Jazz & Blues Lounge » St_louis

The Song that Started it All for Me

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:00:42 +0000

I was a punk kid who was into Pink Floyd. What I really wanted to do was be on the radio. I thought I was going to be the next Howard Stern or, more likely, the next Steve and Garry (two Chicago radio legends). I had worked at the tiny AM station that my college, Webster University, has created first. It was known as WEBU AM 660 and you could pick pretty much any shift you wanted and play whatever the hell you wanted. This created a scattered program schedule and no one ever listened. It only broadcasted to the dorms across the street. Our motto? “We Rock Two Blocks.”

Then Webster teamed up with a radio station whose license was currently held by the St. Louis Public School system – KSLH. It was on the FM dial, but down at the non-commercial end. The idea was to have some kind of educational use for it, but the school system had lost all intentions of using it. They wanted to sell the license, but they also needed to keep the station on the air in order to benefit from that sale. Webster agreed to take over putting programming on the air while they looked for a buyer. The school had to agree that, during the regular school year, 1 hour a day was set aside for one public school to broadcast on the station.

There was a choice given. The station could broadcast classical music or it could do jazz. With ideas of kids in grade school trying to pronounce classical compsor names, Webster chose jazz. Away went the little AM station and suddenly we had an all-day radio station to program.

I ended up doing afternoon drive. This would turn out to be the pinnnacle of my radio career. I was broadcasting on afternoon drive in a top-ten market in the United States and I got to pick all of my own music. I had to do every week day starting at 2 pm. It was pretty awesome.

I knew nothing about jazz. You could sound like you knew a lot by reading the liner notes and the backs of the albums. Jazz fans want to know who is the main guy playing and then all of the side men. For me, it was a contest with a guy on before me to see who could get away with playing the longest track. I think he ended up winning by playing a Keith Jarrett track that lasted almost a half an hour.

So, I picked out the album of Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” and put on the track you see below, called “All Blues” just because it was nearly ten minutes long. I planned to wander around the radio station, maybe make a phone call, or goof around in some way. I queued up the song and then did my announcing bit and then hit the start button for the turntable. As the tune started to play…I found myself completely unable to movie. I sat there, headphones on, and listened to the entire tune and then wanted to play it again when it was over.

Since then I have been a fan of jazz. I have put “Kind of Blue” on my list of all-time favorite albums of any genre. If people ask me for a jazz album recommendation, that is the one I tell them to listen to.

Below is a clip of Miles playing live with his classic band. This is one of the greatest jazz bands to ever exist on the musical genre. Some of the names you will know, but they were all relatively young and new when Miles found them.

Miles Davis – trumpet
Wayne Shorter – tenor sax
Herbie Hancock – piano
Ron Carter – bass
Tony Williams – drums

Enjoy and I hope the song appeals to you as much as it did for me that one fateful afternoon so many years ago in a college radio station at Webster University in St. Louis.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

The Big Muddy Blues Festival

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:00:08 +0000

Well, I spent time on Friday looking up jazz and blues festival within the 100 mile radius of Chicago. Of course, there are blues and jazz festivals all over the country. I am only one man, however, so I am sticking close to home. I often get to places like St. Louis and Milwaukee, so I included those in my search.

I had originally planned to go through this list and then try to present them to you in order of their dates. Yeah, well, that seems like it will take a lot of time, so I am just going to present them to you, over the next few days and weeks, as I found them. I am going to start with one from St. Louis called the Big Muddy Blues Festival.

There is no denying that St. Louis is a great blues town. It’s really kind of cool how most of your big cities on the Mississippi are big jazz and blues towns. It really shows you how that music started on the banks of that river and people travelled up and down the thing, bringing the music as they went.

The following is from STLBlues.net, which is linked above there:

Festival Information:

612 North Second St.
St. Louis, MO 63102
www.bigmuddyblues.com

Saturday, August 30

Festival Lineup – NOT YET ANNOUNCED
12:00PM to 10:00PM
The 2008 Big Muddy Blues Fest
The Big Muddy Blues fest is a world-class music event. This years Big Muddy promises to be an artistic success, after all, it does showcase that St. Louis sound, with some great national headliners added in! St. Louis is a river city long known for its place on the Blue Highway that stretches from the Delta. A city that is home to a red-hot Blues scene!

