Let's go to the highlights...
Wednesday, June 26
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features singer Feyza Eren and guitarist Dave Black at The Stage at KDHX, along with the jam session hosted by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.
Thursday, June 27
The reunited original lineup of Béla Fleck and The Flecktones (pictured, top left) return for their first St. Louis performance in seven years at Powell Hall. You can see some videos of recent performances and some footage from the early days of the Flecktones, including their very first performance, in this post from last Saturday.
Also on Thursday, it's the penultimate performance of trumpeter Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, with the finale set for Saturday night.
Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley and keyboardist Chris Swan play The Pat Connolly Tavern; and the latest installment of the Bruxism experimental music series, featuring Curt Oren, William Morris, Michael Williams and Henry Claude, and Francis Hacienda, happens at the Schlafly Tap Room.
Singer Denise Thimes (pictured, bottom left), who last year moved from St. Louis to Chicago in search of greater career opportunities, will be back home to perform for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis.
Also on Friday, the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson return to the Parkside Grille; and guitarist Dan Rubright and the Wire Pilots will perform at the Ozark Theatre.
Saturday, June 29
Guitarist Brian Vaccaro and vocalist Stephanie Stewart will play a matinee at Alpha Brewing Company; singer Bre Hammond presents "A Tribute To The Ladies of Jazz" at the Ozark Theatre; and The Dark Room features pianist Ryan Marquez playing for dinner and Andrew Stephen's Texturz performing for the late show.
Sunday, June 30
There are several noteworthy daytime events on Sunday, including the summer edition of the St. Louis Record Show at the American Czech Center; jazz brunch with pianist Adam Maness at Thurman's in Shaw or singer and bassist Janet Evra at Evangeline's; and the monthly Traditional Jazz Jam Session at the Folk School of KDHX.
Then on Sunday evening, in an odd bit of synchronicity, two of the bands that helped popularize the jazz-rock genre a half-century ago will be in St. Louis on the same night, as Chicago plays at the Fox Theatre and Blood, Sweat & Tears performs at the River City Casino & Hotel.
The current touring version of Chicago includes three original members - keyboard player and singer Robert Lamm, trumpeter Lee Loughnane and trombonist (and St. Louis native) James Pankow.
Meanwhile, BS&T, which has seen dozens of musicians come and go over the past 50 years, has no members remaining from their hit-making days, but fields a lineup of players selected by founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby, who doesn't perform with the group but owns rights to the name.
Tuesday, July 2
Guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran plays a free outdoor concert at Fanetti Park.
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.)
