StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Dave Weckl to headline Chesterfield Jazz Fest

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on drummer Dave Weckl, who will be back home to perform next Saturday, June 15 as the headlining act at the Chesterfield Wine & Jazz Festival.

A native of St. Charles, Weckl undoubtedly is one of the most successful working jazz musicians from this area, first gaining international attention working in the 1980s with keyboardist Chick Corea, and subsequently parlaying that exposure into a busy career as both a bandleader and a first-call collaborator and session player.

For his St. Louis show, his band will feature a couple of musical friends who also are St. Louis natives, bassist Tom Kennedy and keyboardist Jay Oliver, as well as saxophonist Gary Meek, another longtime musical associate, and guitarist Buzz Feiten, who's had a diverse career stretching back nearly 50 years with the Butterfield Blues Band, the Rascals, the Larson-Feiten Band with keyboardist Neil Larsen, and more.

Though there seems to be no video footage online featuring this particular lineup, there's certainly no shortage of clips featuring Weckl playing with various ensembles, and so for those looking for a idea of what he's been doing lately, here's a collection of a half-dozen recent performances for your listening and viewing enjoyment.

There's a very recent and complete show in the first video embed up above, recorded on April 4 of this year at New Morning in Paris, France and featuring Weckl as the nominal leader of a group with Kennedy, guitarist Mike Stern, and saxophonist Bob Franceschini.

After the jump, you can see some footage from earlier this year of Weckl and Kennedy jamming at Colos-Saal, a music club in Aschaffenburg, Germany. That's followed by a Weckl solo performance, recorded at the 2019 NAMM show in Los Angeles.

The remaining videos show recent performances by Weckl in three different musical settings: with keyboardist Steve Weingart and bassist Benjamin Shepherd performing Weingart's composition "Village" at the 2018 Hollywood Drum Show in Los Angeles, California; in the studio with keyboard player Oz Ezzeldin playing "'Dis Kinda Place," in a clip released in March 2019 as a promo for Weckl's online school; and with La Escuela de Música y Audio Fernando Sor performing "Nothing Personal" in October 2018 in Bogotá, Colombia.

For more about Dave Weckl and what he's been up to recently, read his 2018 interview with AustralianMusician.com, and watch him in an episode of "Yamaha Drummers Talk" from December 2018 and in a video interview on the topic of "Mindset For Success" from March 2019.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...