Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Saxophonist and former St. Louisan
Oliver Lake is featured in
a new instructional video for Jazz at Lincoln Center's "Jazz Academy."* Trumpeter/singer and U City native
Jeremy Davenport's song
"One Way Ticket to New Orleans," written to commemorate the city's tricentennial, was the subject of
a feature story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
*
Grant Green Jr. will
take his father Grant Green's music on the road this summer to help promote Resonance Records' release of two previously unheard albums by the guitarist and St. Louis native
(pictured).
In addition to Green Jr, who is Green's eldest son and also a guitarist, the band billed as "Grant Green's Evolution of Funk" will include saxophonist Donald Harrison, keyboardist Marc Cary and drummer Mike Clark, and will make their debut with performances from June 28 to July 1 at NYC's Jazz Standard.
* On a related note, London Jazz News has reviewed Green's two new Resonance albums,
Live at Oil Can Harry's and
Funk in France, which will be released officially this Saturday, April 21 for Record Store Day. You can find much more on this year's RSD jazz releases in
this article from DownBeat.
* Drummer
Kevin Bowers was
interviewed about his shows this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro by the
Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.
* Multi-instrumentalist Adam Maness has
composed and produced music for a new video honoring the St. Louis Cardinals' Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson on the 50th anniversary of his historic performance in 1968, aka
"The Year of the Pitcher."With some coaching from Maness and singer Brian Owens, kids from the not-for-profit LIFE Arts, Inc wrote and performed the lyrics for the video, which can be
seen on Major League Baseball's site MLB.com.
* Speaking of baseball, the Cardinals' Ernie Hayes was among the MLB ballpark organists
featured in a recent post by JazzWax's Marc Myers.
* The
Sheldon Concert Hall has posted to Facebook
an album of photos from Ramsey Lewis' performance at last Friday night's benefit gala and
an album from last Saturday's performance by pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya.
* Singer
Denise Thimes' Mothers Day show raising money to fight pancreatic cancer, which will be held this year at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, was
previewed in an article by Ladue News' Emma Dent.
* Trumpeter
Keyon Harrold has been on tour in the UK and Europe, and his show last week at Jazz Cafe in London got
a rave review from Jazzwise magazine.
*
Miles Davis was the subject this week of
a BBC program hosted by Adrian Utley of the British "trip-hop" band Portishead. Also on the Miles beat, the recently released box set
Miles Davis & John Coltrane — The Final Tour: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 was
reviewed by the Village Voice's Michael J. Agovino.
* HEC-TV has produced
a video featuring testimonials from two local students, Kendall Blumenthal and Brittany O'Reilly, who have benefited from music scholarships awarded by
Jazz St. Louis.
It's a big week for big bands in St. Louis, as the calendar of upcoming jazz and creative music events in St. Louis features a couple of famed large ensembles as headliners of the annual Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival.
There's also a retrospective of the Harlem Renaissance and a look at how Johann Sebastian Bach influenced jazz, plus plenty of other performances in jazz styles ranging from vintage to modern. Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, April 18Jazz St. Louis' "Whitaker Jazz Speaks" series continues at Jazz at the Bistro with Washington University professor
Gerald Early talking about
"Harlem's Renaissance," followed by a performance of music associated with the period.
Meanwhile, this week's
"Grand Center Jazz Crawl" will help kick off the
Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival by featuring small ensembles from UMSL's jazz program at The Stage at KDHX and as opening acts for the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and for trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.
Also on Wednesday, the
Ambassadors of Swing return for the monthly "Shake n Shout" event at
Tin Roof St. Louis.
Thursday, April 19Singer
Erin Bode performs at
Cyrano's, and the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival continues with trumpeter
Hermon Mehari (pictured, top left), who's originally from Kansas City and now splits his time between there and Paris, leading a quartet at
The Dark Room.
(You can find out more and see some videos of performances by Mehari and the headlining bands of the GSLJF's weekend shows in
this post from last Saturday.)
Friday, April 20The SLGJF presents the
University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band at the
Touhill Performing Arts Center, while drummer
Kevin Bowers reunites the band from his Nova project for the first of two nights at
Jazz at the Bistro.
Also on Friday, pianist
Dave Venn begins a new weekly. early-evening gig at the
Chase Park Plaza Hotel's Sidecar Lounge, and singer
Danita Mumphard will perform at the
Webster Groves Concert HallSaturday, April 21The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival concludes with a performance by
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band (
pictured, bottom left); and
Carolbeth True and Two Times True will be joined by singer
Joe Mancuso at the Webster Groves Concert Hall.
Sunday, April 22This week's Sunday jazz brunch options include
The Bonbon Plot playing bossa nova and more at The Dark Room, and
Miss Jubilee singing vintage jazz and blues at
Evangeline's.
Also on Sunday afternoon, the
St. Louis Jazz Club presents traditional jazz band
The Sunset Stomp from Indianpolis, IN at the
Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westport.
Monday, April 23The
Webster University Jazz Singers will show off what they've learned this year in a performance at
Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.
Also on Monday,
Dizzy Atmosphere returns to
The Shaved Duck, and trumpeter
Jim Manley will be back at his weekly residency at
Momo's Greek Restaurant.
Tuesday, April 24As part of St. Louis Bach Festival 2018, the Bach Society of St. Louis will present
"Bach & Jazz" with singer Erin Bode, guitarist
Steve Schenkel and pianist
Kim Portnoy at Jazz at the Bistro.
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.)
The Chicago-based
Joe Policastro Trio is coming to St. Louis to perform at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 at
The Dark Room. Admission to the show is free (though The Dark Room does require a food or drink purchase).
The group
(pictured), which includes the leader on bass along with guitarist Dave Miller and drummer Mikel Avery, is touring to promote their latest album
Screen Sounds.
The trio's third release, after 2013's
West Side Story Suite, and 2016's
POPS!,
Screen Sounds features their re-imaginings of music from film and TV, ranging from
Cool Hand Luke to
Yojimbo to
Twin Peaks and more.
When not touring, Policastro, Miller and Avery perform three nights a week at Chicago’s Pops For Champagne, and individually, their credits include work with the likes of Phil Woods, Jeff Hamilton, Diane Schuur, Patricia Barber, Joshua Abrams, Rob Mazurek, and more.
The second annual
Willie Akins Jazz Festival will take place starting at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, May 27 at the
Grandel Theatre.
The event honors
the late St. Louis saxophonist by raising money for music scholarships in his name at Webster University, where Akins
(pictured) was an adjunct faculty member. Singer
Joe Mancuso is organizing the fest and will serve as co-MC with singer Erika Johnson, who worked with Akins early in her career.
The concert will feature music from saxophonist
Ben Reece's Unity Quartet, trumpeter Danny Campbell's quartet, and the "Willie Akins All-Stars," an
ad hoc group of musicians who worked with and/or knew Akins, including saxophonists Freddie Washington, Paul DeMarinis and Kendrick Smith, guitarist Tom Byrne, bassist Willem von Hombracht, and drummer Kyle Honeycutt.
Following the concert, the action moves to
The Dark Room, where pianist
Ptah Williams, bassist Darrell Mixon and drummer Gary Sykes will host a post-performance jam session.
Tickets for the Willie Akins Jazz Festival will be $12 for general admission, available at the door.
