Jazz this week: Norman Brown & Richard Elliot, Denise Thimes, Monterey County All-Star Band, and more

It's jazz festival season in many parts of the US and Europe, so touring jazz groups are bit thin on the ground this time of year in non-festival cities like St. Louis. Still, with many local summer free concert series underway and local musicians at the usual venues, there's a pretty decent variety of live jazz happening around town over the next few days. Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy upcoming events:

On Thursday, the Funky Butt Brass Band will play a free outdoor concert at Strauss Park in Grand Center as part of radio station KDHX's "Music and Movies" series. The film for the evening is, fittingly, The Music Man, though as far as I know, the FBBB has no plans to add 75 additional trombones for the occasion. (And for those who may not know, Strauss Park is the small, triangle shaped park at Washington at Grand, across the street from the Fox Theatre and right outside the front door of the Bistro at Grand Center. )

On Friday and Saturday, singer Denise Thimes returns to Jazz at the Bistro. A popular performer locally who's also developing something of a national reputation thanks to appearances with Clark Terry and other name-brand jazz performers, Thimes usually seems to draw well at the Bistro, so if you plan to go, advance reservations would be a good idea.

Also on Friday, guitarist Farshid Soltanshahi's salsa music group Café Danza will play a free concert at the St. Louis Art Museum as part of SLAM's "Art After 5" series; saxophonist Jim Stevens is doing a free outdoor performance for Ferguson Citywalk in downtown Ferguson; and drummer Marty Spikener and the On Call Band will play at Robbie's House of Jazz.

Moving a bit further from the Arch that same evening, saxophonist Dave Cheli's group Tribal Chicken, with guest Fred Tompkins on flute, will play the St. Charles Coffeehouse; and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio with drummer Marty Morrison and bassist Nick Jost will return to the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

Saturday brings the week's touring headliner, a double-bill of guitarist and singer Norman Brown and saxophonist Richard Elliot (pictured) at The Pageant. You can read my Riverfront Times Critic's Pick on that show here, and see some videos of Elliot in performance in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Saturday, the Gateway City Big Band will play a free, early evening outdoor concert at Kirkwood Park, 111 S. Geyer Rd; and singer Tony Viviano and his band are presenting a dinner-and-a-show package called "Sophisticated Lady" at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Sunday, many local musicians and music fans no doubt will be in attendance at the funeral services for the late singer Mae "Lady Jazz" Wheeler that will be held that afternoon.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday you can check out some of the proverbial "stars of tomorrow" as the Monterey County All-Star Band and Vocal Honor Ensemble, a student band associated with the Monterey Jazz Festival in California, brings their summer tour to Jazz at the Bistro. Also on Monday, bassist David Certain's CertainBeat WorldBop will be back at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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: Four from Richard Elliot

Whether headlining his own show, playing with the Jazz Attack package tour, teamed with trumpeter Rick Braun in the group RnR, or in some other configuration, it seems like saxophonist Richard Elliot has turned up in St. Louis every summer in recent years for a gig of some sort. This time around, he'll be sharing a bill with guitarist and singer Norman Brown on Saturday, June 25 at The Pageant.

To mark the occasion, today we've got four clips of Elliot performing some favorite tunes in his groove-oriented, R&B-flavored style. The first clip up above shows the saxophonist and his band covering Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" at a gig last August in San Antonio. Down below, the second clip has a version of "Who" from the same gig.

The third clip shows Elliot playing the title track of his 2009 CD Rock Steady, a tune made famous, of course, by Aretha Franklin. And just for fun, the fourth clip goes back to the early 1990s, showing Elliot performing the song "Stiletto Heels" on the German TV show Ohne Filter. As this clip demonstrates, Elliot's basic approach to music hasn't changed all that much over the years, but I for one am glad he's not still sporting that mullet or the purple suit...

Norman Brown, Richard Elliot to play Saturday, June 25 at The Pageant

Guitarist Norman Brown (pictured) and saxophonist Richard Elliot are coming to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 25 at The Pageant.

