Jazz this week: Jeremy Davenport, a tribute to Dinah Washington, and more

Many of St. Louis' larger jazz presenters routinely avoid scheduling shows on holidays like Christmas, New year's and Independence Day, and since Labor Day is another weekend that falls into the same category, jazz activity in town will be relatively sparse over the next several days. Jazz at the Bistro and Robbie's House of Jazz are both closed for the holiday weekend, and other fall concert series won't get underway until later in the month.

As a result, the best-known jazz performer to play here in the next few days won't even get to St. Louis until after Labor Day. That would be trumpeter, singer and U. City native Jeremy Davenport (pictured) who's returning home from New Orleans to headline a free Twilight Tuesdays show next Tuesday outside the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Davenport remains a local favorite and, barring bad weather, should draw a good crowd, so get there early for the best seats.

However, while touring activity may be at a minimum, our town's local musicians are, as usual, working hard this Labor Day weekend. Tonight, singer Erin Bode plays the Tenderloin Room in the Chase Park Plaza hotel, and trumpeter Keith Moyer and his quartet perform an early-evening session at the downtown nightspot Lola.

On Friday, saxophonist Dave Stone will do his weekly gig at Mangia Italiano, and on Saturday afternoon, the Nu-Art Series presents Nikki Washington singing the music of Dinah Washington at the Metropolitan Gallery downtown helping to kick off the gallery's month-long exhibit of paintings by Cbabi Bayoc.

Also on Saturday afternoon, vibist and trumpeter Joe Bozzi leads his band Night Flight in a matinee at the Sands, while saxophonist Willie Akins plays his weekly show at Spruill's.

On Sunday, pianist Bob Row's group with clarinetist Scott Alberici does a matinee at the the Sands, and that evening, guitarist Teddy Presberg plays at Riddle's. And on Monday, bassist David Certain and his group CertainBeat WorldBop will take the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)