Jazz this week: Mwata Bowden, a David Sanborn tribute, "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60," Alarm Will Sound, and more

Events have conspired to make this week's preview of jazz and creative music shows in and around St. Louis both rather terse and somewhat behind schedule. so let's go straight to the highlights....

Tonight, multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, performs a free concert with bassist Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. For more about Bowden and some video samples of him performing, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and The Freedom plays smooth jazz and fusion at The Engine Room.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jim Stevens teams up with jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 the Soul for the first of two nights in which they "Play the Music of David Sanborn" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode provides the musical entertainment for "Heart 2 Heart," a benefit for the organization Education 4 All, Inc, at Gallery 400 on Washington Ave; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald returns to Jazz on Broadway; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and the Lindenwood University Jazz Band, with special guest soloist Marshall Gilkes on trombone, will wrap up the first-ever Lindenwood University Jazz Festival with a performance at the Scheidegger Center for the Arts on campus.

On Saturday, singer Joe Mancuso and pianist Adam Maness will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Coleman Hughes Project performs at The Rustic Goat; and husband-and-wife cabaret performers Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts will reprise their show "Swing Into Spring" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show, having been postponed due to bad weather twice already this year, will present their first show of 2014 at the usual location, the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway. Also on Sunday afternoon, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" tribute show, which has been touring for the past two months, arrives at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The ensemble (pictured) features St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, along with clarinetist/saxophonist and music director Anat Cohen, singer Karrin Allyson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Also on Sunday evening, singer Steve Lippia will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" at Powell Symphony Hall.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School building on campus; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound resumes their St. Louis season at a new venue, performing music from Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Steve Reich at The Pageant. For more details, check out this preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

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.)

Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center to celebrate 20th anniversary with concerts by Chicago Underground Duo, Peter Brötzmann Trio

The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is 20 years old this year, and to celebrate, they've booked a couple of concerts this spring that will be of special interest to StLJN readers.

* First up, the Chicago Underground Duo (pictured) will perform at LNAC at 8:00 p.m., Friday, April 25. Comprised of cornetist Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor, the group has roots dating back to 1996, when Mazurek started an experimental jazz workshop at the Chicago club The Green Mill.

The "Chicago Underground" sessions subsequently spawned a number of ensembles, starting with the Chicago Underground Orchestra, which has released several albums on Delmark. Mazurek and Taylor have continued to form groups under the Chicago Underground umbrella, performing as the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio and Quartet, and putting out several recordings on the Thrill Jockey label.

Their seventh, Locus, is out this month on the Northern Spy imprint, and features "experiments with new forms, washes of electronic ambiance, beats and free playing." Their St. Louis performance will be part of 17-date tour supporting the new album.

* Next, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and his trio will return to LNAC to perform at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. Brötzmann, who just turned 73, is a German who's been a major force on the free jazz and creative music scene in Europe and here in the US since the late 1960s, recording dozens of albums as a leader and appearing on many more as a sideman or collaborator.

Influenced by Albert Ayler and other "New Thing" players of the 1960s, Brötzmann is known for a high energy approach to improvisation; a forceful sound that can be sandpaper-toned at select times; and for being a prolific collaborator with musicians from all over the globe. He also has a Chicago connection, as from 1997 to 2012 he led a ten-piece group that was based there. He last played in St. Louis in a 2010 duo gig at LNAC with drummer Hamid Drake.

Tickets for both concerts will be $5 at the door.

There's more about LNAC's 20th anniversary after the jump...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Claire Chase and ICE

This week, let's check out some videos of flute player Claire Chase and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), who are coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 7:00 p.m. Friday, April 4, at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Chase, who's 36 and based in Chicago, has premiered more than 100 new works for flute, many of which were composed specifically for her. A California native who attended Oberlin College, she founded the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in 2001 after graduating from Oberlin, and has been its executive and artistic director ever since.

As much a presenting organization as a group with fixed membership and instrumentation, ICE has premiered more than 500 compositions in venues ranging from alternative spaces to concert halls around the world. Chase has released eight albums under her own name, and in 2012, she became a MacArthur Fellow - popularly known as "the genius grant" - and is using the $500,000 prize to continue and expand her work commissioning and performing new compositions.