Elliot was here most recently last July to perform at The Pageant on a bill with trumpeter Rick Braun. Brown hasn't been to St. Louis since 2006, when he played a holiday-themed show at the same venue with singer Will Downing and saxophonist Gerald Albright. Along with the Candy Dulfer show announced last week, their concert this year would seem be a continuation of The Pageant's recent practice of booking several smooth jazz shows during the summer months.

Tickets for the Norman Brown/Richard Elliot concert at The Pageant are $40 and $50, and will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Friday, April 1 via Ticketmaster and The Pageant box office.

Jazz this week: Kevin Eubanks, Keyon Harrold, RnR with Rick Braun & Richard Elliot, and more

This week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis is atypically busy for this time of year, but rather than complain about a surfeit of potential choices, let's go to the highlights:

On Thursday, guitarist Kevin Eubanks, back on the road playing jazz again after wrapping up a long stint as bandleader on NBC's Tonight Show, performs at the Casino Queen.

Also on Thursday, guitarist Chris Burchett does a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and Robbie's House of Jazz presents the JW Trio, with bassist Nick Jost, drummer Joe Winstein-Hibbs and vibraphonist Ben Portner.

On Friday, trumpeter and St. Louis native Keyon Harrold (pictured) returns home from NYC with his quintet to begin a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro, ostensibly in celebration of the release of his CD Introducing Keyon Harrold, which came out in the fall of last year on the Criss Cross label. Harrold is considered a rising star among jazz trumpeters, and also has gotten some high-profile sideman gigs with various R&B and hip-hop performers. For more about him and some video performances, see this post from a couple of weeks ago.

(Jazz St. Louis is offering a two-for-the-price-of-one discount on tickets for Harrold's sets on both Friday and Saturday. It's available by calling the Jazz St. Louis office at 314-289-4030, or at the door. To get the discount, use promotion code KHJUL10.)

Also on Friday, The Pageant begins a late-summer series of smooth jazz shows with RnR, featuring trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot. To see video of them laying down some of their popular funk-flavored sounds, check out this post.

That same evening, guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio will be at Robbie's; and the blues documentary film M for Mississippi, a co-production of the St. Louis based Broke & Hungry Records, finally gets an official local premiere nearly two years after its release with a screening at the south side rock club Off Broadway.

On Saturday afternoon, singer Erika Johnson will conclude up the Nu-Art Series' summer set of concerts featuring local jazz vocalists, performing the music of Anita O'Day in a matinee concert at the Metropolitan Gallery downtown.

Then on Saturday evening, singer Anita Rosamond plays a free concert in Lafayette Park; the 2010 St. Louis Tap Festival wraps up with the annual "All That Tap" extravaganza at the Touhill Performing Arts Center; and the Tim Aubuchon Quartet plays at Robbie's House of Jazz. Aubuchon is a tenor saxophonist and an assistant professor of music at Truman State University in Kirksville, and he'll be backed pianist Ken Kehner, drummer Brian Steever and bassist Kevin Hennessey.

For more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, 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: RnR with Rick Braun and Richard Elliot

This week, let's check out a sampling of clips featuring trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot, who are coming to St. Louis on Friday, July 30 to perform at the Pageant.

Braun and Elliot are longtime friends and collaborators who had enjoyed successful solo careers before teaming up in 2007 under the handle RnR (sometimes written as "RNR" or even "R 'n R"). However you spell it, the duo's funk grooves have proved popular enough with smooth jazz fans to keep Braun and Elliot working together frequently ever since then.

Today, we've got four recent clips of them in performance, starting up top with the song "Q It Up" from a show in February at Pizza Express jazz club in London. The band members are keyboardist Oli Silk, guitarist Mark Jaimes, drummer Marc Parnell and bassist Frank Felix. Down below, there's a version of "Down and Dirty" from the same Pizza Express gig.

Batting third is a mostly Elliot-centric version of the Stylistics' oft-covered "People Make the World Go Round," taped on a cruise ship this past January. (Note the sign for the ship's whirlpool directly in front of Elliot!) The saxophonist first recorded the tune for his 2005 solo CD Metro Blue, which was co-produced by Braun. The rhythm section for this performance includes Rayford Griffin (drums), Nate Phillips (bass), Ron Reinhardt (keyboards) and Dwight Sills (guitar).

In the fourth slot is a version of "Curveball" recorded by an audience member at a concert at the Lyman Center in New Haven, CT. (The handheld video looks a bit shaky, and the camera's angle doesn't reveal all that much, but the audio quality on this one is surprisingly good.)

The Pageant announces three summer smooth jazz concerts

The Pageant today announced a series of three smooth jazz shows this summer, including the Guitars and Saxes show first mentioned here on StLJN last month and now officially scheduled for Friday, August 13.

The 2010 Guitars and Saxes tour features Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, Peter White and Jeff Golub. The Pageant's summer smooth jazz series also will present trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot reprising their "R&R" collaboration on Friday, July 30; and a double bill of saxophonists Euge Groove and former East St. Louisan Andre Delano (pictured) on Friday, August 20. All three concerts will be hosted by radio personality Rick Sanborn.

Ticket prices are $35 - $50 for each show, with three- and two-show packages available. Tickets will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Friday, May 14 via Ticketmaster and the Pageant box office.

Jazz this week: Jazz Attack, Greg Osby with Willie Akins, Wee Trio, Gutbucket, NIU Jazz Ensemble with Benny Golson, and more

It's the beginning of a couple of busy weeks for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with plenty of competition for the time, attention and dollars of music fans from a number of touring musicians as well as local acts. In particular, this weekend's lineup features several stellar saxophonists playing in a variety of musical contexts, from smooth jazz and R&B to post-bop to big band. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the 2009 edition of the popular Jazz Attack smooth jazz tour, featuring saxophonist Richard Elliot, trumpeter Rick Braun and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler, stops at the Ameristar Casino St. Charles' Bottleneck Blues Bar.

Also this evening, The Wee Trio, a Brooklyn, NY-based group that features St. Louis expat Dan Loomis on bass and has drawn comparisons to The Bad Plus and Medeski, Martin and Wood, will do a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and the St. Louis Jazz Cafe features smooth jazz saxophonist Readus Miller .

In addition, saxophonist and St. Louis native Greg Osby (pictured), who's in town this week for an educational residency and performances for Jazz St. Louis, and JSL education director Phil Dunlap will present "Understanding The Blues," another class in JSL's "Jazz 101" series, at Jazz at the Bistro.

On Friday, Osby's "St. Louis Shoes," a multi-generational project featuring Osby, his band, special guest saxophonist Willie Akins, and student saxophonists recruited from local schools, opens a two-night run at the Bistro. Also on Friday, the NYC-based "punk/jazz" band Gutbucket plays at the Mad Art Gallery, and the St. Louis Jazz Cafe features Trio Tres Bien.

Then on Saturday night, Osby continues at the Bistro; the multi-woodwind playing Bosman Twins will perform at the Jazz Cafe; and singer Kim Massie will be at Brandt's.

Moving on to Sunday afternoon, the Northern Illinois University Jazz Ensemble, directed by saxophonist Ronald Carter and featuring as special guest the legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, will perform in a benefit show at the Sheldon Concert Hall

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday the Jazz St. Louis CD Listening Club will have its April meeting, this month featuring singer Jeanne Trevor and JSL executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford in a discussion of the recording The Audience With Betty Carter. Later that evening, the "West Coast" jazz-inspired band Utter Chaos plays at The Gramophone.

As usual, these are just some of the noteworthy shows happening around St. Louis this week, so to see more jazz-related events in St. Louis this weekend and beyond, please visit 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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Richard Elliot plays "Move On Up" and "When A Man Loves A Woman"

This week, our video showcase features a couple of clips from saxophonist Richard Elliot, who's coming to the St. Louis area with the Jazz Attack show on Thursday, April 9 to perform at the Ameristar Casino St. Charles' Bottleneck Blues Bar.

