Jazz this week: Lou Donaldson, Alarm Will Sound, Three Tenors of St. Louis, David Grisman, St. Louis Stompers, and more

Though Cardinal baseball may be preoccupying large segments of the populace in St. Louis, the fall jazz and creative music presenting season nevertheless continues this week with a full slate of performances in a wide variety of styles.

Music fans who care to venture forth into clubs and concert halls over the next few days will find everything from traditional New Orleans jazz  to bluesy, bop-inflected saxophone from an old-school jazz master to top touring groups showcasing recombinant genres rooted in classical and bluegrass. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the veteran alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson will begin a four-night gig continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Performing with an organ trio, the 86-year-old Donaldson mixes blues, bop, ballads, and backbeats in a crowd-pleasing fashion, and usually adds additional entertainment with some wry, between-song quips along the way. For more about Donaldson (pictured) and some video samples of what you're likely to hear this weekend, see this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the 20-member new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound begins their second St. Louis season at the Sheldon Concert Hall, previewing the program they'll play this weekend at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Elsewhere around town, the 442s play at the Tavern of Fine Arts; singer Joe Mancuso leads a trio at EdgeWild Restaurant and Winery in Chesterfield; and vibraphonist Peter Schlamb's group performs at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tomorrow night, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a free concert featuring "Three Tenors of St. Louis," namely Freddie Washington, Willie Akins and Paul DeMarinis. While Washington and Akins have performed together occasionally in the past, the three-tenor format adds a new wrinkle and should make for some friendly but spirited competition. Also on Thursday, funk/R&B/jazz group Good 4 The Soul plays their monthly show at BB's.

On Friday, mandolinist David Grisman, inventor of the acoustic swing/folk/rock/bluegrass hybrid style he calls "dawg music," brings his FolkJazz Trio to the Sheldon Concert Hall. Also on Friday, saxophonist Jay Hutson and Da Wolvez are at Robbie's House of Jazz; and pianist Ptah Williams leads a trio at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday afternoon, guitarist Corey Christiansen will present a jazz improvisation workshop at Mozingo Music. Christensen, who lived in St. Louis for several years before moving back to Utah in 2007, also will lead a trio in a Saturday night performance at Robbie's.

Elsewhere on Saturday night, the Bosman Twins and friends from several different locales are teaming up for one of their periodic "Reunion Jazz Band' gigs at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes trio perform at Thurman Grill.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Stompers at the Doubletree Hotel in Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Robben Ford, who's played with jazz stars including Tom Scott, Jimmy Witherspoon and Miles Davis, will present a guitar clinic sponsored by Mozingo Music at Sky Music Lounge in Ballwin. Also on Monday,  the Sessions Big Band plays 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.)

Jazz this week: Hamiet Bluiett opens Robbie's; Matthew Von Doran and Corey Christiansen at The Gramophone; and more

Though we're still in what's generally the slow season of the year for jazz in St. Louis, there are a couple of noteworthy events coming up this week featuring nationally known musicians with ties to the St. Louis area.

On Friday, the highly acclaimed baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett, who was born and still lives in Brooklyn, IL, opens the new venue Robbie's House of Jazz (in the former Cookie's Jazz and More location at 20 Allen Ave. in Webster Groves), accompanied by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar (pictured) and bassist Curtis Lundy.

The Bluiett-El'Zabar-Lundy ensemble also will perform at the club again on Saturday night, and both evenings should be nice opportunities to hear three world-class musicians adept at playing both inside and outside the changes up close in an intimate setting. For a bit more about Robbie's House of Jazz and its owners Dorothy and Robert Edwards, see this post from last week.

Also notable is the show next Tuesday at The Gramophone, when guitarists Matthew Von Doran, who moved to St. Louis a couple of years ago, and Corey Christiansen, a former St. Louisan, will team up for a duo performance, backed by bassist Bob Deboo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt. As mentioned in this post announcing the show, Von Doran and Christiansen are good friends, and the combination of their personal rapport and contrasting styles - the former leaning toward fusion, the latter tending more traditional - should make for some entertaining listening.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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.)

Corey Christiansen, Matthew Von Doran to perform at The Gramophone on Tuesday, August 18

This just in: In another welcome development during this relatively slow time of year for live jazz in St. Louis, guitarists Corey Christiansen (pictured) and Matthew Von Doran will team up for a performance at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18 at The Gramophone.

Christiansen and Von Doran are old pals who have worked together before; in fact, Von Doran bought and now resides in the Webster Groves house that Christiansen vacated when he left St. Louis to move back to Utah in the fall of 2007. Tickets for their August 18 performance, which also will include bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Kyle Honeycutt, will be $5 at the door.

