Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Jazz this week: Tim Cunningham and Jim Stevens, Oleta Adams, Wayne Coniglio's live recording, Larry Brown Jr., and more

While St. Louis no longer has a major jazz festival in June since the demise a couple of years ago of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, that doesn't mean the local scene is completely devoid of jazz and creative music activity this time of year. Here's what's going on around town this weekend...

Tonight, trombonist (and sometimes bassist) Wayne Coniglio will perform with his band and guest trombonist Scott Whitfield for a live CD recording session at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Whitfield is perhaps best known for his ten years as lead trombonist for NYC's Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra; the band also will include Ken Kehner (piano), Eric Warren (bass) and Kevin Gianino (drums).

On Thursday, singer Erin Bode and her band will perform a free outdoor concert in downtown Kirkwood as part of the city's annual summer concert series.

On Friday and Saturday, St. Louis gets its own local version of one of those contemporary jazz package shows, as the R&B-oriented saxophonists Tim Cunningham (pictured) and Jim Stevens will team up for the first time to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, Michael Silverman's Classical Jazz Quartet (basically the Downtown Trio plus one) will perform at the Focal Point; Chicago-based guitarist Larry Brown Jr. is playing at Robbie's House of Jazz; guitarist Dave Black's trio, with drummer Kevin Gianino and bassist Willem von Hombracht, will perform at the Cigar Inn in Belleville; and the Original Knights of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

That same evening, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will present "Vegas and the Rat Pack," with orchestral versions of songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr featuring singer and conductor Matt Catingub and singer Anita Hall.

Also on Saturday, Swing Set will perform in the afternoon at Montelle Winery, and that evening Robbie's has drummer Brian Sullivan's trio, with Dave Becherer on keyboards and Darrell Mixon on bass.

On Sunday, the jazz-influenced singer Oleta Adams will perform at the Missouri History Museum as part of a Juneteenth commemoration.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday drummer Joe Pastor's trio will play at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, Robbie's will present their weekly open jam session.

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.)

(Edited after posting to add details on Erin Bode, SLSO and Swing Set.)

No comments: