven Thomas, Joseph Potthoff, James S. Hegarty and Thomas Zirkle using laptop computers to perform improvised works and original compositions, as well as pieces by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which originated the laptop ensemble concept.

On Sunday, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead his group in an early evening performance at Second Baptist Church for the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series, and the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, directed by saxophonist Ronald Carter, will perform at Robbie's.

Robbie's web site this week also added a note that trumpeter Randy Brecker will appear a guest artist with the NIU band, but StLJN has been unable to verify that information as of this writing.

Update - 8:30 p.m., 4/13/11: The itinerary on Brecker's website shows Sunday, April 17 as the final day of a five-performance tour with the NIU Jazz Ensemble, but identifies the venue as the Sheldon Concert Hall. The Sheldon's website makes no mention of the show, so it would appear that Robbie's somehow wound up as a substitute venue, and Brecker will indeed be there.

Update - 10:50 p.m., 4/13/11: Just heard from Dorothy Edwards, the co-owner/general manager of Robbie's, who confirmed that Randy Brecker will be in the house on Sunday night. Spread the word...

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer Vanessa Rubin will be at SIUE for two free events sponsored by the university's Singer's Society. She'll lead a master class for vocalists at 3:00 p.m., then perform in concert that night with the SIUE Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Both events are open to the public, and will take place at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus.

Also on Monday, pianist Peter Martin and singer Erin Bode are performing at Roberts Orpheum Theater as part of benefit kicking off St. Louis Design Week 2011; and the Sessions Big Band returns to BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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.)

(Edited after posting to add info about Clark Terry's appearance and to fix a couple of typos. Updated to include more details on Randy Brecker's appearance with the NIU Jazz Ensemble.)

Vanessa Rubin to perform Monday, April 18 at SIUE

Singer Vanessa Rubin (pictured) is coming back to the St. Louis area to perform at 8:00 p.m. Monday, April 18 in the Dunham Hall Theater at SIUE. The free concert will feature Rubin and SIUE's vocal jazz ensemble, which is under the direction of Reggie Thomas. The event is sponsored by SIUE's Singer's Society, a new student organization at the university, which also will present a masterclass with Rubin during the day Monday, time and location TBA.

Rubin was in St. Louis most recently in February 2010 to star in the Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday. The Cleveland native has performed with many well-known jazz musicians, including St. Louis' own Clark Terry, Pharoah Sanders, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Lionel Hampton, the Mercer Ellington Orchestra, Cecil Bridgewater, Etta Jones, Toots Thielemans, Steve Turre, Cedar Walton, Grover Washington, Jr., Herbie Hancock, the Woody Herman Orchestra, and the Jazz Crusaders. Rubin has recorded seven albums as a leader and also has been actively involved in jazz education.

Notes from the Net: More Miles Davis biopic news; Jamie Cullum's Pursuit; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* Via Miles Davis Online, there's a bit more news this week about actor Don Cheadle and his interest in starring in the proposed film biography of the trumpeter.

* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan David Sanborn and pianist Joe Sample are among the headliners for the fifth annual Jazz in the Gardens at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on March 20 and March 21.

* Here's a review of Rollo-Coaster, the new CD from saxophonist and Webster University grad Chris Cheek and accordion player Victor Prieto, written by Dan Bilawsky for AllAboutJazz.com

* Turning to news of recent visitors, singer Vanessa Rubin was profiled last week by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Manny Theiner. Rubin finishes her run this Sunday as star of the Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening With Billie Holiday. On a related note, the Village Voice's Francis Davis recently reviewed two more tributes to Holiday by singers DeeDee Bridgewater and Stephanie Nakasian (via NPR's A Blog Supreme).

* Pianist Mulgrew Miller (pictured), who records for the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label and seems to make it here for a performance at least once a year, has been named Artist in Residence for the 2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival.

* After playing The Pageant here last month, Galactic and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe took their tour on to the Fillmore in Denver, where their performance was reviewed by Geoff Anderson for AllAboutJazz.com.

* Meanwhile, pianist Vijay Iyer , who was here in January to play Jazz at the Bistro, recently went to London for a duo performance with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Here's a review of their show from the LondonJazz blog.

* From the "coming attractions" file, singer and pianist Jamie Cullum's new CD The Pursuit was released last week, and he's featured in the current issue of Nylon magazine. He also will perform songs from his new CD on a live broadcast this Thursday evening, March 11, for Canada's JAZZ.FM91, which you can hear online here. JAZZ.FM91 also is offering Cullum's song "I Think I Love" as a free download this month in their iTunes Lounge. Cullum arrives in St. Louis this Sunday, March 14 to play the Roberts Orpheum Theatre.

* Saxophonist Houston Person just wrapped a gig at NYC's Jazz Standard, and Nate Chinen was there to review it for the New York Times. Person is coming to St. Louis on Sunday, April 11 to headline the Jazz St. Louis benefit gala at the Hilton at the Ballpark.

*Via Kansas City's jazz blog Plastic Sax, we see that Pat Metheny is on the cover of the March issue of Jazz Inside magazine, and learn of a Metheny fan who seems a little too excited about getting his copy of the guitarist's latest CD, Orchestrion. Metheny will be in St. Louis on May 8 to play the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

* Vocalist Michael Buble has been nominated for six Juno Awards this year, including Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. The Juno Awards are the Grammy Awards equivalent for Canadian-born recording artists. Buble comes to St. Louis' Scottrade Center on June 25.

Review of Black Rep's Yesterdays now online

This was the opening weekend for the Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday starring Vanessa Rubin, which continues at the Grandel Theatre through Sunday, March 14. The Post-Dispatch's pop music critic Kevin Johnson has written a review of the show, and you can read it online here.

Jazz this week: Vanessa Rubin as Billie Holiday, Jay Oliver, the Bosman Twins, McElwee's "Modular Mazes" and more

From a dramatic portrayal of a legendary diva to some straight-ahead and soulful jazz to a multimedia event with video, animation and an improvised soundtrack, there's lots going on in St. Louis this weekend to interest fans of jazz and creative music. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the Black Rep presents the first performance of its production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday starring Vanessa Rubin (pictured) as Holiday. The show runs Wednesdays through Sundays at the Grandel Theatre through March 14. For more on the production and Rubin, see this post and this post.

On Thursday, longtime local favorite Jeanne Trevor brings her swinging song stylings back to Brandt's .

On Friday evening, the Bosman Twins open a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. It's been a while since the reed-playing brothers have performed at the Bistro, and the latest word from JSL's Devin Rodino on Twitter indicates that tickets are moving briskly.

Also on Friday, band boosters in O'Fallon, IL are sponsoring the benefit event "O'That Jazz" at the Regency Conference Center to raise money for the high school's marching band program. Featured performers will include the St. Louis Jazz All-Stars, with Dawn Weber, Jason Swagler, Shaun Robinson, Zeb Briskovich, Miles Vandiver and Charlie Brown; Twilight Jazz Club; and the O’Fallon High School Band Jazz Combos, with and Ross Gentile as MC. (Dinner reservations are no longer available, but they will be selling tickets at the door for the concert portion of the evening.)

Also on Friday, the Presenters Dolan kick off a weekend of cabaret shows at the Kranzberg Arts Center, with Alice Kinsella on Friday, Christine Rios on Saturday and Monya Fisher on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon, saxophonist Chad Evans will play his own compositions and the the music of legendary saxophonist and bebop originator Charlie Parker as part of the Nu-Art Series' jazz composers' concert series at the Metropolitan Gallery.

Meanwhile, Robbie's House of Jazz has a double-header on Saturday, with a matinee featuring swing and classic songs from vibraphonist and trumpeter Joe Bozzi and an evening performance spotlighting the funk and fusion of Good 4 The Soul.

Also on Saturday, pianist and St. Louis native Jay Oliver returns home for a performance at Holmes Lounge on the Washington University campus, and New Music Circle presents Van McElwee and Friends in a multimedia event called "Modular Mazes" at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. The NMC event will include new video creations from McElwee, 3D animation (with glasses provided!) from Casper McElwee, and live audio from musicians including the Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble (SANE).

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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 by becoming a "fan" of 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.)

Black Rep's Billie Holiday show previewed in Post article

The Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday, featuring Vanessa Rubin as Holiday, opens this Wednesday at the Grandel Theatre. The Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson talked to director Woodie King Jr. and playwright Reenie Upchurch for a feature story in the weekend paper, and you can read it online here.

Vanessa Rubin to star in Black Rep's Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday

Singer Vanessa Rubin (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to star in the Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday, which will run Wednesday, February 24 through Sunday, March 14 at the Grandel Theater, 3610 Grandel Square (just west of Grand Ave).

The play by Reenie Upchurch tells the story of Holiday's last performance at a New York club, incorporating songs such as "My Man", "Strange Fruit", "Fine and Mellow" and "God Bless the Child."

Rubin is originally from Cleveland and has performed with many well-known jazz musicians, including St. Louis' own Clark Terry, Pharoah Sanders, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Lionel Hampton, the Mercer Ellington Orchestra, Cecil Bridgewater, Etta Jones, Toots Thielemans, Steve Turre, Cedar Walton, Grover Washington, Jr., Herbie Hancock, the Woody Herman Orchestra, and the Jazz Crusaders.

Interestingly, a performance of "God Bless The Child" helped steer Rubin toward a career in music. After earning her degree in journalism from Ohio State, Rubin sang the song while competing in the Miss Black Central Ohio contest and got a standing ovation, which caused her to reconsider her vocational choices. First signed to RCA Novus in 1991, Rubin has recorded seven albums as a leader, but for a time also held down a job in the NYC public school system, and she's also been actively involved in jazz education. She portrayed Holiday last year in a production of Yesterdays for Hartford Stage, and you can read more about that here.

Rubin will be joined on stage in St. Louis by Levi Barcourt (musical director and piano), David Jackson (bass) and Bernard Davis (drums). Tickets for the Black Rep's production of Yesterdays: An Evening with Billie Holiday range in price from $43 to $17, and are on sale now via Metrotix.