Jazz this week: Ahmad Jamal, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Typhanie Monique, a benefit for KWMU, and more

This week brings two significant touring jazz headliners to St. Louis to help dispell winter's chill. If you're a fan of traditional New Orleans-style jazz, or just want to celebrate Carnival with some seasonally appropriate sounds, check out the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performing at Argosy Alton Casino on Friday and Saturday nights. Based on what I saw of the PHJB at the 2006 St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, it should be an entertaining, if not especially profound, evening of music.

If you're into a more laid-back, intimate sound forged in the post-bop era, you may enjoy veteran pianist Ahmad Jamal (pictured), who returns to St. Louis for a concert at the Sheldon on Saturday. Jamal's influence isn't nearly as pervasive as, say, Bill Evans or McCoy Tyner, to pick a couple of players from roughly the same age cohort, and back in the day some derided him as a mere "cocktail pianist." Yet, much to his credit, Jamal's music has continued to find an audience throughout a career spanning more than 50 years, and his best work continues to evince both very solid musicianship and a certain conceptual consistency that no doubt has played a role in his longevity.

Also visiting St. Louis this week is Chicago-based singer Typhanie Monique, who will perform in the first free Jazz at Holmes concert of the year Thursday night at Washington University.

That same night, singer Mardra Thomas and the Jazz Gentlemen Quartet - that's Mardra's husband Reggie Thomas' band, with Adaron "Pops" Jackson subbing for the leader on piano - will play at a benefit event for KWMU (FM 90.7) to be held at the Bistro at Grand Center. In addition to raising money for the radio station, the benefit also pays tribute to DJ, author and photographer Dennis Owsley, who hosts KWMU's Sunday night program Jazz Unlimited and will be there to emcee.

On Friday and Saturday, trombonist and "brass specialist" Lamar Harris will bring his band to Jazz at the Bistro, taking over the weekend originally scheduled for drummer Montez Coleman. St. Louis Post-Dispatch pop critic Kevin Johnson's column this week includes an interview with Harris that previews the performances; read it online here.

Other noteworthy gigs coming up: Cookie's Jazz and More has some solid straight-ahead sounds with trumpeter Randy Holmes' quintet on Friday and Trio Tres Bien with singer Danita Mumphard on Saturday. And looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Tom Byrne will lead an ensemble in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

For more St. Louis area jazz events, 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.)