Jazz this week: Yellowjackets, Peter Martin, Dave Bennett, Tatsuya Nakatani, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers an album release event from one of the city's favorite homegrown piano players, plus funk and fusion, free improv, cabaret, swing, and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, October 7
The popular fusion band Yellowjackets (pictured, top left) return to St. Louis to begin a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, with a new member, bassist Dane Alderson, as part of the swarm.

Alderson, who's originally from Australia, replaces Felix Pastorius, who played with the group during their last visit to St. Louis in June 2014. Pastorius had replaced co-founder Jimmy Haslip as a touring member in 2012.

Thursday, October 8
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival begins its fall series with New Hampshire-based singer Wendee Glick performing her show "Moon Over The Mississippi" at the Gaslight Theater.

Meanwhile, this week's free Jazz at Holmes concert at Washington University will feature a tribute to saxophonist John Coltrane's early years on the Blue Note label, with the lineup of musicians still TBA at post time.

Update, 2:15 p.m., 10/7/15: The band for the Jazz at Holmes Coltrane tribute will be Paul DeMarinis (saxophones), Danny Campbell (trumpet), Kara Baldus (piano), Jeff Anderson (bass), William Lenihan (guitar), and Steve Davis (drums).

Friday, October 9
The Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues with singer Maxine Linehan in the first of two performances of "An Immigrant’s Journey From Ireland To America" at the Gaslight Theater.

Elsewhere around town, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to Nathalie's; The Sidemen play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; the Midwest Jazz-tette will perform West Coast-style "cool" jazz at Cigar Inn; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be back for their monthly outing at Broadway Oyster Bar.

Saturday, October 10
Pianist Peter Martin (pictured, center left) will resume his eponymous concert series and celebrate the release of his new album What Lies Ahead with a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

For much more about the album - which features Martin, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, and various guests - plus video samples of a couple of tracks, see this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio at the house concert venue Kinda Blue; and Franglais will bring some late-night Gypsy jazz to Mangia Italiano.

Sunday, October 11
Keyboardist Mo Egeston's trio will be substituting for Tommy Halloran's band this week for Jazz at the Bistro's Sunday brunch.

That afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present clarinetist Dave Bennett in a matinee performance at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport. Bennett is a 31-year-old Michigan native who "brings to life the classic sound and music of Benny Goodman with incredible technique, style, beauty of tone and naturalness."

Shortly after that, saxophonist Harvey Lockhart will kick off a late-afternoon quintet performance at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Sunday evening, percussionist and improvisor Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured, lower left) once again will convene his Gong Orchestra at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, enlisting up to ten local musicians in his quest to draw unexpected sounds from an array of gongs of all sizes.

Monday, October 12
Bassist Ben Wheeler leads a quartet of musicians who all played with Willie Akins in a concert paying tribute to the late saxophonist at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Tuesday, October 13
The Saxquest Jazz Orchestra will hold another open rehearsal and performance at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and Miss Jubilee plays for the weekly "Tuesday Night Swing" event presented by Lindy Hop St. Louis at Grandel Theatre.

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.)

Tatsuya Nakatani seeking musicians for Gong Orchestra performance on October 11

Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani is coming back to St. Louis to present another performance of his Nakatani Gong Orchestra, and he's looking for some local musicians who want to join in.

Nakatani (pictured) will be in St. Louis to play at 8:00 p.m. Sunday, October 11 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. He'll do a short solo performance as well, but the evening's main attraction will be the NGO, described as "a non-traditional music orchestra delving into the rich harmony of multiple gongs."

The NGO has performed with various lineups more than 50 times at venues around the globe, including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, as well as previously here in St. Louis at LNAC.

To realize the performance, Nakatani is looking for up to ten St. Louis musicians willing to take part in a pre-show workshop to learn his specialized bowed gong and conduction techniques, and then do the concert. If you're interested, email LNAC's Mark Sarich at lnac.mark@gmail.com.

For listeners, admission for this event will be $10 at the door, and an early arrival is suggested, as seating is limited

Jazz this week: Jeremy Davenport returns to the Bistro, Cactus Truck, and more

A few quick suggestions for some post-Turkey Day jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis...

Tonight, trumpeter, singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport returns from his current home in New Orleans to play his annual post-Thanksgiving weekend gig at Jazz at the Bistro.

Though he's been leader of the house band in the lounge at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans for more than 10 years now, these annual visits have helped ensure that Davenport still has a strong following here in St. Louis. As a result, the 7:30 shows on both nights are sold out in advance, and though tickets for the 9:30 shows still may be available, advance reservations would seem to be a must.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, singer Feyza Eren and guitarist Tom Byrne will duet at Tavern of Fine Arts; singer Joe Mancuso brings a quartet to Nathalie's; trumpeter Jim Manley plays at Thurman Grill; and saxophonist Willie Akins leads a quartet at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday, bassist John King and friends will present another of his "My Life In Music" shows at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; singer Wendy Gordon and pianist Carolbeth True will team up at Tavern of Fine Arts;
Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing and jump blues at Evangeline's; and Miss Jubilee will perform at 612 Kitchen and Cocktails, a relatively new spot at 612 W Woodbine Ave in Kirkwood.

