Jazz this week: Caribbean Jazz Project, Fareed Haque, Diverse and more

Along with the official start of spring, this weekend brings several events of interest to fans of jazz and creative music in St. Louis.

The weekend's best-known headliners are Dave Samuels and the Caribbean Jazz Project, who will open a four-night run this evening at Jazz at the Bistro. You can see some video of the CJP in action here, and listen to a podcast interview with Samuels here

On Thursday evening, drummer Ben Thigpen leads his group in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also on Thursday, guitarist Fareed Haque and the Flat Earth Ensemble will play at 2720, and Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum returns to Brandt's.

(Parenthetically, Brandt's website domain name seems to have expired and fallen prey to the dreaded domain-jackers, as has the website for Seasons St. Louis, which has featured jazz performers such as Erin Bode and Mae Wheeler. If anyone reading this knows more about what's going on with either place, please drop me an email.)

Elsewhere this wekeend, Robbie's House of Jazz will feature guitarist Scott McCloud on Friday and the up-and-coming Kansas City band Diverse (pictured) on Saturday. Diverse are particular favorites of StLJN's cross-state counterpart Plastic Sax, which has provided ongoing coverage of the band and named trumpeter Hermon Mehari the Kansas City jazz "Person of the Year" for 2009. You can hear an interview with Mehari from late last year on Jason Crane's The Jazz Session, and read a review of Diverse's self-titled 2009 debut CD here.

On Sunday afternoon, saxophonist Willie Akins performs the music of Sonny Rollins at the Metropolitan Gallery as part of the Nu-Art Series' "re-arrangements & nu-compositions" concerts, and the St. Louis Jazz Club will present Cornet Chop Suey at Bel Air Bowl in Belleville. Also on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series presents a free blues concert by Big George Brock and the Houserockers at the Second Baptist Church.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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 by becoming a "fan" of 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.)

Dave Samuels podcast interview now online

Jazz St. Louis has put online the latest in their series of podcast interviews with musicians who are coming to St. Louis to play Jazz at the Bistro.

The latest installment features a conversation with vibraphonist and marimba player Dave Samuels of the Caribbean Jazz Project, who will be here this week to perform Wednesday, March 17 through Saturday, March 20 at the Bistro. You can listen to an audio stream of the interview here, or download it as an .mp3 file here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: "Stolen Moments" with Dave Samuels and the Caribbean Jazz Project

This week, let's spend a little time with Dave Samuels and the Caribbean Jazz Project, who will be in St. Louis Wednesday, March 17 through Saturday, March 20 to perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

The group was formed in 1995 when Samuels, who had been the mallet percussionist for Spyro Gyra, joined forces with steel pan player Andy Narell and saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera for a concert in NYC's Central Park. They released two albums before Narell and D'Rivera moved on, leaving Samuels to put together a new lineup featuring flute player Dave Valentin and guitarist Steve Khan.

That group put out three more records, including the Grammy winning release The Gathering, before disbanding in 2002. Since then, Samuels and the CJP have toured and recorded with several different lineups of musicians, usually featuring a trumpet player or saxophonist along with Samuels' vibes and marimba and a rhythm section.

Today's first clip has a St. Louis connection and also serves to illustrate how CJP approaches a familiar jazz standard, as it features their version of St. Louis native Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments," taken from a concert at the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat, Isreal.

Down below are two clips from CJP's performance in 2008 at the J&R Music Festival in 2008. The first is "Arthur's Dance," an original Samuels tune named for his father, while the second features Samuels' solo on Latin jazz vibist Cal Tjader's well-known composition "Soul Sauce".