Jazz this week: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Marcello Benetti, Matt Kane, Dave Dickey Big Band, The 442s, and more

This week's lineup of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features visits from two different drummers leading quartets playing original music, plus the return of a well-known touring act with a revised lineup of players, several shows by local big bands, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra returns to Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Stage" at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and the Sidney Street Shakers begin a new monthly series of dance parties called "Cherokee Shake" at 2720 Cherokee.

Tomorrow night, drummer Marcello Benetti's Shuffled Quartet will play at Robbie's House of Jazz. Born in Italy and now residing in New Orleans, Benetti mixes sounds and styles from traditional to avant-garde, aided and abetted by trombonist Jeff Albert, saxophonist Rex Gregory, and cellist Helen Gillet.

Also on Thursday, guitarist Dave Black and singer Joe Mancuso perform at Nathalie’s.

On Friday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing and jump blues at the Highway 61 Roadhouse in Webster Groves, while multi-instrumentalists Jeff Anderson and Chad Evans will team up for a performance at Robbie's.

Also on Friday, trumpeter Jim Manley and pianist Arthur Toney will be back at One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; and the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

On Saturday afternoon, Saxquest will present a free performance and workshop by clarinetists Diana Haskell of the St. Louis Symphony and Tim Zavadil, the former Minnesota Orchestra clarinetist who recently joined SLSO.

A bit later on Saturday, saxophonist Jim Stevens and band will perform by the Mississippi River at The Loading Dock in Grafton.

Then on Saturday evening, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (pictured) will be back in town to perfrom at The Blind Tiger at Sutton Place, 7376 Manchester Rd in Maplewood. Opening acts will be Yojimbo, which includes several members of the Mike Dillon Band, and Bum and Possum Combination.

Now a trio with keyboardist Brian Haas, drummer Josh Raymer, and lap steel guitarist Chris Combs, JFJO's latest album is Millions: Live in Denver, which was released on Record Store Day 2014. For more of their back story and some performance videos (albeit featuring previous lineups), see these two Saturday video posts from their previous appearances here.

Also on Saturday evening, drummer Matt Kane will be promoting the re-issue of his CD Streamliner with a show at Robbie's House of Jazz. A native of Hannibal, MO and graduate of UMKC's conservatory, Kane is based now in NYC, and his previous release Suit Up was named as one of 2013's 50 best jazz albums by Jazz Times magazine.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday, singer Erin Bode performs at Nathalie's; and guitarist Tom Byrne and reedman Sam Hargadine will play duets at the Mahogany Grille (the former site of "Just Jazz" at the Omni Majestic Hotel downtown).

On Sunday, you can catch free outdoor music from Wack-A-Doo at Benton Park and Red Lehr's Powerhouse 5 at Carondelet Park. Also on Sunday evening, the Dave Dickey Big Band will play their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday The 442s will give their last performance before a summer hiatus at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the Sessions Big Band will be back at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

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.)

Coming soon: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Andre Delano, Alan Evans' Playonbrother

From StLJN's various in-boxes, word of three more upcoming shows of interest to St. Louis fans of jazz and creative music:

* Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey will return to St. Louis for their second show here this year at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 21 at The Blind Tiger at Sutton Place, 7376 Manchester Rd in Maplewood.

JFJO, now a three-piece with keyboardist and founder Brian Haas, lap steel guitarist Chris Combs, and drummer Josh Raymer, last played here in January at The Demo.

The Blind Tiger, which opened in December, is a bar and restaurant featuring artisanal pizza and small-batch whiskies. The music offerings shown on their Facebook page seem so far to be mostly alt-rock and Americana bands and DJs, so this show looks to be something a little different for them.

Opening acts will be Bum and Possum Combination, described as "a project whose influences span all genres of art, from the free jazz improvisation of Peter Brötzmann to the surreal worlds in the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet"; and the New Orleans band Yojimbo, which includes Mike Dillon Band members Carly Meyers (trombone), Patrick McDevitt (bass), and Adam Gertner (drums), plus keyboardist Doc Sharp. Tickets are $13 each and are on sale now.

