StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2018 jazz preview, part 1

With 2017 winding down, it's time for StLJN's winter/spring preview, offering a look via video at the jazz and creative musicians who will be coming to perform in St. Louis in the first part of the new year.

Going, as usual, in chronological order, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman will be the first well-known jazz visitor to St. Louis in 2018, checking in with his quartet for four nights of performances from Wednesday, January 3 through Saturday January 6 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Though his quartet's personnel may be different by the time he gets here, the first video up above, which documents Redman's set at the 2016 Jazz San Javier festival in Spain, should provide a taste of their repertoire and insight into how the saxophonist approaches the format.

After the jump, you can see four videos featuring the visiting musicians who will be part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, which is set to play Friday, January 12 and Saturday, January 13 at the Bistro.

This isn't a regular working band, but rather an ad hoc ensemble featuring four musicians associated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra who are coming here to do an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis. Since this gig is a one-off, there's no video of them all together to show, so instead, let's take a look at clips of the four of them featured with other ensembles.

Trombonist James Burton III can be seen in the first video after the jump, playing his composition "Going Somewhere" with the Black Art Jazz Collective at a gig in June of this year in Athens, Greece.

Next, it's an undated clip of trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt, playing Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance� with the Verve Jazz Ensemble, followed by a full set of drummer Jerome Jennings leading his own group in a show in 2016 at Dizzy's at Lincoln Center.

After that, there's a clip of the fourth member of the group, bassist Ben Wolfe, leading his sextet at a gig in August of this year at Dizzy's.

That same weekend, New Music Circle will present a trio version of the International Contemporary Ensemble led by flute player Claire Chase, along with multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Cory Smythe, performing on Saturday, January 13 at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

The program will feature five notated compositions - three by Sorey, and two by the late composer and experimental music pioneer Pauline Oliveros. One of those works will be Sorey's "Bertha's Lair," and in the penultimate clip, you can see Sorey and Chase presenting the piece's world premiere in 2016 at The Kitchen in NYC.

The final video provides another taste of Sorey's writing, and features him and Cory Smythe as part of Sorey's Double Trio in a performance of "The Inner Spectrum of Variables" at this past summer's Ojai Music Festival.

Look for part two of the winter/spring 2018 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Bonerama puts low brass on top

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on Bonerama, who will be back in St. Louis to perform on Saturday, December 16 at The Bootleg at Atomic Cowboy.

The New Orleans-based band puts the low brass on top, thanks to a three-trombone front line plus a sousaphone standing in for electric bass. Formed in 1998 by trombonists Mark Mullins and Craig Klein, both veterans of Harry Connick Jr.'s big band, they've forged a distinctive sound that incorporates their hometown musical traditions into funky yet hard-rocking covers of songs by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, using trombones to deliver the heavy riffs originally played by fuzzed-out guitars.

Bonerama tours frequently outside their hometown, and have been coming to St. Louis at least once a year since the late 2000s, playing several different venues including the Broadway Oyster Bar and the Old Rock House. Most recently, since their last visit here in early 2016, they signed with the New Orleans-based Basin Street Records and in October released Hot Like Fire, their first album for the label.

If you haven't been able to catch one of their previous shows here, you can sample their sound and get an idea of what to expect from their live show via today's collection of videos, starting up above with "Swamped In," recorded in May 2016 at Generations Hall in New Orleans for the local TV program New Orleans Live.

After the jump, you can see a video of "Mr. Okra," Bonerama's tribute to a beloved local New Orleans character/vegetable vendor, that was recorded for the same program.

That's followed by two clips shot in April 2016 at the CrawDebauchery Food & Music Festival in Pompano Beach, FL, namely Bonerama's storied "Led Zeppelin Medley: In My Time Of Dying~Black Dog~Good Times Bad Times" and a cover of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android."

Lastly, if you're ready for more after that, you can see videos of two complete Bonerama shows, recorded in February of this year at Ardmore Music Hall in Ardmore, PA (near Philadelphia) and in September at the Blues, Views and BBQ Festival in Westport, CT.

For more about Bonerama and Hot Like Fire, check out the two short interview features about them published in October by Offbeat magazine and CEGPresents.com.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Meet the Spanish Harlem Orchestra

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, an NYC-based ensemble that will bring their show "Salsa Navidad" to St. Louis next Friday, December 8 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Bandleader Oscar Hern�ndez is well known in New York City Latin music circles, with a long list of credits including performing with salsa greats such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz during the 1970s, serving as pianist and arranger for singer Rub�n Blades in the 1980s, and being the musical director for Paul Simon's Broadway show "The Capeman."

