The production, a re-imagining of King Lear written by Nancy Bell, will be performed at 8:00 pm nightly starting Friday, September 15 through Sunday, September 17 outside of the St. Louis Public Library�s Central Library Branch downtown.
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a bit of a British invasion, with two shows featuring headliners with roots in England's homegrown jazz-rock movement, plus several other noteworthy performances.
Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, September 13 The reunited British fusion band Brand X, touring in support of a live album recorded on tour last year, will perform at the Old Rock House.
Also on Wednesday, the "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" will feature saxophonist Austin Cebulski at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, plus the weekly jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor and band at The Dark Room.
Thursday, September 14 Bassist Tony Grey will perform in the first concert of the semester for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.
Born in England and trained at Berklee School of Music, Grey (pictured) probably is best known as the regular touring bassist for the single-named pianist Hiromi, but he's also released five albums as a leader, written several bass instruction books, and even has recorded a bit with famed guitarist John McLaughlin, who's his uncle.
Friday, September 15 The Brothers Lazaroff will play for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, promoting the release of their new live album, which was recorded at the Bistro in the summer of 2016.
Saturday, September 16 Trumpeter Jim Manley plays for brunch at Evangeline's, and it's also the date of the annual Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival, which takes place in what's known as the Old Webster Business District, centered at the intersection of Lockwood and Gore in suburban Webster Groves.
Performers at the free, day-long event will include Miss Jubilee, the Webster University faculty jazz band, SpaceShip, Funky Butt Brass Band, Two Times True, and the Webster Groves HS jazz band, plus blues acts including Marquise Knox, Aaron Griffin, Roland Johnson & Soul Endeavor, and the Green McDonough Band.
Monday, September 18 Saxophonist Paul DeMarinis leads his band in a program of original music at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, and guitarist and St. Louis native Daryl Darden, back from California for a visit, will play at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.
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.)
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.
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...
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Jazz St. Louis announced this week that they'll be live-streaming online video of selected performances this season at Jazz at the Bistro.
According to a news release, "the series will highlight four artists from the 2017-18 performance season through pre-recorded videos hosted by local jazz pianist Peter Martin and live-streaming activities of the programs which will be available on the Jazz St. Louis website, Facebook page and Ustream".
Featured performances to be streamed include Yellowjackets (pictured) on Friday, September 22; Sammy Miller and the Congregation on Friday, October 27; The Bad Plus on Friday, January 19; and Sean Jones Quartet on Friday, March 2.
* Former St. Louisan Mark Deutsch, now living in California, has released The Picasso Tunings, a set of four related albums featuring the Bazantar, the instrument he invented that combines acoustic bass and sitar. You can hear the new recordings, plus a newly remastered version of Deutsch's first solo album Fool, on his BandCamp page.
* Applications for the latest round of Regional Arts Commission's Artist Support Grants are open now through Thursday, October 12. Grants are available from $500 to $3,000 to artists from all disciplines for a variety of purposes. For more info or to apply, go to https://racstl.org/grant/artists-support-grants/.
* Megan Kirk's cabaret show "Out of My Head," performed last week at The Stage at KDHX, was reviewed for the station by Chuck Lavazzi.
* Wide Open, the forthcoming album from singer, keyboardist and St. Louis native Michael McDonald, features guest performances from several well-known jazz musicians including Robben Ford, Marcus Miller and Branford Marsalis.
It's McDonald's first record of original material since 2000's Blue Obsession and is scheduled for release next Friday, September 15, but you can hear the whole thing now via an online stream from NPR Music�s �First Listen.� McDonald will support the release with a fall tour than includes a stop here on Friday, November 3 at Peabody Opera House.
The St. Louis-based label Freedonia Music, which documents the city's experimental and avant-garde music of the past and present, has two new releases out this month.
New Music for Clarinet and Piano features eight tracks of "spontaneous compositions" from clarinetist Eric Mandat and pianist Greg Mills, recorded "live" last year at Jackson Pianos.
The label's other new release Kuvuka teams Greg Mills with percussionist Glenn "Papa" Wright for "a summit conference for piano and drum set."
Recorded in June at Clayton Studios, it features four tracks of "free improvisation showing postmodern jazz and classical influences by two master musicians at the height of their expressive powers."
Both albums are available as downloads or physical CDs, and you can hear samples from both via the Freedonia website. And speaking of downloads, the entire Freedonia catalog is now available in downloadable form from the label's Bandcamp page for $7 per album.
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the return of a rising jazz star with local roots, a tribute to an iconic pianist and composer, and more. Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, September 6 The "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" presents guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Jacobs at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe; a jam session with bassist Bob Deboo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor and band at The Dark Room.
Friday, September 8 The annual St. Louis Art Fair opens in downtown Clayton, running through Sunday afternoon with free live music from singer Wendy Gordon, Feyza Eren, and Erin Bode; guitarist Dave Black; the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars, Jim Widner Big Band, and more. (Check the fair's website or the StLJN calendar for days and set times.)
Monday, September 11 Jazz faculty from Webster University will join forces for "The Jazz Legacy of Atlantic Records 1955-1975" at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus. The performance will feature music from the label's roster of jazz artists during that period, which included Ornette Coleman, John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, Mose Allison, Chris Connor, Eddie Harris, and Les McCann.
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.)