Then on Sunday, the Amsterdam-based free jazz trio Cactus Truck will be in town for a performance at  Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, with saxophonist Dave Stone opening the show. For a video preview of Cactus Truck's high-energy, wall-of-skronk sound, check out this post from last week.

Also on Sunday, singer Erin Bode will present "An Evening of Holiday Music" to benefit Promise Christan Academy at the Purser Center at Logan University; and the Coleman-Hughes Project with singer Adrianne Felton will perform at Troy's Jazz Gallery.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday guitarist Tom Byrne will lead a trio 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Cactus Truck hitting Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center on Sunday, November 30

Prickly and persistent, loud and as unsubtle as an 18-wheeler careening down a stretch of bad road at 70 miles an hour, the music of Cactus Truck certainly fits their name. Their balls-to-the-wall skronk also seems like an appropriate soundtrack for a state of emergency, either real or imagined, and so the upcoming visit by the Amsterdam-based trio on Sunday, November 30 to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center seems rather timely.

Comprised of saxophonist John Dikeman (who's originally from the USA, born in Wyoming), guitarist/bassist Jasper Stadhouders, and drummer Onno Govaert, Cactus Truck was named "discovery of the year" in 2011 by the UK music magazine The Wire. Their first album Brand New For China! was called "brutal, furious and uncompromising" by AllAboutJazz.com's Eyal Hareuveni, and has evoked repeated comparisons to the electric music of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann with Last Exit, Hairy Bones and Trio Roma, and to experimental/noise groups such as The Thing and Zu.

You can sample their sonic mayhem in the first track up above, an excerpt from a performance in April 2014 at the alternative music venue Occii in Amsterdam.

After the jump, there are three excerpts from a 2013 show at Autonoom Centrum, which translates as "autonomous center," a sort of collectively managed community gathering place, performance space, and bookstore. (There are several venues in the Netherlands using the designation, including in one in Amsterdam, but it's not clear which one this is from the notes on the video.)

After that, it's a piece called "Magnum Eyebrow," recorded in 2013 at 12 Points, a festival in Dublin, Ireland for young European jazz artists.

Last but not least, the connection with 1960s free jazz is made a bit more explicit by a clip of Dikeman and Govaert performing Albert Ayler's "Ghosts" in 2012 at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.

Tickets for Cactus Truck at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center will be $7 at the door. Saxophonist Dave Stone's Free Jazz Unit will open the show.

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

Jazz this week: A Gaslight Square tribute, Mel Bay Jazz Festival, Storm Large, Tatsuya Nakatani, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in around St. Louis once again offers plenty of variety, from big bands to cabaret to free improv to a nostalgic look at an historic time for local music. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University presents a tribute to Gaslight Square, beginning with a panel discussion featuring trumpeter Bob Ceccarini, saxophonist Freddie Washington and pianist Dave Venn, who all played various clubs in the famed entertainment district during the 1960s.

That's followed by a free concert featuring Ceccarini, clarinetist Scott Alberici, trombonist Wayne Coniglio, guitarist (and series curator) William Lenihan, bassist Eric Stiller and drummer Steve Davis.

Also tonight, the Tavern of Fine Arts presents their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music; and down in Jefferson County, the second annual Mel Bay Jazz Festival gets underway with a performance by guitarist Larry Bay's group Sugar Moon at Lorenzo’s Italian Kitchen in De Soto.

The Mel Bay fest continues on Friday with a performance featuring the event's two visiting headliners, guitarist Sheryl Bailey and singer Lena Seikaly, at Fojo Studio, also in DeSoto.

Also on Friday, Los Angeles-based guitarist Tim Fischer leads a quartet at Cigar Inn; singer Joe Mancuso brings his quartet to Nathalie's; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will present an all-stringed-instruments lineup at Thurman Grill; Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will host a jam session at The Wolf.

The Mel Bay Jazz Festival then wraps up on Saturday, with a lunchtime performance by Sheryl Bailey at Fountain City Grille, and the grand finale showcase that evening featuring Bailey, Lena Seikaly, and Joe Mancuso at LaChance Vineyards.

Meanwhile, back in St. Louis on Saturday night, singer Storm Large will kick off this fall's edition of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival with a performance of her show "Le Bonheur (Good Times)" at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Also on Saturday; the Coleman Hughes Project with singer Adrienne Felton will play smooth jazz and R&B at Harry's Restaurant and Bar; The Sidemen perform at Evangeline's; pianist Carolbeth True is at The Wine Press; guitarist Tom Byrne leads a quartet at the Ozark Theatre; and the Funky Butt Brass Band plays at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band will play their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, with an intermission set by the University of Missouri Concert Jazz Band, who will be in from Columbia for the evening.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer Dean Christopher will return with his "Rat Pack & More" show featuring trumpeter Jim Manley to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar; and saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will be back at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Then on Tuesday, percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured) returns to Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center to lead an improvisation workshop for local musicians, followed by a collective performance featuring Nakatani and the workshop participants. (The workshop, which has 10 openings, costs $15 to $20 on a sliding scale, with dinner provided. For more information, contact LNAC's Tom Hill at tomhill.tch at gmail.com.)

Also on Tuesday, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra will play in a "Notes From Home" concert at The Sheldon; and trumpeter Keith Moyer will return to BB's.

