So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* A block of W. 77th St. between Riverside Dr. and West End Ave. on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been renamed "Miles Davis Way" in honor of the legendary trumpeter, who lived there for nearly 25 years. Read all about it in stories from the New York Times and the Daily News.

* On a related note, an article by Jeff Winke of AllAboutJazz.com notes once again the historic importance of Davis' album Birth of the Cool.

* NYC audiences will get another chance to hear saxophonist Eric Person's "Thoughts on God" suite this year when Person (pictured) and his big band play the extended work on Sunday, December 29 for the Jazz Vespers program at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY.

* Multi-instrumentalist and composer Marty Ehrlich was interviewed by Open Sky Jazz.com about his new large ensemble album A Trumpet In The Morning. You can read a review of the album, written by Dan Bilawsky of AllAboutJazz.com, here .

* Keyboardist Jim Hegarty sends word that Taran’s Free Jazz Hour radio show and podcast this week is playing music from his most recent album Time Space. Hegarty also reports that he's recently remixed the album for 5.1 surround sound; listeners can download the 5.1 remixes and his notes on surround sound playback here.

* Another email arriving at StLJN HQ says that bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya has a new mailing address and would enjoy hearing from friends, fans, and musical colleagues. Nkenya's musical activities have been limited since he suffered a stroke in the fall of 2009 that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak. Write to him at 1304 Highland Ave, Alton, IL 62002.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted on Facebook an album of photos from their recent performance at First Unity Church of St. Louis.

* Some sad news to pass along, too, as the Post-Dispatch reports that Robert Carter, who played trombone with the bands of Fate Marable, George Hudson and Singleton Palmer and served as vice-president and president of Musicians’ Union Local 197, has died at age 98. Also, the Gateway City Big Band reported this week via Twitter that the band's longtime trumpeter Herb Booth has died. Condolences to the families and friends of both men.

* Jazz radio update: On this week's episode of "Somethin' Else" on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, host Calvin Wilson celebrates the holiday season with recordings by artists from around the world, including drummer Manu Katche, pianist Tord Gustavsen and singer Neneh Cherry. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

(Edited 12/26/13 to fix a typo.) 

K. Curtis Lyle presenting benefit for Zimbabwe Nkenya on Tuesday, May 11

Poet K. Curtis Lyle and collaborators will present "Barackutopia," a performance piece paying tribute to and benefiting bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya, at 8 p.m. this Tuesday at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Lyle will perform his own poetic text, accompanied by sound designer, musician and multimedia artist David A.N. Jackson, bassist Josh Weinstein, and a score by Baikida Carroll.

Admission is free, but donations will accepted at the door and will go to Nkenya, who suffered a stroke in November and still faces daunting medical bills as well as a long recovery process. St. Louis American editor Chris King has a feature story here with more details on the event and Nkenya's ongoing struggles.

Jazz this week: A benefit for Zimbabwe Nkenya; Brian Owens; Erin Bode; Larry Brown, Jr.; and more

There's a brief respite from major touring jazz acts this week in St. Louis, but there are still a number of events over the next few days with potential appeal for fans of jazz and creative music.

On Thursday, Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series continues with a free concert from pianist Ptah Williams and his trio. Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode and her band will return to the events room at Cyrano's in Webster Groves.

On Friday and Saturday, singer Brian Owens returns to Jazz at the Bistro. This time out, Owens will perform the music of former St. Louisan Donny Hathaway with a band that includes Mark Colenburg (drums), Jesse Gannon (piano) and Alvin Quinn (bass).

Meanwhile, back in Webster Groves, Robbie's House of Jazz will feature the R&B/soul/funk cover band Mystic Voyage on Friday and jazz from guitarist Larry Brown Jr.'s group on Saturday. Another former student of the jazz program at SIUE, Brown will serve up "swing, soul and the blues" with help from pianist Stuart Mindeman, bassist Nick Jost, drummer Alfonzo Jones and trumpeter Quentin Coaxum.

