Jazz this week: Dawn Weber, Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective, "Honoring Our Own" with Wycliffe Gordon, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features plenty of brass, with performances headlined by one local trumpeter and singer; one visiting trumpeter who's become quite familiar to local listeners; one star trombonist who's helping pay tribute to some St. Louisans; and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, May 16
Cabaret Project St. Louis has found a new home for their monthly "Broadway Open Mic," which starting this week will take place at Sophie's Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club on the second floor of the .ZACK building at 3224 Locust St.

Also on Wednesday, the weekly "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 and his band at The Dark Room.

Thursday, May 17
The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra with singers Valerie Tichacek and Dean Christopher performs at Jazz at the Bistro; saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room; and singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will celebrate Mancuso's birthday with a show at Parkside Grille in West County.

Friday, May 18
Trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber and friends will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, and the St. Louis Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Kendrick Smith's trio continues at Thurman's in Shaw, and bassist Darrell Mixon leads a trio at Cigar Inn in Belleville.

Saturday, May 19
The Friends of Scott Joplin present the string band Mound City Slickers in a matinee concert at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

Then on Saturday evening, percussionist Herman Semidey and Orquesta Son Montuno will play salsa, latin jazz, and more at the Webster Groves Concert Hall, and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Sunday, May 20
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard and his band, the E-Collective (pictured, top left), will perform at the Grandel Theatre.

Blanchard and company currently are touring in support of their most recent album Live, which came out earlier this year. For more about that, and Blanchard's ongoing relationship with St. Louis, see this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Sunday, singer Wendy Gordon and friends -  including special guest star, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (pictured, bottom left) - will present "Honoring Our Own," a tribute to St. Louis trombonist and educator Robert Edwards and actor/singer J. Samuel Davis, at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

That same evening, saxophonist Rev. Cliff Aerie and the Oikos Ensemble are offering another of their "Inner Jazz" programs at the First Congregational Church in Webster Groves.

Monday, May 21
While we haven't heard the band yet and thus cannot offer an informed recommendation, this seems like as good a place as any to note that The Dark Room has started offering live music on Mondays, presenting a quartet led by the young drummer Keith Bowman, a recent graduate of Webster University. 

Tuesday, May 22
Pianist "Ragtime" Jack Radcliffe, a specialist in pre-war jazz, blues, and, yes, ragtime, who's from Massachusetts, performs at Evangeline's.

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.)

Jazz St. Louis adds shows to Bistro schedule

Jazz St. Louis has announced nine more events for the 2017-18 season at Jazz at the Bistro, filling in some gaps in the previously-announced schedule for the fall and adding one more headliner in the spring.

Three of the shows are co-productions with Cabaret Project of St. Louis, as the two organizations will team up to present singer and actor Kyle Dean Massey on Wednesday, September 27 and Thursday, September 28; actor, singer and Bellevile native Lea DeLaria (pictured), who will make her debut at the Bistro with shows on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28; and Marilyn Maye, the 89-year-old known as the "grand dame of cabaret," on Wednesday, March 7 and Thursday, March 8.

Three other newly-scheduled events will pay tribute to jazz greats.

Drummer Montez Coleman will helm "The Art of Blakey," a celebration of the iconic drummer and his Jazz Messengers, on Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10, joined by saxophonist Ben Reece, trumpeter Danny Campbell, bassist Bob DeBoo, and pianist Adam Maness.

Coleman, DeBoo and Maness then will return the following month for a "Thelonious Monk Centennial" tribute on Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26.

Then on Wednesday, November 5, a free event titled "Duke Ellington and Film" will examine Ellington's music for film and his onscreen appearances via a talk by John Edward Hasse, curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institute, and a performance from the Jazz St. Louis Big Band.

Also added to the fall schedule are a performance by the JazzU Big Band student ensemble on Sunday, October 29, and return dates for the 1970s jazz-fusion tribute Weather Forever on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, and trumpeter Jim Manley's holiday show "A Very Manley Christmas" on Friday, December 22 and Saturday, December 23 .

Tickets for all these shows are available now via the Jazz St. Louis website.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* The Musicians Association of St Louis will be collecting signatures supporting a referendum on Missouri's new "Right to Work" law from 10:00 a.m. to noon this Saturday, July 8 at the union hall at 2103 59th Street.

Union officials will be outside on the hall's back lot so that Local 2-197 members can drive up and sign the petitions, which seek to allow Missouri voters to approve or reject the state's recently enacted "Right to Work" law during the next statewide election in November, 2018.

* St. Louis County Library is seeking recorded original music from St. Louis bands and musicians for "Listen Up STL," described as "a pilot project that will give local musicians the opportunity to make their music available to a wider audience of SLCL cardholders" via a free streaming service. SLCL is accepting submissions until July 31; for more details on how to submit, go here.

* The Nevermore Jazz Ball, presented here each fall by Lindy Hop St. Louis, has become a sell-out event attracting swing dancers from all over the country. So this year the organizers are giving St. Louisans a chance to purchase tickets first in person via their "2017 Local Love Pre-Sale," which will be held this Sunday, July 9 during the "River City Mess Around" event at 2720 Cherokee. See the link for details on ticket costs and pre-sale procedures.

* Cabaret Project St. Louis still has a few tickets left for their annual fundraising gala scheduled for Friday, July 21 at the Fox Theatre. The event will feature performances from Tony Award winner Faith Prince, 89-year-old cabaret grande dame Marilyn Maye (pictured), and more.

