Jazz this week: Dianne Reeves & Peter Martin, Lou Donaldson, FLOW, St. Louis Musicians for Haiti, and more

It's looking like a very good weekend of live music in St. Louis, with a number of events of interest to fans of jazz and creative music. Let's go to the highlights, presented in chronological order:

Things get started tonight with the veteran saxophonist Lou Donaldson (pictured), who's back in town to perform at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday. For more on Donaldson, see this video post from a couple of weeks ago, and this recent podcast interview from Jazz St. Louis.

On Thursday, Broadway actress and singer Sutton Foster will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of a fundraising gala for Cabaret St. Louis. You can find links to a couple of interviews with Foster about the event here. Also on Thursday, saxophonist Jason Swagler will lead his group in a free concert for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series.

On Friday, pianist Peter Martin's eponymous new series at the Sheldon kicks off with a duo performance featuring Martin and singer Dianne Reeves, for whom he has served as music director since 2001. For more on both, check out this video post, these previous posts on the Peter Martin Music series, and this interview with Martin from the St. Louis Beacon.

Also on Friday, NYC saxophonist Kim Bock and his organ-centric trio FLOW will perform an early show starting at 8:00 p.m. at The Gramophone. The next morning, they'll be at Saxquest at 11:00 a.m. for a concert and clinic.

Later on Saturday, the Nu-Art Series begins "The Jazz Composers Series: Re-Arrangements & Nu-Compositions" with a matinee concert at the Metropolitan Gallery downtown. The first installment of the series features an ensemble led by bassist Darrell Mixon doing original compositions and the music of Charles Mingus. For more on Nu-Art's jazz composers series, see this post.

On Saturday evening, percussionist and trumpeter "Baba" Mike Nelson will bring his group Sworn to the Drum to Robbie's House of Jazz.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Carolbeth True and her trio will back saxophonist Willie Akins in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

On Tuesday, the Sheldon Concert Hall will present "St. Louis Musicians For Haiti," an event raising funds for post-earthquake relief efforts in the beleaguered island nation. The lineup includes singer Brian Owens; folk group Mayor Taylor, featuring Lydia Ruffin and Charlie Pfeffer; the Bottoms Up Blues Gang; pianist Peter Martin; singer Mardra Thomas and her pianist/husband Reggie Thomas; singer Kim Massie; pianist Peter Henderson; singer Christine Brewer; and more. Author and former TV newscaster Julius Hunter will serve as host for the evening, and it appears as of this writing that there are still some tickets available.

Also, Jazz St. Louis has two Stevie Wonder-related events planned for the first part of next week. On Tuesday, the monthly meeting of the CD Listening Club at Borders in Brentwood will focus on Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life, with keyboardist and jazz educator Reggie Thomas as the special guest. Then on Wednesday, Thomas will lead his band in a free concert of music from the same album at East St. Louis High School as part of JSL's Whitaker Community Concerts series.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or by becoming a "fan" of the StLJN Facebook page.

(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. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

(Edited after posting to add the Carolbeth True concert at Webster U.)

Trumpeter Anthony Wiggins hospitalized

Local trumpeter and jazz educator Anthony Wiggins is in the hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm last week. According to Phil Dunlap of Jazz St. Louis, where Wiggins is one of the instructors in the JazzU program for student musicians in middle school and high school, "He was airlifted to SLU hospital last week (Wednesday evening/Thursday morning) due to a brain aneurysm. They didn’t have to do brain surgery but there was a procedure he had to undergo and he will be in the ICU for a while. We don’t really know too much about his condition but will keep you informed if we hear something."

"We are certainly keeping him and his family in our thoughts and prayers and are hoping for a speedy recovery," Dunlap concluded. StLJN joins in those hopes for a quick and complete comeback for Wiggins, and we'll have updates on the story as developments warrant it.

(Edited slightly for clarity after posting.)

Cornet Chop Suey, St. Louis Rivermen to play Central Illinois Jazz Festival

St. Louis bands Cornet Chop Suey and the St. Louis Rivermen (pictured) are headed up the road this weekend to perform at the Central Illinois Jazz Festival, which will take place Friday, February 5 through Sunday, February 7 at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel in Decatur, IL.