The Spanish Harlem Orchestra began in the year 2000 when Hern�ndez was approached by producer Aaron Levinson about assembling and recording a Latin jazz orchestra. The band's debut CD Un Gran Dia en el Barrio, was released in 2002, getting a Grammy nomination for Best Salsa Album and a Latin Billboard Award for Salsa Album of the Year.

Since then, they've taken the New York salsa sound on tour around the world and released four more albums, the latest being 2014's eponymous Spanish Harlem Orchestra on the ArtistShare label, with guest appearances from pianist Chick Corea and saxophonist Joe Lovano.

For an idea of what to expect next week at The Sheldon, you can see and hear a full set by the SOH in the first embedded video up above, recorded on July 30, 2016 at the Tempo Latino festival in Vic-Fezensac, France.

After the jump, there's another video with excerpts from the "Salsa Navidad" show as performed in 2016 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles. That's followed by clips of the tunes "Como Baila Mi Mulata," recorded in 2015 in Pittsburgh, and "Ari�a�ara" from the same year, location unlabeled.

The fifth clip is an episode of Salsa En La Calle, which is billed as "New York's Premiere Salsa Cable Television Show," from 2015 that features performances from the SOH and some conversation with Hern�ndez.

The final video is another full set, documenting the Orchestra's performance at the 2011 Jazz in Marciac festival in France.

For more about the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, check Hern�ndez's 2014 interview with Pollstar, and his 2013 interview with the website Latino Music Cafe.

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

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of another new month, and so it's time to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where each day there's posted a new online music video, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul funk, prog rock, classic rock, experimental, and more.

The most-viewed posts added to the site last month were:

Ahmad Jamal - Live on Jazz Session
Sun Ra Arkestra - Live at the Pitchfork Music Festival
Ben Webster - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
Diana Krall - "Fly Me To The Moon"
Bill Frisell - "When You Wish Upon A Star"

Other recent posts have featured performances by the Ed Palermo Big Band, Steppenwolf, Free, Candy Dulfer, Roy Buchanan, Caravan, The Who, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Maynard Ferguson, Ken Vandermark, Dexter Gordon, The Soul Rebels, George Benson, Bonnie Raitt, Fred Wesley and The New JBs, Rod Stewart & Faces, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Marc Ribot's Spiritual Unity, Dave Holland Quintet, Kurt Elling, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Mary Halvorson Quintet, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, and Bill Doggett.

If you've missed out up until now, you can catch all these posts, plus thousands more from the archives, just by going to http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Douglas Ewart

Today, let's take a look at some videos featuring multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart, who's coming to St. Louis to perform with the STL Free Jazz Collective in a free concert next Saturday, December 2 at the 14th Street Artists Community.

Ewart, who's 71 years old, plays various saxophones and woodwind instruments, hand drums, and instruments of his own design. Born in Jamaica, he moved to Chicago as a teenager, and first gained wide attention as an early member of that city's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, later serving as the AACM's president from 1979 to 1986.

He has led his own bands in a variety of instrumental configurations and multi-disciplinary performances, and has recorded as a leader and collaborator with many of the well-known musicians associated with the AACM, as well as with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, and various other creative improvisors and composers.

Given that Ewart and his St. Louis collaborators will be improvising most, if not all, of next Saturday's performance, there's no way to "preview" the show in terms of specific musical content. That said, today's collection of videos, drawn from various Ewart performances in the last eight years, should provide at least some idea of his sound and general approach to making music.

First up is an excerpt from Ewing's set at an observance of John Coltrane's 90th birthday in September 2016 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, in which he plays solo with two dancers, Jay Jao and Taiga Ultan.

After the jump, you can see a couple of excerpts from the set performed by Ewart and his band Inventions in September 2015 at the Chicago Jazz Festival in Millennium Park. Along with Ewart, the group includes Mankwe Ndosi (voice, poetry, percussion), Maggie Brown (voice, percussion), Duriel Harris (poetry, percussion), Dee Alexander (voice, percussion), Mwata Bowden (winds, percussion), Edward Wilkerson (winds, percussion), Jeff Parker (guitar), Dushun Mosley (drums), Darius Savage (bass), Kidd Jordan (saxophone), and Willie Pickens (piano).

The fourth clip is a piece called "Manalapho," written in 2013 in tribute to Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed in a 2012 shooting that sparked outrage across the country.

That's followed by Ewart and another iteration of Inventions, as recorded in 2009 at the Vision Festival in NYC. This version of the group features Ewart, the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Joseph Jarman and St. Louis' own J.D. Parran on various woodwinds, along with pianist Donald Smith, percussionist Thurman Barker, and poet Amiri Baraka.