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: St. Louis Cabaret Festival, Bull of Heaven, "All That Tap XXIII," and more

Though the dog days of August are looming nigh, it's a busy week for live jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with local festivals representing two different branches of jazz-related performance, a rare live gig from a much-talked-about experimental music duo, and a whole lot more. Let's go the highlights...

Tonight, Broadway star Faith Prince kicks off the St. Louis Cabaret Festival with a performance of her show "Have A Little Faith" at the Sheldon ballroom. Produced by Cabaret Project of St. Louis, the festival takes place in conjunction with their annual St. Louis Cabaret Conference. You can read more about it and see some video of Prince and the festival's other headliners in this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow, the Cabaret Festival continues with longtime St. Louis favorite Ann Hampton Callaway (pictured) presenting "The Streisand Songbook" at the Sheldon.

Also on Thursday, pianist Kara Baldus, bassist Eric Stiller and drummer Kyle Honeycutt will play a free concert to wrap up Washington University's summer Jazz at Holmes series, which is being staged at Tisch Commons in the Danforth University Center; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music.

On Friday, the Cabaret Festival presents a double bill at the Sheldon, with pianist and singer Billy Stritch opening with his own show entitled "I've Got Your Number: The Jazz of Cy Coleman" and then accompanying singer Marilyn Maye for her headlining set. Given Maye's status as one of the reigning grande dames of cabaret, this seems a likely sellout, so if you're interested in going, advance reservations would be a must.

Fortunately, if you can't get tickets in time, there will be plenty of St. Louis jazz vocal talent on display around town on Friday, too, as Miss Jubilee plays a free show at the St. Louis Art Museum; Wendy Gordon and pianist Arthur Toney return to DeLeo's Cafe & Deli; the Ann Dueren Trio performs at Il Bel Lago; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be swinging at Evangeline's. And should you be out west in Union, MO, you can catch singer Joe Mancuso's quartet at Domenic's Ristorante and Social Club (membership in la familia not required.).

On Saturday, the Cabaret Festival wraps up with the St. Louis Cabaret Conference Showcase at the Kranzberg Arts Center, featuring performances from a roster of up-and-coming singers in town to take part in the conference.

That same evening, the spotlight shines on yet another part of the jazz diaspora as the annual St. Louis Tap Festival comes to a conclusion with "All That Tap XXIII", presented this year at the Edison Theatre.

Pianist Carolbeth True's trio will provide the music for a lineup of dancers including the festival's founder, Robert L. Reed; Emmy Award-winning choreographer Jason Samuels Smith; dancer and author Karen Callaway Williams; the Israeli dance team of Avi Miller and Ofer Ben; Reed’s protégé Logan Miller; multi-media choreographer Bob Audy; Evan Ruggiero; Maud and Chloe Arnold, who were featured on this past season of the Fox network's So You Think You Can Dance; Martin 'Tre' Dumas III; and Megan Maltos.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday, the experimental duo Bull of Heaven will be in town for a rare live performance at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. As much a conceptual art project as a performing unit, Bull of Heaven reportedly have released hundreds of thousands of hours of audio since being formed in 2006, including individual "songs" that are hundreds of hours long, as well as "music puzzles" using some of the peculiarities and specifics of digital technology to deliver unexpected results. For a bit more about them, and links to interviews with the group's members, see this post.

And if all that's not enough for one Saturday night, the Funky Butt Brass Band will be making a comparatively rare non-holiday appearance at Off Broadway; and singer Tony Viviano will present his "Tony Bennett 88th Birthday Tribute" at Four Seasons Winery in Chesterfield.

On Sunday, the Friends of Scott Joplin will host their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site; singers Mary Dyson and Dianne Vaughn will be this week's guest stars with saxophonist Willie Akins' quartet at Troy's Jazz Gallery; and guitarist Dave Black will play at Pomme Cafe & Wine Bar.

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.)

Bull of Heaven performing at LNAC this Saturday, August 2

The experimental music duo Bull of Heaven will be in St. Louis to perform a rare live show at 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, August 2 at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

Formed in 2006 by Denver musicians Clayton Counts and Neil Keener (and occasionally including assorted other contributors), Bull of Heaven (pictured) view music and sound as conceptual art. According to LNAC's news release, they "have recorded and released songs ranging from less than a second to several septillion years in length, all available for free download through the band’s website."

The band's Wikipedia page recounts various pieces lasting hundreds of hours or more, and also notes that their more recent output includes "various music puzzles" such as "MP3 files that are actually RAR archives, password-encrypted files, pieces embedded within other formats, such as PDF and EXE, pieces listed with negative song lengths, and a variety of SWF files."

Critics and journalists have described Bull of Heaven's music generally in terms of drones, noise and minimalism, but their individual works are said to incorporate a variety of influences, from spoken word and free jazz to prog rock, classical and more.

However, since they've played only a handful of live shows, even their presenters at LNAC are a bit in the dark as to what to expect: "Who knows? That is the beauty of conceptual art as music. What is guaranteed is a three to four hour performance, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience at an intimate venue that will have the audience sitting inches away from the performers."

For more about Bull of Heaven, see this 2011 feature from the Denver alt-weekly Westword, and this 2009 feature from the website Musique Machine.

