Jazz this week: Legacy Jazz Quintet, BAG Trio, Erin Bode, and more

With no touring jazz acts in St. Louis this week, it's an opportune time for St. Louis listeners to check out some of our homegrown talent. Fortunately, there's a good bit of activity this weekend, starting tonight with a couple of educational events, namely New Music Circle's analog synthesis workshop at the Carpenter branch of the St. Louis Public Library and Jazz St. Louis' initial "Jazz 101" class at Jazz at the Bistro. Post-Dispatch pop critic Kevin Johnson has a bit more about the latter event in his column today.

Also tonight, the BAG Trio with Zimbabwe Nkenya, Mike Nelson and Gary Sykes will do a free concert as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series, and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman's new group Hot Club Caravan performs at Brandt's.

Speaking of new bands, this Friday and Saturday also marks the debut of the Legacy Jazz Quintet, led by pianist and Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap, at Jazz at the Bistro. Described as being "in the mold of the classic quintets of Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Horace Silver from the 1950s and 1960s," the group includes saxophonist Jason Swagler, trumpeter Tony Wiggins, bassist Nick Jost and drummer Marty Morrison.

Also on Friday, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis opens its musical play Ella, based on the life of singer Ella Fitzgerald; Trio Tres Bien performs at Brandt's; and singer Erin Bode (pictured) performs with her group at Revival, the swanky new restaurant in Midtown in the space formerly occupied by King Louie's. Bode is also in action on Saturday night, headlining a show at the Lucas School House concert club.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday Jazz St. Louis will present another of its "Jazz Perspectives" discussions at the Centene Center for Arts and Education, 3547 Olive Blvd, this time featuring the Heath Brothers, who will be in town next week to play the Bistro.

For more local jazz-related 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.)

(Edited after posting to fix typos)