Jazz this week: John Pizzarelli, Esfoma, The Cunninghams, a tribute to Charles Mingus, Bad Luck, and more

Autumn is definitely in the air in St. Louis, and it's looking like a fine weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music. Here's a look at some of the most noteworthy performances coming up over the next few days...

Tonight, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. The longtime St. Louis favorite has a new band for this visit, still featuring his brother Martin on bass, but also including two new members, pianist Konrad Paszkudzki and drummer Kevin Kanner. For some samples of Pizzarelli in action, check out this video post, made before his four-night run with his dad, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, last year at the Bistro, and this one from before his 2012 gig at the club. 

Also tonight, Esfoma, an improvising ensemble led by pianist Greg Mills, will perform at Tavern of Fine Arts. Mills played out and recorded frequently from the late 1970s through the 1990s as a solo pianist and with the duo Exiles, but has kept a low public profile of late. He'll be accompanied on this gig by percussionist Henry Claude, cellist Tracy Andreotti, poet Michael Castro, saxophonist Dave Stone, and fellow pianist David Parker.

Tomorrow night, bassist Bob DeBoo leads a group playing the music of Charles Mingus in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University; singer Denise Thimes will perform in her tenth annual show raising funds for pancreatic cancer research at the Sheldon Concert Hall; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with Antonio Rodriguez performing his show "Memories, Mistakes and Moving On" at the Gaslight Theater

On Friday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues with singer and pianist Steve Ross, who will present his show "An Evening with Steve Ross" at the Gaslight Theater. Once called "the suavest of all male cabaret performers" by the New York Times, Ross will repeat the show again on Saturday.

Also on Friday, Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Joe Mancuso fronts a quartet at Nathalie's; and the The People's Key play the house concert venue KindaBlue, located at 6101 1/2 Idaho on the south side. Elsewhere around town, Miss Jubilee will be swinging at Prasino in St. Charles; guitarist Brian Vaccaro's trio will host a jam session at The Wolf in Ballwin; and Midwest Jazz-tette will play West Coast-style "cool" jazz at the Cigar Inn in Belleville.

On Saturday, the Seattle-based drum and saxophone duo Bad Luck will perform a late-afternoon show at the Tavern of Fine Arts. Regarded as one of the top experimental, improvising pairs in their hometown, drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch use live audio loops and digital effects to augment and enhance their sound.

Then on Saturday evening, vocal duo The Cunninghams will be in town from their home in Las Vegas to play at the Ozark Theater. Former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife Alicia (pictured) have a long and fascinating history in the music business, some of which is detailed in this post from last Saturday and the accompanying linked material. But you don't need a lesson to enjoy their music, which features closely harmonized vocals, in the style of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross or the Manhattan Transfer, with accents of Latin jazz and exotica.

Also on Saturday, singer Erin Bode is at Nathalie's; singers Feyza Eren and Ayse Eren, aka the Eren Sisters, and guitarist Dave Black will be at The Wine Press; the Ann Dueren Trio returns to Il Bel Lago; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will be back at the Broadway Oyster Bar.

On Sunday morning, The Sidemen will be filling in providing music for the jazz brunch this week at Evangeline's, and later on that day, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play a matinee at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the jazz faculty of Webster University will present their annual TKT Scholarship Benefit Concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus. The event raises money for music scholarships in the names of Terry Jackson, Kirk Cappello and Tony Saputo, three musicians and Webster alumni who were killed in a 1991 plane crash along with five other members of country singer Reba McEntire's road band. This year's theme is "Jazz Interpretations of the Music of Jule Styne," paying tribute to the composer of songs such as "I Fall In Love Too Easily," "The Party's Over" and "People."

Also on Monday, singer Dean Christopher bring his "Rat Pack and More" show with pianist Chris Swan and trumpeter Jim Manley to One 19 North Tapas and Wine Bar; and "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, pianist Jim Hegarty will lead a trio at Tavern of Fine Arts; and the weekly Tuesday jam sessions once held at Robbie's House of Jazz have been resurrected, like much of Robbie's other programming, at the Ozark Theatre.

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.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The return of The Cunninghams

This week, our video spotlight shines on The Cunninghams, a duo comprised of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife Alicia, a singer and pianist. The Las Vegas-based couple are returning to St. Louis for a show next Saturday, October 25, at the Ozark Theatre.