The final video is an interview with Ewart, recorded in 2011 on the occasion of the release of his album Songs of Sunlife on innova Recordings, in which he discusses the album, his life, and influences.

For more about Douglas Ewart, check out the interview with him published in 2015 on the website of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where Ewart now lives; and his interview from that same year with the NY Jazz Record.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing Battle Trance

Today, let's take a look at some videos featuring performances from Battle Trance, who will be coming to St. Louis to play a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, December 2 at The Luminary.

One could think of them as a saxophone quartet, but with a twist, as all four members - founder and leader Travis Laplante, Patrick Breiner, Matt Nelson and Jeremy Viner - play tenor sax, with no doubles on any other instruments.

This isn't entirely unprecedented - jazz history buffs may recall that back in the late 1940s, Woody Herman's "Second Herd" featured tenor saxophonists Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herb Stewart and Jimmy Giuffre as the "Four Brothers" - but Battle Trance is making a very different type of sound, one that PopMatters has identified as "existing in the cracks between contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, black metal, ambient, and world music."

Formed in 2014, they've released two recordings, their debut Palace of Wind, and last year's Blade of Love. You can see them performing music from both albums in today's compilation of videos, starting up above with a segment of the album-length composition that makes up Palace of Wind, recorded in June 2015 at the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Brattleboro, VT.

After the jump, there are four short clips, ranging from under 2 to 10 minutes, excerpting shows from 2015 and '16 in Detroit; Silver Spring, MD; Brighton, MA, and NYC.

The last two videos both were recorded in January of this year at the Vandoren Studio in Los Angeles, CA, and feature a "live in the studio" performance of the first section of Blade of Love, and an interview with the group.

For more about Battle Trance, read TheQuietus.com's review of Palace of Wind, and Observer.com's October 2016 feature story about them.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Russell Gunn's Blackhawk Revisited

Today, let's check out some videos featuring trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, who's bringing his "Blackhawk Revisited" project to St. Louis to perform starting next Wednesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 18 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The word "Blackhawk" in this case refers not to the hockey team, the comic-book hero, or the helicopter, but to the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco where Miles Davis in 1961 recorded In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, which turned out to be one of the more enduring live albums of his long career.

Since his death in 1991, musicians frequently have paid tribute to Davis by revisiting and sometimes re-imagining music from Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool, and Davis' post-1967 electric bands. In contrast, this time period - between the recording of KoB and the formation of Davis' "Second Great Quintet" a few years later - has remained relatively under-examined, making Gunn's interest in it that much more notable.

The trumpeter's engagement with Davis' music from the turn of the '60s also gets a significant boost in authenticity from the presence of Jimmy Cobb, the 88-year-old drummer who's the last living participant from the Kind of Blue sessions and will be in the band for Gunn's shows at the Bistro.

So how close do they get to the sound of Miles' band in 1961? You can decide for yourself by checking out today's videos, starting up above with a clip of "So What" recorded in November 2015 at the Velvet Note in Atlanta, with Gunn, Cobb, pianist Kevin Bales, saxophonist Mike Walton, and bassist Kevin Smith.

After the jump, there's a version of Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't" - another staple of Davis' repertoire in the late 1950s and early '60s - recorded at the same gig.

Below that, there are two full sets of the "Blackhawk Revisited" band in action, the first featuring Gunn, Cobb, Bales, saxophonist Morgan Guerin, and bassist Corcoran Holt in October 2016 at Dizzy's Club in NTC's Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the second from the 2015 Atlanta Jazz Festival, with Gunn, Bales, Walton, Smith, and Kinah Botto Ayah in for Cobb on the drums.

Next up are three videos that show Gunn working out on three more tunes associated with Davis - "Solar," "Walkin'" and "Blue in Green" - recorded at various jam sessions in 2017 and 2016 at Churchill Grounds in Atlanta.

Finally, the last video features an interview with Jimmy Cobb, recorded in November 2014 at SubCulture in New York for NYU's Steinhardt Jazz Interview Series, in which Cobb discusses his career, his time with Davis, and other topics.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on C�cile McLorin Salvant

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on singer C�cile McLorin Salvant, who's returning to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, November 18 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Salvant, a 28-year-old native of Miami, made her St. Louis debut a couple of years ago at The Sheldon and is one of the most talked-about jazz singers to emerge in the last decade. She's already earned a "Best Jazz Vocal" Grammy Award for her third album, 2015�s For One to Love, and currently is touring in support of her latest album Dreams and Daggers. It's a two-CD set recorded live at the Village Vanguard in NYC, released by Mack Avenue Records in September.

