Smooth jazz holiday shows coming to the Pageant

Smooth jazz radio personality and promoter Rick Sanborn is following up on his "Smooth Summer Party" from earlier this year by presenting two more smooth jazz shows, this time with a holiday theme, at The Pageant.

"A Peter White Christmas," featuring the popular guitarist performing on a bill with saxophonist Mindy Abair and trumpeter Rick Braun, will play the Pageant on Wednesday, November 29, followed by "A Soulful Christmas" featuring multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson, guitarist/vocalist Bobby Caldwell, saxophonist Warren Hill, guitarist and singer Ray Parker Jr.(pictured), and saxophonist Eric Darius on Sunday, December 3.

Tickets for Sanborn's "Smooth Holiday Party" are $60 for reserved seating at both concerts, or $35 per reserved seat for one show, and are on sale now at the Pageant box office and through Ticketmaster.

Jackson's CD, Owsley's book reviewed

Following up on a couple of previous StLJN stories, the newly issued Dewey Jackson CD Live at the Barrel is reviewed by the music blog Bagatellen here, and (with a hat tip to The Commonspace, which had the item first) Dennis Owsley's book City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973 is reviewed here and here.

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Miles Davis and Gil Evans do the "New Rhumba"plus Thelonious Monk's "Blue Monk"

This week's video clips showcase a couple of vintage performances from two of the greatest jazz innovators of all time. The first clip is a Miles Davis performance of "New Rhumba" from a 1959 television appearance, featuring John Coltrane on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and drummer Jimmy Cobb, plus Gil Evans and his Orchestra.

The second video is a performance of the Thelonious Monk classic "Blue Monk," filmed in 1966 at a concert in Oslo, Norway. The composer's distinctive piano stylings are supported on this occasion, as on many others, by Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, Ben Riley on drums and Larry Gales on bass.

Documentary about St. Louis jazz history will debut November 2 on HEC-TV

Back in February, StLJN told you about filmmaker Christian Cudnik's efforts to make a documentary on the history of St. Louis jazz. Well, Cudnik has been hard at work over the intervening months, and the fruit of his labors, a film called Collective Improvisation: The Story of Jazz in Saint Louis, is now in post-production, with the debut airing set for 8 p.m., Thursday, November 2 on HEC-TV (sometimes known as the Higher Education Channel).

The documentary features new interviews with a number of musicians, DJs, journalists, presenters and others involved with the St. Louis jazz scene, including Dennis Owsley, Prince Wells, Don Wolff, Richard Henderson, Erin Bode, Jerome Harris, Jeremy Davenport, Bob Bennett, Terry Perkins, Roscoe Crenshaw, Martha Stitzel and Paul Demarinis, as well as archival footage of interviews with Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Eddie Randle, George Hudson and others.

If you can't catch the first showing, don't fret; Cudnik says the film also will be replayed on HEC at the same time every Thursday and Saturday in November. HEC is on cable channel 13 in the city of St. Louis and channel 26 in St. Louis County.

Fred Tompkins releases new CD

St. Louis composer Fred Tompkins, who's been exploring the intersections of jazz, new music and contemporary classical since the late 1960s, has just released a new CD entitled Curve Extended.

The album includes nine pieces composed by Tompkins between 2002 and this year, ranging from ensemble works to electronic music to settings for the words of St. Louis poet Michael Castro. Tompkins plays flute, piano and E-mu sampler on the CD, aided by vocalist Debby Lennon, Paul DeMarinis on saxophones, Dave Black on guitar and Charles Dent on drums. You can find out more about Tompkins, hear samples of the music and, if you like, purchase a copy of the CD by visiting his Web site.

(Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I've known Tompkins for about 15 years, and worked with him as an event producer and a musician on several projects during the mid-to-late 1990s.)

Jazz this week: World Saxophone Quartet, Kevin Mahogany, Tierney Sutton and more

There's lots of jazz worth hearing at local venues this week, so let's dispense with the preliminaries and get right to the highlights.

