Jazz this week: A celebration of Ray Charles, Sarah Hennies & Merche Blasco, Marissa Mulder, Denise Thimes, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a show with an all-star cast paying tribute to one of the giants of American music; two composer-performers offering provocative sets of experimental sounds; two accomplished female vocalists headlining at intimate venues; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday,
February 26
Pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson plays the music of Roy Ayers and more for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis, and guitarist Dave Black and his Itti Bitti Swing Orchestra will perform for the monthly concert series at the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Thursday, February 27
The touring show "Georgia On My Mind: A Celebration of the Music of Ray Charles" comes to the Touhill Performing Arts Center, with a cast including vocal group Take 6 (pictured, top left), singers Nnenna Freelon and Clint Holmes, and saxophonist Kirk Whalum.

Also on Thursday, singer and impressionist Dean Christopher returns with his "Rat Pack and More"  show to LoRusso's Cucina; The 442s will perform at Joe's Cafe; and trumpeter Brady Lewis and his BLStet are back at The Dark Room.

Friday, February 28
New Music Circle presents a double bill of composer-performers Sarah Hennies and Merche Blasco (pictured, bottom left) doing separate sets at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Working with percussion and electronics, respectively, plus other instruments, both Hennies and Blasco craft distinctive soundscapes, often reflecting the site and circumstances of the particular performance time and space. You can see some previous works by both women in this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Friday, singer Marissa Mulder performs her cabaret show "The John Lennon & Paul McCartney Songbooks" for the first of two nights at Blue Strawberry, and singer Denise Thimes is back home from Chicago for the weekend for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis

Saturday, February 29
Singers Jeanne Trevor, Joe Mancuso and Wendy Gordon team up for a matinee performance at Blue Strawberry.

Then on Saturday evening, The Gaslight Squares return to the Frisco Barroom, and keyboardist Mo Egeston and friends bring the "Late Night Grooves" to The Dark Room.

Sunday, March 1
The St. Louis Record Show presents its spring edition at the American Czech Center, while Miss Jubilee performs for jazz brunch at Evangeline's.

Later that afternoon, multi-instrumentalist Joe Bozzi plays a matinee at Circa Pub & Grill, and at the the dinner hour, the Jazz Troubadours return for their monthly gig at Evangeline's.

Tuesday, March 3
The Tick Tock Jazz Band plays vintage jazz and swing for their monthly show at the Tick Tock Tavern, and pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will perform in a concert at the Gaslight Theater.

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.)