Richard McDonnell 1946 - 2014

Richard "Rich" McDonnell, the former investment banker who founded and ran the independent St. Louis-based label MAXJAZZ, has died. He was 68.

Several reports from friends on Facebook say that McDonnell had a stroke on Friday night while watching Houston Person and the Bill Charlap trio at Jazz at the Bistro, where he was a subscriber and a board member of the parent organization Jazz St. Louis. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died on Saturday.

McDonnell (pictured) grew up in Kirkwood and graduated from Washington University. He started MAXJAZZ in 1998 while still working for AG Edwards, then took early retirement from the investment firm in 2002 to run the label full time.

MAXJAZZ began by recording St. Louis musicians including the Kennedy Brothers, pianist Dave Venn, Mardra and Reggie Thomas, and Brilliant Corners, featuring Paul DeMarinis and Dave Black, but McDonnell soon began signing artists from all over the country, starting with singers Laverne Butler and Carla Cook.

In a 1999 interview with the Riverfront Times' Rene Spencer Saller, he talked about why he got into the record business:

"It was a combination of the music side of me and the business side of me," McDonnell responds, adding that he studied saxophone for many years. "I missed the opportunity to be out playing jazz. Although I've been a listener most of my life, that wasn't totally satisfactory. I wanted to do something that was more active. There was also my feeling, with increasing age, maybe, that we ought to go out of the scene doing something worthwhile. I felt that I could make some contribution to the arts, and that's the way this business is run. It's run efficiently as a business, but in the end, if it's not profitable, it's still my way of contributing to the arts."

In the years since, the label has become known internationally among jazz fans for swinging, mainstream recordings from musicians including Terell Stafford, Mulgrew Miller, Russell Malone and many others. Now with a catalog of more than 75 albums, MAXJAZZ last year inked a distribution agreement with industry giant Naxos.

Even as MAXJAZZ expanded, McDonnell continued to be an enthusiastic presence on the St. Louis scene,  regularly attending performances around town and befriending local musicians. (He also was an early supporter of St. Louis Jazz Notes, offering frequent encouragement as well as passing along news of the label's activities and thanks for coverage of their artists.)

Survivors include three sons: Boyd McDonnell, Carter McDonnell, and Clayton McDonnell, who worked with his dad running MAXJAZZ. StLJN will have more on this story, including information on funeral arrangements, as details become available.

Update - 10:12 a.m., 2/10/14: A "memorial gathering" for Rich McDonnell will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. this Thursday, February 13 at Bopp Chapel, 10610 Manchester Rd. in Kirkwood. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations be made in his name to Jazz St. Louis.

Update - 10:00 p.m., 2/11/13: More on Rich McDonnell:

"Remembering Richard McDonnell, MAXJAZZ Founder Dies At 68" by Terry Perkins, St. Louis Public Radio

"MAXJAZZ Label Owner Rich McDonnell Dies at 68" by Jeff Tamarkin, Jazz Times

"MAXJAZZ owner Richard McDonnell dies" by Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(Warning: autoplay video)

"RIP Richard McDonnell" and "A Visit to MAXJAZZ" by Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus, writing on his blog Do The Math

(Edited after posting to fix a typo and update the info on survivors.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Terence Blanchard returns to The Sheldon

This week, let's check in on trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who's playing next Saturday, February 15 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

The New Orleans native was in and out of our town quite a bit last year, as Opera Theater St. Louis premiered his opera Champion as part of their 2013 season. In addition to working with OTSL's company to prepare the premiere, Blanchard also appeared at a number of community events to promote the opera, and played free concerts with his quintet at Missouri Botanical Garden and St. Louis Place Park. (For more about that and some biographical background of Blanchard, see this video showcase post from last year.)

He'll be back in St. Louis next week to perform as part of the Sheldon's jazz series, replacing pianist Chucho Valdes, who originally was scheduled to play the date but had to cancel due to a tour-ending knee injury he suffered a few weeks ago.

The concert will give local audiences another chance to hear some of the material from Blanchard's most recent album Magnetic, which was released last year at the end of May (just before the premiere of Champion) and wound up on many critics' "best of 2013" lists.

Since many Blanchard basics were covered in the previous post linked above, today's collection of clips will feature some more recent performances by his quintet, plus a couple of interviews recorded since his last performances here.

In the first clip up above, you can hear Blanchard and the quintet perform the title track from Magnetic at Blues Alley in Washington, DC.

Down below, there's a full concert of the group, recorded in September 2013 at The Mint in Los Angeles. (Note that since the clip apparently is unedited, there's a couple of minutes of an empty stage before Blanchard and company come up and start playing.)

