Saturday, December 26, 2015

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase:
Winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, part 2



This week, it's part two of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview, featuring bands and musicians who will be visiting St. Louis to perform in the new year. (You can see part one, which covers most of the month of January, here.)

Today's installment picks up the chronological thread in late January with Bonerama, who will be back in town to play on Friday, January 22 at Broadway Oyster Bar. In the first video up above, you can see an excerpt from their set at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in which they perform the original tune "Mr. Okra" and their interpretation of the NOLA standard "Indian Red."

After the jump, it's pianist Billy Childs, who will perform Saturday, January 30 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The video clip feature Childs' version of "New York Tendaberry" from his album Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, and was recorded at the 2015 Monterey Jazz Festival.

Next up is singer Cyrille Aimée, who will be making her St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, February 3 through Saturday, February 6 at Jazz at the Bistro. Aimée and her band are seen here performing the standard "Caravan" in a promotional video for the Crested Butte Music Festival held in July in Colorado.

That same week will mark the long-anticipated return of singer Gregory Porter, whose career has taken off like the proverbial rocket since he last visited St. Louis in January 2013 to perform at the Bistro. It's a measure of how much his star has risen over the last three years that this time, instead of doing a four-night run in the relatively intimate confines of the Bistro, Porter will perform in concert on Saturday, February 6 at a much larger venue, the Touhill Performing Arts Center. You can see him in the fourth video doing his song "Liquid Spirit" in a show earlier this year in Ibiza, Spain.

Two nights after Porter's concert, saxophonist Branford Marsalis will return to St. Louis to perform Monday, February 8 through Wednesday, February 10 at Jazz at the Bistro. Marsalis is seen in the fifth video clip with his long-running band - pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner - playing "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" this past July at the Ravello Festival in Italy.

After that, you can see pianist Marcus Roberts, who will be featured in a week of performances Wednesday, February 17 through Saturday, February 20 at the Bistro. Roberts and his trio, with Jason Marsalis (brother of Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo) on drums and Rodney Jordan on bass, are seen here performing Thelonious Monk's "Blues Five Spot" at a concert last February in Calgary, Alberta.

The following week, St. Louis jazz fans will have the chance to check out another powerful pianist, as Danilo Perez performs on Saturday, February 27 at the Sheldon. Perez has been part of saxophonist Wayne Shorter's quartet for years now, and earlier this year enlisted the aid of his bandmates in that group, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, to record a trio album, Children of the Light, which was released in September. In the seventh clip, you can see them performing the title song from that album in a show this past July at the Blue Note Milano in Italy.

Last, but certainly not least today, is saxophonist James Carter, who will be returning to perform with his organ trio starting Wednesday, March 2 through Saturday, March 5 at Jazz at the Bistro. Carter is seen here fronting a big band on a typically effusive performance of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," recorded in June of this year at the Festival Django Reinhardt 2015 in Samois-sur-Seine, France.

Next week, it's part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2016 jazz preview. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...













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