Jazz this week: Sean Jones, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman, Roseanna Vitro, and more

Even as presenters prepare to go into full holiday mode, it's going to be a busy week for jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis, with visits from several major touring musicians in the next few days, plus special seasonal performances from a number of local favorites. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, December 2
Trumpeter Sean Jones returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first evening of a four-night engagement in which he'll be recording tracks for a planned live album for his longtime label Mack Avenue Records. Jones (who was the subject of video showcase posts here previously in 2009 and 2011) performed here most recently last November at the Bistro, co-leading a band with saxophonist Tia Fuller and vibraphonist Warren Wolf.

He first came to St. Louis as lead trumpeter for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and since leaving that job in 2010, he's become chair of brass at Berklee College of Music and the artistic director of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestras. Also, this past August Jones (pictured, top left) joined the SF Jazz Collective octet, succeeding Avishai Cohen. That means he'll be coming back to St. Louis and the Bistro in the spring for the Collective's annual tour, which next year will feature interpretations of the music of Michael Jackson.

Also tonight, saxophonist Daniel Bennett's trio will play a free concert at the St. Louis County Library's Daniel Boone Branch in Ellisville; and this year's procession of holiday-themed performances begins with the Gateway City Big Band playing their annual Christmas concert at Sky Music Lounge in Ballwin, while pianist Peter Martin joins St. Louis Symphony violinist David Halen and friends to "Celebrate the Holidays" at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Thursday, December 3
Singer Kim Fuller will sing songs associated with Billie Holiday in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and guitarists Brian Vaccaro and Tim Fischer will play duets at the Pat Connolly Tavern in Dogtown.

Friday, December 4
New Music Circle presents pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman (pictured, center left) in concert at The Stage at KDHX.

Working the territory where contemporary composition meets free improvisation, Courvoisier and Feldman have earned a reputation as serious players in both contexts. You can find out more about them and see some video samples of their duo performances in this post from the Saturday before last.

Also on Friday, trumpeter Randy Holmes and his quintet anticipate and pay tribute to the December 14 birthday of the late trumpeter Clark Terry by performing his music at the Ozark Theatre; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing and jump blues at Evangeline's; and the Original Knights of Swing perform for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Over in Illinois, Miss Jubilee will play at Edwardsville's Wildey Theatre, while the Midwest Jazz-tette brings their West Coast jazz sound to The Abbey in Belleville.

Saturday, December 5
Singer Roseanna Vitro (pictured, center left) will perform at the Ozark Theatre. Vitro is a savvy and swinging vocalist who was nominated for a Grammy Award for her 2012 album interpreting the music of Randy Newman.

For more about her, plus some video samples of some live performances, see this post from last Saturday.

Sunday, December 6
The University of Missouri St. Louis music department presents "UMSL's Jazz for the Holidays," a free concert featuring the UMSL Jazz Ensemble, directed by bassist Jim Widner, the Vocal Point ensemble and University Orchestra at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Also on Sunday, the Dave Dickey Big Band turns their regular monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro into a "Big Band Christmas" with a little help from guest vocalist Olivia Neal and an intermission set from the Pattonville HS Jazz Ensemble; and saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines will perform in a benefit for the North County Big Band at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Monday, December 7
Guitarist Tom Byrne and singer Erika Johnson perform at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Tuesday, December 8 
The eclectic acoustic band The 442s will present their "Holiday Spectacular" with guest performers including pianist Peter Martin and singer Erin Bode at the 560 Music Center.

Also on Tuesday, the Saxquest Jazz Orchestra returns to the Tavern of Fine Arts; guitarist Vincent Varvel plays at Evangeline's; and pianist Pat Joyce will perform at The Wine Press.

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: Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman

This week, let's peruse some videos of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman, who are coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, December 4 at The Stage at KDHX.

The UK newspaper The Guardian in 2013 called them "both fine-tuned virtuosi whose projects sound like edgy classical chamber-music as much as improv or jazz." Courvoisier is a Swiss native, trained as a classical pianist with an early interest in traditional jazz that eventually led her toward improvised music and contemporary compositions. Feldman is an American who began his professional career playing country music in Nashville, then transitioned into jazz and free improv with a move to NYC in the mid-1980s.

Married since 1998, the two played together for the first time in 1995 and have worked regularly as a duo and co-leading a quartet since 1997. Both also lead their own projects, and collaborate frequently with other musicians, including a notable ongoing relationship with saxophonist and composer John Zorn, and in the process have amassed substantial catalogs of recording credits. One forthcoming album, which features Courvoisier and Feldman with electronic musician Ikue Mori and saxophonist Evan Parker, will be released on Intakt Records sometime in 2016.

Today, though, we focus on their work as a duo, beginning up top with a clip of Courvoisier and Feldman playing "Azriel," a piece from Zorn's "Book Of Angels, Volume 3: Malphas," in 2010 in Paris.

After the jump, there's a series of five excerpts from a performance in July 2012 at the Théatre de l'Athénée in Paris, followed by a portion of their set at the 2007 Jazz à Luz festival in Luz-Saint-Sauveur, France

The final clip is a brief video excerpting a 2010 performance at NYC's Whitney Museum in which the duo performed two works by Christian Marclay, "Ephemera" and "Shuffle."

For more about Sylvie Courvoisier, check out the interview she did in 2014 with Australia's Radio National network.

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

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2015 jazz preview, part 5

This week, it's the fifth and final installment of StLJN's fall 2015 jazz video preview, offering an advance look at jazz and creative music performers who will be visiting St. Louis between now and year-end.

Parts one, two, three and four covered September, October and the first part of November, so today's post begins with Omaha Diner, who will make their St. Louis debut with performances starting Wednesday, November 17 through Saturday, November 21 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Comprised of guitarist Charlie Hunter, saxophonist Skerik, drummer Bobby Previte, and trumpeter Eric Bloom (in for original member Steven Bernstein), Omaha Diner is premised on the idea of performing only original arrangements of songs that have made it to number one on the Billboard pop charts. And so, in the first clip up above you can see them playing "Thrift Shop," which was a hit for hip-hop duo Macklemore & Lewis.

After the jump, you can see a clip featuring singer Susan Werner, who will close out the fall edition of the Presenters Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival with performances on Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21 at the Gaslight Theater. Werner, who's associated with folk and country as much as cabaret, can be seen here performing "(Why Is Your) Heaven So Small" a a gig in August 2014 in Nashville.

Next up is pianist Eliane Elias, who's playing Saturday, November 21 to kick off the 2015-16 jazz series at  The Sheldon. Elias is seen in the third clip performing "So Danço Samba" at the 2015 International Jazz Day Global Concert in Paris, with some help from trumpeter Claudio Roditi, percussionist Mino Cinélu, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

The same evening as Elias' concert, the Stanley Clarke Band will be in town for a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The fourth clip features the bassist and his electric ensemble in a full set at this year's North Sea Jazz Festival.

After that, it's trumpeter Sean Jones, who returns to St. Louis to play Wednesday, December 2 through Saturday, December 5 at Jazz at the Bistro. Jones is seen here performing his deconstructed version of "How High The Moon" last month at the Litchfield Jazz Festival in Connecticut.

Also in town that same weekend will be the duo of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman, who will perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, December 4 at The Stage at KDHX. They're represented here by a video shot by an audience member in 2014 during their set at NYC's Winter Jazzfest.

Today's final clip features drummer Matt Wilson Christmas Tree-O, who will be spreading holiday cheer from Wednesday, December 16 through Saturday, December 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. The video shows them performing in 2011 for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series.

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