Jazz this week: "Music at the Intersection," Tammy McCann, Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival, Koplant No, and more

While this weekend's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a number of noteworthy events, yr. StLJN editor's efforts remain hampered by my recent hand injury, which means today's post once again will be rather short and to the point.

Let's go to the highlights....

Thursday, September 15
Guitarist Todd Mosby (pictured, top left) plays a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and the Young Friends of Jazz St. Louis host their first event of the season, "The Jazz Age," at Jazz at the Bistro, featuring music from the Phil Dunlap Quintet and one of the JazzU student ensembles

Also on Thursday, trumpeter Alan Hood presents a master class at Fazio's Music in Ellisville, and guitarist Dave Black, singer Feyza Eren and friends perform at Nathalie’s.

Friday, September 16
Grand Center will present the final installment of this year's "Music at the Intersection" series, featuring local jazz and blues acts performing in various venues located near the intersection of Grand and Washington. The Funky Butt Brass Band gets thing started with a happy-hour set at Strauss Park, with more music from Montez Coleman, Anita Jackson, Bob DeBoo Trio, Miss Jubilee, Cafe Danza with Farshid Etniko, Jesse Gannon and the Dark Room All-Stars at venues including Jazz at the Bistro, Kranzberg Arts Center, Lucha, Curtain Call Lounge, Vito's, and The Dark Room.

Also on Friday, singer Tony Viviano returns to serenade diners at Fortel's, and saxophonist Tim Cunningham plays at Troy's Jazz Gallery
.

Saturday, September 17
The Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival will feature nearly 12 hours of music on two outdoor stages in the Old Webster Business District, centered at the intersection of Lockwood & Gore.

This year's lineup for the free, "family friendly" event leans heavily toward the jazz side, with "Old Webster’s Got Talent" contest winner Liberation Organ Trio kicking things off at mid-day, followed by sets from Scott A.F.B's Shades Of Blue, Anita Rosamond, the Webster University Jazz Ensemble's “Tribute To Verve Records,” Bach To The Future, Hipjaz Quintet, Matthew Von Doran Trio, the Webster Groves High School Jazz Band, Feyza Eren, Alan Oxenhandler, and Tracer, plus the Green McDonough Band and guitarist and singer Marquise Knox leading a "Blues Revue".

Also on Saturday, Chicago-based singer Tammy McCann (pictured, bottom left) is back with a show called "Ella Loves Gershwin" at The Emerald Room at The Monocle; jazz/fusion band Koplant No will make their debut at Jazz at the Bistro; and new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound will present a full staging of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's "The Hunger" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

Sunday, September 18
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays for brunch at Nathalie's, while Miss Jubilee returns to Evangeline's.

Monday, September 19
Saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, singer Debby Lennon and keyboardist Nick Schlueter will perform at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, and the St. Louis Legacy Ensemble plays at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soup. 

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.)

Jazz this week: Dee Dee Bridgewater & Irvin Mayfield, Tammy McCann, Joe Krown, Pink Martini, and more

With the weather taking a timely spring-like turn, it's a very busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a couple of touring headliners in town plus visits by some lesser-known but worthy musicians from NYC, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, 
March 16
Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield (pictured, top left) will perform for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

The two have been touring together since last year in support of Dee Dee's Feathers, a collaborative album featuring contemporary interpretations of famous songs associated with Mayfield's hometown of New Orleans. For more about that, and some video samples of Bridgewater, Mayfield and their touring band, the New Orleans 7, in action, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Wednesday also is the opening night for Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing, a play at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis that includes in its cast saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person, who's in from NYC to make his theatrical debut in the production.

Set in 1947, the play by Trey Ellis and Ricardo Khan is a story of "baseball by day and jazz by night as the impassioned and devoted players tried to find their place in a country on the verge of change." Playing a character called simply "Jazzman," Person will act and perform music composed for the play by Kansas City saxophonist and former Jazz Messenger Bobby Watson. The production runs through April 10 on The Rep's main stage.

Also on Wednesday, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Open Mic Night" at Tavern of Fine Arts, and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will be deploying an unusual lineup up of vocals, vibes and bass at The Feasting Fox.

Thursday, March 17
The critically acclaimed Chicago-based singer Tammy McCann (pictured, center left) will kick off the weekend's Gaslight Cabaret Festival shows with a performance of "The Storytellers - Sarah, Ella, Dinah and Billie" at the Gaslight Theater, while another Chicago native now based in Boston, drummer Yoron Israel, will bring his band High Standards to the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Friday, March 18
The touring theatrical production "In The Mood", a nostalgic evocation of the Swing Era featuring live music from an onstage big band, will be presented in matinee and evening performances at the Touhill Peforming Arts Center; and singer Marissa Mulder returns from NYC to present the first of two performance of a new show, "Fragments of Marilyn" at the Gaslight Theater.

Also on Friday, The 442s will perform at Cyrano's; the Sentimental Journey Dance Band plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Erika Johnson and guitarist Tom Byrne return to Montrey's Cigar Lounge; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will play their monthly show at Broadway Oyster Bar.