Dreams and Daggers mixes standards and originals in what Pitchfork has called "the boldest move of her career", and in the first clip up above, you can see the official music video for "You're My Thrill," which Mack Avenue is promoting as a single from the album.

After the jump, you can see several more videos of recent live performances, starting with Salvant and her working band, led by pianist Aaron Diehl, performing "Boy! What Has Love Done To Me" at a gig in February 2017 in Montreal.

Next up, Salvant and pianist Sullivan Fortner duet on Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye," recorded in April of this year at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse in NYC.

After that, there are two tracks, "Doudou" and "Just A Gigolo," recorded in August of this year at the Jazz in Marciac festival in France. Both feature Salvant performing with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' quintet, which includes drummer Ali Jackson, pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez, and saxophonist Walter Blanding.

In the last video, you can see an interview with Salvant in which she discusses Dreams and Daggers, her influences and career so far, and more.

For more about C�cile McLorin Salvant, check out London Jazz News' review of her show last month at Ronnie Scott's; the article about her published in September by the Los Angeles Times; and the feature story about her from May of this year in The New Yorker.

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

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

With the start of another month, it's time once again to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where each day there's posted a different online music video, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental, and more.

The five most-watched videos added to the site last month were:

Robert Cray - "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark"
Kurt Elling - "My Foolish Heart
Tommy Flanagan - "Someone to Watch Over Me"
George Benson - "My Latin Brother" & "El Mar"
The Soul Rebels - "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This"

Other recent posts have featured video performances from the Ed Palermo Big Band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Steppenwolf, Free, Candy Dulfer, Hermeto Pascoal, Steve Miller Band, Caravan, Bill Frisell, The Who, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Maynard Ferguson, Peter Br�tzmann Chicago Tentet, Dexter Gordon, Diana Krall, Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt & Joan Osborne, Mallard, Can, Frank Morgan, Bad Company, Dave Holland & Prism, Pharoah Sanders, Mary Halvorson Octet, Etta James, Ahmad Jamal, and Bill Doggett.

If you've missed out on any or all of these videos, you still can catch them all, plus hundreds more from the archives, by going to http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

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...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Sammy Miller and the Congregation

This week, let's get acquainted via video with drummer Sammy Miller and his band, the Congregation.

The NYC-based group will make their St. Louis debut next week as part of an educational residency for Jazz St. Louis, wrapping up their time here with performances on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Along with Miller on drums and vocals, the Congregation includes Alphonso Horne (trumpet), Ben Flocks (tenor sax), Sam Crittenden (trombone), David Linard (piano), and John Snow (bass).

Their debut album The Mixtape, released earlier this year, contains a mix of originals and covers, including several familiar standards. "It isn�t traditional jazz, but perhaps there�s this idea of joyful jazz: music that�s medicinal and can uplift people,� Miller said in an interview with Jewish Journal.

You can see for yourself what that's like in today's videos, starting with the first clip up above, which features Miller and the Congregation performing Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley's "Black and Tan Fantasy" in 2015 at Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem.

After the jump, there's a video of them doing the New Orleans standard "Li'l Liza Jane," recorded in 2017 at Live at The Woods in Brooklyn, New York.

That's followed by two tracks recorded in April of this year at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Antonio," and �Blues Don�t Bother I,� recorded in January 2016 at Sofar New York.

The final video shows a full set of Miller and the Congregation recorded in April 2016 at the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Harold L�pez-Nussa

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on pianist Harold L�pez-Nussa, who will make his St. Louis debut with performances starting this coming Wednesday, October 18 and continuing through Saturday, October 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Now 34 years old, L�pez-Nussa grew up as part of a musical family in Havana, Cuba. His father, drummer Ruy Francisco L�pez-Nussa, and uncle Ern�n, a pianist, both were working musicians; his mother Mayra Torres was a piano teacher; and his younger brother Ruy L�pez-Nussa is the drummer in Harold's trio.

Following that family tradition, L�pez-Nussa began playing piano in grade school, and studied classical music through his teenage years and into his twenties, ultimately earning a degree in classical piano from the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA) in Havana.

He first gained wide attention outside Cuba in 2005 by winning the jazz solo piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Since then, L�pez-Nussa has led his trio in performances at major jazz festivals including Montreux, Monterey, Montreal, Tokyo, and many others, and at major venues in Europe, Asia and the USA, including the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and SFJAZZ.

