Jazz this week: Ronnie Burrage Trio, Good 4 The Soul, New Year's Eve jazz, and more

With most touring artists off the road, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day in St. Louis usually isn't overly crowded with live jazz and creative music shows.

Still, the coming week does feature some noteworthy gigs from a returning St. Louis expat and an assortment of hometown performers, plus several jazz and jazz-related options for New Year's Eve entertainment. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 26
Drummer and U City native Ronnie Burrage (pictured, top left) is visiting home for the holidays and will team with bassist Darrell Mixon and pianist Ptah Williams for three performances this week.

The first of those shows will feature a jam with various invited horn players and guitarists on Wednesday night at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, followed by performances on Thursday at the house concert venue Kinda Blue Club and Friday at The Dark Room.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley plays at Sasha's Wine Bar,

Thursday, December 27
Singer Joe Mancuso will be backed by Joe Pastor on vibes and Ben Wheeler on bass at 50/Fifty Kitchen; guitarists Carol B. Eder and Chip Katz will duet at The Pat Connolly Tavern; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, 
December 28
Funk/jazz quartet Good 4 The Soul (pictured, lower left) returns to Jazz St. Louis for the first of two nights of their annual year-end gig.

Also on Friday, cornet players "Wild" Bill Mason and T.J Müller lead the Mason-Müller All Star Band in an evening of traditional jazz at Focal Point.



Saturday, December 29
Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Sunday, December 30
Drummer Montez Coleman and friends play for brunch at The Dark Room, and the Folk School of KDHX hosts their monthly traditional jazz jam session.

Sunday evening, guitarists Dave Black, Farshid Soltanshahi and Aaron Burlbaw will play at the house concert venue Judson House, 3733 Washington Ave in Grand Center; and DJ Pockets presents his monthly "1950s/60s Jazz Record Spin" at The Royale.

Monday, December 31
Noteworthy New Year's Eve performances include singer Erin Bode doing two shows at Cyrano's; a "Speakeasy NYE Party" with music from Miss Jubilee and blues band Rum Drum Ramblers at Das Bevo; the Funky Butt Brass Band at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and keyboardist and singer Jesse Gannon doing an early evening set at the new Angad Arts Hotel. (Also, you may want to check the STLJN calendar for any last-minute additions.)

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.)