Posts Tagged ‘live music’

North County native Steve Scorfina, a founding member of REO Speedwagon, is the subject of a documentary playing at The Savoy on March 6.

Bring up the subject of music in Ferguson and it’s only a matter of time before somebody mentions Michael McDonald. The famous singer/songwriter, who played in both Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, grew up in Ferguson, of course. But the local musicians who collaborated with him back then and who went on to achieve their own successes – that’s a story rarely told. Until now.

On March 6, the life and work of guitarist Steve Scorfina will be showcased in a documentary film called “Old Dog, New Trick,” and wow, is this an intriguing North County tale! Scorfina played with McDonald in a (McCluer) high school band called Mike and the Majestics in the 1960s, then eventually went on to become the founding guitarist of REO Speedwagon and later a member of the popular St. Louis “prog rock” band, Pavlov’s Dog.

During the 1970s, he was thrown full-speed into the crazy world of rock and roll, experiencing all the sex and drugs that went along with it. In the 80s, he penned songs that Alice Cooper and the Smashing Pumpkins would later cover and spent several years collaborating with Mike Somerville of Head East.

Today, at age 60, Scorfina is still rockin’ but he also works as a scrappy antiques dealer and flea market vendor, which makes for quite a compelling documentary. Filmmakers Thomas Crone and Mike Steinberg have created an entertaining, very personal flick that reveals someone who has seen and done an awful lot in his lifetime, but who, at the end of the day, is really just a guy who loves music.

When “Old Dog, New Trick” premiered at last fall’s St. Louis International Film Festival, it was one of the “top ten must-see” entries. For the March 6 showing, filmgoers will not only be able to watch this celebrated documentary (and spot some area locations), they’ll also be treated to a live concert by the guitarist himself!

Scorfina will perform songs from his CD “Dog Trax” and will be joined by special guest Ave Maria Clay and members of Good Feelin’, his 1970s St. Louis psychedelic band.

If you like great storytelling and good old-fashioned rock and roll, be sure not to miss this exciting event! Tickets are $12 in advance ($15 at the door) and can be purchased at the NAC Gallery, Thyme Table Cafe, CORK Wine Bar, Scotty’s Music, Euclid Records, Star Clipper, Glad Rags, and all CD & Music Reunion stores.

“Old Dog, New Trick” will play at 7pm on Saturday, March 6, at the historic Savoy, 119 S. Florissant Rd, 63135. Doors open at 6pm.

OLD DOG NEW TRICK trailer from Mike Steinberg on Vimeo.

It’s hard to feel useful in the face of the unspeakable tragedy in Haiti, but several North County residents have stepped forward to do what they can. On Saturday, January 30, the Savoy in Ferguson will be hosting NoCo for Haiti, a benefit concert featuring music from at least five popular local performers, including Javier Mendoza and The Skyline Band.

Co-sponsored by NOCO, this family-friendly event will also have delicious snacks, auction items, dancing and a cash bar. Admission is whatever goodwill offering you choose to give, so please be generous! Proceeds will benefit the Doctors Without Borders Haiti Fund.

January 30 from 4pm-? at The Savoy, 119 S. Florissant Rd, 63135. For more info, call Chuck Henson at (314) 565-4829.

If you can’t make the concert, perhaps you can help in another way. Ferguson resident Stefannie Wheat (a dear friend of mine) has organized a donation drive for items desperately needed by earthquake victims, with all donations going directly to a Haitian family. Stefannie’s husband works with a Haitian woman named Marie, whose family members survived the earthquake but are now in urgent need of various everyday items.

Requested donations include: adult and children’s clothing (good condition, any size), hygiene items (toothpaste, sanitary products, hand sanitizer, etc), medical items (aspirin, band-aids, bandages, etc) and canned food. Money, of course, is also needed.

Stefannie will be accepting donations at her home and delivering them personally to Marie, who will ship them to her family in Haiti. If you can contribute anything, please drop off items at 403 Harrison in Ferguson (on the front porch if no one is home). Donations will be accepted through Friday, January 29. For more info, call Stefannie at (314) 482-0619.

Thank you!!

In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this coming Monday, UMSL and St. Louis Community College will each host MLK celebrations featuring noted guest speakers. Both events are free and open to the public.

Gilberto Pinela

On Sunday, January 17, the Flo Valley campus will welcome Hispanic entrepreneur and local civic leader Gilberto Pinela, whose television show “Ahora San Luis” has been airing in St. Louis since 2001. Pinela, who serves on the board of several area institutions, including United Way and the Missouri Historical Society, will speak on the theme “Realizing the Dream through Civic and Community Engagement.”

The event will also feature performances by the Olivette Missionary Baptist Church choir, Florissant Valley’s gospel choir, and dancer Aaron “A-One” Reed, as well as an art exhibit by Flo Valley students and an oratorical contest sponsored by North County Churches United for Racial Harmony & Justice. 3pm at the Fischer Theatre, 3400 Pershall Road, 63135.

Jabari Asim

Over at UMSL, on Monday, January 18, acclaimed author and journalist Jabari Asim will be the keynote speaker, headlining a morning of performing arts at the Touhill. Asim, who gained national attention for his 2007 book, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why, is currently scholar-in-residence at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and editor of the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis.

In addition to Asim, UMSL’s MLK celebration will also feature a dramatic performance depicting a community’s response to violence, directed by Adeniyi Coker, along with music by the Dickson Quartet, four talented sibling musicians from Oregon. 10am at the Touhill’s Anheuser-Busch Hall, 1 University Blvd, 63121.

