This October will mark the 20th anniversary of Jazz St. Louis, making it “a good time to look back,” Jazz St. Louis’ President & CEO Gene Dobbs Bradford told The American. But since the 2015-2016 season marks only its second full season in the world-class Harold & Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz, it’s also a time for Jazz St. Louis to look forward.
As for looking back, Bradford said, “A lot of great music came through in the past 20 years – a lot of it by people who are not with us anymore.” He thought immediately of Ray Brown, the bassist who passed in 2002, and James Moody, the saxophonist who passed in 2010.
“This was the music that created bebop,” Bradford said – and those creators are gone.
However, Jazz St. Louis has not prepared the equivalent of memorial concerts for its anniversary season. Ongoing tributes to the departed are implicit in the programming of today, Bradford said: “It’s a continuum.”
For example, the season opens September 23-26 with the program “Jazz St. Louis @ 20,” featuring Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut, Gregory Hutchinson, Russell Malone, Terell Stafford and Tim Warfield.
“When we started off, these were the up-and-comers, still learning from the old guard. Christian studied with Ray Brown,” Bradford said. “So the old guys who are gone passed it on. And now these guys have grown into the statesmen. They are taking on the role of mentoring the next generation of musicians.”
Members of that “next generation” appearing with Jazz St. Louis next season, Bradford said, include trumpeter Sean Jones (recording a live album December 2-5), multi-instrumentalist Warren Wolf (January 20-23, 2016) and Chilean-born tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana (April 27-30, 2016).
“These guys are not as well known,” Bradford said. “Now they’re the up-and-comers.”
The new season also provides a “continuum” to the past in reviving the piano trio, a performance context favored by Barbara Rose, the late founder of Jazz St. Louis. The new “Barbara Rose Series” features the Monty Alexander Trio (September 9-10), Karrin Allyson sings Rodgers & Hammerstein (November 11-12) and the Kenny Barron Trio (April 6-7, 2016).
“The season before I first booked Jazz at the Bistro, 17 of the 18 concerts were piano trios,” Bradford said. “There wasn’t a horn in the bunch. Now we have one or two piano trios per season, so it’s kind of reversed. But it’s important for us not to forget where we came from.”
As for where they are going, Bradford is ambitious, buoyed by the Harold & Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz and the Ferring Jazz Bistro, which Bradford argues is “one of the five best jazz rooms in the world.”
“The new facility will help us take the organization to the next level,” Bradford said, “and establish St. Louis as the center of jazz in the Midwest – and, eventually, the country.”
To do that, needless to say, St. Louis would have to surpass some jazz giants, such as Chicago and New York. Bradford is starting the ascent slowly by adding more programming, with concerts planned for Wednesday through Saturday with a Sunday Jazz Brunch, every week starting in September. In recent years, Jazz St. Louis alternated weeks with Wednesday through Saturday shows, followed by regional artists playing only the next Friday and Saturday.
“That means something is going on in the Bistro five days out of every week,” Bradford said.
St. Louis is showing that it wants more live jazz. This past season, the first in the new facility, both ticket revenue and subscription sales shot up by more than 50 percent.
“Whereas before we had to apologize to people, a little bit, about the space, now the environment is up to the level of the music being played there,” Bradford said.
In fact, even in the improved and expanded space, with 220 seats instead of the previous capacity of 155, he said, “We’re still selling out shows” – still turning away people who want to see live jazz in St Louis.
Yellowjackets (October 7-10), Poncho Sanchez (November 4-7) and David Sanborn (April 13-16, 2016) are among the marquee names likely to sell out the Ferring Bistro this season. But in collaborations with New Music Circle (such as The Bad Plus, January 6-9) and other edgier bookings, Jazz St. Louis is willing to risk a few less crowded rooms to challenge its audience.
“If everybody likes everything we put on, we’re not doing a very good job,” Bradford said. “We want music that makes a strong statement, and if you’re making a strong statement, you’re going to rub someone the wrong way.”
Jazz St. Louis subscription packages are on sale now at jazzstl.org or 314-571-6000 and individual tickets go on sale beginning August 19.
