After the "smooth jazz" format disappeared from commercial radio a few years back, St. Louis bookings of live shows featuring musicians popular on those stations began to taper off to almost nothing as well.
Now, a new event called the Gateway Jazz Festival - not to be confused with the identically named festival run by the St. Louis Jazz Club over Labor Day weekend the past couple of years - aims to fill at least some of that void with a full day's worth of popular "smooth jazz" performers starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 29 at the Chesterfield Amphitheater.
Finale Music and Dining has announced a number of additional shows of interest to jazz listeners.
The biggest name is guitarist/vocalist Steve Oliver (pictured), who will play the club on Saturday, June 23. Oliver's music gets categorized as smooth jazz, and he's had radio airplay and sales success in that genre, but he also claims influences from rock to world music. You can hear some sound clips from his CD "Radiant" and an interview with Oliver on a podcast available free from iTunes here. You cal also see Oliver's promotional video in the window embedded at the bottom of this post.
Also, fans of jazz organ may want to check out "Back At The Chicken Shack: A Tribute to Jimmy Smith and Stanley Turrentine," with the David Fatek Quartet on Thursday, June 14. Fatek is a saxophonist who teaches music at McKendree College in Lebanon, IL, and has performed with Grover Washington, Jr, Maynard Ferguson, Roger Humphries, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, and the USAF Band of Mid-America's Shades of Blue Jazz Ensemble.
More to the point of this particular tribute concept, Fatek earned his music degrees in Philadelphia, where they traditionally know their soul-jazz almost as well as their cheese steaks. And, at the risk of perpetuating another positive stereotype - in this case, that of persons of Italian-American ancestry being good at jazz organ - it should be noted that Fatek's organ player is Tony DiPasquale, band director for the Belleville School District who's also played with Reeves and the Vandellas and Shades of Blue, as well as the Shirelles, Marvin Stamm, Jamey Abersold, the Ink Spots and the Four Aces.
Other St. Louis area musicians newly added to Finale's spring/summer schedule include trombonist Brett Stamps (Thursday, May 31); singer Jeanne Trevor (Saturday, June 16); retro big band Tommy Money Orchestra (Thursday, June 21); the Vegas-style jazz of Wild Cool & Swingin' (Friday, June 22); and singers Erin Bode (Fridau, July 6 and Saturday, July 7) and Anita Rosamond (Saturday, July 14).