Thanks to the relaxation of trade restrictions between the United States and Cuba, he was able to release his most recent album, 2016's El Viaje, via the Detroit-based Mack Avenue label. You can hear L�pez-Nussa's trio and some of the material from El Viaje in the first video up above, which documents their set at the 2016 Moers Festival in Germany.

After the jump, there are two more full sets, one from a show in 2015 at la Fabrica de Arte Cubano in Havana, and one recorded in 2014 at the Cosmo Jazz Festival in Chamonix, France.

Next, you can see the trio in a couple of informal clips, shot close-up by audience members in relatively small venues. The first is a song called "Paseo," recorded in February 2016 at La Zorra y el Cuervo in Havana, Cuba, and the second is "New Day," recorded in October 2015 at the SideDoor Jazz Club in Olde Lyme, CT.

The final video is a brief interview with Harold L�pez-Nussa, produced by the website Havana Cultura.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A few sips of Moon Hooch

This week, let's sample some videos from Moon Hooch, who are returning to St. Louis to perform on Friday, October 13 at the Old Rock House.

The NYC-based trio - drummer James Muschler and saxophonists Mike Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen - met while attending The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC, and got their start in 2010 busking in subway stations.

With some help from some fortuitously timed national media attention, including one of the most-viewed episodes ever of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts, they've developed into a busy touring act and have released five recordings in all, the most recent of which is the CD + DVD set Live at the Cathedral, which came out in June of this year.

While the members of Moon Hooch trained as jazz musicians, their sound as a band is something else, drawing heavily on electronic dance music and also influenced by hip-hop, metal, and even a bit of Indian classical music.

McGowen has called it "acoustic techno," and evoking the feel of electronic music on acoustic instruments requires the two saxophonists to use various extended techniques - some of their own invention, like inserting a plastic traffic cone into a sax - while also demanding considerable amounts of precision and stamina from all three musicians.

You can get an idea of what this sounds like and see how they pull it off in today's videos, starting with the first clip up top, which was made in November 2016 in the studios of radio station KJHK in Lawrence, KS, and features them playing "Number 1," "Number 7" and "Bari 3."

After the jump, you can see and hear three more tracks (with somewhat less generic-seeming titles), all recorded in February of this year at the studios of Paste magazine in NYC. They are, in order, "Red Sky," "Light It Up" and "Contrabass Dubstep."

The final two videos, "Acid Mountain" and "Growing Up," were recorded in August 2017 in the studios of radio station KBOO In Portland, OR.

For more about Moon Hooch, check out the interview with them published in July by The Guardian newspaper, and this feature from August in EZH magazine.

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

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of a new month, and so it's time to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where every day there's a new post of an online music video, draw from genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental, and more.

The five most-watched videos added to the site last month were:

Kurt Elling - Live at the Newport Jazz Festival
Tony Bennett & Diana Krall - "The Best Is Yet to Come"
The Soul Rebels - Live in Philadelphia
Maynard Ferguson - "Whatcha Thinkin'"
Big Sam's Funky Nation - "See Me Dance"

Other recent posts have featured the Ed Palermo Big Band, Canned Heat, McCoy Tyner Trio with Gary Bartz & Bill Frisell, Candy Dulfer, J Geils Band, The Skeletons, Colosseum, Wes Montgomery, The Who, Hamiet Bluiett, William Parker & Hamid Drake, Dexter Gordon, The Soul Rebels, George Benson, Mavis Staples, Mallard, Can, Buddy Guy, Free, Dave Holland & Prism, Pharoah Sanders, Tommy Flanagan, Mary Halvorson Octet, Esperanza Spalding, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, Ahmad Jamal, and Barbara Dennerlein.

You still can see all of these videos, plus thousands more from the carefully selected archives, just by visiting http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Steve Swell

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring trombonist Steve Swell, who will be making his St. Louis debut and kicking off New Music Circle's 2017-18 season with a concert on Saturday, October 7 at at The Stage at KDHX.

Swell will be joined by an all-star assemblage of avant-gardists, including pianist Dave Burrell, known for his solo work and as an associate of major free-jazz artists such as Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders; alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, a longtime collaborator of pianist Cecil Taylor and also a bandleader in his own right; drummer Chad Taylor, who's worked with Sanders, guitarist Marc Ribot, and trumpeter Rob Mazurek's Underground projects; and William Parker, the veteran bassist who has recorded more than 50 albums as a leader and also been a key part of the bands of Cecil Taylor, David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Peter Br�tzmann, and many others.

Though this will be Swell's first appearance as a bandleader in St. Louis, he is a veteran of the international improv and experimental music scene who has collaborated with many musicians known to fans of the genre. A New Jersey native, Swell, who's now 62, broke into the NYC music scene in the mid-1970s as a jobbing musician, playing Top 40, salsa and Broadway gigs as well as with the big bands of Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, and others.

