So What: Local, News & Notes

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

* Saxophonist David Sanborn (pictured) has released a new episode of his "Sanborn Sessions" online video series with bassist Marcus Miller as his featured guest, plus drummer Billy Kilson and pianist Geoffrey Keezer.

* Jazz St. Louis is one of 16 independent music venues across the country that this week received a grant from the Live Music Society. The grants, which range from $10,000 to $50,000, are intended to help smaller venues stay financially viable as the music industry attempts a post-pandemic restart.

* STLtoday has posted an album of photos from the Galactic shows last weekend at The Big Top.

* St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin has written a story reporting on the reopening plans of local concert venues including The Sheldon, The Pageant, The Big Top, and others.

* Mikie Sellers, the impresario behind the new "Jazz and Cars" outdoor concert series on the grounds of Gateway Classic Cars in O'Fallon, IL, was interviewed on FOX 2's morning newscast.

* An article by Mark Beckford on TheGrio.com looks at the ultimately unsuccessful effort to preserve St. Louis native Josephine Baker's famed cabaret in Paris.

* DePaul William "Willy" Smith, who played saxophone with the Original Knights of Swing, the Meramec Jazz Lab Band, and other groups around town, has died at age 90.

* JAZZIZ magazine's "The Week in Jazz" column for this week has a couple of St. Louis mentions, noting the announcement of the "Music at the Intersection" festival and previewing a track from keyboardist Michael Silverman's forthcoming album.

* Radio station Classic 107.3 will raise funds next month with "Classical Cocktails," an online event to be held on Sunday, June 13. The festivities will include dinner and cocktails from Salt + Smoke, plus music from pianists Orli Shaham and Dominic Cheli, the Pro Arte Quartet, the Arianna String Quartet, and violinist David Perry. For more info or to make a reservation, visit https://classic1073.org/classical-cocktails/.

* As reported by the Post-Dispatch's Steph Kukuljan, a company called Gateway Studios LLC has announced plans to acquire 32 acres of land just north of the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield to build an $88 million facilty for music, video and film production. Gateway Studios, which currently operates in Pennsylvania, will seek both tax incentives and publically financed bonds to help pay for the project.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Keyboardist David Garfield (pictured) next month is releasing a new single, "Hunting Heads," that pays tribute to Herbie Hancock.

* The St. Louis Post-Dispatch went into their archives to republish vintage photos and a story about St. louis' 1960s entertainment district Gaslight Square.

* Singer Erika Johnson was interviewed for a profile on the site of women's shoemaket Walking Cradles.

* A travel article in USA Today touting Midwest sites of interest for music fans mentions notable St. Louis locations including BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, Broadway Oyster Bar, National Blues Museum, and Vintage Vinyl.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold and the mother of his son Keyon Jr. have filed a racial profiling lawsuit against the Arlo Hotels chain and Miya Ponsetto, the woman who in a widely reported incident last year accosted Harrold and his son at the hotel's NYC location and accused the younger Harrold of stealing her iPhone.

* Jazz St. Louis will share in the prize for "Arts Collaboration" when the Arts and Education COuncil of Greater St. Louis presents the 2021 St. Louis Arts Awards in an event on Monday, May 24 at the Big Top in Grand Center. The award will be shared with St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Nine Network of Public Media, and The Big Muddy Dance Company for the joint presentation of "Such Sweet Thunder" staged in October 2019 at the Nine Network's Public Media Commons.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo is featured on the latest episode of "Classical:BTS", a web video series produced by Illinois Public Media.

* The Don and Heide Wolff Jazz Institute and the National Black Radio Hall of Fame at Harris-Stowe State University will present the induction of four musicians into the Wolff Institute's St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame in a online ceremony at 3:00 p.m. this Saturday, March 27.

