Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Juilliard Jazz Small Ensemble, and more

It's sort of an unofficial jazz education week here in St. Louis, with the major events centered on student-friendly programming, starting with the concert by the Juilliard Jazz Small Ensemble directed by drummer Carl Allen (pictured) at the Sheldon Concert Hall tonight. Allen and the Juilliard musicians have been working with local school ensembles for the past two days, and several of those bands will take the stage tonight to perform one number each before turning the stage over to Allen, best known for his work with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and his proteges.

Workshops, clinics and master classes also are an important part of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, which began yesterday and will culminate this weekend with concerts on Friday and Saturday night at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Both shows will feature the UMSL Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Jim Widner; Friday's featured guests are pianist Shelly Berg, saxophonist Tom Scott, drummer Gregg Field, bassist Chuck Berghofer and trombonist Paul McKee, while Saturday's guest soloists will be clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and trumpeter Wayne Bergeron.

One group of student musicians who won't be hanging out the TouPAC this weekend is the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars, the band of high-school age players affiliated with Jazz St. Louis' ongoing educational programs, who will do their annual performances at Jazz at the Bistro on Friday and Saturday.

Other noteworthy events over the next few days: Tonight, singer Tony Viviano performs a free concert featuring the music of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series. On Saturday, improvising percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani will do a solo performance sponsored by New Music Circle at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, and the Randy Holmes Quintet does a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington at Cookie's Jazz and More. On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents Cornet Chop Suey in a concert of traditional jazz and swing at Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville.

Beyond the weekend, the Genesis Jazz Project will do a free big band concert at the TouPAC on Monday night, and on Tuesday, singer and pianist Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum performs at Brandt's, while the BAG Trio, featuring Zimbabwe Nkenya, Gary Sykes and Michael Nelson, takes the stage at The Gramophone.

For more local jazz-related events 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.)

(Edited after posting to correct the location of the Cornet Chop Suey show.)