Dennis Owsley to discuss, sign new book Thursday, July 18 at UMSL at Grand Center

Radio host, jazz historian and photographer Dennis Owsley will discuss and sign copies of his new book St. Louis Jazz: A History at an event at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, July 18 at UMSL at Grand Center, 3651 Olive St.

At the event, Owsley will discuss the book (pictured), which recounts the history of jazz in St. Louis, with St. Louis Public Radio reporter Jeremy Goodwin.

A reception and book signing will follow, and copies of St. Louis Jazz: A History will be available for purchase from Left Bank Books.

Owsley, whose radio program "Jazz Unlimited" is broadcast weekly on Sunday nights by St. Louis Public Radio, previously authored another history of local jazz, City of Gabriels; The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973, which came out in 2006.

In an email to StLJN, Owsley said that singer Jeanne Trevor and singer/percussionist Don Cunningham, both veterans of St. Louis' storied Gaslight Square era, plan to attend Thursday's event and will offer a brief acapella performances.

The event is free and open to the public, but because space is limited, online registration at St. Louis Public Radio's website is required.

New book by St. Louisan Paul Steinbeck tells history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago

Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, a new book by St. Louis bassist and educator Paul Steinbeck, has been published by The University of Chicago Press.

Generally considered one of the most important small groups of the creative music movement that began in the 1960s, the Art Ensemble originally spun off from saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell's sextet, which was made up of musicians who were part of Chicago's storied Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

Released in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Art Ensemble's founding, Message to our Folks is touted by its publisher as "the definitive study of the Art Ensemble," and Mitchell has called the book "more than we could have hoped for, telling the complete history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago in careful, engaging detail.”

"The book tells the complete history of the band, from its founding in 1966 to its final performances in the 2010s," said Steinbeck, who is an assistant professor of music theory at Washington University and plays bass with the STL Free Jazz Collective, in an email to StLJN. "Message to Our Folks also closely examines some of the group's best performances."

(At this point, it's worth noting that though born and based in the Windy City, the AEC also featured two St. Louis natives in important roles: original drummer Phillip Wilson, who left the group after one album to join the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and was replaced by Famoudou Don Moye; and trumpeter Lester Bowie, another co-founder who would remain with the band until his death in 1999.)

The book (pictured) can be purchased directly from the University of Chicago Press; from booksellers everywhere, including St. Louis' Left Bank Books and the bookstore at Washington University; and in digital form from ebook vendors such as Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Google Play, and Kobo.

Benjamin Cawthra, author of book on jazz and photography, to speak Sunday, June 3 at the Missouri History Museum

Author, jazz historian and former St. Louisan Benjamin Cawthra is coming back to his old hometown for an event promoting his book Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz.

Cawthra will speak and sign copies of the book (pictured) starting at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, June 3 in the Des Lee Auditorium at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell. The event is free and open to the public.

He'll discuss "the development of jazz photography from the swing era of the 1930s to the rise of black nationalism in the 1960s." Saxophonist Kelvin Evans will play a short set of standards before the lecture.

Cawthra lived in St. Louis for 16 years, earning a Ph.D in history from Washington University and working for the History Museum, where in 2001 he curated the exhibit "Miles: A Miles Davis Retrospective." Cawthra, who also helped coordinate the Sheldon Art Galleries' 2008 exhibit of the jazz photos of Herb Snitzer, now is an associate professor of history and associate director of the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton.

New book by former St. Louisan examines relationship between jazz and photography

Former St. Louisan Benjamin Cawthra, who curated the 2001 exhibition "Miles: A Miles Davis Retrospective" for the Missouri History Museum, has just published a new book called Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz via the University of Chicago Press.

Cawthra, now an associate professor of history and associate director of the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton, lived in St. Louis for 16 years and earned a Ph.D in history from Washington University.

