Roy Ayers in St. Louis this Sunday, November 4 (plus some miscellaneous rumor control)

As regular readers know, I try to keep an eye on the visitor logs for this site to get a sense of what brings people here, and sometimes the search terms visitors are using can be my first clue that something's happening.

So, when I saw several searches for "Roy Ayers" and "St. Louis" pop up in the logs over the past couple of days, I did a little searching of my own. The vibraphonist's own site had no tour info at all, and the usually reliable Pollstar showed only dates in the Boston area this Friday and Saturday and a 10-day stint in London at the end of the year.

After a little more digging, I found out that Metrotix is indeed advertising an appearance by Ayers at 8 p.m. this Sunday, November 4 at a venue called Lights On Broadway, located at 8344 N. Broadway in the Baden neighborhood of north St. Louis.

I couldn't find a Web site for Lights On Broadway, but from some other stuff I've found on the Web, it appears to be some sort of conference center/private party facility. Tickets are $35 and $40, plus service charge, and though Metrotix is no longer selling them on the Web, their event page for the show says you can still purchase the ducats in person at Metrotix outlets or at the door.

I've also noticed a number of searches recently for "Zappa Plays Zappa" and "St. Louis." While ZPZ was here in December 2006 to perform at The Pageant, according to the tour info page on their Web site, the closest they're getting to St. Louis in 2007 is Kansas City, where they'll play the Ameristar Casino next Saturday, November 10. Rest assured, Zappa fans, that if ZPZ should announce another St. Louis appearance at some point, the news will be given prominent play in this space.

Finally, this seems like as good a place as any to update a story about which many rumors have flown but little solid information has been made public - namely, the online request made back in August by singer Erin Bode, who asked fans to make contributions to a legal fund. That request, made by email with Bode's monthly gig schedule, and also on her erinbode.com home page, has now disappeared completely from her Web site. Similarly, a blog entry that had been on her MySpace page and made reference to said fundraising appeal also seems to be gone.

So what's going on? Has the singer resolved her potential legal difficulties (which my sources suggested were related to a desire to split with her record label MAXJAZZ)?

I don't know, but if anyone else reading this does, please email me at stljazznotes @ yahoo . com. (Don't forget to remove the extra spaces in the email address.) Also, if any StLJN readers gave money to Bode's legal fund and have received subsequent communications from Bode or another representative, please share your experiences with the rest of us, either publicly in the comments or, if you wish to remain anonymous, via email to the address indicated above.