Jazz this week: Taylor Eigsti, Sandra Reaves-Phillips' "Ladies of Blues and Jazz," a tribute to the electric music of Miles Davis, and more

With St. Louis' Mardi Gras parade on Saturday and pro football's Super Bowl on Sunday, there undoubtedly will be a lot of parties going on in the Gateway City this weekend. However, if you're interested in getting out and hearing some jazz, either instead of, or in addition to, said occasions for revelry and merriment, there are several performances happening over the next few days that may merit your attention.

For starters, piano phenom Taylor Eigsti (pictured) plays at Jazz at the Bistro tonight through Saturday. Filling the spot on the schedule originally designated for pianist Jason Moran, Eigsti returns to St. Louis for four nights after doing a two-night stand at the Bistro in June 2006. Now 23, he began playing jazz while still in grade school, released his first internationally distributed CD at age 18, and earned two Grammy nominations a couple of years back. Eigsti's got prodigious technique on the keyboard and is clearly a player to watch, though some critics, yr. humble editor among them, contend that his impressive chops could benefit from a bit of restraint and some additional seasoning. However, you can sample his playing and make your own judgment by checking out the embedded video window and the bottom of this post, which contains a clip of Eigsti and band playing the Cole Porter-penned standard "Love For Sale."

Also on Saturday, singer/actress Sandra Reaves-Phillips brings her show "The Late Great Ladies of Blues and Jazz" to Dunham Hall on the campus of Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville. Reaves-Phillips is a veteran of Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theater as well as the concert stage, and "The Late Great Ladies..." incorporates both her singing and dramatic skills as she performs material associated with legends such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Mahalia Jackson.

Other noteworthy shows coming up: Saxophonist Mike Karpowicz performs a free concert Thursday night as part of the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and perennial St. Louis favorite Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum will display his piano and vocal prowess on Friday at Brandt's.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Webster University Jazz Faculty will do a tribute to the electric music of Miles Davis at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster U. campus. The ensemble will include Randy Holmes on trumpet, Paul DeMarinis on woodwinds, Steve Schenkel on guitar, Kim Portnoy and Carolbeth True on keyboards, bassist Jay Hungerford and drummer Ron Carr.

For more local jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please consult the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar

(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 2/1/08 to correct the headline.)

Webster students cover concerts by Trevor, Karpowicz

The latest issue of the Webster University student newspaper, the Journal, has a couple of articles covering recent jazz events with a campus connection.

You can read an account of Jeanne Trevor's concert with the Webster Symphony Orchestra, held last Sunday, here, and a piece on saxophonist Mike Karpowicz's Monday night concert here.

While reading, keep in mind that these articles are written by students still learning their craft. Still, this passage from the second piece is absurd enough to be kind of funny:

"Adjunct music professor Dave Black played the guitar and the jazz guitar. Though the instruments have different names, Black said there is no difference in the sound. "Style doesn't dictate the structure of the instrument; it's the way you play it," Black said."

Given that music and media communications are two of Webster's most prominent departments, you'd think there would have been someone more knowledgeable - an editor, a faculty advisor, another student with more hands-on experience playing music - who would have spotted this as obvious gibberish and either edited or deleted it. Kind of makes you wonder just what those Webster students are getting for their tuition money...

Jazz this week: Dave Holland Quintet, Jimmy Cobb, Harry Connick Jr. and more

With spring in the air and St. Patrick's Day coming up, it's not just a great time to be Irish - it's also a fine week to be a jazz fan in St. Louis, with three major names in the jazz world performing in town and several other interesting events going on as well.

Let’s take the headliners in chronological order of shows, starting with the Dave Holland Quintet, who will be playing at Jazz at the Bistro for two sets a night starting tonight and running through Saturday. Holland, who broke into the big time in the late 1960s as a member of Miles Davis’ band, has gone on to become one of the most important bassists, bandleaders and composers in jazz. He also leads a very accomplished and critically acclaimed band, making this gig stand out as a potential highlight of the year. For a preview of Holland’s Bistro appearance, go here, and to see all of StLJN’s previous coverage of Holland, go here.

As fate would have it, another jazz legend known for performing with Miles Davis is also in town this week. Of course, drummer Jimmy Cobb has played with many other giants of the music, but I’m sure his work on Miles’ Kind of Blue is bound to come up when he speaks Thursday afternoon at an open forum/discussion on the SIU-Edwardsville campus. That night, Cobb will give a free concert on campus, playing with some of the local pros from the SIU-E jazz faculty. For more about his talk and the performance, see this post.

The third headliner is singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. (pictured), who’s bringing his big band to the Fox Theatre on Saturday night as part of a tour supporting two recently released CDs devoted to the music of his hometown, New Orleans.

While I can take or leave him as an actor and/or crooner, Connick is at his best as a pianist, bandleader and advocate for New Orleans music and culture, and it seems as if the format for this show will allow him ample opportunity to showcase his considerable skills in those areas. Connick also hires good players, including St. Louis native Neal Caine, who’s been a mainstay on bass for Connick’s large ensemble over the last ten years or so. Given Connick’s crossover popularity, I’m sure the Fox has sold a lot of tickets for this show, but as of this morning, there still seem to be ducats available via their official source, Metrotix, as well as the inevitable high-markup offerings from various brokers.

UPDATE - 8:04 a.m., 3/15/07: The always astute Daniel Durchholz has an article in today's Post-Dispatch about Connick's recent New Orleans-themed CDs, making the case that the pianist's post-Katrina advocacy for his hometown has given his work additional gravitas. Read the whole thing here.

While these three musicians are justifiably the focus of much attention this week, there are, as mentioned above, some other noteworthy events of interest to St. Louis jazz fans. On Thursday, saxophonist Chip McNeil, who teaches jazz up at the University of Illinois’s Champaign/Urbana campus, comes to town to play two shows at Finale Music and Dining. McNeil has worked extensively with Maynard Ferguson’s band as well as many others, and currently gigs and records with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in addition to teaching.

Also worth noting are some locals who are headlining special concerts over the next several days. On Sunday, longtime St. Louis favorite Jeanne Trevor will sing with the Webster Symphony Orchestra in a performance at the Community Music School in University City, and on Monday night, saxophonist Mike Karpowicz will lead his group in a performance at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Going even farther beyond the weekend, on Tuesday night the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble will join Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director David Robertson and SLSO percussionists John Kasica and Tom Stubbs for an all-percussion concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, performing “music from Africa, Cuba, Burma, Bulgaria and the United States.” NPE leader/co-founder Henry Claude is a very creative and resourceful musician, as are his colleagues in the group, and it’s good to see NPE getting a high-profile showcase like this. I just wish they’d perform a bit more often.

That’s certainly a lot of music to absorb in a few days, but if you’d like to know what else is coming up in St. Louis, please visit the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, where you’ll find an extensive list of concerts, club dates and more.

(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. No attachments, please.)