Trumpeter Clark Terry; pianist, singer and saxophonist Hugh 'Peanuts ' Whalum; and singer Kim Massie are the St. Louis performers scheduled to be honored, along with, for reasons that presently are obscure, saxophonist Kirk Whalum, a Memphis native and nephew of "Peanuts" Whalum. (No knock against Kirk Whalum, a fine player who has had a nice career, but apart from his uncle, he doesn't really have much to do with St. Louis.)

The event will be webcast from the National Blues Museum downtown, and can be viewed on the Facebook pages for the NBM or Harris-Stowe.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Cool It If You Can, the most recent recording from Miss Jubilee and the Yas-Yas Boys, was reviewed by Michael Steinman for his Jazz Lives blog.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor was interviewed on local CBS affiliate KMOV for a story about his group The Baylor Project being nominated again this year for a Grammy.

* Euclid Records owner Joe Schwab appeared this past Sunday on NBC's Sunday Today program, being interviewed for a story about why vinyl record sales have boomed over the past year.

* Drummer Emanuel Harrold (pictured) is now an endorser for percussion accessories maker DrumDial, and has recorded a new promotional video for the company.

* One of St. Louis' most famous expatriates of the 20th century plays a major role in a new LitHub essay from writer Harmony Holiday, "A Dinner in France, 1973: Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, and a Very Young Henry Louis Gates, Jr."

* Bassist Darin Gray has a new recording, The Reduction (music for dance), set for release on April 2 in digital formats and as a limited-edition vinyl LP.

* Also with a new release this month is keyboardist and vocalist Jesse Gannon, whose recording Live at the Dark Room is out now as a digital-only album on Bandcamp.

* Trumpeter Josiah Burton, a former member of Jazz St. Louis' All-Stars student ensemble, was the subject of a feature story in the Greenville University campus paper The Papyrus.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Chuck Flowers (pictured) was interviewed on the webcast "Jazz in the AM."

* Saxophonist David Sanborn has released a clip from his most recent "Online Sessions" video, a version of "Georgia On My Mind" recorded with organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Kilson.

* In a new video for Rhythm magazine, drummer Dave Weckl reveals the details of his home studio setup for playing and teaching online.

* Also on the Weckl beat, he and fellow drummer Rob Silverman were the guests on last week's Modern Drummer podcast, discussing their most recent recordings and the drumming contest being sponsored by the magazine and their label Autumn Hill Records.

* The Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson this week reported that Atomic Cowboy, the long-running bar, restaurant and music venue in The Grove neighborhood, has closed permanently and put all its equipment and fixtures up for auction.

* Also from Kevin Johnson in the Post, a look at how cabaret venue Blue Strawberry has adapted to present different types of live music during the pandemic.

* An article at UDiscoverMusic.com takes a retrospective look at Miles Davis' classic 1950s album Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet.

* In more Miles Davis-related news, tattoo artist Kat Von D is being sued by a Los Angeles photographer who alleges that a tattooed image of Davis rendered by Von D for one of her customers infringes on his copyrighted photo of the trumpeter.

* And finally, a short feature in Far Out magazine recounts the story of the time in 1969 when Davis was asked by guitarist Jimi Hendrix to form a "supergroup" that also would have included drummer Tony Williams and Beatles bassist Paul McCartney.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold this week kicked off Black History Month by putting together a "Black Lives Matter" playlist for Spotify.

* Also for Black History Month, SiriusXM will revive for a limited time only their Miles Davis Radio channel, with "music from over 100 of Davis’ albums and featuring alumni band members as hosts," including Marcus Miller, Lenny White, John Beasley, Joey DeFrancesco, and Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn Jr.

* Keyboardist Pete Ruthenburg talks about future plans for recordings and gigs in an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* The Post-Dispatch this week also published a photo feature commemorating the return of Josephine Baker (pictured) on February 3, 1952 to perform in her hometown for the first time since becoming internationally famous.

* Autumn Hill Records, the all-digital label operated by brothers Mike and Rob Silverman, has teamed up with Modern Drummer magazine to present "The Modern Drummer Drumology Playalong Contest."

