Jazz this week: A tribute to 1970s fusion, trad jazz from Red Lehr, and more

With summer winding down and the fall presenting season yet to begin, it's not a particularly busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, but there still are some performances worth noting that are happening over the next few days.

Let's go to the highlights....

Thursday, August 25
Dizzy Atmosphere will play swing and Gypsy jazz as part of the "Sensational Summer Nights" series at Missouri Botanical Garden; and the Bruxism experimental music series continues at the Schlafly Tap Room, this month featuring Wiggpaw, Brett Williams, and UFO vs USA. 

Friday, August 26
An ad hoc quintet of St. Louis musicians will join forces to present "Weather Forever: The Music of Weather Report & Return to Forever," featuring music from two of the most popular jazz-fusion groups of the 1970s, for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

The ensemble attempting to bridge the disparate styles of these two iconic bands will include bassist Zeb Briskovich, drummer Montez Coleman (pictured, top left), keyboarist Adaron “Pops” Jackson, guitarist Eric Slaughter, and saxophonist Jason Swagler.

Also on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso brings a quartet to Nathalie's, and the Midwest Jazz-tette will play cool jazz in the West Coast style at Cigar Inn

Saturday, August 27 
Pianist Phil Dunlap's trio will play an early evening show at The Dark Room; trumpeter Danny Campbell returns with his Jazz Collective to Troy's Jazz Gallery; and Franglais will perform at Evangeline's

Sunday, August 28
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents sousaphonist Red Lehr's Powerhouse Five (pictured, lower left) playing traditional jazz and swing at the Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westport.

Monday, August 29
Trumpeter Jim Manley continues his Monday night residency at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, August 30
The Sidemen return to Evangeline's, and saxophonist Joe Bayer has a new weekly duo gig at Scarlett's Wine Bar in the Central West End, teaming up this week with bassist Glen Smith.

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.)