At the Pulitzer, she and ICE will be performing works selected in response to the venue's current exhibition "Art of Its Own Making." While we can't tell you much more today about the specifics of the program, here are a few clips that at least suggest the range of capabilities of Chase and her colleagues.

The first clip is an excerpt of a performance by Chase and ICE in January 2012 at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC, and in the second, she performs Edgard Varèse's "Density 21.5" on a platinum flute.

The third video features Chase and two other members of ICE, cellist Katinka Kleijn and pianist Jacob Greenberg, performing George Crumb's 1971 work "Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale)" in October 2013 for the Chicago Humanities Festival.

The fourth video is another full performance featuring Chase as a soloist, playing Kaija Saariaho's Flute Concerto (2003) with the New Millennium Orchestra in February 2012 at the Harris Theater in Chicago.

In the fifth clip, Chase and fellow ICE member Eric Lamb perform Phillippe Hurel's "Loops III" and Mario Diza de Leon's "Altar of Two Serpents" during an appearance on "Real Flutists," an online video series hosted by Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull (aka Flutronix) at The Flute Center of New York. (You can see the interview in two parts here and here.)

The final clip is a short interview with Chase recorded in 2012, in which she talks about her work in the context of just having received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. For more about her and ICE, check out this 2011 feature about her from NPR's "The Record" and these 2013 interviews with Bloomberg News and The Street.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Multi-instrumentalist and composer Marty Ehrlich was on NPR's "Fresh Air" this week to talk about Trumpet In The Morning, his new album of orchestral music (pictured).

* Drummer Dave Weckl will take off in May to the Great White North, where he'll do a series of daylong drum clinics in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Laval, Quebec; Toronto, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia.

* Two local music festivals announced their schedules this week, each with what can only be described as a token presence for jazz. Pianist Peter Martin will kick off the 2014 Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden with a free concert on Wednesday, June 4. However, the rest of the schedule for the series that began years ago as "Jazz in June" is sadly bereft of the genre, unless you count Irish singer-guitarist Nigel Mooney, whose website seems to suggest that he's a blues performer with jazz influences. (With regard to the notion of bringing an Irishman to St. Louis to play the blues, you can insert your own "coals to Newcastle" reference as you see fit.)

* Meanwhile, the Bluesweek festival, subject of much recent controversy stemming from organizers' decision to leave the streets of downtown for the Chesterfield Amphitheater, will take place Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25 with Otis Clay and Ronnie Baker Brooks as headliners, plus a number of ad hoc combinations of St. Louis blues players and singers as support acts. The jazz content for 2014 will be supplied by funk/jazz quartet Good 4 The Soul, who will perform on Saturday afternoon with singer Denise Thimes and saxophonist Jim Stevens as special guests.

* The list of special releases for Record Store Day 2014 is out, and while rock continues to predominate, there will be new and reissued records this year in a variety of genres including jazz, as well as one item of particular local interest: Donny Hathaway Live At The Bitter End 1971, a live show by the singer, songwriter, keyboardist and former St. Louisan that has never been issued before on vinyl.

* Speaking of records, the Miles Davis news this week is all about the promotional push for the release of the trumpeter's latest posthumous box set, Miles Davis at the Fillmore 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3. Fans can listen to an online stream of three of the Fillmore CDs via an app on on Davis' Facebook page, and iTunes has launched a curated Miles Davis artist page, including albums mastered specially for iTunes plus videos, books and more. New articles about Davis in Esquire and SPIN also feature online streams of sample cuts from the box set.

* And speaking of Davis, the latest blog entry from The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson gets historical to take issue with a biographer who suggests that Miles had a strained relationship with Louis Armstrong.

*Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson will spin jazz interpretations of the songs of Jimmy Van Heusen by artists including singer-trumpeter Chet Baker, saxophonist Lee Konitz, singer Rickie Lee Jones, and more.

