Jazz this week: Jazz St. Louis students with Antonio Hart, "Miles Fest 2018," and more

Post-Memorial Day, St. Louis' not-for-profit presenters mostly have wound down their season schedules and are transitioning to summer, but there still are some noteworthy jazz and creative music shows coming up in the next week.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 30
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features saxophonist Jacob Alspach at The Stage at KDHX along with the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.


Thursday, May 31
The Arcadia Dance Orchestra will perform jazz from the 1920s and '30s in a free out door concert at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site; Ben Reece’s Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room, where they'll be doing Thursday nights for the next month; and guitarists Carol Eder and Chip Katz play at The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, June 1
Saxophonist Antonio Hart (pictured, top left) will be the special guest star as students from JazzU and the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars present the first of two nights of their annual performances at Jazz St. Louis.

Also on Friday, The Gaslight Squares will play outdoors at the Public Media Commons in Grand Center; the Midwest Jazz-tette brings their West Coast jazz sound to The Chapel, the Funky Butt Brass Band performs at the Chase Club; and the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, June 2
House of Miles East St. Louis, the not-for-profit organization that has restored Miles Davis' childhood home, will present "Miles Fest 2018," featuring live music, an art show, and more.

Sunday, June 3
Following up on the annual festival celebrating the music of Scott Joplin this weekend in Sedalia, MO, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present some of the performers from the fest during their "Sedalia Afterglow Party" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe. 

Also on Sunday, the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra will team up with the JazzU student big band and guest saxophonist Antonio Hart for a performance at Jazz St. Louis; and the Jazz Troubadours return to Evangeline's.

Monday, June 4
Trumpeter Jim Manley is back at Momo's Greek Restaurant, and pianist Ethan Leinwand hosts the third annual "St. Louis Piano Festival" featuring seven different pianists performing blues, barrelhouse, and ragtime at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, June 5
Drummer Montez Coleman and guitarist Eric Slaughter host "The Tuesday Night Hit" jam session at The Dark Room.

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.)