The fall season of presenting jazz and creative music in St. Louis gathers some momentum this week, as Jazz at the Bistro and Webster University open their 2011-12 seasons. Let's go to the highlights:Tonight, saxophonist and East St. Louis native Andre Delano will perform with Good 4 The Soul at the Sheldon Concert Hall as part of the "Notes From Home" series. Another East St. Louisan, saxophonist Corey Allen, will open the show.
On Thursday, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University moves back indoors to its usual location in Ridgley Hall's Holmes Lounge for a free concert by trombonist Tom Hanson's octet, playing what's being billed as "West Coast jazz". Also on Thursday, guitarist and expat St. Louisan Daryl Darden, back home for a couple of weeks, teams up with keyboardist Curt Landes for a performance at the semi-private club Joe's Cafe.
On Friday and Saturday, the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured) will open the 2011-12 presenting season at Jazz at the Bistro. Word is that each night they'll be performing some New Orleans favorites during the first set, and a mix of material, including songs from their new CD, in the second. Note also that the Bistro's new set times of 7:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. are now in effect, for this weekend and for all shows going forward.
It's also the weekend for the annual St. Louis Art Fair, which usually features a few performers of interest as part of its lineup of live entertainment. This year, Jazz St. Louis executive director Gene Dobbs Bradford will be playing with his blues band at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and on Saturday, the event will include sets from Swing DeVille (11:00 a.m.), the Sheldon Jazz Quintet with Rick Haydon and Carolbeth True (3:30 p.m.), and the East St. Louis High School Jazz Band (6:30 p.m).
(The Art Fair and its producing organization Cultural Festivals, Inc are having some problems with their website at present - talk about bad timing! - but you can see the program book for the entire festival, which includes schedules for all the entertainment stages, in .pdf form here. )
Also on Friday, singer Ron Wilkinson will be at Robbie's House of Jazz; saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald plays the Halls Ferry Inn Jazz Cafe; singer Ellen Martinez and pianist Bob Werner play at Jazz on Broadway in Alton; and pianist Tim Garcia's trio with Jim Cady (bass) and Dave Sweet (drums) will perform at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.
Also on Saturday, saxophonist Christopher McBride will play at Robbie's, and saxophonist Rod Tate will perform at the Halls Ferry Inn Jazz Cafe.
On Sunday, it's the fall edition of the quarterly St. Louis Record Collector and CD Show at the American Czech Center on the south side, and then early that evening, the Miles Davis Festival will present the group "Miles To Go" with special guest stars Willie Akins, Adaron "Pop" Jackson and Anthony Wiggins at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.
Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday night the Webster University jazz faculty will open their annual concert series with a program called "It Was A Very Good Year: Great Jazz Recordings of 1961" at Winifred Moore Auditorium. Details on the setlist are scarce, but given the number of outstanding jazz recordings that came out that year, they've got plenty of good material from which to choose. Also on Monday, the Sessions Big Band returns to BB's.
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.)
