Friday, May 26, 2017

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Attention donut lovers: The pastry devotees and baked-goods aficionados at Jazz St. Louis will celebrate National Donut Day once again this year with a morning of festivities at Jazz at the Bistro.

The free, public event, scheduled for 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 2, will feature free donuts from 14 local shops, plus complementary beverages, live music from students in JSL's JazzU program, a "Best Donut" competition, activities for kids, and more.

* Speaking of the Bistro, thanks to radio station WBGO,  you can get a first listen to trumpeter Sean Jones' new "live" album on Mack Avenue Records, which was recorded last year at the club.

* A crew from the Japanese documentary TV series Yume No Tourimichi has been in Missouri this month, shooting footage in St. Louis and Sedalia for an upcoming episode about ragtime pianist and composer Scott Joplin.

* And speaking of ragtime, the Goldenrod Showboat - which for 50 years hosted ragtime and vintage jazz festivals while moored on the St. Louis riverfront - finally has been declared beyond all hope by preservationists after recent flooding on the Illinois River where the boat's remains had been stored.

* Today is the 91st anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis, and should you be looking for a thoroughly annotated list of 10 noteworthy Latin jazz interpretations of Davis compositions, it turns out that Chip Boaz of the website Latin Jazz Corner has you covered.

In other Miles-related news, the London Vocal Project last week performed for the first time singer and lyricist Jon Hendricksvocalese version of the Davis/Gil Evans orchestral album Miles Ahead. Hendricks (pictured, with the album's reissue cover) has been working on this project since the late 1960s, and you can read reviews of the London production here and here.

To commemorate the trumpeter's natal day, you also can read a retrospective look at Davis' album E.S.P. from Stereophile's Fred Kaplan, occasioned by the 45th anniversary of its release; listen to the most recent episode of the "Night Lights" program from Indiana public radio station WPIU, which covers "Final Miles," as represented by the trumpeter's late-career recordings for Warner Brothers; and watch StLJN's video tribute to Davis from last Saturday

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