Jazz this week: Manhattan Transfer & Take 6; Cassity, Jensen & Wolfe; and more

While this week's concert calendar isn't as jam-packed with jazz and creative music as last week's almost-insane schedule, there still are several noteworthy shows happening over the next few days, including a long-anticipated concert teaming up two of the top jazz-influenced vocal groups in the world, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 26
The eclectic instrumental quartet The 442s will take the stage for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, where their sets will include music they created this past summer as the first-ever artists-in-residence for Forest Park Forever.

Elsewhere in Grand Center, the weekly "jazz crawl" proceeds with bassist Bob Deboo and friends hosting a jam session at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor leading a trio at The Dark Room. Also on Wednesday, Elsie Parker and the Poor People of Paris return to Nathalie's, and the Jazz Troubadours play at Evangeline's.

Thursday, October 27
Singer Denise Thimes headlines her 12th annual benefit performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, raising money for the Mildred Thimes Foundation (named after her late mother) to fight pancreatic cancer. Thimes will be joined by guest performers including the Chicago-based singer Dee Alexander and comedian Monique Marvez.

Also on Thursday, the New Orleans Suspects are back in town for another performance at the Broadway Oyster Bar, and singer Erin Bode returns to Cyrano's.

Friday, October 28
The joint tour by vocal groups Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 (pictured, top left) billed as "The Summit" arrives in St. Louis for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Based on reports from earlier in the tour, the show will include favorites from both groups, performing separately and together, as well as an entertaining segment in which each group performs some of the other's material. If you're a fan of jazz vocal harmony or ensemble singing in general, this should rank as the "must-see" concert of the year.

Also on Friday, saxophonist Sharel Cassity, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and bassist Ben Wolfe wrap up their week-long educational residency for Jazz St. Louis with the first of two nights of performances at Jazz at the Bistro, with some help from pianist Phil Dunlap and drummer Marty Morrison. For more about Cassity, Jensen, and Wolfe (pictured, bottom left), and some video samples of all three musicians in action, see this post from last Saturday.

That same evening, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with singer and actress Tovah Feldshuh performing for the first of two nights at the Gaslight Theater; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Venice Cafe; and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Saturday, October 29
Singer Feyza Eren returns to the house concert venue KindaBlue, and Animal Children will play at The Dark Room.

Sunday, October 30
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Stephanie Trick in a matinee performance at the Moolah Temple,
and the JazzU Big Band, made up of the top high school students in Jazz St. Louis' education programs, will make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro.

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: Sharel Cassity, Ingrid Jensen & Ben Wolfe

Today, let's take a look at three musicians who will be sharing the stage next Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Saxophonist Sharel Cassity, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and bassist Ben Wolfe aren't regular bandmates, but all three will be in town next week to do educational residencies for Jazz St. Louis, and they'll then join forces (presumably augmented by a local musician or two) to wrap things up with two nights of public performances at the Bistro.

Wolfe may be the most familiar to St. Louis audiences, as he released a couple of albums as a leader on the locally based label MAXJAZZ (acquired earlier this year by Detroit's Mack Avenue Records). However, the 54-year-old bassist probably is best known as an accompanist, particularly for his work with highly visible performers including singer/pianist Harry Connick Jr., trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and singer and pianist Diana Krall, as well as many others.

Cassity, the youngest of the three at 38, played at the Sheldon here in St. Louis last year as part of the Dizzy Gillespie tribute band led by bassist John Lee. In addition to fronting her own groups, the Iowa native also has worked with trumpeter Nicolas Payton; big bands including the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Jimmy Heath Big Band, and the Roy Hargrove Big Band; and numerous other small groups.

Jensen, who's 50 years old and hails from Vancouver, is a Berklee graduate who moved to NYC in the late 1980s. From busking in subway stations and playing pickup gigs, she's risen gradually to headliner status, working along the way with composer/arranger Maria Schneider's acclaimed big band, bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding, pop singer Corrine Bailey Rae, keyboardist Jason Miles, and many others. Jensen also has been nominated twice for Juno awards - the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys - and won in 1995 for her album Vernal Fields.

You can see Cassity and her band Elektra in the first video up above, performing a full set recorded in July of this year at Dizzy's Club in NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center. Along with the leader on alto and soprano sax, the group includes guitarist Mark Whitfield, keyboardist Miki Hayama, bassist Rashaan Carter, and drummer Lucianna Padmore.

After the jump, you can see Cassity fronting an acoustic quintet with E .J. Strickland (drums), Josh Evans (trumpet), Victor Gould (piano) and Yasushi Nakamura (bass) in an excerpt from a set recorded this past April at Teatro Vivian Blumenthal in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Next, you can see Jensen starring in a episode of Discover Jazz, a program produced by Vermont PBS, that aired for the first time earlier this month. The performance features Jensen and her sister, saxophonist Christine Jensen, with a rhythm section including pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Matt Clohesy, and drummer Jon Wikan.

Below that, you can see Jensen's set from this year's Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, recorded in May at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Finally, you can see Wolfe providing the low end for two very different performances - a stripped-down rendition of "Stardust" by guitarist and singer Doug Wamble, recorded in 2015, and a radically reworked version of "Autumn Leaves" with pianist Orrin Evans and drummer Obed Calvaire, recorded in 2011.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Music Education Monday: Trumpet solos transcribed, plus master classes with Ingrid Jensen and Brian Lynch

This week's "Music Education Monday" is especially for trumpeters, with links to hundreds of solo transcriptions plus a couple of master classes from well-known pros:

* The website Jazz Trumpet Transcriptions does just what it says on the tin, with a total of 305 trumpet solo transcriptions available, plus 186 MIDI files of associated tunes.

Those transcriptions by French trumpeter Jacques Gilbert, plus more than 500 additional transcribed trumpet solos that are available for free on the Internet, also are indexed and linked on this page at Saxopedia.com.

* Also on the music-ed menu today are master classes from jazz trumpeters Ingrid Jensen and Brian Lynch.

Jensen (pictured) is a Berklee graduate who has recorded seven albums as a leader over the last 20 years. She also works regularly in the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and has performed or recorded with musicians including saxophonist Virginia Mayhew, pianist Geoff Keezer, singers Judi Silvano and Chris Conner, and many more. Her master class seen below was recorded earlier this year during the "Winter Jazz Blast" at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, MN.

Brian Lynch is known for his work with saxophonist Phil Woods and in Latin jazz with musicians including pianist Eddie Palmieri and trombonist Conrad Herwig. Lynch's album with Palmieri, The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Recording Project - Simpatico won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2007. Lynch also is a faculty member at NYU's Steinhardt School, which is where his video master class seen below was made.

You can see both videos after the jump...

Eric Person releases new CD

Just after Finale Music and Dining posted its upcoming schedule that includes a gig featuring saxophonist Eric Person (pictured), the St. Louis native emailed StLJN with greetings and news of his just-released CD entitled Rhythm Edge.

It's Person's seventh effort as a leader, and includes fifteen tracks featuring his band Meta-Four - drummer Peter O’Brien, bassist Adam Armstrong and keyboardist Jarod Kashkin - along with special guests Robin Eubanks on trombone and Ingrid Jensen on trumpet.

You can buy Rhythm Edge online here, or you can probably pick one up at Person's gig at Finale on Saturday October 13.