Jazz this week: Claire Chase, Tyshawn Sorey & Cory Smythe; Jazz at Lincoln Center Group; The Sextet; Marcus Lewis; and more

This week's lineup of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a couple of Kansas City acts making their first trips here, a couple of small groups comprised of musicians drawn from larger, well-known ensembles, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 10
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features cornetist and banjo player T.J Müller at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, January 11
The Kansas City-based band The Sextet will make their St. Louis debut at The Dark Room. Incorporating "soulful grooves and elements of funk" into their sound (per Bill Brownlee of the Kansas City jazz blog Plastic Sax), the up-and-coming group is supporting their recently released second album Blob Castle.

Also on Thursday, Miss Jubilee will perform at the Chase Club at the Chase Park Plaza, which apparently now is including occasional jazz in their revamped live music offerings.

Friday, January 12
Billed as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Group, trombonist James Burton III, trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt, drummer Jerome Jennings, and bassist Ben Wolfe (pictured, bottom left) will cap off a week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although all four are associated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the group was assembled specifically for these dates, and so it's hard to know specifically what they'll be doing at the Bistro, Still, you can get a look at all of the players in action individually in part one of StLJN's winter/spring 2018 jazz preview.

Also on Friday, singer Anita Jackson returns to The Dark Room, and guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

Saturday, January 13
Depending on the project, the International Contemporary Ensemble can grow to the size of a chamber orchestra, but for their St. Louis date on Saturday presented by New Music Circle at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, they'll be a trio, featuring founder, leader and flute player Claire Chase, the much-talked-about multi-instrumentalist and composer Tyshawn Sorey, and pianist Cory Smythe (pictured, top left).

They'll perform three compositions by Sorey, and two by the late composer and experimental music pioneer Pauline Oliveros. You can see one of Sorey's pieces, plus additional videos featuring Chase and Smith, in this post.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Dave Black leads a trio at the house concert venue The Judson House in Grand Center.

Sunday, January 14
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents trumpeter Randy Holmes' Satchmo Six in a matinee performance at the Moolah Shrine Center.

Tuesday, January 16
The St. Louis Low Brass Collective will present their annual gala at the Sheldon Concert Hall featuring special guest trombonist and composer Marcus Lewis, who's based in Kansas City when he's not on the road with R&B singer Janelle Monae.

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.)