Jazz this week: Edward Simon, Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band, a tribute to Art Blakey, and more

As we head into Labor Day weekend, the calendar of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances coming up in St. Louis includes noteworthy visitors from New Orleans, San Francisco and elsewhere, plus a varied selection of sounds from our hometown players.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 28
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" includes Miss Jubilee at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and guitarist Brian Vaccaro's Spiral Trio at The Dark Room.

Thursday, August 29
Trumpeter Jim Manley and guitarist Randy Bahr return to Rendezvous Cafe & Wine Bar, and pianist Ryan Marquez plays at Evangeline's.

Also on Thursday, trumpeter Brady Lewis and his BLStet return to The Dark Room, and the experimental music series Bruxism will present sets from Head Dress (aka Ted Butler), Syna So Pro, and Philosopher's Culture at the Schlafly Tap Room.

Friday, August 30
Saxophonist Harvey Lockhart's HEAL Center For The Arts presents the first of two fundraisers titled simply "An Evening of Jazz," featuring the center's student group Point of View Ensemble, at the event space The OC @ Central West End. (The event will be repeated on Saturday night.)

Also on Friday, saxophonist Kendrick Smith is back at Thurman's in Shaw, and fusion trio 3XGroove performs at Troy's.

Saturday, August 31
Pianist Edward Simon (pictured, top left) will perform solo in a concert presented by Open Studio at Centene Center for the Arts.

Perhaps best known as a longtime member of the SFJAZZ Collective, the native of Venezuela also has recorded more than a dozen albums as a leader, the most recent being 2016's Latin American Songbook.

Update, 10:00 a.m. 8/31/19: Open Studio has informed StLJN that Edward Simon's St. Louis concert has been cancelled "due to a death in the family." The event will be rescheduled for a later date.

Also on Saturday, New Orleans' Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band (pictured, center left) will perform for the first of two nights at Focal Point. The all-woman ensemble, which includes clarinetist and former St. Louis resident Chloe Feoranzo, will play again at Focal Point on Sunday night.

Elsewhere around town, pianist Laura Dubin, visiting from Rochester NY, leads a trio at Evangeline's; pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True return to the Parkside Grille; and singer Jan Shapiro, pianist Dave Venn, bassist Bob DeBoo and drummer Henry Ettman play at the Ozark Theatre.

Sunday, September 1
Dizzy Atmosphere plays for brunch at The Dark Room, and the Jazz Troubadours return for a dinnertime gig at Evangeline's.

Tuesday, September 3
The Mosaic Jazz Sextet (pictured, bottom left) is a new group formed by trombonist Dave Dickey that includes trumpeter Danny Campbell and saxophonist Ben Reese plus the rhythm section of pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo, and drummer Montez Coleman. Their debut performance will be a "Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Tuesday, the Tick Tock Jazz Band plays their monthly show of traditional jazz at the Tick Tock Tavern.

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: Fall 2019 jazz preview, part one

With fall fast approaching, it's time for the first autumn installment of StLJN twice-yearly jazz preview, featuring videos of noteworthy jazz and creative music performers who will be playing here over the next few months.

Today's preview starts on Labor Day weekend, for that's when pianist Edward Simon will be coming to town for a solo concert presented by Open Studio on Saturday, August 31 at Centene Center for the Arts.

You can see Simon in the first video up above, a trio set with drummer Adam Cruz and bassist Matt Brewer (billed as the "Festival New York Jazz All-Stars") that was recorded in 2016 at Teatro Ocampo in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Also in town over Labor Day weekend will be the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band from New Orleans, who will perform on Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1 at Focal Point. You can see them in the first video after the jump, a full set of music recorded in July of this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The next clip features another New Orleans group, Rebirth Brass Band, who will be in St. Louis the following week for a show on Friday, September 6 at Atomic Cowboy Pavilion. It's another full set, recorded in September 2018 at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta.

That same weekend, singer and pianist Diane Schuur will headline the Alton Jazz & Wine Festival on Saturday, September 7 at Alton Amphitheater, with locals Good 4 The Soul and the Funky Butt Brass Band as supporting acts. Schuur can be seen in the third video after the jump, singing George Gershwin's "S'Wonderful" with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra in February of this year at the Charleston Music Hall in South Carolina.

Also on Saturday, September 7, the "Smooth Jazz Cruise on Land" docks at the Chesterfield Amphitheater, with a crew that will includes multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson, saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly, and saxophonist Eric Darius, plus St. Louis' own Erin Bode and Tim Cunningham.

Culbertson can be seen next performing "Feelin' It/Funkin'" as recorded last year for his Colors of Love Tour - Live in Las Vegas concert video.

That's followed by Kelly, cutting tracks for her most recent album GO TiME: Brooklyn 2 live in the studio, and, last but not least, Darius playing Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" at an event last year for the Cannonball Saxophones company in Sandy, Utah.

Look for part two of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Edward Simon to perform Saturday, August 31 at Centene Center for the Arts

Pianist Peter Martin's company Open Studio, producers of instructional videos featuring well-known jazz musicians, is making another of its occasional forays in concert production, presenting pianist Edward Simon in a solo performance at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, August 31 at the comapny's space in the Centene Center for the Arts, 3547 Olive St in Grand Center.

Simon (pictured) is a native of Venezuela who may be best known as the pianist since 2010 for the SFJAZZ Collective. He's also recorded 14 albums as a leader, and earlier in his career worked as a sideman with saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby, Kansas City saxophonist Bobby Watson, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and many others. Simon's most recent album is 2016's Latin American Songbook on the Sunnyside label.

Tickets for Edward Simon's solo performance are $25 for general admission, and are on sale now via Eventbrite.

Sunday Session: September 25, 2016

Kenny Barron

Some interesting music-related items that have landed in StLJN's inbox over the past week:

* Don't mention the J-word: how Spotify gifted my jazz tune two million hits (The Guardian UK)
* Brainfeeder Showcase Fuses Enlightened Funk, Innovative Jazz (DownBeat)
* Words and Music: Why Liner Notes Matter (AllAboutJazz.com)
* Metheny Leads New Quartet on Nostalgic Trip at Lobero Theatre (DownBeat)
* Building a better electronic trumpet (Phys.org)
* The 'Fifth Beatle', an unpublished will and a family being torn apart (The Telegraph UK)
* T Bone Burnett: Treading on Hallowed Ground – Google, the Ryman, and The Future of Nashville Music (Nashville Tennessean)
* Rock'n'roll suicide: is TV's bromance with rock nostalgia finally over? (The Guardian UK)
* In 'Latin American Songbook,' Edward Simon Rethinks The American Jazz Standard (NPR)
* 'The Jazz Loft' Is a Fleeting, Marvelous Look at Lost Bohemia (Village Voice)
* A Tribe Called Quest Sparked Hip-Hop’s Love Affair With Jazz on ‘Low End Theory’ (Observer.com)
* The New Classical: how the next generation of composers and labels is challenging classical music’s status quo (The Independent UK)
* A Tribute to Bernie Worrell in Words and Images (Keyboard)
* Monterey Jazz Festival Offers Bounty of Youthful Talent (DownBeat)
* Massive digital archiving project means these unique musical recordings will live forever (DigitalTrends.com)
* Interview: Kenny Barron (Keyboard)
* Fish recorded singing dawn chorus on reefs just like birds (New Scientist)
* Why Marvel and Other Hollywood Films Have Such Bland Music: Every Frame a Painting Explains the Perils of the “Temp Score” (OpenCulture.com)
* Q&A: Vocalist Al Jarreau - A no-holds-barred conversation (Jazz Times)