Ticket for Bull of Heaven at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center will be $7 at the door.

Jazz this week: Peter Brötzmann Trio, Peter Martin & Vivian Sessoms, Kurt Elling, New Mastersounds, Jamie Cullum, and more

It's the first week of a new month, and a very busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy headliners in town. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the all-star free jazz trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, drummer Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker (pictured) performs at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

If you have any interest at all in free jazz, this concert is an absolute must-see, as all three of the players are adventurous, uncompromising improvisors with international reputations, and this is their first tour together in more than a decade. You can find out more and hear all three musicians, together and apart, via this recent Saturday video showcase post.

Also tonight, Chicago's Lowdown Brass Band will be at the Broadway Oyster Bar with the Funky Butt Brass Band as opening act; and pianist Peter Martin leads a quartet plus special guest singer Vivian Sessoms to kick off this year's Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

For more about that show and what else Martin has coming up in the near future, check out this article by Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

On Thursday, Sessoms and Martin's trio will team up for another performance, this time spotlighting Sessoms in the intimate confines of the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Also on Thursday, the New Orleans Suspects, featuring musicians associated with the Neville Brothers, the Radiators, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and James Brown, will be back in town to play at the Broadway Oyster Bar; and Good 4 The Soul returns for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

On Friday, singer Kurt Elling, who's become a local favorite thanks to numerous appearances over the years at Jazz at the Bistro, will make his debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall, performing in a benefit for the Sheldon Art Galleries. Some concert-only tickets may still be available; call the Sheldon directly at 314-533-9900 for details.

Also on Friday, the British funk/jazz quartet The New Mastersounds will play at the Old Rock House, with Dopapod as opening act. For more about them, plus some performance videos, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, percussionist Craig Russo's Latin Jazz Project, based up the road in the Champaign/Urbana area, will be back in St. Louis to play at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will serve as the nucleus for the first in a prospective series of jam sessions at The Wolf in West County.

On Saturday, Carolbeth True and Two Times True are at Robbie's House of Jazz, and Miss Jubilee plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present pianist Pat Joyce and his "All-Stars" at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport. Joyce will be aided and abetted by Jerry Epperson (reeds), Bob Ceccarini (trumpet), Jay Hungerford (bass), Joe Berger (drums) and Cody Henry (trombone).

Sunday evening, singer and pianist Jamie Cullum will be back in St. Louis for the first time in four years to perform at The Pageant. For more about Cullum and his latest album Momentum, plus recent performance videos and interviews, see this post from last Saturday.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Dean Christopher brings his "Rat Pack & More" show back to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar, and percussionist Joe Pastor returns to 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Peter Brötzmann, William Parker & Hamid Drake

Today, we focus our video lens on the trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, bassist William Parker and percussionist Hamid Drake, who are coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 4 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center as part of LNAC's 20th anniversary celebration.

Bound by a web of musical associations stretching back more than 20 years, they first recorded and toured together under the name Die Like A Dog, and in the ensuing years have come to be known as something of a free-jazz all-star band. StLJN covered some of Brötzmann's back story in a Saturday video post before his first St. Louis appearance back in June 2009 at LNAC, while Parker was the subject of a similar post last October when he brought his quintet here to play a New Music Circle-sponsored concert at Mad Art Gallery.

That band also included Drake, and you can see him in several of the videos in the Parker post. The longtime Chicagoan has been a player on the international jazz and creative music scene since the late 1970s, leading his own groups and collaborating with a wide variety of musicians.

In addition to many recordings and tours with Brötzmann and Parker, both individually and together, Drake had a long musical association with saxophonist Fred Anderson, who drew him into Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and also has worked with Don Cherry, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, David Murray and Reggie Workman. Drake also has played reggae and world music throughout his career, and in fact made his very first recording as a member of Foday Musa Suso’s Mandingo Griot Society.

While there's not a whole lot of footage online of Drake, Brötzmann and Parker together, and the usual caveats about previews being of somewhat limited use when dealing with totally improvised music certainly apply, today's selection of clips at least should provide some idea of what to expect when they play at LNAC.

First up is a video showing Brötzmann, Parker and Drake together at a gig on November 28, 2004 at the Teatro Fondamenta Nuove in Venice, Italy. Down below the jump, we go back almost a full decade for a full set featuring Brötzmann, Parker, Drake and trumpeter Toshinori Kondo recorded in 1995 at Jazzfest Berlin.

Below that are several excerpts from more recent duo performances by Brötzmann and Drake. The first three were recorded at three different stops of their spring 2010 tour, on April 18 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center in NYC; April 23 at the Hideout in Chicago; and April 28 at the Victory Grill in Austin, TX. The fourth is from a show in April 2012 for the Europajazz Festival at La Fonderie in Le Mans, France.

The last two videos serve to provide a bit more background, both for these specific performers and for the musical world in which they operate. The seventh clip is an interview with Brötzmann recorded in 2013 before his performance at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

And for some broader context, check out the final video of Free The Jazz, a full-length, Hungarian-produced documentary in English directed by Czabán György that includes interviews and music from Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and many others.

