Jazz this week: Jeremy Davenport, Steve Ross, Jeanette Harris & Althea René, and more

While this week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis is slightly curtailed by the Thanksgiving holiday, there nevertheless are several noteworthy gigs happening, including the annual return of a noted local expat now living in New Orleans; a visit from one of NYC's most storied cabaret performers; and a tour stop by two "Queens of Soul Jazz." Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, November 27
This week's free "Wednesday Night Jazz Crawl" in Grand Center features multi-instrumentalist Jacob Alspach and friends at The Stage at KDHX, the jam session led by bassist Bob Deboo at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Brady Lewis and BLStet at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black are back at Scarlett's Wine Bar; Miss Jubilee performs vintage swing, hot jazz and more at Schlafly Bottleworks; and trumpeter Jim Manley does his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Friday, November 29
Trumpeter, singer and U City native Jeremy Davenport (pictured, top left) returns to his hometown for the first of two nights of his annual post-Thanksgiving performances at Jazz St. Louis. Davenport, who leads the house band at the Ritz-Carlton in his adopted home in New Orleans, usually draws a sell-out crowd, so advance reservations are strongly advised.

Elsewhere around town, singer and pianist Steve Ross, nicknamed the "Crown Prince of Cabaret" and a noted interpreter of the music of Cole Porter, will perform songs by Porter and more for the first of two nights at Blue Strawberry.

Also on Friday, there are two shows by local acts promoting debut recordings, with Annie and the Fur Trappers playing traditional jazz at the Focal Point and singer and pianist Katarra Parson offering songs from her album Cocoa Voyage at The Dark Room.

Saturday, November 30
Saxophonist Jeanette Harris and flute player Althea René (pictured, bottom left) bring their "Queens of Soul Jazz" tour to the Sheldon Concert Hall.

The two teamed up earlier this year to release the singer "We Are One," but both have had successful solo careers leading up to the collaboration. For more about both women, and some live performance videos, check out this post from Saturday before last.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Tim Cunningham is back at Troy's Listening Room; pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True return to the Parkside Grille; and The Gaslight Squares are playing at the Frisco Barroom.

Sunday, December 1
Dizzy Atmosphere plays Gypsy jazz and vintage swing for brunch at The Dark Room; the Jazz Troubadours play their monthly show at Evangeline's; and pianist and singer Jesse Gannon leads a trio at The Judson House.

Monday, December 2
The Folk School of KDHX hosts their weekly Traditional Jazz Jam Session.

Tuesday, December 3
The Route 66 Jazz Orchestra plays their fourth annual "1/2 a Christmas Concert" at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

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.)

Blue Strawberry bringing cabaret sounds to Central West End starting October 31

Clockwise from top left: Haller, Sullivan, Ross, Watts & Dreyer

 

St. Louis is getting a new venue for cabaret-style entertainment with the debut next week of Blue Strawberry at 364 N Boyle in the Central West End.

Set to open on Thursday, October 31, Blue Strawberry is owned by Jim Dolan, who through his company The Presenters Dolan has been producing cabaret shows here since the mid-2000s in a variety of locations, the most recent being the Gaslight Theater, which has hosted several iterations of Dolan's Gaslight Cabaret Festival just a few doors down the street on Boyle.

Blue Strawberry, which also will offer a full bar and food menu, will feature performances by a mix of local and touring singers on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with additional live music on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

St. Louis cabaret favorite Ken Haller will provide the entertainment for opening night with his new show "When I'm 65." Others scheduled for the first month include St. Louis' own Rosemary Watts and Joe Dreyer on Friday, November 1; singer and actress K.T. Sullivan with a tribute to the late Barbara Cook on Saturday, November 16; and the "Crown Prince of New York cabaret" Steve Ross with a show of Cole Porter songs on on Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 30.

You can see a complete schedule of upcoming performances and purchase advance tickets at the Blue Strawberry website or at LicketyTix.com.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Keep On Keepin' On, the new documentary about trumpeter and St. Louis native Clark Terry that's playing for the next week at the Tivoli Theater, was reviewed for the Post-Dispatch by Calvin Wilson. (To find out how to get free tickets to selected screenings of the film tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, read this post.)

* Also here this weekend, Brazilian big band SpokFrevo Orquestra wraps up their US tour with a performance on Sunday night at The Sheldon. You can read a review of their shows last week at NYC's Lincoln Center here, courtesy of AllAboutJazz.com's Nick Catalano.

