Jazz this week: Eric Person, Loren Pickford, Peter Martin and more

This week's jazz offerings in St. Louis are highlighted by appearances from a pair of well-traveled saxophonists. Native St. Louisan Eric Person (pictured) is making a stop in his hometown over the weekend, performing two sets on Saturday night at Finale Music and Dining as part of a national tour with his band Meta-Four. Person's a veteran performer who has toured and recorded with musicians such as Chico Hamilton, Dave Holland, McCoy Tyner and Ronald Shannon Jackson as well as leading his own groups. You can catch up on Person by reading some of StLJN's previous coverage of him here.

Also in town on Saturday is Loren Pickford, who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but is currently winding his way back to the Crescent City via a tour of the Midwest and South. Pickford will be performing at Brandt's on Saturday night, blending New Orleans style jazz and blues with original compositions.

And let's not forget pianist Peter Martin, another St. Louis native who has made a name for himself on the national scene as music director for singer Dianne Reeves, Martin will team up with drummer Maurice Carnes to give a free concert Thursday night on the Washington University campus as part of the Jazz at Holmes series.

Jazz at the Bistro's featured act this week is singer Kim Massie, who will perform Friday and Saturday night, giving listeners a taste of holiday music from her upcoming CD as well as some blues, soul and yes, a bit of jazz, too. (Longtime readers may recall that yr. humble StLJN editor does some piano playing with Ms. Massie, and I'll be at the keyboard for this gig, so consider yourself warned.)

Elsewhere in town, the very fine pianist Dave Venn performs tonight at Finale; trumpeter Dan Smith and singer Debby Lennon bring their group to Cookie's Jazz and More on Thursday; and on Sunday, Webster University will present its semi-annual concert featuring works written by current faculty members, including pianist Kim Portnoy. For a more comprehensive listing of this week's jazz-related performances, please 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 the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. No attachments, please.)