Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Jazz this week: Diana Krall & Chris Botti, tributes to Charlie Parker and Tony Bennett, and more

As summer winds down, there's lots to do in St. Louis, and though the fall season won't really get going full steam for another couple of weeks, there are some noteworthy jazz events competing for your time, attention and entertainment dollars this weekend.

Most prominently, singer/pianist Diana Krall (pictured) and trumpeter Chris Botti bring their joint tour to St. Louis this evening for a performance at the Fox Theatre. As of this writing, Metrotix is not showing the concert as a sellout, which means there indeed still may be some tickets available; I'd suggest calling ahead, though, rather than just showing up at the box office.

As for the rest of the Labor Day weekend, on Thursday you can catch trumpeter Randy Holmes and Hard Bop Heritage doing a tribute to Charlie Parker at Finale Music and Dining, or the Denver-based Mike Beck Trio, in town to play a one-nighter at Cookie's Jazz and More.

On Friday, Finale present singer Anita Jackson fronting a band led by drummer Jerome "Scrooge" Harris; Brandt's has singer/pianist/tenor saxophonist/raconteur Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum; and trumpeter Jim Manley brings his band Wild, Cool and Swingin' to Cookie's.

Saturday night is a bit skimpier, but if you don't feel like seeing singer Al Oxenhandler and the Carolbeth True Trio doing their "salute to Tony Bennett" at Finale, there's always Willie Akins' weekly gig at Spruill's.

More local jazz-related events can be found by consulting the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, with the caveat that said calendar will be in a state of more or less continuous update for the next several days as September schedules straggle into the StLJN mailbox from area clubs and musicians.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)

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