Jazz St. Louis to present community concerts, CD listening club

With the 2008-09 season at Jazz at the Bistro now well underway, Jazz St. Louis is launching two new initiatives this month.

The first is the Whitaker Community Concerts, a series of free Thursday night performances featuring St. Louis-based musicians at various venues around the metro area. The Community Concerts series kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 16 with a concert by singer Kim Massie at the Foundry Arts Centre in St. Charles.

JSL director of operations Bob Bennett tells StLJN that they're still booking talent for the rest of the shows, which will include a concert on December 11 at the Black Cat Theatre in Maplewood that will focus on the music of Louis Armstrong; a show on March 12, 2009 at Lucas School House; and the series finale on May 7, 2009, which will be devoted to the music of Miles Davis and take place at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

The other new program is the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club, described as a "book club for your ears" that will help listeners explore and understand great jazz recordings while building their personal jazz libraries. The first CD Listening Club session will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 14 at Borders Books and Music, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd in Brentwood. Jazz journalist/artist manager/producer Terry Perkins will serve as MC and interviewer as he and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford discuss one of Bradford's favorites, Duke Ellington's classic live recording Ellington at Newport 1956.

Subsequent listening sessions will take place at the same location beginning at 7:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month. Admission is free, and special discounts on the featured CD and other music-related items will be available the night of the listening club event. Seems like a promising idea, though one might wish that JSL had been able to work out an arrangement with one of St. Louis' fine independent music stores instead of sending more business to a national chain like Borders.

(Edited 10/2/08 to better explain Perkins' and Bradford's roles in the CD listening club discussion.)

Riverfront Times 2008 "Best of St. Louis" winners include Carolbeth True, Jazz at the Bistro

The Riverfront Times' 2008 "Best of St. Louis" issue is out, and this year's winners include pianist Carolbeth True for "Best Jazz Artist" and Jazz at the Bistro for "Best Jazz Club." KDHX's "All Soul, No Borders," hosted by Josh Weinstein, won as "Best Jazz Radio Program," and Swing Set was named "Best Cover Band."

Other winners of note include Rough Grooves as "Best Blues Artists" and BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups as "Best Blues Club." You can read the complete 2008 "Best of St. Louis" coverage here.

David Sanborn concert reviewed in Post-Dispatch

Saxophonist and St. Louis native David Sanborn's concert Friday night at The Pageant was reviewed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Terry Perkins. You can read Perkins' account of the show online here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Jason Moran

This week, let's take a look at some video footage of pianist Jason Moran, who's coming to St. Louis next Sunday, October 5, to perform a solo concert at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. The 33-year-old is considered one of the top young piano players in jazz, and in addition to leading his own group, he has toured and recorded with jazz notables such as Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Lee Konitz, Von Freeman, Christian McBride and Ravi Coltrane.

The first two clips are excerpted from a performance by Moran and his group, the Bandwagon, in Munich, Germany, while the third video features the group performing Moran's composition "He Puts On His Hat And Leaves" at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tickets for Moran's St. Louis concert are available here.

SIUE Friends of Music "Hollywood Jazz" benefit scheduled for next Sunday, October 5

Singer Mardra Thomas (pictured) and her group plus the Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville Concert Jazz Band conducted by Jason Swagler will be the featured performers at "Hollywood Jazz," a dinner and benefit for the SIUE Friends of Music Scholarship Fund that will take place starting at 5:30 p.m. next Sunday, October 5 in SIUE's Meridian Ballroom.

In keeping with the Hollywood theme, guests will “walk the red carpet” as they enter the ballroom. A 30-minute visual montage from notable jazz films will serve as backdrop for cocktails and Thomas' performance, which will include jazz interpretations of songs from the movies. Following a formal dinner, the SIUE Jazz Concert Band will play big band dance music until 9:00 p.m.

Tickets for “Hollywood Jazz” are $60 per person or $480 for a table for eight. To make reservations or get more information, you can call the SIUE Department of Music at 618-650-3900 or toll-free at 888-328-5168, Extension 3900.