Billing themselves as the "Super Jazz Vocal Pair," the Cunninghams' main calling card is their close harmony vocals, delivered in a style that may remind jazz fans of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral, or the Manhattan Transfer, and spiced with touches of Latin jazz, lounge and exotica. They've toured with the Count Basie Orchestra, enjoyed great success in Asia as well as in the US, and even were nominated for a Grammy Award back in 1989.

Don Cunningham began his professional career here in the 1960s, playing in Gaslight Square and leading the house band at the Playboy Club, which is what led me to write about him and Alicia for the first time back in 2007 for the Riverfront Times. Since that piece and one of today's videos recap much of their back story, we won't do that again today.

Instead, let's go straight to the videos, starting up above with a brief promo clip they put together a couple of years ago to help introduce their act to the uninitiated.

After the jump, you can see a segment from the April 2012 episode of HEC-TV's "I Love Jazz" that includes performance footage as well as an interview, conducted by the program's host Don Wolff. After that, there's an extended excerpt from another homecoming gig the Cunninghams did a few years back at Harris-Stowe State University, accompanied by pianist Jeter Thompson's trio.

Since that's all the footage of them that seems to be available online, we'll wrap up with some vintage audio, specifically "Tabu," the track from Don Cunningham's St. Louis days that 40 years later helped him become known by DJs and record collectors all over the world. From the 2007 RFT article:

"Cunningham also earned international attention a couple of years ago when the San Francisco label Luv N' Haight reissued Something for Everyone, an album he cut in 1965 while his group was the house band at the St. Louis Playboy Club. Inspired by Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter and music he heard in Hawaii while touring with Mathis, Cunningham incorporated those exotic sounds into his own act, eventually cutting an LP and pressing up 500 copies to sell at the club.

More than 30 years later, one of those copies found its way to Luv N' Haight, which included a bootlegged version of the song "Tabu" on a multi-artist compilation aimed at DJs. "Tabu" caught on with record spinners in Brazil, Japan and elsewhere, prompting the label to locate Cunningham and arrange an authorized re-release of the entire album."

For more about The Cunninghams, check out this article that Dennis Owsley wrote in 2011 for St. Louis magazine; this story written by Roscoe Crenshaw in 2009 for the St. Louis American; and this 2005 interview with Las Vegas Talk Radio.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...

Ku-umba Frank Lacy, The Cunninghams to perform in October at Ozark Theatre

Adding some visiting artists to the mix of local musicians, trombonist Ku-umba Frank Lacy and vocal duo The Cunninghams are among the performers scheduled in October by the new Robbie's House of Jazz series at the Ozark Theatre.

Lacy (pictured) will perform at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, while Don and Alicia Cunningham, supported by a local rhythm section TBA, will take the stage at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, October 25.

Lacy, who's originally from Houston, has something of a local connection via his past collaborations with St. Louis musicians such as Greg Osby, Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, and Lester Bowie. He also served as music director for one of the latter-day editions of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers; has been a member of the Mingus Big Band; and has worked with many other prominent musicians including Henry Threadgill, Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Bobby Watson, David Murray, McCoy Tyner, and the R&B singer D'Angelo.

Although he's been featured on so many recordings that a Down Beat magazine article once referred to him as "the baddest sideman in jazz," Lacy has released only four albums as a leader, the most recent of which, Live at Smalls, came out earlier this year.

The Cunninghams, who are based in Las Vegas, are well-known to St. Louis audiences. Don Cunningham, a percussionist and saxophonist as well as a vocalist, began his career here performing in local clubs during the Gaslight Square era, and in recent years he and Alicia, a singer and pianist, have made several return visits to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall and other local venues.

The duo's extensive credits include headlining tours in Japan and elsewhere in Asia and a stint touring as featured vocalists with the Count Basie Orchestra as well as performances with a long list of other jazz greats, and even a Grammy nomination in 1992 for their Charlie Parker tribute album Strings 'n Swing. Their most recent recording is 2012's Sao Paulo Lights, recorded in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Tickets for Ku-umba Frank Lacy are $15 general admission, $10 for students with ID, while tickets for The Cunninghams are $20 and $10. Tickets can be reserved by phone at 314-578-2049 or purchased at the door.

Local jazz performers in October at the Ozark will include pianist Brad Ellebrecht's quartet with singer Diane Vaughn (Saturday, October 4); singer Feyza Eren (Friday, October 10); pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True (Saturday, October 18) and singer Dean Christopher's "Rat Pack and More" show on Friday, October 31.

