Jazz this week: US Bank Saint Louis Jazz Festival, smooth jazz players attack, and more

Downtown St. Louis will be under a "Jazz Attack" tonight, and
Richard Elliot is one of the featured smooth jazz musicians

It's a busy week in jazz here in St. Louis, highlighted by the annual US Bank Saint Louis Jazz Festival in Clayton's Shaw Park on Friday and Saturday. Whatever quibbles I may have with the Festival's programming are minor compared to the fact that, at $20 per day for a lawn ticket, the event offers a good value for the dollar on some outstanding talent including Dave Douglas, Los Hombres Calientes and Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor. I'll have a separate post - maybe more than one - on the Festival later today or tonight, but for now, I'll just say that if you're any sort of jazz fan, go. You'll hear some good music, and by supporting the event you help increase the likelihood that it will continue and grow.

The Festival aside, there are some other promising shows this week, too. Tonight, guitarist Corey Christiansen is performing a free concert at the Missouri Botanical Gardens with a band that includes Danny Gottlieb and Per Danielsson, while the Roberts Orpheum Theater plays host to the Jazz Attack smooth jazz package featuring guitarist Peter White, saxophonist Richard Elliot, singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler and trumpeter Rick Braun.

On Thursday, pianist and singer Al Oxenhandler is having a CD release party over at the Ritz-Carlton, while over at Cookie's in Webster Groves, trumpet player Dan Smith leads a quartet including vocalist Debbie Lennon. I've known Dan since high school, so this isn't exactly an unbiased recommendation, but he's always been an outstanding lead player and section man in larger groups, and so I'm betting his small group is worth hearing, too.

If you're looking for some post-Festival action on Friday or Saturday, you can see who else is playing in the local clubs this weekend by checking the St. Louis Jazz Notes calendar. And if you'd a musician or venue who'd like to get your gig listed in that calendar, and possibly in the weekly highlights post as well, email your schedule or news release to me at stljazznotes at yahoo dot com.