When you check out the BigMuddyBlues website above you will see how cool the festival is. There ain’t nothing like blues right on the Mississippi River and in a great town like St. Louis. In fact, over the next few days and weeks you are going to find out that Illinois and the surrounding area is loaded with great blues and jazz music and festivals.

Stay tuned!

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The Best Jazz and Blues Club in St. Louis

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:48:03 +0000

Well, I did some checking out of the various blues and jazz clubs in this fine city of St. Louis. It wasn’t long before I came across what the Riverfront Times readers dubbed the Best Jazz and Blues Clubs in St. Louis for 2007. It’s called BBs Jazz, Blues and Soup.

I love the city of St. Louis for several reasons. It has a rich history, for one. It also has a lot of very old buildings and really cool architecture. It appears that BBs is a club housed in one of those places. It was a hotel, house and even a House of Ill Repute. Yes, why not see your jazz and blues in a former brothel?

Still, just judging from the website, it looks like a very cool place. Check out their live music section HERE. They manage to have live music every night and the cover charge is only between $5 – $10. You really can’t beat that and it seems like the residents of St. Louis agree with that as well.

Don’t think your stomach is going to be left out, however. In fact, BBs also prides itself on its selection of food. You can click HERE and see their entire list. They have everything from appetizers to desserts. I am going to warn any decent pizza lovers away from anything listed as “St. Louis Style Pizza” however. That is, unless you like something that tastes like barbecue sauce on a cracker with really nasty cheese partially melted across the top.

I hope that helps you find at least one central location and destination should you do that tour through the Midwest.

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A Little Change of Scenery

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:48:51 +0000

Hello there faithful readers. I hope you have a great weekend. If you are visiting Chicago this weekend, I hope you have snow-shoes. Chicago got hit with at least a foot of snow last night and into today. Despite this, I did manage to get a flight out of Chicago and to St. Louis to hang with friends and watch the Super Bowl.

So, I will be here for a few days. I did that last year too and posted a few jazz and blues things going on here in the Gateway City. People seemed to enjoy that. One thing is for sure is that St. Louis has a huge heritage in jazz and blues.

I also got a message from a person named Scooter about his album which just came out. I am going to post the information he sent me, via e-mail, about his new album. Check it out. He is sending me a copy and I will give it a listen and tell you what I think. Check out the links below as well for more information.

www.scootermusic.com

myspace.com/sadsalamander

http://cdbaby.com/cd/sadsalamanders

http://www.amazon.com/Cigarettes-Fishnets-Sad-Salamanders/dp/B00127TTHA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1200514149&sr=8-2

We’ve shaken and stirred it, now it’s time for you to lap it up. Retro ‘50s/’60s jazz – modernized a touch so the kids will dig it but vintage enough to make the rest of you dinosaurs dream of better days. The sonic equivalent of a classic Playboy cartoon. Work up a good thirst cuz this baby is gonna satisfy. Like a drunk divorcee perched on the last barstool at Musso & Frank’s. World class solos and vamps by some of the greatest players in the solar system. Or LA.

If you love Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Mel Henke (yeah, go look him up – freakin’ awesome), Henry Mancini, Jackie Gleason, Art Van Damme, or Esquivel, this CD is like they grooved right out of the grave and cut one more track. Hell, this thing has even got a track dedicated to the permanently exotic Sandy Warner, the model for 16 Martin Denny lp covers.

What you got here is an audio homage (try saying that after 4 martinis) to the vintage Playboy cartoons of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Influenced by those cultural revolutionary artists Jack Cole, John Dempsey, Doug Sneyd, Will Elder, Erich Sokol, Harvey Kurtzman, Phil Interlandi, Dan DeCarlo, Bill Ward and Eldon Dedini, these jazzy beats scream of tiki torches, negligees, farmer’s daughters, bachelor pad parties, and a time when stewardesses were hot.