The 2009 Jazz Attack tour features Elliot, his frequent collaborator Rick Braun on trumpet, and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler, and odds are that the saxophonist will be working in a number or two from his new CD Rock Steady, which was recorded with Elliot's touring band plus guest stars Braun, Gerald Albright, Philippe Saisse and Jeff Lorber.

Rock Steady is basically a program of soul- and funk-styled material, including covers of tunes associated with Aretha Franklin (the title track) and Curtis Mayfield. That's Mayfield's song "Move on Up," originally recorded by the Impressions, that Elliot is doing in the first video window up at the top of this post. This brand-new clip is the only Rock Steady-related video released so far, but in the interest of a well-rounded post, down below we've added a 2006 live version of Elliot laying into another soul classic, the Percy Sledge hit "When A Man Loves A Woman."

Jazz Attack tickets now on sale

The Pollstar item cited here last month can now be considered officially confirmed, as tickets are now on sale for the Jazz Attack show scheduled for Thursday, April 9 at the Ameristar Casino St. Charles' Bottleneck Blues Bar.

Tickets for the show, which will feature trumpeter Rick Braun, saxophonist Richard Elliot and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler, are priced at $45 and $50 and are available at the casino box office, online at Ameristar.com or Tickets.com or via phone by calling 1-877-444-2637.

Pollstar: Jazz Attack to hit Ameristar's Bottleneck Blues Bar on Thursday, April 9

The online tour information Pollstar has added a listing indicating that the "Jazz Attack" smooth jazz package tour, headlined this year by saxophonist Richard Elliot, trumpeter Rick Braun, and singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler (pictured), will come to the St. Louis metro area for a concert on Thursday, April 9 at the Ameristar Casino St. Charles' Bottleneck Blues Bar.

Braun and Elliot were in St. Louis last summer on their "R&R" tour to perform at The Pageant, which also has hosted previous editions of the Jazz Attack show. This would be the first jazz show of 2009 for the Bottleneck Blues Bar, which brought in saxophonist Boney James last year.

There's no mention of the concert yet on the casino's Web site, so, as with all Pollstar listings, this should be considered tentative until it is officially confirmed by the venue. However, the show is showing up on the itinerary pages of both Braun and Elliot's individual sites, along with a gig the next night at Ameristar's Kansas City casino, so it seems likely to happen.

Jazz this week: Rick Braun and Richard Elliot, All That Tap XVII, Good 4 The Soul, and more

Though things are starting to slow a bit as July winds down and we head toward the dog days of August, there are still a few noteworthy shows of interest to jazz fans in St. Louis this week. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, the Poor People of Paris, led by saxophonist/vocalist Elsie Parker, bring their blend of French cabaret, pop and jazz to Missouri Botanical Garden for a free concert as part of the Whitaker Music Festival

On Thursday, the very busy drummer:Miles Vandiver gets a chance to lead his own group in a free concert as part of Washington University's Jazz at Holmes series. Vandiver will be joined by Nick Jost on bass, Peter Schlamb on vibes and Jason Schwagler on saxophones. Also on Thursday, Jazz St. Louis' Bob Bennett, who plays tenor sax in addition to serving as JSL's operations director, will team up with Good 4 The Soul for a free concert at St. Louis Place Park as part of the Whiatker Urban Evenings series.

On Friday, Rick Sanborn's Smooth Summer Party series at The Pageant continues with a show by R 'n R, featuring trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot (pictured). (You can read more about Braun and Elliot in a preview story on the show written by Terry Perkings for the Post-Dispatch, available online here.)

Also on Friday, Wild, Cool and Swingin' performs at Cookie's Jazz and More, and Good 4 The Soul starts a two-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro to wrap up that venue's summer season. The Bistro will go dark until Friday, September 5, when the Craig Russo Latin Jazz Project kicks off the club's 2008-09 season.

