Jazz this week: Marco Benevento, John Scofield Trio, Matt Ulery's LOOM Trio, Bett Butler, and more

There's lots of jazz and creative music going on this weekend in and around St. Louis, including visits from a New York keyboardist, a Chicago bassist, a singer from Texas, and the return of one of the top guitarists in electric jazz. Let's go the highlights...

Tonight, keyboard player Marco Benevento brings his trio to the Old Rock House, with the Mike Dillon Band opening. (Given that Dillon also is the percussionist in Garage A Trois, which also includes Benevento, perhaps they'll jam a bit together as well.) For more about Benevento and video samples of his music, check out this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, guitarist Vince Varvel and bassist Eric Stiller will play a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. Also on Thursday, bassist Dave Troncoso leads a trio at the Wine Press; and it's "Avant Garde Arts Night," featuring live improvised music, at the Tavern of Fine Arts. 

On Friday, Chicago bassist Matt Ulery's LOOM Trio plays a free concert in the Grigg Gallery at the St. Louis Art Museum. Ulery is a busy participant in Chicago's jazz and improvised music scenes, and for this gig, his band will be augmented by members of the new music ensemble eighth blackbird, some of whom were involved in Ulery's crticially acclaimed album By A Little Light, released earlier this year. (Note that although it's a free show, tickets are required, and can be picked up at the Museum's information desk.)

Also on Friday evening, guitar great John Scofield returns to town for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Last year, Scofield brought a quartet to St. Louis; this time around, it's his trio (pictured) with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart, which has been together long enough to achieve a near-telepathic level of interplay among its members.

Over on the east side on Friday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham returns to Jazz on Broadway in Alton, and guitarist Tom Byrne  will lead a trio with bassist Chris Watrous and drummer Steve Davis at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday afternoon, the Bosman Twins will play a free show outdoors on the quad at Webster University, sponsored by Wesbter's African American Alumni Associations.

Then on Saturday evening, singer Feyza Eren is at the Wine Press; and the student ensemble Jazz In Outer Space takes the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz. Also on Saturday, and of special interest to those of you in West County or the western exurbs: pianist Dave Becherer brings his trio to Bugsy's, a bar and restaurant out in Union, MO that's now presenting live jazz on some weekend evenings with a booking assist from trumpeter Keith Moyer.

On Sunday evening, Texas-based singer Bett Butler will be in town to do a performance called "Words and Music" with writer Pamela Houston at the Ethical Society. Butler has an interesting sort of post-modern take on the classic style of jazz vocalizing exemplified by Ella Fitzgerald, which she'll employ in what's billed as "an evening of story, song, and adventure." 


Sunday also will bring the debut of a weekly, early evening gig at Club Klymaxx in the Ambassador Entertainment Center featuring First Call, a new band including Jeff Anderson (bass), Danny Campbell (trumpet), Marty Morrison (drums), Eric Slaughter (guitar) and Chad Evans (saxophones). $5 gets you in the door and includes your first drink.

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.)

Matt Ulery's LOOM Trio to perform Friday, September 28 at Saint Louis Art Museum

Chicago bassist and composer Matt Ulery is bringing his group LOOM Trio to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. Friday, September 28 in the Grigg Gallery of the Saint Louis Art Museum.

According to the news release sent out by the museum, the gig also will feature members of the Chicago-based new music group eighth blackbird, five of whom were part of the nine-piece ensemble on Ulery's most recent album By A Little Light.

The concert is part of the museum's "Art After 5" series and is free and open to the public. However, since space is limited, tickets will be required. Tickets will be available at the museum's information desk beginning Friday, September 1, with a limit of four per person.

Ulery (pictured) has released four albums as a leader, and has performed with musicians including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Patricia Barber, Ron Perrillo, and Jeff Parker, as well as with the group Eastern Blok and many others. In addition to Ulery on bass, LOOM Trio also includes pianist Ben Lewis and drummer Jon Deitemyer.

A two-CD set, By A Little Light was released earlier this year on trumpeter Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music label and so far seems to be getting an enthusiastically favorable reception from critics. Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune called it a "magical, profoundly musical release," while a review in the July issue of DownBeat magazine gave it 4 and 1/2 stars.

You can hear two sample tracks from By A Little Light on Ulery's SoundCloud page here. In the embedded video window below, you can hear a five-piece version of LOOM playing Ulery's composition "Constant" at a gig in 2010 in Chicago.