Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Jazz this week: Michael Buble, Kim Massie, Brave Combo, and more

St. Louis may be without a major jazz festival this June, but fortunately there's enough other activity this weekend that many fans of jazz and creative music can probably find something to their liking.

It looks like the busiest night of the next few is Friday; that's when singer Michael Buble (pictured), who's arguably a jazz-influenced pop singer rather than a jazz singer per se, brings his current tour to the Scottrade Center, and singer Kim Massie opens a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro

That same evening, pianist Carolbeth True performs at the Foundry Arts Centre in St Charles, and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be at the St. Louis Art Museum for a free "Art After 5" concert. (You can see some video of the FBBB in action here.)

Also of interest on Friday is the return to St. Louis of perennial favorites Brave Combo, who will be playing at The Gramophone. While they're not really a jazz group either, the band's eclectic mix of "salsa, meringue, rock, cumbia, conjunto, polka, zydeco, classical, cha cha, the blues and more" usually makes for interesting listening as well as providing fun, danceable beats.

Elsewhere this weekend Robbie's House of Jazz will feature house band the Robert Edwards Ensemble on Friday, with the Christopher Braig Caribbean Trio taking the stage on Saturday.

Also on Saturday: the Presenters Dolan will feature singer Christy Simmons performing her cabaret show "'Cause I'm A Woman" at the Kranzberg Arts Center, backed by pianist Joe Dreyer, bassist Dave Troncoso and drummer Clancy Newell; and, for the more cacophonously inclined, Open Lot offers "an invasion of synths, violins, and incredible noise from the north" with Stare Case, Dog Lady, Steve Kenney and Maths Balance Volumes.

BB's Jazz Blues and Soups also has a couple of jazz-related acts coming up, with Good 4 The Soul playing the early set on Sunday, and bassist David Certain's CertainBeat WorldBop, featuring saxophonists James Warfield Jr. and Willie Dineen and drummer Stan Hale, on Monday.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon on the StLJN Facebook page.

(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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