Though he doesn't categorize his music as "jazz," Steve Coleman has been a significant player on the contemporary improvised music scene since the 1980s as a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator.
He's noted particularly as one of the originators and chief promulgator of M-BASE, an acronym for "Macro–Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations." As explained by Coleman, it's not a musical style, but rather a conceptual approach - "a way of thinking about creating music."
Without getting too much more into the specifics, suffice it to say that Coleman has a lot of interesting ideas, and today for Music Education Monday, you can get a sampling of some of them by checking out videos from a series of workshops that he conducted from May through October of 2013 at Seeds, a performance space and gallery in the NYC borough of Brooklyn.
There are five videos in total, each including a combination of performance, lecture, and discussion, adding up to nearly fifteen hours worth of content.
Saxquest has announced the featured artists and dates for four more free master classes this summer and fall.
First up is saxophonist and educator Chip McNeill, who will appear with his quartet at the south-side saxophone sales and repair shop at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 4. McNeill is known for his work in the bands of trumpeters Arturo Sandoval and Maynard Ferguson, and presently serves as associate professor and chair of jazz studies at the University of Illinois.
Next up, saxophonist Jeff Coffin and members of his band, The Mu'tet, will be at Saxquest at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, August 20. Coffin, who's based in Nashville, was a member of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones from 1997 to 2010, and then joined the Dave Matthews Band in 2008 after the death of their original saxophonist LeRoi Moore.
The following month, saxophonist Bob Sheppard will visit the shop starting at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 9. Sheppard's credits include a wide range of studio work, film and television projects, as well as tours with Steely Dan, James Taylor, Natalie Cole and other major artists.
The fourth master class will be presented by saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines (pictured) at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, October 20. Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993, and also is the director of jazz studies at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He's performed in St. Louis several times in recent years, both as a leader at Jazz at the Bistro and the Sheldon Concert Hall, and with JaLCO at the Sheldon.
All of these events are free and open to the public. Saxquest is located at 2114 Cherokee, two blocks west of Jefferson.
The woodwind sales and repair shop Saxquest is presenting two free master classes this week for St. Louis area reed players.
* Baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian(pictured) will give a clinic and perform with a rhythm section of local musicians at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, April 19 at the Saxquest shop, 2114 Cherokee St. One of the busiest bari players on the NYC scene, Sevian has been a member of the Mingus Big Band since 2003, works with numerous other groups in and around the city, and also leads two quartets of her own.
* Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra clarinetist Diana Haskell will present a masterclass and performance at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, April 21. Haskell, who's the SLSO's Associate Principal of clarinet and E-flat clarinet, will play solo and in duets with Saxquest's clarinet specialist Audrey Denny.
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-664-1234 or visit the Saxquest website.
Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:
* Jazz St. Louis will celebrate the first-ever International Jazz Day with an open jam session from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Monday, April 30 at Jazz at the Bistro. Pianist Adaron “Pops” Jackson’s trio will host. Admission is free and open to the public, though seating is limited. Musicians who want to participate are encouraged to sign up starting at 7:00 p.m. that night at the Bistro.
* Trumpeter Clark Terry's recently published autobiography was reviewed by The Australian newspaper.
* Trumpeter, singer and St. Louis native Jeremy Davenport(pictured) recently was featured in a photo essay in New Orleans magazine about the French Quarter. Davenport and his band are the house group at New Orleans' Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts has three more "Business Edge" workshops for artists and musicians coming up this month, starting with a "Copyright Clinic" next Monday, April 9. Next up is "Inside the Music Business: Legal Essentials," which was rescheduled for Monday, April 16 after an earlier date was canceled due to inclement weather. The series wraps with "Is It Okay? Fair Use for Filmmakers" on Monday, April 23.
All workshops take place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar (across from The Pageant). The cost is $10 in advance, $15 at the door, with advance registration recommended. For more information, visit the website or call VLAA at 314-863-6930.
* The Post-Dispatch's Sarah Bryan Miller reported this week that St. Louis may be getting a new classical radio station this summer. "The Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis, which provided considerable financial support to the old "Classic 99," KFUO-FM, hopes to be on the air with a new FM station in early June, pending FCC approvals. The new station, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, will broadcast over a combination of regular analog radio, an HD-2 channel and live streaming over the Internet."
Initial funding is coming from The Centene Foundation, which gave $200,000 to get things started and has promised another $1 million, and a fundraising drive that will begin this month. The total cost, including operating expenses, is expected to be $5 million to $6 million over two years. Of particular interest to local jazz fans is a quote in the story from station manager Jim Connett, who said that the new station will feature "everything — chamber music, vocal music, choirs, opera, symphonic, jazz" and what he called "cultural programming." More on this story as it develops...