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

Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Chicago Underground Duo, Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing, and more

As the final weekend of Jazz Appreciation Month comes into view, there's still plenty to celebrate, with a variety of jazz and creative music performances happening in and around St. Louis over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the 2014 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival gets underway with a quartet performance led by pianist and ex-St. Louisan Reggie Thomas and his Michigan State University colleague, bassist Rodney Whitaker, at Jazz at the Bistro. Drummer Montez Coleman and saxophonist Willie Akins will round out the group.

Also tonight, the St. Louis Low Brass Collective presents a free showcase at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the Tavern of Fine Arts will present their monthly "Experimental Arts Open Improv Night" with live improvised music.

Tomorrow, the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival shifts to the Touhill Performing Arts Center, where Cuban-born trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will headline Friday's show, with the UMSL jazz band, directed by Jim Widner, as opening act. For more about this GSLJF, read this interview  that Widner did with Terry Perkins for St. Louis Public Radio.

Also tomorrow night, the Chicago Underground Duo (pictured), featuring Rob Mazurek (cornet, electronics) and Chad Taylor (drums, percussion), plays at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center; singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran and his band Guerrilla Swing make their debut in the first of two evenings at Jazz at the Bistro; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival concludes with the first of two performances this weekend by St. Louis' own Lara Teeter at the Gaslight Theater.

And if all that's not enough, elsewhere around town on Friday Samba Bom will perform a free concert at Ferguson Citywalk; singer Joe Mancuso leads a quartet at Nathalie's; trumpeter Randy Holmes' sextet pays tribute to the music of Duke Ellington at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to CJ Muggs in Webster Groves.

On Saturday, record collectors will want to make time to stop by "The Gigantic St. Louis DJ Album Sale for Charity" being held in midtown at 3137 Locust St. (east of Compton, one block west of The Fountain on Locust). The sale will feature more than 10,000 LPs, CDs and items of music memorabilia donated by local radio personalities past and present; for more details, see this post from last week.  

Also on Saturday afternoon, mouthpiece guru Mike Lomax will give a free workshop and presentation at Saxquest; and Miss Jubilee plays a matinee at Blues City Deli.

Update - 11:00 a.m. 4/25/14: Saxquest has posted on Facebook that the Mike Lomax mouthpiece workshop has been postponed due to illness.   

Then Saturday evening, the 2013 Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival concludes with a concert by the Count Basie Orchestra, now directed by trumpeter Scotty Barnhart and featuring Reggie Thomas on piano, at the Touhill. For more about the Basie band and some video samples of performances of their classic repertoire, see this post from last Saturday.

And that's not the only big band show in town on Saturday, as that same evening bassist/trombonist Wayne Coniglio will lead a 35-piece orchestra with guest soloists including Cecil Cope and Elsie Parker in "The Swing of Hearts," a romance-themed program at Florissant Civic Center Theatre.

Also on Saturday night, violinist David McNair and his Gypsy jazz group Tzgane return to Robbie's House of Jazz; and the Ann Dueren Trio performs at Il Bel Lago.

On Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, with saxophonist Chip McNeill as guest soloist and the Genesis Jazz Project performing at intermission.

Also on Sunday, guitarists Steve Schenkel, John McClellan, Dave Black and Tom Byrne - aka the guitar faculty of Webster University - team up to perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham and singer Jeffery Hardin join forces for a concert at the Forest Park golf course clubhouse.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective return to  BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and on Tuesday, pianist David Parker and drummer Charles "Bobo" Shaw will perform as a duo at Tavern of Fine Arts.

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: Poncho Sanchez, Catherine Russell, The Cunninghams, and more

As Jazz Appreciation Month 2014 continues past the halfway point, the live performance calendar this week in St. Louis includes several touring performers visiting our town, the return of a veteran of Gaslight Square, and the usual variety of activity from local musicians. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, percussionist Poncho Sanchez and his band (pictured) open a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. One of the standard-bearers for mainstream Latin jazz, Sanchez' group over the years has consistently offered satisfying grooves topped with engaging solos, and the current edition is no exception. You can check out some relatively recent Sanchez performances on video in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra returns to Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "open stage" event at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center presents a double-bill featuring free improvisation by Joe Hess, Nick Horn, Alex Cunningham and Dave Stone, plus some more structured jazz sounds from the newish band Boysiac, with Mason Baran, Matt Villinger, Joe Hibbs, and Nathan Pence.

Tomorrow night, Miss Jubilee will being doing double duty, with a happy hour performance at Magpie's in St. Charles and a late night session downtown at Thaxton Speakeasy; and guitarist Dave Black and Friends, including singer Joe Mancuso, will be at Nathalie’s.

On Friday, the Twin Cities jump blues and swing band Davina and the Vagabonds will be back in town for a show at The Gramophone, with singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerilla Swing as opening act. That same evening, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at the Highway 61 Roadhouse; singer Feyza Eren will lead a quartet in concert at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and guitarist Tom Byrne's trio plays at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday evening, singer and multi-instrumentalist Don Cunningham and his wife, singer-pianist Alicia Cunningham - better known as The Cunninghams - will be visiting from their home in Las Vegas to perform at 560 Music Center, accompanied by a local rhythm section including pianist Carolbeth True, Jeff Anderson on bass, and Gary Sykes on drums. You can read more about Don Cunningham's days performing in Gaslight Square, his first meeting with Alicia, the couple's subsequent popularity as a touring act in Asia, and more in this short feature about them that I wrote a few years back for the Riverfront Times.

