The weekend’s shows feature the top two performing ensembles in the JazzU program, which includes the premiere group, the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars. Special guest artist Sean Jones, who will be holding clinics with the two groups on Friday, May 3, will also perform with the students during a portion of the shows.

Jazz St. Louis All-Stars

(performing Friday, May 3 at 9:30pm & Saturday, May 4 at 7:30pm)

Kevin Baudrexl, bass – Lindbergh HS

Zachary Morrow, drums – University City HS

Zach Arias, guitar – Maplewood-Richmond Heights HS

Khamali Moore – Metro HS

Matthew Leininger, tenor sax – Lindbergh HS

Kevin Killeen, trombone – Webster Groves HS

JazzU Group

(performing Friday, May 3 at 7:30pm & Saturday, May 4 at 9:30pm)

Nathan Pence, bass – St. John Vianney HS

Eric Grumke, drums – Webster Groves HS

Benjamin Steger, trumpet – Webster Groves HS

Tara Bray, alto sax – Webster Groves HS

Dylan Bond, tenor sax – John F. Hodge HS

Calahan Hempe, trombone – Lindbergh HS

Upcoming Shows

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On Sunday, March 18, 2012 jazz legend, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, and Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Herbie Hancock, sent out a call from the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center stage to the St. Louis community to join him in celebrating the first-ever “International Jazz Day” on April 30.

Charged with leading the St. Louis region in advancing the uniquely American art of jazz, Jazz St. Louis heeded Hancock’s call and hosted a wildly popular jazz jam session to celebrate the newly-minted music holiday.  Jazz St. Louis welcomed scores of amateur and professional musicians as well as musicians from as far away as Chicago to the Jazz at the Bistro stage.

“Our first International Jazz Day Jam Session was met with incredible reception,” said Jazz St. Louis executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford. “The musicianship and collaboration realized that night on the Bistro stage was inspiring and unparalleled.  We look forward to welcoming jazz musicians, and the community at-large, back to the Bistro to celebrate America’s music and its diplomatic role in uniting people of all socio-economic means in all corners of the globe.”

Jazz St. Louis presents its second annual “International Jazz Day Jam Session” on Tuesday, April 30 from 7:30–10:30 p.m. at Jazz at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Avenue.  Admission is free for patrons and musicians but seating is limited.  The session will be hosted by Adaron “Pops” Jackson’s trio.  Musicians wishing to participate in the jam session are encouraged to sign-up at the Bistro beginning at 7 p.m.  The Bistro will offer bar service and a limited menu. For more information, please call Devin Rodino, Jazz St. Louis communications and operations manager at 314-289-4030.

For more information on International Jazz Day visit www.jazzday.com.

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“This annual celebration of education and performance is the only festival of its kind in St. Louis,” said Jim Widner, director of the Jazz Studies program at UMSL and artistic director of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. “That is because in addition to celebrating professional jazz musicians in our headline concert performances, we focus on nurturing the talent of young musicians with jazz student performances and clinics.”

The goal of the festival is to encourage the musical education and growth of the 800 participating students by interaction with internationally acclaimed jazz artists. These students perform on the same stages as the biggest names in professional jazz.

“Jazz St. Louis is proud to once again partner with UMSL and the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival,” said Gene Dobbs Bradford, executive director of Jazz St. Louis. “We all share a strong commitment to providing excellent educational opportunities for young people.  In addition, the festival allows us to share some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians with our community.”

The big jazz performances in 2013 begin with Anat Cohen and Matt Wilson at Jazz at The Bistro on Thursday and continue at the Touhill with Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour and Doc Severinsen and His Big Band on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Both concerts at the Touhill feature opening-act performances by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

2013  FESTIVAL  HEADLINERS:

Thursday, April 18:

Virtuosic reed artist Anat Cohen and New York-based drummer and Grammy-nominee Matt Wilson open the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. Jazz St. Louis presents two shows on Thursday, April 18, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at Jazz at the Bistro.

Cohen, who will be playing both clarinet and tenor saxophone says, “The music we perform…comes from the jazz tradition, but it’s very playful – we have fun with sounds and melodies, following our instincts, without over-analyzing. Matt Wilson is like a kid onstage, and that’s what I like to be – it’s great to have a partner in crime like him. Matt gets these incredible sounds from the drums…”

Tickets are $32 and are available through the Jazz St. Louis Box Office at 314-289-4030, MetroTix at 314-534-1111, or online at www.metrotix.com.

