Troy's Jazz Gallery "grand opening" set for October 25 - 27

The Central West End venue Troy's Jazz Gallery will hold a "grand opening" celebration this weekend featuring a Sunday night performance from a specially assembled band of local jazz performers.

The weekend also will serve as an extended birthday celebration for club owner Troy Williams, with keyboardist Matt Villinger's trio getting it started with a performance at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 25.

Next up are singers Mary Dyson and Diane Vaughn, who will reprise their "Ladies Sing The Bluezz" show with a 5:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, October 26. After Dyson and Vaughn, saxophonist Tim Cunningham (pictured) and his band will take the stage at 8:00 p.m.

The main event is Sunday, October 27. The group for that evening, dubbed "Troy's All-Star Jazz Ensemble," will feature drummer Montez Coleman, pianist Tony Suggs, guitarist Eric Slaughter and bassist Darell Mixon, along with guest performers including pianist Ptah Williams, saxophonist Kendrick Smith, trumpeter Delano Redmond and singer Denise Thimes. They'll play from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with tickets priced at $20 each.

The club first had its "soft opening" nearly 11 month ago. Williams, who formerly operated Filter and Troy's on the Park, says that the long interval between opening and "grand opening" wasn't necessarily planned that way, but he's happy with the result. "I'm glad I'm doing it like this, because I've learned a lot," he said.

As for future plans, Williams says he's re-booked Ptah Williams' trio for Thursday, October 30 - his actual birthday - with the "All-Star Jazz Ensemble" set to return (but without the special guests) on Sunday, November 3.

He said he hopes to bring back Dyson and Vaughn as a recurring act, probably twice a month, and also will presenting a series of "Jazz Sunday Funk' shows featuring Mixon, Slaughter and drummer Chuck Smothers. Finally, Williams said he wants to establish a recurring Saturday afternoon jam session in the near future, and is looking for a musician to serve as organizer and host.

Jazz this week: Dara Tucker, Chelsea Reed, Farshid Etniko with Sandy Weltman, New Orleans Suspects, and more

Though the impending holiday weekend has left yr. humble StLJN editor a bit short on time to write a clever lede for this weekly highlights post, there's no shortage of the American art form of jazz on local St. Louis stages over the next few days. Here's what's coming up...

Today, you can celebrate Independence Day with the Genesis Jazz Project, who are playing a free late-afternoon concert downtown on Laclede's Landing.

Afterward, head west to see singer Joe Mancuso's quartet at Cafe Eau in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, or catch not one but two gigs by Sarah Jane & The Blue Notes.They're playing in the early evening at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, then heading over to Thaxton Speakeasy for a late show to kick off the "River City Mess Around" a weekend-long series of swing dance events presented by Lindy Hop St. Louis.

The Mess Around continues on Friday with Wack-A-Doo performing for LHStL's monthly first-Friday swing dance at the Mahler Ballroom. It also will include an outdoor set by Coco Rico on Saturday afternoon at Old North St. Louis' Crown Square, and two shows by Miss Jubilee, on Saturday at Casa Loma Ballroom and Sunday afternoon at City Museum.

Elsewhere on Friday, there's more retro-style hot jazz and swing from Philadelphia natives Chelsea Reed and the Fair Weather Five, who are currently touring the region and will perform at Robbie's House of Jazz.

Then there's the eclectic world-music/Latin/jazz group Farshid Etniko, who on Friday will join forces with special guest multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman to play the first of two nights of their debut weekend at Jazz at the Bistro.

Not only that, that same evening the New Orleans Suspects, featuring former members of the Radiators, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Neville Brothers Band and James Brown's band, will funk it up at Broadway Oyster Bar; saxophonist Austin Cebulski's quartet plays at Cigar Inn; and singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran and violinist Alyssa Avery perform at Big Sky Cafe.

On Saturday, another regional performer makes her St. Louis debut, as Nashville singer Dara Tucker (pictured) will perform at Robbie's. Tucker, whose songbook ranges from standards and ballads to more groove-oriented material, has performed or recorded with musicians such as organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, guitarist Charlie Hunter, trumpeter Duane Eubanks and drummer Jason Marsalis.

