Jazz this week: Zappa Plays Zappa, Good 4 The Soul, Sinatra Songbook, Montez Coleman, St. Louis Rivermen, and more

This week's post may be somewhat minimal, thanks to a bad head cold that's knocking yr. humble StLN editor for a loop, but the jazz and creative music offerings in St. Louis over the next few days are plentiful. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, Zappa Plays Zappa performs at The Pageant. This year's show features the band playing Frank Zappa's 1974 album Apostrophe(') in its entirety. I wrote a short preview of the concert for last week's Riverfront Times, which you can read online here. Also, you can read my review of ZPZ's first St. Louis show back in 2006 here. And to see some video of ZPZ playing various songs from Apostrophe(') earlier this year, see this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, the University of Missouri-St. Louis big band, under the direction of Jim Widner, will play at Robbie's House of Jazz,

On Friday and Saturday, Good 4 the Soul (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro with their crowd-pleasing mix of jazz, funk and more.

Also on Friday, the Steve Schankman Orchestra and singer Tom Heitman will reprise their "Sinatra Songbook" show at the Mirowitz Performing Arts Center at the JCC; singer Erin Bode performs at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles; and bassist Daryl Mixon's trio plays at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday afternoon, singer Carmen Emborski and pianist Heather Bosshardt, aka Les Filles des Jazz, and Emborski's quintet will be the featured entertainment at an event called "Jazz For Change" to be held at The Annex at Cafe Ventana, 3919 West Pine Blvd. Proceeds benefit the Christian Foundation for Education.

That evening, drummer Montez Coleman is the nominal leader of a trio gig at Robbie's that also will feature Peter Martin on piano and Chris Thomas on bass. Though all three both are originally from St. Louis, they've all established themselves on the national scene as well, making this gig, with a cover of just $10, the likely "sleeper" show of the week.

UPDATE, 6:25 p.m., 12/8/10: Just got an email from Dan Martin of Peter Martin Music, who says that the pianist is NOT part of Saturday's gig at Robbie's; the erroneous info came from the club's website. The gig may indeed still be a worthy one, but Martin won't be there, so please consider our editorial expectation to be adjusted accordingly.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Rick Haydon will duet at the Bossanova Restaurant & Lounge in Alton, IL.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Rivermen at the Doubletree Hotel & Conference Center in Chesterfield. That evening, guitarist Tom Byrne's trio plays at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday singer Brian Owens will appear in a "Notes From Home" performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and Robbie's House of Jazz will host their weekly Tuesday night jam session.

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.)