Studies with the famed trombonists Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III and a gig with saxophonist Makanda Ken McIntyre's band helped Swell transition into free jazz, and since then, he's released more than 20 albums as a leader of a variety of ensembles, and appears on at least twice that many as a collaborator or sideman. He's played on tour and on record with Parker, Burrell, and Moondoc and with many other internationally known musicians such as Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Herb Robertson, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Rob Mazurek, Perry Robinson, and Ken Vandermark.

While there doesn't seem to be any online video available of Swell with the specific group he's bringing to St. Louis, there is footage of him working with all the band's members in various other contexts. So, in the interest of picking up some clues as to what to expect from him as an improvisor, composer and leader, as well as how he interacts with these specific musicians, let's take a look.

In the first clip up above, you can see Swell and Parker, along with saxophonists Dave Sewelson and Richard Keene, guitarist Immanuel Childress, and drummer Michael TA Thompson, playing an outdoor gig just three weeks ago at Children's Magical Garden in NYC.

After the jump, there's a clip of the group Swell calls Kende Dreams, with Moondoc, Chad Taylor, pianist Connie Crothers, saxophonist Rob Brown, and bassist Larry Roland, recorded at a gig during Thanksgiving week 2015 at The Stone in NYC.

The third video features another Swell ensemble, Nation of We (aka NOW Ensemble), from two nights later at The Stone. Providing an outlet for Swell's orchestral concepts, this group includes Swell, Taylor and Dave Sewelson, with saxophonists Darius Jones, Chris Pitsiokos, Ras Moshe Burnett, and Michael Foster; trumpeters Lewis Barnes and Matt Lavelle; French horn player Vincent Chancey, and tuba player Joe Daley, plus a string section including Rosie Hertlein and Sarah Bernstein (violins), Jason Hwang and Stephanie Griffin (violas), Jake Sokolov (cello), and Todd Nicholson (bass).

The remaining videos reach back a bit farther in time, but may further illuminate the interconnections between these musicians. Video #4 features Swell, Dave Burrell, and bassist Michael Formanek, playing a gig under Burrell's leadership in October 2011 at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.

Lastly, you can see Swell, Moondoc, Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, billed collectively as Fire Into Music, performing (in two parts) a full set at the 2005 Guelph Jazz Festival in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

For more about Steve Swell, check out his two extended interviews published by AllAboutJazz.com earlier this year and back in 2014.

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











Edited 10/4/17 to fix a garbled sentence.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Saxophonist & singer Grace Kelly to make St. Louis debut

This week, let's get acquainted via video with saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly, who will make her St. Louis debut with shows starting Wednesday, October 4 through Saturday, October 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

While these will be her first performances in St. Louis, Kelly, 25, already is a music business veteran. She's performed in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, at venues including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, the Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Jazz Standard, and Blues Alley in the USA, and at Ronnie Scott's, Duc des Lombard, Porgy & Bess, and more overseas, as well as major jazz festivals in Detroit, Newport, Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Born and raised in the Boston area, Kelly was something of a prodigy, releasing her first CD at age 12. During her teen years, she jammed with and befriended respected jazz elders like Phil Woods and Lee Konitz, both of whom wound up recording with her. Kelly earned her GED at 16 and went on to attend Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2011 when she was just 19. In all, she has recorded a total of ten albums as a leader, the most recent being 2016's Trying To Figure It Out, which finished second in the "Jazz Album of the Year" category in DownBeat's 2016 Readers Poll.

Touted as a potential crossover success, Kelly has gained wider exposure as a recurring guest performer with keyboardist Jon Batiste and the house band for CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and as a member of the house band for the NBC variety show Maya & Marty. She also recently was featured in a second-season episode of Amazon's cop show Bosch, playing herself and performing a song in a scene filmed at the Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles.

You can see and hear some recent samples of Kelly's playing and singing in today's videos, starting up above with "Lemons Make Lemonade," recorded in April of this year at the studios of public radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

In this clip, and in the one of her funked-up version of the hymn "Amazing Grace" immediately after the jump, she's backed by her working band, which includes keyboardist Julian Pollack, bassist Julia Pederson, and drummer Ross Pederson.

The third video is a full set of Kelly and band recorded in August 2017 at the Cape Cod Jazz Festival in Massachusetts. Given that this set happened just a few weeks ago, it would seem to be a reasonable facsimile of what St. Louis listeners might expect when she gets here.

