Here's StLJN's weekly wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Violinist Alex Cunningham will be featured alongside U.S. Maple guitarist Mark Shippy on a new duo recording called Ghost Note. The album (pictured), which features a series of improvised duets, will be released by the Personal Archives label as a vinyl LP and to digital music services on Friday, June 4.
* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio this week launched another podcast, titled "Upright Citizens" and hosted by bassists Reuben Rogers and Bob DeBoo. You can check out the first episode here.
* After canceling their 2020 event due to the COVID pandemic, the Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival this week announced plans for a return this fall on Saturday, September 18. The event will run from noon until 11:00 p.m. with a total of 12 bands (still TBA) on two stages.
* Last Saturday's webcast ceremony for this year's group of inductees to the Dan and Heide Wolff Institute's St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame at Harris Stowe State University has been archived and now can be seen on YouTube.
* A streaming performance by singer/pianist Tony DeSare and singer Capathia Jenkins to benefit Cabaret Project of St. Louis was reviewed by KDHX's Judi Mann.
* Although Jim Manley wasn't able to do his annual Christmas show this year at Jazz St. Louis, the trumpeter earlier this week live-streamed a holiday-themed performance from the Gaslight Theater, joined by Bob Row on keyboard, Joe Weber on drums, Larry Johnson on saxophone, and Jim Owens on trombone. If you missed the original live stream, you can catch it now on YouTube.
* Also debuting this week on video is A New Holiday, an original, locally produced Christmas musical written by singer Brian Owens and actor Sophia Stephens that features several jazz connections, starting with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, drummer Montez Coleman, bassist Jahmal Nichols, and pianist Peter Martin in the opening scene.
The production also includes appearances from saxophonist David Sanborn; singers Kennedy Holmes (seen recently on NBC’s The Voice), Anita Jackson, Bebe Winans, and Karen Clark-Sheard; dance students from Grand Center Arts Academy; and more, plus animation by St. Louis-based Lion Forge Animation. It was recorded in St. Louis at locations including Jazz St Louis, Powell Hall, and The Sheldon, and after two broadcast airings on Nine Network, now can be seen on YouTube.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The nascent Music at The Intersection festival in Grand Center, which originally was scheduled for September of this year but postponed due to the pandemic, has announced dates for 2021. The event, part of a proposed "St. Louis Music Week" sponsored by the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and the Steward Family Foundation, will take place the weekend of September 10-12.
* Bassist Larry Kornfeld is the subject of a short feature in Bass magazine, highlighting the track "Pusherman" from Rhythm City, the recent Autumn Hill release from Kornfeld, pianist Ptah Williams, and drummer Rob Silverman.
* Mangia Italiano, the long running bar and restaurant on South Grand that for years featured jazz on Friday nights among its varied musical offerings, will close at the end of this month.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* With no new relief from the government this fall for businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, St. Louis-area independent venues that are part of the Missouri Entertainment Alliance are asking music enthusiasts to contact Missouri legislators and urge them to provide industry-specific financial assistance at the state level.
* Singer Denise Thimes(pictured) led an online master class on "Interpretation of Performance Material" this past Tuesday for local students under the auspices of the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation. You can see the class on YouTube in three parts here, here and here.
* St. Louis Post-Dispatch classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller has died after a long battle with cancer. Miller was 68 years old and had been at the Post since 1999.
* Nine Network is reporting on social media that veteran St. Louis pianist and teacher Herb Drury has died. Drury was 92 years old, and was active on the local scene from the Gaslight Square era in the late 1950s into the early 2000s. You can see a profile of Drury from a 2008 episode of Nine's program Living St. Louishere.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Keyboardist Michael Silverman has been nominated for the Smooth Jazz Network's "Best Breakout Artist" award for 2020. Silverman (pictured) is one of 12 musicians contending for the prize. Listener/reader voting for the award continues through Monday, November 30.
* The Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson reports that the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and Jazz St. Louis will extend their "Open Air" concert series into 2021. The Grand Center presenters are expected to announce 40 additional weeks of programming for the series, with January and February's shows to be revealed early next month.
* Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio, which produces jazz instructional videos and educational materials, recently reached 50,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, and to commemorate the occasion, they've compiled a video featuring the "Top 7 Highlights from 2020 with Peter Martin and Adam Maness."
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Drummer and St. Charles native Dave Wecklannounced this week on social media that he will present a free live online drum lesson at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow, Saturday, November 7.
Weckl (pictured) will "review hand technique, take your questions, and do some giveaways" via a livestream on his YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* A "roll in" event put on last week by local sound, lighting and stage workers in support of the #SaveOurStages campaign was the subject of a feature story in the St. Louis Labor Tribune.
For more information on the campaign, which seeks federal relief for independent music venues affected by the pandemic, go to https://www.saveourstages.com/.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Drummer and educator Bernard Long Jr. has been named to the Percussive Arts Society's Education Committee for 2020-21. Long is band director at Normandy High School and also teaches at Lindenwood University.
* Voting in DownBeat's annual readers poll is now open. You can see the nominees, which this year include St. Louis natives Oliver Nelson and Grant Green in the "Hall of Fame" category, and cast your ballot (or write in any favorites not listed) here.
* Edgar Wilkinson, bassist and tuba player who worked in St. Louis in the 1950s with the Dixie Stompers and other bands, died at age 87 in Highland Park, IL.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The Arts United STL online benefit staged this past Sunday, May 31 by 16 St. Louis arts organizations to raise funds for the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) Artist Relief Fund exceeded its goal of $250,000, raising a total of $350,000.