Also on Saturday, New Music Circle is presenting a concert to benefit bassist and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) at the Kranzberg Arts Center. All proceeds from the show will go to Nkenya, who had a stroke last fall and has been unable to perform since.

Friends and musical colleagues donating their time and talents for the show include NMC's Jim Hegarty, Fred Tompkins and Deb Summers; drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw and trumpeter George Sams; Dave Cheli's Tribal Chicken; the percussion group HaZMaT, with Tom Zirkle and Matt Henry; trumpeter and percussionist "Baba" Mike Nelson; and poets Curtis Lyle and Michael Castro.

Nkenya has been a tireless force on the local improvised music scene since moving back to the St. Louis area in 2006. Here's hoping for a good turnout (and a full cash box) on Saturday, and a speedy and complete recovery for Nkenya.

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.)

Concert to benefit Zimbabwe Nkenya scheduled for Saturday, January 30

This just in: New Music Circle will present a benefit performance for bass player and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) at 7:30 p..m. , Saturday, January 30 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand.

Nkenya has been an active participant in the local improvised music scene since his return to St. Louis from New Mexico in 2007. Over the course of his career, he has played with many well-known creative musicians here and in New Mexico, New York and around the USA. He had had been scheduled to co-headline a concert with Douglas Ewart for NMC on January 30; however, according to today's news release, he had a stroke "earlier this past fall," and has been unable to perform since then.

The release said that NMC plans to reschedule Ewart, with more information available soon. Admission to the January 30 benefit for Nkenya will be by voluntary contribution, with all proceeds going to the bassist and his family.

Scheduled performers include Jim Hegarty, Fred Tompkins, and Deb Summers, who will represent New Music Circle; Dave Cheli's group Tribal Chicken; and percussionist Thomas Zirkle (HaZMaT). All the musicians are volunteering their services, and additional performers will be announced on NMC's website.

UPDATE - 5:20 p.m., 1/12/10: In addition ot the St. Louis event, Nkenya's friends and musical colleagues in New Mexico, including trumpeter Paul Gonzales, are staging a benefit for the bassist at 6:00 p.m., Sunday, January 31 at the Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE in Albuquerque.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Three from Douglas Ewart

This week, let's check out some videos featuring Douglas Ewart, a multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder who will be in St. Louis on Saturday, January 30 to perform in a duo concert with bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Born in Jamaica in 1956, Ewart moved to Chicago as a teenager and became involved with the city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He would eventually go on to serve as president of the AACM, and has worked and/or recorded with musicians including former St. Louisan J. D. Parran, Muhal Richard Abrams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, Anthony Davis, Robert Dick, Von Freeman, Joseph Jarman, Amina Claudine Myers, Roscoe Mitchell, James Newton, Rufus Reid, Wadada Leo Smith, Cecil Taylor, Richard Teitelbaum, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Don Byron, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and George Lewis. Ewart has lived since 1990 in Minneapolis, while continuing to perform and teach all over the world.

The first clip is from last year at Vision Festival 14 in NYC, and features an ensemble including Ewart, Parran, and Jarman along with drummer Thurman Barker, pianist Donald Smith and poet Amiri Baraka. Down below, there's an excerpt from a performance at the Velvet Lounge in Chicago by Ewart's ensemble Inventions, and below that, part of a 2006 duo performance in Minnesota by Ewart and fellow reedman Denis Colin.

For more about Ewart, check out this website, this print interview from last December, and this extended audio interview from American Public Radio's American Mavericks series. For more information on his St. Louis concert, see the website of presenters New Music Circle.

Zimbabwe Nkenya releasing new CD, performing in-store at Vintage Vinyl on Monday, October 26

Bassist, composer and mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya (pictured) will celebrate the release of his new CD, Bag II Project Vol. 2, with an in-store performance at 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 26 at Vintage Vinyl.