St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts has announced several additions to their schedule of "Business Edge" workshops for artists, starting this Monday, February 13 with a presentation called "Inside The Music Biz: Legal Essentials."
UPDATE - 6:30 p.m., 2/14/12: Because of snowy weather, the workshop originally scheduled for February 13 was postponed, and has been rescheduled for Monday, April 16.
Entertainment lawyer Gary Pierson of the Husch Blackwell firm will discuss "the most essential legal and strategic information," including protecting band names and songs, which type of business entity is right for you, how music publishing works, and when you need a lawyer. Other upcoming workshops and their dates are:
Monday, March 12: "Anatomy of a Contract," presented by attorneys Jim Reeves and Kim Kirn.
Monday, April 9: "Copyright Clinic," featuring a 15-minute in-person consultation with a volunteer lawyer (advance registration required).
Monday, April 23: "Is It Okay? Fair Use For Filmmakers," presented by attorneys Mark Sableman and Jennifer Visintine of Thompson Coburn.
All the workshops take place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Regional Arts Commission building, 6128 Delmar, across from the Pageant. The cost per person per workshop is $10 in advance, $15 at the door. You can download a registration form online here, or register by email for the "Inside The Music Biz" workshop before noon on Monday by sending a message to VLAA @ stlrac.org.
The St. Louis woodwind sales and repair shop Saxquest will host a free recital and master class featuring clarinetist Eric Mandat at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, October 2.
Mandat (pictured) will perform solo works with piano for about an hour, then give a master class for an hour. Consider a leading composer and performer of contemporary clarinet music, Mandat is known for his use of extended techniques, such as multiphonics and microtones. His composing is focused on solo and chamber works for clarinet, using extended techniques within a framework influenced by jazz and traditional music of non-Western cultures. You can hear samples of Mandat's music on his MySpace page.
Mandat's performance and master class is the first of four such events Saxquest has scheduled for the fall. Also on the calendar:
* Dick Oatts, a veteran jazz saxophonist, session musician and alumnus of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 9.
* Jeff Coffin, featured saxophonist with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, the Dave Matthews Band and his own group, the Mu'Tet, at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday October 27.
* Victor Goines, saxophonist and clarinetist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and director of jazz studies at Northwestern University, at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, November 13.
All events are free and open to the public, and will be held at the Saxquest shop, 2114 Cherokee St. on the south side. For more information, call Saxquest at 314-664-1234 or visit their website.
Levy, Friesen and Velez will take part in two days of workshops and concerts, all of which are free and open to the public. The residency will culminate with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Meramec Theatre featuring Trio Globo with the Meramec Orchestra and Choir and other Meramec Arts students.
Levy was the keyboard and harmonica player in the original lineup of Bela Fleck's Flecktones, who share with Trio Globo a proclivity for mixing musical genres from all around the world. Friesen has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since 1978, and is known for incorporating the cello into unusual musical settings and for his use of extended techniques. Velez also has worked extensively with Paul Winter, as well as with composer Steve Reich's ensemble, and has collaborated with other well-known performers ranging from Pat Metheny to the New York City Ballet.
Here's the complete schedule of events for Trio Globo's St. Louis residency:
Thursday, April 23 Noon: Trio Globo Opening Concert in the Meramec Theatre, 1:30 p.m.: Choir rehearsal, Eugene Friesen, HW102 2:30 p.m.: Overtone singing, Glen Velez, HW102 3:30 p.m.: Harmonica Workshop, Howard Levy, HW102 3:30 p.m.: Improvisation/spoken word, Eugene Friesen, Theatre 7:30 p.m.: Dress Rehearsal, Trio Globo with the Meramec Orchestra and Choir, Theatre
Friday, April 24 10 a.m.-Noon: String Workshop, Eugene Friesen, HW102 10 a.m.-Noon: Improv and Movement, Glen Velez and Howard Levy, HE131 1:30 p.m.: History of Harmonica, Howard Levy, HW102 2:30 p.m.: Percussion workshop, Glen Velez, HW102 3:30 p.m.: The New Cello, Eugene Friesen, HW102 7:30 p.m.: Trio Globo Concert with Meramec Orchestra, Concert Choir, Arts students, Theatre
For a sample of some of Trio Globo's music, check out the embedded video window below. For more information on the Trio Globo workshops and concerts at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, you can call the SLCC-Meramec community relations office at 314-984-7529 or the music department at 314-984-7639.
Trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn will be back in the St. Louis area this Saturday, May 3, to do a clinic and concert at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville. The concert begins at 5:00 p.m. in the Meridian Ballroom on the first floor of SIU-E’s Morris University Center.
