Jazz this week: The Bad Plus plays Stravinsky, Marty Ehrlich's Rites Quartet, the Brubeck Brothers, Laurence Hobgood & Ernie Watts, and more

The good news is that it's another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, including some very attractive free events.

The bad news is that, absent time travel, cloning or some other fictional technology that doesn't exist, it's probably impossible for one person to hear it all. Nevertheless, to help you decide which shows are worth checking out, here are StLJN's picks for the week.

Tonight, Dizzy Atmosphere plays swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck, and trumpeter Jim Manley performs at Sasha's Wine Bar.

On Thursday night, Jazz St. Louis presents "Stravinsky: Real & Imagined" with The Bad Plus at Viragh Center for the Arts, on the campus of Chaminade College Prep, 425 S. Lindbergh Blvd. In addition to The Bad Plus' performance of their version of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rites of Spring," which they've named "On Sacred Ground," the free concert also will feature members of the St. Louis Symphony performing several other works composed by Stravinsky.

Also on Thursday, the Eric Slaughter/Tom Byrne Quartet will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and "Jazz Unlimited" host Dennis Owsley will serve as moderator for a live interview and discussion with multi-instrumentalist, composer and former St. Louisan Marty Ehrlich at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd. The free event is sponsored by New Music Circle.

Ehrlich, who's now based in NYC, has returned to his old hometown to perform with his Rites Quartet in a concert on Friday at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand, also presented by New Music Circle. For more about Ehrlich, and some video samples of him performing with different groups including the Rites Quartet, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, pianist Laurence Hobgood's quintet with special guest tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts (pictured) opens a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Although the two headliners don't work together regularly, Hobgood, who's the longtime pianist and musical director for singer Kurt Elling, teamed up with the vastly underrated Watts for a one-off date last year at the Bistro, and it went so well they decided to double down this season.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, pianist Ptah Williams plays a free early evening set as part the monthly "First Friday" program at the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University; Lindy Hop St. Louis presents their monthly West End Stomp swing dance at the Mahler Ballroom, with Miss Jubilee as October's featured performer; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham returns to The Precinct, formerly known as Jim Edmonds 15 Steakhouse, at 1900 Locust downtown.

UPDATE: 11:00 a.m., 10/4/13 - Lindy Hop St. Louis has announced via Facebook that tonight's "West End Stomp" is cancelled, due to a booking conflict at the venue. 

On Saturday, pianist Carolbeth True and friends will play a free early afternoon set as part of the Rock Hill Fall Festival, and singers Mary Dyson and Diane Vaughn will join forces for a late afternoon show at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Then on Saturday evening, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, led by Dave Brubeck's sons Chris, a bassist and trombonist, and Dan, a drummer, will perform what's billed as a "Tribute to Dave Brubeck" at Sheldon Concert Hall. The remaining tickets for this show have been discounted to $25 for online buyers; for information on how to get the discount, see this post.

Also on Saturday, singer Feyza Eren returns to the Wine Press; the Sidemen play swing at Schlafly Bottleworks; and bassist Bob Deboo begins a new weekly gig at the Kranzberg Arts Center, in which he'll lead a rhythm section that's joined by a different special guest each month. This month's guest is saxophonist Dave Stone.

On Sunday, the Friends of Scott Joplin present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at Dressel's, 419 N Euclid Ave in the Central West End.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday trumpeter and former Webster University faculty member Mike Parkinson, who's now director of the school of music at Middle Tennessee State University, will be back in town for a visit, teaming up with guitarist Steve Schenkel, bassist Willem von Hombracht and drummer Kevin Gianino to play at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

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.)

The Sheldon, Metrotix offering discount on tickets for Brubeck Brothers Quartet this Saturday, October 5

The Sheldon Concert Hall and Metrotix are offering a discount to online buyers of tickets for the Brubeck Brothers Quartet performance at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday at The Sheldon.

The quartet (pictured), led by Dave Brubeck's sons Dan Brubeck (drums) and Chris Brubeck (bass and trombone), will perform a program of music featuring some of the elder Brubeck's best-known compositions, including "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk."

Along with the Brubecks and guitarist Mike DeMicco, the quartet also includes the fine pianist Chuck Lamb, who St. Louisans of a certain age may remember as the keyboard player in the regionally popular 1970s fusion band Dry Jack. Their most recent album LifeTimes, released in July, features their versions of some of  Dave Brubeck's songs as well as their own original compositions.

With the online discount, tickets for the Brubeck Brothers Quartet that had been $45 and $40 now are available for $25 each. To access the offer, go to the Metrotix site and enter the promo code "TAKEFIVE." The discount offer ends at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, October 5.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Singer Michael Buble, who performs here tomorrow night at the Scottrade Center, talked about his tour and latest album with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* From AllAboutJazz.com's Bill Leikam, here's a review of a recent Brubeck Brothers Band gig at Filoli Estate, just south of San Francisco. The Brubecks are playing here in St. Louis on Saturday, October 5 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person reports that last week's concert by his big band drew standing ovations from the audience at NYC's St. Albans Congregational Church. Person (pictured) and the big band will perform next on Monday, November 11 at the Blue Note in NYC. You can see a video sample of the band here.

* Meanwhile, fellow saxophonist and StL expat Oliver Lake is set to play NYC's Roulette on Tuesday, October 1 with special guests including the Flux String Quartet and pianist Vijay Iyer.

* WSIE has posted on their Facebook page an album of photos from last Saturday's U City Jazz Fest.

* Also on Facebook, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra's page has lots of pictures from last Sunday's concert paying tribute to the late Ross Gentile.

