Jazz this week: Mike Dillon Band, Erin Bode sings standards, Phil Dunlap Quintet with Nicholas Payton, and more

Though many touring jazz stars are busy playing the festival circuit this month, there's still plenty of live jazz and creative music this weekend in St. Louis. Here's what's coming up over the next few days...

Tonight, the Mike Dillon Band returns to perform at The Demo. Led by percussionist Mike Dillon (pictured), the MDB were here last in February, opening for Umphrey's McGee at The Pageant. They mix up jazz, funk, rock and punk in an energetic and entertaining way, and you can check out some samples of them on video in this post from a couple of weeks ago.

Also tonight, guitarists Eric Slaughter and Tom Byrne play at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood; the Tavern of Fine Arts features live improvised music for its monthly "Avant Garde Arts Night"; and and saxophonist Tim Cunningham plays a free outdoor concert at Bluebird Park in Ellisville.

On Friday, singer Erin Bode returns to her musical roots as a student in the jazz program at Webster University, opening a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro during which she'll revisit material from the "Great American Songbook." Though Bode performs mostly original songs these days, those who remember her early gigs here know that she's a capable interpreter of standards, too.

Elsewhere on Friday, saxophonist Michael Anthony Fitzgerald performs at Jazz on Broadway, Second Generation Swing takes the stage at the Casa Loma Ballroom; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will play a mini-concert at a rather unusual venue, the Clayton cafe and spa Sip Salon. There's also another free outdoor show of interest on Friday, as trumpeter Jim Manley performs before a screening of The Big Chill for the Old Orchard Gazebo Music and Movie series in Webster Groves. 

Saturday brings a couple of very different grand openings  - one on the Hill, the other on Art Hill - with jazz accompaniment. First up, in the afternoon singer Tony Viviano and band will perform to celebrate the new outdoor cafe at J. Viviano & Sons grocery and deli, located in the heart of South St. Louis' famed Italian neighborhood.

Then a few hours later and just a couple of miles away in Forest Park, pianist and Jazz St. Louis director of education Phil Dunlap will debut a new quintet at the long-awaited grand opening of the new wing of the St. Louis Art Museum. Dunlap's quintet, with drummer Montez Coleman, bassist Jahmal Nichols, saxophonist Ben Reece and trumpeter Danny Campbell, will be augmented for the occasion by special guests including trumpeter Nicholas Payton, saxophonist Willie Akins and singer Brian Owens.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Larry Brown Jr. is back home from Chicago to lead his group at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer Feyza Eren is at Thurman Grill; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes perform at the Wine Press; and singer Jerome Elliott presents his cabaret show "My Favorite Springs" at The Chapel.

On Sunday, trumpeter/singer Dawn Weber and multi-instrumentalist Lamar Harris (in his alternate identity as "DJ Nune") will supply the sounds for Sauce Magazine's annual "Saucy Soiree" at the Four Seasons Hotel; and singer and pianist Jesse Gannon will promote the release of his new CD with a show at The Gramophone.

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.)

Phil Dunlap Quintet to debut Saturday, June 29 at SLAM, with Nicholas Payton as special guest

As director of education for Jazz St. Louis, Phil Dunlap certainly gets ample opportunities to use his piano chops during the regular working week. However, the SIUE alumnus also does a fair amount of playing on the side, doing casual gigs and leading both a trio and the Legacy Jazz Quintet, a group that draws on the repertoire of well-known jazz composers for gigs at Jazz at the Bistro and elsewhere.

Now Dunlap (pictured, top left) is launching a new jazz quintet, which will make its debut in a special performance at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, June 29 for the grand opening of the new wing of the St. Louis Art Museum.

The lineup of Dunlap's new quintet includes drummer Montez Coleman, bassist Jahmal Nichols, saxophonist Ben Reece and trumpeter Danny Campbell. They'll be joined for the performance at SLAM by several special guests, including the well-known New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton (pictured, lower left), who played here last season at the Bistro, plus fellow St. Louisans Willie Akins on tenor sax and Brian Owens on vocals.

Given Dunlap's fondness for the hard-bop sound, "we will definitely include some (music) from that era, including some Blue Mitchell and Chick Corea tunes from the 50s," he told StLJN. "The set will also include some original compositions, written specifically for this ensemble."

The Phil Dunlap Quintet concert with Nicholas Payton at the St. Louis Art Museum is free and open to the public. (Fans and friends also should note that Dunlap also will be performing this Friday at the Bistro, teaming with pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson of Good 4 The Soul for "88 Squared," a rare two-keyboard effort backed by Nichols and drummer Marty Morrison.)