After returning to the St. Louis area in 2006, Nkenya was the prime mover behind a revived version of the Black Artists Group, a.k.a. "BAG II." The group folded at the end of last year, but Nkenya continues to perform around town solo and in various duo, trio and ensemble settings.

His CD release event at Vintage Vinyl is free and open to the public.

ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival coming to St. Louis on Tuesday, November 24

ROCKPILE is coming to St. Louis. No, not the late 1970s/early 1980s rock band with Dave Edmonds, Nick Lowe, Terry Williams and Billy Bremner - it's the ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival, a collaboration between traveling and local performers that will take place at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 24 in the performance space at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar.

ROCKPILE is the brainchild of poet, musician, and essayist David Meltzer (pictured) and Michael Rothenberg, a poet, songwriter and editor of Big Bridge Press. Inspired by "the tradition of the troubadour" and "the spirit of improvisation and collaboration," Meltzer and Rothenberg are traveling to eight U.S. cities to perform poetry, composed on the road, with local musicians in each city.

St. Louis will be the seventh stop of the ROCKPILE tour, which also will have visited New York City, Chicago and New Orleans before wrapping up in San Francisco. Meltzer and Rothenberg are documenting the tour online at http://www.bigbridge.org/rockpile/ with daily performance clips, journal excerpts, interviews, video and audio files.

Performers in St. Louis will include musicians Zimbabwe Nkenya (bass, mbira), Dave Black (guitar) and Bob Malone (piano), plus poets Michael Franklin, Shirley LeFlore, Michael Castro, K. Curtis Lyle, David Jackson, Alexander Balogh, Sean Arnold, Terri Carrion, Howard Schwartz, and Philip Gounis.

Admission is to the St. Louis ROCKPILE performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-863‐5811 or visit the ROCKPILE Web site.

New Music Circle announces 2009-10 season schedule

New Music Circle has announced its lineup of concerts for the 2009-10 season, which marks NMC's 51st year of presenting contemporary and experimental music in St. Louis. This year's schedule once again has a number of multimedia events, mixing music with film, dance and spoken word performance.

Pianist, composer and electronic musician James Hegarty kicks off the season with a concert on Saturday, October 3 at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park's Center Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts. Hegarty's performance, called "eXscapement," is a collaboration with his artist daughter Anna inspired by their recent trip to Japan.

Saxophonist Larry Ochs, perhaps best known as a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, comes to St. Louis on Friday, Oct. 9 for a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall with his group Sax & Drumming Core. Formed in 2000, the band includes Ochs on saxophone, plus drummers Donald Robinson and Scott Amendola, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, and Satoko Fujii on synthesizer and piano.

Then on Sunday, November 8, NMC will present a local version of composer Rob Voisey’s 60x60 Dance project at Mad Art Gallery, featuring St. Louis dancers and choreographers performing to 60 different 60-second pieces written by 60 different composers and curated by Voisey.

Performance artist Kelsey LaPoint, who has been involved in several previous NMC events, closes out the year with a holiday-themed performance piece to be staged Wednesday, December 2 through Friday, December 4 at the Regional Arts Commission building, 6128 Delmar.

The new year starts with multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart (pictured), known as a key member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and St. Louis bassist and mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya collaborating on a concert Saturday, January 30 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Next up, video artist Van McElwee returns again this year with a program called "Modular Mazes" on Saturday, February 27 at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster University campus. Dedicated to "exploring the ancient form of the labyrinth in new ways," the piece will combine video, 3D animation and music from Jim Hegarty, percussionist Rich O'Donnell and the Semi Acoustic Noise Ensemble (SANE).

On Saturday, March 13, Swedish sound artist John Tamm-Buckle will perform "Droning Maud Land" at the Kranzberg Arts Center. The piece is "an interactive sculpture made of ice frozen around a frame, contact microphones, and a digital thermometer. While the ice melts, pieces of the sculpture will be amplified and played like a percussion instrument. The signal sources will be run through a custom Max/MSP patch that performs various signal-processing and signal-routing functions. In addition to the sound of the sculpture, analyzed audio data will trigger and morph samples recorded in Antarctica."