After that, there's a new episode of The Jazz Collective, in which host Jason Church will spin music from Boney James, Nick Colionne, U-Nam, Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, John Klemmer, Bob James, Tim Cunningham, Jesse Gannon, Tommy Halloran and Dawn Weber.

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

Last but not least, though we don't have a playlist for the whole show, singer Joe Mancuso tells StLJN that music from his debut release Cut to the Chase will air on an upcoming episode of "Jazz Unlimited," which can be heard at 9:00 p.m. Sundays on KWMU (90.7 FM) and online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php.

Music For Lifelong Achievement conducting musical instrument drive in April

Music For Lifelong Achievement (MFLA), which provides musical instruments to St. Louis area students in need, is conducting a drive during the month of April to collect new and used instruments.

Part of the not-for-profit Sheldon Arts Foundation, MFLA over the past ten years has distributed more than 800 instruments to students in St. Louis City and County school districts and a variety of community music programs.

If you have an instrument to donate, you can bring it to any concert at The Sheldon during the month of April, or stop by and drop it off during normal business hours from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

MFLA also is encouraging businesses and community groups to hold instrument drives this month. If you'd like to collect instruments at your workplace, school, civic organization or place of worship, get in touch with MFLA coordinator Matt Brinkmann by calling 314-533-9900 or via email at mbrinkmann at thesheldon.org.

If you'd like to help but don't have an instrument to donate, MFLA also accepts financial contributions, which pay for necessary repairs of donated instruments as well as accessories such as strings, reeds and sheet music. However you contribute, MFLA will provide a "thank you" letter to serve as a tax deduction receipt for the value of the instruments or the funds donated.

For more information or to make a donation, call The Sheldon at 314-533-9900 or visit www.supportmfla.org.

Jazz this week: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Miles Davis Memorial Project fundraiser, and more

This week brings both the official start of spring and an assortment of jazz and creative music music performances in and around St. Louis, including the local debut of a fast-rising saxophone star; a couple of big band concerts; a benefit to raise money for a statue honoring Miles Davis, and much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa (pictured) makes his St. Louis debut, opening a four-night stand with his band Gamak at Jazz at the Bistro.

A prolific collaborator who keeps at least a couple of different projects going at any one time, Mahanthappa has gotten a good amount of media attention - by jazz standards, anyway - for his blend of jazz and Indian classical music, including features in the major jazz magazines, appearances on NPR, and so on.

Gamak is one of his more extroverted ensembles, incorporating electric guitar and near-rock dynamics into a sound that should appeal to fans of fusion, funk and world music. You can find out more about Mahanthappa and check out some video samples of Gamak in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, Sarah Jane & The Blue Notes trio will do their monthly gig at The Feasting Fox, and trumpeter Jim Manley will be on tap at Sasha's Wine Bar.

On Thursday night, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University will present "The Colors of Chloe," a free concert featuring an ensemble led by drummer Steve Davis and guitarist William Lenihan playing music inspired by the ECM label. Also on Thursday, Common Time plays jazz-fusion at The Engine Room, and Wack-A-Doo will perform swing and vintage pop at the Schlafly Tap Room.

On Friday, violinist David McNair will lead a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; guitarist Dave Black plays solo at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and the Darrell Mixon Trio performs at Cigar Inn.

Saturday evening is a big night for the Miles Davis Memorial Project, as the organization will present its  "Kind of Blue" Fundraising Dinner at The Commons at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL. Proceeds from the event will go toward putting up a statue of Davis in downtown Alton.

Elsewhere on Saturday evening, singer Tandra Williams will be backed by guitarist Tom Byrne's trio at Robbie's House of Jazz;  Miss Jubilee plays at Nathalie’s; singer Danita Mumphard and friends return to Jazz On Broadway; and, for those in the mood for some Rat Pack nostalgia, the Viviano Brothers - comprised of singer Tony Viviano and his siblings Jerry and Frank - will open for singer Deana Martin's "Reflections of Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra" show at Lindenwood University's Scheidegger Center for the Arts.

On Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band will return for their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, with the Bishop DuBourg High School Jazz Band performing a set during intermission.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Dizzy Atmosphere will return to The Shaved Duck, and trumpeter Keith Moyer's quartet will play at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, directed by bassist Jim Widner, will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and singer Erin Bode will be back at Cyrano's.