* Saxophonist and former East St. Louisan Andre Delano will be back in town to perform at 9:00 p.m., Friday, June 27 at the Rustic Goat, 2617 Washington Ave downtown. Delano (pictured) was here most recently in March to play a gig at the Bistro at Grand Center. Tickets are $20 for general admission, and are on sale now.

* Drummer Alan Evans' band Playonbrother, formerly the Alan Evans Trio, will revisit St. Louis to play at 9:00 p.m. Thursday, July 24 at The Gramophone. The St. Louis-based instrumental quartet Belagroove  opens. Evans, best known as drummer and co-founder of Soulive, played here with his own trio most recently in 2012 at the Old Rock House. Tickets are $7 in advance, $10 day of show and are on sale now.

Jazz this week: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Jazz at Lincoln Center Quartet, and more

Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening this week in and around St. Louis:

Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series of free concerts at Washington University presents "A Tribute to Jim Hall" with guitarists William Lenihan & Vincent Varvel; and it's the monthly "Experimental Arts Open Mic Night" with live improvised music at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Tomorrow night, four musicians who are part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - trombonist Vincent Gardner (pictured), saxophonist Walter Blanding, trumpeter Kenny Rampton and drummer Jerome Jennings - will take the stage for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. The four have been in town all week for an educational residency with Jazz St. Louis, presenting workshops and master classes at area schools and working with student musicians in the JazzU and Jazz St. Louis All-Stars programs. They'll be joined for the Bistro gig by JSL's education director, pianist Phil Dunlap, and bassist Nick Jost.

Also on Friday night, pianist Travis Wesley Hoover brings his trio to Robbie's House of Jazz; the Ann Dueren Trio performs at Il Bel Lago; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; guitarist Mason Baran's trio will be at the Cigar Inn; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will continues with what's now being billed as a regular weekly Friday show at Troy's Jazz Gallery. 

Then on Saturday, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns to St. Louis for the first tme since 2011 to perform at  The Demo. To see some performance videos and find out what JFJO has been up to since they were here last, see this post.

Also on Saturday night, the Coleman Hughes Project plays at Troy's Jazz Gallery; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at Venice Cafe; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will duet at Thurman Grill; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be back at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday saxophonist Freddie Washington will join members of the Webster University Jazz Faculty to play the music of Sonny Rollins at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus; and guitarist Tom Byrne will play at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)

(Edited after posting to fix some formatting problems.) 

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Six from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

This week, let's look at some videos featuring Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who are coming back to St. Louis to perform next Saturday, February 1 at The Demo.

Formed in Tulsa, OK in 1994, JFJO are celebrating their 20th year as a band with, among other things, a set at the recently completed Winter Jazzfest in NYC, and having a craft beer named in their honor by Oklahoma’s Prairie Artisan Ales.

(They last appeared here in St. Louis in 2011 at Cicero's, and the subjects of a video showcase post then. Keyboardist and founding member Brian Haas also talked with yr. humble editor about the band's evolution in an interview published in the Riverfront Times.)

At that time, JFJO had recorded but not yet released The Race Riot Suite, an album of songs telling the story of a 1921 race riot in Tulsa that resulted in the death of hundreds of black Tulsans and the destruction of an entire city district.

The album featured the band's core lineup - Haas, Joshua Raymer (drums), Chris Combs (lap steel guitar, guitar) and Jeff Harshbarger (bass) - augmented by a five-member horn section that included Kansas City saxophonist Mark Southerland, who's since become an official member of the group, along with Jeff Coffin, Steven Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum, and Matt Leland.

You can see that ensemble in the first clip up above, performing the "Prelude" of The Race Riot Suite followed by the song "Black Wall Street," both recorded at the suite's world premiere in May 2011 at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

Down below, there are clips of four more selections from The Race Riot Suite: "The Burning" and "Second Prayer," also from the world premiere; "Grandfather's Gun," recorded in October 2011 at FTC StageOne in Fairfield, CT; and "Eye of the Dove," again from the world premiere.

