Jazz this week: Support your local musicians

While there are no touring jazz or creative music performers visiting St. Louis in the next few days, you still can hear plenty of hometown musicians playing in a variety of styles at various spots around town. Here are a few suggestions...

Wednesday, January 9
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" includes bassist Glen Smith and friends at The Stage at KDHX, along with the weekly jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor (pictured, top left) and band at The Dark Room.

Also playing their regular Wednesday night gigs are Miss Jubilee at the Schlafly Bottleworks; guitarist Joe Park's trio at Yaquis on Cherokee, and trumpeter Jim Manley at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, January 10
Guitarist Dave Black and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman perform at The Pat Connolly Tavern; pianist Eddie Randle Jr leads a trio at The Dark Room; and singer Joe Mancuso will be doing his weekly gig at 50/Fifty Kitchen.

Friday, January 11
Pianist Ptah Williams plays solo for happy hour at The Dark Room, followed by singer Anita Jackson performing for the late show.

Also on Friday, Falling Fences (pictured, bottom left) plays for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis. Known locally both for two well-received albums of original Americana material and for a Sunday night residency at McGurk's playing mostly Irish music, they'll present an expanded version of their usual five-piece lineup at the Bistro, adding Funky Butt Brass Band trumpeter Adam Hucke, saxophonist Charlie Cerpa, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Niehaus IV.

Based on that configuration of the band's show last August at Delmar Hall, listeners can expect to hear those original Americana tunes, with the addition of some horn arrangements plus expanded segments for solos on some songs.

Saturday, January 12
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents a mid-day jam session hosted by keyboardist Bob Row and drummer John Gillick at J P's Corner. Then on Saturday night, keyboardist Mo Egeston plays late night at The Dark Room.

Sunday, January 13
Singer and bassist Janet Evra provides the music for brunch at The Dark Room, and the Arcadia Dance Orchestra will play vintage jazz for a matinee show at Focal Point.

Monday, January 14
Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck.

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.)