Friday, April 19:

Jazz St. Louis presents the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55^th Anniversary Celebration on Friday, April 19, at the Touhill. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall with an opening set by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

Featuring critically acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning jazz artists, this all-star band consists of bassist and musical director Christian McBride, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Benny Green and drummer Lewis Nash. Embracing the past, present, and future of jazz, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour will perform an assortment of classic jazz repertoire as well as original compositions.

The Monterey Jazz Festival, the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world, has presented nearly every major jazz star—from  Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong to Esperanza Spalding and Trombone Shorty—since it was founded in 1958.

Tickets for Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour, sponsored by Worldwide Technology, Inc., are $35, or $75 for VIP tickets which include a backstage post-concert reception to which the musicians have been invited. They are available through the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office, online at www.touhill.org, or by phone at 314-516-4949.

Saturday, April 20:

Doc Severinsen and His Big Band will close out this exciting weekend of jazz on Saturday, April 20, at the Touhill.  The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall with an opening set by the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by Jim Widner.

“The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson bandleader Doc Severinsen is best known as the legendary horn player who welcomed millions of viewers with the familiar theme song for nearly three decades.  The Doc Severinsen repertoire includes Ellington and Basie standards, pop, jazz, ballads, big band classics and, of course, “The Tonight Show” theme. Severinsen can blow the roof off with a trumpet solo, and his band members get their well-deserved turns in the spotlight.

Tickets are $35. They are available through the Touhill Performing Arts Center Ticket Office, online at www.touhill.org, or by phone at 314-516-4949.

About the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival:

The goal of the four-day festival is to encourage the musical education and growth of the participating students by interacting with internationally acclaimed jazz artists.  Now in its 10^th year, the festival has grown to accommodate as many as 800 students from more than 30 schools from across Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Texas. For two days, students participate in adjudicated performances and clinics. The clinics include one-on-one sessions and critique from jazz’s finest. In past years, budding musicians learned from such jazz greats as Clark Terry, Lou Marini, John Pizzarelli, Ron Carter, Russell Malone, Marilyn Maye, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Buddy DeFranco, Tom Scott, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Conrad Herwig, Shelly Berg, Peter Erskine, Chris Vadala, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and many others. Daytime performances and artist clinics are free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.touhill.org/jazzfestival.

This video, which was shown at the 2013 Jazz St. Louis Gala “Hot Sax, Cool Night,” was generously produced by 2013 Gala Co-Chair Josephine Weil.

Auditions will take place June 3-6, between 4 and 9 pm on the 4th floor of the Centene Center for Arts and Education, located at 3547 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103.

Important Dates/Deadlines

Application Deadline
applications must be postmarked by Friday, May 3, 2013. Once the application materials have been received, students will be assigned an audition time on the date which corresponds with the applicant’s instrument (see below). Audition times will be sent via standard US mail.

Auditions
Monday, June 3 – saxophones
Tuesday, June 4 – trumpets and trombones
Wednesday, June 5 – rhythm section
Thursday, June 6 – rhythm section

Audition Results
Results of the auditions will be announced during the first part of July.

Application Materials and Resources

You can download the 2013-14 JazzU application by clicking HERE.

The application is an editable .pdf. You can type directly into the application and sign electronically (you must save the application to your desktop before you can type into the fields). Applications and answers to questions can be submitted via email to phil@jazzstl.org or mailed to the address listed on the application. The teacher recommendation (for NEW students only) can be sent separately, via standard US mail.

Audition Tunes
Below are lead sheets in concert pitch for each audition tune. Only pick one from each category and REMEMBER, they are in concert pitch, which means that you will have to transpose if you do not play a concert-pitched instrument. Also listed with each tune is a suggested reference recording. Use the reference recording to help learn the tunes, phrase the melody, and improvise.

BLUES
All of the blues melodies are on one sheet and can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

Now’s the Time, Charlie Parker, The Essential Charlie Parker
C-Jam Blues, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, The Great Summit (recorded as “Duke’s Place)
Sonnymoon for Two, Sonny Rollins, A Night at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 2

STANDARDS
All the Things You Are, Johnny Griffin, A Blowin’ Session
Autumn Leaves, Cannonball Adderly, Something Else
Beautiful Love, Bill Evans, The Best of Bill Evans on Victor Verve

LATIN
Black Orpheus, Black Orpheus, The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Blue Bossa, Joe Henderson, Page One
Song for my Father, Horace Silver, Song for My Father
St. Thomas, Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus

Questions can be directed to Phil Dunlap, Director of Education at phil@jazzstl.org or 314.289.4033.