This is the 35th year for the Central Illinois Jazz Festival, which presents traditional New Orleans and Chicago-style jazz, swing, ragtime and Gypsy jazz. Other groups performing at this year's event will include Vince Giordano's Nighthawks from NYC, New Jersey's Midiri Brothers, the Titan Hot Seven, the all-female band Mighty Aphrodite, and the Side Street Strutters from California. For more information, visit the festival's website.

Notes from the Net: More on WSQ and M'Boom; Metheny's Orchestrion released; plus news, reviews, interviews, and more

Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interest:

* In the latest Miles Davis-related news, Lucid Jazz Lounge in Seattle just put on a multi-show tribute to Miles and the different eras of his career featuring trumpeters Owuor Arunga, Scott Morning, Ahamefule J. Oluo and Jason Parker. Meanwhile, over at the blog Miles Davis Online, the tireless Milesophile Jeff Hyatt has new musings about the proposed feature film biography of the trumpeter and word of a possible HBO documentary as well.

*Before a recent gig in Pittsburgh, saxophonist David Sanborn talked to Rick Howlin of the Post-Gazette about his new CD, Only Everything.

* The World Saxophone Quartet, featuring former St. Louisan Oliver Lake on alto sax and the East Side's Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax, recently renewed their collaboration with the percussion ensemble M'Boom for a series of shows at NYC's Birdland. Here are impressions of the gig from Howard Mandel and Amiri Baraka.

* AllAboutJazz.com recently published an extended interview of saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby by Lloyd Peterson, excerpted from Peterson's book Music and the Creative Spirit. Osby's remarks are a few years old - the book was published in 2006 - but still make an interesting read.

* Here's a review of saxophonist Chris Cheek's latest CD Rollo-Coaster from Mark F. Turner of AllAboutJazz.com. The release pairs Webster University grad Cheek with the Spanish-born, Berklee-educated accordionist Victor Prieto.

* Turning to news of recent visitors, one evening of The Bad Plus' recent stand at Jazz at the Bistro was reviewed here by Patrick Shamel of JamBase.

* A bit of serendipitous Googling turned up this dialogue about "Improvising Digital Culture" between pianist Vijay Iyer, who also played the Bistro last month, and Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky). The conversation, published by the journal Critical Studies in Improvisation, is available as both text and streaming audio.

* The winners in the jazz categories at Sunday night's Grammy Awards included some names familiar to St. Louis listeners, most notably vocalist Kurt Elling, who performed at the Bistro in December and nabbed the "Best Jazz Vocal Album" Grammy for his CD Dedicated to You. It's Elling's first Grammy after being nominated nine times, and to celebrate the occasion, the Indiana Public Radio station WFIU just reposted an interview from last fall with Elling about the project.

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who's played in St. Louis at both the Bistro and the Sheldon Concert Hall, took home the "Best Improvised Jazz Solo" award for “Dancin' 4 Chicken” from Jeff “Tain” Watts' album Watts. And saxophonist Kenny Garrett, who fronted his own group at the Bistro in October, shared in the award for "Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group" for the live album from the Five Peace Band, led by pianist Chick Corea and guitarist John McLaughlin.

Other jazz Grammy winners were Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate, "Best Contemporary Jazz Album" for 75; the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" for Book One; and Bebo Valdés and Chucho Valdés, "Best Latin Jazz Album" for Juntos Para Siempre.

Update after posting: As first mentioned here earlier, St. Louis native Clark Terry received a Lifetime Achievement Award in conjunction with this year's Grammy ceremony; you can see Terry's acceptance speech from Saturday's non-televised awards event in the embedded video window below.



* Opening the "coming attractions" file, guitarist Jeff Beck will release a new CD on April 13 before heading out on a tour that will bring him to St. Louis' Fox Theatre on April 29. Emotion and Commotion will feature a mix of original songs and covers of tunes such as Jeff Buckley’s “Corpus Christi Carol,” “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You,” with Joss Stone on vocals. Beck also teams up with a 64-piece orchestra for a few tracks, including Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 5”, The Atonement score’s “Elegy for Dunkirk” and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”

* Meanwhile, the release of guitarist Pat Metheny's new solo CD Orchestrion has incited a flurry of press coverage, including reviews of the recording from the Associated Press' Charles J. Gans, Jeff Giles of Popdose, Richard Gehr of the Village Voice, and Andy Gill for the UK's Indepdendent.

