Thursday, March 27, 2014

Jazz this week: Mwata Bowden, a David Sanborn tribute, "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60," Alarm Will Sound, and more

Events have conspired to make this week's preview of jazz and creative music shows in and around St. Louis both rather terse and somewhat behind schedule. so let's go straight to the highlights....

Tonight, multi-instrumentalist Mwata Bowden of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, performs a free concert with bassist Paul Steinbeck and drummer Gary Sykes for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. For more about Bowden and some video samples of him performing, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and The Freedom plays smooth jazz and fusion at The Engine Room.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Jim Stevens teams up with jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 the Soul for the first of two nights in which they "Play the Music of David Sanborn" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode provides the musical entertainment for "Heart 2 Heart," a benefit for the organization Education 4 All, Inc, at Gallery 400 on Washington Ave; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald returns to Jazz on Broadway; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and the Lindenwood University Jazz Band, with special guest soloist Marshall Gilkes on trombone, will wrap up the first-ever Lindenwood University Jazz Festival with a performance at the Scheidegger Center for the Arts on campus.

On Saturday, singer Joe Mancuso and pianist Adam Maness will duet at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; the Coleman Hughes Project performs at The Rustic Goat; and husband-and-wife cabaret performers Joe Dreyer and Rosemary Watts will reprise their show "Swing Into Spring" for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show, having been postponed due to bad weather twice already this year, will present their first show of 2014 at the usual location, the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway. Also on Sunday afternoon, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, the all-star "Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60" tribute show, which has been touring for the past two months, arrives at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The ensemble (pictured) features St. Louis' own Peter Martin on piano, along with clarinetist/saxophonist and music director Anat Cohen, singer Karrin Allyson, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Larry Grenadier.

Also on Sunday evening, singer Steve Lippia will join the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" at Powell Symphony Hall.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's student jazz combos will give a free performance at the Community Music School building on campus; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound resumes their St. Louis season at a new venue, performing music from Aphex Twin, Tyondai Braxton, and Steve Reich at The Pageant. For more details, check out this preview story written by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

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.)

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