Amina Figarova concert rescheduled for Tuesday, March 5

The concert by pianist Amina Figarova's quintet for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University that had been postponed due to last week's snowstorm now has been rescheduled.

Figarova (pictured) and her band will make up the date at 7:00 p.m. next Tuesday, March 5 at the series' usual location, Holmes Lounge in Ridgely Hall on Wash U campus.

Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. For more about Amina Figarova and some video samples of her performing live, see this post.

Jazz this week: Jim Pugh, Jeremy Haynes, Amina Figarova, Jazz St. Louis gala, Jeff Coffin, Chris Botti, Dan Thomas, and more

There's jazz and creative music happening early and often throughout this week in St. Louis, and so to help make sure that you don't miss anything, here's a special early edition of the weekly highlights post:

Tonight, trombonist Jim Pugh is in town for a free concert at at Maryville University presented by the St. Louis Low Brass Collective. Pugh is best known for his work with Woody Herman and Chick Corea, but also has been a top studio trombonist recording for film soundtracks, pop music sessions, and much more. The concert will feature Pugh backed by ten local jazz trombonists, a rhythm section, and the entire trombone section of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, back downtown, drummer Jeremy Haynes and the Rhythm Is Life band will play at Lola. Haynes, a St. Louis native who's been part of five Grammy winning gospel recordings, is performing in support of the release of his first instrumental album Prodigal Son 2K.

Also tonight, Three Central gives a free concert at the St. Louis Public Library main branch downtown; and the Tommy Halloran Quintet plays for Lindy Hop St. Louis' weekly swing dance at Grandel Theatre.

Tomorrow night, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra brings their big band sound to West County at the Sky Music Lounge in Ballwin; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes perform at the Feasting Fox; and the Ann Dueren Trio is at Frontenac Grill.

On Thursday, pianist Amina Figarova (pictured) and her group will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Figarova's skills at writing for small ensembles prompted Jazz Times to call her "among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium." For more about her, and some vidfeo samples of her group in action, see this post from Saturday.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode is at Crave coffee house.

Update, 4:50 p.m. 2/21/13: Both the Amina Figarova concert for the Jazz at Holmes series and Erin Bode's performance at Crave have been postponed due to bad weather. Bode's gig will take place next Thursday at the same time; JAH organizers hope to reschedule Figarova some time next month.

Update, 5:10 p.m. 2/21/13:Tonight's shows featuring Miss Jubilee at Thaxton Speakeasy and Downstereo at Atomic Cowboy have been cancelled due to bad weather. Both are recurring weekly gigs, so both bands should be back at work at the same venues next Thursday.

On Friday, Jazz St. Louis will present their annual fundraising gala at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, featuring music from David Sanborn and "surprise musical guests." The event is effectively sold out, but if you've got the price of admission - tickets start at $400 per person and go up from there - you can see if any spaces have opened up by calling JSL's director of development Kate Francis at 314-289-4037 or emailing her at katef @ jazzstl.org.

For those on a more modest budget on Friday, saxophonist Jeff Coffin will be back in town to present a free early-evening performance and workshop at Saxquest; Kansas City saxophonist Dan Thomas plays for the first of two nights at Robbie's House of Jazz; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor leads a quartet at Cigar Inn.

Update: 1:30 p.m., 2/21/13: The previously announced dates for Dan Thomas have been removed without explanation from the Robbie's House of Jazz website. The site now lists saxophonist Jerry Greene's trio playing on Friday, and drummer Gerald Warren's group on Saturday.

On Saturday, trumpeter Chris Botti and his band will perform with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Hall. (Given Botti's popularity, this one also is probably close to a sellout by now, so if you're interested in going, don't count on being able to get tickets at the door - call the box office first.)

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Willie Akins, drummer Montez Coleman and band will promote the release of their new album The St. Louis Connection with two sets at Jazz at the Bistro; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom. 

Then on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly show at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, this month featuring an intermission set from the St. Louis Metrobones.

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.)

(Edited after posting to fix a garbled sentence and correct some formatting.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Amina Figarova's jazz journey

St. Louis jazz fans this year already have been able to hear the local debuts of several noteworthy musicians, and there's another one coming next week who's made a long journey, both physically and culturally, to get to where she is now. We're speaking of pianist and composer Amina Figarova, who will be in St. Louis with her sextet to perform a free concert this coming Thursday, February 21 for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Figarova, 46, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and as a young girl studied classical piano at the Baku Conservatory. She knew little about jazz until moving to the Netherlands, where she studied jazz performance at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Figarova later completed her studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and while she continued to live in the Netherlands, she and her sextet also began touring in the USA, playing major festivals in Newport, Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit.

