Whether you like your jazz to be old-school, modern or free-form, there's something for you this weekend somewhere around the St. Louis area. Here's a brief look at the local jazz and creative music highlights for the next several days:Tonight, the St. Louis Stompers will perform traditional New Orleans-style jazz in a free concert for the Whitaker Music Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Tomorrow night, the summer Jazz at Holmes series gets underway with a free concert by pianist, composer and St. Louis expat Linda Presgrave, who will perform with a quintet including her husband, saxophonist Stan Chovnick, and trumpeter Randy Holmes.
Friday brings the Jazz to the Wall Festival to the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, featuring the Full Blast Trio with legendary German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (pictured), drummer Marino Pliakas and electric bassist Michael Wertmueller. Brötzmann and Full Blast will perform at 7:00 p.m., with a separate show featuring Yowie, Aleuchetistas and Upsilon Acrux at 9:00 p.m. This week's Riverfront Times has a brief preview story by Paul Friswold on the Brötzmann show, which you can read online here. For some video samples of Brötzmann's work, see this previous post.
Also on Friday, pianist Adaron "Pops" Jackson of Good 4 The Soul opens a two-night run at Jazz at the Bistro. Though G4TS is known for mixing jazz with funk, R&B and other genres, word is that Jackson's gig this weekend will feature a quartet playing straight-ahead jazz. Friday is also when the Sheldon Art Galleries will host a free opening reception for its summer exhibits, including the extension of the "Visions of Sound" exhibit of musical instruments.
On Saturday, singer Steve Lippia will perform his tribute show "Simply Sinatra" with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Symphony Hall.
Then on Sunday, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents pianist Michael Lacey and his New Orleans Swing at the Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville, and singer Erin Bode and her band will perform in a free outdoor concert at Sunset Park in Festus.
As usual, time and space constraints mean that these are just some of the notable performances happening over the next few days; for more listings of 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.)