The money will go to emergency grants to working artists whose livelihoods have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The Arts United STL benefit performance can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. Applications for funding are being accepted through June 12, and you still can donate to the relief fund here.
* In what will be one the first live jazz gigs in St. Louis since the COVID-19 shutdown, trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Chris Swan will perform for brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. this coming Sunday, June 7 at Evangeline's. StLJN continues to monitor the situation with regard to local live performances, in hopes of being able to update and restart the StLJN Jazz Calendar in the near future.
* Saxophonist Rev. Cliff Aerie and trumpeter Tim Osiek of the Oikos Ensemble have made ten of their "Worship Jazz" arrangements available as free downloads for use "in your worship streaming or for personal and group meditation."
The arrangements, along with YouTube links, lyrics (where applicable), and more, are available via individual posts on the "Worship Jazz" blog; go here and scroll down to see all the posts.
* In celebration of that 50th anniversary, the Miles Davis Estate announced a vinyl reissue of Bitches Brew, and shared what seem to be some previously unseen video clips of a show by Davis from 1969 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The Dark Room has announced new hours of operation, with the biggest change being that the venue will be closed on Mondays.
New hours for the rest of the week are 4:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays.
* St. Louis County Library this month has reopened to new submissions their "Listen Up" program, which makes recordings from local musicians available as part of the library's streaming audio service. Musicians can submit their works now through the end of March at https://www.slcl.org/content/listen-up-stl.
* Audition dates are set for student musicians from St. Louis area middle schools and high schools who would like to take part in Jazz St. Louis' JazzU program next year. The auditions for the 2020-21 school year will take place Monday, June 8 through Thursday, June 11 at JSL's HQ in Grand Center. For details and/or to sign up, go to https://jazzstl.org/education/jazz-u/2020-21-jazzu-auditions/.
* If you missed Tuesday's broadcast premiere of the documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool this week on PBS' American Masters, or want to watch it again, the entire film can be seen for the next 30 days streaming from the PBS website. In addition, the film's director Stanley Nelson and Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn also are featured on the latest episode of the American Masters podcast.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* A memorial service for the late Bryan Cather, ragtime historian and president of the Friends of Scott Joplin, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 25 at St. John's Episcopal Church, 3664 Arsenal (across from Tower Grove Park).
* The recent vinyl reissue box set (pictured) of Miles Davis' The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings was reviewed by Jazz Times.
Titled Music From and Inspired by Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool, the album has 28 tracks of music and dialog from the film selected by Nelson. One of those tracks is a previously unheard recording, "Hail to the Real Chief," which combines unreleased studio trumpet performances by Davis with music by drummer Lenny White, performed by White, Davis' nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr, Marcus Miller, Jeremy Pelt, Antoine Roney, John Scofield, Bernard Wright, and others. You can listen to "Hail to the Real Chief" here.
* Also on the Miles Davis beat, fans of the trumpeter are being invited to submit original artwork to be used on an upcoming vinyl single release of "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" from Bitches Brew. For details, go to http://secret-7.com/
* KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi reviewed recent cabaret shows at Blue Strawberry by singers Christy Simmons and Emily Skinner.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* The second episode of saxophonist David Sanborn's new online video series "Sanborn Sessions" went "live" this week on YouTube and elsewhere.
The episode is an all-St. Louis affair with singers Michael McDonald and Brian Owens (pictured, with Sanborn) as the featured guests, and you can see it in the video embed at the bottom of this post.
* Bryan Cather, a ragtime historian and president of the Friends of Scott Joplin, has died. He was 53 years old, and was found Sunday by friends at his south St. Louis home after he apparently suffered a heart attack.
Cather came to St. Louis in 2004 from Arlington, TX, and subsequently played a major role as a volunteer with the Friends and the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, as detailed in this obituary in Syncopated Times. Funeral arrangements are pending, but the article says that "a memorial service is likely to be held at Bryan’s John’s Episcopal Church in the Tower Grove Neighborhood of St. Louis and his cremains will be interred in Oklahoma."
* Treasure Shields Redmond, daughter of East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene Redmond, was a guest Thursday on St. Louis Public Radio's "St. Louis On The Air" to talk about the "Historic Jazz & Poetry Excursion" tour of East St. Louis, in which trumpeter Miles Davis and his now-restored childhood home play a major role.
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.
* 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.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Last weekend's production of "Such Sweet Thunder" by Jazz St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Company, Big Muddy Dance Company, and Nine Network was reviewed by Mark Bretz of Ladue News.
* When saxophonist and composer Benny Golson was in town last weeks to appear for Jazz St. Louis' "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series, he also went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to give a master class to jazz students, which was covered in an article on the UMSL Daily website.
* In related news, Owsley (pictured) last week announced via social media and emails to friends and colleagues that he and his wife Sara are moving to the Phoenix, AZ area to be close to their grandchildren.
The move already is underway, but Owsley says he'll be continuing his radio program "Jazz Unlimited," which airs Sunday nights on St. Louis Public Radio. Since he's been recording the program on his home computer for more than 10 years and submitting it either on disc or by email, the only change will be "that it goes 1500 miles to St. Louis Public Radio rather than 15 miles," he said.
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."
* 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.