Blue Notes in Black and White is touted as "the first of its kind: a fascinating account of the partnership between two of the twentieth century’s most innovative art forms." The book (pictured) covers significant jazz photographers such as Gjon Mili, William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard, Francis Wolff, Roy DeCarava, and William Claxton, as well as their jazz musician subjects, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, who's shown on the cover. It endeavors to show "the connections between the photographers, art directors, editors, and record producers who crafted a look for jazz that would sell magazines and albums" as well as how musicians shaped their public images to further their own goals.

For more about Cawthra and Blue Notes in Black and White, see the University of Chicago Press website and/or the book's own Facebook page. (And if you order a copy through this Amazon link, a few pennies of commission will kick back to StLJN.)

Kevin Belford, Bob Koester signing books at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Vintage Vinyl

Author and artist Kevin Belford will sign copies of his new book Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St. Louis, Missouri at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Monday, October 19, at Vintage Vinyl, 6610 Delmar Blvd in University City.

Belford will be joined at the signing by former St. Louisan Bob Koester, the owner of Chicago's Jazz Record Mart and the blues and jazz label Delmark Records, who helped compile the companion CD included with the book.

Devil at the Confluence tells the story of St. Louis' pre-World War II blues musicians through Belford's original paintings, historic record labels, sheet music covers, ads, newspaper clippings and photographs. The book (pictured) is published by St. Louis based Virginia Publishing and is available from their Web site and at most local book stores. You can read a review written by Terry Perkins for the Post-Dispatch here.

Belford also will have signings at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, November 7 at Borders Books in Sunset Hills, and at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, December 3 at Subterranean Books in University City.

New book by Kevin Belford chronicles pre-WWII history of St. Louis blues

St. Louis artist and author Kevin Belford, who has made local musicians a frequent subject of his work over the course of his career, has a new book coming out that chronicles St. Louis blues musicians of the 1920s and 1930s.

Issued by St. Louis-based Virginia Publishing, Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St. Louis is a coffee-table book recounting the stories and songs of legends including Peetie Wheatstraw, Henry Townsend, St. Louis Bessie and many other pre-World War II era performers.

The product of years of research, the book is illustrated with Belford's original paintings, plus vintage photographs and other material he unearthed during his digging. As a bonus, there's also an accompanying CD of rare recordings of St. Louis blues legends, produced by former St. Louisan Bob Koester's label Delmark Records.

Devil at the Confluence is scheduled for official release in September, and Belford will be doing a number of promotional events, the most ambitious of which would seem to be a one-night-only showing of the paintings from the book, to be held from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 on Friday, September 11 at Mad Art Gallery.

Other planned events include a signing at the Big Muddy Blues Festival downtown over Labor Day weekend; another at Webster Records during the Old Webster Jazz and Blues Festival on Saturday, September 19; and two more later in the month at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups and the Blues City Deli. For more info, check out the blog Belford has set up in conjunction with the book's release.

Known among local music fans for his posters of St. Louis jazz legends and blues performers, Belford has worked as a freelance illustrator doing advertising, corporate art, and editorial illustration for books and for print media such as The Sporting News, the St Louis Post Dispatch, St Louis magazine, and the Riverfront Times. His previous books include The Ballpark Book (for The Sporting News) and the children's books Amazing Arthur Ashe, Spirit Of A Champion and Twist Of Fate-The Miracle Horse Of Longmeadow Ranch.

Sheet Music Plus offering 20% discounts on Aebersold Jazz, Music Minus One book/CD sets

Sheet Music Plus is having its annual Play Along Sale, with 20% discounts on more than 7000 book/CD sets, including all titles from Music Minus One and Jamey Aebersold Jazz. Play Alongs include sheet music and an accompaniment recording, and are available for a variety of instruments in many genres.

The sale ends April 30, 2009. To get the 20% discount (and, in the process, generate a few pennies in commissions to help support St. Louis Jazz Notes), please visit the Sheet Music Plus Play Along Sale page here.

Also this month, Sheet Music Plus is offering 20% off select chamber music and jazz/pop arrangements for small ensembles, including thousands of string quartets, piano trios, woodwind quintets, brass quintets and more, and 20% off the entire ADG Productions catalog, which includes publisher of celtic, jazz, latin and instructional music titles for piano, guitar, flute and jazz instruments.