If the Cunninghams' close harmony and occasional forays into exotica aren't your bag, you might want to check out singer Catherine Russell, who will be making her St. Louis debut as a headliner on Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Russell is sometimes referred to as "the daughter of jazz royalty," and you can find out more about that and see some video samples of her performing in this post from last Saturday. And if that piques your interest, you also should know that The Sheldon and Metrotix now are offering a discount on tickets to the concert.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday, saxophonist Jason Swagler, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Nick Jost, and drummer Marty Morrison will take the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer Tony Viviano returns to Talayna's of Chesterfield; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will play at the Old Rock House.

On Sunday, saxophonist Jim Stevens and band will perform in a matinee by the Mississippi at The Loading Dock in Grafton; and pianist Dave Venn will be holding forth at Pomme Café & Wine Bar.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the student jazz singers from Webster University will cap their semester with a performance at Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus.

Then on Tuesday, this spring's series of "Twilight Tuesday" concerts at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park gets underway with saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald offering "A Tribute to Miles Davis and David Sanborn"; and the SIUE Concert Jazz Band & Alumni, directed by Brett Stamps, will be back for another evening 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.)

Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center to celebrate 20th anniversary with concerts by Chicago Underground Duo, Peter Brötzmann Trio

The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is 20 years old this year, and to celebrate, they've booked a couple of concerts this spring that will be of special interest to StLJN readers.

* First up, the Chicago Underground Duo (pictured) will perform at LNAC at 8:00 p.m., Friday, April 25. Comprised of cornetist Rob Mazurek and percussionist Chad Taylor, the group has roots dating back to 1996, when Mazurek started an experimental jazz workshop at the Chicago club The Green Mill.

The "Chicago Underground" sessions subsequently spawned a number of ensembles, starting with the Chicago Underground Orchestra, which has released several albums on Delmark. Mazurek and Taylor have continued to form groups under the Chicago Underground umbrella, performing as the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio and Quartet, and putting out several recordings on the Thrill Jockey label.

Their seventh, Locus, is out this month on the Northern Spy imprint, and features "experiments with new forms, washes of electronic ambiance, beats and free playing." Their St. Louis performance will be part of 17-date tour supporting the new album.

* Next, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and his trio will return to LNAC to perform at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. Brötzmann, who just turned 73, is a German who's been a major force on the free jazz and creative music scene in Europe and here in the US since the late 1960s, recording dozens of albums as a leader and appearing on many more as a sideman or collaborator.

Influenced by Albert Ayler and other "New Thing" players of the 1960s, Brötzmann is known for a high energy approach to improvisation; a forceful sound that can be sandpaper-toned at select times; and for being a prolific collaborator with musicians from all over the globe. He also has a Chicago connection, as from 1997 to 2012 he led a ten-piece group that was based there. He last played in St. Louis in a 2010 duo gig at LNAC with drummer Hamid Drake.

Tickets for both concerts will be $5 at the door.

There's more about LNAC's 20th anniversary after the jump...

Jazz this week: Terence Blanchard, Erin Bode, Valentine's Day jazz around town, and more

With a slight warmup in the weather coinciding with  Valentine's Day, it should be a good weekend in St. Louis to get out and celebrate your love of live jazz and creative music. Let's see what's happening around town over the next few days...

Tonight, pianist Kara Baldus will play solo in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; and songwriter Al Hammerman will joined by singers Alan Ox, Kim Fuller and Arvell Keithley plus other special guests for "I Got A Song - The Words and Music of Al Hammerman," a benefit for the charity Kids Rock Cancer at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Tomorrow night, singer Erin Bode returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two evenings. The Valentine's Day weekend shows, established by Mardra and Reggie Thomas and then taken over by Bode after the Thomases moved to Michigan, usually have been strong sellers at the Bistro, so advance reservations are a must. Update - 2:30 p.m. 2/13/14: Jazz St. Louis is reporting via social media that the only tickets remaining are standing room for the 9:30 p.m. shows.

Also on Friday, Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center continues their Quiet Concert Series with a performance of Mark Sarich’s new work “Book of Songs” plus more new music from Greg Farough.

Elsewhere around town, Miss Jubilee will be swinging it at the Schlafly Bottleworks; trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber will play two shows at Nathalie's in the Central West End; singer Feyza Eren brings a quartet Tavern of Fine Arts; Herman Semidey plays Latin jazz at Robbie's House of Jazz; and the St. Louis Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

On Saturday,  trumpeter Terence Blanchard returns to the Sheldon Concert Hall, filling in for pianist Chuco Valdes, who had to cancel his tour due to a knee injury.  You can see some videos of recent performances and interviews featuring Blanchard here, and the trumpeter also was interviewed by Terry Perkins of St. Louis Public Radio for an article you can find online here.

Also on Saturday, singer Danita Mumphard performs at Jazz On Broadway; singer Tony Viviano will headline a Valentine's dinner/dance at Four Seasons Winery in Chesterfield; singer Ann Dueren's trio returns to Il Bel Lago;  trumpeter Keith Moyer leads a trio at Thurman Grill;  and way out west, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to John G's Tap Room in Washington, MO.