Below that, there's an interview that Blanchard recorded last summer with the online jazz program The Pace Report; and lastly, another interview in three short segments in which he chats with fellow New Orleanian Arthel Neville, broadcaster and daughter of keyboardist Art Neville of the Neville Brothers and Meters fame.

So What: Local News, Notes and Links

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

* Multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman's work with the Municipal Commission on Arts and Letters for University City is the subject of a feature story by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

* KDHX is offering free public tours of the station's new headquarters at 3524 Washington, just east of Grand, starting this Saturday.

* Drummer, composer and St. Louis expat Ronnie Burrage is busy promoting Heal, the new release from his Band Burrage, with various live gigs including an appearance next Tuesday, February 11 at Penn State University's Music Is Life Festival. Burrage also has posted on YouTube a video excerpt from the band's recent performance at  the Blue Note in NYC, and created a new Reverb Nation page and Facebook store for those who wish to hear and/or purchase the new album.

* Elsewhere back east, several musicians with St. Louis roots with be appearing in NYC this month, starting with keyboardist Peter Martin and drummer Terreon Gully (pictured), who will be part of Dianne Reeves' ensemble for the singer's gigs on February 14 and 15 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.

A few days later, saxophonist Greg Osby joins trumpeter Tom Harrell, drummer Matt Wilson, saxophonist Melissa Aldana, bassist Ben Allison, and pianist Aaron Goldberg for "Reflections on Monk" from Wednesday, February 17 through Saturday February 22 at Birdland. And that same week, drummer Marcus Baylor's Baylor Project, featuring Jean Baylor on vocals, will perform on February 20 at Smoke.

* There's quite a bit of Miles Davis-related news this week, starting with the news that Miles Davis Properties LLC has reached a deal with Kobalt Music Group to administer Davis' entire catalog, effective immediately. The company will attempt to develop new ways to exploit Davis' music in movies, TV, advertising, and other media.

* “The Wisdom of Miles Davis” was the title of the first lecture given this past week by pianist and composer Herbie Hancock in his capacity as the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University.  Hancock's talk, the first in a series of six lectures entitled "The Ethics of Jazz," used his memories of Davis as a springboard to a discussion of racism, ethics, and Buddhism.

* MilesDavis.com and Creative Allies are sponsoring a contest to design an official poster for the soon-to-be-released CD box set Miles At The Fillmore‬. The winner receives cash and prizes, and the winning design will be included in the sets sold via the two websites. Meanwhile, Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951-1956, another Davis box set first issued 20 years ago, is getting a deluxe limited edition reissue.

* And closer to home, the Miles Davis Memorial Project has put online a reservation form for their upcoming fundraising dinner on Saturday, March 22, at Lewis & Clark Community College. Tickets are $60 per person, $450 for a table of eight, and the deadline to RSVP is Sunday, March 9. For more information, call Pride, Incorporated at 618-467-2375 or email them at pride@prideincorporated.org.

* St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts will sponsor another free workshop on "Navigating Health Care Reform" at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 19 at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar. Saint Louis University School of Law health-law students will explain the Affordable Care Act and provide strategies for selecting a plan and determining eligibility for tax credits and subsidies. This workshop is FREE and open to artists of all disciplines, and guests are welcome, but you must register in advance.

VLAA and Community Action Agency of St. Louis (CAASTL) also will offer in-person help with health insurance enrollment from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thursday, February 20 at the RAC offices. Artists of all disciplines can sign up for free one-on-one sessions with  trained, certified application counselors. Appointments will be made on a first-come, first-served basis; to sign up, send an email to vlaa@stlrac.org.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's episode of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson sets an anticipatory mood for Valentine’s Day with recordings from Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle (from Waits' soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's One From The Heart), John Coltrane and singer Johnny Hartman, and Norah Jones.

Then on "The Jazz Collective," Jason Church will spin tracks from Four80East, Chris Standring, David Longoria, Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins, Chuck Mangione, Lee Ritenour, the Brand New Heavies, Eumir Deodato, and Roy Ayers, as well as music from St. Louis' own Dawn Weber, Jesse Gannon, Jason Swagler, and Tommy Halloran.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.     

Marcus Roberts Trio to perform for "Evening of Hope" benefit on Thursday, May 8 at The Sheldon

Pianist Marcus Roberts and his trio (pictured) will be the featured performers for the 10th annual "Evening of Hope" event benefiting the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders to be held at 8:00 p.m., Thursday, May 8 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Roberts, who first gained wide recognition in the 1980s as a member of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' group, will be accompanied by his longtime bandmates, bassist Rodney Jordan and drummer Jason Marsalis, who's Wynton's youngest brother.

