Jazz this week: Monty Alexander, Antonio Figura, the Miles Davis statue unveiled, Dave Dickey Big Band, and more

While jazz fans from all over the world will be taking note of the long-awaited unveiling of the Miles Davis statue Saturday in Alton, IL, there also will be plenty of other interesting jazz and creative music events happening all around the St. Louis area. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, September 9
In his first St. Louis show in more than a decade, pianist Monty Alexander (pictured, top left) and his trio will perform for the first of two evenings at Jazz at the Bistro.

Alexander, who was born in Jamaica and came to the US as a child, began his jazz career in the mid-1960s, working as a sideman for musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Benny Golson, Jimmy Griffin and Frank Morgan. He began leading his own bands in the 1970s, and past editions of his trios have included highly-regarded players such as John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

More recently, Alexander has become known for making music specifically connected to his Caribbean roots, recording several times with Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin and also issuing several albums of his own mixing jazz with reggae and other regional sounds.

Also on Wednesday, singer Eve Seltzer returns to Nathalie's.

Thursday, September 10
Italian pianist Antonio Figura returns to St. Louis to play a free concert kicking off this semester's Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Friday, September 11
There's no jazz at the Bistro until Sunday this weekend, as Friday is the folk/bluegrass installment of Grand Center's "Music at the Intersection" series, and a Saturday show that was set to feature bassist Jahmal Nichols got scrubbed a while back due to Nichols' tour schedule with singer Gregory Porter.

However, this year's St. Louis Art Fair, which runs through Sunday, will have a dedicated jazz stage, with   Friday's offerings including sets from singer/pianists Jesse Gannon and Anita Rosamond plus a set from the Bosman Twins. Also at the Art Fair, the Funky Butt Brass Band will take an early evening turn over on the main stage.

Elsewhere on Friday, guitarist Dave Black and band will play a free outdoor concert at Ferguson CityWalk; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Nathalie's; and the Original Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, September 12
After more than a year of anticipation, the Miles Davis Memorial Project will unveil the statue of the legendary trumpeter created by sculptor Preston Jackson, which finally will be installed in its permanent location on Third St. in downtown Alton.

The unveiling ceremony will be preceded and followed by live music from trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's quartet on an outdoor stage near the statue, and several bars and restaurants nearby will feature live jazz on Saturday evening. Most notably, the veteran trumpeter Bobby Shew (pictured, center left) will be as a guest performer with drummer Montez Coleman's band at Elijah P's, with gigs featuring trumpeters Jim Manley and Dan Smith, guitarist Tom Byrne with singer Erika Johnson, and others happening at various other downtown spots.

Back on the west bank of the Mississippi, Miss Jubilee will be performing in a free outdoor concert at Lafayette Park, and the Art Fair's lineup for the day will include sets from the Jazz Edge Big Band, singer Denise Thimes, pianist Ptah Williams, Good 4 the Soul, and more.

Sunday,
September 13
If you're looking for something to do during the day, the early fall edition of the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will take place at the American Czech Hall, while the Art Fair will feature performances from singer Wendy Gordon, trumpeter Dawn Weber, and Animal Children on the jazz stage and singer Tony Viviano on the main stage.

That evening, the Dave Dickey Big Band (pictured, lower left) will resume their monthly residency at Jazz at the Bistro, with the University of Missouri's jazz band, directed by saxophonist Arthur White, as the intermission performers.

Monday, September 14
Guitarist Daryl Darden will be back home to headline a show at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, and Dizzy Atmosphere plays at The Shaved Duck.

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 news items of local interest:

* Trumpeter Bobby Shew was interviewed by the Alton Telegraph about his upcoming appearance in Alton on Saturday, September 12 in conjunction with the unveiling of the Miles Davis memorial statue.

* You can take a look back at last Saturday's Hermann Wine and Jazz Festival via a short video posted on Facebook this week by the Hermann Advertiser-Courier.

* Also on Facebook, some photos of saxophonist Oliver Lake's big band's performance at last weekend's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in NYC.

* Saxophonist Greg Osby has a new entry up on his blog, offering some back story and a reappraisal of  his 1998 album Banned in New York, which began as a Mini-Disc field recording and wound up being issued as an "official bootleg" by Blue Note .

* The Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University has announced their schedule for Fall 2015, starting with a return appearance from Italian pianist Antonio Figura (pictured) on Thursday, September 10. The series continues most Thursdays until the semester finale on December 10, featuring students from Wash U's jazz performance program. You can see the whole schedule here.

* Pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness and The 442s will be among the featured performers at the "Soul of Ferguson Community Festival" on Sunday, September 6 on the grounds of Ferguson Heights Church of Christ.