Jazz this week: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Nicholas Payton, Larry Ochs and Kinhoua, and more

From free improv to fusion to big band to neo-soul/hip-hop influenced experimentation, this week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis has a variety of offerings to suit different musical tastes. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, New Music Circle presents saxophonist Larry Ochs and Kihnoua in concert at Kranzberg Arts Center. In addition to Ochs, the group features Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, Dohee Lee on vocals, and special guest bassist Trevor Dunn.

Also tonight, trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton opens a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, fronting a trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Corey Fonville.

On Thursday, the reunited original lineup of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (pictured) will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. You can read more about the reunion and see some video footage of the Flecktones playing material from their most recent album here.

Also on Thursday, the Genesis Jazz Project plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and Washington University's jazz combo students will perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series.

On Friday, cabaret performers Donna Weinsting and Lara Buck team up for the first of two nights of "Bold, Bawdy, Blonde - and Funny," a new show staged under the auspices of the Presenters Dolan at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Also on Friday, the Saint Boogie Brass Band, a relatively new local group working in the New Orleans brass band tradition, plays at Robbie's; guitarist Tom Byrne leads a trio with drummer Paul Shaw and bassist Chris Watrous at Cigar Inn; and the St. Louis Big Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

Then on Saturday, Shades of Jade, a Kansas City band blending jazz with hip-hop and neo-soul, will perfrom at Robbie's; and singer Dean Christopher will do his "Rat Pack and More" thing with help from pianist Carolbeth True at Frontenac Grill

On Sunday, singer Erin Bode will perform in concert at St. Peter's United Church of Christ.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday Webster University's jazz combo students will show off their semester's work in a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium; and Tom Byrne brings his Pat Metheny-inspired project Have You Heard? back to 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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* NPR's Fresh Air this week had a review by Kevin Whitehead of a recent Clark Terry reissue pairing two 1960s Impulse! albums, The Happy Horns of Clark Terry and It's What's Happenin', on a single CD (pictured).

* Multi-instrumentalist/Internet provocateur Nicholas Payton, who's playing next week at Jazz at the Bistro, did an interview with the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson.

* The Webster University Journal has an article about Monday night's concert on the Webster campus paying tribute to jazz DJ, photographer and historian Dennis Owsley, who recently donated his personal collection of more than 3000 jazz recordings to the university.

* Meanwhile, Owsley writes about the donation and about physical media vs. digital storage of music in his latest blog entry for St. Louis magazine.

* The St. Louis magazine website also now has up a photo album from last Friday's Jazz St. Louis fundraising gala, as well as a reader poll using elimination brackets in the style of the NCAA basketball tournament to determine "The Best St. Louis Musician of All Time."

* Illuminating another aspect of St. Louis' historic Club Plantation, Kevin Belford blogs about guitarist Floyd Smith and the real origin of the electric guitar solo on record.

* At his concert last Sunday at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, Herbie Hancock spoke for a few minutes about helping establish International Jazz Day, which will be celebrated for the first time on April 30 of this year. Here's the scoop on what that celebration will entail.

* Finally, if you missed KETC's broadcast of the 2012 St. Louis Arts & Education Awards ceremony, which featured pianist Peter Martin as one of this year's honorees, you now can watch the program online.

Jazz this week: Nicholas Payton, Stanley Jordan, Kahil El'Zabar, Salty Dogs Jazz Band, and more

It's a busy weekend for jazz in St. Louis, with shows coming up from four touring ensembles in styles ranging from modern to traditional, plus plenty of activity from our local contingent of musicians. Let's go straight to the highlights:

Tonight, guitarist Stanley Jordan opens a four-night engagement that continues through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. Jordan is no stranger to St. Louis audiences, having performed here in recent years at Finale Music and Dining, but if you'd like to see and hear some samples of his playing, check out the video post from last Saturday here.

On Thursday, saxophonist Willie Akins and his group will perform a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University. That same evening, KWMU DJ and and jazz historian Dennis Owsley will begin his three-week class on "The Great Jazz Soloists" at the Ethical Society.

On Friday and Saturday, Chicago-based percussionist Kahil El'Zabar and his Ritual Trio return to take the stage Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday, New Orleans-born trumpeter Nicholas Payton (pictured) performs at the Sheldon Concert Hall, with piano phenom Taylor Eigsti as part of his band. You can see some videos of Payton in action here, read an interview with him here, and find information on how to get tickets for the show at half-price here.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club welcomes the long-running Salty Dogs Jazz Band for a concert of traditional jazz at the Sheraton Westport Hotel. Then on Sunday evening, New Music Circle presents composer and producer Rob Voisey's 60 x 60 Project at Mad Art Gallery. The event will feature 60 one-minute performances from local dancers and choreographers set to 60 different pieces of music created by 60 different composers and curated by Voisey.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday morning the St. Louis Ragtimers will do the first of two "Coffee Concerts" at the Sheldon, with the program repeating on Wednesday morning. And on Tuesday night, Jazz St. Louis' CD Listening Club will meet at Borders in Brentwood, with singer Erin Bode and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford leading the discussion of the featured CD for the month, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.