And like a free round of Zombies at Don The Beachcomber’s, we added artwork by Playboy artist Dean Yeagle. Yeah, pick your olives up off the floor, Dean drew us our very own pinup – front and back, baby. Scantily clad and buxom, she’s a huge fan of the Salamanders way of doing things. Smart, hard working and eager to please, she’s the perfect adornment to our cover. Not only that, but she took it upon herself to go ahead and get our logo tattooed on her, well, you just go ahead and look for it. We didn’t even beg her to do it. We begged for lots of other things but not that. She’s such a fan she just went out and did it. We’re urging all females to follow suit. Head on over to your friendly neighborhood ink shop and drop your drawers in solidarity. Check out Dean Yeagle’s work at www.cagedbeagle.com.

Sad Salamanders is made up of some mighty fine players. You’ve got your drums and percussion handled by Rick Latham and MB Gordy. We’re talking groovemeisters who’ve worked with The Doobie Brothers, Edgar Winter, Juice Newton, Chuck Rainey, Pat Travers, Rick Derringer, Bill Withers, & Frank Zappa. Anything brass is impeccably blown by Nick Lane and Steve Crum who’ve hung with Maynard Ferguson, The Who, Chicago, Brian Setzer, The Eels, Tom Jones, & Diana Ross. All flutes, ethnic flutes, wind fx and saxophones are ably fingered by Don Markese, who has graciously played with Neil Diamond, Ray Charles and more damn movie soundtracks than you’d think humanly possible. Accordion licks, runs and squeezing are executed flawlessly by the legendary Frank Marocco who is the most sought after player in the world. His credits are longer than Hugh Hefner’s conquests. Suffice to say Les Baxter, Dave Grusin and Henry Mancini. All guitars, electric & acoustic, ukuleles and whatever the hell else we threw on here, were plucked nimbly by Nick Brown, who has plucked some of the best in town. And finally, those awesome stabs, glisses, runs, vamps and general brilliant keyboard frills are poked and prodded by Ed Martel and Scooter Pietsch. Although anything stunning you hear is definitely Ed. He’s got really big hands and can handle a lot. A freakin’ keyboard genius.

So spark up your Benson & Hedges, make yourselves a toddy, sit back and soak in the moody jazz soundwaves known as Sad Salamanders, vibrating from the stereophonic. Cigarettes and Fishnets. Made for each other.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

A Trip to St. Louis

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:50:58 +0000

So, I have this book that was just published. It’s called “Ghosts of St. Louis: the Lemp Mansion and Other Eerie Tales” and you should buy it if you love real-life ghost stories. You can find it at Amazon.com and other book websites and it’s by Schiffer Publishing.

But anyway… since it is about haunted places in St. Louis, I had to come to St. Louis to try to promote the book. I had a radio station appearance on a morning radio show scheduled along with a book signing at a local bookstore all set up. I have to say, if you are a fan of the blues and jazz, and you live in Chicago or want to visit Chicago, that’s great. However, if you want to expand your horizons, you absolultely cannot forget to visit St. Louis.

St. Louis is the birthplace of Miles Davis, for example. There is Blueberry Hill, the club and restaurant in the area of University City known as The Loop. It is just another city that you cannot swing a dead cat in without hitting a jazz or blues club. In fact, I have to say that St. Louis is a great music town in general. It always has been.

Chuck Berry is from St. Louis. It’s a stop along the Mississippi River and you just know that it’s one of those places where traveling musicians often stopped and got off of riverboats with their guitars and instruments and played to make enough money to eat and then continue their trip down the river. New Orleans may be thought of as a great place for jazz and blues, as is Chicago, but St. Louis certainly cannot be ignored.

I once went to a jazz club here, a small, tiny thing in the heart of the city, and met with a bunch of friends. A jazz bland played in the room next to the one I was sitting in. It was a guy on drums and the leader of the band was sitting there blowing into a long piece of PVC pipe like a diggery-doo (sorry, if I misspelled that to any aboriginal people or Australians). Yes, it’s just that kind of town.

It’s all of 300 miles south, south-west of Chicago. It is a great city loaded with lots and lots of history. There is a walk-0f-fame in U-City. There is music everywhere. There are clubs all over town. Really, you can’t go wrong no matter what you taste in music is here in St. Louis.

I don’t want you to think I am narrow-minded, you know.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge