Jazz this week: Kim Thompson drums, local divas sing, and more

As often happens around this time of year, its a relatively light weekend for live jazz in St. Louis. Several of our town's not-for-profit presenters, including Jazz at the Bistro, the Nu-Art Series, and Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series, wrapped up their summer schedules of events last week, while others, including the Sheldon and the TouPAC, remain on break until September.

Nevertheless, in addition to the usual menu of local musicians' recurring weekly gigs, there are a few other noteworthy events happening around town.

Drummer Kim Thompson (pictured), a St. Louis native who's best known as part of the backing band for pop singer Beyonce but also has an extensive jazz background, is the major attraction of the weekend. Thompson will be in town to perform at the "White Linen Jazz Cabaret" on Saturday at the World's Fair Pavilion in Forest Park.

The event, a fundraiser for the Angels for Seniors Foundation, will feature two sets of straight-ahead and Latin jazz from Thompson, guitarist Spud Taylor, pianist Phil Gomez, bassist Daryl Mixon, trumpeter Dave Gordon, keyboardist Vance Taylor, bassist Jorge Casas and percussionist Herman Semidey, plus a set of vocals from Mary Dyson, Diane Vaughn and other St. Louis "divas." Tickets are $25 and $30, and can be purchased by calling Zvoy Productions at 1-314-629-485.

Meanwhile, Robbie's House of Jazz will present pianist Rob Myrick's quartet, with drummer Chuck Kennedy, bassist Chris Watrous and saxophonist Jerry Greene, on Friday; and saxophonist Greg Lewis' smooth jazz ensemble Press Play on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, there's a benefit at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups for KDHX DJ Gabriel, who recently lost his home in a fire. The music will be blues, not jazz, but it's for a good cause and should be a good time.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, which can be found on the left sidebar of the site or by clicking here. You also can keep up with all the latest news by following St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes or clicking the "Like" icon 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.)