Jazz this week: Kenny Garrett, Maude Maggart, benefits at SIUE and Webster U, and more

As fall weather really begins to settle in to the St. Louis area, here's what's going on around town over the next few days with jazz and creative music:

Tonight, saxophonist Kenny Garrett (pictured) begins a four-night stand that continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. For more on Garrett, see last Saturday's video post here, and his interview with the Post-Dispatch here.

Also tonight, singer Maude Maggart begins a four-night run for Cabaret St. Louis at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Broadly speaking, Maggart seems to come more from the theatrical side of cabaret than from jazz, but she's known for interpreting works by great American songwriters such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Vernon Duke, and Rodgers and Hart, so there may indeed be some interest there for some local jazz fans.

Tomorrow night, trumpeter Danny Campbell and drummer Maurice Carnes will do a free concert of hard bop and straight-ahead jazz for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Also on Thursday, the Unity Theatre Ensemble resumes their production of Lady Day at the Boston Bistro (An Evening with Billie Holiday), which feature singer Mardra Thomas and her husband, pianist Reggie Thomas, and continues through Sunday at the Ivory Theatre in south St. Louis. You can read a review of the show here.

Moving ahead to Sunday, singer Erin Bode will headline the annual benefit for the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Friends of Music benefit at Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus. Proceeds from the event go to support music scholarships at SIUE.

Then on Monday, Webster University holds the annual benefit concert for its TKT Scholarship Fund at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus. The"Celebration of the Great American Songbook" concert will include songs by Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Sammy Fain, Tadd Dameron, Burton Lane and Paul Simon performed by vocalists Amanda Carr, Ashley Mason and Peter Ayres; the Webster Jazz Singers directed by Debby Lennon; and Webster jazz faculty members Steve Schenkel (guitar), Paul DeMarinis (saxophones) , Kim Portnoy (piano), Carolbeth True (piano), Willem von Hombracht (bass) and Kevin Gianino (drums).

Proceeds benefit a scholarship established in memory of former Webster music students Terry Jackson, Kirk Cappello and Tony Saputo, who in 1991 were all killed in a plane crash while on tour with country singer Reba McIntyre.

For more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar or by clicking here.

(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.)