* The Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition is looking for solo female or male vocalists of all nationalities who are not signed to a major record label. The sixth annual competition, sponsored by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and Indaba Music, is the first time that male singers have been allowed to participate, and will culminate in a live competition on Sunday, November 12 at NJPAC. For details and information on how to enter, go here.

* Saxophonist Charlie Cerpa was profiled by St. Louis magazine's Thomas Crone.

* A closing reception for the exhibit "The Music Seen: Beyond the Stage" will take place from 5:30 p.m. to  8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 13 at Bullivant Gallery, giving photography aficionados one last chance to view (and perhaps purchase) music-related photos by Michael Eastman, David Godlis, Jason Lee, Charles Peterson, David Rocco, Ernest Withers, and Baron Wolman.

* Saxquest will hold an official "grand opening" event for their Saxquest West store on Saturday, August 12. The store, which shares space with Top Notch Violins, is located in an industrial park at 2614 Metro Blvd in Maryland Heights.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: 2016 St. Louis Cabaret Festival

This week, it's time to take a look at some of the performers who will part of the 2016 St. Louis Cabaret Festival, which will feature performances by touring headliners on Wednesday, July 20; Thursday, July 21; and Friday, July 22 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

(A final performance on Sunday, July 24 at the Ferring Jazz Bistro will showcase participants from the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, an annual week-long event that encompasses the festival as well as daily educational programming for both aspiring and experienced cabaret performers, professional development, networking, and more.)

This year's festival will feature return appearances by several performers who have been well-received in years past, including longtime St. Louis favorite Ann Hampton Callaway and Kansas native Marilyn Maye, the amazingly spry 88-year-old who's been called the "grande dame of cabaret." They'll both be featured along with pianists Billy Stritch and Tedd Firth on Thursday night's show, titled "Marilyn Maye and her Piano Men".

Also returning for an encore appearance will be Broadway star Faith Prince, who was part of the event in 2014. This year, she'll team up with singer and actor Jason Graae on Wednesday night for "The Prince and the Showboy," which they first did together in 2012 in New York City.

New to the event in 2016 is singer and pianist Tony DeSare, who will be featured on Friday night. Though this is his first year as part of the Cabaret Festival, DeSare has played in St. Louis before, in 2007 at the Bistro and in 2011 at the Sheldon. You can see him in the first video up above, singing "Baby Dream Your Dream," a song from the Broadway musical Sweet Charity, at a gig in March of this year in Las Vegas.

After the jump, you can see DeSare performing his original song "Chemistry" in a recording made at the same Las Vegas gig.

Below that, there are a couple of examples of impromptu interaction between Ann Hampton Callaway and Marilyn Maye, as they're featured in two audience-made clips (one from 2010, the other undated) improvising a bit of blues and playing around with "Our Love Is Here To Stay".

(For more videos of Maye and Callaway, together and separately, plus a clip of Billy Stritch, see StLJN's preview of the 2014 fest. There also are a couple of nice clips of Maye in the preview post from 2015.)

You'll also find a couple of videos of Faith Prince in that 2014 post, and you can see her and Jason Graae in today's fifth clip, which excerpts from and promotes the NYC run of "The Prince and the Showboy".

Last but not least, the sixth and final video features Tedd Firth playing a solo piano version of "When A Woman Loves A Man," a song recorded by both Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, as well as many others.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Jazz this week: Arturo O'Farrill Sextet, Fidel Morales Trio, and more

This week's menu of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis has a bit of what Jelly Roll Morton once called "the Latin tinge," with two different touring Latin-jazz performers passing through town, plus the usual variety of local sounds, from Gypsy jazz and big band swing to funkified Beatles and New Orleans-style brass.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, January 21
Tonight, pianist Arturo O’Farrill (pictured, top left) and his sextet will make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro, continuing with two sets nightly through Saturday.

O'Farrill, the son of legendary Latin bandleader Chico O'Farrill, is a fine pianist with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Latin-jazz idiom, and his big band put on a powerful show when they performed at the now-defunct St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival back in the mid-2000s. Though this ensemble may be smaller, the energy level and musicianship should be equally high.

Also tonight, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "open mic" night at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes trio will perform at The Feasting Fox .

Thursday, January 22
This semester's Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University begins with a free concert from bassist Eric Warren and his quartet; and pianists David Parker and Greg Mills will play at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Friday, January 23
The Funky Butt Brass Band return for their monthly performance at the Broadway Oyster Bar, while the Webster Groves HS Jazz Band, Hixson MS Jazz Band and WGHS Alumni Jazz Band will play their annual concert at The Pageant.

Elsewhere around town, Second Generation Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom, and singer Joe Mancuso leads a quartet at Nathalie's.

Saturday January 24
Percussionist Fidel Morales (pictured, below left), who teaches at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and has performed with well-known musicians including Danilo Pérez, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Eddie Gómez, and Jon Faddis, brings his Afro Cuban Jazz Trio to Voce.

Also on Saturday, The People's Key interpret the Beatles in their show "Sgt. Pepper's Jazzy Hearts Club Band" at the Kranzberg Arts Center;  trumpeter Jim Manley will be back at One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; Wack-A-Doo performs at Evangeline's ; and singer Feyza Eren and pianist Curt Landes will be at The Wine Press

Sunday, January 25
Gypsy-jazz group Franglais plays for brunch at Evangeline's.

Monday, January 26
Jazz-fusion quartet Common Time will play at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University; and saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to 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.)