Jazz this week: Michael Buble, tributes to Oliver Nelson and Thelonious Monk, and more

After a very busy few days of live music in St. Louis last weekend, things are a little slower this week. But if you've checked out parts one and two of StLJN's fall 2013 jazz preview, you know that it's just the calm before the storm, as the last ten days of this month and the first week of October will be filled with touring musicians visiting our town.

And of course, "calm" is a relative term, for as you'll see if you read on, there's still plenty of live jazz and creative music happening right now that is worthy of your attention. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, trumpeter Randy Holmes and his quintet will pay tribute to composer, saxophonist and St. Louis native Oliver Nelson by playing a free concert of his music to kick off this semester's Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Nelson (pictured), who died in 1975 at the age of just 43, was a prolific composer who these days is best known for writing the standard "Stolen Moments" and for Blues and the Abstract Truth, the classic album that introduced it.

But he also has considerable historical importance in American popular culture, because, along with Quincy Jones, he was one of the first African-American composers to get steady work writing for film and television beginning in the 1960s. Nelson's themes for shows like "Ironside" and "The Six Million Dollar Man" put his music into millions of homes - many of which may not have contained a single jazz album - and had he not died so young, there's no telling what else he might have accomplished. At a time when tribute shows proliferate to the point of oversaturation, Nelson is both truly deserving and too often overlooked.

Also tonight, trumpeter Jim Manley plays at Joyia Tapas, 4501 Manchester Ave in the Grove district, and singer Joe Mancuso returns after a one-week break to Cafe Eau at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

Tomorrow night, guitarist Tom Byrne brings his Pat Metheny inspired band Have U Heard to Jazz on Broadway; drummer Montez Coleman plays at Cigar Inn; singer Wendy Gordon performs at DeLeo's Deli & Cafe, 2782 N Lindbergh; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham will be downtown at The Precinct, the restaurant and bar formerly known as Jim Edmonds 15 Steakhouse at 1900 Locust St..

On Saturday afternoon, St. Vincent Greenway, Inc., the City of St. Louis, and Great Rivers Greenway will present "Jazz on the Greenway," a free event that will include live music from Uncensored Band plus a plethora of outdoor and family activities, all taking place at Ruth Porter Park and St. Vincent Greenway in the CWE at Delmar and DeBaliviere.

That evening, singer Michael Buble performs at the Scottrade Center. While his most recent album To Be Loved may reflect more of a pop/rock sensibility than some previous outings, it seems likely that some of the Sinatra-inspired arrangements that previously have been staples for the Canadian crooner will make it into this show as well.

Also on Saturday night, singer Tony Viviano is at Fortel's in Creve Coeur; Miss Jubilee performs at the Schlafly Bottleworks; guitarist Eric Slaughter plays at Robbie's House of Jazz; and guitarist Brian Vaccaro and his trio will working it like real-life cavemen at Crystal City Underground, the subterranean entertainment venue located in a former mine.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the group Four in One: The Thelonious Monk Project, which includes guitarist Steve Schenkel, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, drummer Alan Schilling and bassist Ric Vice,  will play a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium; and trumpeter Keith Moyer brings his group back to BB's Jazz, Blues & 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.)

Michael Buble to perform Saturday, September 14 at Scottrade Center

Singer Michael Buble is returning to St. Louis to perform at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, September 14 at the Scottrade Center.

The retro-style crooner will be touring in support of his new album To Be Loved, which was released in April. His last show in St. Louis was in June 2010 at the Scottrade Center.

Tickets for Michael Buble (pictured) are priced from $54.50 to $110, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. next Friday, May 17 via Ticketmaster.

Jazz this week: Michael Buble, Kim Massie, Brave Combo, and more

St. Louis may be without a major jazz festival this June, but fortunately there's enough other activity this weekend that many fans of jazz and creative music can probably find something to their liking.

It looks like the busiest night of the next few is Friday; that's when singer Michael Buble (pictured), who's arguably a jazz-influenced pop singer rather than a jazz singer per se, brings his current tour to the Scottrade Center, and singer Kim Massie opens a two-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro

That same evening, pianist Carolbeth True performs at the Foundry Arts Centre in St Charles, and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be at the St. Louis Art Museum for a free "Art After 5" concert. (You can see some video of the FBBB in action here.)

Also of interest on Friday is the return to St. Louis of perennial favorites Brave Combo, who will be playing at The Gramophone. While they're not really a jazz group either, the band's eclectic mix of "salsa, meringue, rock, cumbia, conjunto, polka, zydeco, classical, cha cha, the blues and more" usually makes for interesting listening as well as providing fun, danceable beats.

Elsewhere this weekend Robbie's House of Jazz will feature house band the Robert Edwards Ensemble on Friday, with the Christopher Braig Caribbean Trio taking the stage on Saturday.

