Jazz this week: Renee Dion, Bach to the Future with Eric Marienthal, and more

Though the fall presenting season won't get underway in earnest until next month, the calendar of live jazz and creative music for the upcoming late-summer week in St. Louis does include a couple of local debuts from up-and-coming visiting performers, plus a selection of noteworthy gigs featuring our hometown musicians.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 22
Guitarist Dave Black plays at Barcelona Tapas, and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features bassist/vocalist Janet Evra at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, August 23
Singer Joe Mancuso is back at 50/Fifty Kitchen, trumpeter Jim Manley and guitarist Randy Bahr will perform at The Pat Connolly Tavern, and keyboardist Ryan Marquez leads a trio at The Dark Room.

Friday, August 24
Guitarists Gregg "Happy Guitar" Haynes, Josiah James and Eric Slaughter will team up for a collaborative show called "No Strings Attached" at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and Ohio-based singer Renee Dion (pictured, top left), who blends jazz with R&B, hip-hop and soul, will make her St. Louis debut at the Ozark Theatre.

Also on Friday, pianist Ptah Williams is at The Dark Room, and The Usual Suspects play for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.

Saturday, August 25
The first day of the annual Festival of Nations in Tower Grove Park will feature a variety of free entertainment, including music from Samba Bom and Herman Semidey & Orquestra Son Montuno.

Also on Saturday, Bach to the Future will be joined by saxophonist Eric Marienthal (pictured, bottom left) for a free concert on the lawn at the Webster Groves Masonic Lodge; the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar; and multi-instrumentalist Tonina Saputo, Chicago-based septet Cordoba (making their St. Louis debut), and AZN will share a triple-bill at El Leñador.

Sunday, August 26
The Festival of Nations continues at Tower Grove Park with music from Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris, Acoustik Element and more; and Troy's Jazz Gallery will present a double-bill of the Kendrick Smith Quintet and the Khamali Moore Collective.

Monday, August 27
Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck.

Tuesday, August 28
Pianist Pat Joyce returns to Evangeline's.

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.)