Jazz this week: Ben Allison Quartet, Erin Bode, BAG II and more

Summer's moving into full swing, but for those who aren't on vacation, headed to one of the various lakes, or otherwise occupied with warm-weather activities, there's some quality jazz on St. Louis stages this week.

On Wednesday night, the Whitaker Music Festival wraps up the jazz portion of its annual series with a free concert at Missouri Botanical Garden by singer Erin Bode and her band . (Though there will be no more jazz shows this year, the free Wednesday concerts will continue through August, featuring blues, folk, pop and other musical genres.)

UPDATE - 3 p.m., 6/27/07: A reader has alerted me that New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band will be in town Thursday night to perform at the Broadway Oyster Bar (a club I don't monitor that closely for this site because they book primarily blues acts). Like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rebirth puts a modern spin on traditional brass band music. If you like the DDBB but haven't heard Rebirth, they're definitely worth a listen.

On Friday and Saturday, bassist Ben Allison (pictured) brings his Quartet to Jazz at the Bistro. Jazz Times has described Allison as a "visionary composer, adventurous improviser, and strong organizational force on the New York City jazz scene, [and he] has emerged as a rising star over the past decade." The Quartet, which includes Ron Horton on trumpet, Steve Cardenas on guitar, and, most recently, the seemingly ubiquitous Jeff Ballard on drums, has been called "the most forward-looking" of Allison's numerous performing ensembles.

The bassist has released seven albums of his own music, and also co-founded and serves as artistic director of the NYC not-for-profit Jazz Composers Collective. You can hear some audio samples of his music on his MySpace page and on the site of Palmetto Records, the label for which Allison has recorded six of his seven CDs as a leader.

Also on Saturday, the Black Arts Guild aka BAG II is presenting an "open mic" night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe. The organization invites "Musicians, Singers, Poets, Actors, Dancers, Visual Artists, Videographers, et al" to sign up in advance to perform by calling 314-249-0363 or sending an email to bag_blackartistsgroup @ yahoo.com before 7 p.m. on Friday.

Some other noteworthy gigs this week include trumpeter Dan Smith's Quintet with singer Debby Lennon at Cookie's Jazz and More and Jeff Anderson's Postive Energy Quartet at Brandt's, both on Thursday; and bassist Tom Kennedy's trio at Brandt's on Friday.

And finally, if you're near a radio on Sunday night, you can tune into KWMU for Dennis Owsley's program Jazz Unlimited and hear some choice 1960s recordings from Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock, aired as part of Owsley's ongoing Jazz Decades series.

For a more extensive schedule of St. Louis jazz-related activity this weekend and beyond, please visit 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. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)