Richard Elliot
Though vacation season continues unabated and the weather forecasts call for temperatures in the 90s this weekend, St. Louis' jazz venues are still managing to serve up a pretty decent variety of shows for local listeners. The biggest names are those involved with this year's edition of the Guitars and Saxes smooth jazz show, which comes to town on Friday at the Pageant in University City. The 2006 version of the tour features saxophonists Richard Elliot and Gerald Albright and guitarists Peter White and Jeff Golub in a two-hour show that puts each musician in the spotlight for 30 minutes.
Though the Guitars and Saxes concept, now in its tenth year, has proven to be consistently popular formula with smooth jazz fans, and radio personality Rick Sanborn has promoted the show as part of his "Smooth Summer Party" series, it looks at this writing as if there are still tickets available. (There's also a package deal that includes tix to next Friday'ss show by the Rendezvous All-Stars, with Kirk Whalum, Wayman Tisdale, Brain Simpson and Jonathan Butler.)
Elsewhere in town, pianist Beegie Adair returns to Finale in Clayton for shows on Friday and Saturday night. A Kentucky native and current resident of Nashville, she's made a couple of trips to St. Louis this year. As befits a resident of "Music City," Adair has done her share of session work in country and pop as well as jazz, but her avowed pianistic influences, whcih include George Shearing, Teddy Wilson, Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans, are nicely reflected in her swinging, melodic approach to trio playing.
And in midtown, Jazz St. Louis continues their summer series of female vocalists with hometown favorite Erin Bode performing at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday and Saturday night. Bode's becoming a bit more of a touring artist herself these days, doing some weekend dates in various US cities over the last few months and set to embark on another tour of Italy this summer. And while Bode certainly gigs frequently around town. I'd expect her to draw a good crowd at the Bistro, since this a chance for her growing legion of fans to hear her with her full band in the Bistro's "listening room" environment.
That about does it for this week's contigent of touring artists, but, as is customary with these weekly highlights posts, this is but a sampling of the week's jazz offerings in St. Louis. For more, see the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.
(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email it to stljazznotes at yahoo dot com. No attachments, please.)
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