Jazz this week: Dan Hicks, John Clayton & Gerald Clayton, Lotte Anker Trio, Danny Fox, and more

With a bit of spring in the air this week in St. Louis, there's also plenty of live jazz and creative music happening around town to get out and enjoy over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, singer-guitarist Dan Hicks returns to the St. Louis area for a performance at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville.  Hicks' mix of Gyspy jazz, swing, country, blues and folk has been entertaining audiences for nearly fifty years now, and continue to draw appreciative crowds even when he doesn't have a new recording to promote. For more on his colorful career and some video samples of him and the the current edition of his band, the Hot Licks, in action, see this post from last Saturday.

Also tonight, the father-son team of bassist John Clayton and pianist Gerald Clayton (pictured, with drummer Jeff Hamilton) returns to open a four-night stand of duo gigs at Jazz at the Bistro. The two last appeared here in October 2011 as part of Clayton Brothers Quintet, which also includes John's sax-playing sibling Jeff Clayton. Since then, Gerald Clayton's star has continued to rise. He's now signed to Concord Records, and the label will release his debut for them, Life Forum, next month. The younger Clayton also can be heard on Cover Art, Concord's recently released album by the Next Collective, which is an eclectic group of 20-something musicians assembled by label exec Chris Dunn.

Tomorrow night, New Music Circle presents Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker in a concert at 560 Music Center. Teamed for this show with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver, Anker is known here in the USA mostly as an improvisor, but also has a compositional sensibility that helps provide a sense of structure to many of her improvised flights. For more about Anker, and some video samples of her performing, check out this post from a couple of weeks ago.

Also tomorrow night, singer Erin Bode and band return to Crave coffeehouse on the south side.

On Friday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham will settle in for what's projected as a recurring weekly gig at Troy's Jazz Gallery,  saxophonist Jay Hutson is at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer Joe Mancuso performs for the first of two nights at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; and saxophonist Austin Cebulski's quartet is at the Cigar Inn.

Then on Saturday, the trio of NYC-based pianist Danny Fox will be in town for a performance at Robbie's. Fox, a Harvard grad, has toured with drummer Max Weinberg's big band and the Tommy Dorsey "ghost band," among others. The trio's debut album The One Constant was released in 2011, and you can hear samples on Fox' website.

Also on Saturday, Two Times True with pianist Carolbeth True will perform at the south side house-concert venue Kinda Blue, 6101 1/2 Idaho; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes bring their swing and jump blues sound back to Venice Cafe.

On Sunday, a group billed as the SIUE Jazz Faculty Ensemble, led by guitarist Rick Haydon and saxophonist Jason Swagler, will play a free concert presented by St. Louis Jazz and Blues Vespers series at Second Baptist Church.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Kim Portnoy's ensemble will perform at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; and on Tuesday, the weekly swing dance presented by Lindy Hop St. Louis at the Grandel Theatre in Grand Center will feature live music from The Sidemen.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The hot licks of Dan Hicks

This week, let's check out some video clips of singer-guitarist Dan Hicks, who will be in Edwardsville this coming Wednesday, March 13 to perform at the Wildey Theatre. Hicks' quirky blend of Gypsy jazz, swing, folk, country, and blues has been entertaining and amusing audiences for more than 40 years, ever since he emerged as part of the San Francisco rock scene of the 1960s.

The Arkansas native first gained a measure of fame in the mid-60s as a drummer for the folk-rock group the Charlatans before launching his own band, the first edition of Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, in 1969. That group enjoyed a good deal of success with albums including Where's The Money?, Striking It Rich and Last Train To Hicksville before breaking up in 1973.

Hicks subsequently recorded and toured as a solo act, eventually put together a couple of other groups (the Acoustic Warriors and Bayside Jazz), and also has done some work as a graphic artist. Reforming a new version of the Hot Licks in 1998, Hicks has managed to find a new generation of fans as well as hang on to many of the old ones, and continues to tour and release occasional recordings, the most recent of which was 2010's Crazy for Christmas. His last appearance in the St. Louis area was in April 2012 at the Old Rock House.

Today, we've got a grab-bag of clips from various stages of Hicks' career, starting up above with a version of the Swing Era standard "Avalon" take2 from a performance in 2010 in Denver.

Down below, we go back in time to find Hicks performing one of his signature songs, "I Scare Myself," in 1990 on David Sanborn's Night Music TV program. Along with fiddler Brian Godchaux and The Groovettes on vocals, Hicks is backed by the Night Music house band, including Sanborn on sax, Don Alias on percussion, Hiram Bullock on guitar, Philippe Saisse on keyboards, Tom Barney on bass and Omar Hakim on drums.