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.)

Kurt Elling to perform Friday, June 6 at The Sheldon

Singer Kurt Elling is returning to St. Louis to perform a benefit concert at 8:00 p.m., Friday, June 6 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Sheldon Art Galleries.

Elling (pictured) last visited St. Louis in February 2013 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro, a venue he's played numerous times. However, this will be his debut at The Sheldon, and his first trip to St. Louis since parting ways with his longtime musical director and pianist Laurence Hobgood. His most recent recording, made with Hobgood still at the piano bench, is 2012's 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project.

Patron tickets for Kurt Elling at The Sheldon are on sale now for $500, $250 and $125, and include preferred seating, a post-concert dessert reception, complimentary parking and a tax deduction. To purchase patron tickets or for more information, call The Sheldon's development department at 314-533-9900. Concert-only tickets will be $45 orchestra, $40 balcony, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, April 26 via MetroTix, The Sheldon’s website, and at the Fox Theatre box office.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Mwata Bowden

This week, let's get acquainted with Chicago multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden, who's coming to St. Louis to perform with the trio Low End Theory for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series on Thursday, March 27. Bowden plays a variety of saxophones and clarinets, flute and didgeridoo, and he'll be joined for the performance by bassist and Wash U faculty member Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes.

Bowden is associated closely with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, having been a member for nearly 40 years and serving for a time as the organization's chairman, and also teaches jazz and improvisation at the University of Chicago. That's where he connected with Steinbeck, who earned his bachelor's degree at UC.

While he's in St. Louis, Bowden also will present a lecture on "Creating Culture" at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 26 at the Music Classroom Building 102, which is located at 6500 Forsyth Blvd. (at Wallace Dr.) on the Wash U campus. Both the concert and lecture are free and open to the public.

Born in Memphis, the 66-year-old Bowden moved with his family to Chicago when he was ten, and attended DuSable High School, where he studied under the renowned band director Captain Walter Dyett. He earned a degree in music education at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and after graduating, started gigging as a baritone saxophonist with big bands and R&B groups. After touring with soul vocal group the Chi-Lites in the early 1970s, Bowden wanted to get off the road, so he began teaching and in 1974, got involved with the AACM.

As a bandleader, Bowden has led the jazz groups Sound Spectrum and Tri-tone, as well as the Black Classical Music Ensemble. He also directs a student ensemble, the Chicago Jazz X-Tet, as part of his work at the university. Bowden is a longtime collaborator with saxophonist Ed Wilkerson, playing in Wilkerson's groups 8 Bold Souls and Shadow Vignettes. He also works frequently with bassist Tatsu Aoki in various ensembles, including the Miyumi Project, which blends jazz with Japanese taiko drumming and folk music styles.

Though Bowden may be less well known outside Chicago that some of his fellow AACM members, he's an important part of the organization and the city's music scene, so much so that in 2013 he was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association as one of 25 "Jazz Heroes" in various cities across the US. And so it was on the night that award was presented that our first video clip, which features Bowden as part of an ensemble jam, was recorded at a venue called Elastic.

Down below, you can see him conducting and playing didgeridoo with the University of Chicago Jazz X-Tet Reunion Band, leading them through his composition "Maze Factor Suite, Two Front Doors" in October 2012 concert at the Logan Arts Center on the UC campus.

Below, Bowden can be seen conducting another of his large ensemble works, "A Well Woven Web," which was commissioned for and recorded at the 2013 Made In Chicago Festival in Poznan, Poland.

The fourth and fifth videos are excerpts from an 8 Bold Souls performance, coincidentally also in Poznan, but recorded in 2009. In the first, you can hear how saxophonist, bandleader and composer Ed Wilkinson uses Bowden's baritone sax to buttress the ensemble, while in the second, Bowden gets a tasty clarinet solo starting at about the 4:40 mark.

In the final clip, you can see Bowden sitting in with the punk-jazz group Slammin' Blue Watusis, adding an extra measure of skronk to "Mchaka Uba."