Jazz this week: Zappa Plays Zappa; Wine, Dine and Jazz Festival; Erin Bode; Trombone Shorty; Gary Dammer; Linda Presgrave; and more

It's a busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with concerts, a free festival, and club gigs that will offer something for musical tastes ranging from traditional jazz to mainstream to seriously warped.

Speaking of warped, for yr. humble editor, a confirmed Zappaphile since my teens, the highlight of the next few days will be the return of Zappa Plays Zappa to The Pageant on Monday evening. Based on the band's 2006 appearance at the same venue, I can heartily recommend the ZPZ show to anyone who enjoys, or just is curious about, Frank Zappa's music. Along with the core band led by Frank's eldest son Dweezil, the special guest on this year's tour is singer-guitarist Ray White, so expect at least a portion of the show to be devoted to FZ's output from the 1980s, when White was a mainstay of his touring ensemble. However, the 2006 tour successfully incorporated music from just about every period of Zappa's long and diverse career, and I'd look for a similarly varied mix this time around as well.

That said, there are plenty of other noteworthy shows happening this week, starting this evening when singer Erin Bode (pictured) opens the 2008 Whitaker Music Festival series of free concerts at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It's a busy week for Bode, whose new CD The Little Garden will be available for the first time anywhere at tonight's show. She's also appearing at the Cabaret at Savor on Thursday, and will be doing concerts on Friday and Saturday at the Innsbrook Music Institute with her band and members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

If your taste runs more toward straight-ahead swing, veteran St. Louis trumpeter Gary Dammer, best known for his long-running big band, will lead a small combo dubbed the I-70 Jazz Connection in performances on Friday and Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro .

To sample a varied musical menu in a single outing, check out the first-ever Wine, Dine and Jazz Festival, which will take place on Saturday in and around the square in downtown Belleville, IL. The free event starts at 11:00 a.m. and runs until 9:00 p.m., featuring performances by the Craig Russo Latin Jazz Project, Anita Rosamond, Good 4 The Soul, Brian Owens, the Nathan Jatcko Trio, Phil Dunlap's Legacy Jazz Quintet, Mary Dyson, John Farrar & Straight Eight, and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars student ensemble.

Also on Saturday, New Orleans brass man Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews brings his funk band Orleans Avenue to the Broadway Oyster Bar, and pianist and St. Louis native Linda Presgrave returns home from her current base in NYC to lead her quartet in a performance at Cookie's Jazz and More.

Last but not least, on Sunday the St. Louis Jazz Club will present the traditional jazz sounds of pianist Jean Kittrell's Old St. Louis Levee Band in a show at the Moolah Shrine Center, 12545 Fee Fee Rd.

For more St. Louis 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.)