On Saturday, the 2008 St. Louis Tap Festival concludes with the concert presentation All That Tap XVII at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The event will feature more than a dozen pro tap dancers with experience in TV, movies and/or Broadway performing with musical accompaniment by the Carolbeth True Trio. The Post's Calvin Wilson interviewed festival director Robert L. Reed for a feature story that you can read right here.

Also on Saturday, singer Anita Rosamond is performing a concert at the Black Cat Theatre in Maplewood to celebrate the release of her latest CD. She talked with the Post's Kevin Johnson about the CD and the show for an article that's available online here.

For more St. Louis jazz-related events this weekend and beyond, please visit 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.)

(Updated 7/23/08 to add two more events and links to three Post-Dispatch stories.)

Notes from the Net: More on Miles From India, an appreciation of Oliver Nelson, plus reviews, interviews and more

It's now officially summer time, and the linkin' is easy...to yet another collection of news bits about jazz musicians with a St. Louis connection, recent visitors and coming attractions, pus assorted other items of interest:

* First up, some links related to the Miles Davis-inspired project Miles From India, starting with another review of the two-CD set, written by ContemporaryJazz.com's John Luciano. The CDs have also spawned a limited series of concerts, including one in Los Angeles, reviewed here, and one in San Francisco that inspired an article about how the jazz now is incorporating musical influences from all over the world, Last but not least, AllAboutJazz.com has an interview about the project with former Davis sideman, guitarist Pete Cosey (pictured).

* The film blog Cinema Styles recently had a nice appreciation of saxophonist and St. Louis native Oliver Nelson's film and TV scoring, with an accompanying .mp3 of his composition "A Typical Day in New York."

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake is featured in Breakin' Glass, a new book in the Photonality Jazz Series

* Saxophonist and composer John Zorn recently designed a sound installation/experiment for a San Francisco museum.

* Composer, sound artist and St. Louis native Ben Manley is taking part in NYC performance space Roulette's annual Mixology Festival, which focuses on new and unusual uses of technology in music.

* Here's a review of No Strangers Here, bassist Ben Wolfe's new CD from the St. Louis-based MAXJAZZ label, and a review of Wolfe's recent gig at NYC's Jazz Standard.

* Check out these two interviews with saxophonist John Ellis, who guests on the new Erin Bode CD The Little Garden - one in print from AllAboutJazz.com, the other on radio with blogger and DJ LeRoy "The Jazzcat" Downs.

* The Return to Forever reunion tour, which came through St. Louis last week for a date at the Fox Theatre, is getting lots of press, starting with news that group's two-CD Anthology has been released; the collection gets an AllAboutJazz.com "extended analysis" here. Also, check out reviews of the band's shows in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles, and this interview with drummer Lenny White in Drum Magazine

* Since playing at Jazz at the Bistro last October, bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding's star has contined to rise. She recently was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered, and the New York Times has reviewed her new CD.

* Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, who's performed in St. Louis at both the Bistro and the Sheldon Concert Hall , has released a new CD devoted to the songs of Richard Rodgers

* Singer Paula West will perform at the Sheldon next season; here's a review of her recent gig in Charleston, SC.

* Trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot have been added to the lineup of this fall's Dave Koz Cruise, produced by St. Louis-based Jazz Cruises LLC. Braun, Elliot and Koz all will perform at The Pageant this summer.

* Pianist Les McCann and saxophonist Javon Jackson, who will team up for a four-night stand at Jazz at the Bistro in October, were a last-minute replacement for pianist McCoy Tyner at the jazz festival earlier this month in Telluride, CO.

* The National Endowment for the Arts has announced its 2009 Jazz Masters honorees, including guitarist and singer George Benson, drummer Jimmy Cobb, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, guitarist and harmonica player Toots Thielemans and trumpeter Snooky Young. Recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder will receive the 2009 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy.

* Last but not least, composer and blogger Darcy James Argue recently had a couple of insightful and amusing posts about the phenomenon of "fan service," which he defines as "a marker or signifier that serves no legitimate aesthetic purpose, but is there to stroke those in the in-crowd while simultaneously alienating even the most sophisticated and open-minded newbies."

StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Jeff Lorber's "He Had A Hat" plus Rick Braun & Richard Elliot's "Notorious"

This week's videos feature some of the musicians who will be coming this summer to The Pageant in St. Louis as part of smooth jazz DJ/impresario Rick Sanborn's "Smooth Summer Party" series.

Up top, it's keyboardist Jeff Lorber, who will be here on Sunday, June 22 as part of the "Guitars and Saxes" show, playing his composition "He Had His Hat". The clip is from a performance in April 2007 at a resort in Arizona, and that's bass player Brian Bromberg with Lorber.

Down below, it's trumpeter Rick Braun, aided and abetted by saxophonist Richard Elliot, doing a version of Braun's tune "Notorious" in June 2007 at a festival in Southfield, MI. Longtime musical associates, Braun and Elliot have recorded and now are touring together under the name R&R, and they'll be playing The Pageant on Friday, July 25.

Smooth jazz returning to the Pageant this summer

The Pageant has announced the scheduling of three smooth jazz concerts for summer 2008. Presented under the auspices of radio personality Rick Sanborn's "Smooth Summer Party," the concerts will feature the 2008 edition of Guitars and Saxes, with guitarists Peter White and Jeff Golub, saxophonist Gerald Albright (pictured) and keyboard player Jeff Lorber, on Sunday, June 22; R&R, with saxophonist Richard Eliot and trumpeter Rick Braun, on Friday, July 25; and saxophonist Dave Koz on Friday, August 8.

Tickets for each show are $35 and $40, with a $5 per ticket discount if you buy seats for all three concerts. Tix will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. this Friday, May 2, via Ticketmaster and the Pageant box office.

Notes from the Net: Reviews of Roy Haynes & Elliot/Braun; free Wynton Marsalis MP3s; and more

Not much on the Interwebs this week about St. Louis' native jazz musicians, but there are a few items of interest pertaining tosome musicians who have performed here recently, or will soon:

* Saxophonist Kirk Whalum, whose performed in St. Louis at the Pageant last month as part of the Guitars and Saxes show (and who's also been known to sit in with his uncle Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum at Brandt's), has a new "best of" disc coming out.

* Trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Richard Elliot, just here at the Pageant as part of the Jazz Attack show, have released a new CD together, reviewed here.

* Drummer Roy Haynes (pictured), due in town to perform at Jazz at the Bistro in September, last week played Dizzy's Club Cola, the jazz club at Lincoln Center. Read the NY Times review here.

* Wynton Marsalis, who's coming to St. Louis to play the Sheldon in February, has a Web-only album available as a free download; go here for more info and links to the individual tracks from Here and Now.

* And lastly, pianist and singer Diana Krall continues to do lots of press for her current tour. This week's entries include interviews with the Detroit Free Press and Wichita Eagle. Krall also wound up on the receiving end of some snark from the Toronto Globe and Mail about her taste in Canadian wine, as recently revealed in tour riders published online by The Smoking Gun.com

Guitars and Saxes, Jazz Attack set for summer dates at the Pageant

The Pageant has just announced return dates this summer for two smooth jazz package shows.

On Sunday, June 24, the popular "Guitars and Saxes" show comes back to the venue with a lineup featuring saxophonists Gerald Albright and Kirk Whalum (pictured), guitarist Jeff Golub and guitarist/vocalist Tim Bowman. Then on Friday, July 20, it's another "Jazz Attack," with trumpeter Rick Braun, singer/guitarist Jonathan Butler, saxophonist Richard Elliot and guitarist Peter White.

Both concerts are being presented by smooth jazz radio personality and impresario Rick Sanborn under the "Smooth Summer Party" banner, and as with past events he's promoted, there are special prices for ticket buyers who want to attend both shows: $80 for reserved VIP seating, or $60 for reserved main floor/balcony seats.

Single tickets for either show individually will be $35 each for reserved main floor/balcony seating and $45 each for reserved VIP seating. Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. this Friday, April 6 via The Pageant box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets.

(Edited after posting to add a tag.)