If you’re looking for a way to warm up a cold Tuesday, head to UMSL for some red hot jazz. On January 12, the Des Lee Big Band Jazz Festival will host a free concert at the Touhill’s Lee Theater, featuring some of the most talented student musicians in the area, including several from North County.

The Ritenour Central Middle School Jazz Band and St. Joseph’s of Cottleville Jazz Band will kick off the show, but the highlight will be a performance by the Des Lee High School Honors Jazz Ensemble, whose members include students from Hazelwood East, Ritenour and McCluer North.

The concert begins at 6:30pm, and you can expect to hear some true jazz classics: “Splanky” by Neal Hefti, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Joe Zawinul, “Satin Doll” by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, and “Blue Monk” by Thelonius Monk, among other songs. For more info, visit the Touhill’s website or call (314) 516-5980.

Dear Santa, please let this eclectic school-turned-hotel in Portland, Oregon, serve as a model for creative revitalization in North County.

For nearly 30 years beginning in the 1970s, the historic neighborhoods of northeast Portland, Oregon, showed all the tell-tale signs of a community in decline. Housing values dropped, businesses got seedier, and the local grade school – a community landmark since 1915 – closed its doors and eventually was abandoned, causing many families to move away.

Northeast Portland became the part of town you’d avoid. There’s nothing left up there, people would say. But where most of Portland saw a fading, hopeless suburb wedged grimly between downtown and the airport, Mike and Brian McMenamin saw an opportunity. The owners of several popular brewpubs in the area (including the first one in the state of Oregon), the brothers came up with a creative plan to not only reinvigorate Northeast Portland but also to celebrate one of its finest assets: that beautiful, abandoned, circa 1915 grade school.

Whimsical paintings by local artists enliven nearly every wall at the Kennedy School in Portland.

Threatened with demolition, the elegant, Italian Renaissance-style “Kennedy School” had been saved by a coalition of local residents, former students and past PTA presidents when the McMenamins presented their plan for its revival. Following an exhaustive restoration incorporating the work of dozens of local artists and craftspeople, the brothers were determined to reinstate the school’s role as a busy, multi-use hub for the local community. They also wanted it to be a unique, memorable destination for visitors to Portland.

In their bold, way-outside-the-box vision, thirty five former classrooms would become boutique hotel suites, complete with original chalkboards and coat rooms. The old auditorium would be converted into an art house movie theater, served by the cafeteria-turned-restaurant next door. Several school rooms, including the former girls’ lavatory, would become cozy little pubs and cigar lounges serving McMenamin’s beer. Even the gymnasium would rise again, still as a classic locale for wedding receptions, but also as a lively spot for neighborhood basketball games, community meetings, blood drives, live concerts, and more.

Formerly the Kennedy School's cafeteria, the Courtyard Restaurant is now a hip Portland eatery that's jam-packed on weekends.

It was quite a diverse business model, and it worked. Because since the Kennedy School re-opened in 1997, the McMenamins have definitely exceeded their goals. Thousands of guests have stayed at their one-of-a-kind hotel, and even more have patronized its pubs, restaurants and theater. The reborn school has also provided an enormous economic and social boost for Northeast Portland, serving as a vibrant local hive where neighbors come together and where something fun is always on the calendar.

I tell you about the Kennedy School because it’s an amazing, magical place that I will never forget. Honestly, the McMenamins are two of my biggest heroes and I’m inspired by all of their fabulous brewpubs. I also tell you about the Kennedy School because I believe it’s exactly the type of brave, creative, lemons-to-lemonade project that North County desperately needs.

When you really start weighing our assets, we have no shortage of vintage buildings sitting empty or underutilized in NoCo, especially old schools. Off the top of my head, I can think of the former Masonic lodge in Ferguson, Storman-Stufflin School on Chambers, and St. Aloysius Church and School in Spanish Lake. Who knows how many more we’ll have as Catholic grade schools continue to close.

At the same time, North County also has a dire need for a decent live music venue – a hall with great character and good acoustics where maybe 200-300 people could enjoy an eclectic (and yes, even hip) mix of performers. If that same venue also housed an independent movie theater, I know I’m not the only North Countian who would be mighty pleased.

Sometimes a movie theater, sometimes a concert venue, the Kennedy School's converted auditorium is a community hot spot.

Now, I know what you’re saying…North County is no Portland! And I know that. But if the McMenamins’ successful concoction of beer, culture and community could turn around working-class Northeast Portland, who’s to say that it couldn’t work here as well, if even on a smaller scale? For once, why couldn’t North County be the place to embrace something truly special and progressive, something that would change minds and start drawing more folks northward?

We’ve got the buildings. We’ve got the artists. And we certainly have the people who love beer. Just imagine: North County as a destination.

That is my NoCo Christmas wish. Santa, I hope you’re reading…

(If you are reading, dear NOCO fan, don’t forget to vote in my new poll! It’s in the sidebar on the right.)

As if the glorious weather wasn’t enough to celebrate this weekend, last night’s Pesto Festo event in Ferguson made North County the place to be. Hosted by EarthDance Farms, the annual fundraiser drew more than 300 progressive, green-minded guests from all over St. Louis, and featured delicious local food, gorgeous artwork, and swingin’ performances by the Rum Drum Ramblers and Miss Jubilee & the Humdingers.

EarthDance Farms also gave out four Mission Awards at the zero-waste event, honoring folk musician Colleen Heine, community activist Dwayne James, organic farmer John Wilkerson, and artist Autumn Wiggins for their work in creating vibrant, sustainable communities.

Pesto Festo 2009

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 9

EarthDance Farms founder Molly Rockamann (far left) recognizes the 2009 Freshman Farmies, organic farming apprentices who worked the growing season at Mueller Farm in Ferguson.