Saturday, March 19
Another Chicago-based singer, Keri Johnsrud, will be making her St. Louis debut in concert with her quartet at The Chapel, while New Orleans keyboardist Joe Krown and his organ trio, featuring guitarist Walter "Wolfman" Washington and drummer Russell Batiste Jr. will bring the funk to the Broadway Oyster Bar.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Matthew Von Doran makes a rare live appearance with his trio at the gallery and event space 1900 Park; singer Danita Mumphard will performs in a benefit concert for North Side Community School; Franglais plays Gypsy jazz and swing at Evangeline's; and trumpeter Jim Manley and guitarist Randy Bahr's All-Star Band returns to Nathalie's

Sunday, March 20
Pianist Jon Weber, in town to accompany Tammy McCann and Melissa Mulder, gets his own moment in the spotlight with "From Joplin to Jarrett: 100 Years of Piano Jazz" at the Gaslight Theater; and the Dave Dickey Big Band plays their monthly gig at Jazz at the Bistro.

Also on Sunday, NYC-based saxophonist Michael Eaton will perform with organist Brad Whiteley and drummer Shareef Taher at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups. They'll be playing music from Eaton's 2014 album Individuation and previewing material from his planned next album Dialogical, which is scheduled to be recorded at live sessions next month in Brooklyn.

Monday, March 21
The eclectic ensemble Pink Martini (pictured, lower left), which draws on jazz, classical, Latin, and pop music to create a singularly suave sound, will make their St. Louis debut in a performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Also on Monday, guitarist Steve Schenkel and pianist Kim Portnoy will perform in Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

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.)

Jazz this week: Jane Monheit, Miles Davis Jazz Festival with Russell Gunn, New Music Circle Showcase, Tammy McCann, and more

This week's menu of jazz and creative music offerings in St. Louis includes a number of special events, most notably the annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival in Alton, plus the long-awaited return of one of the more popular female vocalists in jazz.

That would be singer Jane Monheit, who's back in St. Louis to perform in a four-night engagement beginning this evening and continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

It's Monheit's first visit here since 2010 and this time, her show has a theme, "Celebrating the Jazz of Judy Garland." Though Garland wasn't known specifically as a jazz performer, the catalog of songs she recorded, ranging from uptempo numbers like "Get Happy" to ballads like "The Man That Got Away," certainly offers ample opportunities for Monheit and her trio to stretch out and explore emotional and musical nuances.

For more about what else Monheit has been up to since her last visit here, and some video samples from recent performances, see this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Tomorrow, KDHX will present their annual "Midwest Mayhem" event at the City Museum, with music from the Funky Butt Brass Band, Wack-A-Doo, The People's Key, and 16 more bands and DJs representing a variety of musical genres. 

Also on Thursday, guitarist Dave Black, singer Joe Mancuso and band will perform at Nathalie’s; and the World Chess Hall of Fame in the Central West End will celebrate their current exhibit about composer John Cage with a free performance of Cage’s "Reunion" featuring Lemp Neighborhood Art Center's Mark Sarich, Nathan Cook, Greg Farough and, somewhat surprisingly, Good 4 The Soul keyboardist Adaron "Pops" Jackson.

On Friday, Chicago's Tammy McCann, an alumna of Ray Charles' Raelettes who's also been working recently with Kurt Elling's former pianist Laurence Hobgood, will perform at Robbie's House of Jazz. Hobgood won't be on this gig, though, as McCann will be backed by a quartet including Tom Vaitsas (piano), John Sutton (bass), Sam Jewel (drums), and St. Louis' own Eric Slaughter on guitar.

Also on Friday, the Ambassadors of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren and pianist Nathan Jatcko will duet at The Wine Press; and guitarist Vincent Varvel leads a trio at Tavern of Fine Arts.

On Saturday, the 2014 edition of the annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival takes place at the Jacoby Arts Center in Davis' birthplace of Alton, Illinois. This year's headliner is trumpeter Russell Gunn (pictured), the former East St. Louisan whose variegated catalog of recordings includes one explicitly paying tribute to Davis, as well as several albums of electric music that reflect some of the spirit of Davis' later years. Saxophonist Fred Walker and prog-rock band Locrian Manor are the supporting acts.

Also on Saturday, pianist Peter Martin performs in a benefit event for New City School; the WirePilots, featuring guitarist Dan Rubright, bassist Ric Vice, and percussionist Ted Rubright, play at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and smooth jazz/fusion ensemble The Freedom will take the stage at Thurman Grill.

On Sunday, Russell Gunn will cross the Mississippi, serving as the "special guest" for a gig nominally headed by drummer Montez Coleman at the Bistro at Grand Center; while down on Cherokee St., the Sidney Street Shakers will be playing pre-WWII style hot jazz for the monthly "South City Shuffle" event at Van Ella Studios.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday New Music Circle will present a free improv session at Blank Space with saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, drummer Tom Rainey, and an assortment of St. Louis musicians.

Then on Tuesday, Laubrock, Rainey and drummer Tyler Damon will be the visiting performers taking part in NMC's final concert of the season, aka the "New Music Circle Showcase," at the William A Kerr Foundation, 21 O'Fallon St on Laclede's Landing. Also joining in will be St. Louis guitarist Chris Trull and electronic musicians Kevin Harris and NNN Cook. For a look at and listen to the visitors improvising in various situations, check out this video post from last Saturday.

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.)