Contestants are invited to download and record a video of themselves playing along with a track from Rob Silverman's recent solo recording, which also features fellow drummers Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl. Prizes for the contest, which ends on Sunday, Feburary 28, include a Spinelli "Floating Snare" and Drumology prize packs.

* And speaking of contests, the National Saxophone Museum (located within St. Louis woodwind dealer Saxquest) is sponsoring "a $5000 prize purse contest to give all saxophone players a chance to have some fun, showcase their art, and perhaps “cash in” on their passion."

Prizes range from $500 to $2,500 for the three top winners, and there also will be prizes awarded for young artists, honorable mention, and "People's Choice." Registration for the contest continues through Friday, April 30.

* Writing in the Los Angeles Times, former St. Louisan Randall Roberts looks at "The tortured, touching love saga of Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist Ben Reece this week released a new recording with his Unity Quartet.

Titled Hard Times, the album (pictured) features 12 original compositions performed by Reece and Rob Nugent on saxophones, Cody Henry on sousaphone and Ron Sikes on drums. It was recorded "live in the studio" at Midtown Sound House in St. Louis, with Dan Merhmann engineering.

Hard Times is available now via Reece's Bandcamp page and the usual outlets for digital music.

* British drummer Moses Boyd offered his in-depth take Miles Davis’ mid-Sixties album Nefertiti on the latest episode of the web series "Classic Album Sundays."

* By way of commemorating the 14th anniversary of the demise of Mississippi Nights, the Post-Dispatch republished Daniel Durchholz's look back at the history of the eclectic riverfront music venue.

* The first development of artists' housing from the St. Louis Art Place Initiative, located in the Gravois Park neighborhood on the south side, is now accepting applications. The program is intended to build "wealth and equity through homeownership for low to moderate-income artists of all disciplines." Find out more at http://stlartplace.org/.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Bassist Jahmal Nichols (pictured) was interviewed by NoTreble.com.

* Drummer Dave Weckl and his wife, vocalist Clivia Tanisi, were featured on the latest episode of Jazziz magazine's "Last Call" web series.

* Guitarist Brian Vaccaro was the guest on the most recent episode of Shock City School of Music's "Coffee Conversations" podcast.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby shared his perspective on critics and readers polls and the ranking of  musicians in a recent blog post.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn has released the sixth and final season one episode of his web series "Sanborn Sessions," with pianist Bob James as the featured guest star.

* Bassist and singer Janet Evra was interviewed on the latest episode of St. Louis magazine's "SLM Live" webcast.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold (pictured) was the featured guest on a recent episode of "Folded Space with Tony Minvielle" on the UK's JazzFM network.

* Keyboardist Michael Silverman and keyboardist/producer Jeff Lorber appeared last week on Jazziz magazine's "Last Call" video series to promote Silverman's latest album Human Spirit, which is out this week on his Autumn Hill label.

* Silverman and Lorber also were guests this week on BlogTalkRadio's "Hybrid Jazz" program with host Trish Hennessey.

* Willem von Hombracht, a longtime mainstay of the St. Louis music scene, has been ailing (though not with COVID-19), and earlier this week was discharged and sent home after a week and a half at St. Mary's Hospital. To raise money to help with von Hombracht's medical bills and other expenses, friends of the bassist have set up a GoFundMe page.

* New Music Circle has put together a collection of music video performances by some of the organization's board members, and after an online premiere this past Monday, has posted it to YouTube. The collection includes music from NNN Cook & Nestor, Michael Williams, Tracy Andreotti, Aaron E. Johnson, Fred Tompkins with Greg Mills, Alex Cunningham, and 18andCounting.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina was profiled by the St. Louis American's Ashley Jones.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Trombonist, bandleader and St. Louis native Joseph Bowie (pictured) was interviewed at length by PopMatters.com.

* Dave Weckl was one of six well-known drummers who participated this week in a free online master class in brush technique presented by drumstick and accessories maker Vic Firth.

