Jazz this week: David Sanborn, U City Jazz Festival, two Miles Davis tributes, and more

It's a week to celebrate St. Louis' hometown jazz heroes, as the calendar of upcoming jazz and creative music performances includes the return of the best-known living jazz musician who grew up here; a couple of tributes to the most famous St. Louis-area jazz musician of them all; plus plenty of other noteworthy gigs featuring local players. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, June 6
Saxophonist David Sanborn (pictured, top left) is back home with his new quintet for the first of four nights of performances at Jazz St. Louis.

You can see some videos of Sanborn's new band and find out more about what he's be up to recently in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Wednesday, multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris is the featured performer this week at Missouri Botanical Garden's Whitaker Music Festival.

Thursday, June 7
Eclectic instrumental quartet The 442s will play at Joe's Cafe & Art Gallery; saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet continues their month-long residency at The Dark Room.

Friday, June 8
Trumpeter Randy Holmes will lead a quintet for the first night of the "3rd Annual Miles Davis Festival" at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, expanding the group to a sextet for Saturday's performance.

Elsewhere around town, the Brooklyn, NY-based jam band Ikebe Shakedown plays "cinematic instrumental soul" at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, and the Funky Butt Brass Band will perform at Beale on Broadway.

Over on the east side, saxophonist Freddie Washington leads a trio at Cigar Inn, and Eckert's in Belleville presents a free outdoor concert from "Trombonanza," featuring trombonists Mark Kellogg, Jim Martin, Aaron Eckert and Brendan Lanighan,

Saturday, June 9
The U City Jazz Festival runs from mid-afternoon through the evening at Heman Park, with a lineup that includes a tribute to Stanley Clarke from the Fusion Warriors, plus sets from Bach to the Future, Joe Mancuso, Soul Cafe, Mo Egeston (pictured, bottom left), Maurice Carnes and the Avant Gardians, and Morphelonious.

Also on Saturday, Alton's annual "Miles Davis Jazz Festival" will feature music from saxophonist Fred Walker, guitarist Tim Jarden, singer Saman Swanson, and Retro Boogie at the Jacoby Arts Center; and the Jazz Edge Orchestra and guest trombonists Steve Turre, Steve Davis and Andre Hayward will present a "Tribute to J.J. Johnson" at Harris-Stowe State University's Emerson Performance Center.

Sunday, June 10
The Arcadia Dance Orchestra will perform a matinee at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, and Miss Jubilee plays a free outdoor concert at Carondelet Park.

Monday, June 11
Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck.

Tuesday, June 12
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True will be joined by singer Joe Mancuso for a "Notes From Home" concert at The Sheldon.

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.)