Jazz this week: Ann Hampton Callaway, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Peter Henderson and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis offers another varied selection of styles, from swinging jazz in a mainstream groove to eccentric, electric fusion to cabaret to contemporary avant-garde concert music. Let's go the highlights, presented as usual in chronological order:

Tonight, singer, songwriter and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway (pictured) opens a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Callaway has performed in St. Louis many times, most recently in 2009 for a benefit at the Contemporary Art Museum. According to this interview she did with the P-D's Calvin Wilson, this time out she'll be singing material from her most recent CD and also performing some new arrangements.

Tomorrow night, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns to St. Louis for the first time in a decade to play at Cicero's. For more about this eclectic quartet from Tulsa, see this post from last Saturday. (I also spoke last week with JFJO keyboardist and founding member Brian Haas for an interview that will go up soon on the RFT's A to Z music blog, and will add a link here to that post once it's online.)

Also on Thursday, pianist Carobeth True and Two Times True (which she co-leads with her son, drummer David True) will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and Erin Bode will perform at Cyrano's in Webster Groves.

On Friday, singer Katie McGrath will start a two night run at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan. McGrath's show "The Underside of Love" includes songs composers such as Stephen Sondheim, Judy Collins, Peter Gabriel, Cole Porter and Leon Redbone, and was directed by Tim Schall, with Rick Jensen as music director.

Also on Friday, pianist Curt Landes leads his trio, with featured guest singer Mary Dyson, at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, pianist Peter Henderson will perform at Christ Church Cathedral in a concert sponsored by New Music Circle. Henderson, who specializes in performing contemporary works, will play Frederic Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" and "24 Studies in African Rhythms" by Fred Onovwerosuoke, founder of the St. Louis African Chorus. Onovwerosuoke, who was raised in Ghana and Nigeria and moved to St. Louis in 1994, will be on hand to introduce his piece.

If you're in the mood from something more straight ahead on Saturday, the fine trumpeter Randy Holmes and his quartet will be returning that evening to Robbie's.

On Sunday, there's the April edition of the monthly jam session with saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio at Bossanova Restaurant & Lounge in Alton. Also on Sunday, BB's Jazz Blues and Soups has funk and R&B-infused sounds from Good 4 The Soul in the early evening and Latin jazz from Ritmo Caliente later on.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday bassist Bob Deboo will lead a quartet with saxophonist Willie Akins, pianist Ptah Williams and drummer DeMarius Hicks in a a couple of early evening sets. They'll be there from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays for an open-ended run, and Deboo tells StLJN that they're also doing some live recording.

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 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Four from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Today we've got a musical video journey courtesy of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who will return to St. Louis for the first time in ten years this Thursday, March 31 to play at Cicero's.

Formed in the early 1990s in Tulsa, JFJO originally was a funk-influenced eight-piece outfit with horn players and MCs. By 1999, they had gotten down to a trio, later becoming a quartet and weathering more personnel changes, including the departure of bassist and founding member Reed Mathis in 2009. The current JFJO includes the band's lone remaining founding member Brian Haas on piano, Rhodes electric piano and melodica, Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel guitar, and Jeff Harshbarger on acoustic bass.

Their music incorporates a variety of influences, from fusion, free improv and a bit of straight ahead jazz to classical, pop instrumentals, and programmatic film music. The addition of Harshbarger and Combs also has brought what critics have described as a pastoral or rustic aspect to their sound, comparable in some ways to recent Bill Frisell or the early Pat Metheny quartet with Lyle Mays.

These four clips show several sides of JFJO's musical personality, starting with the lyrical "The Sensation of Seeing Light," which they recorded as a special 7" single for Record Store Day 2010. This video was made at an in-store performances at Starship Records in Tulsa on Record Store Day in April, as were the two clips below, "Trampoline Phoenix" and "Hamby's Window."

All three songs were included on JFJO's 2010 release Stay Gold, as was "The Return," shown in the fourth clip, which was recorded in June 2010 at the B-10 Club of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey performing Thursday, March 31 at Cicero's

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, March 31 at Cicero's.

Founded in 1994 in Tulsa, the jazz/funk/jam band has changed personnel and evolved its sound considerably over the years. They started as an eight-piece group, pared down to a trio in 1999, and most recently became a quartet in 2008. The current lineup include founding member Brian Haas on keyboards, with Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel guitar, and Jeff Harshbarger on bass.

All those changes have been amply documented on 19 recordings, including two in 2010: The Sensation of Seeing Light, a 7" vinyl single released for Record Store Day in April, and Stay Gold, which came out in June on both CD and double 12" vinyl. Last year also saw the premiere of "Ludwig," JFJO's reinterpretations of Beethoven's 3rd and 6th Symphonies, with a 50 piece orchestra at the OK Mozart Festival. They've just completed sessions for another recording tentatively titled Race Riot Suite, inspired by historic events in Tulsa, that features guest performances from saxophonists Jeff Coffin, Peter Apfelbaum and Mark Southerland and trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

The St. Louis trio Juanita Place and Nashville singer/songwriter Lauren Lucas will open. Show time is 8:00 p.m., and tickets are $7 at the door.

(Edited after posting. Updated 3/2/11 with a new photo of the band.)