As fall officially begins, it's another fairly busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, so let's go straight to the highlights:
Tonight, the vocal group
Take 6 will make their debut at
Jazz at the Bistro, continuing with two sets a night through Saturday. Though primarily known as gospel and pop performers, Take 6 do have some jazz cred as well, both for the lush harmonies they've deployed skillfully throughout their career, and more specifically for their 2008 CD
The Standard, which featured interpretations of jazz-associated songs ranging from "Sweet Georgia Brown" to "Seven Steps To Heaven." Presumably, they'll be leaning on that material a good bit this week, and perhaps doing some tunes from the more R&B-oriented album
Beautiful World (2002) as well.
On Thursday, bassist
Tom Kennedy is back in town to lead a trio with guitarist
Bill Lenihan and drummer Miles Vandiver in a free concert for for the
Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.
Then on Friday evening,
Peter Martin continues his ongoing concert series at the
Sheldon, this time teaming up with New Orleans pianist
David Torkanowsky (
pictured) for a duo piano concert. Torkanowsky perhaps is best known for his work with the band
Astral Project, but he has collaborated with many New Orleans musicians, including the Meters and various members of the Neville family.
Also on Friday, bassist Willem von Hombracht will lead a group featuring saxophonist Eric Schugren (from NYC) and drummer Cornell Fauler (from LA) at
Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist
Daryl Darden will bring a trio to the
Cigar Inn in Belleville.
Saturday brings the first-ever
U City Jazz Festival, a free, all-day outdoor event held in
Heman Park on Olive Blvd. Performers will include singer Jeanne Trevor, Latin jazz band
Clave Sol, the
Classical Jazz Quartet, a student group billed as the U City Young Lions, and a band led by drummer Maurice Carnes that will do a tribute to John Coltrane. The event also will include a workshop for student musicians led by Carnes, guitarist Bill Lenihan and pianist Kara Baldus Vandiver. Also on Saturday, saxophonist Greg Lewis and Press Play will perform at Robbie's.
On Sunday, the eclectic string ensemble Bridge, with guitarist
Dave Black, will play a concert at the
Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville.
Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday pianist Kim Portnoy will lead a group in performance of some of his original compositions at
Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, and on Tuesday, the
Bosman Twins are featured in a free outdoor concert at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park as part of the museum's
Twilight Tuesdays series.
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.)
