Jazz this week: Zappa Plays Zappa, Good 4 The Soul, Sinatra Songbook, Montez Coleman, St. Louis Rivermen, and more

This week's post may be somewhat minimal, thanks to a bad head cold that's knocking yr. humble StLN editor for a loop, but the jazz and creative music offerings in St. Louis over the next few days are plentiful. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, Zappa Plays Zappa performs at The Pageant. This year's show features the band playing Frank Zappa's 1974 album Apostrophe(') in its entirety. I wrote a short preview of the concert for last week's Riverfront Times, which you can read online here. Also, you can read my review of ZPZ's first St. Louis show back in 2006 here. And to see some video of ZPZ playing various songs from Apostrophe(') earlier this year, see this post from last Saturday.

Tomorrow night, the University of Missouri-St. Louis big band, under the direction of Jim Widner, will play at Robbie's House of Jazz,

On Friday and Saturday, Good 4 the Soul (pictured) returns to Jazz at the Bistro with their crowd-pleasing mix of jazz, funk and more.

Also on Friday, the Steve Schankman Orchestra and singer Tom Heitman will reprise their "Sinatra Songbook" show at the Mirowitz Performing Arts Center at the JCC; singer Erin Bode performs at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles; and bassist Daryl Mixon's trio plays at Robbie's House of Jazz.

On Saturday afternoon, singer Carmen Emborski and pianist Heather Bosshardt, aka Les Filles des Jazz, and Emborski's quintet will be the featured entertainment at an event called "Jazz For Change" to be held at The Annex at Cafe Ventana, 3919 West Pine Blvd. Proceeds benefit the Christian Foundation for Education.

That evening, drummer Montez Coleman is the nominal leader of a trio gig at Robbie's that also will feature Peter Martin on piano and Chris Thomas on bass. Though all three both are originally from St. Louis, they've all established themselves on the national scene as well, making this gig, with a cover of just $10, the likely "sleeper" show of the week.

UPDATE, 6:25 p.m., 12/8/10: Just got an email from Dan Martin of Peter Martin Music, who says that the pianist is NOT part of Saturday's gig at Robbie's; the erroneous info came from the club's website. The gig may indeed still be a worthy one, but Martin won't be there, so please consider our editorial expectation to be adjusted accordingly.

Also on Saturday, saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Rick Haydon will duet at the Bossanova Restaurant & Lounge in Alton, IL.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Rivermen at the Doubletree Hotel & Conference Center in Chesterfield. That evening, guitarist Tom Byrne's trio plays at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Tuesday singer Brian Owens will appear in a "Notes From Home" performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and Robbie's House of Jazz will host their weekly Tuesday night jam session.

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 Schankman launching new concert series at the JCC starting Friday, May 21

When St. Louis music mogul Steve Schankman and partners closed Finale Music and Dining at the end of 2007, Schankman said he'd look for a location to re-open the club, which seemed to be doing good business but lost its lease when the building it was in was sold.

It's taken a couple of years, but Schankman will be back presenting some of the same acts that were favorites at Finale later this month via "ENCORE! Stars Shine at the J," a new performance series starting Friday, May 21 at the Jewish Community Center (JCC), 1138 North Warson Road.

The press release issued today by Schankman's Contemporary Productions says the series is a collaboration between Schankman and Michael Staenberg, JCC Board Chair and President of THF Realty, which also has been a corporate sponsor for Jazz St. Louis for a number of years.

Contemporary's Kelly McMahon tells StLJN that the initial series of shows will be staged in JCC's Carl & Helene Mirowitz Performing Arts Center, which seats about 200 people when set up cabaret style. McMahon said they're also looking at the possibility of presenting some future shows in the JCC's Marvin & Harlene Wool Studio Theater, which seats about 125 in a fixed, theater-style configuration. Both spaces are located in the JCC's new Arts & Education Building, which opened in March of this year.

The Encore series will kick off on Friday, May 21 with The Sinatra Songbook featuring Tom Heitman and Schankman's own Orchestra, followed on Saturday, May 22 by Schankman's other personal musical project, the Fabulous Motown Review. Other bookings so far include singer/actor/impressionist Dean Christopher's "Rat Pack & More" (pictured, Friday, June 11); an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute by Arvell & Co. (Friday, June 18); and singers Kim Massie (Saturday, July 17) and Erin Bode (Saturday, July 24).

Show time will be 7:30 p.m., and ticket prices range from $20 to $40 depending on the artist and type of seating. Tickets for the "ENCORE!" Series are now on sale online at Ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster outlets. For more information, see the JCC's website at www.jccstl.com or Contemporary Productions' website at www.contemporaryproductions.com.

The news release also said that more show announcements would be coming soon. Here's hoping that, in addition to vocalists, Schankman and Staenberg also will be presenting some instrumentalists and jazz players of the same caliber as those who appeared at Finale, which offered some fairly big names, including guitarist Stanley Jordan and organist Brian Auger, as well as local and regional jazz performers.

Schankman may be best known as a shrewd businessman, but he's also a musician - trumpet is his instrument - and a philanthropically inclined jazz lover who in 2008 gave $50,000 to support jazz education at the University of Missouri St. Louis, so there's some reason for optimism. Watch this space for news of further developments...

(Edited after posting to fix a typo and clarify a garbled sentence.)

Two spring/summer concert series announce schedules

The schedules have been announced for the Missouri History Museum's spring Twilight Tuesdays and for the fourth annual Whitaker Urban Evenings series, and while neither has much in the way of straight-ahead jazz, both will offer some concerts of potential interest to jazz fans in the St. Louis area.

The Twilight Tuesdays series starts next Tuesday, April 27 with R&B vocal group L.L.C., and will include shows from the Latin band El Caribe Tropical (May 4), singer Anita Rosamond (May 18, pictured), and the Sinatra Songbook featuring the Steve Schankman Orchestra (May 25). The free concerts take place starting at 6:30 p.m. each Tuesday through June 8 on the front lawn of the History Museum in Forest Park. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the History Museum's website.

Meanwhile, the Whitaker Urban Evening Series, which happens at St. Louis Place Park, Rauschenbach Avenue and St. Louis Avenue, has a lineup that will include singer Kim Massie (June 10), Brazilian music group Samba Bom (June 17) and the Funky Butt Brass Band (July 8). Performances will begin at 7:00 p.m. Thursdays starting with Massie's June 10 show and continuing through July 15. Admission is free; for more information and a complete schedule, visit the website of series co-sponsors Grace Hill.

Will New Year's Eve be the finale for Finale?

An article in today's Post-Dispatch by pop critic Kevin Johnson confirms that Finale Music and Dining in Clayton will close permanently following the New Year's Eve celebration featuring Wild, Cool and Swingin'.

While the closing had been rumored since September, when it was announced that the hotel building housing the club would be converted to condos for senior citizens, this is the first time anyone from Finale has spoken on the record to confirm the news. Owner Steve Schankman told Johnson that he's keeping all the fixtures and equipment from the club and is seeking another location in the mid-county area, with hopes of opening a new incarnation of Finale in the spring.

Here's hoping that Schankman is successful in his quest to find a new home for Finale, which over the past three years has featured a number of touring jazz acts as well as local jazz performers and a variety of other entertainment.