Other scheduled shows include "oldies tribute band" Recap on Saturday, October 4, and singer, guitarist and songwriter Kevin Renick on Friday, October 17. Tickets for all of these performances are $15 general admission, $10 for students.

Jazz this week: Poncho Sanchez, Catherine Russell, The Cunninghams, and more

As Jazz Appreciation Month 2014 continues past the halfway point, the live performance calendar this week in St. Louis includes several touring performers visiting our town, the return of a veteran of Gaslight Square, and the usual variety of activity from local musicians. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, percussionist Poncho Sanchez and his band (pictured) open a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro. One of the standard-bearers for mainstream Latin jazz, Sanchez' group over the years has consistently offered satisfying grooves topped with engaging solos, and the current edition is no exception. You can check out some relatively recent Sanchez performances on video in this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also tonight, the Route 66 Jazz Orchestra returns to Kirkwood Station Brewing Company; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "open stage" event at the Tavern of Fine Arts; and Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center presents a double-bill featuring free improvisation by Joe Hess, Nick Horn, Alex Cunningham and Dave Stone, plus some more structured jazz sounds from the newish band Boysiac, with Mason Baran, Matt Villinger, Joe Hibbs, and Nathan Pence.

Tomorrow night, Miss Jubilee will being doing double duty, with a happy hour performance at Magpie's in St. Charles and a late night session downtown at Thaxton Speakeasy; and guitarist Dave Black and Friends, including singer Joe Mancuso, will be at Nathalie’s.

On Friday, the Twin Cities jump blues and swing band Davina and the Vagabonds will be back in town for a show at The Gramophone, with singer/guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerilla Swing as opening act. That same evening, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at the Highway 61 Roadhouse; singer Feyza Eren will lead a quartet in concert at the Kranzberg Arts Center; and guitarist Tom Byrne's trio plays at Cigar Inn.

On Saturday evening, singer and multi-instrumentalist Don Cunningham and his wife, singer-pianist Alicia Cunningham - better known as The Cunninghams - will be visiting from their home in Las Vegas to perform at 560 Music Center, accompanied by a local rhythm section including pianist Carolbeth True, Jeff Anderson on bass, and Gary Sykes on drums. You can read more about Don Cunningham's days performing in Gaslight Square, his first meeting with Alicia, the couple's subsequent popularity as a touring act in Asia, and more in this short feature about them that I wrote a few years back for the Riverfront Times.

If the Cunninghams' close harmony and occasional forays into exotica aren't your bag, you might want to check out singer Catherine Russell, who will be making her St. Louis debut as a headliner on Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Russell is sometimes referred to as "the daughter of jazz royalty," and you can find out more about that and see some video samples of her performing in this post from last Saturday. And if that piques your interest, you also should know that The Sheldon and Metrotix now are offering a discount on tickets to the concert.

Elsewhere around town on Saturday, saxophonist Jason Swagler, guitarist Eric Slaughter, bassist Nick Jost, and drummer Marty Morrison will take the stage at Robbie's House of Jazz; singer Tony Viviano returns to Talayna's of Chesterfield; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will play at the Old Rock House.

On Sunday, saxophonist Jim Stevens and band will perform in a matinee by the Mississippi at The Loading Dock in Grafton; and pianist Dave Venn will be holding forth at Pomme Café & Wine Bar.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the student jazz singers from Webster University will cap their semester with a performance at Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus.

Then on Tuesday, this spring's series of "Twilight Tuesday" concerts at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park gets underway with saxophonist Michael Fitzgerald offering "A Tribute to Miles Davis and David Sanborn"; and the SIUE Concert Jazz Band & Alumni, directed by Brett Stamps, will be back for another evening at Jazz at the Bistro.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Saxophonist and St. Louis native Eric Person has updated supporters who contributed via Kickstarter to his upcoming big band recording Thoughts On God.

Person reports that the 12-piece band assembled for the project (pictured) recorded the music on March 20 and 21, adding, "Next I will take pictures, then do some editing, mixing, mastering and then everything goes to Discmakers for the final pressing. The goal is to get this CD finished and out to the public by late June or the first week of July at the latest."

* The presenters of the U City Jazz Festival have been officially approved by the relvant state and federal authorities as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization under the name of Jazz Midwest. Brothers Michael and Rob Silverman, the organizers of the event and, respectively, keyboardist and drummer for Bach to the Future and the Classical Jazz Quartet, currently are planning the second edition of their fest, and say they plan to present additional jazz events in the future as well.

