With Christmas fast approaching, there are no touring jazz groups in St. Louis this week. But if you've got time in your busy schedule over the next few days to go out and hear some music, there are some performances worth noting by some of our fine homegrown talent.On Thursday, singer Mae Wheeler will perform at Brandt's. The club's Web site indicates a 5 p.m. start time, earlier than the usual for a weeknight, so if you're thinking of going it might be wise to call ahead for details.
On Friday and Saturday night, the jazz/funk/soul quartet Good 4 the Soul returns to Jazz at the Bistro. The band is made up of four veteran musicians from East St. Louis - Adaron "Pops" Jackson on keyboards, John King on bass, Shaun Robinson on guitar and drummer James Jackson - and you may have seen one or more them in various configurations backing other artists around town, including singers Brian Owens and Kim Massie and Jazz St. Louis' own tenor sax man/director of operations Bob Bennett. I still haven't had a chance to hear all four members of G4TS play as an ensemble yet, but the audio excerpts on their Web site sound promising, and I've been impressed with the musicianship of the individual members when I've heard them in other contexts.
UPDATE - 12/21/07, 11 p.m.: Terry Perkins did a feature story about Good 4 The Soul that appeared in yesterday's Post-Dispatch. The article is available online here.
On Friday, trumpeter Randy Holmes leads his Hard Bop Heritage group in a tribute to Chet Baker at Finale Music and Dining. Vocalist Dean Christopher, who's fronted his own Rat Pack-themed show at Finale a number of times, will be a special guest, singing some of the tunes Baker once interpreted. Also on Friday, singer, pianist and saxophonist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum performs at Brandt's, and Cookie's Jazz and More hosts a reunion for their Young Jazz All-Stars ensemble.
On Saturday, singer Anita Rosamond (pictured) brings her holiday show to Finale. Rosamond will draw on material from her 2006 holiday CD This is Christmas, backed by a band including Mark Christopher on saxophone, Philip Burton on bass, guitarist Grant Krener and drummer Josh Costello.
UPDATE - 12/21/07, 7 p.m.: Just got an email that Boston-based improvising saxophonist Bhob Rainey is making one of his periodic trips to St. Louis and will be performing at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Also on the bill are St. Louis musicians Jim Hegarty, Mark Sarich, Jeremy Kannapell and Andrew Heffner.
For more local jazz-related events this week and into the New Year, 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.)
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