Jazz this week: New Year's Eve and more

As usual for the week between the year's last two major holidays, there are no major touring jazz or creative music performers visiting St. Louis in the next few days. However, there is a pretty good selection of local music options for New Year's Eve, plus a few other noteworthy shows.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 28
Trumpeter Jim Manley will be doing his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar, and the "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" will proceed with live music TBA at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, bassist Bob Deboo's weekly set and jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's trio at The Dark Room.

Thursday, December 29
Jazz/funk/R&B quartet Good 4 The Soul will play the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, and the latest installment of the monthly "Bruxism" experimental music series at the Schlafly Tap Room will feature electronic musician Joseph Raglani's "Cyborg karaoke project" Temporal Marauder, PaperKite, and Joe Hess.

Friday, December 30
Bassist Darrell Mixon leads a trio at Cigar Inn, and saxophonist Dave Stone's trio will be playing late at Mangia Italiano.

Saturday, December 31
Although two of the city's most prominent jazz venues, Jazz at the Bistro and The Sheldon, will be closed on New Year's Eve, there still are a number of options available for those looking to hear some jazz to ring out the old year and ring in the new. (Many of these events are package deals involving dinner and drinks, so be sure to check online or call ahead for details and/or reservations.)

In alphabetical order, singer Erin Bode will be doing two shows at Cyrano's; trumpeter/vibraphonist Joe Bozzi and band will play for diners at Talayna's in Chesterfield; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham and singer Trunessia Combs will headline the show at Troy's Jazz Galllery.

Also on NYE, the Mo Egeston Trio plays at The Dark Room; Funky Butt Brass Band will perform at Broadway Oyster Bar; and Miss Jubilee headlines an "NYE Speakeasy Dance Party" at Focal Point.

Elsewhere around town, guitarist Brian Vaccaro and bassist Marc Torlina will play duets at Grapeseed; singer and burlesque performer Lola Van Ella and her band will present "A Spectaculaire New Year's Speakeasy!" at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and singer Tony Viviano will entertain at Patrick's at 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.)