Unfortunately, this will be the last Tuesday night of jazz music at The Gramophone for now, as the club has ended the Tuesday night series of free shows that it co-presented with Jazz St. Louis. "We tried for almost 18 months and just could not get people out on Tuesday, even for free," said co-owner Andrew "Roo" Yawitz via email. "I hope to continue to feature jazz at The Gramophone, just not as a weekly event." For now, the club will be closed on Tuesdays except for touring acts and local special events like the Von Doran/Christiansen show. Regular business hours at The Gramophone will continue from 8:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.

(Edited after posting to add the last two sentences. Edited again on 8/11/09 to add the correct bass player and drummer for the show.)

Jazz this week: Waverly Seven, Laetitia Sonami, Corey Christiansen, and more

Although the the jazz calendar this weekend isn't exactly packed, there are definitely a few shows happening that are worthy of attention, starting with Waverly Seven (pictured), who are performing at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday.

The NYC-based septet, which features two keyboard players, bass and drums in its rhythm section behind a front line of saxophonist/clarinetist Anat Cohen, her brother Avishai Cohen on trumpet and Joel Frahm on tenor sax. They're a relatively new band that made their public debut earlier this year and, since the members are all bandleaders and/or in-demand side players in their own right, has played only a half-dozen gigs so far. As a result, they don't have much of a track record yet as a group, but given the considerable talents of the individual members, they seem worth checking out. Part of each set will be a quartet performance fronted by Anat Cohen, hopefully providing an opportunity to spotlight her very fine clarinet work.

Also making a debut this weekend is a new St. Louis jazz trio featuring pianist James Hegarty, drummer Tom Zirkle and bassist Luis-Michael Zayas. They'll perform a program of original compositions in a free concert on Friday night at the Mildred E. Bastian Performing Arts Center at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park.

On Sunday afternoon, guitarist Corey Christiansen returns to the St. Louis area to perform a concert in the Donald D. Shook Fine Arts Building of at St. Charles Community College. Before moving back to his home state of Utah earlier this year, Christiansen lived in St. Louis for several years while working for Mel Bay Publications. He's a very solid player in the mainstream jazz guitar style, and definitely worth a listen if you enjoy that genre.

On Sunday night, New Music Circle presents mixed-media performance artist Laetitia Sonami in a concert at SLCC-Forest Park. Born in France and now a resident of Oakland, California, Sonami is a composer, dancer, and sound installation artist who uses technology in combination with text, dance, and “found sounds" to create works the Los Angeles Times has called "visceral and engaging.” One of the pieces she will perform is called “The Appearance of Silence (The Invention of Perspective),” and it incorporates her instrument “the lady’s glove,” a sensor-studded controller made of black lycra that is worn on the hand to allow movements to control sounds, mechanical devices, and lights in real time.

For more, please consult the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, with the caveat that since the new month arrives over weekend, schedule updates from clubs and bands likely will be ongoing for the next several days.

(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.)

A guitarist leaves town, a guitarist comes to town

You don't necessarily have to believe explicitly in the concept of karma to think that the universe somehow usually manages to balance things out, but you rarely see it happen as quickly as in the story of how guitarist Matthew Von Doran (pictured) recently moved from southern California to the St. Louis area.

Our tale begins with guitarist Corey Christiansen, who's lived in St. Louis for the past six years working for Mel Bay Publications as an author and clinician and doing occasional gigs and recordings. In what's certainly a loss for the local music scene, Christiansen recently decided to move back to Utah, where he grew up and earned his music degree from Utah State University.

That's where the whole universe-balancing thing comes in. As Von Doran recounted by email, "Corey and I have been buddies for a while and I called him a few months ago to see if he was going to be in town this fall so I could stay at his house when I did (a) clinic at Fazio's. That's when he told me he was leaving Mel Bay to move to Utah. I made a joke about buying his house just to use for my show and one thing led to another. Believe me, the last thing I was thinking about this year was to move to STL, but I loved this house and neighborhood so here I be."

The guitarist and his wife are now comfortably ensconced in Christiansen's former digs in Webster Groves, and he's got his debut performance in St. Louis coming up at 7 p.m. this Thursday, when he'll do the aforementioned free concert and clinic at Fazio's Frets and Friends, 14239 Manchester Rd, accompanied by drummer Miles Vandiver and bassist Bob Deboo.

Von Doran studied at GIT in Los Angeles and has gigged in a variety of settings from trio to big band, playing straightahead jazz and fusion as well as many other different types of music. His debut CD as a leader, In This Present Moment, was produced by Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip and features an impressive roster of musicians including Bob Mintzer, Larry Goldings, Peter Erskine, James Genus, Terri Lyne Carrington and more. You can download a track from the CD by visiting his Web site, and check out more audio samples on his MySpace page.

Though it's always a shame to lose a player of Christiansen's caliber, Von Doran seems like he could be a nice addition to the local music community. So, with apologies to science fiction writer and blogger Cory Doctorow for the headline of this post, StLJN wishes the best to Corey Christiansen and welcomes Matthew Von Doran to St. Louis.

(Edited 8/23/07, with apologies, to correct spelling errors, etc.)