Dee Dee Bridgewater
Two big events highlight the week in jazz here in St. Louis. The Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival expands to two venues this year, presenting a concert on Friday at Jazz at the Bistro and Saturday at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Friday's concert will feature guest artists Jeff Hamilton (drums), Tim Ries (saxophone), Clay Jenkins (trumpet), Scott Whitfield (trombone), Tom Matta (trombone) and Jay Saunders (trumpet), along with UMSL's Jim Widner on bass and Ken Kehner on piano, plus the THF Realty All-Stars and several other student ensembles.
I'm still a little unclear about the exact format for this show, but my understanding is that the pros will be on stage for most of the evening on Friday, with the students serving as set openers and possibly sitting in with their elders. (BTW, the THF ensemble, which is one of Jazz St. Louis' educational initiatives, will take over the Bistro for the whole night on Saturday.) Back at the TouPAC on Saturday, all the aforementioned guest artists except Hamilton will join headliner Clark Terry and the UMSL Jazz Ensemble for what should be quite an extravaganza.
There will be some tough competition for the jazz entertainment dollar on Friday, though, since that's also when the Sheldon Concert Hall and its associated galleries kick off a series of events celebrating the 100th birthday of Josephine Baker with a gala benefit concert featuring vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater performing a program of jazz and cabaret music.
Elsewhere this week: On Thursday, saxophonist Mike Karpowicz does a free show for Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series, and vocalist Valerie Tichacek performs at Cookie's Jazz and More. On Friday, Sandy Weltman and Curt Landes play at Crossings, while the Randy Holmes Quartet takes the stage a couple of blocks away at Cookie's. On Saturday, Chad Evans has his CD release event at the Missouri Historical Society, and pianist James Matthews leads his trio at Brandt's.
That's just a sampling of this week's offerings, so I encourage you to visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar for an overview of the rest.
(If you're a band, musician, venue or present who would like to have your event listed in the calendar, please email your news release or information to stljazznotes at yahoo dot com.)
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