The following month, cellist Craig Hultgren brings his repertoire of extended cello techniques back to St. Louis for a performance on Saturday, April 3 at the Kranzberg. Hultgren's peformance "Stains" is described as "an evocative set of solo cello pieces with strong narratives will be sampled and extended to run seamlessly, overlapping poems and stories. The works will include acoustic, electronic, and video pieces for solo cello played by Hultgren, as well as a variety of narrative pieces."

The season's penultimate concert features composer, software designer and granular synthesis pioneer Curtis Roads and video artist Brian O’Reilly, who will present a set of new electronic compositions with visual accompaniment on Saturday, May 1 at the Mildred E Bastian Performing Arts Center. Electronic musician and former St. Louisan Tom Hamilton closes out the 2009-10 season with a concert on Saturday, May 8 at the Kranzberg.

Season tickets are $80 for regular admission, or $40 for students and "starving artists". NMC also offers a "benefactor" membership for $110 that includes a total of 15 tickets that can be used for any performance. For more information, visit NMC's Web site, or download a copy of the season brochure in .pdf format here .

African Arts Festival, St. Louis Art Museum to present Mamadou Diabate, Zimbabwe Nkenya

Next weekend's St. Louis African Arts Festival includes a couple of events at the Saint Louis Art Museum that may be of interest to local fans of jazz and creative music.

Kora player Mamadou Diabate (pictured) will give a free concert at 7:00 p.m, Friday May 22 in the Grigg Gallery as part of the Museum's Art After 5 series. A native of Mali, Diabante has played at festivals and concert halls across North America, performing music that blends his African griot heritage with jazz and other contemporary sounds.

Then at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, the Museum will present St. Louis' own bassist, composer and mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya in a musical "listen-and-learn" session as part of its Family Sunday series.

Both programs are free and open to the public, and admission to the Saint Louis Art Museum is free to all every day. For more information about the Saint Louis Art Museum, call 314-721-0072 or visit www.slam.org.

BAG II to present final event next Sunday, December 28

BAG II has scheduled its final event as a presenting organization for 7:00 p.m. next Sunday, December 28 at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe. From the e-mail announcement:

"On Sunday, December 28th BAG II is Out! with its final presentation: an evening of performance and visual art dedicated to the memory of Vincent Terrell and Ajule “Sonny” Rutlin, original founding members of both BAG and BAG II. The presentation will highlight the spirit of Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) the third day of Kwanzaa. Paying tribute to the BAG vision will be original BAG poet Shirley LeFlore, with Michael Castro, and Marsha Cann; visual artist Seitu James Smith and musician Zimbabwe Nkenya. The event is free, 7 – 9 PM at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, 2658 Delmar Blvd...

...According to Zimbabwe Nkenya, “BAG II has had its run, but the creative spirit that has driven this work over the past two years will continue.” For more information on the December 28th event call 314-340-5790 or email bag_blackartistgroup@yahoo.com."

Jazz this week: Poncho Sanchez, Paula West, Morton Subotnick, and more

There's lots going on this week with jazz and creative music in St. Louis, so let's get right to the highlights, starting with three touring performers who are playing in the Gateway City over the next few days.

Tonight, Latin-jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez begins a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. You can see a couple of videos featuring Sanchez and his band in this post from last Saturday, and Jazz St. Louis also has a podcast interview with Sanchez here.

On Saturday, singer Paula West performs at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can see and hear West in a couple of video clips here; also, note that the Sheldon is offering online buyers a $10 discount on tickets to West's concert.

Also on Saturday, New Music Circle and St. Louis Community College-Forest Park will present pioneering electronic musician and composer Morton Subotnick (pictured) in concert at the college's Mildred E. Bastian Performing Arts Center. Subotnick will perform "Until Spring Revisited," a remaking of an electronic music/video composition originally created for solo synthesizer in 1975.

