Thursday, January 12, 2012

Jazz this week: Legacy Jazz Quintet plays Art Blakey, a tribute to Fran Landesman, and more

Assuming that drivers in the St. Louis area recover from the havoc caused by today's snowstorm, there are a number of jazz and creative music performances happening over the next few days that may reward those who choose to venture out into the mid-January cold. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, pianist Ken Kehner, who teaches at UMSL and plays with bassist Jim Widner's big band, the Poor People of Paris and others, celebrates the release of his new CD From The Moment On with two sets at the Bistro at Grand Center. (That's the same venue used by Jazz at the Bistro, but Jazz St. Louis is not involved with presenting Kehner's performance, and so tickets for the show are available for purchase by cash only at the door.)

Also tonight, Latin jazz group Clave Sol is the house band for a "World Jazz Jam" at Club Dantes, which is in midtown at 3222 Olive. (For those of you keeping track of the local jam session scene, this event apparently is now running weekly, and has been added to the StLJN site calendar.)

Tomorrow night, the Legacy Jazz Quintet, which is led by pianist Phil Dunlap of Jazz St. Louis and serves as a de facto repertory ensemble for JSL, returns to the Bistro for a two-night stand playing the music of Art Blakey.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Jeff Riley will perform at The Chapel; saxophonist Jerry Greene leads a quintet with singer Tony Viviano at Robbie's House of Jazz; and vibraphonist Dustin Sholtes brings his quartet to the Cigar Inn.

On Sunday, singer, pianist and songwriter Bob Dorough returns to St. Louis to perform a tribute to songwriter Fran Landesman at the Bistro. Like the Ken Kehner show, this is an independent production not presented by Jazz St. Louis; for ticket information, call 314-968-1898.

Also on Sunday, pianist Carolbeth True (pictured) and her trio will be joined by singer Christi John Bye for a free concert at Second Baptist Church as part of the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series; and keyboardist Brock Walker plays an early show at BBs Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big band will play their first gig of the year at BB's, and on Tuesday, the St. Louis Low Brass Collective will do their annual concert as part of the Notes From Home series at The Sheldon.

For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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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