Jazz this week: Dianne Reeves, Kim Massie, Jason Swagler, Mary Dyson and more

This week's notable jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis include a benefit concert featuring a well-known touring headliner and a number of shows spotlighting featuring local musicians.

The touring artist in question is singer Dianne Reeves (pictured), who performs Sunday night at the Sheldon Concert Hall in a benefit for Community Women Against Hardship. Touring in support of When You Know, her latest release on Blue Note, Reeves is working with a quartet including St. Louis native Peter Martin on piano, Romero Lubambo on guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums.

As for the local talent, on Thursday evening singer Kim Massie gives a free concert at the Foundry Arts Centre in St. Charles as part of Jazz St. Louis' new Whitaker Community Concerts series.

Then on Friday and Saturday, saxophonist Jason Swagler leads his group in a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. A graduate of the jazz program at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Swagler now teaches at SIU-E in addition to gigging around town with various bands playing straightahead jazz and funk.

And speaking of funk, Friday night also is when self-described "groove oriented modern jazz and funk" band Elastik Soul performs at The Gramophone. Meanwhile, other notable shows on Saturday include New Music Circle's Rich O'Donnell and friends doing a multi-media performance piece called WORDSDROW at Satori, located at 3003 Locust downtown, and keyboard player Tony Simmons offering a tribute to Ray Charles at the Black Cat Theatre in Maplewood.

On Sunday, singer Mary Dyson and pianist Brock Walker's trio will inaugurate the new jazz and blues vespers series at Second Baptist Church, 9030 Clayton Rd. near the Galleria. Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band is at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, guitarist Pete Lombardo and his group perform at The Gramophone.

As usual, these are just some of the week's highlights, so to see listings of more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis 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.)