In addition to these three headliners, there are a number of other noteworthy shows this week. On Thursday, the mysterious FO(U)R PEACE BAND does a free show for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. I call them "mysterious" because I haven't been able to find out anything about them on the 'Net, nor have Wash U or the Jazz at Holmes series released anything about who they are or what sort of music they play. Still, given the series' deserved reputation for presenting good stuff, the show seemed worth a mention here, but caveat lector.

Also on Thursday, world music fans may want to check out the UMSL University Percussion Ensemble and Afro-Cuban Ensemble and their special guest Adam Rugo, who will perform percussion music from Africa, Cuba, Japan and the United States in a free concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Moving on to Saturday, the Kemper Museum presents a free concert by guitarist Teddy Presberg and his band the Red Note Revivalists as part of the series of live performances accompanying the museum's current "Birth of the Cool" exhibit.

On Sunday, the Nu Art Series presents the Tayammum Falah Art Orchestra in concert at the Metropolitan Gallery, 2936 Locust St. The group features the leader on drums and percussion, plus bassist Raymond Eldridge, pianist Christopher Evans, and an intriguing front line of veterans Floyd LeFlore on trumpet and Willie Akins on saxophones.

That same afternoon, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra presents its annual "Explosions" percussion concert at the TouPAC. And that evening, BAG II sponsors a free performance at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site featuring poets Marsha Cann, Joyce Blue and Deborah Mashibini and music from bassist/mbira player Zimbabwe Nkenya.

Looking beyond the weekend, the first part of next week offers a couple of shows of particular interest to big band fans. On Monday, the Sessions Big Band continues its ongoing series of gigs at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, the Genesis Jazz Project does one of its semi-annual free concerts at the TouPAC.

You can find more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond by visiting the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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.)

BAG II to cease operations at end of 2008

BAG II, which attempted to revive the spirit of St. Louis' storied Black Artists Group, will be ceasing operations at the end of 2008. Here's the announcement sent out by Zimbabwe Nkenya, bassist/composer and one of the prime movers of BAG II:

"Thank you for your support for and interest in “the new” BAG II.

For the past year and a half we have offered free public events at Scott Joplin House State Historic Site featuring some of the best creative improvisational music and literary work in St. Louis today.

BAG II was originally started by Ajule Sonny Rutlin and Vincent Terrell. Since their sudden passing, within months of each other, it has been difficult to facilitate a consistent coming together of creative energy here in St. Louis.

BAG lives on, but BAG II, while it was good, has gone as far as it can go.

Plan to join us for the last three months of BAG II programming:

Sunday, October 26th
Sunday, November 23rd
Sunday, December 28th

All BAG II events begin at 7 PM, are free, family-friendly and open to the public.

In the New Year we’ll be moving on to new things, looking forward to more creative work in St. Louis and beyond. We plan to take down the BAG II web site and discontinue this mailing list in January 2009.

Check www.myspace.com/zimbabwenkenya to stay in touch,

Peace,
Zimbabwe"

StLJN will have more details on BAG II's last three programs as they are announced, and I also hope to be able to find out more about the decision to end the organzation's run as well as Nkenya's future plans. Stay tuned.

Jazz this week: Ptah Williams, Erin Bode, the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, and more

It's mid-August - usually one of the slowest times of the year for live jazz in St. Louis - and yr. humble editor has impending deadlines for paying work, plus a wicked head cold. However, there are still some events this week to tell you about, and so that's what we're going to do, albeit in a perhaps less-verbose-than-usual of way.

Let's start with a couple of multi-day events happening this weekend. The St. Louis Cabaret Conference, a four-day event founded and run by St. Louis singer Tim Schall, takes place Thursday through Sunday, and will feature four nights of public performances at the Bistro at Grand Center as well as educational and networking events for the singers attending the conference.