Gunn (pictured) is performing as part of a day-long event honoring the music of Miles Davis. At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, local high school bands will take part in clinics conducted by Ron Carter, saxophonist and director of the jazz program at Northern Illinois University, and trumpeter and educator Anthony Wiggins, who was a student of Carter's when he taught at Lincoln High in East St. Louis. (Wiggins and Gunn, who also graduated from Lincoln, are cousins.) Gunn will conduct a clinic at 1:00 p.m., and the evening concert also will include music from members of the SIU-E jazz faculty and the SIU-E Concert Jazz Band.
The clinics, which also are being held in the Meridian Ballroom, are free and open to the public. Admission to the 5 p.m. concert is $5 per person. For more information, call the SIU-E music department at 618-650-3900.
"Copyright Clinic - Monday, April 21 Do you have pressing questions about copyright? Here's your chance to learn the basics. Then you'll have an opportunity to spend 15 minutes talking to a volunteer lawyer. Consultations will be scheduled in person that evening and may not be available if you do not register in advance.
Ask the Entertainment Lawyer - Monday, May 5 Here's your chance to hear from an expert panel of local entertainment attorneys — Daniel Friedman, Barbara Graham-Alexander, Emmett McAuliffe and Jeff Michelman. You'll also learn what services they provide in addition to drafting agreements with record labels.
The seminars will be held in the Regional Arts Commission's building, 6128 Delmar, which is located across the street from the Pageant and just west of the Delmar MetroLink station. They will begin at 7:00 p.m. and conclude by 9:00 p.m. The advance registration fee is $10."
To download a registration form, visit VLAA's Web site. For more information, see the Web site, or call 314-863-6930.
As part of their ongoing educational efforts, the staff of Jazz St. Louis has come up with a program called "Jazz 101" that's designed to help both novice and veteran jazz fans to better understand the music and how to listen to it. The first "Jazz 101" class will take place at 8:30 p.m. next Thursday, March 20, at Jazz at the Bistro. From the blog entry at the JSL Web site:
"This presentation will look at the rhythm section: the combination of piano, bass and drums that makes up the foundation of most jazz ensembles. You will learn about how this particular group of instruments came about, its history and the role each of the instruments plays in a jazz performance. The presentation will feature our Director of Education, Phil Dunlap, an accomplished jazz pianist who will lead the presentation. It promises to be an enjoyable and informative evening for those new to jazz as well as the aficionado."
Tickets are $15 per person and can be ordered via Metrotix.
New Music Circle's series of free workshops in analog synthesis techniques, led by electronic musician (and NMC board member) Mike Murphy, will resume at 6:45 p.m. next Thursday, February 21 at the St. Louis Public Library's Carpenter Branch, 3309 Grand Blvd.
"Come observe techniques on a demonstration synth, or bring your own, and learn to make the machine “sing, squonk, and blorch” at your command," says NMC's news release. The workshops, which are free and open to the public without prior registration, will continue at the same time on the third Thursday of each month through May.
(Edited after posting to fix a formatting problem.)
Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is sponsoring a series of free workshops for musicians who'd like to exercise and improve their skills in free improvisation by working with touring performers who are visiting St. Louis.
The first workshop takes place at LNAC, 3301 Lemp Ave, starting at 11 a.m. this Sunday, February 10, and will be led by members of the End Times Trio, a group based in Springfield, IL that includes saxophonist Frank Trompeter, guitarist Mark Schwartz and drummer/percussionist Richard Gilman-Opalsky.
According to LNAC's news release, "each event will culminate at 8 p.m. with a performance of the workshop participants, and featuring the touring artists. The workshops are open to the public free of charge, but participation will be limited. To register for the event, please email contact@lemp-arts.org and provide information on what instrument(s) you play, your level of ability, and experience with improvisation."
Subsequent workshops will be held on Sunday, March 9 with saxophonist Dan Kozak, who's from Lawrence, KS, and on Sunday, April 13 with percussionist Theo Katsaounis and vocalist Carol Genetti, who both hail from Chicago.
Note that while the daytime workshops are free for the participants, there is a $5 admission charge for listeners who'd like to attend the associated evening concerts. For more information, visit LNAC's Web site or call 314-771-1096.
(Edited after posting to fix some formatting problems.)
Webster University has finally posted a complete schedule of the concerts they'll be presenting during the 2007-08 school year, and as usual, there are a number of performances that will be of interest to jazz fans:
Monday, October 22 - The annual TKT Memorial Jazz Scholarship Concert, which raises money for scholarships in the names of three former Webster students who were killed in a plane crash while touring with singer Reba McIntyre, will present "Music from the Movies" with singers Debby Lennon and Sherry Drake and the Webster Faculty Jazz Ensemble.
Monday, November 19 - The Webster University Big Band will perform a program called "1967 to Today-The Big Band plus a 70th Birthday Tribute to Joe Henderson".