Kelly shows off a different look and sound in the fourth video, in which she guest-stars with the high-concept cover band Postmodern Jukebox on what's described as a "retro jazz version" of vocal group Fifth Harmony's 2015 pop hit "Worth It." While this sort of thing may raise a few eyebrows among the stodgiest jazz purists, it's an entertaining showcase for (at least some of) her skills that potentially could reel in some new fans.

In the fifth video, Kelly guest-stars on a episode of the web series Studio Jams for a version of the standard "Georgia On My Mind," recorded back in March 2016.

The final clip offers a glimpse of Kelly from earlier in her career. Recorded in 2012, it shows her sitting in on a set at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston with St. Louis' own David Sanborn, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Byron Landham, playing Hank Crawford's "The Peeper" and the blues standard "Let The Good Times Roll."

For more about Grace Kelly, you can check out her 2016 interview with WGBH in Boston; the 2014 episode of Voice of America's Beyond Category that features her, and recent interviews with Las Vegas magazine and AFM's magazine International Musician.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part four

Here's the fourth and final part of of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, featuring videos of jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis in the next several months. (You can see part one here, part two here, and part three here.)

Picking up the chronology at the point when part three left off, today's first video features trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, who will be coming back home to perform Wednesday, November 15 through Saturday, November 18 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Gunn's "Blackhawk Revisited" band celebrates Miles Davis' sound at the turn of the 1960s, as exemplified by the box set In Person Friday and Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, recorded in 1961 at the Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco.

On hand to lend authenticity to the proceedings will be Jimmy Cobb, the octogenarian drummer who played on the original Blackhawk dates and is the only musician from Davis' landmark album Kind of Blue still living. This video was recorded last October at Dizzy's in New York, and features Gunn, Cobb and bandmates Morgan Guerin (tenor sax), Kevin Bales (piano), and Corcoran Holt (bass) doing a full set of the Blackhawk material.

After the jump, it's singer Jane Monheit, who will perform Wednesday, November 29 though Saturday, December 2 at the Bistro. She's seen here singing "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" in May 2016 at the studios of KNKX Public Radio in Tacoma, WA.

The third clip features Battle Trance, the all-tenor-sax quartet who will be presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, December 2 at The Luminary. It's a video of the title track from their album Blade of Love, as performed in January at the Vandoren Studio in Los Angeles.

Next, it's pianist and singer Freddy Cole, seen here performing "Songs for Lovers" in February 2017 at Dizzy's. Cole and his band, with guest saxophonist Harry Allen, will be in St. Louis starting Wednesday, December 6 through Saturday, December 9 at Jazz at the Bistro.

That same weekend, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra will make their St. Louis debut with a holiday-themed show called "Salsa Navidad" on Friday, December 8 at Sheldon Concert Hall. The sixth video depicts highlights from that show, as performed last year at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The penultimate video features vocal group Take 6, who will be back to perform starting Wednesday, December 13 through Saturday, December 16 at the Bistro. You can see them here singing "Stand By Me" and "Straighten Up and Fly Right," as recorded in August at the studios of Hawaii Public Radio. 

Last but not least, it's actor, singer, and Belleville native Lea DeLaria, who will perform her cabaret show on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. She's seen in the final video doing an impromptu version of "Since I Fell For You" last October at an NYC spot called the Duplex.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part three

Welcome to part three of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, presenting videos featuring noteworthy jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis over the next few months. (You can see part one here, and part two here.)

Continuing in chronological order from where part two left off, today's first clip features singer and pianist Eric Comstock and singer Barbara Fasano, whose show "Downton Abbey Road: The Best of Britain" will be presented as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 27 at the Gaslight Theater.

Although no excerpts of that show are available on video, you can see them up above performing "When In Rome (I Do As The Romans Do)" as recorded in April 2015 during the weekly "Cast Party" event at Birdland in NYC.

After the jump, there's a clip featuring guitarist, singer and St. Louis favorite John Pizzarelli, who's returning to headline the annual "ArtSounds" benefit on Saturday, October 28 at Sheldon Concert Hall.

Recorded last month at KNKX in Tacoma, WA, it features Pizzarelli and Daniel Jobim, the grandson of Brazilian music legend Antonio Carlos Jobim, performing "The Girl From Ipanema" from Pizzarelli's latest album Sinatra & Jobim @ 50.

The third video features saxophonist Houston Person, who will be back in town to perform Wednesday, November 1 through Saturday, November 4 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Person, who usually works with local rhythm sections on gigs like the one he's doing at the Bistro, is seen here in a video from March of this year that documents his team-up with fellow saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person for a gig at Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC. Along with the two Persons, the band includes pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Kenny Davis, and drummer McClenty Hunter.

