Jazz this week: Ellington's "Nutcracker, "A Very Manley Christmas," and more

Although most touring jazz and creative music performers now are off the road until the holiday season is over, there's still some noteworthy music - holiday and otherwise - to be heard this week, thanks to our local St. Louis musicians and singers.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 20
The Jazz St. Louis Big Band continues their presentation of Duke Ellington's adapation of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" plus additional Ellingtonia through Thursday night at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Wednesday, singer Joe Mancuso continues at Taha'a Twisted Tiki; singer Feyza Eren returns to Evangeline's; and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, December 21
Guitarist Stuart Johnson plays for diners at The Shaved Duck; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents a holiday edition of their "Broadway Open Mic" at the Curtain Call Lounge; and bassist Chano Cruz leads a trio at The Dark Room

Friday, December 22
Trumpeter Jim Manley (pictured) convenes his Mad Brass & Rhythm septet for the first of two nights of "A Very Manley Christmas" at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Friday, the Big Little Big Band with vocalist Steve Shininger will present a "Frank Sinatra Christmas" at The Abbey Espresso Bar & Cafe in Belleville.

Saturday, December 23
If you haven't had your fill of holiday music yet, there's one last chance, as Webster Groves Christian Church presents “A Jazz and Choral Christmas” with Two Times True and the church's Chancel Choir, and the Yule Vibe Trio, with guitarist Tom Byrne, percussionist Joe Pastor, and bassist Bob DeBoo, plays at the KindaBlue Club.

Also on Saturday, multi-intrumentalist Joe Bozzi and his band return to Evangeline's, and drummer Chuck Kennedy has put together a "Christmas Eve Eve Jam Session" at Mike Duffy's in downtown Kirkwood.

Sunday, December 24
Miss Jubilee performs for jazz brunch at Evangeline's, while drummer Montez Coleman and friends play at The Dark Room.

Tuesday, December 26
Saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective play their last gig of the year at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soup. 

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* The Miles Davis Memorial Project's campaign to place a statue of Davis in downtown Alton was featured this week in a story on St. Louis Public Radio.

* Meanwhile, this week's news from the set of Miles Ahead, actor-director Don Cheadle's feature film about Davis now lensing in Cincinnati, includes a first look at Emayatzy Corinealdi in costume as Davis' ex-wife Frances Taylor, via IndieWire; and a brief feature about the film on WNYC radio.

* Saxophonist and U City native Marty Ehrlich will help kick off the fall season of the New York chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians with a concert on Friday, September 12 at the Community Church of New York. Ehrlich's Trio Exaltation, with bassist John Hebert and drummer Nasheet Waits, will share the bill with drummer Thurman Barker's ensemble. The series also will feature a concert by saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake on November 7.

* Singer Denise Thimes (pictured) has been named a recipient of a 2015 St. Louis Arts Award from the Arts and Education Council. Thimes' trophy for "Excellence in the Arts" will be presented along with the rest of this year's awards at a gala event on January 19 at the Chase Park Plaza.

* The Big Little Big Band has posted to Facebook an album of photos from their concert last week for the St Louis Jazz Club.

* Last Friday's St. Louis Cabaret Festival performance by pianist/singer Billy Stritch and singer Marilyn Maye was reviewed by Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX.

* Single tickets for the various 2014-15 series at the Sheldon Concert Hall go on sale at 10:00 a.m tomorrow, Saturday, August 9. (However, you can get a day's head start by going here and entering the promo code SHE14.) You can listen to music samples from the various performers on the Sheldon's SoundCloud page.

* Saxophonist Tim McAllister, the soloist on the St. Louis Symphony's recent recording of composer John Adams' City Noir, recounts the history and development of the work in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News' Richard Scheinin.

* Yr. humble StLJN editor is serving this month as a guest blogger for New Music Box, the online publication of New Music USA, and you can see the first of four scheduled posts - an essay about the potential uses and misuses of musical genre designations - here.

* To celebrate the 65th anniversary of Prestige Records, the label is holding a giveaway of prizes including a 20-CD boxed set of remastered recordings supervised by legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder and reissues of early music by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and more. You can enter the drawing here.

* Jazz radio update: On this Saturday's edition of “Somethin’ Else” on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, host Calvin Wilson will spin music from trios led by saxophonists, including Joshua Redman, Joe Henderson and Branford Marsalis. "Somethin' Else" can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

Then on Sunday night, KWMU's "Jazz Unlimited" continues host Dennis Owsley's documentary look at the history of St. Louis jazz with an episode covering the late-1960s rise of the Black Artists Group and Human Arts Association. "Jazz Unlimited" can be heard from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Sundays on KWMU (90.7 FM) and online at http://www.stlpublicradio.org/listen.php.

(Updated after posting to add New Music Box link.)