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was the subject of a feature on the website of Thomas Mason, a UK-based maker of fabrics for men's clothing.

* Harrold also was interviewed on this Wednesday's episode of the podcast "The John Roa Show: Leading from Home."

* Washington University School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic and the ACLU of Missouri have filed a lawsuit against University City arguing that the city has routinely and unconstitutionally suppressed the public performance of music in the Loop.

Guitarist Raymond Douglas and saxophonist "Raven Wolf" C. Felton Jennings II, who both have had issues with police while busking in the Loop area, are the plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed Tuesday, April 28 in the US District Court Eastern District, Eastern Division.

* Eight deluxe multi-CD box sets known as "The Miles Davis Series" now are available again in limited quantities from the official Miles Davis Store. Originally released on Columbia/Legacy between 1996 and 2007, the volumes explore various phases of Davis' music from 1955 to 1975, ranging from from his Columbia recordings with saxophonist John Coltrane to the complete sessions for On The Corner.

* Singer Joe Mancuso was the featured guest on this week's episode of Shock City School of Music's "Coffee Conversations" podcast.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Drummer Dave Weckl will be doing a live interview and taking listener calls for an hour on the "Around The Kit" podcast starting at 8:00 p.m. EDT this coming Sunday, April 5.

* The late baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett (pictured) is the subject of a remembrance and tribute in the April issue of the New York City Jazz Record (.pdf link).

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed by AllAboutJazz.com's Aaron Paschal.

* An article by Dan Hardie in Syncopated Times makes the case for St. Louis-born pianist Gus Haenschen as the "missing link" between the ragtime of Scott Joplin and early jazz.

* Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo and the Mosaic Jazz Sextet were among the musicians seen - some very briefly - in a news story on local NBC affiliate KSDK about the effects of COVID-19 on the St. Louis music scene.

* In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the release of Miles Davis' landmark album Bitches Brew, Jazz Times asked 10 contemporary musicians for their thoughts on the recording's significance. 

* The Middle East English-language news site The National uses the recent documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool as a jumping-off point for an article about "9 Ways Miles Davis Changed the Music Scene Forever."

* In related news, the Davis documentary, which now is streaming on Netflix, was reviewed by TheArtsDesk.com's Tim Cumming.

* Last but not least, the latest episode of the Rhino Records podcast features an interview with Davis’ son Erin and nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. about life on the road with the trumpeter and the production of the recently released "lost album" Rubberband.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The first episode of saxophonist David Sanborn's new web video series "Sanborn Sessions" went live online this week on Tuesday. You can see the episode, which features pianist and singer Kandace Springs, in the embedded video window up above or on YouTube.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts is co-sponsoring a workshop on "Understanding Taxes for Music Professionals" starting at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, December 7 at the offices of TechArtista, 4818 Washington Blvd in the Central West End. See details and registration information here.

* Singer and St. Louis native Alicia Olatuja was interviewed by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* STLtoday also published a photo set from Olatuja's opening night performance on Wednesday at Jazz St. Louis. She continues there through Sunday evening.

* Composer and French horn player David Amram shared some Miles Davis anecdotes in a feature story published by PleaseKillMe.com.

* Singer Lisa St. Lou's show last week at Blue Strawberry was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Before the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's performance this past Wednesday at Powell Hall, bandleader and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio's Jeremy Goodwin.

* Also as reported in the Post-Dispatch, the south side venue Foam, which over the last ten years has hosted free improv performances among its eclectic variety of live music, will close permanently on Sunday, December 29.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Guitarist Eddie Roberts (pictured) of The New Mastersounds, who will perform tomorrow night at Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, was interviewed by KDHX's Chris Lawyer.

* Saxophonist David Sanborn was a guest Tuesday morning on KMOX's Charlie Brennan program, and was interviewed about his performance tonight at The Sheldon.

* The collaborative production of "Such Sweet Thunder" staged earlier this month in Grand Center, which featured music from the Jazz St. Louis Big Band, was reviewed on HEC-TV's Two on the Aisle.