* From the UK comes a newly rediscovered interview with Miles Davis, ca. 1974, by British drummer and music journalist John Runcie.

* Trumpeter Jim Manley has put some audio excerpts from his forthcoming album Short Stories and Tall Tales up on YouTube.

* Here's a review of pianist and St. Louis native Tom McDermott's new Van Dyke Parks-curated anthology “Bamboula,” from the Buffalo News' Jeff Simon.

* Josh Weinstein, host of KDHX's "All Soul, No Borders," contributed extensively to a new article about pianist Matthew Shipp for AllAboutJazz.com.

* The St. Louis Beacon's Mary Delach Leonard takes a look at the latest, and perhaps final, effort to resurrect the Goldenrod Showboat, which for many years hosted music and theater performances on the St. Louis riverfront.

* Saxquest boss Mark Overton reminds local saxophonists between the ages of 18 and 35 that there's still time to enter Keilwerth's "Saxophone Idol" competition. Prizes include a new Keilwerth sax and the chance to play a gig with famed tenor man Ernie Watts.

* Applications are being accepted now for the next round of Artists Support Grants from the Regional Arts Commission. The deadline to apply is Tuesday, October 15.

* Jazz radio update: With the beginning of the fall semester, WSIE has added some new on-air hosts and made some changes to their programming schedule. You can see all the details of the new lineup here.

Meanwhile, over at Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis, this week's edition of Calvin Wilson's "Somethin' Else" features contemporary big band sounds from musicians including Darcy James Argue, Brian Landrus and Joel Harrison. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2 and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2013 jazz preview, part 2

Today, it's part two of StLJN's Fall 2013 jazz preview, with videos spotlighting the various jazz and creative music performers who will be coming to town over the next few months. In part one, posted a week ago, we covered most of the month of September; today's segment takes up where that one left off, on Thursday, September 26.

That's when drummer and University City native Ronnie Burrage will return home for the first of three local dates that week, at Robbie's House of Jazz. The next two nights, on Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28, Band Burrage - which also includes saxophonist Rick Tate, singer Shenel Johns, bassist Nimrod Speaks, and St. Louis' own Eric Slaughter on guitar - will play at the Kranzberg Arts Center. In the clip up above, you can see an excerpt from a gig of theirs recorded just last month at the University Club in Philadelphia.

Down below, there's a video featuring pianist Antonio Figura, who also will be in St. Louis on Thursday, September 26, playing a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Though the clip is a promo for a Figura gig at La Palma Club in Rome, rather than a full performance, it seems to be the best/only footage online of him playing live in a trio setting. For his performance here, Figura will be supported by drummer Steve Davis and William Lenihan, director of Wash U's jazz program, on bass.

Below that, it's singer and pianist Diana Krall, who will be making her first St. Louis appearance since 2007 on Friday, September 27 at the Fox Theatre. In this video, shot at the 2013 Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, you can see Krall and her band tacking a Bix Biederbecke number that she recorded for her most recent album, the 1920s-flavored Glad Rag Doll.

If Krall's carefully modulated cool isn't your sort of thing, there's something dramatically different on tap the following evening, as experimental duo Aluechatistas come to town on Saturday, September 28 to play the five-year anniversary celebration for KDHX's "Wrong Division" at Schlafly St. Louis Brewery & Tap Room. Guitarist Shane Perlowin and Ryan Oslance mix up free jazz, math rock, noise, and plenty of other musical ideas, as you can see in today's fourth video, a full set recorded in May of this year in Tallahassee, FL.

Below that, you can see excerpts from The Bad Plus' "On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring," which the acclaimed trio will perform in a free concert sponsored by Jazz St. Louis on Thursday, October 3 at the Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade College Prep.

In addition to The Bad Plus' take on Stravinsky's most famous composition, the program also will feature a contingent of players from the St. Louis Symphony playing some of the composer's other works. (If you're interested in hearing The Bad Plus' entire performance of The Rite of Spring, you can hear the audio of their 2012 concert at NYC's Lincoln Center here.

Today's sixth clip features another St. Louis expat, multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich, who's coming home for the first time in several years to play with his Rites Quintet in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, October 4 at the Kranzberg Arts Center. In this video, the group - Ehrlich on reeds, James Zollar on trumpet, Hank Roberts on cello, and Michael Sarin on drums - plays the title song from their 2012 album Frog Leg Logic.

The same evening Ehrlich and company are at the Kranzberg, pianist Laurence Hobgood's trio will be joined by saxophonist Ernie Watts for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Hobgood and Watts first played together under the auspices of the pianist's primary employer, singer Kurt Elling, for the 2010 album Dedicated To You - Kurt Elling Sings Music of Coltrane and Hartman and subsequent tour. They then joined forces again for a one-off gig (without Elling) last year at the Bistro, which went well enough that they're coming back to play a full weekend on Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5.

Since there's no real video documentation of the Hobgood-Watts combination as such, the clip you'll see in the seventh position is from one of Elling's gigs, and features a medley of "What's New," "Lush Life," and "Autumn Serenade", recorded in 2010 at the Umbria jazz festival.

Today's final video features the Brubeck Brothers band, led by the famed pianist's sons Dan Brubeck, a drummer, and Chris Brubeck, a bassist and trombonist, in a performance recorded last year at the Moscow Conservatory. Joined by guitarist Mike DeMicco and pianist Chuck Lamb (co-founder of the semi-fabled 1970s Midwest fusion band Dry Jack), the Brubecks will be in St. Louis on Saturday, October 5 to perform a tribute to their dad at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Look for part three of StLJN's Fall 2013 jazz preview next week.