“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;”>Gloria Taylor can pull together a band with the best of them. The band she assembled for the Institute for the Advancement of Jazz Study & Performance benefit for Sunday, February 19 at The Bistro could command any jazz stage in the world.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>She is bringing pianist and bandleader Willie Pickens down from Chicago to play with Freddie Washington on saxophone, Jerome Harris on drums, Jeffrey Anderson on bass and Anita Jackson out front on vocals. Students from the jazz institute also will perform.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>There will be a brunch at 1:30 p.m. followed by the music at 2:30 p.m.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>The core of this band are St. Louis scene all stars, but Willie Pickens hasn’t played down here in some 20 years. He took the gig when Gloria Taylor called him cold.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“I talked to Gloria,” Pickens said. “She seems very passionate about this music and helping kids. I’m looking forward to seeing just what the situation is and the scene down there and how I can be of help.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Part of “the situation” in question is what level the students are playing at and how much interaction is expected between the band and the students. Pickens can roll with anything. He was a high school band director for almost 25 years and now teaches jazz at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’m interested to know what the kids’ level is, then I can prepare some music for that,” Pickens said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>He has not yet spoken with Freddie Washington or Scrooge about band repertoire, but in his own settings in Chicago Pickens has been playing mostly standard bop repertoire, with tunes by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Pickens is not best known as a composer, though he had a couple of compositions on a 1961 Eddie Harris recording and recently recorded a tune he wrote, “The Feel Good Blues,” for a trio album on a Japanese label. The Southport Label in Chicago has released his two-CD set of spirituals and Christian hymns that he put in a jazz setting, some with saxophone, some with trumpet, some just as a trio, and some duets with his daughter Bethany Pickens on second piano.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Since the jazz institute benefit is on a Sunday, St. Louis should ask to hear some of these jazz gospel arrangements.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Pickens has not seen our city for 20 years, but he knows it and its players well. He played with St. Louis trumpet legend Clark Terry for years and they still have “a close connection,” Pickens said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“I was with Clark in Pine Bluff, Arkansas recently,” he said. “I went down to see him. He has written book, and I was there for the book signing. Since that time, he has had a leg amputated. He has had diabetes.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Pickens also played here with Art Farmer, who is deceased now.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“That was a hotbed for jazz,” Pickens said of St. Louis. “Of course, you’ve got Freddie Washington, you had John Hicks,” who is also deceased now. Pickens even remembered a local legend, also now dead, who scarcely ever left St. Louis but had a national reputation among the highest players and bandleaders in the world, including John Coltrane.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“You had a great drummer there – Joe Charles,” Pickens said. “Everyone came around to hear him play, even the greats.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>The Jazz Brunch takes place for 1:30 p.m. Sunday, February 19 at The Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave. It’s a benefit for the Institute for the Advancement of Jazz Study & Performance, a program of Community Women Against Hardship. Tickets are $60 reserved ($35 tax-deductible) and $40 general ($25 tax-deductible). Call 314-289-7523, visit www.cwah.org or stop by CWAH, 3963 West Belle Pl. St. Louis MO 63108.