Get Hip! illuminates some of the music’s cultural origins, the concept of improvisation, and the function and responsibility of each individual member of the jazz ensemble. This free family concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, presented by PNC Arts Alive, is the perfect way to introduce kids of all ages to the great American art form known as jazz while simultaneously learning about core values like responsibility and leadership. Don’t miss the instrument “petting zoo” and face painters in the lobby starting one hour before the show! No ticket required.

Presented by

with support from

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Christian McBride, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chris Potter, Benny Green, Lewis Nash, & Ambose Akinmusire

Part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival

Sponsored by

The Monterey Jazz Festival, the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world, has presented nearly every major jazz star—from  Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong to Esperanza Spalding and Trombone Shorty—since it was founded in 1958. World-renowned for its artistic excellence, sophisticated informality, and longstanding mission to create and support year-round jazz education and performance programs, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary Celebration continues this commitment in 2013 with its third North American Tour. Featuring critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning jazz artists, this all-star band consists of bassist and musical director Christian McBride, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Benny Green, and drummer Lewis Nash. Embracing the past, present, and future of jazz, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary Celebration will perform an assortment of classic jazz repertoire as well as original compositions.

style: straight-ahead / vocal jazz

Upcoming Shows

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It wasn’t easy to choose, but in the end the judges selected 50 students to be members in one of the JazzU program’s seven combos (six high school and one middle school). To find a list of those selected for the 2012-13 JazzU program, click HERE.

For the top talent that auditioned, the distinction of Jazz St. Louis All-Stars was given. This group, which is made up of six very talented high school musicians, represents the best that St. Louis has to offer. These students perform both locally and regionally, representing Jazz St. Louis at many area festivals and events. They also receive their own weekend at Jazz at the Bistro as featured performers on the Spotlight Series. This year’s Jazz St. Louis All-Stars include:

Kevin Baudrexl (bass) – Lindbergh High School, Senior

Zachary Morrow (drums) – University City High School, Senior

Zach Arias (guitar) – Maplewood Richmond Heights High School, Junior

Khamali Moore (trumpet) – Metro High School, Senior

Kevin Killeen (trombone) – Webster Groves High School, Senior

Matthew Leininger (tenor saxophone) – Lindbergh High School, Senior

For more information on the JazzU program, click HERE.

Although extremely fulfilling, Residency weeks are one of the most involved and exhausting aspects of my job as director of education. This program is very unique, and thanks to the generosity of many of our supporters, I am able to do three each season, the last of which was this past week with Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts (A&C). In all, more than 1,000 students and teachers participated in the week’s activities.

The band arrived in St. Louis after midnight on the morning of March 19. Earlier in the evening they had performed two sets at Murry’s in Columbia, MO as part of the We Always Swing series.  I, along with the rest of the JSL staff, had just finished at the Touhill Performing Arts Center where we presented Herbie Hancock earlier in the evening. Needless to say, neither myself, nor the members of A&C, were particularly looking forward to the 8:30 am breakfast/meeting that was just around the corner to kick off the week.

We started that morning with a rather disappointing experience at the Soulard Coffee Garden, then hit the road for our first school visit at East St. Louis Senior High. It is difficult to prepare guys for their experience at ESL because the band is so good. There aren’t many students in this age bracket that sound this mature. Heck, there aren’t a lot of adults in the area that can play this well. Despite their talent, there will always be ways to improve, and having musicians of the stature of A&C for two hours is a rare treat for ANY high school. This means that instead of having to spend time working on notes, individuals’ sounds, time, feel, etc… the guys were able to address higher-level concepts, such as the group’s concept of sound, how the lead trumpet and soloists fit with the drummer’s ride cymbal pattern, and how each section’s lead player shapes the overall concept and feel of the section. Matt’s comment after the session was “Wow. What a way to start the week!”

After a break, the band worked with four of our JazzU combos in a four-hour teaching marathon (Monday is always one of the busier days of the residency). Our youngest combo worked with Wilson and pianist Gary Versace on the creative process, composing a piece on the spot that involved contributions from all of the students. The point being that sometimes we think so much about how and what to play in jazz that we can’t forget how fundamental and fun the creative process can be. It can even be collaborative! I walked in on the middle of the tune to find all the students involved, and what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphics scrawled out over every inch of the white board. Matt was wildly pointing to different sections, directing the ensemble to play, then pointing to students to improvise. At the conclusion, Wilson, searching for a name for the piece, looked out the window. After seeing the blue lights of The Fieldhouse across the street, he exclaimed, “we’ll call it ‘Blue Light Fieldhouse’!” I still have that melody stuck in my head…

Meanwhile, the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars were getting put through the ringer by Terell and Martin.  The details are too gory to divulge, but the educational content was high and just what they needed.

We ended the evening at 8 pm and headed to find some much-needed nourishment, which we found in the form of Pi Pizzeria in the Central West End. This place never disappoints and the guys in A&C were blown away. I highly recommend the North Beach Classico and the Central West End.

Tuesday was another early morning, departing for Seckman High School at 8 am. At Seckman, A&C worked with all three of their jazz bands. We found an amazing amount of talent in that district. In between sessions, I watched as Matt rummaged through the band room, finding all sorts of percussion instruments and noise makers. His concept and pursuit of sound amazes me.  To him, anything can be a musical instrument.

After a great lunch at Blues City Deli, we headed to the University of Missouri – St. Louis, where Terell and Gary worked with Jim Widner’s jazz ensemble. At the same time, Martin and Matt visited my jazz appreciation class where they played for my students. They discussed the evolution of rhythm as seen in the transition between New Orleans jazz – swing – bebop.

We ended the day with two more JazzU classes…not sure where dinner was that night.

Wednesday began with a morning performance at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in the Child Life Playroom. These performances can be tough, as some of the children that attend have potentially terminal illnesses. Afterward, Terell Stafford said, “this was the most rewarding musical experience of my life.” It doesn’t matter what troubles you encounter in life, when you see a child fighting for their life, it makes all other problems seem so insignificant.

The day concluded with a session at Normandy High School led by Terell Stafford and our final JazzU group led by the remaining members of A&C.

That evening, Martin and Gary decided to catch the NY Knick’s game, Matt attended a play at the Rep with his brother, and Terell joined myself and Adaron Jackson (JazzU instructor) for an unbelievable dinner at Niche.

Thursday was a marathon day. We began with a morning performance at ESL Lincoln Middle School where many of the students had never heard jazz or even met a professional musician.  We continued a world away to the suburb of Webster Groves, where the band worked with three jazz combos under the direction of their band director, Kevin Cole. The students, which had just returned the night before from a trip to Ireland, were groggy, but eager to learn from the master musicians of A&C.

A short drive led us to our next session at Webster University and then to the Benton Park neighborhood where the group finished the day with an incredible, free community performance at Saxquest. There, more than 50 eager listeners packed the house to experience jazz surrounded by new and vintage saxophones. The guys even took a few minutes to check out their amazing saxophone museum located on the second floor.

The amazing energy continued after the performance with dinner at Brasserie. An amazing meal, surrounded by equally amazing individuals. It was clear that the love and honesty these guys emit from the stage is reflected in their general being.

The week was quickly wrapping up. It was already Friday morning! We ventured to the ‘burbs this time, where the group played for nearly 200 students at St. Charles High School. The energy was infectious. Matt even had students join the band on stage where they acted out a scene as aliens that were charged with traveling to earth to learn about jazz, return to their native world, and perform a jazz concert. The experience added humor to the concert while teaching the students to approach their instruments in completely different ways. After the concert, I received an email from the band director:

“Please pass my thanks on to Matt, Terell, Gary, and Martin. I was so inspired both as a musician and an educator. I was moved by their music and their approach to musical creation was inspiring. We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to welcome them into our musical community at SCHS. My students learned more today than they will ever know. Thank you all so much for sharing your music with us today!”

This is why I love my job.

Saturday was our final activity with the band. From 9 am – noon, all of our JazzU students (55 in all) came together to experience these musicians one final time before their residency ended.  This session was different from others in that we were joined by two jazz bands from the Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Photo by Kent Phelan

After a short mixer, A&C began with a tune and opened the floor for questions. We then broke into instrument groups for an hour-long master class. Rhythm instruments worked with Matt, Gary, and Martin; Terell Stafford took the trumpets; JazzU instructor, Cody Henry worked with the trombones; and JazzU instructors Aaron Lehde and Andy Ament worked with the saxophones.  We finished the Saturday Session (and the week) with an epic jam session that consisted of a 45-minute version of “C-Jam Blues.”  Although considered a “rally” by anyone’s definition, the jam session illustrated many positive aspects of jazz—the best being that two separate groups of people, who until that morning had never met, can come together through the playing of a simple tune like “C-Jam Blues.”

A&C finished up the day with their final performance at Jazz at the Bistro, thus, ending their stint in St. Louis.

This leads me back to the beginning.  Sunday morning.  No musicians, no activities scheduled.  Just a book, brunch, and some much needed rest.