So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's weekly wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony, the seven-CD set drawn from the archives of saxophonist and Black Artists Group co-founder Julius Hemphill and released earlier this year, is the subject of a short feature/review for Jazz Times by Ted Panken.

* Trumpeter and East St. Louis native Russell Gunn, now based in Atlanta, has released the second recording from his band The Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra. Titled The Sirius Mystery opus 4 no. 1, the album is out today via Ropeadope Records on all digital platforms, plus limited editions on CD and vinyl LP.

* Bassist Damon Smith, a recent transplant to St. Louis, also has a new recording, Houston 2012, out this week on digital and as a double CD. The album teams Smith with guitarists Keith Rowe and Sandy Ewen and the ensemble Gooseberry Marmalade.

* And speaking of new releases, a Miles Davis performance recorded in 1991 at La Villette in Paris, France will be released as The Lost Concert on digital services and as a two-CD set on Wednesday, September 29, the 30th anniversary of his death. The album (pictured) is the third in a series from Sleepy Night Records that started with Miles Davis: The Lost Quintet and continued with The Lost Septet, both released last year.

The Lost Concert is particularly noteworthy because Davis' then-current band was augmented for the date by numerous guest stars and former sidemen, including Chick Corea, Al Foster, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Darryl Jones, John McLaughlin, Jackie McLean, John Scofield, and Joe Zawinul.

* Gene Dobbs Bradford of Jazz St. Louis was interviewed about the organization's upcoming 2021-22 season by the St. Louis American's Danielle Brown.

* One of St. Louis' most acclaimed young talents is leaving town, as singer and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo this week announced in a Facebook post, "I have accepted a job as an audio engineer at a media group in Los Angeles. I’ll be driving from STL to LA this weekend." Saputo will play what she's calling her final show as a St. Louis resident tonight at Tower Grove Park (though she also is on the bill for the Music at the Intersection festival in September).

Recently on Heliocentric Worlds

It's the start of another new month, which means it's time once again to check in on StLJN's sibling site Heliocentric Worlds, where each day there's a new online music video posted, 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:

Airto Moreira & Flora Purim - Live in California
Eddie Fisher - "Cosmic Blues"
Otis Rush and Friends - Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Aretha Franklin - "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Linda May Han Oh Quartet - Live at Bimhuis

Other recent posts have featured performances on video by Bud Powell, Clark Terry & Friends, Joe Ely, The Doobie Brothers, Blondie, The Great Guitars, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Joe Pass, Delbert McClinton, Yusef Lateef Quartet, Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Jamiroquai, Bill Frisell Trio, Blue Öyster Cult, Linda Ronstadt, Rickie Lee Jones, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Little Milton, Stan Getz, Freddie King, Fourplay, The Crusaders, Jon Hassell, James Carter Organ Trio, and NRBQ.

If you've missed out on all this up until now, it's OK - you still can see all of these videos, plus thousands more from the archives, by going to https://heliocentricworlds.blogspot.com/.

Sunday Session: August 1, 2021

Billie Holiday

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* Charles Mingus: An Essential Top Ten Albums (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Laura Nyro: the phenomenal singers’ singer the 60s overlooked (The Guardian)
* Buddy Guy: “When you pick up a guitar, you have something of your own even if you don’t realize it” (Guitar World)
* The United States vs. Billie Holiday vs. the Truth (Jazz Times)
* Fire Music Documentary to See National Release (Jazz Times)
* Ryan Adams, Shunned by the Music Business and ‘Scared,’ Pleads for Labels to Rescue His Career (Variety)
* This Is Your Brain On Vinyl, and Other Tales From Obsessive Collecting in the Pandemic (Jezebel.com)
* BREAKING NEWS: Three major music venues in New Orleans will require vaccination cards or negative Covid tests for entry (Offbeat)
* John Pizzarelli’s Ode to Pat Metheny (DownBeat)
* Dee Dee Bridgewater Returns to Rome (DownBeat)
* Low Fidelity: Vintage Vinyl and The Precarious State of the Indie Record Store (DecibelMagazine.com)
* Jim Keltner: A Before & After Listening Session (Jazz Times)
* Blues guitar legend Buddy Guy looks back on a special career (Associated Press)
* Fred Rzewski’s Classical Call To Arms (Bandcamp.com)
* (Back) In The Club: Jazz United Considers the Return of Live Concerts (WBGO)
* A Beginner’s Guide to Frank Zappa (Guitar Player)
* A Guide to the Late Recordings of Experimental Vocalist Linda Sharrock (Bandcamp.com)
* Do You Hear What I See? (New Music Box)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Happy birthday, David Sanborn!

Today, we interrupt our look at this year's poll-winning musicians begun last week to celebrate the birthday of a local favorite, saxophonist David Sanborn, who turned 76 years old yesterday.

Although he was born in Florida, Sanborn grew up and went to school in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, and after 50 years in the music business, he ranks with Miles Davis and Clark Terry as one of the best-known and most successful jazz musicians to come from this area.

So today, as a birthday tribute, here's a collection of clips looking back at various phases in his storied career. Each video is a full show featuring Sanborn with a different lineup of musicians, presented in chronological order starting up above with a performance recorded in 1986 in Baden-Baden, Germany for the TV program Ohne Filter. The band includes the saxophonist's longtime associates, the late Hiram Bullock on guitar and Ricky Peterson on keyboards, along with bassist Steve Logan, drummer Tony Smith, and percussionist Steve Scales. (Since the complete performance video seems to have disappeared from YouTube, there's a playlist of individual tracks now in its place.)