* The Sheldon Concert Hall has added a photo album of last night's concert by Bela Fleck & Flecktones to their Facebook page.

* Also on Facebook, Jazz St. Louis has posted a photo album documenting multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Payton's visit to Lindbergh High School. Payton continues at Jazz at the Bistro through Saturday night.

* Jazz St. Louis also has set Monday, June 4 and Monday, June 11 as the audtion dates for their 2012-13 JazzU program. Application materials must be postmarked by Friday, May 4. For more information on the JazzU program or to download an application, go to http://jazzstl.org/education-outreach/jazzu/.

* Pianist Laurence Hobgood, who will play the Bistro next Thursday with a quartet including saxophonist Ernie Watts, was interviewed by Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch.

* The next episode of HEC-TV's I Love Jazz will premiere Thursday, April 5, and will focus on The Cunninghams, the Las Vegas based jazz duo featuring percussionist, singer and St. Louis native Don Cunningham and his wife, singer and pianist Alicia Cunningham. Check your cable or satellite service program guide for the telecast schedule, or watch online at HEC's site.

* Record Store Day 2012 is scheduled for Saturday April 21, and local music retailers including Vintage Vinyl and Euclid Records will be celebrating in a big way with live bands, special limited-edition promotional releases, food and drink, and special guest DJs spinning in-store.

And speaking of guest DJ's, through some inexplicable concatenation of circumstances - my money's on either "someone lost a bet" or "egregious but momentary lapse of judgement" - yr. humble StLJN editor has been invited back to spin at Vintage Vinyl again for RSD 2012. I'll be presenting stacks of hot wax and/or the platters that matter for an hour starting at 5:00 p.m.; more details to follow.

(Edited 4/3/12 to add a missing word.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

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

* Don Cunningham of The Cunninghams (pictured) talked about their show tonight at the Sheldon Concert Hall to Calvin Wilson of the Post-Dispatch, and you can read that article online here.

* Trumpet legend and St. Louis native Clark Terry shared some thoughts on mentoring younger musicians with JazzEd magazine.

* Last week's unveiling of the statue of Chuck Berry in University City was covered by Terry Perkins for the St. Louis Beacon.

* The Miles Davis estate and Sony records are looking for input from fans on the next re-release package of the trumpeter's music.

* STLtoday.com has started aggregating content from local blogs on several section-header pages, and StLJN now is included on the music page's list of blogs. (Scroll down the page to see the feeds.) Thanks to Bob Rose of STLtoday/the Post-Dispatch and whoever else was responsible for the add.

Jazz this week: DMS with George Duke, Marcus Miller & David Sanborn, The Cunninghams, Tony Suggs, and more

This weekend's most noteworthy jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis are united by an element of homecoming, as three locals who have made good in the wider world will be back in town to play for the home folks. Here's what's happening:

On Friday, the vocal duo The Cunninghams return to St. Louis to perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall, presenting a mix of straight-ahead swinging jazz, Latin percussion, and a bit of exotica. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Don Cunningham is a former St. Louisan who was part of the Gaslight Square scene here during the 1960s before moving to Los Angeles, where he met, teamed up with professionally, and then married his wife Alicia, a singer and pianist. For more about the Cunninghams, check out this story I wrote about them for the Riverfront Times back in 2007.

Also on Friday, pianist Tony Suggs, the East St. Louis native who's held down the piano chair with the Count Basie Orchestra since 1999, will be back home in the St. Louis area, doing a trio performance at Robbie's House of Jazz. Suggs, who's also played electric jazz with trumpeters Russell Gunn and Roy Hargrove and recorded a couple of solo albums, will be joined by bassist Nick Jost and drummer Montez Coleman.

In other club performances this weekend, the Cigar Inn in Belleville will present MMR Jazz Syndicate on Friday; and on Saturday, Robbie's House of Jazz has the BCD Trio with pianist Brad Ellebrecht, bassist Chris Watrous and drummer Dave Mayo. Also on Saturday, guitarist Dave Black will do a couple of solo performances, in the afternoon at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood and in the evening at Mojo Tapas and Wine Bar on South Grand.

On Sunday. the funk-jazz supergroup DMS with keyboardist George Duke, bassist Marcus Miller, and saxophonist and St. Louis native David Sanborn (pictured) will play a concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis.

