Thursday, January 16, 2014

Jazz this week: Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Jahmal Nichols CD release, and more

If you're looking to shake the mid-winter doldrums this weekend, your options for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis include the local debut of an up-and-coming New Orleans performer; an album release event featuring the first recording as a leader from one of our town's busiest bassists, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Lew Winer III leads a trio at The Engine Room, while singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black play at Nathalie's, a new restaurant on Lindell in the building that formerly housed Salt, and before that, Savor and the Cabaret at Savor.

Tomorrow night, bassist Jahmal Nichols will make his Jazz at the Bistro debut as a bandleader for the first of two nights promoting the release of his first album, 2 Worlds 1 Mind.

The band for the gig will include saxophonist Kendrick Smith, guitarist Eric Slaughter, keyboardists Cory James and Andre Thomas, and drummer Andrew Exum, plus "special guests," but advance information about the record is scarce, other than a YouTube video that lists the musicians who played on the CD over an excerpt of a unnamed track evoking  early Stanley Clarke. (In a coincidence of particularly unfortunate timing, Nichols' website appears either to have been recently domain-jacked or gone 404, so no help there, either.)

Also on Friday, the Gateway City Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren fronts a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; percussionist Kaleb Kirby's Animal Children perform at The Engine Room; vibraphonist Tom Rickard leads a trio at Cigar Inn; and the Webster Groves High School jazz ensembles will present their annual fund-raising concert at The Pageant. 

On Saturday, the Joe Bozzi Band will play a lunchtime matinee at Talayna's of Chesterfield.

That evening, New Orleans pianist and singer Jon Batiste (pictured) and his band Stay Human will make their St. Louis debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can hear an interview with Batiste, recorded in December for NPR's "Weekend Edition," and some samples of  his music here.

Elsewhere on Saturday, pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will play at Robbie's House of Jazz, and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns for their monthly show at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Miss Jubilee at the Doubletree Hotel at Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist John Farrar's Park Avenue Jazz trio now are doing a regular weekly gig at Evangeline's Bistro and Music House; and fellow six-stringers Tom Byrne and Eric Slaughter will take the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

On Tuesday, the Miles Davis Memorial Project will hold a mixer and informational meeting at Bossanova Martini Lounge and Restaurant in Alton.

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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