Jazz this week: Nels Cline 4, Tower of Power, free outdoor concerts, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis is somewhat busier than usual for late summer, with a couple of significant touring acts in town as well as a number of noteworthy shows from the hometown contingent.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 8
This week's free "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" will feature bassist Guy Cantonwine and Willem von Hombracht doing duets at The Stage at KDHX; the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, August 9
Miss Jubilee and The Gaslight Squares will play traditional jazz and swing on a double-bill at Joe's Cafe, and Dean Christopher will bring his "Rat Pack and More" show to 50/Fifty Kitchen.

Also on Thursday, saxophonist Dave Stone's plays at Element Restaurant and Lounge, and trumpeter Keith Moyer's quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, August 10
The Nels Cline 4, featuring Cline (pictured, top left) and fellow guitarist Julian Lage, performs at Delmar Hall. Touring in support of their recent Blue Note album Currents, Constellations, they're getting good notices both for the recording and for their live shows, which feature plenty of interplay between the two star guitarists. You can see some samples of recent performances on video in this post from two Saturdays ago.

Also on Friday, drummer Montez Coleman will celebrate his birthday with the first of two nights of performances at Jazz St. Louis, and you can take in one of three free outdoor concerts, as the Funky Butt Brass Band plays for the "Ferguson CityWalk" at Plaza At 501; The Bosman Twins perform at the Dellwood Recreation Center, and Miss Jubilee will provide the music for the St. Louis Zoo's "Jungle Boogie".

Saturday, August 11
Celebrating 50 years of the "Oakland Stroke" and supporting a new album release with a summer tour, the singular funk band Tower of Power (pictured, bottom left) stops in St. Louis for a show at the River City Casino Event Center. 

You can see some previous performances from the 50th anniversary tour and more in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, keyboardist Marvin Cockrell and Focus play smooth jazz, R&B and more at the Grandel Theatre, and the Joe Bozzi Band returns to Evangeline's.

Elsewhere around town, The Wire Pilots wll play original jazz, fusion and world music at the Ozark Theatre, and percussionist Herman Semidey and his Orquestra son Montuno will make their debut at Club Diamonds.

Sunday, August 12
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents Red Lehr & the St. Louis Rivermen playing traditional jazz at the  DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport.

Monday, August 13
Dizzy Atmosphere performs Gypsy jazz and swing for diners at The Shaved Duck.

Tuesday, August 14
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Tonina Saputo and her band host "The Tuesday Night Hit" 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.)