Jazz this week: River City Mess Around, a new weekly jam session debuts, and more

The live jazz and creative music offerings in and around St. Louis are bit less numerous than usual this week, thanks to several factors including the holiday weekend, the recent closings of Robbie's House of Jazz and a couple of other live music spots, and the temporary closing for renovations of Jazz at the Bistro. Still, there definitely are some jazz shows happening over the next few days, and here's where you can find them...

Tonight, drummer Bernard Long Jr. and his Jazztet inaugurate a new weekly jam session at Troy's Jazz Gallery. Musicians of all skill levels, from professional to semi-pro to student, are invited to stop by and sit in.

Tomorrow night, Good 4 The Soul are back for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, guitarist Dave Black and his band plus guest singer Feyza Eren play at Nathalie's; guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing will perform at Robust Wine Bar; and trumpeter Jim Manley will be at Joyia Tapas.

On Friday, the River City Mess Around, a weekend of swing dance events sponsored by Lindy Hop St. Louis, officially gets underway with Miss Jubilee (pictured) performing at the Mahler Ballroom.

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso will return to Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; saxophonist Jim Stevens and band will be riverside at The Loading Dock in Grafton; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be back to play at the Venice Cafe

On Saturday, the River City Mess-Around continues with the "Mess-Around All Stars" playing for dancers at 2720 Cherokee. Elsewhere around town, keyboardist Matt Villinger leads a trio at Thurman Grill; Wack-A-Doo will perform at Evangeline's, and pianist Jesse Gannon will play solo at the Dark Room.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the Mess Around concludes will a performance from Michael Gamble's Gamblers at the Lemp Mansion Gazebo, 3322 DeMenil Pl; the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site; and saxophonist Willie Akins leads a quartet plus guest vocalist in what's being billed as another new recurring weekly gig at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Tom Byrne and band return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and pianist David Parker, drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw, and trumpeter George Sams will play at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

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.)