StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from The Wee Trio

Our video spotlight shines this week on The Wee Trio, who will return to St. Louis to play Friday, February 8 and Saturday, February 9 at Jazz at the Bistro. The gigs will serve as live recording sessions for their next album, as well as a visit home for bassist Dan Loomis, who grew up in the St. Louis area and graduated from the jazz program at SIUE.

Loomis, vibraphonist James Westfall, and drummer Jared Schonig have played the Bistro a couple of times before, most recently in January 2012 when they were touring in support of their last album, Ashes to Ashes: A David Bowie Intraspective. Loomis talked about that album last year in an interview for the Riverfront Times, which you can read online here, and if all goes to plan, we'll have more from him about this new project in another post here soon.

For now, though, here's a compendium of recent performances featuring The Wee Trio, including two of the songs they intend to record at the Bistro. The videos for those tunes - "Random" up top and "RT3" immediately below this text - were recorded in December 2012 at a venue called Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco, and during his introductions you can hear Loomis discuss plans to record them.

Next, there are three performances recorded in February 2012 at Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia, starting with The Wee Trio's re-imagining of the old standard "Cherokee," which so far has not been included on any of their albums, and continuing with live versions of "Sunday" and "Battle For Britain" from Ashes to Ashes.

The final clip is something a little different, as the trio are joined by the Butler University Percussion Ensemble to play a new arrangement of "Shepherd," a Loomis composition originally recorded on their second album Capitol Diner Vol 2 Animal Style.