Jazz this week: Danilo Pérez, Jay Oliver, Denise Thimes, a big band Sunday, and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a visit from a top touring jazz pianist, the return of a favorite local singer to the city's showcase club, and one day that may seem like a time warp back to the big band era.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, February 24
Singer Denise Thimes (pictured, top left) returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of three evenings, continuing through Friday.

Also tonight, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra plays at Riverbend Restaurant & Bar.

Thursday, February 25
Keyboardist and St. Louis native Jay Oliver is back in town for a visit and will team up with guitarist/bassist William Lenihan and drummer Steve Davis to play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Elsewhere on Thursday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black perform at Thurman Grill; and the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Open Improv Night" with live improvised music.

Friday, February 26
Singer Tim Schall does his cabaret show "1961" at The Stage at KDHX; singer Chuck Flowers performs at Tavern of Fine Arts; and The Sidemen play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom

Saturday,
February 27
Pianist Danilo Pérez (pictured, lower left) plays the Sheldon Concert Hall, featuring music from his 2014 recording Panama 500, a sort of world-fusion concept that posits the music of that nation as part of a continuum of styles stretching around the globe. For more about that, and to see and hear Pérez performing some of the music from the album, check out the video showcase post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Saturday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Thurman Grill, and singer Eve Seltzer will perform at Evangeline's.

Sunday, February 28
While the "big band era" is supposed to have ended officially more than 60 years ago, you wouldn't necessarily know that by looking at the calendar for Sunday, which features four different big band performances in St. Louis on the same day.

For starters, the students in the McKinley High School Goldbug Jazz Band will be celebrating their first recording as a group with a matinee concert & CD release party at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Meanwhile, just a few blocks to the south, The Big Little Big Band will present a free concert at the Scottish Rite Cathedral Auditorium on Lindell.

Then on Sunday evening, the Dave Dickey Big Band will present their monthly performance at Jazz at the Bistro, with the North County HS Jazz Ensemble playing at intermission, while the Jazz Edge Big Band
returns to the Kirkwood Station Brewing Company (where Dickey's band played until the opening of the expanded Ferring Jazz Bistro in 2014).

Monday, February 29
Saxophonists Christopher Braig and Paul DeMarinis will join forces for a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck; and pianist Ptah Williams continues his Monday night residency at Thurman Grill.

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.)