Jazz this week: Grace Kelly, Steve Swell Quintet, Kevin Eubanks, a benefit for Puerto Rico, and more

The fall presenting season is gathering some momentum this week, as the calendar of jazz and creative music for the next few days in St. Louis includes three significant touring headliners - two of whom are making their local debuts - plus a benefit raising money for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 4
Saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly (pictured, top left) makes her St. Louis debut in the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

For more about Kelly and some video samples of recent performances, take a look at this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Wednesday, guitarist Dave Black plays solo at Evangeline's, and the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features saxophonist Andy Ament at KDHX's Magnolia Café, a jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, October 5
Singer Kim Fuller will perform in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, percussionist Joe Pastor leads a trio at The Dark Room, and saxophonist Vince Sala brings his trio to The Pat Connolly Tavern.

Friday, October 6
The Puerto Rican Society of St. Louis presents "STL Stands Up For Puerto Rico," a benefit performance to raise money for hurricane relief on the island, at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park. The event will feature music from Orquestra Son Montuno, Farshid Etniko, Clave Sol, Mark Holland, and more.

Saturday, October 7
Veteran free-jazz trombonist Steve Swell makes his St. Louis debut, leading an all-star quintet in a concert presented by New Music Circle at The Stage at KDHX.

Swell's band (pictured, bottom left) features pianist Dave Burrell, bassist William Parker, drummer Chad Taylor, and saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, and you can find out more of them and see some video performances here.

Sunday, October 8
Guitarist Kevin Eubanks, who's gotten very good notices for his post-Tonight Show efforts both on stage and on records. returns to the St. Louis area to perform in the intimate confines of the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. 

Also on Sunday night, the Coleman Hughes Project plays an early evening show at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

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.)

U City Jazz Festival sets lineup for Saturday, September 7

The U City Jazz Festival has announced the lineup of musicians who will perform at this year's event, which will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 7 in Heman Park in University City.

The all-St. Louis musical menu for the festival will include Willie Akins and Montez Coleman, Bach to the Future, Phil Gomez and Clave Sol, the Joe Mancuso Quintet, Tom Byrne and Have U Heard?, and a tribute to Wes Montgomery led by Maurice Carnes (pictured).

The event will be staged in conjunction with the annual Fair U. City, and is free and open to the public. Heman Park is located on Olive Blvd, near the corner of Midland Ave and Olive.

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus and more

The week after New Year's can be a slow one for the bar business, what with people being tired and/or tapped out financially after the holidays. Not only that, as of this writing several local night spots that present jazz haven't even updated their websites with January schedules yet. Combine that with the fact that some of St. Louis' not-for-profit jazz presenters won't be back in action until later in the month, and the local menu of live jazz and creative music is looking a bit sparse for the next few days, though there still are several noteworthy shows coming up:

The big news of the week is that tonight the distinctive piano trio The Bad Plus (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro, kicking off a four-night run at the club to open the New Year here in St. Louis for the fifth consecutive time. After a busy 12 months that included the debut of their version of Stravinsky's iconic The Rites of Spring, TBP reportedly are readying another album of new original material to follow up on 2009's Never Stop, so don't be surprised if there's some new stuff mixed into their sets at the Bistro among the more familiar numbers.

For more about The Bad Plus, see this review I wrote for the Riverfront Times about one their Wednesday night sets last year at the Bistro; this video showcase post from before that same run of shows; and this weeks' Critic's Pick from my RFT colleague Ryan Wasoba.

Elsewhere around town, on Friday vibraphonist Peter Schlamb leads a group for an early evening set at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups; and the Yard Dawgs Jazz Quartet plays at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday, Latin jazz band Clave Sol plays the early show at BB's.

Then on Sunday, the first St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show of the year will take place at the American Czech Center on the south side.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday BB's has a double bill of guitar-centric groups, with the Dave Black Group in the early slot and Tom Byrne's Pat Metheny inspired ensemble Have You Heard? playing later on.

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.)

U City Jazz Festival to be held Saturday, September 24 in Heman Park

The municipality of University City will present the first ever U City Jazz Festival from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Saturday, September 24 at Heman Park, 7210 Olive Blvd.

The free outdoor concert will feature performances from singer Jeanne Trevor, Latin jazz group Clave Sol, and the Classical Jazz Quartet (pictured), plus a tribute to John Coltrane from drummer Maurice Carnes' Hipjaz Quartet, and a set by an all-star band of music students from University City.

Brothers Mike and Rob Silverman, best known to St. Louis audiences as the keyboard player and drummer for the Classical Jazz Quartet, Downtown Trio and Bach to the Future, are organizing the event. For more information, visit the website at http://www.ucityjazzfestival.com/.