Sanborn talked with me about the DMS tour for an article on the Riverfront Times' music blog A to Z, which you can read here. There's also a "Critic's Pick" on the show in the print edition of the RFT, and you can read that online here. To see some videos of Sanborn and a recap of StLJN's coverage of him over the years, see this post, and for some clips of DMS performing during the first leg of their tour in May and June, see this post.

Also on Sunday, Bossanova Restaurant & Lounge in Alton will present their monthly jazz jam session, hosted by saxophonist Jason Swagler and guitarist Eric Slaughter's trio; and Good 4 The Soul will play an early evening show at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.

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.)

The Sheldon adds jazz to summer schedule

The Sheldon has added three performances to its summer schedule that may be of interest to StLJN readers:

* Singer Sylvia McNair will present a cabaret performance in the Sheldon's upstairs ballroom at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14.

McNair is known primarily for her work in classical music, but in recent years also has performed selections from "the Great American Songbook" and Broadway in cabaret settings like this one. (In fact, she did a similar program at the Sheldon last year at this time.) Tickets are $45 and are available now via Metrotix.

* Multi-instrumentalist Wayne Coniglio will perform with his band and guest trombonist Scott Whitfield for a live CD recording session at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 15 in the Sheldon's concert hall.

Whitfield is based in NYC and has extensive experience with both small groups and big bands, including the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, for whom he was lead trombonist for a decade. Coniglio, who plays both trombone and bass, will concentrate on the 'bone for this outing, and the band also will include Ken Kehner (piano), Eric Warren (bass) and Kevin Gianino (drums). Tickets are $10 at the door.

* Vocal duo The Cunninghams (pictured) will be "coming home one mo' time" for a performance at 8:00 p.m. Friday, August 5 in the concert hall.

Multi-instrumentalist Don Cunningham, a veteran of the Gaslight Square era in St. Louis, and his wife, singer and pianist Alicia Cunningham, currently live in Las Vegas but have returned to St. Louis to perform and reunite with old friends several times in recent years.

(The picture accompanying this post was taken at one of those previous shows at the Sheldon, and borrowed from the Cunninghams' MySpace page. They are standing at left, and also out front are, from left to right, singer Mae Wheeler, saxophonist Chuck Tillman and percussionist Percy James.)

For more about Don Cunningham and his history in St. Louis, see this post. Tickets for The Cunninghams' August 5 concert at the Sheldon are $25 and are on sale now via Metrotix.

Jazz this week: Christian McBride & Peter Martin, Hamiet Bluiett, The Cunninghams, Garage A Trois, Ben Sidran, and more

The fall presenting season of jazz and creative music in St. Louis gets off to a fast start this week, with season openers from three different concert series; homecoming visits from some St. Louis natives; and two local musicians with international reputations playing on local stages. Let's go to the highlights:

Tonight, Cabaret St. Louis opens its season with actress and singer Linda Purl's show "Come Rain or Come Shine," which runs through Saturday at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Then on Thursday, the jazz vocal duo The Cunninghams, featuring St. Louis native, multi-instrumentalist and Gaslight Square veteran Don Cunningham, make their way from their current home in Las Vegas back to the Gateway City for a concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall. For more about them and Don Cunningham's history in St. Louis, see this post.

Also on Thursday, the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University begins its fall schedule with a free outdoor concert on Brookings Quadrangle featuring the St. Louis Nu-Jazz Quintet.

On Friday, guitarist Eric Slaughter and his trio begin a two-night stand to open the fall season at Jazz at the Bistro; and the jazz-influenced experimental rock band Ahleuchatistas plays at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

Also on Friday, Robbie's House of Jazz will kick off their first-anniversary weekend with guitarist Daryl Darden, a St. Louis native who's back from California for a visit. Then on Saturday, the club presents baritone sax giant Hamiet Bluiett (pictured), who played for their opening weekend a year ago, with keyboardist Reggie Thomas. Bluiett is unquestionably one of the all-time great baritone saxophonists in jazz history, and any opportunity to hear him play, especially in an intimate venue like Robbie's, is worth seizing. It's a bit problematic this weekend, though, because Bluiett isn't the only internationally known St. Louis musician gigging locally on Saturday.

That same evening, pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series at the Sheldon Concert Hall via a duo performance with bassist Christian McBride. McBride is one of the most in-demand bassists on the music scene, and you can read more about him (and see and hear samples of his playing) here and here. To make this performance extra-special, Martin says they're planning on doing it without microphones - something possible only in an acoustically superior venue like the Sheldon, which was designed before mics and PA systems were even invented.