For information on more jazz and creative music events this weekend and beyond, check out the St. Louis Jazz Notes Calendar, available for viewing on the left sidebar, or by clicking here. Also, you can follow St. Louis Jazz Notes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/StLJazzNotes and become a "fan" by signing up 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.)

Nicholas Payton interviewed in Post-Dispatch

Sunday's Post-Dispatch featured a brief interview with Nicholas Payton, who's performing next Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and one thing that jumped out from the conversation with the P-D's Calvin Wilson is the fact that the trumpeter's band for the gig will include much-hyped keyboard phenom Taylor Eigsti. Read the whole thing online here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Three views of Nicholas Payton

This week, we've got three video clips featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton, who will be in St. Louis on Saturday, November 7 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. A New Orleans native, Payton covers a lot of musical bases, from funk to bop to the traditional styles of his hometown. He's been to St. Louis before, most recently in February of this year, when he played the Sheldon as part of the Blue Note 7, and also has played at Jazz at the Bistro a couple of times in recent years.

For those who may just be getting to know Payton, these three clips show trumpeter in three different musical contexts. The first was recorded in November 2008 at Widder Bar in Zürich, Switzerland, and features Payton's quartet performing "Nida," a song from his CD Into The Blue. He's joined by bassist Vicente Archer, percussionist Daniel Sadownick, and drummer Marcus Gilmore, who spurs on Payton, puts some real stank on the funk groove, and gets a little second-line feel in there in places, too.

Down below is a clip recorded in September, 2007 at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans during the sessions for Into The Blue. The song is "Drucilla," a ballad written by Payton's dad, bassist Walter Payton, for which the trumpeter uses a mute, dialing down the volume but retaining intensity. It's the same band as in the live clip above, with the addition of pianist Kevin Hays.

Finally, in the third clip you can see Payton playing a modern bop/blues on a funk-to-swing version of the classic Milt Jackson tune "Bags' Groove." There's no date indicated, but from the look of it, I'd say it's from the 1990s. Hearing how a musician approaches a well-known tune can often provides useful insight into their musical personality, and here Payton shows off a bright tone and a high energy level while getting around the horn quite nimbly.

A couple of additional notes: Back in 2001, Payton fronted a centennial tribute to Louis Armstrong that toured around the country with new arrangements of songs associated with Armstrong written for a 12-piece ensemble. YouTube has three videos of the tribute group that, while very different from what I'd expect Payton to do here in St. Louis, are worth a look and a listen. Check 'em out here.

Also, the Sheldon is offering a half-price special on tickets for Payton's concert; for details, check out this post.

The Sheldon offering half-price tickets for Nicholas Payton concert on November 7

The Sheldon Concert Hall is offering tickets at half price for trumpeter Nicholas Payton's concert on Saturday, November 7.

The regular ticket prices are $40 for orchestra seats and $35 for the balcony, but with the discount you can get tickets for just $20 and $17.50.

To get the discount, go to www.metrotix.com/promotions and enter the promotional code TRUMPET09, or mention the code when you order by phone at 314-534-1111 or in person at any MetroTix outlet or the Fox Theatre box office, 531 N. Grand Blvd.

Sheldon jazz concerts to feature pre-show talks from Dennis Owsley

The Sheldon Concert Hall has announced that jazz DJ, historian and photographer Dennis Owsley will present a series of pre-concert talks before each performance in their 2009-2010 jazz series. The talks will begin at 7:10 p.m. before each 8:00 p.m. concert, and are "designed to introduce new audiences to jazz and deepen the impact of the touring artists’ appearances."

The Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series concert dates, performers and lecture topics will be:

Saturday, October 3 - Dee Dee Bridgewater - "The Triumph of Billie Holiday"
Saturday, November 7 - Nicholas Payton - "The New Orleans and St. Louis Trumpet Tradition”
Saturday, January 23 - Eliane Elias - “The Lure of Latin Jazz"
Saturday, April 10 - Cyrus Chestnut - "Jazz Piano Giants"
Saturday, May 1 - Steve Tyrell - "The Great American Songbook"

Owsley's talks are funded through a new Mid-America Arts Alliance grant to support “Community Engagement with Touring Artists” (CETA). The grant will also fund visits by Owsley to visit three towns (yet to be selected) in Missouri and Illinois to give talks on jazz to community groups.

