It's the start of another month, which means it's time to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where every day there's a different online music video, drawn from genres including jazz, blues, soul, funk, classic rock, prog rock, experimental, and more
The most-watched videos added to the site last month were:
Other recent posts have included video performances by Sonny Rollins, Ed Palermo Big Band, Robert Cray, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hawkwind, Geri Allen, Freddie Hubbard Quintet, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time with Pat Metheny, Sam Rivers Trio, The Who, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Maynard Ferguson, Dexter Gordon, The Soul Rebels featuring Rakim, George Benson, Tony Bennett, The Headhunters, Mavis Staples, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Hot 8 Brass Band, Richard "Groove" Holmes, McCoy Tyner Trio with Michael Brecker, Andrew Hill, James Brown, Mary Halvorson & Nels Cline, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross with Joe Williams.
If you've missed out on all this until now, you still can see all of these videos, plus thousands more from the archives, by going to http://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.
Hancock has been at the forefront of jazz for more than half a century, first coming to wide public attention in the mid-1960s as a member of Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet." Striking out on his own at the turn of the 1970s, Hancock has managed to have considerable commercial success - most notably with his 1973 album HeadHunters, which remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time - while keeping his artistic credibility.
Today, StLJN celebrates Hancock's musical legacy with videos of his performances spanning more than 50 years and including some of his most popular tunes. The first clip up top is from Hancock's time with Miles Davis, and shows a performance of Davis' "All Blues" recorded October 11, 1964 at the Teatro dell'Arte in Milan, Italy. Along with Davis and Hancock, that's Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.
After the jump, you can see "You'll Know When You Get There," recorded in 1971 in Molde, Norway by the ensemble commonly known as the "Mwandishi" band (after Hancock's album of the same name from that year), with Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Julian Priester (trombone), Bennie Maupin (soprano sax, flute, bass clarinet), Buster Williams (bass), and Billy Hart (drums).
Next, it's a full set of the Headhunters, performing their eponymous album in November 1974 at Musikladen in Bremen, Germany, with Hancock, Maupin, Paul Jackson (electric bass), Bill Summers (percussion) and Mike Clark (drums).
The fourth clip features a 1988 performance of one of Hancock's most famous compositions, "Maiden Voyage," recorded in Hamburg, Germany with Hancock, Buster Williams, Al Foster on drums, and on alto sax, St. Louis' own Greg Osby.
The penultimate video is a version of "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" recorded in 2005 in Tokyo by the all-star version of the Headhunters that toured on a limited basis that year, with Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto sax, Lionel Loueke and Wah Wah Waton on guitars, Marcus Miller on bass, and Munyungo Jackson on percussion.
Finally, you can check out a clip of Hancock's longtime concert staple "Actual Proof" recorded just three weeks ago at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with his current touring band, featuring Loueke on guitar, James Genus on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, and rising star Terrace Martin on saxophone and additional keyboards.
Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:
* Singer Maysa(pictured), who will perform as part of the Gateway Jazz Festival on Saturday at Chesterfield Amphitheater, was interviewed about her new album by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.
* Electronic musician Walter Whitney's latest project is the subject of a short feature story from the Riverfront Times' Christian Schaeffer.
* Saxquest has announced that they're adding some new services in conjunction with the grand opening on Saturday, August 12 of their new Maryland Heights location at 2614 Metro Blvd, near the I-270/Dorsett Rd interchange.
The new Saxquest Woodwind Teaching Institute will offer lessons for players of all ages and levels, from beginner to advanced, at both the west and Cherokee St locations.
The retailer also is beginning a new rental program this fall, for the first time offering rentals on clarinets and saxophones, including their own Saxquest brand instruments.
Lastly, the store will present the second annual Saxquest Expo on Saturday, November 11, at the Sheraton Westport Chalet in Westport Plaza, featuring representatives from major manufacturers showcasing instruments, mouthpieces, and accessories for all woodwind instruments.
Due to some temporary time constraints and computer-related difficulties here at StLJN HQ, this week's survey of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis may be a day later than usual, but there still are shows worth noting, so let's go straight to the highlights...
Thursday, July 27 This week's performance wrapping up the Jazz at Holmes "Jazz in July" series of free concerts at Washington University will feature a trio with pianist Ptah Williams, drummer Stephen Haake, and bassist Jacob Zengerling.
Friday, July 28 Singer Emily Wallace, accompanied by the Funky Butt Horns, will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.
Wallace (pictured, bottom left), who is making her debut as a headliner at the Bistro, is best known as part of the folk/Americana duo The Sleepy Rubies, in which she sings with her sister Ali Ruby, and has made guest appearances on various Funky Butt Brass Band gigs.
Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode will perform outside the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park before the museum's film series screens Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. Both the concert and the film are free and open to the public.
Saturday, July 29 The Gateway Jazz Festival at Chesterfield Amphitheater will present a day-long bill of acts including Pieces of a Dream (pictured, top left); singer Maysa; saxophonist Najee; the "Gateway Jazz All-Stars" with saxophonist Steve Cole, guitarist Nick Colionne, and keyboardist Brian Simpson; guitarists Chieli Minucci, Steve Oliver and Chris Standring; bassist Julian Vaughn; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham. You can see video samples of the performers in this post from last Saturday.
Also on Saturday, Latin jazz/salsa band El Caribe Tropical will be staging a reunion gig at Club Viva.
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.)
When commercial radio abandoned smooth jazz as a format a few years back, the audience for the music played on those stations didn't just disappear, and neither did the musicians who played it.
And while St. Louis never had what you'd call a surfeit of live smooth jazz shows, even when the format was at its peak, the limited number of such bookings that previously existed - at the Pageant, at local casinos, and occasionally at other venues like long-departed Finale - has dwindled off in recent years to almost nothing. That would seem to represent a potential business opportunity for someone able to reunite an under-served audience with the musicians they enjoy.
Apparently modeling their St. Louis event on the Music City Jazz Festival, which they've presented for the past two years in Nashville, the company has put together a day-long bill of acts, headed by saxophonist Najee and singer Maysa, and featuring a number of other names familiar to smooth jazz fans.
To help give you an idea of what to expect, today StLJN has compiled videos of all the featured performers. They're presented here in alphabetical order, starting up above with a set from saxophonist Steve Cole and guitarist Nick Colionne, recorded when they teamed up for a gig in May of this year at Pizza Express in London.
After the jump, you can see Maysa performing "Inside My Dream" in May 2016 at the KSBR Birthday Bash Jazz Festival in Mission Viejo, CA.
Next it's guitarist Chieli Minucci with his band Special EFX in 2016 at Long Beach Jazz Fest, delivering a surprisingly faithful version of the Allman Brothers Band's "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed."
That's followed by a full set of Najee, recorded in July 2016 in Riviera Beach, FL; and then a clip of guitarist Steve Oliver doing "Soul Deep" in a performance recorded at the Carvin guitar factory in San Diego.
The veteran duo Pieces of a Dream is next, seen here performing "Fo-Fi-Fo" in October 2016 at the Catalina JazzTrax Festival in California.
Then it's keyboardist Brian Simpson, performing his song "WWonderland" at the 2017 Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival in Spain; guitarist Chris Standring, playing "Oliver's Twist" in February 2017 at Pizza Express; and last, but not least, bassist and Kansas City native Julian Vaughn doing his showcase "Ju Ju's Groove" at a show in May in Houston, TX.
You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...
*Not to be confused with the identically named event presented in recent years over the Labor Day weekend by the St. Louis Jazz Club.