Next, it's singers Farah Alvin and William Michals, who will join forces to present "Broadway's Greatest Hits of All Time" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, November 3 and Saturday, November 4 at the Gaslight Theater.

In their individual clips, Michals is performing "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific, recorded last month at Feinstein's/54 Below in NYC, while Alvin is singing "Infinite Joy" as part of a show last month at the the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA.

Today's sixth video features a full set from singer C�cile McLorin Salvant, recorded in December 2016 at Dizzy's with a band including pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie, drummer Lawrence Leathers, and guest star Anat Cohen on clarinet.

Salvant has a new album called Dreams and Daggers coming out at the end of this month, and her tour in support of the record will include a performance on Saturday, November 11 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

That same evening, electronic musician John Wiese will be headlining an event for New Music Circle at St. Louis University's Xavier Hall.

Billed as "a site-specific composition that includes over 20 local musicians, utilizing both traditional and non-traditional instrumentation," the performance can't really be previewed here, but you can get an idea of the sort of thing Wiese does in today's penultimate video, which documents a performance in August 2016 at the Artifex Guild in Bloomington, IN.

The final video features actress and singer Emily Skinner, who will perform "Broadway Her Way" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Saturday, November 11 at the Gaslight Theater.

Word came down this week that Skinner already has sold out this single performance, but since this post was mostly written by the time that news reached StLJN HQ, you might as well enjoy a clip of her performing "Could I Leave You" last fall in the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' production of Follies.

Look for part four of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2017 jazz preview, part two

This week, it's part two of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview, featuring videos of noteworthy performers who will be coming to St. Louis in the next several months. (You can see part one, published last week, here.)

Picking up the chronology in mid-October where part one left off, today's first video features trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who will be back in St. Louis to perform on Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video shows a full set from Sandoval and his band, recorded in February of this year in Moscow, Russia.

After the jump, it's singer Paula West, who will open the fall series of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 13 and Saturday October 14 at the Gaslight Theater. West is seen here performing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as part of a tribute to Bowie in February 2016 at Feinstein's in San Francisco.

Next, it's the recently formed "supergroup" Hudson, featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette, guitarist John Scofield, keyboardist John Medeski, and bassist Larry Grenadier. They'll perform here on Saturday, October 14 at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and can be seen in today's third clip vamping for a few minutes on the title track from their eponymous first album, as recorded on June 30 of this year at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The fourth video features the young Cuban-born pianist Harold Lopez-Nussa, who will make his St. Louis debut here with performances starting Wednesday, October 18 through Saturday, October 21 at Jazz at the Bistro. He's seen here performing music from his most recent album El Viaje in March of this year at the Banlieues Bleues Festival in Seine-Saint-Denis, France.

The fifth video features actor and singer Alice Ripley, the Tony Award-winning Broadway star who will perform as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 20 and Saturday October 21 at the Gaslight Theater. The video shows Ripley singing "As If We Never Said Goodbye" (from the musical Sunset Boulevard) and was recorded on June 5, 2017 at Feinstein's/54 Below in NYC.

Today's final clip spotlights Sammy Miller and the Congregation, a young band from New Orleans who will cap off a week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with shows on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28 at Jazz at the Bistro. Miller and his flock are seen here performing "Ain't Misbehavin'" in April of this year at the studios of radio station KNKX in Tacoma, WA.

Look for part three of StLJN's Fall 2017 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of a new month, and that mean's it's time once again to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds. where each day there's posted a different online music video, drawing on genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental, and more.

The five most-watched videos added to the site last month were:

Robert Palmer- Live in Germany
Esperanza Spalding - "City Of Roses"
Joe Williams - "Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me"
Tony Bennett - Live at the London Palladium
George Benson - "Deeper Than You Think"

Other recent posts have featured videos of the Ed Palermo Big Band, Sun Ra Arkestra, Blodwyn Pig, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hawkwind, Geri Allen and the Celebration Ensemble, Freddie Hubbard Quintet, Les McCann Quartet, Sam Rivers Quartet, The Who, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Oregon, Maynard Ferguson & Big Bop Nouveau, Dexter Gordon, The Soul Rebels, The Headhunters, Mavis Staples, Roscoe Mitchell, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, McCoy Tyner, Buddy Guy, Anthony Braxton ZIM Sextet, Tommy Flanagan, Mary Halvorson Octet, Ahmad Jamal & Yusef Lateef, and Barbara Dennerlein.

If you've somehow missed out on all this until now, you still can see all of these videos, plus thousands more from archives, by going to http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com.