The sixth and final video features a solo improvisation from Haas, who now lives in Santa Fe, NM, and last fall released Frames, an album of original compositions performed as a duo with drummer Matt Chamberlain.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Winter/spring 2014 jazz preview, part 2

This week, it's part two of our winter/spring 2014 preview taking a look at some of the touring jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis next year.

Part one, published last week, covered the month of January. Today, we pick up the timeline at the start of the following month for our first clip, featuring Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who will be returning here on Saturday, February 1 to perform at The Demo.

They're seen here performing "The Burning" in a gig last August at Jazzfestival Saalfelden in Germany. Written for their album The Race Riot Suite, this piece (and the whole record) features the core JFJO band - pianist Brian Haas,bassist Jeff Harshbarger lap steel guitarist Chris Combs, and drummer Josh Raymer - augmented by a five-piece horn section, comprised of Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Peter Apfelbaum (tenor and baritone saxophone), Mark Southerland (tenor saxophone), Skerik (saxophones) and Matt Leland (trombone).

Down below, you can see pianist Bill Charlap who will be in St. Louis to team up with saxophonist Houston Person to play Wednesday, February 5 through Saturday, February 8 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video, recorded in October 2013 at KPLU radio in Seattle, features Charlap doing brief solo interpretations of "All The Things You Are" and "Sophisticated Lady."

Meanwhile, Person can be seen in the third clip, playing Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'" in June of this year at the Blue Note in NYC, accompanied by pianist Joe Alterman, bassist James Cammack and drummer Alex Raderman.

The following weekend, the Cuban-born pianist Chucho Valdés and his quintet will perform on Saturday, February 15 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The fourth video features their complete set from this year's Barcelona Jazz Festival.

A few days later, bassist Christian McBride checks into Jazz at the Bistro, where he'll play with his new trio from Wednesday, February 19 through Saturday, February 22. The group, which features pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., is featured on McBride's latest album Out Here. They're seen here playing "My Favorite Things" in November 2013 at the Teatro Verdi in Padova, Italy.

The sixth and final video features bassist Josh Abrams’ Natural Information Society, who will be here to play in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 22 at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave. Although Abrams is known primarily for playing the standard acoustic bass, the Natural Information Society is premised on his use of the guimbri, "a three-stringed animal hide bass traditionally used by the Gnawa of north Africa in healing ceremonies," which you can see him play in this undated clip.

Next week, we'll present part three of StLJN's winter/spring 2014 jazz preview...

Interview with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Brian Haas now online

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns to St. Louis tonight for the first time since 2002 to perform at Cicero's, and a few days ago, I interviewed JFJO keyboardist Brian Haas for the Riverfront Times' A to Z music blog. The resulting article is now online, and you can read it here.

Jazz this week: Ann Hampton Callaway, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Peter Henderson and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music events in St. Louis offers another varied selection of styles, from swinging jazz in a mainstream groove to eccentric, electric fusion to cabaret to contemporary avant-garde concert music. Let's go the highlights, presented as usual in chronological order:

Tonight, singer, songwriter and pianist Ann Hampton Callaway (pictured) opens a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Callaway has performed in St. Louis many times, most recently in 2009 for a benefit at the Contemporary Art Museum. According to this interview she did with the P-D's Calvin Wilson, this time out she'll be singing material from her most recent CD and also performing some new arrangements.

Tomorrow night, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey returns to St. Louis for the first time in a decade to play at Cicero's. For more about this eclectic quartet from Tulsa, see this post from last Saturday. (I also spoke last week with JFJO keyboardist and founding member Brian Haas for an interview that will go up soon on the RFT's A to Z music blog, and will add a link here to that post once it's online.)

Also on Thursday, pianist Carobeth True and Two Times True (which she co-leads with her son, drummer David True) will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and Erin Bode will perform at Cyrano's in Webster Groves.

On Friday, singer Katie McGrath will start a two night run at the Kranzberg Arts Center under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan. McGrath's show "The Underside of Love" includes songs composers such as Stephen Sondheim, Judy Collins, Peter Gabriel, Cole Porter and Leon Redbone, and was directed by Tim Schall, with Rick Jensen as music director.