(Edited 4/10/09 to fix a couple of typos.)

New book collects Miles Davis interviews

Legendary trumpeter and St. Louis area native Miles Davis is one of the most talked-about and written-about musicians of the late 20th century, and he's now the subject of yet another book, Miles on Miles, which collects 30 interviews from various periods of Davis' storied career.

The blurb from publishers Lawrence Hill Books describes the volume as "essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Miles Davis thought about his music, life, and philosophy. Miles on Miles reveals the jazz icon as a complex and contradictory man, secretive at times but extraordinarily revealing at others. Miles was not only a musical genius, but an enigma, and nowhere else was he so compelling, exasperating, and entertaining as in his interviews, which vary from polite to outrageous, from straight-ahead to contrarian. Even his autobiography lacks the immediacy of the dialogues collected here. Many were conducted by leading journalists like Leonard Feather, Stephen Davis, Ben Sidran, Mike Zwerin, and Nat Hentoff. Others have never before seen print, are newly transcribed from radio and television shows, or appeared in long-forgotten magazines."

Edited by Paul Maher Jr. and Michael K. Dorr, the hardcover tome has 320 pages and a list price of $24.95. Lawrence Hill Books is a division of Chicago Review Press that "specializes in mostly nonfiction on topics of African American and Latino interest, progressive politics, civil and human rights, and feminism." (For what it's worth, they've also published a book on Davis' longtime arranger and collaborator Gil Evans that looks interesting...)

Jazz critic Bob Blumenthal to appear February 7 at Left Bank Books

Veteran jazz journalist Bob Blumenthal is coming to St. Louis next month to promote his new book Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America’s Music. Blumenthal will appear at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 7 at Left Bank Books, 399 N. Euclid in the Central West End, to sign copies of the book and discuss it with readers.

Left Bank's news release says Blumenthal's book is an "introduction to understanding jazz, whether you are approaching the music for the first time or seeking to deepen your knowledge. Inside you will find the people who made the music, history, listening suggestions, jazz trivia, and more."

Blumenthal is a former columnist for the Boston Globe and contributor to numerous other publications who has been writing jazz criticism since 1969. He has received Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes and the Jazz Journalists Association's Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine, or Online Feature or Review Writing Award and Jazz Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, you can call Left Bank Books at (314) 367-6731 or visit their Web site.

UPDATE - 12/30/08, 11:30 p.m: After this post went up, I got a nice email from Bob Blumenthal, and it turns out that he was born in St. Louis, grew up in Clayton, and thus had his first experiences listening to jazz right here in the Gateway City. Here's hoping that he'll discuss his local connections a bit during his visit to Left Bank Books, and that St. Louis jazz enthusiasts will turn out to support the event.

New book focuses on Miles Davis' mid-1960s music

As one of the most influential and important jazz musicians of all time, Miles Davis has already been the subject of a number of biographies, a book-length look at his most famous single recording, and various other tomes examining different aspects of his life and music. Now the trumpeter's mid-1960s quintet is the subject of Miles Davis, Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post Bop, a new book from Indiana University Press written by Jeremy Yudkin, a musicologist, jazz expert and professor of music at Boston University.

Focusing largely on the album Miles Smiles, the book "examines Miles Davis's often overlooked music of the mid-1960s with a behind-the-scenes study of the evolution of a new, post bop style. It spotlights Davis during an extraordinarily creative period when the artist struggled with personal and musical reinvention and emerged the leader of a new wave in contemporary music."

Though the book's "official" release isn't until December, copies seem to be on sale already at several online retailers. Should you choose to use this link to purchase it via the St. Louis Jazz Notes Emporium and the fine folks at Amazon.com, a few pennies will eventually wind their way toward this Web site, helping to keep yr. humble editor supplied with bandwidth, tacos, Dr. Pepper and other essentials of jazz blogging.

(Edited 10/25/07 to un-garble the book's title.)