Jazz this week: Roosevelt Collier, Pharez Whitted, Liberty Jazz Band, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features noteworthy performances in a veritable smorgasbord of sub-genres, from cabaret and jazz-inflected opera to vintage swing, post-bop, "sacred steel," Latin music, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, June 19
Cabaret Project of St. Louis will present their "Singers Open Mic" this month at an alternate location, The Dark Room.

Elsewhere around town, the world premiere production of trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard's opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones continues at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, with a performance on Wednesday and four more scheduled before OTSL's season ends on Sunday, June 30.

Thursday, June 20
The Sheldon Concert Hall this week is hosting a two-day conference of Midwest talent buyers, and in conjunction with that, on Thursday night they're presenting a "Saint Louis Music Showcase" featuring pianist Peter Martin's trio, The 442s, and singer Brian Owens, which is free and open to the general public.

Also on Thursday, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra returns to Jazz St. Louis; pianist Jim Hegarty leads a trio at Evangeline's; and out in St. Charles County, guitarist Randy Bahr and saxophonist Larry Johnson will play duets at the Rendezvous Cafe & Wine Bar in O'Fallon.

Friday, June 21
Steel guitarist Roosevelt Collier (pictured, top left) performs for the first of two nights at Jazz St. Louis. After developing his "sacred steel" chops playing in church with a family band, the Florida native in recent years has become a popular touring act among secular audiences, thanks to an explosive style mashing up gospel, blues, funk and rock.

You can find out more Collier and see some videos from recent performances in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, Chicago-based trumpeter Pharez Whitted (pictured, bottom left) comes to southern Illinois for a performance with his post-bop quintet at Panorama Banquet Center in Belleville; and The Gaslight Squares will be joined by guest pianist Kris Tokarski for a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton at The Focal Point.

(Tokarski also is playing a solo show on Sunday afternoon at the Opera House of Pacific.)

Elsewhere around town, Miss Jubilee will perform in a free outdoor concert at Eckert's in Belleville, and keyboardist Mark Harris II plays the late show at The Dark Room.

Saturday, June 22
On Saturday afternoon, singer Wendy Gordon and friends will present a matinee at Hwy 67 BBQ.

Saturday also is the first of two days of "Fiesta in Florissant," a free event presented by the Hispanic Festival of St. Louis at Knights of Columbus Park, featuring live music including Chicago Latin Groove and Ritmo Tropical on Saturday and Tropical Mood on Sunday.

Elsewhere around town, bassist Glen Smith, guitarist Eric Slaughter, and singer Robert Nelson perform at Evangeline's; bassist Ben Wheeler leads a duo at The Dark Room; and Joe Park and the Hot Club of St. Louis will play a house concert at the home of singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran.

Sunday, June 23
Dizzy Atmosphere plays vintage swing and Gypsy jazz for brunch at The Dark Room, and the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the Liberty Jazz Band from Mexico, MO playing traditional jazz and swing at the Moolah Shrine Center.

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: Introducing Roosevelt Collier

This week, let's get acquainted via video with steel guitarist Roosevelt Collier, who's coming to St. Louis to perform his first headlining shows here next Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22 at Jazz St. Louis.

Collier grew up in Perrine, Florida, near Miami, and began playing music in the House of God Church in his hometown. He developed his “sacred steel” guitar chops performing with the Lee Boys, a family band made up of his uncles and cousins, and later began performing more secular gigs on his own in the early 2000s.

His debut album as a solo artist, Exit 16, was produced by Michael League, bassist and bandleader for Snarky Puppy, and was released last year. Collier also has become an in-demand performer in the jam-band world and on the summer festival circuit, performing alongside artists including the Allman Brothers Band, the String Cheese Incident, Buddy Guy, Umphrey's McGee, Los Lobos, Robert Randolph, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, and the Del McCoury Band.

Collier's music is described as a "mixture of blues, gospel, rock, and funk," and as such, it's louder and more aggressive than many of the artists who have appeared on the Bistro stage, even drawing occasional comparisons to Jimi Hendrix. You can get a pretty good idea of what his performances here may be like by checking out the first video up above, a complete show recorded live in April of this year at Ronnie Scott's in London.

After the jump, you can see the official live-in-the-studio music videos for two tracks from Exit 16, "Supernatural Encounters" and "Happy Feet," which were released in February 2018 to promote the release of the album.

Next, there are two more songs from the album, "That Could've Been Bad" and the title track, as recorded in May 2018 at Paste Studios in New York City.

The final video is another complete set, captured in February of this year at a venue called the Public House in Crested Butte, Colorado.

For more about Roosevelt Collier, read his Q&A with DC Music Review from 2018 and his 2016 interview with Live Music Daily.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...