Jazz this week: Godfathers of Groove, Eastern Blok, Dixie Daredevils, Paul DeMarinis, and more

This week brings another eclectic mix of jazz and creative music performances to St. Louis. Here's a look at some of the highlights happening over the next few days:

Tonight, the all-star soul-jazz ensemble Godfathers of Groove begin a four- night stand at Jazz at the Bistro. Comprised of veteran organist Reuben Wilson (pictured), drum legend Bernard Purdie and guitarist Grant Green Jr., the Godfathers emphasize the bluesy, funky side of jazz, offering a 21st century take on the jazz organ group sound popularized in the 1950s and 1960s. For some video of the Godfathers of Groove in action, see this post.

If your mood this evening is more free jazz than funky, saxophonist Jay Zelenka's Squid Choir Orkestra is performing at the South Side alt-rock haven the Way Out Club, 2525 S. Jefferson, with electronic musician Eric Hall's new group as opening act.

Tomorrow night, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis and singer Debby Lennon team up to do a free concert for Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman and Hot Club Caravan bring their gypsy jazz sound to Brandt's.

On Saturday, the Chicago-based group Eastern Blok featuring guitarist Goran Ivanovic returns to St. Louis, bringing their "Balkan Jazz" to The Gramophone. Also on Saturday, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli will be in town to play a benefit for the Susan G. Komen Foundation at the Ritz Carlton; however, with tickets priced at $250 per person, only the well-heeled and/or truly fanatical would seem inclined to attend.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents a traditional jazz concert from Peoria, IL's Dixie Daredevils at the Moolah Shrine Center.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday night Paul DeMarinis has another concert, performing with his sextet at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, while the Sessions Big Band takes the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

And next Tuesday brings three events of note, with the Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer-inspired quartet Utter Chaos playing at The Gramophone; radio and television personality Don Wolff doing a live cablecast of his I Love Jazz TV show from the Kemper Museum; and the first meeting of Jazz St. Louis' new CD Listening Club at Borders Books and Music in Brentwood.

As usual, these are just some of the week's highlights, so to see listings of more jazz-related events in and around St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar.

(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: Meet the Godfathers of Groove

This week, we've got four very short video clips featuring the Godfathers of Groove, who are coming to St. Louis to appear at Jazz at The Bistro starting next Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11. With the well-seasoned veteran Reuben Wilson on organ, legendary session man Bernard "Pretty" Purdie playing drums and Grant Green, Jr., son of legendary guitarist and St. Louis native Grant Green, on guitar, the Godfathers might be thought of as a sort of soul-jazz supergroup, with deep roots in the old-school organ-trio sound.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of video of them online, so we'll have to make do with some brief teaser-type clips. All together, these four excerpts from a performance last December at the Jazz Cafe in London total less than six minutes of running time, but they should provide at least a general idea of the group's vibe and what to expect next week at the Bistro.

Pollstar: Godfathers of Groove to play the Bistro in October

Although the 2007-08 seasons of St. Louis' various not-for-profit presenters still have three or four months to go, the process of booking acts for the 2008-09 season has been well underway for a while. As those upcoming dates are confirmed with the artists, some of them show up on the online concert information service Pollstar even before the local presenters have announced their schedules.

This time, Pollstar is showing that the Godfathers of Groove (pictured) have been booked to play at Jazz at the Bistro from Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11. The Godfathers are a billed a soul-jazz "supergroup" featuring organ player Reuben Wilson, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, and guitarist Grant Green, Jr.

While the band has just one CD out as a collective entity, Purdie is, of course, one of the most frequently recorded drummers of the last 35 or 40 years, performing on dozens of gold records and hundreds of acts ranging from Aretha Franklin, King Curtis and B.B. King to Miles Davis, Donny Hathaway and Steely Dan.

Wilson also has had a long recording career as a old-school Hammond B-3 player in the style of Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack McDuff, et al, and in the 1990s enjoyed a bit of a renaissance thanks to the "acid jazz" movement of that decade. Green Jr., who was raised in Detroit, is a bit less of a known quantity, but is touted as a blues- and funk-influenced player in the tradition of his famous father.

As always, these sorts of announcements from Pollstar, though often reliable, are subject to change, and should be considered unofficial until duly announced by the venue in question. Until those official schedules are forthcoming, StLJN will continue to pass along whatever information comes our way, with the appropriate disclosures & caveats, for your anticipatory and/or speculative enjoyment. .