Thursday, May 17, 2012

Jazz this week: Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo, Madeleine Peyroux, Eastern Blok, Marcus Lewis, Miles Davis Jazz Festival, and more

The week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a wide variety of sounds and sights, including Balkan-tinged guitar, funk trombone, fusion harp, saxophone-playing twins, a festival featuring St. Louis musicians paying tribute to our area's most famous jazz icon, and much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, guitarist Goran Ivanovic and his band Eastern Blok are coming down from Chicago to play a show at Pop's Blue Moon celebrating the release of their new CD Underwater.

Also tonight, trombonist Marcus Lewis is in town to perform at Robbie's House of Jazz. The Georgia native, who's toured with the Ohio Players and singer Janelle Monae, has a new album of his own called Facing East.

On Friday, the guitar duo of Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo plays the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Vignola's played the Bistro before, in 2008 and 2009, but this is the first time he's performed there in the duo format. For more about him and a taste of what he and Raniolo are up to, check out the videos in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, jazz harpist Jan Aldridge Clark, who's from Indianpolis, will perform at Robbie's; the Funky Butt Brass Band plays the Broadway Oyster Bar; and singer Zena Bott-Goins is at the Cigar Inn, backed by bassist Ryan Chamberlain, pianist Nathan Jatcko and drummer Marty Morrison.

On Saturday afternoon, Vignola will conduct a guitar workshop at City Music and Education Center.

A little later that afternoon, the Alton Museum of History and Art will present the seventh annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival at Trimpe Hall, Lewis & Clark Community College, 5800 Godfrey Rd in Godfrey, IL. The featured performers this year are saxophonist Fred Walker, trumpeter Jim Manley, the Soulard Blues Band, and singer Danita Mumphard with Trio Trés Bien. Tickets are $25 at the door.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Eric Slaughter leads a quartet at Robbie's; and the Bosman Twins will play their annual "Jazz and Blues Reunion" show at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups. The multi-woodwind-playing siblings will be joined by drummer Mike Scavatto, keyboardist Don Carson (who's in from Atlanta) and bassist J. Michael Kearsey (from Portland).

On Sunday, singer/guitarist Madeleine Peyroux (pictured) makes her St. Louis debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Peyroux, who's noted for a vocal style resembling Billie Holiday, began her career busking in Paris, and first came to wide public attention thanks to her 2005 album Careless Love. The Sheldon and Metrotix have a "buy one, get one free" offer on tickets for her concert; for details on that, go here.

Also on Sunday, the Saint Louis Jazz Club presents a matinee concert by the St. Louis Ragtimers at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the group Banjos & Brass will perform a concert at the Staenberg Arts & Education Building of the Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Dr.; and pianist Dave Becherer's group is at BB's.

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.)

(Edited 5/18/12 to add the Saint Louis Jazz Club concert.)

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