Jazz this week: Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Nellie McKay, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, ROCKPILE Poetry and Music Festival, and more

We've got an interesting variety of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis over the next few days, starting with the eclectic singer, songwriter, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Nellie McKay, who's in town tonight and Thursday to perform at Kranzberg Arts Center for the Cabaret St. Louis series.

Also tonight, bassist Christian McBride (pictured) and his new acoustic jazz group Inside Straight will begin a four-night engagement just around the corner at Jazz at the Bistro. For more on McBride and the concept behind Inside Straight, which also includes St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, see StLJN's recent Saturday video post on McBride here.

For still more, you can see and hear a complete set from the band's performance last week at the Village Vanguard, courtesy of public radio station WBGO and National Public Radio. (Note also that in a Twitter message Tuesday, Jazz St. Louis' Devin Rodino tweeted that the early sets for McBride are nearly sold out, so if you're planning to go, advance reservations would be recommended.)

On Thursday, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band return to the Broadway Oyster Bar, hoping, as usual, to incite some New Orleans-style revelry. For some video samples of the DDBB in action, see this post from last Saturday. Also, check out recent the podcast interview with DDBB saxophonist and co-founder Roger Lewis from Jason Crane's site The Jazz Session.

Friday's noteworthy events includes performances by two veterans of St. Louis' famed Gaslight Square, as singer Mae Wheeler holds forth at Seasons St. Louis and singer Gene Lynn serenades diners and drinkers at Mihalis Chophouse, 1603 McCausland. And as long as we're talking vocalists, let's also note that singer Ron Wilkinson is back in action this Saturday night at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday afternoon, singer Erin Bode will perform with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra violinist and concertmaster David Halen at the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shoenberg Theater for a live broadcast on KFUO (99.1 FM).

Looking beyond weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band returns to BB's Jazz Blues and Soups downtown. And on Tuesday, the touring Rockpile Poetry and Music Festival will be held at the Regional Arts Commission. 6128 Delmar. The St. Louis performance of this free event, created by David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg, will feature musicians Zimbabwe Nkenya, Dave Black and Bob Malone, and poets Michael Franklin, Shirley LeFlore, Michael Castro, K. Curtis Lyle, David Jackson, Alexander Balogh, Sean Arnold, Terri Carrion, Howard Schwartz and Philip Gounis.

For information on 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. Also, you can follow St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes and become a "fan" by signing up on the StLJN Facebook page.

(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.)