Jazz this week: Support your local jazzman (or woman)

Jeremy Davenport

Well, with storms over much of the St. Louis area, there have been two power outages just today here at StLJN HQ. So if this post seems a bit terse, it's because I'm trying to get it done before the lights go out and/or my computer crashes again. There's also apparently some sort of widespread weirdness happening with sites hosted at blogspot.com, so apologies to anyone who's had trouble logging on here during the last two days. Blogger says they're working on it, and they have a system-wide outage scheduled, presumably for repair purposes, at 4 p.m. Pacific time today.

Anyway, as we are now officially in the dog days of August, there are no major touring jazz headliners in St. Louis this week, and at least two of our town's regular jazz venues - Jazz at the Bistro and Cookie's Jazz and More - are "on vacation" this week. But even so, if you've got an appetite to go hear some music, there are plenty of St. Louis musicians serving up some good sounds this weekend.

For example, tonight Mae "Lady Jazz" Wheeler is singing at Brandt's, and trumpeter and vocalist Jeremy Davenport gets started on his weekend gig at Busch's Grove, (which, I hasten to add, continues through Saturday). On Friday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham returns to Finale Music and Dining, and the Dave Stone Trio will be doing their usual Friday night gig at Mangia Italiano. On Saturday, tenor sax master Willie Akins will do his customary early show at Spruill's, and the Jan Shapiro Trio will perform at Crossings Taverne and Grille. And let's not forget Sunday night, when the St. Louis New Jazz Quartet, led by bassist Willem von Hambrecht, will do their weekly gig at Riddle's, continuing the tradition started by the late John Norment.

As always, you can see an expanded list of this week's gigs by consulting 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 the information to stljazznotes at yahoo dot com. No attachments, please.)