Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Jazz this week: Marcus Miller, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Pamela Rose's "Wild Women of Song," Jazz Edge Big Band, and more

There's lots going on in jazz and creative music this week in St. Louis, and so you don't miss out, here's a special early edition of our weekly highlights post...

Tuesday, June 16
Tonight, bassist Marcus Miller and his band return to St. Louis to begin a three-night stand continuing through Thursday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Miller, also known for his production work on behalf of musicians including Miles Davis and David Sanborn, is on tour promoting a new album, Afrodeezia. As the title suggests, the recording adds some African and "world music" flavors to Miller's usual stew of funk and jazz elements.

For more about that, plus videos of performances of music from Afrodeezia, see this post from a week ago Saturday. And for even more, Miller (pictured, top left) talked with Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch for a brief preview story about the gig.

Also tonight, baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson will be in town to perform at Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave. You can find out more about him and see some examples of his electronically augmented solo performances in this post from last Saturday.

Wednesday, June 17
Singer Joe Mancuso will be this week's featured performer for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at Tavern of Fine Arts; and guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran plays at Nathalie's.

Update - 1:30 p.m. 5/16/15: Due to rain saturating the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Joe Mancuso's concert has been postponed until next year. Instead, Mancuso and band will play a free show starting at 7:30 p.m. at Thurman Grill.

Thursday, June 18
Guitarist Dave Black and friends, including featured vocalist Feyza Eren, will perform at Nathalie’s; and pianist Brad Ellebrecht and singer Diane Vaughn will play a duo show at Tavern of Fine Arts.

Friday, June 19
The trio of bassist Bob DeBoo, saxophonist Dave Stone, and drummer Montez Coleman will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; and the Jazz Edge Big Band presents "A Tribute to St. Louis Saxophonists" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, with guest performances from Eric Person (pictured, center left) as well as the Bosman Twins, Willie Akins and Paul DeMarinis.

Also on Friday, the St. Louis Big Band will present "Tap + Jazz," featuring tap dancer Tommy Wasiuta performing with the band, at Casa Loma Ballroom; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Backstreet Jazz & Blues Club in Westport.

Saturday, June 20 
The Old Rock House presents their second annual "Summer Gras," an all-day event with music from New Orleans' Dumpstaphunk, with Ivan Neville on keyboards, plus Austin, TX funk band Mingo Fishtrap, singer-songwriter Marc Broussard, the Funky Butt Brass Band, and more. 

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley and friends - singer Charlie B, keyboardist Arthur Toney, guitarist Randy Bahr and drummer Joe Weber - return to Nathalie's; guitarist Todd Mosby and cellist Traci Andreotti will greet the summer solstice with a duo performance at Seedz Café; and Gypsy jazz band Franglais hosts a late-night jam session at Evangeline's.

Sunday, June 21
San Francisco-based singer Pamela Rose (pictured, lower left) makes her St. Louis debut with a benefit performance of her show "Wild Women of Song” at the Ferring Jazz Bistro.

Monday, June 22
Rose presents a free performance of "The Life and Music of Etta James" at the  Emerson Performance Center on the campus of Harris Stowe State University; and singer Dean Christopher reprises his "Rat Pack & More" show at One 19 Tapas and Wine Bar.

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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