Jazz this week: Boney James, Orange, Algernon, Todd Mosby and the students of Imrat Khan, Erin Bode and more

It may be midsummer, but even during vacation season there's still a nicely varied menu of jazz and creative music on St. Louis stages. The biggest name in town this week is saxophonist Boney James (pictured), who tonight will bring his popular mix of smooth jazz, funk, and instrumental R&B to the stage at the Bottleneck Blues Bar of the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles.

There's also a free concert tonight in the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, as drummer Bensid Thigpen, bassist Darrrell Mixon and painist Ptah Williams will perform a program devoted to the music of Wayne Shorter. And not far from the Wash U. campus, you can catch the world-Latin-jazz of Farshid Etniko at Brandt's.

On Friday and Saturday, the band Orange will perform at Jazz at the Bistro. Orange features keyboardist Adam Maness and bassist Syd Rodway of the Erin Bode Group teamed with Miles Vandiver on drums and Peter Schlamb on vibes, performing "original music by Maness and fresh takes on modern songs by such artists as Joni Mitchell and the Flaming Lips."

Other noteworthy shows on Friday include Latin jazz from Banda Caribe at Riddle's, the big band sounds of the Original Knights of Swing at Casa Loma Ballroom, and singer Kim Massie at Cookie's Jazz and More.

On Saturday, the Todd Mosby Group and students of master Indian musicians Imrat Khan will perform a benefit concert for Nature Conservancy at Lucas School House, Check out the embedded video window below to see Mosby, bassist Carl Casperson and drummer Ron Carr performing "Country Song," one of the original compositions the Mosby Group will be doing at the benefit. Also on Saturday, the versatile drummer Joe Pastor, always worth a listen, is fronting a band called Jazz Trinity at Brandt's.

On Sunday, there's another benefit show, this one featuring singer Erin Bode and group performing for St. Vincent DePaul Parish and its social ministries to the poor, which provide meals, clothing, food, personal grooming kits, sewing and other services. The event begins at 4:00 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 1408 South 10th St at Park Avenue. Cabaret seating is $35 per person, VIP seating is $75 per person. For reservations, call 314-231-9328 or 314-776-3152.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band continues their ongoing gig at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, the Chicago-based group Algernon performs at The Gramophone. For more on Algernon, see last Saturday's video post.

And for more St. Louis jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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.)

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Algernon's "Transmission Received," plus Bennett Wood & friends play "Henry"

This week, let's take a look at a couple of videos featuring musicians who will be playing this month in the Tuesday night jazz series at The Gramophone, for which the club is partnering with Jazz St. Louis. One of the precepts of the Tuesday night series seems to be the presentation of new talent, such as the Chicago-based band Algernon and saxophonist Bennett Wood.

Algernon, led by guitarist Dave Miller, plays instrumental music that draws on a number of influences, including jazz, rock, and contemporary classical. They've been placed by some critics into the "post-rock" category, evoking comparisons to their fellow Chicagoans in the band Tortoise, but since forming four years ago, they have performed in settings ranging from jazz festivals to indie rock clubs.

Algernon have put out two independently released CDs, and they'll be playing at The Gramophone on Tuesday, July 15 with their current lineup, which includes Miller and fellow guitarist Nick Fryer, Katie Wiegman on vibraphone, Cory Healey on drums and Tom Perona on bass. The video clip above was recorded in February 2007 at the House Cafe in DeKalb, IL, and shows the band playing Miller's composition "Transmission Received."

As for Bennett Wood, who will be performing at The Gramophone this Tuesday, July 8, he's a native of Hannibal, MO who was schooled at SIU-Edwardsville and now resides in St. Louis. The video clip below was recorded at SIU-E in April of this year, and it features Wood on alto sax, bassist Nick Jost and drummer Sean Mullins performing an original composition by Jost called "Henry." I have no idea if what's depicted in this video has anything to do with what Wood's going to play on Tuesday, but it sounds good to these ears, and at the very least shows that the young saxophonist has a nice even tone and good facility on his chosen instrument.

There's no cover charge for the Tuesday night jazz shows at The Gramophone, and the music starts at 9:00 p.m. For more information or directions, see their Web site.