Results for "AAJ Staff"

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society

February 16, 2014

This week, let's get better acquainted with Joshua Abrams, the Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist whose group Natural Information Society will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 22 at Joe's Cafe, the gallery and “house concert" venue at 6014 Kingsbury Ave in the Central West End. As a bassist, Abrams ...

Sid Caesar, 1922-2014

February 15, 2014

The Lead Sheet: Twin Cities Live Jazz, February 14-20

February 15, 2014

This week, there jazz for Valentine's Day, jazz to celebrate a new label collective, and of course the usual jazz that celebrates creative collaboration. Although we have a few months to wait, we can also celebrate the announcement of the 2014 Twin Cities Jazz Festival headliners — Dianne Reeves, Branford Marsalis, Joe Krown and the 2013 ...

Jazz This Week: Terence Blanchard, Erin Bode, Valentine's Day Jazz Around Town, and More

February 14, 2014

With a slight warmup in the weather coinciding with  Valentine's Day, it should be a good weekend in St. Louis to get out and celebrate your love of live jazz and creative music. Let's see what's happening around town over the next few days... Tonight, pianist Kara Baldus will play solo in a free concert for ...

Documentary: Sly Stone

February 13, 2014

Starting in 1967, Sly Stone combined raucous funk and rock and transformed the direction of several forms of music, including jazz. Miles Davis was influenced by Stone, right down to his glittery jump suits. So were the Ohio Players, George Clinton, Kool and the Gang and so many other soul-funk bands of the '70s. But who ...

Passings: Alice Babs, Dick Berk

February 12, 2014

Alice Babs, the Swedish singer whom Duke Ellington once called “probably the most unique artist I know,” died today in her native Sweden. She was 90. Her breakthrough came in 1940 in the Swedishfilm Swing it magistern (Swing It, Teacher!) She went on to make her name in stage, motion picture and television work, singing in ...

7 CD Discoveries of the Week

February 12, 2014

A wide range of music hauled up from this week's CD net—from soul and pop to jazz and Latin... When Aretha Franklin was signed to Columbia Records in 1960, she was positioned as Ella Fitzgerald's successor, the new queen of pop. In fact, she was quite different—earthier, girlish and of her times. Not until Franklin was ...

Kimberly Thompson to Drum with House Band for NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers

February 11, 2014

Former St. Louisan Kimberly Thompson has been chosen to fill the drum chair in the house band for NBC's Late Night With Seth Meyers. Known as The 8G Band (after the studio where the show will be taped), the group will perform on the program Monday through Friday starting on Monday, February 24, when Meyers, former ...

Duffy Jackson: Big Band Drummer

February 11, 2014

Virtually every photo taken of Chubby Jackson shows the bassist smiling or laughing. In the 1940s and '50s, Jackson played in Woody Herman's band starting in 1943 and remained intermittently through the 1970s, leading his own bands and small groups along the way. Chubby was known for his on-stage exuberance and keeping bandmembers' spirits high. His ...

Richard McDonnell 1946 - 2014

February 10, 2014

Richard “Rich" McDonnell, the former investment banker who founded and ran the independent St. Louis-based label MAXJAZZ, has died. He was 68. Several reports from friends on Facebook say that McDonnell had a stroke on Friday night while watching Houston Person and the Bill Charlap trio at Jazz at the Bistro, where he was a subscriber ...