Since releasing her first album Attraction in 1995, Figarova has put out 11 more recordings, including 2005's September Suite, a critically acclaimed extended piece written in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and 2008's Above the Clouds, which prompted Jazz Times reviewer Thomas Conrad to call her "among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium."

Figarova and her husband, flute player Bart Platteau, moved from the Netherlands to NYC a couple of years ago. Her most recent album Twelve, released last year, offers her musical impressions of living in New York, delivered in a style influenced by the post-bop acoustic jazz groups of Miles Davis, Horace Silver, and Herbie Hancock. In addition to Platteau, Figarova's current group includes Ernie Hammes on trumpet, Marc Mommaas on tenor sax, Jeroen Vierdag on bass and Chris "Buckshot" Strik on drums.

In the first two video embeds, up above and just below this text, you can see a two-part video Figarova made to promote the release of Twelve, featuring musical excerpts, interviews, and in-studio footage of the recording of the songs "Sneaky Seagulls" and "Shut Eyes, Sea Waves."

Below that, there are two segments from September Suite, "Numb" and "Rage," recorded live in 2011 with a different lineup of the sextet that included Figarova, Platteau and Strik as well as saxophonist Kurt van Herck, trumpeter Nico Schepers and bassist Wiro Mahieu.

Below that are live versions of two songs from Twelve: "Shut Eyes, Sea Waves," recorded at the 2013 Winter Jazz Fest in NYC with a band including both some regulars and subs; and "NYCST," recorded in October 2012 at the Dutch Jazz & World Meeting in Amsterdam.

For more about Amina Figarova's jazz journey, check out this 2011 interview recorded for Voice of America, and her episode of NPR's "Piano Jazz" from back in 2008.

Jazz this week: Ray Brown Tribute Band, Billy Harper, Carla Cook, Mike Vax Big Band, The Wee Trio, Amina Figarova, and more

There's quite a variety of live jazz happening this week in St. Louis, so let's go right to the highlights, presented in chronological order:

Tonight, the Ray Brown Tribute Band featuring bassist Christian McBride (pictured), pianist Benny Green and drummer Greg Hutchinson opens a four-night run which continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Brown, who worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald - whom he also married - and many others, was pretty much the gold standard of mainstream swing bass-playing throughout his more than 50 years in jazz. McBride and Green - both well versed in tradition, yet young enough to have been shaped by vastly different experiences than musicians of Brown's generation - would seem to have both the skills and the sensibility to do justice to his legacy. Here's hoping they're using the opportunity to explore some of Brown's own compositions, as the bassist did build up a catalog of tunes over the years.

UPDATE, 1:00 a.m., 4/24/08: Calvin Wilson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a preview story about the Ray Brown Tribute Band in today's paper. Read it online here.

On Thursday, pianist Amina Figarova, who's originally from Azerbaijan, brings his group to St. Louis for a free concert in the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and Brooklyn-based alterna-jazz band The Wee Trio, with former St. Louisan Dan Loomis on bass, performs at Lucas School House.

On Friday, former Stan Kenton trumpeter Mike Vax and his Big Band are doing a concert at Principia High School. Although Vax's band is not officially a Kenton tribute, the band does include a number of Kenton alumni and reportedly plays a few charts from Kenton's book, too.

And speaking of beloved big band bosses of a bygone era, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, still carrying on without its long-departed leader, is in the St. Louis area on Saturday, with a matinee and an evening show at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Elsewhere on Saturday, singer Carla Cook, who's familiar to local audiences because she has recorded for the St. Louis based MAXJAZZ label and performed at Jazz at the Bistro, takes the stage at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and tenor saxophonist Billy Harper plays at Luna Bar in the Central West End.

On Sunday, western swing stalwarts Asleep at the Wheel will cram themselves on to the smallish outdoor stage at Beale on Broadway, a venue that would seem to have the right vibe but insufficient room to accommodate the number of fans likely to show up for such a relatively well-known act. If you happen to dig the blend of jazz and country music that is western swing, Asleep at the Wheel are about as good as it gets these days.

Other noteworthy shows this weekend include singer Jeanne Trevor at Brandt's and Wild, Cool and Swingin' at Cookie's Jazz and More on Friday; and singer Erin Bode at Lucas School House and Trio Tres Bien with Danita Mumphard at Cookie's on Saturday.

For still more St. Louis jazz and creative music 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.)