After the jump, you can see Sanborn's complete set recorded in August, 1998 at the Newport Jazz Festival. That's followed by a performance recorded in December of '98 for broadcast on ABC in the early hours of New Year's Day 1999, featuring Sanborn and his band along with guest performers including singers Cassandra Wilson and D'Angelo, hip-hop duo Gang Starr, and guitarist and singer Eric Clapton.

The fourth video features Sanborn with organist Joey DeFrancesco, with whom he made a couple of records around this time, and drummer Gene Lake, serving up a bluesy, stripped-down set at the 2010 Jazzwoche Burghausen festival in Germany.

Next, it's a show from Sanborn's 2013 "Quartette Humaine" tour, co-led with pianist Bob James and also featuring drummer Steve Gadd and bassist Scott Colley, that was recorded in November at the Leverkusener Jazztage festival in Germany.

Last but not least, you can see a full show from the 2015 edition of Sanborn's touring band, recorded in April of that year in Budapest, Hungary. Along with Sanborn and Ricky Peterson, the group features guitarist Nicky Moroch, bassist Andre Berry and drummer Chris Coleman, with German saxophonist Jan Prax sitting in on a couple of tunes.

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

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's weekly wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Trumpeter Keyon Harrold (pictured) spoke about his new role as creative advisor to Jazz St. Louis in a brief interview with Amanda Woytus of St. Louis magazine.

* Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the documentary film about the trumpeter that was released earlier this year, has been nominated for two Emmy awards, for "Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary" and "Outstanding Sound."

* And speaking of Davis, comedian and actor Alonzo Bodden this week was a guest on the podcast The 500, talking about his love for Davis' album Sketches of Spain.

* St. Louis Music Park, the new 4,500-seat outdoor concert venue in Maryland Heights, is the subject of a feature story from the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

Brian Culbertson to perform Sunday, November 21 at The Pageant

Multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson will return to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Sunday, November 21 at The Pageant.

Culbertson (pictured) has a new album, The Trilogy: Red, set for release in September. He had been scheduled to perform at The Pageant in May 2020 as part of the tour supporting his then-most-recent album, 2020's XX, but the concert was postponed due to the COVID pandemic. Before that, his last St. Louis appearance was in September 2019 as part of the "Smooth Jazz Cruise on Land" at Chesterfield Amphitheater.

Tickets for Brian Culbertson at The Pageant start at $49.50, and will go on sale at 10 a.m. this Friday, July 30 via Ticketmaster and The Pageant box office.

Sunday Session: July 25, 2021

Terri Lyne Carrington

Here's this week's roundup of various music-related items of interest:

* The Strange Magic Of YouTube's '80s Remix Culture (NPR)
* Meet Terri Lyne Carrington (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Summer of Soul review – the best concert film ever made? (The Guardian)
* What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies? (The Atlantic)
* The Sounds of Healing (ReasonsToBeCheerful.world)
* Pressing issues: vinyl revival held back by production capacity, Brexit and more (The Guardian)
* NEA Names Its 2022 Jazz Masters: Hart, Clarke, Wilson And Harrison (NPR)
* Billy Gibbons: storyteller, hot sauce merchant, lover of public transport (LouderSound.com)
* A Guide to the Early Music of John Coltrane on Prestige Records (Bandcamp.com)
* Are You Relivin’ the Years?: How Steely Dan Became a Cult Favorite for Millennials (TheRinger.com)
* The Essential Herbie Hancock (San Francisco Classical Voice)
* Thelonious Monk Estate Says Biopic Starring Yasiin Bey Is Unauthorized (Pitchfork.com)
* Yasiin Bey says he won’t play jazz legend Thelonious Monk in biopic since family disapproves (NME.com)
* Jazz Night's Favorite Grooves Of 2021, So Far (NPR)
* Funkadelic's 'Maggot Brain' At 50: R&B, Psychedelic Rock And A Black Guitarist's Cry (NPR)
* ‘My strength isn’t looking at a computer screen. I wouldn’t join the music business today, because I don’t want to be a typist.’ (MusicBusinessWorldwide.com)
* From Soldier to Jazz Giant: The Life of Billy Bang (Bandcamp.com)
* Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Reflects On Leaving – And Sharing – '622' (NPR)
* The greatest keyboard players of all time, revealed (MusicRadar.com)
* Monterey Jazz Festival Quickly Sells Out Despite No Vaccination Requirements (DigitalMusicNews.com)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Critics Poll winners in concert

The most recent issue of DownBeat contains the results of the magazine's annual Critics Poll, and while it's never a good idea to take any such poll too seriously, they at least can offer a snapshot of who's making news in a given year, and provide some food for thought and/or discussion.

Today's post offers a look at live performances from some of this year's winners, starting up above with Charles Lloyd, who was the top tenor saxophonist in this year's DB poll, and his band the Marvels, featuring guitarist Bill Frisell, who were voted top jazz group. They're seen here in a full set from January 2016 at Lincoln Center in NYC.

After the jump, you can see Rudresh Mahanthappa, this year's winner in the alto sax category, in a video from June 2020 with his Hero Trio, playing Charlie Parker's "Red Cross.".

Next up, it's the poll-winning soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, improvising to the poetry of Emily Dickinson in an April 2018 gig at Yamaha Artist Services' studio in New York City.

That's followed by a set from Gary Smulyan, voted top baritone saxophonist and seen here with his trio in a full set from 2017.

Nicole Mitchell, this year's top vote-getter in the flute category, is next, with a set of music recorded in July 2019 in Orlando, FL backed by bassist Doug Matthews and drummer Anthony Cole.

The final video shows Michael Dease, this year's winning trombonist, in May 2018 at Smalls in New York City, fronting his sextet on a tune called "Dease's Blues."

Look for more of this year's poll winners next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...