Jazz this week: Funky Butt Brass Band, Nathaniel Bartlett, West End Stomp, St. Louis Guitar Fusion, and more

The first part of the New Year traditionally is a bit a slow for the live music business, but if you're willing to brave the cold and snow, there still are some noteworthy jazz and creative music performances happening around St. Louis in the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, trumpeter Jim Manley will be back for his ongoing Thursday evening gig at Joyia Tapas, 4501 Manchester Ave in the Grove neighborhood.

Tomorrow night, the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights of what's being billed as a New Orleans-style New Year's Celebration. While the overall production may not be quite as elaborate as the FBBB's recent Holiday Brasstravaganza, no doubt they will have a least a few trickerations up their sleeves to entertain the assembled multitudes. 

Also on Friday, percussionist and composer Nathaniel Bartlett (pictured) will be in town to perform at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center. Bartlett will perform trichotomic ecology, a composition for 5 octave marimba, viola, and percussion that uses a custom eight-channel speaker array he calls the "SSAL loudspeaker cube," which surrounds the audience and creates "an elaborate, kinetic, three-dimensional sound environment."

The piece also employs software that not only responds to the composer via foot pedal commands but also ‘listens’ via microphones to the performers and generates notation on a video screen based on composer-created computer algorithms.

Elsewhere around town on Friday, Lindy Hop St. Louis' monthly "West End Stomp" dance will feature music from Wack-A-Doo at the Mahler Ballroom; saxophonist Willie Akins leads a quartet at Cigar Inn; Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes make their debut at Backstreet Jazz and Blues club in Westport; and Wendy Gordon returns to DeLeo's Cafe & Deli.

Then on Saturday night, Robbie's House of Jazz has a double bill, with an early evening show by saxophonist Jay Hutson and Da Wolvez with singer Tamesha Foote, followed by a late set by the Robert Tucker Quartet. Also on Saturday, bassist Bob DeBoo's weekly trio performance at Kranzberg Arts Center has been held over into the new year.

On Sunday, the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show will hold their first event of the year at the American Czech Hall, 4690 Lansdowne at Kingshighway.

UPDATE - 5:30 p.m., 1/3/13: Organizers of the St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show posted on Facebook that Sunday's show is canceled due to the expected bad weather. The next show will be held on Sunday, March 2 

That evening, guitarists Dave Black, Randy Bahr and Farshid Soltanshahi (from Farshid Etniko) will team up for their first-ever concert together, billed as "St. Louis Guitar Fusion," at The Chapel.

UPDATE - 9:30 a.m., 1/3/13: Dave Black has posted on Facebook that Sunday's concert is postponed, due to winter weather.

And if for some reason that's not enough guitar for you, there's more on Monday, as guitarist Tom Byrne will be back at 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.)

Larry Johnson to celebrate release of I'm Just Sayin' on Friday, December 28 at The Sheldon

Saxophonist Larry Johnson will celebrate the release of his new CD I'm Just Sayin' with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 28 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

I'm Just Sayin' is Johnson's second album as a leader for the Victoria Records label, and features a lineup of musicians who likely will be familiar to many St. Louis jazz fans. Most of those players will be on hand for the concert at the Sheldon, including pianist Carolbeth True, trumpeter Jim Manley, trombonist/keyboardist Jim Owens, bassists Glen Smith and Marc Torlina, drummers David True and Joe Weber, guitarist Randy Bahr, percussionist Scott Collier, singer Christi Jon Bye, and the Rosewood String Quartet.

With arrangements by Johnson, Owens, Smith, Carolbeth True, and Mark Maher, the album (pictured) includes two of the saxophonist's original compositions - the title track and "Blues for CJ" - amid a mix of material from other writers.

The influential pianists McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock are represented as composers by "Passion Dance" and "Stitched Up," respectively, along with versions of well-known standards including Dizzy Gillespie's "Tin Tin Deo," Miles Davis' "All Blues," the ballads "I Want to Talk About You" and "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," and the jam session perennial "Cherokee."

Johnson rounds out the set with three covers of contemporary rock/pop tunes: The Police's "Roxanne", Sara Bareilles' "Many The Miles," and Jack Johnson's "Staple It Together."

General admission for Larry Johnson's CD release concert at the Sheldon will be $10 for adults, $7 for children, cash or check only at the door. Copies of I'm Just Sayin' will be on sale at the concert for $15, and available online via CD Baby starting in mid-January.

Black, Bahr to play Art Museum's "Fridays After Five" series

Guitarists Dave Black and Randy Bahr are among the musicians scheduled to play the St. Louis Art Museum's free "Fridays After Five" music series, which takes place on the museum's Sculpture Terrace from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays during the spring and summer.

Black will perform on Friday, May 18, while Bahr will play on Friday, June 1. Since only the first few dates in the series have been announced, it's possible that other jazz artists may be included as well; for updates, see the Museum's events page.

In addition, the museum's Art After Five music series will continue inside in the Griggs Gallery space for at least a couple more months, celebrating the Arfrican Arts Festival with Kunama Mtendaji and his group Afi Ama on Friday, May 25 and hosting the Cafe Accordian Orchestra, which plays French music from the mid-20th century, on Friday, June 25.