StlJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2015 jazz preview, part 1

As the start of the fall presenting season approaches, it's time once again for a video preview of the touring jazz and creative musicians and bands who will be visiting St. Louis in the next few months. Here's a look at who's coming to town during the fall of 2015, presented in chronological order.

Jazz at the Bistro's first touring attraction of the season will be the Dave King Trucking Company, who will perform there on Friday, September 4 and Saturday, September 5.

Although bandleader and drummer King has played the Bistro many times with The Bad Plus, this will be the Trucking Company's debut at the venue. You can hear them in the first video clip up top, playing a piece called "Blue Candy" that was recorded in June, 2010 at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul, MN with King on drums, Erik Fratkze on guitar, Brandon Wozniak on sax, and Adam Linz on bass.

The following week, pianist Monty Alexander will return to the Bistro for the first time to perform with his trio on Wednesday, September 9 and Thursday, September 10. After the jump, you can see a clip of Alexander, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton playing "Mojo" back in 2013 at the studios of radio station KPLU in Seattle.

A couple of days after that, trumpeter Bobby Shew will be in the area to take part in the festivities surrounding the unveiling of the Miles Davis commemorative statue in Alton, IL. Shew will play with drummer Montez Coleman's band after the ceremony on Saturday, September 12 at Elijah P's in Alton. In today's third video, he can be seen performing his own composition "The Red Snapper" earlier this summer with the Airmen of Note big band.

Next up, Jazz St. Louis will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bistro from Wednesday, September 23 through Saturday, September 26 with a band assembled especially for the occasion, featuring musicians who have been frequent visitors to the Bistro over the years as bandleader or co-leaders - specifically, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, guitarist Russell Malone, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and saxophonist Tim Warfield.

Since the band has been put together just for this occasion, for purposes of this preview you'll have to settle for seeing clips of the musicians individually (with one exception). So, today's fourth video shows McBride's trio with pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. playing - "Fried Pies" earlier this year, also at KPLU.

That's followed by Chestnut's trio playing Charlie Parker's "What Price Love," recorded earlier this year at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, NJ; and then a clip of a drum solo by Greg Hutchinson, recorded last year at the Drum Daze expo in Columbus, OH.

The seventh video shows Russell Malone fronting his own quartet at the 2009 Jazz at Marciac festival in France, playing the Duke Ellington standard "Caravan."

Last but not least, Stafford and Warfield - old friends who grew up near each other in Pennsylvania, and frequently share the same bandstand - can be heard in the final clip performing "The Touch of Your Lips" at the 2006 Jazz Baltica festival in Salzau, Germany, assisted by Matt Wilson on drums, Martin Wind on bass, and the late pianist Mulgrew Miller.

Look for part 2 of the Fall 2015 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...