Nicholas Payton
There's some good music on tap in St. Louis this week, starting with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, who opens a four-night run this evening at Jazz at the Bistro. Payton, who was just in town a couple of weeks ago for the hurricane relief concert at the Sheldon, is known for a trumpet sound that is very much in the New Orleans tradtion of Louis Armstrong and Buddy Bolden. However, he's also a capable modern player with the reputation of being an extroverted entertainer on stage, making it hard to pigeonhole him as a stodgy revivalist. Payton's recorded efforts have ranged from a tribute album dedicated to Armstrong to the hip-hop flavored funk of his Sonic Trance band, so expect an eclectic mix during his sets this weekend.
On Friday night, strings are the thing as the Turtle Island String Quartet and the Ying Quartet come to the Edison Theater on the Washington University campus to perform music from their collaborative CD Four/4. The CD includes an arrangement of Learnin', a composition by St. Louis native Oliver Nelson, as well as works by John Lennon and Darius Milhaud and originals from TISQ members Evan Price and Mark Summer, and one would expect that they'll play most, if not all, of the selections from the CD at the concert. Again, "eclectic" would seem to be the operative word here.
And the "e" word also could be used to describe drummer Matt Wilson, who brings his Arts and Crafts band to town Saturday night for a concert at a venue not often used for live music, the Xavier Hall Theatre on the St. Louis University campus. Featuring Wilson on drums, Larry Goldings on keyboards, Terrell Stafford on trumpet and Dennis Irwin on bass, Arts and Crafts' sound reflects Wilson's varied musical interests and somewhat quirky sense of humor.
Of course, in addition to these touring attractions, our stalwart St. Louis-based ensembles will be out in force this weekend too, as shown in the St. Louis Jazz Notes calendar. And, as always, musicians, presenters and venues who'd like to get their events listed in said calendar are invited to email information to stljazznotes at yahoo dot com.
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