When we sat down for trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at The Sheldon concert hall on Jan. 29, we expected to hear a tight band and soloing from some of the world’s most disciplined musicians. But we were thoroughly unprepared for the night’s special guest, Naseer Shamma, widely regarded as the world’s most accomplished master of the oud. Looking at the night’s program, my wife asked me what an oud was, and I ventured that it was a Middle Eastern wind instrument, whereupon our eavesdropping neighbor, a very distinguished-looking older man, promptly leaned over to interject a clarification: It’s a stringed instrument. The orchestra was to riff on many selections by the Iraqi composer, who was perched at the front of the stage with a beautiful, teardrop-shaped guitar-ike instrument on his lap. What unearthly sounds he coaxed from it, deft and emotive as Eric Clapton and exotic as Django Reinhardt. Marsalis has recorded with Clapton; Django died 10 years before he was born, but he probably would have jumped at the chance to perform alongside him. Known as the Jazz Ambassador for his lifelong quest to raise the profile of jazz, Marsalis, 61, is the second-oldest member of a New Orleans musical dynasty that includes his older brother Branford, widely considered the greatest saxophonist since John Coltrane. Wynton won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 1994 composition Blood on the Fields. As you may suspect, writing about music is a bit like dancing about architecture. Look up this hour-long performance on YouTube: Wynton Marsalis Septet and Naseer Shamma (2017). There are three fewer trumpet players than played at The Sheldon, so there’s more of Marsalis soloing. Plus, the video starts with 2 minutes of Shamma playing by himself. This merits a hearty OMG!
the metro
Hip hop first hit car radios and boomboxes around 1979, but rapping and rhymes became a serious force for protest and social change in 1982. Channel 9, The StL’s public television station, premiered Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World on Jan. 31. Nine PBS reprises the first two episodes at 8 p.m. on Feb. 14. In the program, Chuck D of Public Enemy, NYC’s in-your-face hardcore hip hop group, explores the ever-evolving genre’s political awakening over the last 40 years. With a host of rap stars and cultural commentators, he tracks hip hop’s socially conscious roots. From songs like “The Message” in 1982 to his own band’s remix of their first record to hit radio, “Fight the Power 2020,” he examines how hip hop has become ‘the Black CNN.’ Episodes three and four premiere back-to-back starting at 8 p.m. Feb. 21 on Nine PBS and livestream. The entire show can be streamed after broadcast on the PBS Video App. Visit ninepbs.org.
chesterfield
You say you’ve been Jonesing for a bona fide Nuyawk-style bagel, but you live west of I-270? The former Einstein’s out there is now a Katie’s Pizza. Oy, vey iz mir. But you won’t have to wait too much longer for the real thing, nothing like the machine-produced bagels available at the supermarket. Lefty’s Bagels, which two IT professionals kicked off in a bakery co-op a few years ago as an avocation, has become their vocation. Doug Goldenberg and Scott Lefton are brothers-in-law. Goldenberg married Lefton’s sister. They’re pretty close; even so well-suited as business partners that one could probably finish a sentence the other started. “We have a lot of things in common,” Goldenberg noted when we shared a booth at another place that sells bagels on Olive just west of Hwy. 141: Panera. It’s on the south side; Lefty’s is on the north side a little farther east, closer to the interchange. Although Lefton was still tying up loose ends that morning and was a couple minutes behind schedule, Goldenberg got us off to a good start. The COVID-19 pandemic was quite an unexpected benefit. “The pandemic became an enabler,” he said. Making bagels? “How hard can it be?” Goldenberg remembers musing. There was so much unexpected downtime in his corporate career, so many hours left for the pair to get into practice, he says; they had less stress working with the dough. Hand-making bagels is labor-intensive—so much kneading is needed, in fact, that he’s already needed surgery for carpal-tunnel syndrome. “After quite a number of batches, we had some our family would eat!” Once Lefton breezed in, it was obvious that he marches to the beat of a different drum. A theater background could be blamed or credited for his steady flow of ideas, notes his brother-in-law. For the café, think of a full breakfast with selections including pastrami, whitefish, trout and several varieties of lox. You could imagine you’ve landed on East Houston Street in Brooklyn, maybe even wondering why you didn’t have to change trains. Authenticity, freshness and tradition are as important here as at Russ & Daughters, which Lefton says is the NYC deli to beat all NYC delis. “Baking from scratch is an art!” says either Lefton or Goldenberg, two very different men with a singular goal. “We’re building a business for the community,” Lefton says. OK, OK! We’ll answer your meshugah high-school question. The men are both StL natives: Lefton, 45, Parkway Central, Class of 1996; Goldenberg, 52, Ladue Horton Watkins, Class of 1989. And now for something completely different: For a very funny Lefty’s parody/sendup of the show intro to vintage 1970s TV series Laverne & Shirley, visit leftysbagels.com. Presently the café website is idling while the finishing touches are made to the building, which the brothers-in-law anticipate to open in early March. They’d hoped to be serving already, but sometimes with design and construction, etc., oy! Meanwhile, as your tummy rumbles, keep an eye on the café’s Facebook page—Lefty’s website will point you there.