The public performances will include an Alumni Showcase at 8:30 p.m. tonight; a feature performance by Schall at 8:30 p.m. on Friday; a double bill of singers Lina Koutrakos and Jason Graae at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday; and a Participant Showcase at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the door and, for Friday and Saturday's shows, via Metrotix.

Also happening this weekend is the Greater St. Louis Art Association's semi-annual "Cool Art Hot Jazz" event, which takes place Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday at Queeny Park, 550 Weidman Road. The fair is designed to show off the work of dozens of artists working in clay, fiber, glass, jewelry, oil, photography, wood and other media. The GSLAA's announcement also says there will be live music, but I couldn't find a schedule or a list of musical performers anywhere on their Web site or, well, anywhere at all online, nor did anyone from the organization respond to my phone calls or emails attempting to elicit more information.

Wish I could tell you more, but if you're interested in who's performing and when at this event, give the GSLAA a call at 314-889-0433 and perhaps you'll have better luck than I did getting details on the apparently top-secret music schedule.

Other performances of note this week include a free concert tonight by pianist Ptah Williams, who's playing a show for the Jazz at Holmes series outdoors at Washington University's Brookings Quadrangle. Tonight also brings a rare gig by singer Erin Bode (pictured) and her band at a real old-school St. Louis restaurant, the Tenderloin Room at the Chase-Park Plaza, as well as a performance by Farshid Etniko at Brandt's.

On Friday, singer Kim Massie is at Cookie's, and the Ambassadors of Swing will do their big-band thing at the Casa Loma Ballroom. On Saturday, Mo & Dawn bring their acid-jazz/funk/remix show to Brandt's.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band is at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum performs at Brandt's while bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya leads his young proteges from BAG's recent series of music workshops in a free show at The Gramophone.

For more St. Louis jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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.

BAG's Zimbabwe Nkenya performing with student musicians this Sunday, July 27

The Black Artists Group has just announced a free event this Sunday, July 27 at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site. From the email notice:

"BAG Presents:

An evening of music by Zimbabwe Nkenya and local high school musicians inspired by the traditions of the original Black Artists Group (BAG). Sunday, July 27th, from 8 – 10 PM at Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, 2658 Delmar Blvd. Free.

The Lemp Neighborhood Association, with support from the Regional Arts Council, offered a series of workshops this summer for high school musicians focusing on the Black Artists Group to enrich their understanding of the heritage of Jazz in St. Louis. Student participants had the opportunity to learn about the composition and performance of original creative music in the tradition of BAG. This Sunday, Zimbabwe Nkenya and the students will share music from those workshops.

The performance will feature compositions by Zimbabwe Nkenya from his CD The New Jazz (available at Vintage Vinyl and at the concert) as well as pieces dedicated to St. Louis trumpeter Bata Rutlin and saxophonist Maurice Malik King."

For more information, call the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site at 314-340-5790 or send an email to bag_blackartistgroup@yahoo.com.

BAG II now on MySpace

Bassist and composer Zimbabwe Nkenya sends word via email that the reconstituted Black Artist Group (a.k.a BAG II) now has a MySpace page, which will feature both information on the organization's current activities and historical material related to the group's earlier incarnation, which helped launch the careers of performers such as Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, Hamiet Bluiett, Charles "Bobo" Shaw, Baikida Carroll, Luther Thomas, Joseph Bowie, Floyd LeFlore and many others. .

"We're looking for CDs, photos and other BAG related material from the 1960s and 1970s for the web page. We can upload and post music/recording samples and scan and return photos. Let us know if you have something to share," writes Nkenya. You'll find the BAG II page at http://www.myspace.com/blackartistgroup.

Jazz this week: Ravi Coltrane, experimental video with live music, and more

With performances ranging from a traditional New Orleans-style combo to an experimental blend of video and avant garde sounds, this week's schedule of jazz and creative music offers several noteworthy events, starting with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane (pictured), who's playing at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday. You can read my Riverfront Times Critic's Pick on Coltrane here, and check out the recent StLJN video post on the saxophonist here.