Below that, the third clip takes us all the way back to 1972, and shows Hicks and the "classic" lineup of the Hot Licks - Sid Page (violin), John Girton (guitar), Jaime Leopold (bass) and singers Maryann Price and Naomi Eisenberg - performing "By Hook or by Crook" and "Shorty Falls in Love" during rehearsals for an appearance on The Flip Wilson Show. While there are a few bits of extraneous audio that seem to be coming from somewhere else on the sound stage, it's worth seeing as a rare look at the band during that period.

The last three clips bring us back closer to the present day, beginning with a version of Tom Waits' song "The Piano Has Been Drinking," recorded in 2011 at guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch. Below that, there's a rendition of "Along Comes A Viper" (styled here as "'Long Comma Viper") recorded at Hicks' 70th birthday party in April 2012 at Davies Hall in San Francisco. And today's final clip features another Hicks favorite, "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away," recorded in July 2012 during an outdoor show in Egg Harbor, WI.

For more about Dan Hicks, check out this extended interview, done in 2001 for the website PureMusic.com; a slightly more recent conversation with PopMatters.com; and and this interview, published just last month on the website Music Illuminati.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2013 jazz preview, part 2

This week, we continue with part 2 of our look at some of the touring jazz and creative musicians who will be coming to St. Louis during the first few months of 2013. (You can see part 1 of the preview here.)

Today's first clip features Sachal Vasandani singing "Take The B Train" in a show this past April at Joe's Pub in NYC. Vasandani, acclaimed as one of the top young male vocalists in jazz, will come to St. Louis for his first performances as a headliner starting Wednesday, February 13 through Saturday, February 16 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Down below, you can see The Seventh String: The Life and Tales of Bucky Pizzarelli, a short documentary about the veteran guitarist, who will be in St. Louis on Friday, February 15 to perform with singer Denise Thimes at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Next, you can see a clip that combines musical excerpts and a short interview with pianist Kris Davis/ The video was made in October 2012 in conjunction with a solo piano gig Davis played for the Hot Clube de Portugal. She'll be in St. Louis with her quartet to play a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 16 at 560 Music Center.

The fourth video features trumpeter Chris Botti, who's become a familiar face to St. Louis audiences thanks to numerous appearances here in recent years. In this clip, recorded on December 1 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Botti and pianist Geoffrey Keezer offer a rather abstracted take on "My Funny Valentine," with a bit of "The Christmas Song" added at the end. Botti will return to St. Louis to perform on Saturday, February 23 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Symphony Hall.

Next up is another familiar face, singer Kurt Elling, who's also done several headlining gigs here over the last decade, most recently in November of last year at Jazz at the Bistro. Elling's latest album 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project features his interpretations of pop and rock songs from the 1960s written at that storied NYC address. Here, he's seen performing his version of the Drifters' "On Broadway" in May at the Maison des Cultures du Monde in Paris. Elling will be back to perform Wednesday, February 27 through Saturday, March 2 at the Bistro.

The sixth clip features singer, songwriter, guitarist and sometimes drummer Dan Hicks, as usual bringing a touch of humor to this 2011 performance of "I Don't Want Love" on Conan O'Brien's show. Hicks and the current edition of His Hot Licks will play here on Wednesday, March 13 at Old Rock House.

Today's last video features the Danish improvising saxophonist Lotte Anker, seen here with trumpeter Eivind Lønning and drummer Kresten Osgood in an excerpt from a performance last February in Copehnhagen. Anker will lead a trio in a show presented by New Music Circle on Thursday, March 14 at 560 Music Center.

Look for part 3 of StLJN's winter/spring 2013 jazz preview next week...

Dan Hicks to perform Wednesday, March 13 at the Wildey Theatre

Singer-guitarist Dan Hicks (pictured) and His Hot Licks will be returning to the St. Louis area next year for a performance at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 13 at the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville.

Hicks, who's been combining jazz, Western swing, folk, Gypsy music, blues and rock with wry humor since the late 1960s, played here most recently in July at the Old Rock House. Tickets are $35 and are on sale online now.

Victor Wooten, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks coming in July to Old Rock House

The Old Rock House on Friday announced two shows scheduled for July that may be of potential interest to local jazz listeners:

* Bassist Victor Wooten (pictured), who was just here last month to play the Sheldon with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, will perform at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, July 5 at ORH. Wooten's most recent CD as a leader, Palmystery, came out back in 2008. He last played St. Louis with his own group in 2009 at The Pageant.

* The following week, singer/guitarist Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, known for blending swing, folk, Gypsy music, blues and rock with wry humor, will play at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 11. Hicks' most recent recordings are 2009's Tangled Tales and 2010's Crazy for Christmas.

Tickets for Wooten are priced at $25 in advance, $30 day of show, while tix for Hicks are $25. Tickets for both shows will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. next Friday, April 27.