Her band for this gig will include St. Louis' own Montez Coleman on drums, as well as pianist Karlton Taylor, who's worked with bassist Victor Wooten and guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Dave Black and violinist Asako Kuboki will duet at Tavern of Fine Arts; and trumpeter Delano Redmond will show off his new group Quatro de Soul with a late-night performance at Troy's Jazz Gallery. UPDATE - 1:30 p.m. 7/6/13: Redmond has posted on Twitter that tonight's gig is cancelled "due to a venue issue."

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: Rick Haydon Quartet, Terence Blanchard, ragtime at Scott Joplin's house, Oikos Ensemble, and more

If you're looking to get out hear some live jazz in St. Louis, there's there's plenty of local music on tap over the weekend, with some new weekly gigs getting underway, plus some visiting players coming to town to play free concerts next week. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, singer Joe Mancuso and his band begin a new weekly Thursday gig at Cafe Eau in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, and Miss Jubilee performs downtown at Thaxton Speakeasy.

On Friday, guitarist Rick Haydon will take the stage for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Haydon, who plays a seven-string guitar not unlike those used by Bucky and John Pizzarelli, is a longtime member of the jazz faculty at SIUE, and just wrapped up his first year heading the jazz studies program there. He'll be backed at the Bistro by Kara Baldus Vandiver on keyboards, Roger Guth on drums and Jim Mayer on bass.

Also Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band is doing a free outdoor show for the annual Art & Air Festival, held on the grounds of Eden Seminary in Webster Groves; Lindy Hop St. Louis presents their monthly West End Stomp swing dance at the Mahler Ballroom, with music from The Sidemen; and the Ambassadors of Swing will play for dancers at Casa Loma Ballroom.

On Saturday, saxophonist Willie Akins and his quartet will bring Akins' long-running Saturday matinee to a new location, the Cigar Inn in Belleville. As longtime local jazz fans know, Akins played Saturdays at the now-defunct Spruill's for many years before the venue closed last year. Since then, he's tried several different venues for the gig before landing now at Cigar Inn, which is going smoke-free for Akins' performances.

Then on Saturday night, guitarist Randy Bahr and pianist Carolbeth True will duet at One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes are at Thurman Grill; and singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran plays at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday, singer Danita Mumphard teams up with saxophonist Rev. Cliff Aerie and the Oikos Ensemble for another concert in the "Inner Jazz' series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ.

Also on Sunday, trumpeter Delano Redmond, who spends his work weeks directing the acclaimed jazz band program at East St. Louis High School, is stepping out front to lead a quartet in a new weekly gig at Troy's Jazz Gallery. UPDATE - 8:30 p.m., 6/6/13: A few minutes after this post went up, Redmond posted on Twitter that there's no show this week, and the new Sunday gig now will commence on June 16. More as we get it...

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Sessions Big Band will return to BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the "Election Tour for A Stranger America," a politically themed music and performance piece by Jeffrey Young and Paul Pinto, comes to the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. LNAC's Marc Sarich and the Dave Stone Trio also are on the bill; for more, see this post.

On Wednesday, the Friends of Scott Joplin and the Scott Joplin State Historic Site will present a free ragtime concert at the Joplin site, 2658 Delmar at Beaumont. The late-afternoon event will feature pianists Andrew Barrett, Max Keenlyside, John Reed-Torres, William McNally and more.

Then on Wednesday evening, trumpeter Terence Blanchard (pictured), who will be in town for the premiere next week of his opera Champion at Opera Theatre St. Louis, will play a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. He'll follow up that up on Thursday with another free show for the Whitaker Urban Evenings series at St. Louis Place Park.

Given that local audiences have repeatedly paid good money to hear the New Orleans native perform here at the Bistro, The Sheldon and elsewhere, these two shows definitely qualify as the best deals of the week. For more about Blanchard and some samples of his music, see this post from last Saturday.

And if that weren't enough, there's also a new weekly gig happening on Wednesdays, as bassist Willem von Hombracht and his New St. Louis Jazz X-Tet will be holding forth at midweek until further notice at the aforementioned Cafe Eau at the Chase Park Plaza.

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.)