For those on a budget, there are couple of free concerts on the Washington University campus, as the Jazz at Holmes series presents a performance by pianist Kara Baldus and her trio on Thursday, and the new "Kemper Presents" series at the Kemper Art Museum has a show by Zimbabwe Nkenya, performing on the mbira (a.k.a. thumb piano or kalimba), on Friday.

Also on Friday, New Music Circle presents "Synaesthesia," a program of original experimental music and video, at the Saint Louis Art Museum auditorium. The event will feature music by James Hegarty, Rich O'Donnell, Tom Hamilton and the Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble (S.A.N.E.) set to videos created by Van McElwee, Roy Zurick and Peter Rose.

Wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present the traditional jazz of trumpeter Bob Ceccarini and the River City Ramblers in a performance at the Moolah Shrine Center, 12545 Fee Fee Rd. in Maryland Heights.

As always, these are just a few of the highlights happening around town, so for more jazz events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar. (Note also that with a new month beginning on Saturday, there will be some updates made to the calendar as March schedules come in over the next few days.)

(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.)

BAG to present "From Ragtime to No Time" this Sunday, February 24

This just in: BAG has announced a performance coming up at 7 p.m. this Sunday, February 24 at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

The BAG Trio, which includes Gary Sykes on drums, Zimbabwe Nkenya on bass and Mike "Baba" Nelson on trumpet and percussion, will present "From Ragtime to No Time," a concert that "will take listeners through a musical excursion in rhythm from the Ragtime sounds that make the Scott Joplin State Historic Site famous, to the innovations of the musicians of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who changed the way we hear and think of the creative music today."

Admission to the event is free. For more information, you can call the Scott
Joplin House at 314-340-5790.

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.)

BAG to present "One For King" on Sunday, January 20

Via email, BAG has announced that they'll present a program called "One For King" this Sunday, January 20 at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe. The event is, as the name suggests, dedicated to the memory and message of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and will feature a lineup of poets, musicians and artists including Michael Castro and the BAG Trio ("Baba" Mike Nelson on trumpet and percussion, Zimbabwe Nkenya on bass and mbira, and the great Gary Sykes on drums and percussion).

The program will include several group improvisations as well as individual performances. Sykes will be featured on a solo drum composition "in remembrance of the struggle" and Nkenya will offer a piece based on "Dr. King, The Peaceful Warrior," a Cal Massey composition featured on the Archie Shepp album Things Have Got to Change. Nelson and Castro also will perform original solo pieces honoring the Rev. Dr. King.

"One For King" takes place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and admission is free. For more information, call the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site at 314-340-5790 or send email to bag_blackartistgroup@yahoo.com.

Jazz this week: Bob Dorough, Brian Owens, BAG Trio, St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, and more

Due to various deadlines and some Blogger balkiness, this will be a rather terse chronological summary of this weekend's most noteworthy jazz-related events:

Tonight, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jim Widner, will do their monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro, and pianist Kim Portnoy does a free concert at Washington University's Holmes Lounge as part of the Jazz at Holmes series

On Friday and Saturday, soul/jazz singer Brian Owens (pictured) performs at the Bistro. For a brief sample of Owens' singing style, see the video window at the bottom of this post.

On Sunday, the BAG Trio featuring Zimbabwe Nkenya, Gary Sykes and Mike Nelson will be featured in a free concert at the Scott Joplin State Historic Site.

Also on Sunday, singer and pianist Bob Dorough returns to St. Louis for the first time in 47 years - no, that's not a typo; he last performed here in 1960 - to do a one-nighter at the Bistro. For a bit more about Dorough, whose long career has included everything from guesting on two Miles Davis albums to writing many of the songs for the educational cartoon series Schoolhouse Rock, see the story about him that I wrote for this week's Riverfront Times. (Note also that the phone number appended to the RFT story is incorrect. The correct phone number for advance tickets for Dorough's show is 314-961-1898.)

For more local jazz events this weekend and beyond, please consult the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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 more tags.)