* Stanley Nelson, director of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, was interviewed by Arts Today magazine.

* On a related note, the latest reviews of Nelson's film include pieces by Adam Sieff of London Jazz News and Josh Terry for Deseret News.

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, Jazz Times magazine is conducting a reader giveaway, offering a package of Davis-related prizes including a copy of his new album Rubberband, a T-shirt, and more. You can enter the giveaway here.

* Finally, an article on the website Something Else! looks back and asks, "50 Years Ago: Who Tried to Kill Miles Davis on a New York City Street?"

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Riverfront Times this week published their annual "Best of St. Louis" issue, and the winners in the "Staff Picks" section include The Dark Room (pictured) as "Best Jazz Club" and BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups as "Best Blues Club."

Meanwhile, in the "Reader's Choice" polling, BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups took the awards for both "Best Blues Club" and "Best Jazz Club." You can see a complete list of all the winners in various categories here.

* Also in the RFT, music editor Daniel Hill reports on the latest developments at KDHX, as station management this week cancelled two public meetings that had been scheduled "to address recent allegations of racial insensitivity and mismanagement against the station's top brass."

* In advance of his performance with trumpeter Keyon Harrold next Friday at the St. Louis Art Museum, writer Quincy Troupe was interviewed by Chris King of the St. Louis American.

* The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra has posted to Facebook an album of photos from their performance on Tuesday at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* The new outdoor plaza opening later this month at The Sheldon is the subject of a feature story on the website ConstructForStL.org.

* As touted last week in this space, Universal Music Group and the Miles Davis estate have released a new, animated music video for "Moon Dreams" as recorded by the trumpeter on his album Birth of the Cool. Directed by Nicolas Donatelli, whose credits include visual effects on videos for pop-country star Taylor Swift, the clip is "influenced by Miles Davis’ own sketches and imagines a night in New York City through every era of jazz."

* Also on the Miles Davis beat, reviews of the new documentary film Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool continue to appear, including new assessments from the Boston Herald and Glide magazine; and the film's director Stanley Nelson was interviewed by Boston NPR affiliate WBGH.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Radio host, author and photographer Dennis Owsley and his new book St. Louis Jazz: A History were the subjects of a feature story in the Webster-Kirkwood Times. 

* Trumpeter Russell Gunn was interviewed by NextBop.com about Pyramids, the new album from his Royal Krunk Jazz Orchestra.

* Meanwhile, saxophonist Andre Delano (pictured) has released a new single, "Where Will You Go," an instrumental version of a tune by R&B crooner Babyface, for whom Delano currently serves as musical director and bandleader. 

*  Trumpeter Kasimu Taylor, members of the Saint Boogie Brass Band, and saxophonist Kwanae Johnson appeared Monday on the morning newscast at KTVI (Fox 2). They were promoting the benefit show this Sunday at .ZACK raising money for Johnson and his family, who recently lost their home to a fire. 

* Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard's opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which premiered last season at Opera Theater St. Louis, next year will be the first opera by an African-American composer ever to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

* At the New York opening weekend of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the film's director Stanley Nelson and writer Quincy Troupe, who co-authored Davis' autobiography, took part in a Q&A session, which was recorded and now has been posted on YouTube.

* Davis and his landmark album Birth of the Cool are the subjects of an essay in the latest Jazz Times by composer and arranger Ryan Truesdell

* The latest episode of the podcast "Jazz at 100" features music recorded by Davis' quintet and sextet between 1956 and 1959.

* Davis' late 1950s music also was the subject of a recent tribute concert by Richard Pite’s Jazz Repertory Company at Cadogan Hall in London, which was reviewed by London Jazz News.

