Jazz and Blues Vespers Series resumes Sunday, January 17 with Mardra & Reggie Thomas

After a break for the holidays, the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers Series will resume its second season with a concert by singer Mardra Thomas (pictured) and pianist Reggie Thomas at 6 p.m. on Sunday, January 17 at the Second Baptist Church, 9030 Clayton Rd. (at McKnight).

The concert is free and open to the public, and free parking is available on the lighted lot adjacent to the church. During the intermission, Second Baptist Church pastor Dr. Stephen Jones will offer a brief, non-sectarian message, and a free-will offering will be taken to benefit the musicians. Refreshments will be served in the church’s narthex after the vespers.

The next concert in the series will feature saxophonist Ray Vollmar and singer Deborah Sharn on Sunday, February 21. For more information, visit the Vespers' Web site or call 314-991-3424.

Emmis launches 96.3 HD-3 with smooth jazz format

Via stlmedia.net, word is that Emmis Communications this Tuesday launched a new smooth jazz HD Radio station in St. Louis at 96.3 HD-3. Dubbed "Smooth and Sexy," the station "will be filled with great artists like Dave Koz, Paul Hardcastle, David Benoit, The Rippingtons and Boney James."

Specific programming blocks include "Sunday Morning Tranquility," which will feature musicians such as Enya, Rufus Wainwright, Ottmar Liebert, Eva Cassidy and Nick Drake; "The Groove Suite" on Friday and Saturday nights, with artists like Down To The Bone, Four80East and Soundscape UK; "The Saturday Night Lounge," featuring the likes of Zero 7, Air, Moby and Massive Attack; and "All-Request Saturday Afternoons."

The music director for 96.3 HD-3 is Jason Church, who also does the news for Emmis' 97.1 FM Talk. Church previously worked at the now-defunct smooth jazz station WSSM and at Lindenwood University's KCLC, and also operates a mobile DJ service.

Not to be confused with satellite radio, HD radio is a free over-the-air service that works by bundling digital signals along with a radio station's analog transmissions; it requires a special receiver to decode. For more about HD radio, go here, here or here.

(Edited after posting to correct the last name of the station's music director.)

Review, photos of The Bad Plus now online

The Post-Dispatch sent "Rock Candy" blogger Matthew Fernandes to review last night's performance by The Bad Plus at Jazz at the Bistro, and you can read his impressions of the show online here.

Also, Jazz St. Louis has posted some photos of the band from last night to the JSL Flickr account, which can be viewed here. The Bad Plus continue at the Bistro through Saturday, with sets at 8:30 p.m. and 10:15 nightly.

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative of music in St. Louis isn't very busy, though given the current frigid temperatures and forecasts for lots of snow, that may not be entirely a bad thing.
Nevertheless, there's at least one act in town this week that's definitely worth making the effort to get out and hear: The Bad Plus (pictured), who this evening will open a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro.

This is the fourth consecutive calendar year that TBP has opened at the Bistro, and so it seems likely that many St. Louis jazz fans are familiar with them by now. Still, for more on this week's gig and what the critically acclaimed trio have been up to lately, you can check out this video post from last Saturday; this brief interview I did with bassist Reid Anderson for the Riverfront Times' "A to Z" music blog; this interview with drummer David King done by Dan Durchholz for the Post-Dispatch/STLtoday; and this Jazz St. Louis podcast, which features a chat between King and JSL's Bob Bennett.

Elsewhere around town, there's not much happening this week on the concert front. That's not unusual at all for St. Louis this time of year, as the first couple of weeks of a the new year usually represent a seasonal trough in live music activity.

That said, in the bars and clubs - blizzard conditions notwithstanding - stalwart locals like saxophonists Dave Stone and Willie Akins and pianist Ptah Williams will be playing their usual weekly gigs at the usual spots. You'll find details on those performances and more on the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar - which can be found on the left sidebar of the site, or by clicking here. (Note also that there's still some 2010 updating to be done on the calendar, so please check back for the latest information on more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond. )

You that 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.)

The Bad Plus' Reid Anderson interviewed for "A to Z"

The Bad Plus are in St. Louis this week to play at Jazz at the Bistro, and I've got a brief article based on a recent chat with the band's bassist Reid Anderson (pictured) online now at the Riverfront Times' "A to Z" music blog. You can read it here.

Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club to meet Tuesday, February 9

Jazz St. Louis has scheduled the next meeting of its CD Listening Club for 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 9 at Borders, 1519 S. Brentwood Blvd. in Brentwood.

The featured CD for the February meeting will be Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life (pictured), the influential 1976 double-LP set that included many songs since covered by jazz musicians as well as "Contusion," Wonder's own foray into a jazz-fusion sound. The discussion will be led by pianist/organist and educator Reggie Thomas, who's one of the top keyboard players in town and teaches at SIUE.

Meetings of the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club are free and open to the public. For more information, call 314-289-4037.

Site news: Seven ways to get StLJN

With the start of a new year, it seems like a good time to highlight all the various ways you can get the latest posts from St. Louis Jazz Notes. Several new options have been added in recent months, and you can now get all the news on jazz, creative music and improvisation in St. Louis served up more different ways than a bowl of Cincinnati chili:

1) Read the main site at http://stljazznotes.blogspot.com/. You'll see the latest stories, photos & videos as soon as they're posted, plus ever-changing content from the jazz blog & news aggregator; articles, reviews and a free daily music download from AllAboutJazz.com; and the most comprehensive section of St. Louis jazz-related links anywhere.

2) Subscribe by email. At the end of any day where there's at least one new post, you'll get a single email with all of that day's posts. The signup box is located on the right sidebar.

3) Subscribe by RSS and read StLJN in your favorite news reader or on your homepage. The "subscribe" section on the right sidebar also has buttons to automate the signup process for some of the most common news readers.

4) Read the mobile version at http://stljazznotes.mofuse.mobi/ on your iPhone, Blackberry or other portable device.

5) Follow StLJN on Twitter for the latest headlines and links to full posts.

6) Become a fan of StLJN on Facebook, and get posts as part of your FB News Feed.

7) StLJN content also can be found in the news center at AllAboutJazz.com; in headline form on the website of Jazz St. Louis; and via aggregators such as Topix, Wikio, Technorati, outside.in, Fwix, and blogged.com.

Vijay Iyer interviewed in new Jazz St. Louis podcast

Jazz St. Louis has just put online a new podcast featuring an interview with pianist Vijay Iyer (pictured) by JSL's Gene Dobbs Bradford.

Iyer will be in St. Louis from Wednesday, January 20 through Saturday, January 23 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro. You can download a copy of the Vijay Iyer interview in .mp3 format or listen to an online audio stream here.