Jazz St. Louis announces Bistro's summer schedule

Jazz St. Louis has announced the summer schedule for Jazz at the Bistro, and the almost-all-local lineup features some familiar names. Here's the rundown, courtesy of JSL director of operations Bob Bennett:

Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7
Gary Dammer and the I-70 Jazz Connection

Friday, June 13 – Sunday, June 15
Erin Bode CD Release Party
(Special Father’s Day matinees on June 15 at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.)

Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21
Adaron “Pops” Jackson presents the Music of the Crusaders

Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28
Musica Slesa

Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12
Orange

Saturday, July 19
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Band Director Academy Faculty featuring Alvin Atkinson (drums), Ronald Carter (saxophone), Rick Haydon (guitar), Steve Sveum (saxophone and clarinet), Reggie Thomas (keyboards) and Rodney Whitaker (bass).

Friday, July 25 - 26
Good 4 The Soul

Now if this lineup makes you think for a moment that you're seeing double, or even triple, you're not wrong - Erin Bode (pictured), the Latin jazz band Musica Slesa and Good 4 The Soul all have performed at the Bistro during the current 2007-08 season. Moreover, Orange is essentially the Erin Bode group without Bode, and Adaron Jackson, who's doing the Crusaders tribute, is the keyboard player for Good 4 The Soul, and presumably will be enlisting some of his regular colleagues for his featured dates.

So, that makes Dammer, the veteran St. Louis trumpet player and bandleader, and the Band Director Camp faculty the only truly new entries in the lineup. Personally, I've got mixed feelings about this. While the groups that will be returning to the Bistro stage are all of good quality, I wonder if JSL may be going back to the same wells a bit too often, and the re-use of the same musicians performing under different project names seems a little incestuous. Also, it would have been nice to have a national act or two in there, as was the case last summer at the Bistro, though I suspect budgetary concerns may have been a impediment to that.

These quibbles notwithstanding, tickets for Jazz at the Bistro's summer shows go on sale at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 13th via Metrotix. Bennett also says that JSL will be announcing the full 2008-09 season next week, so stay tuned.