* And via Nate Chinen of the New York Times, here's a review of saxophonist Joshua Redman's just-completed gig at NYC's Village Vanguard. Redman's trio will open a four-night stand this coming Wednesday at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Speaking of the Bistro, while he was here last week to play at the club, guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli also visited KWMU's program "CityScape" for an interview and brief performance.

* And in a semi-related bit of news, Jazz St. Louis announced this week that the Bistro will begin serving a weekly jazz brunch, complete with live music, from 10:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. Sundays starting November 16. Singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing will provide the sounds for the first three weeks, with pianist and Jazz St. Louis education director Phil Dunlap's trio taking over for the month of December. You can see the menu devised by Catering St. Louis and more details here.

* Saxophonist Oliver Lake has posted on SoundCloud a preview track, "6 & 3," from the new release by his Organ Quartet.

* And speaking of new albums, the Funky Butt Brass Band (pictured) have posted on Facebook a video "teaser" for their next recording, scheduled for release in November.

* Electronic musician Eric Hall has posted on Bandcamp a recording of his recent performance at the Public Media Commons in Grand Center.

* Singer/pianist Steve Ross' show last weekend for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival was reviewed by KDHX's Chuck Lavazzi.

* Down Beat magazine has announced the results of their 2014 Readers Poll, which include a win in the "Historical Album" category for Miles Davis' Miles At The Fillmore—Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3. You can see the complete results of the poll here.

* Meanwhile, Blue, the note-for-note remake of Davis' Kind of Blue by the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, continues to incite controversy and commentary, the most recent examples being pianist George Colligan's blog post about the album and Ottawa Citizen jazz writer Peter Hum's list of "50 Records To Listen To Before Checking Out That Kind Of Blue Remake."

* Following a meeting between the St. Louis Police Department and representatives of downtown music venues, police say they have "strong leads" for finding the group of thieves who have been robbing the vehicles of touring bands. Read more on the story from the Riverfront Times and KWMU/St. Louis Public Radio.

* Jazz radio update: This Saturday on Radio Arts Foundation - St. Louis' “Somethin’ Else,” DJ Calvin Wilson will delve into compositions associated with Miles Davis that have become jazz standards, as performed by Davis, Donald Harrison, Don Byron, and others. The program can be heard at 8:00 p.m., on 107.3 FM, 96.3 HD-2, and online at http://www.rafstl.org/listen. 

On Sunday, this week's guest on WSIE's "Jazz Talk" will be singer Tony Viviano.The program airs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 88.7 FM, and also can be heard online.

Then Sunday night on St. Louis Public Radio's "Jazz Unlimited," host Dennis Owsley will feature the music of Chick Corea. Listen in from 9:00 p.m. to midnight over the air at 90.7 FM or online.

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Fall 2014 jazz preview, part 2

Today, it's part two of StLJN's video preview of the touring jazz and creative music performers who will be playing in St. Louis this fall. You can find part 1, which covered the month of September, here.

The first videos up above feature trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, who will be returning here on Thursday, October 2 and Friday, October 3 to re-open the newly renovated and expanded Jazz at the Bistro. These two clips represent a complete show from the 2013 Jazz San Javier festival.

(For more footage of Marsalis and JaLCO, see this post about their touring production "Abyssynian," which played here last October; this one, about Marsalis' "Swing Symphony," which they performed here in 2012 with the St. Louis Symphony; and the video showcase posts previewing their appearances here in 2008 and 2010.)

(Update, 9/7/14: The Thursday performance by Marsalis and JaLCO is for Jazz St. Louis donors only, and Friday's is now sold out. Contrary to the info in the original version of this post, there is no performance scheduled on Saturday. StLJN regrets the error.)

After the jump, you can see fluegelhornist Hugh Masekela, who will team with singer Vusi Mahlasela to perform their show "20 Years of Freedom" on Saturday, October 4 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. This video shows Masekela and his band performing a show titled "Celebrate Mama Africa" for the 2011 Estival Jazz Lugano in Switzerland.

Next, it's alto saxophonist (and Kirkwood's own) David Sanborn, peforming "Comin' Home Baby" in 2012 at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. Sanborn will be back home again to play with an all-St. Louis rhythm section of Peter Martin (piano), Chris Thomas (bass), and Montez Coleman (drums) starting Wednesday, October 8 through Saturday, October 11 at Jazz at the Bistro.

(For more Sanborn on video, you can check out the showcase posts that preceded his appearances here in 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2008, as well as this post about Quartette Humaine, his 2013 album with Bob James.)

