Jazz this week: Terry Parrish, "A White Affair," Liberty Jazz Band, and more

It's shaping up to be an eclectic late-summer weekend of jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis, with performances in styles ranging from ragtime to swing to smooth jazz and R&B to experimental. Let's go to the highlights...

Thursday, August 13
Pianist Adam Maness will play while artist Vesna Delevska paints at Lilly's Music & Social House, and bassist Willem von Hombracht will team up with saxophonist Dave Stone at Thurman Grill.

Friday, August 14
The Funky Butt Brass Band will perform at Broadway Oyster Bar, and the Original Knights of Swing play for dancers at Casa Loma Ballroom. Also on Friday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Nathalie's, and pianist Rick Zelle will back singers Rebecca Drury, Erik Olson and Karen Zelle at Tavern of Fine Arts.

(Jazz at the Bistro, meanwhile, is on pause this weekend, as the Bistro will serve as a venue for Grand Center's "Music at the Intersection" series on Friday, and will host a third-party production - see below for more - on Saturday.)

Saturday, 
August 15
You can take your pick from three different pianists working in three very different styles, as the Friends of Scott Joplin will present Terry Parrish (pictured, top left) playing ragtime at the Scott Joplin State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe; Greg Mills will offer free improv, contemporary and experimental sounds at Tavern of Fine Arts; and Marvin F. Cockrell and Focus with special guest singer Alvin Garrett (pictured, center right) will perform smooth jazz and R&B for “A White Affair” at the Ferring Jazz Bistro.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley and his All-Star Group return to Nathalie's; Wack-A-Doo plays swing and Americana at Evangeline's; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham performs at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Sunday, August 16
St. Louis Jazz Club presents Mexico, MO's Liberty Jazz Band (pictured, lower left) playing traditional jazz and swing in a matinee at the Doubletree Hotel in Westport.

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.)