* The St. Louis Low Brass Collective is organizing a fund-raising "trivia night" on Saturday, September 12 at Shrewsbury City Center. For details or to reserve a spot, visit http://www.stllbc.org/trivia.

Miles on Monday: Performances set around statue unveiling, and more

This week in Miles Davis news:

* The Miles Davis Memorial Project last week announced several live performances that will take place in conjunction with the unveiling of the statue of Davis on Saturday, September 12 in downtown Alton, IL.

Along with trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's previously announced set outdoors near the statue site on Third St., several Alton nightspots will feature jazz music that evening after the ceremony.

Veteran big-band trumpeter Bobby Shew (pictured), who's played with Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, and other top bands, will visit Alton to perform with drummer Montez Coleman's quintet in a post-unveiling gig at Elijah P's, 401 Piasa St.. Also that evening, trumpeter Jim Manley will lead a trio at Bossanova Restaurant and Lounge, and trumpeter Dan Smith will be playing at Catdaddy’s Tavern.

* The 2015 Newport Jazz Festival may be in the history books, but the fest's celebration of Davis' historic performances there is still reverberating, as fans attending this year's event shared their memories of Davis for a short video posted on the Miles Davis Facebook page.

* Meanwhile, writer Ashley Kahn, who among other things penned the definitive account of the recording of Davis' historic album Kind of Blue, was interviewed about the trumpeter's history at Newport on Boston radio station WBGO.

* On another related note, reviews of the box set of Davis' performances at Newport released last month are still coming in. Writing for Jazz Times, Colin Fleming calls the box "enough to get you pacing in excitement," while dual reviews in The Guardian (UK) found it to be "a real prize" and "coolly swinging".

* Want a free copy of the Davis/Newport box set? Vote in Jazz Times' "Anniversary Edition" Readers' Poll before Tuesday, September 1, and you can enter a drawing to win one.

StlJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2015 jazz preview, part 1

As the start of the fall presenting season approaches, it's time once again for a video preview of the touring jazz and creative musicians and bands who will be visiting St. Louis in the next few months. Here's a look at who's coming to town during the fall of 2015, presented in chronological order.

Jazz at the Bistro's first touring attraction of the season will be the Dave King Trucking Company, who will perform there on Friday, September 4 and Saturday, September 5.

Although bandleader and drummer King has played the Bistro many times with The Bad Plus, this will be the Trucking Company's debut at the venue. You can hear them in the first video clip up top, playing a piece called "Blue Candy" that was recorded in June, 2010 at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul, MN with King on drums, Erik Fratkze on guitar, Brandon Wozniak on sax, and Adam Linz on bass.

The following week, pianist Monty Alexander will return to the Bistro for the first time to perform with his trio on Wednesday, September 9 and Thursday, September 10. After the jump, you can see a clip of Alexander, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton playing "Mojo" back in 2013 at the studios of radio station KPLU in Seattle.

A couple of days after that, trumpeter Bobby Shew will be in the area to take part in the festivities surrounding the unveiling of the Miles Davis commemorative statue in Alton, IL. Shew will play with drummer Montez Coleman's band after the ceremony on Saturday, September 12 at Elijah P's in Alton. In today's third video, he can be seen performing his own composition "The Red Snapper" earlier this summer with the Airmen of Note big band.

Next up, Jazz St. Louis will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bistro from Wednesday, September 23 through Saturday, September 26 with a band assembled especially for the occasion, featuring musicians who have been frequent visitors to the Bistro over the years as bandleader or co-leaders - specifically, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, guitarist Russell Malone, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and saxophonist Tim Warfield.

Since the band has been put together just for this occasion, for purposes of this preview you'll have to settle for seeing clips of the musicians individually (with one exception). So, today's fourth video shows McBride's trio with pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. playing - "Fried Pies" earlier this year, also at KPLU.

That's followed by Chestnut's trio playing Charlie Parker's "What Price Love," recorded earlier this year at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, NJ; and then a clip of a drum solo by Greg Hutchinson, recorded last year at the Drum Daze expo in Columbus, OH.

The seventh video shows Russell Malone fronting his own quartet at the 2009 Jazz at Marciac festival in France, playing the Duke Ellington standard "Caravan."

Last but not least, Stafford and Warfield - old friends who grew up near each other in Pennsylvania, and frequently share the same bandstand - can be heard in the final clip performing "The Touch of Your Lips" at the 2006 Jazz Baltica festival in Salzau, Germany, assisted by Matt Wilson on drums, Martin Wind on bass, and the late pianist Mulgrew Miller.

Look for part 2 of the Fall 2015 jazz preview in this space next week. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...