That same week, the Rebirth Brass Band will return to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, October 9 at The Gramophone. They're seen here in a video of a full set recorded in 2012 at the club Howlin' Wolf in their hometown of New Orleans.

On Friday, October 11, pianist Chick Corea will be in town for a solo performance at The Sheldon. Corea, who has performed here in recent years with banjo player Bela Fleck and with Return to Forever, is seen in a clip from 2009 playing his composition "Alegria" at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Dortmund, Germany.

A few days later, bassist Stanley Clarke will be here with the latest version of his electric band to play on Tuesday, October 14 at The Pageant. The video here shows Clarke's touring band from last year, with keyboardists John Beasley and Nick Smith, drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., and violinist Zach Brock, performing in August 2013 at the Telluride Jazz Festival in Colorado.

Next up, it's the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, who will begin their third St. Louis season by taking part in the "250 Years of St. Louis Music" concert on Friday, October 17 at The Sheldon.

Along with performances from Denise Thimes, Kim Massie, Billy Peek, the St. Louis Ragtimers, and other St. Louis jazz and blues favorites, AWS* will play a set including a new work composed by Peter Martin specifically for the occasion. In this clip, you can see them in 2013 giving the world premiere performance of a very different sort of piece, composer Jason Thorpe Buchanan's "Asymptotic Flux Second Study in Entropy," at the Mizzou International Composers Festival in Columbia.

Also on Friday, October 17, singer Karen Mason will be in town for the first of two performances for the Gaslight Cabaret Festival at the Gaslight Theater. Mason, who will do her show "Secrets of the Ancient Divas" again on Saturday, October 18, is seen here singing a medley of "My Favorite Things" and "Count Your Blessings" from a performance last December in Norwalk, CT.

Below that, you can see guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli playing a solo version of "The Way You Look Tonight" recorded in August of this year in the offices of Fretboard Journal magazine. Pizzarelli will be back in St. Louis to perform Wednesday, October 22 through Saturday, October 25 at Jazz at the Bistro. You can see more of him on video in previous posts from 2012 and 2013.

Closing out our jazz preview of October in St. Louis is singer and pianist Steve Ross, who will return to perform as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25. Although Ross has been a fixture on the cabaret scene for decades, oddly there's almost no video online of him performing, so a very brief clip of him singing "You Were Never Lovelier" by Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern will have to suffice for now.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump. Look for part three of the fall 2014 jazz preview here next week.

Fall edition of Gaslight Cabaret Festival starts Saturday, September 27

The fall season announced by cabaret producers The Presenters Dolan will include return performances from singers Steve Ross, Storm Large, and Karen Mason, as well as a weekend of shows from Chicago-based performers; encores and new shows from several St. Louisans; and more.

Billed once again as the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, the slate encompasses 19 performances by 15 different acts over eight weekends. Storm Large (pictured) will kick off the festivities at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 27 with a performance of her show "Le Bonheur (Good Times)" at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups.

The rest of the performances will be presented at the Gaslight Theatre, starting with a reprise of Katie McGrath's "Love in the Desert: Romance in an Age of Scarcity" on Saturday, October 11. Next up is Mason with "Secrets of the Ancient Divas" on Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18.

"An Evening with Steve Ross" will be presented on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, while the weekend of Chicago performers will include Beckie Menzie & Tom Michael's "That 60's Show" on Friday, November 7 and Joan Curto singing songs by Cole Porter on Saturday, November 8.

The following weekend will feature shows by New York-based performers Sheri Sanders, a veteran of numerous Broadway rock musicals, on Thursday, November 13; and Carole J. Bufford, who will present her show "Body & Soul" on Friday, November 14 and Saturday, November 15.

St. Louis performers in the festival will include Ken Haller, Joe Dreyer & Rosemary Watts, Christopher Limber, Meghan Kirk (who recently returned from Los Angeles), Antonio Rodriguez (who recently moved to Chicago), and Lara Teeter, who will wrap things up with an encore of his show "Lucky To Be Me" on Saturday, November 22.

All shows (except for Storm Large) will start at 8:00 p.m. at the Gaslight Theater. Ticket prices range from a top of $45 for Large to $35 and $40 for the other visiting performers and $22 or $25 for local acts. You can see a complete schedule of shows and prices here.

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's the latest wrap-up of links and short local news items of interest:

* Feast magazine's "Dinner and a Show" feature this week spotlights Jeremy Davenport's gig this weekend at Jazz at the Bistro.

* The Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson previews Steve Ross' cabaret show this weekend at the Kranzberg Arts Center and next week's performances by Barb Jungr at the same venue.

