It's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of touring musicians and groups performing here over the next several days in styles ranging from traditional New Orleans jazz to big band to fusion to free improv. Let's go to the highlights:
Tonight, the electric jazz/fusion group
Yellowjackets returns to St. Louis to open a four-night stand at
Jazz at the Bistro. The 'Jackets have been regular visitors to St. Louis, though this will be their first time here since former drummer Will Kennedy returned to the fold last year to replace St. Louis native Marcus Baylor, who spent ten years with them. Given their substantial local fan base, they should draw a good-sized crowd even with everything else going on this week, so advance reservations definitely are recommended.
Also tonight, the highly anticipated tour featuring the
Preservation Hall Jazz Band and bluegrass star
Del McCoury's band comes to the
Family Arena. (The show originally was scheduled for last fall, then postponed until this week.) If you're curious as to what this combination of roots music talent sounds like, the collaborative CD
American Legacies featuring both groups has just been released this week, and you can listen to it stream online for free
here. Local music freelancer Dan Duchholz also wrote a nice preview story about the show for the
Post-Dispatch, and you can read that online
here.
Rounding out tonight's musical offerings is percussionist
Tatsuya Nakatani, who will organize and perform with a "Gong Orchestra" comprised of local improvising musicians at
Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Nakatani also will teach a free master class on improvisation and extended percussion techniques at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon at LNAC.
Tomorrow night, the
Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University wraps up its spring 2011 series with the music of the Crusaders performed by a group billed as Scratch (which is the title of one of the Crusaders 1970s recordings.) Oddly, JaH has released no information about the specific lineup of players, other than the so-vague-as-to-be-useless description of "some of St. Louis' best musicians," so there's not much more to say about this show.
Update, 10:50 a.m., 4/14/11 - Just got a Facebook invite to the Scratch gig from one of the musicians involved, and it looks like the band is made up mostly of musicians associated in some way with SIUE: Ben Reece (tenor sax), Cody Henry (trombone), Phil Ring (guitar), Adaron "Pops" Jackson (keyboards), Nick Jost (bass) and Miles Vandiver (drums).
Also on Thursday,
Simon Shaheen will play at SIUE's Meridian Ballroom. Shaheen, a Palestinian-American oud and violin player and composer who mixes Arabic music with Western sounds and has performed with Bill Laswell, Henry Threadgill and the Klezmatics, is appearing as part of
SIUE's Arts and Issues series.
On Friday, the public portion of the 2011
Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival begins with the
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra playing at the
Touhill Performing Arts Center. Descended from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, the VJO has been a Monday night fixture at NYC's Village Vanguard for more than 40 years, serving as a proving ground for several generations of players and arrangers. The UMSL Jazz Ensemble will open the festival's shows on both Friday and Saturday, and they'll by joined onstage by the legendary
Clark Terry, who, though no longer able to play trumpet due to health issues, will pick up the mic to sing his famously mushmouthed blues "Mumbles."
Also on Friday, guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio plays at
Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio will hold forth at the
Cigar Inn in Belleville.
The GSLJF continues on Saturday as bassist
Ron Carter (
pictured) returns to St. Louis for the first time since the mid-1980s to perform at the TouPAC. One of the most recorded and most influential bassists of the past 50 years, Carter will play with his Golden Striker trio, featuring pianist
Mulgrew Miller and guitarist
Russell Malone. For more about them and the VJO, and some video samples of both groups, please see
this post from last Saturday.
Also on Saturday,
New Music Circle present the premiere of its Laptop Orchestra Project at the William A. Kerr Foundation, which is at
21 O'Fallon St on the riverfront, just north of Laclede's Landing. The event will feature musicians Jim Hegarty, Steven Thomas, Joseph Potthoff, James S. Hegarty and Thomas Zirkle using laptop computers to perform improvised works and original compositions, as well as pieces by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which originated the laptop ensemble concept.
On Sunday, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis will lead his group in an early evening performance at Second Baptist Church for the
St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series, and the
Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, directed by saxophonist
Ronald Carter, will perform at Robbie's.
Robbie's web site this week also added a note that trumpeter
Randy Brecker will appear a guest artist with the NIU band, but StLJN has been unable to verify that information as of this writing.
Update - 8:30 p.m., 4/13/11: The itinerary on
Brecker's website shows Sunday, April 17 as the final day of a five-performance tour with the NIU Jazz Ensemble, but identifies the venue as the Sheldon Concert Hall. The Sheldon's website makes no mention of the show, so it would appear that Robbie's somehow wound up as a substitute venue, and Brecker will indeed be there.
Update - 10:50 p.m., 4/13/11: Just heard from Dorothy Edwards, the co-owner/general manager of Robbie's, who confirmed that Randy Brecker will be in the house on Sunday night. Spread the word...
Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer
Vanessa Rubin will be at SIUE for two free events sponsored by the university's Singer's Society. She'll lead a master class for vocalists at 3:00 p.m., then perform in concert that night with the SIUE Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Both events are open to the public, and will take place at
Dunham Hall on the SIUE campus.
Also on Monday, pianist
Peter Martin and singer
Erin Bode are performing at
Roberts Orpheum Theater as part of benefit kicking off
St. Louis Design Week 2011; and the Sessions Big Band returns to
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.)
(Edited after posting to add info about Clark Terry's appearance and to fix a couple of typos. Updated to include more details on Randy Brecker's appearance with the NIU Jazz Ensemble.)