These days, Roberts is known particularly for interpreting the work of pre-WWII jazz, stride and ragtime pianists with a modern sensibility, as demonstrated here in St. Louis most recently during a November 2012 concert for the Sheldon's jazz series. You can read more about Roberts and see some performance clips in this video showcase preview that was posted here on StLJN before that gig.

The Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, described as "a collaborative alliance between Washington University in St. Louis and Hope Happens, a St. Louis-based non-profit public charity," is involved in researching cures for a range of nervous system diseases, both chronic and acute, with the common feature of neurodegeneration or death of nerve cells.

Patron tickets for the "Evening of Hope" benefit, which include cocktails, dinner, orchestra seating for the concert, and a dessert reception with the artist, begin at $250 and are available only directly from Hope Happens. For more information, call 314-725-3888.

Any remaining orchestra level seats will be $45, with balcony seating priced at $35, and will go on sale as single tickets at 10:00 a.m. this Saturday, February 8 via Metrotix.

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap & Houston Person, Alarm Will Sound, Peter Martin, So Percussion, Willie Pickens, and more

This week's menu of jazz and creative music around St. Louis includes performances by three top pianists representing NYC, Chicago and St. Louis, plus local stops for two acclaimed touring new music ensembles, and much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Bill Charlap (pictured) and guest tenor saxophonist Houston Person open an four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Both men have played at the Bistro separately before, but this will be their first time joining forces here in St. Louis. Though of different generations, Charlap, a 47-year-old New Yorker, and Person, who's 79 and originally from South Carolina, have compatible musical values centered firmly in the jazz mainstream.

Given that, they also should have an extensive repertoire to draw upon, so part of the fun of a gig like this is seeing what tunes they'll end up picking to perform. For more about Person, and some video samples of him performing a half-dozen well-known tunes, check out this video post from last Saturday.

Update - 12:15 p.m., 2/5/14: Jazz St. Louis has announced that Charlap will play solo on Wednesday night, as bad weather has prevented the rest of the band from flying to St. Louis.

Also tonight, members of The 442s, singer Brian Owens, and others from the St. Louis Symphony will present a free Black History Month concert, "Someday We'll Be Free - Celebrating The Music of Donny Hathaway," at Powell Symphony Hall.

Tomorrow night, drummer Maurice Carnes and his trio, featuring saxophonist Freddie Washington, will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also on Thursday, the 20-member chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound* returns to the Sheldon Concert Hall with a program of music from their next album, including compositions by Edgard Varese, the Beatles, Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Wuorinen, and more. 

On Friday, St. Louis' own Peter Martin will be back at Sheldon for the first concert of the year in his ongoing eponymous series there. The pianist's theme this time is "Chamber Jazz," and Martin will showcase some of his new compositions via an ensemble including Bjorn Ranheim on cello and Shawn Weil on violin, plus bassist Chris Thomas and drummer Rob Woodie.

Also on Friday, the much-talked-about new music group So Percussion performs at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as part of their tour this month of University of Missouri campuses; saxophonist Jim Stevens will team with Good 4 the Soul to present "The Music of David Sanborn" at the Wildey Theatre;  Miss Jubilee performs at the Moonshine Blues Bar in St. Charles; the Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly  "West End Stomp" dance at the Mahler Ballroom will feature music from The Sidemen. 

On Saturday afternoon,;Saxquest will present another in their series of free performances and workshops, featuring saxophonist Randy Hamm with pianist Kyle Aho, plus a set by the Missouri Saxophone Quartet. 

Then on Saturday evening, trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet will offer a Black History Month-themed performance at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday afternoon, veteran Chicago pianist Willie Pickens will be in town to play with drummer Jerome "Scrooge" Harris and friends in a jazz brunch performance benefiting Community Women Against Hardship at the Bistro at Grand Center. Later that afternoon, guitarist Steve Schenkel's quartet will play a free concert for the "Inner Jazz" series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Kim Portnoy and his group will perform original music in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; and the Sessions Big Band will play downtown at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups

Then on Tuesday, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of bassist Jim Widner, will be back at the Touhill for a program of music from "A Night at the Movies"; and guitarist Vincent Varvel will lead a trio at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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 clicking the "Like" icon on 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.)

* Disclaimer: As mentioned here before, for the last three years I've been compensated financially to assist Alarm Will Sound with promotional activities in St. Louis and Columbia. As also mentioned here before, I'd still recommend this concert to StLJN readers even if I weren't working with the band.  