* Guitarist Steve Schenkel (pictured) has organized a tribute to the music of John Lennon to be presented on Tuesday, December 7 at Webster University's Community Music School. The concert will feature Webster U jazz faculty and music students performing songs from throughout Lennon's career, and you can read all about it this article from the Webster U Journal.

* Steve Pick (of KDHX, Euclid Records and too many publications to name) has reviewed Steven Pond’s book Head Hunters: The Making of Jazz's First Platinum Album for Blurt Online.

* Speaking of KDHX, the community radio station last week featured a live performance by drummer Brian Sullivan's trio, with Daryl Mixon on bass and Lew Winer III on saxophones. You can hear their set archived online here.

* Jazz St. Louis has snagged a $20,000 grant for 2011 from the National Endowment for the Arts. The money will be used to "support the Jazz St. Louis Artist Residency Program in local elementary, middle, and high schools, and the after-school music education program."

* The Goldenrod Showboat, once the site of many traditional jazz and ragtime performances on the St. Louis riverfront, has gotten a one-month reprieve from the scrapheap, thanks to a local businessman who's trying to raise funds to renovate and reopen the venerable vessel. The P-D's Deb Peterson has more here.

(Edited 11/29/10 to correct the day of the John Lennon tribute concert.)

Jazz this week: Jeremy Davenport, Steve Ross, and more

Thanksgiving isn't usually a big weekend for jazz concerts here in St. Louis, but there are a couple of noteworthy headliners visiting town over the next few days, as well as the customary assortment of local gigs for your listening enjoyment.

Most notably, trumpeter, singer and University City native Jeremy Davenport (pictured) will continue what's become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition over the last few years, returning home from his current base in New Orleans to play Friday and Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. For more about Davenport and some video clips of him in action, see this post.

Also, just around the corner from the Bistro, singer and pianist Steve Ross will be previewing his new cabaret show "Rhythm and Romance" on Friday and Saturday at the Kranzberg Arts Center. Ross will take the show to NYC's famed Algonquin Hotel in January, but was cajoled by our town's Presenters Dolan into giving St. Louis audiences a sneak peek.

Elsewhere around town, Robbie's House of Jazz will feature singer Kim Massie on Wednesday evening, and then will be closed for the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend; and The Sands will present Banjos and Brass on Friday night, trumpeter Joe Bozzi and his band on Saturday afternoon, and pianist Bob Row's trio on Sunday.

Other regular gigs that should be happening around town this weekend include include saxophonist Dave Stone's at Mangia Italiano on Friday; Willie Akins' matinee at Spruill's on Saturday; Jim Manley for Sunday brunch at Jimmy's On The Park; and the Voodoo Blues Band's Sunday afternoon jam at Hammerstone's. Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday, CertainBeat WorldBop returns to BB's Jazz Blues and Soups, and on Tuesday, Robbie's will feature their weekly jazz jam.

StLJN will be on a holiday posting schedule for the next couple of days, but 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.)

Steve Ross to preview new show "Rhythm and Romance" on November 26 & 27

Pianist and singer Steve Ross (pictured) will preview his new cabaret show "Rhythm and Romance" in St. Louis over Thanksgiving weekend before taking it NYC's famed Algonquin Room in January.

Ross will perform "Rhythm and Romance" at 8:00 p.m. Friday, November 26 and Saturday, November 27 at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand Blvd. The show would seem to be a nice "get" for producers The Presenters Dolan, as Ross is a critically acclaimed performer and proven draw once dubbed the "Crown Prince of New York cabaret" by the New York Times.

Tickets for Steve Ross' "Rhythm and Romance" are $35 each and are available for purchase now online at www.licketytix.com or by calling 314-725-4200, EXT 10.

Cabaret St. Louis tickets going on sale Monday, October 5

Tickets for Cabaret St. Louis' fall series of touring artists go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, October 5 at all Metrotix outlets.

For jazz fans, the pick show of the season probably is the pairing (pictured) of pianist Bill Charlap, a fine jazz player who was here most recently in February with the Blue Note 7, and his mother, singer Sandy Stewart.

They'll be in town December 9 - 12 to perform at the Kranzberg Arts Center, which also will serve as the venue for shows by Maude Maggart (October 21-24), Steve Ross (November 4-7), and Nellie McKay (November 17 & 18). As has been mentioned here before, the Kranzberg only holds 80 people, so if you're interested in seeing one or more of these performers, you'd best act quickly to purchase your tickets.