For even more on Orchestrion, here's a feature interview of Metheny (pictured) by the New York Times' Nate Chinen, a follow-up blog post from Chinen, and another story about the project from Wired magazine. The Orchestrion tour comes to the Touhill Performing Arts Center on May 8.

* Over at the JazzWax blog, proprietor Marc Myers is doing another of his extended interviews with jazz greats, chatting this time with pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, who will return to St. Louis in October for the American Arts Experience-St. Louis festival. Read part one of the interview here, and part two here.

MAXJAZZ announces 2010 releases

The St. Louis-based independent label MAXJAZZ today announced plans for four new CD releases in the coming year.

Guitarist Russell Malone (pictured) will release his fourth project on MAXJAZZ, a studio recording of originals and standards with bassist David Wong and drummer and East St. Louis native Montez Coleman.

Trumpeter Terell Stafford also will record again for MAXJAZZ, with his third date for the label paying tribute to composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn. Stafford will enter the studio after performing the material live at Dizzy's in NYC from May 11 through May 16.

Pianist David Budway, who's from Pittsburgh and is influenced by classical and rock music as well as jazz, will make his debut for MAXJAZZ with a session featuring a lineup of musicians including Branford Marsalis, Eric Revis, Jeff "Tain" Watts and Marcus Strickland. Rounding out the quartet of releases will be veteran guitarist Royce Campbell's MAXJAZZ debut, a tribute to composer Henry Mancini, with whom Campbell toured for nearly twenty years.

StLJN will have more detailed information, including release dates, when it is announced.

Douglas Ewart to perform Saturday, February 13 at Webster University Community Music School

Multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart (pictured) has rescheduled his St. Louis performance for 7:30 p.m., Saturday, February 13 at the Webster University Community Music School, 535 Garden Ave (behind the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis).

Ewart originally was supposed to have played in St. Louis this past weekend in a duo with bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya. His appearance was postponed when presenters New Music Circle turned the event into a benefit for Nkenya, who suffered a stroke last fall. For the February 13 concert, Ewart will be joined by poet Shirley LaFlore, percussionist Rashu Aten, and Jim Hegarty on electronics.

Tickets for the concert are $15 for general admission, $7 for students with ID. For more about Douglas Ewart, see this video post from a few Saturdays back.

Single tickets for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at the Sheldon on sale February 13

Single tickets for the performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at 7:30 p.m. March 13 at the Sheldon Concert Hall will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 13.

The concert is the main event of the Sheldon's 2010 fundraising gala, and patron tickets have been on sale since November. Single tickets will be $65 and $75 and can be purchased in person at all MetroTix outlets and the Sheldon box office; online at www.metrotix.com; or over the phone by calling 314-534-1111.

Win two free tickets to Dianne Reeves & Peter Martin this Friday at the Sheldon

Want to win two free tickets to the performance by singer Dianne Reeves and pianist Peter Martin this Friday at the Sheldon Concert Hall? StLJN has a pair of seats for the show to give away to one lucky reader.

To enter, just email StLJN your answers to the three questions listed below. The first email to reach the inbox at stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com with correct answers to all three questions wins the tickets:

1) Dianne Reeves has won four Grammy Awards, all in the same category. What is that category?
2) In 2009, Peter Martin released a CD of solo piano music. What's the name of that CD?
3) In what year was the Sheldon Concert Hall built?

A couple more things: Please put "Reeves & Martin tickets" in the subject line, and if you're copying and pasting the spam-foiling version of StLJN's email address, don't forget to paste in the symbols for "at" and "dot" in the appropriate places.

This post will be updated (and the winner notified by return email) when we have a winning entry.

UPDATE: We have an winner...and it's StLJN reader Jen Eide. Congratulations to her, and thanks to all of you who entered. (If you'd like to buy tickets to the Dianne Reeves/Peter Martin concert, go here. )