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:
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.
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...
* The deadline for applications for Regional Arts Commission's Artist Support Grants for this year is Thursday, October 12. RAC is presenting a free workshop on how to apply on Monday, October 2; for more on that, and details on the grant program, go to https://racstl.org/grant/artists-support-grants/.
* Composer and flute player Fred Tompkins is offering free downloadable and streamable music, both previously unreleased and from his back catalog, via a new Bandcamp page.
* The Gateway Jazz Festival, a day-long smooth jazz event that debuted this July at Chesterfield Amphitheater, has announced a date for 2018. The fest will return for a second year on Saturday, July 21, 2018, and discounted "early bird" tickets are on sale now at http://www.gatewayjazzfest.com/.
* The Riverfront Times' annual "Best of St. Louis" issue is out this week, and the winners in the annual Readers' Choice poll include the Broadway Oyster Bar for "Best Restaurant" and Record Exchange for "Best Record Store". You can see all the results of the RFT's Readers Choice poll here.
The Wee Trio, featuring bassist and St. Louis native Dan Loomis, will return to the St. Louis area to perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 17 at SIU Edwardsville's Dunham Hall.
The performance is part of SIUE's "Arts & Issues" serie, and the SIU Edwardsville jazz faculty ensemble will open the show.
The Wee Trio (pictured) last appeared in St. Louis in November 2016 in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, supporting the release of their most recent album Wee + 3.
Tickets for The Wee Trio at SIU Edwardsville are $20 for the general public; $18 for seniors age 65 or older and for SIUE staff, faculty, retirees, and alumni; $15 for students with ID; and are on sale now.
Trumpeter Jim Manley has a new album, Funk Factory 2, out this month.
The prolific trumpeter's 15th release as a leader, Funk Factory 2 is, as the title suggests, the sequel to Manley's 2015 recording Funk Factory.
It features 12 original tunes in a upbeat, contemporary jazz style similar to its predecessor, as performed by Manley, guitarist Jeff Snider, and keyboardist Chris Swan.
Funk Factory 2 is available now on all the major streaming services and online music retailers, and as a physical CD from CD Baby. You can hear the title track in the embedded player below.
This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music events in St. Louis features a little cabaret, a little tap-dancing, a tribute to one of the most influential drummers and bandleaders in jazz, and more. Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, September 27 Singer and actor Kyle Dean Massey, a Missouri State University graduate who's appeared on Broadway and in ABC-TV's show Nashville, performs a cabaret-style show for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.
Also on Wednesday, violinist Alex Cunningham performs music from his latest release atop a bill of experimental and improvisational musicians at Foam.
Friday, September 29 Montez Coleman, saxophonist Ben Reece, trumpeter Danny Campbell, bassist Bob DeBoo and pianist Adam Maness will join forces at Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of "The Art of Blakey," paying tribute to the hard bop sound of the legendary drummer/bandleader and his Jazz Messengers.
Saturday, September 30 Dance St. Louis kicks off its 2017-18 season with the first of two performances of "TAP Dynamics" at the Grandel Theatre. The show features dancers Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and Derick K. Grant performing with a live jazz trio - music director and drummer Allison Miller(pictured, top left), pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Noah Garabedian - playing original music and "favorite selections from Miles Davis." The program repeats on Sunday afternoon.
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.)
