Jazz this week: John Wiese, "Duke Ellington and Film," Weather Forever, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a concert of music written for the movies by one of the greatest composers and bandleaders in jazz; a tribute to two of the most successful bands in jazz/fusion; a brand-new work created by a St. Louis expat for more than 20 local musicians, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, November 8
Jazz St Louis presents "Duke Ellington and Film," a free event at Jazz at the Bistro featuring Dr. John Hasse, who's the curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institute, and the Jazz St. Louis Big Band.

Hasse will give a presentation about Ellington's involvement with movies, and then the band will play some of the music the maestro wrote for films such as Anatomy of a Murder, the musical short Black and Tan Fantasy, Check and Double Check, Paris Blues, and Assault on a Queen.

Also in Grand Center, the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features cornetist TJ Muller at The Stage at KDHX, a jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, November 9
New Music Circle presents one of several free events this week involving electronic musician, composer, multi-media artist and St. Louis native John Wiese (pictured), screening nine short films by Wiese at the Moolah Theatre and Lounge.

Also on Thursday, bassist and educator Jim Widner's big band will play at the Bistro; and the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert from singer Joe Mancuso's trio plus guest saxophonist Freddie Washington.

Friday, November 10
The 1970s jazz/fusion tribute Weather Forever returns for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; the Funky Butt Brass Band will play their monthly show at Broadway Oyster Bar; and pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will perform at the Parkside Grill.

Saturday, November 11
Wrapping up his New Music Circle residency, John Wiese will lead a cast of more than 20 local musicians in a new, site-specific work created for this performance at University Theatre in St. Louis University's Xavier Hall. You can find out more about Wiese and see video of some of his solo performances in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Saturday, singer Tony Viviano will offer a tribute to military veterans at Candicci's; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival wraps up their fall series with a sold-out show featuring singer and Tony Award-nominated actress Emily Skinner doing "Broadway Her Way" at the Gaslight Theater. (Though the show is sold out, you can get on the wait list for notifications of any last-minute ticket availability by sending an email to sales@licketytix.com.)

Sunday, November 12
Enjoy some jazz with your brunch, either from Miss Jubilee at Evangeline's or The BonBon Plot at The Dark Room.

Monday, November 13
Webster University's student jazz combos will show off what they've learned this semester in a concert at the Community Music School, 535 Garden Ave in Webster Groves.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on John Wiese

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring John Wiese, who's coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, November 11 at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

Wiese, who was born in Kansas, grew up in St. Louis, and now lives in Los Angeles, is an "artist, composer, publisher of books and records, graphic designer, typographer, and various other things" who has been called "one of the last decade�s most sophisticated and accomplished sound artists" by Vice.com.

According to the descriptive copy on New Music Circle's website, Wiese "doesn�t really think of himself as a musician in the traditional sense, and instead of writing purely notated music he works with manipulating, cutting and arranging sounds electronically. The end product is more like a meticulous collage, built upon dense, nuanced sounds ranging from the minimal to the frenetic."

Since graduating from the California Institute of the Arts in 2001, Wiese has performed at venues and festivals all over the United States, Europe and Japan, and has released hundreds of recordings as a solo artist, collaborator, and under pseudonyms and/or project names including Sissy Spacek and Bastard Noise.

For his St. Louis performance, he has created a new site-specific work that will include more than 20 local musicians. And in addition to his concert, Wiese also will take part in several other events while he's in town, including a public presentation on Wednesday, November 8 at Washington University and a screening of some of his short films on Thursday, December 9 at the Moolah Theatre. (You can see the complete list of collaborating players and associated events here.)

Since it's impossible to show videos of a piece that hasn't premiered yet, today's collection of clips instead offers a chance to check out Wiese's general aesthetic via several of his solo performances, starting up above with an excerpt from a show in April 2015 at Pariah in Dallas, TX.

After the jump you can see two more excerpts from performances in 2014 and 2013 at the Los Angeles art gallery 356 S. Mission Rd, and excerpts from shows at the Debacle Fest 2013 in Seattle and a performance in March 2012 in Cork, Ireland.

Finally, you can see a short video interview with Wiese (complete with French subtitles) from 2016, and a 2014 clip in which he goes shopping at Amoeba Music in Hollywood as part of their "What's In My Bag?" web series.

For more about John Wiese, check out the feature about him published in April 2016 by Vice.com, and his 2015 interview with Bomb magazine.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...