Also on Saturday: the Presenters Dolan will feature singer Christy Simmons performing her cabaret show "'Cause I'm A Woman" at the Kranzberg Arts Center, backed by pianist Joe Dreyer, bassist Dave Troncoso and drummer Clancy Newell; and, for the more cacophonously inclined, Open Lot offers "an invasion of synths, violins, and incredible noise from the north" with Stare Case, Dog Lady, Steve Kenney and Maths Balance Volumes.

BB's Jazz Blues and Soups also has a couple of jazz-related acts coming up, with Good 4 The Soul playing the early set on Sunday, and bassist David Certain's CertainBeat WorldBop, featuring saxophonists James Warfield Jr. and Willie Dineen and drummer Stan Hale, on Monday.

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 Michael Buble

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring singer Michael Buble, who will be in St. Louis next Friday, June 25 to perform at the Scottrade Center. Undeniably influenced by Frank Sinatra and, to a lesser extent, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin and other tuxedo-clad crooners of the 1950s and 1960s, Buble doesn't really fit the textbook definition of a jazz singer, primarily because he rarely seems to improvise. Think of him more as a pop vocalist who incorporates some jazz elements in his arrangements, often hires jazz players, and mines some of the same standard repertoire.

For example, check the version of "Come Fly With Me" up top. It's a big band swing-style arrangement, reminiscent of Sinatra's version but taken at an even quicker tempo. In the first clip down below, Buble sings "The Way You Look Tonight" with a small combo in a bossa nova style, letting the guitarist take a short, tasteful solo midway through.

The third clip shows Buble tackling "Feeling Good," originally a Broadway song (from the 1960s musical Stop The World, I Want To Get Off) that was famously transformed by Nina Simone into a show-stopper of a different sort. Although Buble's performance here is more dramatic than in either of the first two clips, he wisely stops short of Simone's level of bombastic divatude. Finally, in the fourth clip you can hear Buble dueting with his piano player on the Willie Nelson composition "Always On My Mind," which gets a straight ballad treatment.

Buble's vocal performance in all four clips is solid in a technical sense - in tune, on time and well-enunciated, with no obvious indications of any major technological interventions like Auto-Tune (which some accused him of using during a recent show in London). But the performances also seem very carefully worked out in advance, with little left to chance. Buble would seem to have the vocal skills necessary to at least attempt a more improvisational approach, but one can also understand why he'd be loathe to mess with what has proved to be a successful formula.

Michael Buble to perform Friday, June 25 at Scottrade Center

Singer Michael Buble (pictured) has added a St. Louis date to his spring/summer tour, scheduling an appearance on Friday, June 25 at the Scottrade Center.

The date is one of several in the Midwest just added to Buble's tour schedule, but has not yet been announced by the venue. The singer's most recent CD Crazy Love was released last year. Watch this space for more details on his St. Louis show as they become available...

Coming attractions include Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Michael Buble, Wayne Bergeron

A recent check of the online touring information service Pollstar revealed some shows coming to the St. Louis area that may be of interest to jazz listeners.

On Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26, the Argosy Alton Casino will warm up for Mardi Gras with two concerts by New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band (pictured). Touring almost non-stop since Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent failure of the levees devastated their hometown, the PHJB has been to the St. Louis area a couple of times recently. I saw them perform at the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2006, and they put on an entertaining performance, albeit one that included blues, swing and even a rendition of a Thelonious Monk tune in addition to the expected traditional jazz fare.

Also coming to the Gateway City in the near future is singer Michael Buble, who will perform at the Scottrade Center on Wednesday, March 5. While Buble's vocals aren't everyone's cup of tea, I think he deserves at least some credit for introducing a new generation of listeners to some great American songs. That said, the cavernous confines of the Scottrade Center, home to pro hockey, college basketball and other large-scale events, don't exactly provide the sort of intimacy that many of those songs demand. However, Buble's current popularity would seem to preclude him from playing a smaller venue any time soon, so I suppose his fans will have to take what they can get.

Last but not least, Pollstar shows that trumpeter Wayne Bergeron, a veteran of the Maynard Ferguson band who's also a busy session player in Los Angeles, is coming to the area for two engagements this spring. First, he'll be at Mineral Area College in Park Hills on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15, performing as guest soloist with the college's big band at the community center on campus.

The following month, Bergeron will be in St. Louis on Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19, playing at the Touhill Performing Arts Center as one of the guest soloists for the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival. While the GSLJF has yet to make an official announcement about their 2008 lineup, Begeron's personal Web site also lists him as one of the event's guests, so Pollstar's information seems fairly credible.

(Also listed on Bergeron's site are the other guests already announced by Jazz St. Louis as performers for the festival's small group show Wednesday, April 16 at Jazz at the Bistro - saxophonist Tom Scott, trombonist Paul McKee, and pianist Shelly Berg - as well as clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, who, like Bergeron, apparently won't be part of Wednesday's show but will take part in the weekend's GSLJF concerts.)