(Edited after posting to correct the date of So Percussion.) 

Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola to play Sunday, April 13 at Old Rock House

Guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Scott Amendola (pictured) are coming to St. Louis to perform a duo show at 8:30 p.m., Sunday, April 13 at the Old Rock House.

The two have been playing together since the 1990s, when they were two-thirds of Hunter's trio, and will be touring in support of their new album Pucker, which came out in November of last year.

It's their second release together, following up on 2012's Not Getting Behind Is The New Getting Ahead, but this time, they're featuring Amendola's compositions instead of Hunter's. The duo last appeared in St. Louis in July 2012 at Jazz at the Bistro; for more about that, check out this video showcase post about Hunter that ran here on StLJN before the gig.

Tickets for Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola at the Old Rock House are $25 reserved, $17 general admission, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Thursday, February 6.

Jamie Cullum to perform Sunday, June 8 at The Pageant

Singer and pianist Jamie Cullum will return to St. Louis for the first time in four years to perform at 8:00 p.m. Sunday, June 8 at The Pageant.

Since last playing here, the diminutive Brit has begun hosting a weekly jazz program on BBC Radio2, curtailing his touring somewhat after he and wife Sophie Dahl, a popular model and TV presenter in the UK, had their second child.

His most recent album Momentum was released in May of last year, getting generally positive reviews both at home and here in the USA. After an initial tour last fall of Great Britain and Europe in support of the record, Cullum (pictured) is back at it this year, expanding to dates in Asia, the Middle East, and North America as well.

He previously made his St. Louis debut at The Pageant back in 2006; his most recent local appearance was at the Roberts Orpheum Theater downtown in March, 2010.

 

Tickets for Jamie Cullum at the Pageant are $45 and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. this Friday, February 7 via Ticketmaster. An online-only pre-sale (see the Pageant's Facebook page) will be held beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 6.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Standard time with Houston Person

Today, let's look at some video clips featuring the tenor sax stylings of Houston Person, who's coming to St. Louis next week to perform with pianist Bill Charlap's trio Wednesday, February 5 through Saturday, February 8 at Jazz at the Bistro.  

Person, who will turn 80 in November, grew up in Florence, South Carolina and studied at South Carolina State College before joining the Air Force. While stationed in Germany, he played in a service band with future pros including Don Ellis, Eddie Harris and Cedar Walton, and after his discharge, continued his studies at Hartt College of Music in Connecticut.

His first wide recognition came in the early 1960s as a result of work with organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith's band. Person then got his own contract with Smith's label, Prestige Records, and put out a series of albums that helped make his reputation as a successful bandleader in the soul-jazz genre. Later, he worked for many years touring and recording with vocalist Etta Jones, whom he met while both were with Smith.

Over the course of his career, Person has made more than 75 albums as a bandleader, and also has recorded with Bill Charlap, Charles Brown, Charles Earland, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Billy Butler, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and others. Since Etta Jones died in 2001, Person has continued to lead his own groups, but also works frequently as a guest soloist and a single, allying himself with other bandleaders, local house bands, and festival rhythm sections as the occasion warrants.

Those kind of gigs tend to rely on a standard repertoire shared among the musicians, and though Person made his rep in the soul-jazz genre, over the years he's also shown his skill at playing swing, ballads, and selections from the "Great American Songbook," some examples of which are featured today.

First up is a version of "Fools Rush In," recorded in October 2011 at the Lockerbie Jazz Festival in Scotland along with baritone saxophonist Alan Barnes and the Paul Harrison Trio.

Down below, it's "Star Eyes," from the Norwich (CT) Jazz Party in May 2012, which also features Warren Vache (cornet), John Pearce (piano), Nicki Parrott (bass), and Bobby Worth (drums). 

The third clip, recorded in June of last year at the Blue Note in NYC, features Person accompanying singer Tony Middleton on "Time After Time" with pianist Joe Alterman, bassist James Cammack, and drummer Alex Raderman. Below that, Alterman, Cammack and drummer Justin Chesarek are backing up Person in the fourth video, a version of "It Could Happen To You" recorded in June 2011 at Iridium in NYC.

The fifth and sixth videos both feature Person as a guest soloist with guitarist Peter Hand's big band in a 2011 concert at Centenary Theatre, Hackettstown, NJ. Thematically related though several decades apart in origin, the versions of "Stormy Weather" and "Sunny" both feature solos from Person, Hand and pianist James Weidman.

For more about Houston Person, check out this interview he did for a Jazz St. Louis podcast back in 2009, and this video interview with "The Pace Report" from 2010.