On Sunday night, The People's Key will take the stage at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups. And looking beyond the weekend, on Monday singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will be at BB's, while guitarist John Farrar's Park Avenue Jazz trio continues their weekly Monday night gig at Evangeline's Bistro and Music House.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short local news items of interest:

* Next month's New Music Circle concert featuring bassist Josh Abrams' Natural Information Society is previewed by Stefene Russell of St. Louis magazine.

* Lamar Harris discusses his instrumental tribute to the music of Jay-Z, coming up tomorrow night at the Kranzberg Arts Center, for an article by the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson.

* Drummer Matt Wilson talks about his new album Gathering Call with the website Search and Restore and with Aarik Danielsen of the Columbia Daily Tribune. Wilson's quartet and special guest John Medeski will play tonight and tomorrow at Jazz at the Bistro, head to Columbia on Sunday, and then return to St. Louis to perform again on Monday to make up for Wednesday's postponed sets.

* Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center is looking for volunteers for its street team, which helps distribute posters and handbills around town. If you'd like to get involved, get in touch via LNAC's Facebook page or by sending an email to contact@lemp-arts.org.

* St. Louis native Dan Loomis, bassist for The Wee Trio, talks at length about the group's album Live at the Bistro album with AllAboutJazz.com's Fiona Ord-Shrimpton.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg (pictured) performed with pianist Robert Glasper last week on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert."

* Meanwhile, Kim Thompson, fellow drummer and St. Louis expat, has a new album, Live at Marian's, available on iTunes.

* The latest episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz is now available on the channel's website, spotlighting the jazz program at Webster University and performances from last fall's TKT scholarship concert, "Jazz Interpretations of the Music of Irving Berlin".

* Miles Davis' 1970 shows at NYC's Fillmore East will be reissued next month in an expanded box set. You can hear a sample track, "Spanish Key," here.

* The iconic trumpeter's sense of style also got him included in a list of eight jazz icons featured on the website of men's clothing retailer Mr. Porter.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis' "Somethin' Else," host Calvin Wilson continues the previous episode's focus on Davis, showcasing music from the trumpeter's famed 1960s quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

Then "The Jazz Collective" host Jason Church will feature tracks from Davis, Grant Green, The Rippingtons, Dudley Moore, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Joel Del Rosario & SureWill, Bob James &  David Sanborn, Jim Stevens, Brian Vaccaro, and Christopher Braig.

Wilson's program can be heard at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays, followed by Church at 9:00 p.m., via 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen.   

Jazz this week: The Bad Plus, Nathaniel Bartlett plays Stockhausen, Lina Koutrakos, and more

As St. Louis continues to dig out from the big storm, it looks like this week's jazz and creative music performances around town should go on as scheduled.

Should the weather turns nasty again, however, we encourage you to call ahead before heading out to your venue of choice, and this site will be updated with any cancellation info received at StLJN HQ. Hoping for warmer temperatures soon, let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, The Bad Plus returns to St. Louis for the eighth consecutive year in January to open a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. At this point, most StLJN readers likely will be familiar with the critically acclaimed trio, but if you're not, you can check out our extensive previous coverage, including a couple of compilations of live performance video clips, here.

Since The Bad Plus have signed a new record deal with Sony, with their first album back on the label scheduled for release later this year, it seems likely the crowd at the Bistro will get a taste of some of that new material as well as selections from their back catalog. Given the possibility of new sounds in the offing, plus the group's extensive existing fan base here, advance reservations are strongly suggested.

Also tonight, percussionist Henry Claude and cellist Tracy Andreotti will bring their alternate identities The Steve and Jennifer Project to the Tavern of Fine Arts for an evening of improvised music.

Tomorrow night, Good 4 The Soul will make their monthly appearance at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups; saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen will perform at the new south side venue The Engine Room; and Miss Jubilee plays swing, jump blues and more at Thaxton Speakeasy.

On Friday, the Knights of Swing will play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes trio will perform at Thurman Grill; and bassist Darrell Mixon will lead a trio at Cigar Inn.

Then on Saturday, percussionist Nathaniel Bartlett, who also was here in St. Louis last weekend, will be coming back through town after playing several other shows in the interim for another performance at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. This time, Bartlett will perform two works from Stockhausen and an original piece by LNAC's Mark Sarich.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday night, singer Lina Koutrakos presents her cabaret show "Shades of Blue" at the Kranzberg Arts Center; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black return to Chaser's Lounge at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; singer Chuck Flowers fronts a trio at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro and his trio will play at the house concert venue KindaBlue, 6101 1/2 Idaho.

On Sunday, the "Inner Jazz" series at Kirkwood United Church of Christ continues with a free concert by trumpeter/pianist Tim Osiek and his quartet.

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: Funky Butt Brass Band, Nathaniel Bartlett, West End Stomp, St. Louis Guitar Fusion, and more

The first part of the New Year traditionally is a bit a slow for the live music business, but if you're willing to brave the cold and snow, there still are some noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening around St. Louis in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, trumpeter Jim Manley will be back for his ongoing Thursday evening gig at Joyia Tapas, 4501 Manchester Ave in the Grove neighborhood.

