Jazz this week: Rebirth Brass Band, Paa Kow, "Smooth Jazz Cruise on Land," festivals in Alton and Hermann, and more

The fall presenting season gets rolling this week, with a calendar of live jazz and creative music that includes three multi-artist outdoor shows, the return of a New Orleans favorite, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, September 4
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" includes cornetist TJ Muller & Friends at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session hosted by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and saxophonist Ben Reese's Unity Quartet at The Dark Room.

Thursday, September 5
Miss Jubilee performs a dinnertime show at Magpie's Cafe, saxophonist Vince Sala leads a trio at The Pat Connolly Tavern, and saxophonist Carlos Brown Jr. returns to The Dark Room.

Friday, September 6
New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band (pictured, top left) returns for an outdoor performance at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, with the Saint Boogie Brass Band opening; and Ghanaian drummer Paa Kow and his Afro-Fusion Orchestra will make their St. Louis debut at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Also on Friday, the annual St. Louis Art Fair begins in Clayton and continues through Sunday with free jazz stage performances from guitarist Tom Byrne, singer Wendy Gordon, pianist Adam Maness, the Jim Widner Big Band, and more. (See the fair's website for a complete schedule.)

Saturday, September 7
It's big day for live jazz around town, with three noteworthy multi-artist outdoor shows happening in three different parts of the metro area.

Starting west of St. Louis in Gasconade County, the Hermann Wine & Jazz Festival will feature a lineup of local and regional talent including The Bosman Twins, Bach to the Future, Jim Manley, Carolbeth True and Two Times True, and the Mo E All-Stars with Cheri Evans at the Clara Eitmann Messmer Amphitheater.

Moving east to Chesterfield, the "Smooth Jazz Cruise on Land" will include sets from multi-instrumentalist Brian Culbertson (pictured, bottom left), saxophonists Grace Kelly, Eric Darius and Tim Cunningham, and singer Erin Bode at the Chesterfield Amphitheater.

And over on the east side of the Mississippi, the Alton Jazz & Wine Fest will feature music from pianist and singer Diane Schuur plus funk/jazz quartet Good 4 The Soul and the Funky Butt Brass Band at the Riverfront Amphitheater in Alton.

Sunday, September 8
The St. Louis Record Collectors Show presents their fall event at the American Czech Center; singer and bassist Janet Evra plays for brunch at The Dark Room; and drummer Steve Davis' band with singer Feyza Eren will perform at the house-concert venue The Judson House.

Monday, September 9
Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz at The Shaved Duck, and the Webster University Jazz Faculty offers a "Riverside Records Retrospective," featuring music from Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk, and others at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the Webster campus.

Tuesday, September 10
Trumpeter Kasimu Taylor plays the music of Miles Davis in a concert at the Gasllght Theater.

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: Fall 2019 jazz preview, part two

Today, it's time for part two of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview, presenting videos of the jazz and creative music artists who will be coming here to perform for the next four months. (You can see part one here.)

The chronology of upcoming shows resumes with Paa Kow and his Afro-Fusion Orchestra, who will be in St. Louis on Friday, September 6 for a performance at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups. The group, including St. Louis' own Weedie Braimah on percussion, can be seen in the first video up above, which is an excerpt from their performance in 2018 at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival.

After the jump, you can see a video of singer Cyrille Aimee, who will perform on Wednesday, September 18 and Thursday, September 19 at Jazz St. Louis. The clip shows Aimee singing "Down" in February of this year at the studios of WBGO radio in Newark, NJ.

Next up, it's saxophonist Joshua Redman, who's bringing his quartet for shows starting Wednesday, September 25 and continuing through Sunday, September 29 at Jazz St. Louis.The video shows a full set of music from Redman, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Greg Hutchinson, and pianist Aaron Goldberg recorded in 2013 at the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival in France.

The following week, St. Louis will get a return visit from singer Cécile McLorin Salvant with pianist Aaron Diehl's trio, as they perform on Saturday, October 5 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. They can be seen in the next video, a full set recorded in 2016 at the Festival de Jazz de Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.

Today's penultimate video features Chicago-based cornetist, composer, and vocalist Ben Lamar Gay, who will open New Music Circle's 61st season with a performance on Saturday, October 5 at Off Broadway. He's seen here with his quartet performing "More" at DJ Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards ceremony this past January in London.

The final clip features members of Artemis, the all-star, all-woman ensemble who will perform Wednesday, October 9 through Sunday, October 13 at Jazz St. Louis.

Since literally all the members of the group are busy bandleaders in their own right, Artemis hasn't done much extended touring. The only live videos of them online so far seem to be some shaky footage shot at last year's Newport Jazz Festival and posted online in two-minute chunks, which don't serve the music or musicians particularly well.

Fortunately, there is some good-quality video of a gig in July 2017 at New Morning in Paris, nominally billed as "Woman To Woman," but featuring all the members of Artemis except for drummer Allison Miller, and so, it's an extended excerpt from that show that is posted here for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

Look for part three of StLJN's Fall 2019 jazz preview next week in this space. You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...