* Lastly, the Miles Davis estate has announced the impending release of a new music video for "Moon Dreams," as recorded by Davis in 1949 for Birth of the Cool. The video is "influenced by Miles Davis’ own sketches and imagines a night in New York City through every era of jazz."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's newly released recording of Wynton Marsalis' "Swing Symphony" (pictured), also featuring the trumpeter and composer and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, was the subject of a short feature story by the Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller.

* Speaking of new releases, singer and keyboardist Katarra Parson, one of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation's 2019-20 music artists-in-residence, spoke with writer Thomas Crone for a St. Louis magazine article about her upcoming album Cocoa Voyage, which comes out in October.

* The Radio Arts Foundation (aka Classic 107.3) will raise funds next month with "Wine and Jazz Under the Stars," an event set for Friday, September 20 at the Columbia Foundation for the Arts. Tickets are $95 per person, which includes wine, appetizers, and music from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris. For more details or to make a reservation, visit the station's website.

* Singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo announced this week via Twitter that she has signed a contract with Empire, a San Francisco-based label that releases hip-hop, R&B and more from a roster than includes rap veteran Snoop Dogg as well as many younger artists.

* To promote the theatrical release of the new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the film's producers have released another clip from the movie, with the first look at the excerpt appearing on the website of Billboard magazine.

* With this month being the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, there's been a flurry of related items showing up in the news, including historic overviews of the album and its significance from OpenCulture.com, Albumism.com and Counterpunch.

* In addition, drummer Jimmy Cobb, who at 90 years old is the only musician still living who played on Kind of Blue, was interviewed about the sessions by Billboard and the Associated Press.

* In related news, NPR asked bassist Christian McBride to take a look back at Davis' album Bitches Brew, which is 50 years old this summer.

* Lastly, Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn Jr. and his son Erin Davis were interviewed by CBC Canada about Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, and the trumpeter's musical legacy.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Gaslight Squares appeared last week on the morning news broadcast at Fox 2/KTVI, promoting their upcoming "coffee concerts" next Tuesday and Wednesday at The Sheldon.

* Bassist and Washington University faculty member Paul Steinbeck talked with Black Agenda Report about Message to Our Folks, his book recounting the history of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

* The Cherokee Street venue Foam (pictured), purveyors of coffee and beer and home to performances of all sorts of music including free improv and (occasionally) vintage jazz, is continuing their GoFundMe campaign in an effort to keep their doors open.

* The Funky Butt Brass Band has posted to their website audio recordings of their recent weekend gig at Jazz St. Louis.

* Student musicians in the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars will provide some live music for Big Muddy Dance Co's show “Footnotes” next week at the Grandel Theatre.

* Cabaret Project St. Louis has announced that this year's St. Louis Cabaret Conference will take place as three different educational "tracks," with the first starting Saturday, July 13 and the last wrapping up on Sunday, July 21. The organization also will present "Sing Center Stage," an intensive workshop specifically for singers of high school age, from Friday, July 12 to Tuesday, July 16.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Bassist and St. Louis native Tom Kennedy (pictured) is the subject of an AllAboutJazz.com feature story by writer Jim Worsley.

* Drummer Marcus Baylor and The Baylor Project were featured on a recent episode of John King's Arts and Rhythm Live in San Antonio on NBC affiliate WOAI.

* The Gaslight Squares' New Years Eve performance at Pacific Opera House was reviewed by The Syncopated Times.

* The new documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival, so far has been reviewed in the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Salt Lake City's SLUG magazine. Director Stanley Nelson also was interviewed about the film on an episode of "Radiowest" on Salt Lake City NPR affiliate KUER.

* Ron Sikes, percussionist for the Funky Butt Brass Band and director of bands at Jefferson R-VII District in Festus, will direct the Southeast Missouri All-District Jazz Band and serve as a clinician at Three Rivers College's 28th annual Jazz Festival on February 7 and 9.

* The St. Louis Banjo Club has elected a slate of officers for 2019 including John Williams as the organization's new president and Tina Miller as the new treasurer, with Don Dempsey continuing as secretary and Joe Feager as music director. The group meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at Affton Elks Club, and will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with an event in November at the National Blues Museum, date and details TBA.