Tomorrow night, the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of what's being billed as a New Orleans-style New Year's Celebration. While the overall production may not be quite as elaborate as the FBBB's recent Holiday Brasstravaganza, no doubt they will have a least a few trickerations up their sleeves to entertain the assembled multitudes. 

Also on Friday, percussionist and composer Nathaniel Bartlett (pictured) will be in town to perform at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Bartlett will perform trichotomic ecology, a composition for 5 octave marimba, viola, and percussion that uses a custom eight-channel speaker array he calls the "SSAL loudspeaker cube," which surrounds the audience and creates "an elaborate, kinetic, three-dimensional sound environment."

The piece also employs software that not only responds to the composer via foot pedal commands but also ‘listens’ via microphones to the performers and generates notation on a video screen based on composer-created computer algorithms.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly "West End Stomp" dance will feature music from Wack-A-Doo at the Mahler Ballroom; saxophonist Willie Akins leads a quartet at Cigar Inn; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes make their debut at Backstreet Jazz and Blues club in Westport; and Wendy Gordon returns to DeLeo's Cafe & Deli.

Then on Saturday night, Robbie's House of Jazz has a double bill, with an early evening show by saxophonist Jay Hutson and Da Wolvez with singer Tamesha Foote, followed by a late set by the Robert Tucker Quartet. Also on Saturday, bassist Bob DeBoo's weekly trio performance at Kranzberg Arts Center has been held over into the new year.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will hold their first event of the year at the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway.

UPDATE - 5:30 p.m., 1/3/13: Organizers of the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show posted on Facebook that Sunday's show is canceled due to the expected bad weather. The next show will be held on Sunday, March 2 

That evening, guitarists Dave Black, Randy Bahr and Farshid Soltanshahi (from Farshid Etniko) will team up for their first-ever concert together, billed as "St. Louis Guitar Fusion," at The Chapel.

UPDATE - 9:30 a.m., 1/3/13: Dave Black has posted on Facebook that Sunday's concert is postponed, due to winter weather.

And if for some reason that's not enough guitar for you, there's more on Monday, as guitarist Tom Byrne will be back 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.)

Jazz this week: Bucky Pizzarelli & John Pizzarelli, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bhob Rainey, Dave Dickey Big Band, and more

This weekend's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis includes a few final chances to hear some holiday jazz, as well as music from a famed father-and-son team of guitarists and two evenings featuring touring free improvisors. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli and John Pizzarelli open a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro, continuing through Saturday.  While John Pizzarelli is a St. Louis favorite who has appeared here many times at the Bistro and elsewhere, this will be the first time in recent years that he's played here with his dad. (For more about the Pizzarellis, and some video clips of them playing together, please check out this post from a couple of weeks ago.)

As you might expect, demand for tickets has been brisk, and as of this writing, Jazz St. Louis reports that the early shows for all four nights are essentially sold out, with just a few tickets remaining for the late shows.

Also tonight, singer Feyza Eren performs at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra performs big band versions of some holiday favorites at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; and Cabaret Project St. Louis will hold their monthly open mic at the Tavern of Fine Arts.

Tomorrow night, downtown will reverberate with danceable swing and jump blues as played by Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups and/or Miss Jubilee at Thaxton Speakeasy.

On Friday, fans of adventurous improv will want to check out percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured) and his Gong Orchestra at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center; while those still seeking additional Christmas spirit will find it in plentiful supply at the first of two nights of the Funky Butt Brass Band's annual Holiday Brasstravaganza at Off Broadway.

That same evening, pianist and St. Louis native John McDaniel has sold out two performances of his show "Home For The Holidays" at Kranzberg Arts Center, so if you don't have tickets, your only option at this point is to hope for a last-minute cancellation.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black are back at Chaser's Lounge in the Chase Park Plaza Hotel; singer Ann Dueren and her trio will be at Il Bel Lago; and guitarist
Tom Byrne leads a trio at Thurman Grill.  Also on Friday, singer Nicholas Brooks, who's originally from East St. Louis and has played Vegas and toured nationally as Sammy Davis Jr. in a "Rat Pack" themed show, will present the first of two Christmas-themed performances this weekend Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, crooner Gene Lynn will help inaugurate the upstairs performance space at Nathalie's, a new restaurant occupying the space at 4356 Lindell in the Central West End that formerly was home to Salt and before that, Savor and the Cabaret at Savor. Also on Saturday, keyboardist Jesse Prather and his band Jus4U with singer Adrianne Felton will present a "Smooth Jazz Christmas Concert" at Jazz on Broadway.

On Sunday, you've got a couple of final chances to get a holiday music fix, as percussionist Joe Pastor plays what's being billed as a "Christmas Jazz Show" at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, and the Dave Dickey Big Band promises some seasonal sounds during their last monthly gig of the year at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company. As a bonus, the Webster Groves High School jazz ensemble will perform Duke Ellington's "Nutcracker Suite" during the Dickey band's intermission.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Dizzy Atmosphere will play at The Shaved Duck, and the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center will present another concert in their new "Quiet Music" Series, incorporating the annual Christmas week visit from improvising saxophonist Bhob Rainey into a show that also will feature music from Greg Farough and Mark Sarich.

Due to the holidays, the next "jazz this week" post her won't appear until Thursday, December 26. Until then, 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.)