Also on Friday, pianist Curt Landes leads his trio, with featured guest singer Mary Dyson, at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, pianist Peter Henderson will perform at Christ Church Cathedral in a concert sponsored by New Music Circle. Henderson, who specializes in performing contemporary works, will play Frederic Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" and "24 Studies in African Rhythms" by Fred Onovwerosuoke, founder of the St. Louis African Chorus. Onovwerosuoke, who was raised in Ghana and Nigeria and moved to St. Louis in 1994, will be on hand to introduce his piece.

If you're in the mood from something more straight ahead on Saturday, the fine trumpeter Randy Holmes and his quartet will be returning that evening to Robbie's.

On Sunday, there's the April edition of the monthly jam session with saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio at Bossanova Restaurant & Lounge in Alton. Also on Sunday, BB's Jazz Blues and Soups has funk and R&B-infused sounds from Good 4 The Soul in the early evening and Latin jazz from Ritmo Caliente later on.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday bassist Bob Deboo will lead a quartet with saxophonist Willie Akins, pianist Ptah Williams and drummer DeMarius Hicks in a a couple of early evening sets. They'll be there from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays for an open-ended run, and Deboo tells StLJN that they're also doing some live recording.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Four from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Today we've got a musical video journey courtesy of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, who will return to St. Louis for the first time in ten years this Thursday, March 31 to play at Cicero's.

Formed in the early 1990s in Tulsa, JFJO originally was a funk-influenced eight-piece outfit with horn players and MCs. By 1999, they had gotten down to a trio, later becoming a quartet and weathering more personnel changes, including the departure of bassist and founding member Reed Mathis in 2009. The current JFJO includes the band's lone remaining founding member Brian Haas on piano, Rhodes electric piano and melodica, Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel guitar, and Jeff Harshbarger on acoustic bass.

Their music incorporates a variety of influences, from fusion, free improv and a bit of straight ahead jazz to classical, pop instrumentals, and programmatic film music. The addition of Harshbarger and Combs also has brought what critics have described as a pastoral or rustic aspect to their sound, comparable in some ways to recent Bill Frisell or the early Pat Metheny quartet with Lyle Mays.

These four clips show several sides of JFJO's musical personality, starting with the lyrical "The Sensation of Seeing Light," which they recorded as a special 7" single for Record Store Day 2010. This video was made at an in-store performances at Starship Records in Tulsa on Record Store Day in April, as were the two clips below, "Trampoline Phoenix" and "Hamby's Window."

All three songs were included on JFJO's 2010 release Stay Gold, as was "The Return," shown in the fourth clip, which was recorded in June 2010 at the B-10 Club of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey performing Thursday, March 31 at Cicero's

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (pictured) is coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, March 31 at Cicero's.

Founded in 1994 in Tulsa, the jazz/funk/jam band has changed personnel and evolved its sound considerably over the years. They started as an eight-piece group, pared down to a trio in 1999, and most recently became a quartet in 2008. The current lineup include founding member Brian Haas on keyboards, with Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel guitar, and Jeff Harshbarger on bass.

All those changes have been amply documented on 19 recordings, including two in 2010: The Sensation of Seeing Light, a 7" vinyl single released for Record Store Day in April, and Stay Gold, which came out in June on both CD and double 12" vinyl. Last year also saw the premiere of "Ludwig," JFJO's reinterpretations of Beethoven's 3rd and 6th Symphonies, with a 50 piece orchestra at the OK Mozart Festival. They've just completed sessions for another recording tentatively titled Race Riot Suite, inspired by historic events in Tulsa, that features guest performances from saxophonists Jeff Coffin, Peter Apfelbaum and Mark Southerland and trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

The St. Louis trio Juanita Place and Nashville singer/songwriter Lauren Lucas will open. Show time is 8:00 p.m., and tickets are $7 at the door.

(Edited after posting. Updated 3/2/11 with a new photo of the band.)