* SeatGeek.com and the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans have teamed up to produce a video about trumpeter, singer and U City Native Jeremy Davenport as part of a online series called "The Sounds of New Orleans."

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Mardra Thomas and her husband, keyboardist Reggie Thomas (pictured), will join the cast of the gospel musical Crowns for two weeks of performances in August at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston, IL.

The play by writer/director Regina Taylor "reveals the story of African-American women and the hats they wear to church. Each hat holds a story of a wedding, a funeral and a baptism as the women share their life stories of how they moved through life’s struggles."

* Pianist Peter Martin has posted a new blog entry at Medium.com explaining "7 Cool Left Hand Voicings."

* Miles Davis' soundtrack for the 1958 Louis Malle film Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud is being reissued as a deluxe set of three 10" LPs. Scheduled for release by the Verve label on Friday, June 22, it will be the first vinyl release to feature both the film music and complete takes from the December 1957 recording session.

* Improvising percussionist Drew Gowran was the subject of a short Riverfront Times feature by Thomas Crone.

* Singer, actor and Belleville native Lea DeLaria was profiled in San Francisco Classical Voice.

* Guitarist Norman Brown's concert next Saturday at The Sheldon was previewed by the St. Louis American's Kenya Vaughn.

* Also in the American, Vaughn previews saxophonist Stan Coleman's concert this Sunday at The Sheldon. 

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold was interviewed this week on an episode of BBC3's "Jazz Now" (available to hear online through June 20).

Miles on Monday: Big Fun getting vinyl reissue, plus reviews and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* In an essay about the re-release of Louis Malle’s 1959 film Elevator to the Gallows, the New Yorker's film critic Richard Brody calls Davis' score for the film "worth hearing entirely on its own" and "better than the film itself, by far, and there are better ways to hear it than in the movie—namely, by listening to a CD that features the entire studio sessions from which the score was edited." The movie's revival continues at the Film Forum in NYC through Thursday.

* Davis' 1974 double album Big Fun, which collected previously unreleased material from the bands that recorded Bitches Brew, On The Corner, and Jack Johnson, will be reissued on vinyl in September.

* Saxophonist Jim Snidero's upcoming album MD66 will pay tribute to Davis' "second great quintet," the group that from 1966 to 1968 included pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams.

* Keyboardist Robert Glasper talked about his work on Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead and his Davis-remix album Everything's Beautiful in an interview with the website Nerdtorious.com, and the film was reviewed by Heed magazine.

* The recently released album, The Columbia Sessions, produced by Davis in 1969 for his wife at the time, singer Betty Davis, was reviewed by the website Headstuff.org.

* The website Jazz Music Archives offers brief reviews looking back at the 1956 album Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet and the 1959 landmark Kind of Blue.

Music Education Monday: Recording drums and more with Steve Albini

This week for Music Education Monday, you can get a little free advice on recording via some videos from producer Steve Albini.

Though he's known for his work with alt-rock and punk acts such as Nirvana, The Pixies, PJ Harvey, and Iggy Pop, the fundamentals of Albini's pragmatic approach to capturing full band performances in the studio on a modest budget can be applied to many musical genres, including jazz.

In the first video below, recorded in 2005 at a convention of readers of Tape Op magazine, Albini (pictured) discusses his preferred way to record drums, which relies less on close-miking and more on room ambiance than the methods employed by many engineers and producers. For more on Albini's drum miking techniques, see this article from Drum magazine.

After the jump, you can see four more videos in which Albini discusses various aspects of audio production. The first, "How to Produce An Album with Steve Albini," features him talking generally about how he approaches the production process when starting a new project.

After that, there are a couple of Q&A sessions with Albini, recorded in conjunction with his participation in a series of seminars called "Mix with the Masters" in 2014 and 2015. Last but not least, there's a shorter clip in which Albini talks about why he personally prefers analog recording to digital.