It's a busy week for touring jazz attractions in St. Louis, highlighted by appearances by two top jazz guitarists and a couple of powerful keyboard players.Guitarist Stanley Jordan, famed for his distinctive two-handed tapping technique, gets things started when he returns to Finale Music and Dining for two sets tonight and Thursday night. Jordan dropped off the touring scene for a while to pursue studies in music therapy, but he's back in town for his second visit within a year and reportedly in good form.
Another stellar guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel (pictured), is making his St. Louis debut tonight, opening a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, with two sets per night through Saturday. Rosenwinkel has been getting good buzz in the jazz press recently, and though I've only heard bits of a couple of his CDs, I'm looking forward to checking him out in person.
Next up, pianist Cyrus Chestnut follows Jordan into Finale for shows on Friday and Saturday night. Chestnut is well-known to St. Louis jazz fans from his several appearances at the Bistro, and has a repuatation for putting on entertaining and energetic performances.
On Saturday, organist Joey De Francesco and mallet percussionist Bobby Hutcherson will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. They're touring in support of a recent CD they recorded together, and, given that both are generally regarded as among the top players of their respective instruments, this show ought to be something special.
It's great to have so many fine musicians in town during a single week, and even better when the scheduling works out so that it is possible, in theory at least, to hear them all. However, a week this busy also can put a strain on the wallet, and so we would be remiss not to mention a couple of the more budget-friendly options out there this week, too.
Bassist Eric Stiller is appearing in a free concert Thursday night as part of the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Stiller is a Berklee alumni from Southern California who's done road time with Maynard Ferguson and recorded and performed with Bill Watrous, Pete Christlieb, Bobby Shew and Roy McCurdy.
Also, New Music Circle continues their ongoing Circle/Cinema series Friday night at the St. Louis Art Museum Auditorium with a screening of The Unholy Three, a 1925 film directed by Tod Browning (of Freaks fame) and starring Lon Cheney. The movie will be accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by an improvising ensemble of multi-instrumentalists including Mike Murphy, Tom Sutter, Tory Starbuck and Venus Slick. Admission is $5 for the general public, or $3 if you're a member of NMC or SLAM.
And finally, this is the debut week for "Collective Improvisation: The Story of Jazz in Saint Louis," a new documentary film on St. Louis jazz history that will premiere at 8 p.m. Thursday on HEC-TV. The film features new interviews with a variety of local jazz musicians, radio personalities, historians and journalists as well as, I'm told, some nice archival footage. HEC is available on cable systems in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County; check your channel guide for details. (Producer Christian Cudnick was kind enough to send along a copy of the :30 promo trailer for the film, and StLJN will have it posted for your persual later today.)
As for the rest of the local club scene, schedules for November are still coming in, and I'm posting the info to the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar as it arrives. So if you're looking for additional listening options before, after, in addition to, or instead of the above, you may want to check back again later in the week as well.
(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.)
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