Wednesday, June 5
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and his electric band, the E-Collective (pictured, top left), will play a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Blanchard has been a frequent visitor in recent months as Opera Theatre of St. Louis prepares to premiere his second opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, later this month. For this gig, he and the E-Collective likely will be leaning on material from their two Blue Note releases, 2015's Breathless and 2018's Live, but perhaps Blanchard will use the occasion to try out something new as well.
Also on Wednesday, keyboardist Matthew Whitaker makes his Jazz St. Louis debut as a bandleader with the first of five nights of performances continuing through Sunday.
A late addition to the season schedule to compensate subscribers for Dr. Lonnie Smith's cancelled dates last fall, Whitaker is an 18-year-old phenom originally from New Jersey. Although blind since birth, he has progressed rapidly to professional status after studying at Harlem School of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music's pre-college program.
Whitaker released his first album in 2017 with a supporting cast including heavyweights like bassist Christian McBride and saxophonist James Carter, and already has played major venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and the Apollo Theater.
Thursday, June 6
Pianist Adam Maness' trio is back at Thurman's in Shaw, fusion trio Tracer plays at The Dark Room, and saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern.
Trombonist, trumpeter and singer Trombone Shorty (pictured, bottom left) and his band Orleans Avenue will perform at The Pageant.
You can see some recent video of Shorty (real name: Troy Andrews) and find out more about what he's been up to recently in this post from last Saturday.
Also on Friday, singer Jan Shapiro and pianist Dave Venn, abetted by bassist Ben Wheeler, will reunite with an old friend, drummer Henry Ettman, for a show at the Ozark Theatre.
The gig brings together Shapiro, Venn and Ettman for the first time in more than 40 years; look for more on that in Friday's "So What" post.
Elsewhere around town, the Hard Bop Messengers return to Evangeline's; Tony Viviano sings music associated with Dean Martin at Table Three; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro leads a trio at Cigar Inn.
Saturday, June 8
Due to conflicts between city government and the organizers of Fair U City, the U City Jazz Festival, for this year at least, has moved to Gazebo Park in Webster Groves and been renamed the Old Orchard Jazz Festival.
Featured performers at the free event, which runs from early afternoon through the evening, will include the Fusion Warriors, led by bassist Darrell Mixon, offering a "Tribute to Stanley Clarke," as well as Bach to the Future, Joe Mancuso, Soul Cafe, Mo Egeston All-Stars, The Avant-Gardians with Maurice Carnes, and Morphelonious.
If you're planning to attend, you may want to arrive early, as Gazebo Park is smaller than Heman Park, the fest's usual/previous site, and the event also is running concurrently with the Webster Arts Fair. The Arts Fair, with music by Dizzy Atmosphere, the Webster Groves HS Jazz Band, and various other acts on Saturday, will be happening just a few blocks to the west on the grounds of Eden Seminary, which means parking in the general vicinity could be scarce.
Update, 4:30 p.m. 6/5/19: Due to the possibly of bad weather on Saturday, the Old Orchard Jazz Fest has been moved indoors to the Ozark Theatre, located on Lockwood Ave to the east of gazebo Park, and will run from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Also on Saturday, the Alton Museum of History and Art presents their annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival, this year featuring saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald, guitarist Tim Jarden and singer Carmen Bonner, at Jacoby Arts Center
Sunday, June 9
Bassist and singer Janet Evra plays for brunch at The Dark Room, and the St. Louis Symphony with singers Dee Daniels and Denzal Sinclaire will pay tribute to the Cole family of pop/jazz fame with a program called "Unforgettable: Nat and Natalie" at Powell Hall.
Monday, June 10
Pianist and singer Jesse Gannon returns to 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.)
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