Jazz this week: Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau, Jan Shapiro, BAG II, Bosman Twins, Leon Thomas memorial concert, and more

This week's highlights post is a bit earlier than usual, due to a major jazz event in mid-week, and will also be a bit terse, as Blogger is being difficult today.

The major jazz event in question is Wednesday night's concert by Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau (pictured at left) at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Their collaboration already has produced two best-selling CDs in the last year, but this tour is the first time they've gone on the road together, and it's been getting plenty of publicity in both the jazz and mainstream press. StLJN has also had quite a bit of previous Metheny/Mehldau-related coverage, which you can see here.

On Thursday, singer and St. Louis native Jan Shapiro returns to St. Louis to do a free concert as part of the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. That same night, the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jim Widner and featuring Mardra Thomas on vocals, will take the stage at Jazz at the Bistro for two sets.

On Friday, the Black Arts Guild aka BAG II kicks off what they're calling their spring season with another concert at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site, this time featuring vocalist Thomasina Clarke along with bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya, drummer Glen "Papa" Wright and saxophonist Jerome Williams.

Friday is also the night for the second annual concert benefitting the Leon and Curtis Thomas Memorial Scholarship fund, featuring an all-star aggregation of local players performing at East St. Louis High School, and it's also the opening evening of a two-night stand for the Bosman Twins (pictured at right; Web site seems to be offline right now) at Jazz at the Bistro.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday night Webster University will present a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium called "South American Sketches," which will feature music by Luis Bonfa, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astor Piazzola performed by Erin Bode, Debby Lennon and Valerie Tichacek with the Webster Faculty Jazz Ensemble.

As always, you can find a more extensive list of this week's jazz events 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.)