If there's a theme to this week, it would seem to be "youth," as the next few days' worth of jazz and creative music in St. Louis will feature a number of fresh faces (plus a few relatively grizzled veterans) performing in a variety of styles ranging from the traditional to the experimental. Let's go to the highlights...
Tonight, vibraphonist
Peter Schlamb and his group will kick off the winter/spring 2012
Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University.
Also tonight, up-and-coming young pianists
Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi will team up for a performance at
Robbie's House of Jazz; and the Young Friends groups of
Jazz St. Louis and the St. Louis Science Center will present their second
"Jazz Under The Stars" event at the McDonnell Planetarium in Forest Park, featuring music from drummer Marty Morrison and Friends with guest vocalist
Erin Bode.
On Friday, the
Wee Trio (
pictured) opens a two-night engagement at
Jazz at the Bistro. The group, which features St. Louis native Dan Loomis on bass, New Yorker Jared Schonig on drums, and New Orleans' James Westfall on vibraphone, last played the Bistro in 2009. This time around, they're touring behind a new CD,
Ashes to Ashes: A David Bowie Intraspective, which, as the name suggests, features their interpretations of six songs written by iconic rocker David Bowie.
Yr. humble StLJN editor spoke with Loomis last week about the project for an article that should go up on the
Riverfront Times' RFT Music Blog some time on Thursday. Once it's online, we'll add a link here; in the meantime, for more about the Wee Trio and some video footage of them in action, see
this post, which preceded their last visit here.
UPDATE - 10:15 a.m., 1/26/12: The interview with Dan Loomis is online
here.
Also on Friday, saxophonist Greg Lewis and his group Press Play return to Robbie's House of Jazz, and guitarist
Tom Byrne's trio will be back at the
Cigar Inn.
Then on Saturday night, the improvising percussionist
Chris Corsano will be in town to perform with bassist Darin Gray and saxophonist Dave Stone in a concert presented by
New Music Circle at Kranzberg Arts Center. For more about Corsano, including links to a couple of extended interviews and more than an hour of live performance video, check out
this post from last Saturday.
UPDATE - 10:30 p.m., 1/26/12: You can read my Critic's Pick about Corsano written for this week's print edition of the
RFT here. (Musicians and music students take note: Corsano and Gray also will lead a free public workshop on improvisation and extended techniques from noon to 2:00 p.m. Saturday at Luminary Center for the Arts, 2900 Reber Pl.)
On Sunday afternoon, the
St. Louis Jazz Club will present a stylistically diverse double bill featuring the traditional jazz sound of Banjos & Brass, plus
Utter Chaos, a quartet of young musicians featuring a front line of baritone sax and trombone and drawing inspiration from 1950s cool jazz, at the
Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westport.That evening, saxophonist Freddie Washington will open a
series of Sunday night shows presented by the Black Rep at the
Grandel Theater.
Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday evening
Dave Black and Bridge will perform at
Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium. The eclectic ensemble features Black on guitar along with violinist Asako Kuboki, cellist Tracy Andreotti, bassist Syd Rodway and percussionist Henry Claude, performing original compositions that draw on jazz, classical, world music and more.
Then on Tuesday, the
St. Louis MetroBones, a new group that features 14 trombonists from area high schools and colleges under the direction of veteran trombonist and educator
Dave Dickey, will play a concert at the
Black Cat Theatre.
For more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis, 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.)