Jazz this week: Luciana Souza's Brazilian duos and more

With the Cardinals facing off with the New York Mets for the National League championship and a possible trip to the World Series, baseball-loving St. Louisans - and that's a fairly substantial portion of the city's population, your humble editor included - are understandably in the full grip of pennant fever. However, it should be noted that there's plenty of good music happening in St. Louis this week, too.

Brazilian singer Luciana Souza (pictured) is the main touring jazz attraction visiting the Gateway City, performing two sets a night through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Souza is working with just her longtime collaborator and guitarist Roberto Lubambo on this tour, exploring the same format used on her most recent Grammy nominated CD, Duos II, which itself was a sequel to her 2002 CD Brazilian Duos. She's a critical favorite, having earned two previous Grammy nominations as well as awards from the Jazz Journalists Association, the Down Beat Critic's Poll, and others. As good as Souza is, some might find the duo format a bit monochromatic. But if you like the more subtle, intimate side of Brazilian music, this show should be right up your alley.

As for St. Louis-based musicians, there are a number of noteworthy shows this week, starting on Thursday when singer Valerie Tichacek and Friends are at Cookie's Jazz and More and the always suave Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum holds forth at Brandt's. On Friday, tenor sax master Willie Akins gets a relatively rare club date in his hometown of Webster Groves as he performs with bassist Willem Von Hambrecht at Crossings Taverne and Grille, while fellow saxophonist Tim Cunningham will be bringing his smooth jazz sound to Finale Music and Dining.

Finale sticks with a contemporary flavor on Saturday, presenting the funk and hip-hop-inflected sounds of multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris. If you're more in the mood for a piano trio that night, head to Brandt's for mainstream favorites Trio Tres Bien or to Crossings to catch Carolbeth True.

As usually happens, time and space limit us to listing just a few of the available options for St. Louis jazz fans, but you can see a more complete menu of this week's gigs by visiting 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.)