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2009-10 season

In an article written for the Post-Dispatch by pop critic Kevin Johnson, the Sheldon Concert Hall has announced the schedule of performers for its various 2009-10 season series. As outlined in the story, the Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series looks like this:

Saturday, October 3: Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater in a tribute to Billie Holiday
Saturday, November 7: Trumpeter Nicholas Payton
Saturday, January 23, 2010: Pianist and singer Eliane Elias
Saturday, April 10: Pianist Cyrus Chestnut plays the music of Elvis Presley
Saturday, May 1: Singer Steve Tyrell

The Sheldon's Web site has a brief announcement on the front page directing current season subscribers to Metrotix for renewals, but currently has no other information about the 2009-10 season. New subscriptions to the Sheldon's 2009-10 jazz series will go on sale May 13, with single ticket sales beginning in August.

While overall this seems like a solid lineup of mainstream jazz performers, it strikes me as being, once again, a bit too familiar and risk-averse. The only one of these musicians who hasn't already played St. Louis in recent years is Elias, and none of them can be considered innovative, cutting-edge or even particularly involved in any significant current developments in jazz.

And, once again, I'd question the booking of two singers - three, if you count Elias - into a five-concert series, as it seems an excessive concession to commerical considerations. The Sheldon is a great place to hear a concert; I just wish they'd show a bit more imagination and yes, perhaps even some guts, in their season series booking policies.

Pollstar: Eliane Elias, Nicholas Payton coming to The Sheldon next season

With spring just around the corner, it's also the time of the year when local not-for-profit presenters such as Jazz St. Louis and the Sheldon Concert Hall are busy finalizing their 2009-2010 season schedules. While the official announcements likely won't come for a couple of months yet, in some cases the online tour information service Pollstar gives us a sneak peek at what may be in the pipeline.

In this case, Pollstar has just added listings for two concerts in the jazz series next year at the Sheldon: trumpeter Nicholas Payton on Saturday, November 7, 2009, and pianist and singer Eliane Elias (pictured) on Saturday, January 23, 2010.

Payton, a New Orleans native, is known as a celebrator of his hometown's musical traditions, especially the music of Louis Armstrong. He's also a very good modern jazz player, and currently is displaying those skills on tour with the Blue Note 7, who played the Sheldon just last week.

Elias is originally from Brazil, and first gained public attention in the United States as a member of the latter-day jazz fusion group Steps Ahead. Since then, she's gone on to explore a wide variety of musical interests, including interpretations of the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and other Brazilian composers, and that of pianist Bill Evans, a major influence on her playing.

As always, listings on Pollstar are subject to change, and should not be considered official until confirmed and/or announced by the venue or local presenter. That said, in nearly four years of writing StLJN, I can only remember a couple of instances when a show announced on Pollstar did not happen, and one of those was just a date change, so make of that what you will.

Both Payton and Elias seem like solid choices for the Sheldon's jazz series; here's hoping the entire series schedule is made up of equally substantive musicians. Also, both should should be familiar enough to local listeners to draw a good crowd - Payton has headlined in St. Louis before, at Jazz at the Bistro, while Elias was one of the artists included by Jazz St. Louis in their recent poll asking audience members who they'd like to see at the Bistro next year, which suggests a certain baseline of interest/awareness as well. When any official announcements are made, StLJN will have them for you right here.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on the Blue Note 7

We've super-sized this week's video post to bring you a preview of the Blue Note 7, who will be in St. Louis next Sunday, February 22 to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall under the combined auspices of Jazz St. Louis and the Sheldon.

Because the band is an all-star group assembled specifically for a tribute album and 50-city tour commemorating the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, there's no video available online of them all playing together. However, someone did make a short clip to promote the album and tour, and you can see that in the embedded video window up above.

Down below, we've got videos of the various Blue Note 7 members in action, with the exception of tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, who previously was the subject of a video post here when he brought his quartet to Jazz at the Bistro last year. You can check out that post for some samples of Coltrane's playing; below, you'll find the other members of the Blue Note 7 in this order:

* Trumpeter Nicholas Payton playing Milt Jackson's bebop standard "Bags' Groove."
* Guitarist Peter Bernstein playing a tune called "Bobblehead" at the NYC club Smoke.
* Alto saxophonist Steve Wilson doing a version of "But Not For Me," apparently with some substitute chord changes, during a show at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul, MN.
* Pianist Bill Charlap and bassist Peter Washington playing "In The Still Of The Night" in a clip recorded at the Village Vanguard. (That's Kenny Washington, no relation to Peter, on drums.)
* Drummer Lewis Nash, as part of saxophonist Joe Lovano's quartet with bassist George Mraz and the legendary pianist Hank Jones, playing Lovano's "Bird's Eye View" at the Jazz Baltica festival.

The band's repertoire for the tour includes new arrangements of music associated with a number of jazz greats who recorded for Blue Note over the years, including Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson and others. The Blue Note 7 have been on the road since the first week of January, so they should definitely have their arrangements together and be firing on all cylinders when they get to St. Louis next week.