Tonight, singer Anita Rosamond appears at the Sheldon Concert Hall in the first concert in a special "Notes From Home" series of jazz performances associated with Dennis Owsley's City of Gabriels book and the exhibit of the same name at the Sheldon Art Galleries. Backing Rosamond will be a fine crew of players including Tom Kennedy (bass), Miles Vandiver (drums), Jason Swagler (saxes), Keith Moyer (trumpet) and Nathan Jatcko (piano).

On Wednesday, the World Saxophone Quartet returns to St. Louis to begin a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. The WSQ's new CD, Political Blues, previewed for the St. Louis audience during their last gig here in February, is now on sale, so I'd expect them to play some of that material this week as well as some of the older stuff. And the band's lineup will be a bit different this time out as well, with St. Louis native Greg Osby on alto sax alongside core members Hamiet Bluiett and Oliver Lake and tenor man James Carter, who once again will sub for founding member David Murray as he did the last time the WSQ came to St. Louis.

On Thursday, pianist Linda Presgrave, another St. Louis expatiriate, returns to the Gateway City to perform a free concert as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series. Presgrave will perform a couple of new compositions during the show, the first being "The Bird of Ceret," inspired by her trip to France this summer, and the second being "Randy Holmes," a tribute to the St. Louis trumpeter. Bassist Ric Vice and drummer John Brophy will complete the ensemble with Presgrave and Holmes.

On Friday night, singer Kevin Mahogany takes the stage at the Sheldon in a tribute concert dedicated to the late jazz singer/balladeer Johnny Hartman. Mahogany's big, warm baritone voice seems like a good match for the type of material Hartman performed, and the Kansas City-born singer is always an engaging presence on stage. I've been told by the promoter that there are still tickets available, so if you're a fan of Mahogany, Hartman, or fine jazz singing in general, carpe diem.

Singer Tierney Sutton (pictured) caps off the weekend with a concert performance at the Sheldon on Saturday night. While I'm not that familiar with Sutton's music, she seems to be held in high esteem by the national jazz press, and I 've heard good things about here from people whose taste and judgment I trust. You can read more about Sutton here and here.

For more on who's playing where this week in St. Louis, 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. No attachments, please.)

City of Gabriels reviewed

Reviews are starting to come in for City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973, the new book by St. Louis DJ, photographer and historian Dennis Owsley. In an article now online at jazzreview.com, contributor Lee Prosser calls the book "a well-written and entertaining look at jazz in St. Louis," while, writing in this weekend's Post-Dispatch, reporter and critic Calvin Wilson says it's "a richly entertaining cornucopia of facts, anecdotes and perspectives -- and a good companion to a new jazz exhibit at the Sheldon Art Galleries."

Owsley has also been doing a number of signings and lectures in conjunction with the book's release, including a recent talk at the University of Missouri-St. Louis that was covered in an article in the student newspaper The Current.

(And speaking of book reviews, jazzreview.com also has a review of Josephine Baker: Image and Icon, the volume edited by the Sheldon Art Galleries' Olivia Lahs-Gonzalez to accompany the Baker exhibit that ran earlier this year at the Sheldon. )

Marsalis, Morton's to present "virtual concert"

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and Morton's, a nationwide chain of upscale steakhouses, are teaming up this Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 7, for "In Higher Definition," a concert presentation featuring Marsalis that will be simulcast via HD audio and video to more than 50 Morton's restaurants across the country, including the St. Louis area location at 7822 Bonhomme in Clayton.

For a cool $250 per person, you get cocktails, wine, a four-course meal and the concert satcast. Of course, the idea of a private satellite telecast is nothing new, having been used for years for everything from boxing matches to rock concerts, but this is the first time I can recall seeing a jazz musician involved in this type of endeavor. If you'd like to attend, you can reserve a place by calling 800-891-2440 or going to www.velocityboxoffice.com.