Jazz this week: Ronnie Burrage Trio, Good 4 The Soul, New Year's Eve jazz, and more

With most touring artists off the road, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day in St. Louis usually isn't overly crowded with live jazz and creative music shows.

Still, the coming week does feature some noteworthy gigs from a returning St. Louis expat and an assortment of hometown performers, plus several jazz and jazz-related options for New Year's Eve entertainment. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 26
Drummer and U City native Ronnie Burrage (pictured, top left) is visiting home for the holidays and will team with bassist Darrell Mixon and pianist Ptah Williams for three performances this week.

The first of those shows will feature a jam with various invited horn players and guitarists on Wednesday night at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, followed by performances on Thursday at the house concert venue Kinda Blue Club and Friday at The Dark Room.

Elsewhere around town, trumpeter Jim Manley plays at Sasha's Wine Bar,

Thursday, December 27
Singer Joe Mancuso will be backed by Joe Pastor on vibes and Ben Wheeler on bass at 50/Fifty Kitchen; guitarists Carol B. Eder and Chip Katz will duet at The Pat Connolly Tavern; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, 
December 28
Funk/jazz quartet Good 4 The Soul (pictured, lower left) returns to Jazz St. Louis for the first of two nights of their annual year-end gig.

Also on Friday, cornet players "Wild" Bill Mason and T.J Müller lead the Mason-Müller All Star Band in an evening of traditional jazz at Focal Point.



Saturday, December 29
Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Sunday, December 30
Drummer Montez Coleman and friends play for brunch at The Dark Room, and the Folk School of KDHX hosts their monthly traditional jazz jam session.

Sunday evening, guitarists Dave Black, Farshid Soltanshahi and Aaron Burlbaw will play at the house concert venue Judson House, 3733 Washington Ave in Grand Center; and DJ Pockets presents his monthly "1950s/60s Jazz Record Spin" at The Royale.

Monday, December 31
Noteworthy New Year's Eve performances include singer Erin Bode doing two shows at Cyrano's; a "Speakeasy NYE Party" with music from Miss Jubilee and blues band Rum Drum Ramblers at Das Bevo; the Funky Butt Brass Band at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and keyboardist and singer Jesse Gannon doing an early evening set at the new Angad Arts Hotel. (Also, you may want to check the STLJN calendar for any last-minute additions.)

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: Lea DeLaria with Janis Siegel, New Year's Eve jazz, and more

For the last week of the year, the calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a homecoming for another local native who's made good on the national stage, plus a variety of musical options for New Year's Eve, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 27
Singer, actor and Belleville native Lea DeLaria (pictured) will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

DeLaria, who has done stand-up comedy, starred on Broadway, and snagged a couple of awards from the Screen Actors Guild for her work on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, also has won plenty of accolades as a singer, performing at the Newport Jazz Festival and at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Chicago Symphony, Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House.

In her first-ever shows at the Bistro, Delaria will be joined a special guest, The Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel, and will spotlight material from her 2015 album House of Bowie, which featured interpretations of music by iconic rocker David Bowie.

Also of note, this is the first show at the Bistro that yr. StLJN editor can recall coming with a disclaimer about the content, specifically: "This show contains strong language which may be offensive to some and or inappropriate for children. Any views or opinions presented in this performance are solely those of the artist and do not represent those of Jazz St. Louis." For more on what to expect, you can read the brief interview DeLaria did previewing the show with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

Also on Wednesday, bassist Glen Smith and guitarist Eric Slaughter perform at Evangeline's; and the final "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" of the year includes Miss Jubilee at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's group at The Dark Room.

Thursday, December 28
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays his last Thursday night gig of the year at Momo's Greek Restaurant; pianist Adam Maness' trio is at Thurman's in Shaw; and saxophonist Ben Reece's Unity Quartet returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, 
December 29
Pianist Ptah Williams plays an early-evening show at The Dark Room; jazz/funk quartet Good 4 The Soul (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of their long-running late-December engagement; and singer Tony Viviano and his band will be "Celebrating Frank Sinatra's 102nd Birthday" at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Clayton.

Saturday, December 30
Saxophonist Dave Stone's trio is back at Thurman's in Shaw, and keyboardist Mo Egeston performs at The Dark Room.

Sunday, December 31
Highlighting just a handful of the jazz and jazz-related local musical possibilities for New Year's Eve - you can check the StLJN jazz calendar for more extensive listings - if you're in the mood for some vocals, singer Erin Bode will be doing two shows at Cyrano's, while singer Chuck Flowers will perform for NYE diners at Bartolino's South.

If smooth jazz and R&B are more your speed, you can hear saxophonist Tim Cunningham at Troy's Jazz Gallery, while fans of vintage swing and hot jazz can head to Das Bevo for a double bill of Miss Jubilee and Roya and the High Timers.  And for some New Orleans-inspired revelry, the Funky Butt Brass Band will be closing out 2017 with one final show at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

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.)