Jazz St. Louis adds more performers to 2011-12 season

Jazz St. Louis today announced several more performances by touring jazz artists that will be part of their 2011-12 season.

A double bill of singer Dianne Reeves and pianist Ahmad Jamal, each appearing separately with their own group, has been booked for Sunday, November 6 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, filling the third date in Jazz St. Louis' new "Legends" series that was listed as "TBA" when the bulk of JSL's 2011-12 season was announced last month.

In addition, pianist Robert Glasper (pictured) has been booked to play at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11; and vibraphonist Stefon Harris and trumpeter Sean Jones will team up to perform on Thursday, April 19 at the Bistro as part of that week's Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival.

The big surprise here is Glasper, who at one point seemed to have burned his bridges with JSL after canceling some previous dates at the Bistro on relatively short notice. Obviously, those bridges got repaired, and now St. Louis jazz fans finally will get a chance to see Glasper, whose attempts to combine jazz, hip-hop and experimental sounds have made him one of the most talked-about pianists of his generation.

Reeves, Jamal, Jones and Harris all have played St. Louis within the past couple of years - and Reeves has an additional connection to our town in the person of her pianist and music director Peter Martin - but the double bill involving the first two and the collaborative effort of the latter two should put slightly different twists on the respective performances, and both pairings certainly offer additional value for ticket buyers.

Tickets for Dianne Reeves and Ahmad Jamal are priced at $150, $60 and $40 and go on sale at 10:00 a.m. next Tuesday, June 14 via the Touhill ticket office or by phone at 314-516-4949. Tickets for Robert Glasper will be $25 and $10 for students; and for Harris and Jones, $30 and $10 for students. Those shows go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 16 online via Metrotix or by phone at 314-534-1111.