Jazz this week: David Sanborn, Cedar Walton, Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Frank Catalano, Bruce Menefield, KMOX Jazz & Wine Festival, and more

It's potentially a very busy week for fans of jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with plenty of noteworthy performances happening over the next few days. Let's look at some of the highlights:

This evening, veteran pianist Cedar Walton begins a four-night run with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro. Arriving on the scene in the late 1950s, Walton has worked with heavyweight musicians such as Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Abbey Lincoln, J.J. Johnson, Charles McPherson and Lee Morgan in addition to leading his own groups. Though he began by playing hard bop and still is closely identified with that style, Walton is a fine all-around jazz pianist and even made some funk-oriented records back in the 1970s. You can see some video of Walton in action in this previous StLJN post, and listen to him being interviewed in a Jazz St. Louis podcast here.

On Thursday evening, Two Times True, featuring pianist Carolbeth True and her son, drummer David True, will do a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Then on Friday, alto saxophonist and St. Louis native David Sanborn (pictured) comes home for the first time in a couple of years to perform at The Pageant. Sanborn is touring in support of his latest CD, Here and Gone, which is a tribute to the music of Ray Charles and to saxophonists David "Fathead" Newman and Hank Crawford, who sparked Charles' bands of the 1950s and early 1960s and were key early influences on Sanborn. Given his affection for the material, expect several numbers from Here and Gone included in the show along with the customary mix of tunes from Sanborn's extensive catalog.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m., 9/25/08: Local music journalist Dan Durcholz did an interview with Sanborn for the online publication the St. Louis Beacon. You can read it here.

Also on Friday, Cincinnati saxophonist Bruce Menefield begins a two-night stand at Brandt's. This is, as far as I know, Menefield's first trip to St. Louis; he'll be working Friday night with bassist Jeff Anderson and drummer James Jackson, and on Saturday night with guitarist Dave Black and Jackson. You can see some video of Menefield in this previous StLJN post, as well as here.

Moving on to Saturday, Los Angeles-based multi-woodwind player and composer Vinny Golia will instantiate a St. Louis version of his Large Ensemble for a concert at Webster University Community Music School. The event, presented by New Music Circle as the kickoff to their 50th season, will feature a 27-piece group (21 students and six professionals, according to the promotional email from NMC) of local and regional players performing some of Golia's large-scale works, which include both composed and improvised materials and incorporate influences from a number of musical genres as well as some unconventional playing techniques.

Also on Saturday, radio station KMOX (1120 AM) presents their third annual Jazz and Wine Festival starting at 1:00 p.m. at Faust Park in Chesterfield. This year's musical lineup consists entirely of groups led by vocalists, with Kim Massie, Anita Rosamond and Jeanne Trevor serving as the featured attractions. If your tastes run more toward the instrumental and/or freely improvisational, Saturday afternoon also is when the BAG Trio, featuring bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya, drummer Gary Sykes and trumpeter/percussionist Mike Nelson, kicks off this fall's series of free concerts at the Kemper Museum on the Washington University campus.

On Sunday night, the Todd Mosby Group and Orange, featuring members of the Erin Bode Group, provide a double bill of electrified jazz at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Monday, the Sessions Big Band takes the stage at BB's. And as if all that weren't enough for one week, on Tuesday the energetic saxophonist Frank Catalano visits from Chicago to perform a free show at The Gramophone, and pianist/singer and longtime local favorite Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum plays at Brandt's. (You can see a couple of video clips of Catalano in performance here.)

To see listings of more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit 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. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.

Miles Davis estate makes donation to East St. Louis arts programs

A story in the Belleville News-Democrat says that the estate of trumpeter Miles Davis is making a donation to arts programs in East St. Louis.

According to the story, Davis' nephew, Vincent Wilburn Jr., and Miles Davis Properties LLC General Manager Darryl Porter were scheduled to be at the East St. Louis municipal building yesterday to present a check to the city of East St. Louis and the East St. Louis-St. Clair County Arts Council. "The city and arts council will use the funds to further the arts and expose East St. Louis and St. Louis students to the arts," the article said. Davis was born in Alton and grew up in East St. Louis.

Jazz St. Louis podcasts offer interviews with visiting artists

Although it somehow escaped my notice until now, earlier this month Jazz St. Louis launched a series of podcasts featuring interviews with visiting artists performing at Jazz at the Bistro.

There are two podcasts online so far, with JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford conversing with pianist and singer Tony DeSare, who played the Bistro two weeks ago, and pianist Cedar Walton, who's performing there this week. You can stream or download the DeSare interview here, while the Walton interview is here.