Monday, January 28 - Guitarist Tom Byrne and Friends.
Monday, February 4 - "Electric Miles; The Music of Miles Davis 1969-74," featuring the Webster University Faculty Jazz Ensemble, which includes Randy Holmes (trumpet), Paul DeMarinis (woodwinds), Steve Schenkel (guitar), Kim Portnoy (keyboards), Carolbeth True (keyboards, pictured), Jay Hungerford (bass) and Ron Carr (drums).
Monday, Feburary 11 - "A Tribute to Thelonious Monk," featuring pianist Carol Schmidt and Friends.
Monday, February 18 - Guitarist Steve Schenkel and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman.
Monday, February 25 - The Webster University Big Band and the Genesis Jazz Project will team up for a program called "The St. Louis Blues & All That Jazz!"
Monday, April 7 - Debby Lennon and the Webster Faculty Jazz Ensemble.
In addition, Webster U also is teaming up with Jazz St. Louis to present free master classes with singers Kurt Elling (Friday, November 16) and Sara Gazarek (Friday, February 15) while they're in town to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.
The master classes will take place at the Webster U's Community Music School building, 8282 Big Bend Blvd, while the other concerts listed above will be at the Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood. You can see the complete schedule of all of the Webster music department's performances, including concerts by the various student jazz ensembles, here.
Musicians are invited to participate in a structured, free improvisation in the tradition of projects led by AACM in Chicago as well as the rich tradition of ‘new’ music in St. Louis. Zimbabwe will give a lecture-demonstration on the advancements of creative musicians such as Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Sun Ra...
This event will also serve as a precursor to BAG’s feature event on October 21, a tribute to St. Louis drummers Phillip Wilson, Joe Charles, and Sunny Hamp featuring Gary Sykes.
I trust that more info on that October 21 event will be coming soon, and promise to pass it along when it arrives at StLJN HQ.
(Edited after posting to add links and revise the headline.)
In addition to their schedule of performances this fall, New Music Circle is also sponsoring "A Guided Tour of The Analog Synthesizer," a series of free workshops/lectures/interactive discussions that begins at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, (Wednesday, September 26), in the downstairs meeting room of the Carpenter Branch of the St. Louis Public Library, 3309 S. Grand (at the corner of Utah St. and Grand).
New Music Circle board member Mike "Dr. Alphonse Caspar Mabuse" Murphy - a longtime analog synth enthusiast & user, hardware builder & experimenter, software engineer, performer and recordist - will present a program that promises to:
"illuminate and explain in plain layman's English, what every knob on an analog synthesizer does (and how it messes with all the other knobs!) Doc will unravel the tangle of confusing labels and weird wiggly lines on the panel with a very practical, hands-on approach. The form will be a very informal lecture using a demonstration synth and an Oscilloscope to give you a peek at what sound LOOKS like as we talk about it...
The format will be one lecture per basic module. The first lecture will cover the Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO). Doc will demonstrate and explain the function of every knob and jack commonly found on a VCO and its' interrelationship with the other controls.
Attendees are invited to lug their own analogs to the lectures if they have specific questions. The focus will be very practical and wherever possible, math (beyond addition and subtraction and positive/negative numbers) will be scrupulously avoided. Doc is old and easily confused himself."
I've worked with Murphy a few times over the years, and he really knows his stuff with regard to analog synthesis. I'd expect him to put on an informative and entertaining class, and hey, you sure can't beat the price, right?
To reiterate, the clasess are free and open to the public, and there's no need to call ahead or pre-register; just show up at the appointed place and time. After the first session, the series will continue with subsequent presentations scheduled begining at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month through next April or May.
Jazz St. Louis has announced a series of free weekly educational workshops for middle school and high school student musicians in the St. Louis metro area. The program, called "JazzU," will begin Monday, September 24 and continue on subsequent Mondays and Tuesdays at the Centene Center for Arts and Education, 3547 Olive in the Grand Center district.
The program will be overseen by local jazz educators including trumpeter Anthony Wiggins and pianist Phil Dunlap, who serves as Jazz St. Louis' Director of Education. Activities will include instruction in ensemble performance, jazz language, improvisation, music theory concepts and listening strategies. Students will also make field trips to performances at Jazz at the Bistro, and work with visiting educators and musicians such as Ronald Carter and Reginald Thomas as well as Jazz St. Louis resident artists such as the Terell Stafford Quintet, the Cyrus Chestnut Trio, and the Esperanza Spalding Trio.
Students interested in participating must submit an application along with a letter of recommendation from their music teacher or band director. Applications are due by Monday, September 10, and students will be notified of their acceptance by Monday, September 17.
You can find application forms and more information on the Jazz St. Louis Web site, or you can contact Dunlap by calling 314-289-4033 or via email at phil @ jazzstl.org.