UPDATE, 10:00 a.m., 9/10/10: Martin talked to the Post-Dispatch's Calvin Wilson for a short feature about his duo concert with McBride, and you can read it online here. Also, Metrotix is offering a last-minute "buy one, get one free" deal on tickets for the concert. To access the offer, go online here and use promo code PM2010.

Choosing between the two aforementioned shows is tough, but I suppose one could always catch Martin and McBride, then hustle out to Webster Groves for Bluiett's second set, and in any event, there are worse problems to have. And as if that weren't enough for one evening, Saturday is also the night singer Denise Thimes headlines a benefit for the United Way at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club holds its annual picnic at the Concord Farmer's Club, 10140 Concord School Rd, with traditional jazz, swing and ragtime music from the Big Little Big Band, the St. Louis Banjo Club, and Bud Schulz and the You Can't Beat Experience Jazz Band with Polly Waddell.

That evening, pianist and singer Ben Sidran comes to town to talk and play at Kol Am Temple, 1023 Chesterfield Parkway in Chesterfield, with a CD and book signing to follow and KWMU's Dennis Owsley as MC.

Then on Monday, guitarist Steve Schenkel and friends perform at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium, and on Tuesday, the jam/funk/fusion band Garage A Trois takes the stage at the Old Rock House. (You can see some videos of Garage A Trois here.)

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.)

Jazz this week: The Cunninghams, Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, St. Louis Ragtimers, Dawn Weber, Erin Bode, and more

Though summer vacation season is officially underway, the next few days will offer St. Louis jazz fans a pretty fair number of musical choices during what's usually a relatively slow time of year.

Tonight, the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (pictured at left), a select ensemble of mostly teenage musicians from the West Coast that's touring the country this summer, stops in St. Louis for a performance at Jazz at the Bistro. The East St. Louis High School Jazz Band will open the show.

There are also a couple of noteworthy free concerts tonight, as trumpeter and singer Dawn Weber plays for the at Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and singer Erin Bode takes the stage for the Whitaker Urban Evenings concert series at St. Louis Place Park, located at St. Louis and Rauschenbach Avenues on the near North Side. Rounding out the musical menu for Thursday is drummer Joe Pastor's trio at the St. Louis Jazz Cafe.

On Friday and Saturday, Jazz at the Bistro will feature keyboardist Reggie Thomas' jazz-organ trio OGD, augmented for the occasion by the great tenor saxophonist Willie Akins, while the St. Louis Jazz Cafe has the Usual Suspects Quartet on Friday and smooth jazz saxophonist Tim Cunningham on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present a concert featuring the St. Louis Ragtimers plus special guest pianist Dr. Dave Majchrzak. Note that while yhis show originally had been announced as playing at one of the SLJC's longtime venues, the Moolah Shrine Center in Maryland Heights, it's been moved to a new location, the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield.

Then on Sunday night, the jazz vocal duo The Cunninghams (pictured at right) , featuring multi-instrumentalist and former St. Louisan Don Cunningham and his wife, singer and pianist Alicia Cunningham, will perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Now a resident of Las Vegas, Don Cunningham got his start in the music business in St. Louis' Gaslight Square, and this show is being billed as "Coming Home One Mo' Time," perhaps in recognition of the reduced touring schedule he and Alicia have adopted in recent years after spending the previous couple of decades criss-crossing the U.S., Asia and Europe as headliners of their own show and special guests with the Count Basie Orchestra.

I won't reiterate all of StLJN's previous coverage of the Cunninghams, because, hey, that's what links are for. Suffice it to say that they are fine musicians and old-school entertainers in the best possible sense, the sort of jazz veterans who should be heard and celebrated while the opportunity is still there, so go check 'em out.

As always, these are just some of the notable performances happening over the next several 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.)

Ronnie Laws, The Cunninghams coming to The Sheldon this summer

The Sheldon Concert Hall has added a couple of jazz shows to its summer schedule:

* Saxophonist Ronnie Laws (pictured at left) and singer Dee Brown will perform at the Sheldon on Wednesday, June 17 in a concert commemorating the 25th anniversary of the National Black MBA Association - St. Louis Chapter. Laws, a native of Houston, TX and the brother of flute player Hubert Laws, is perhaps known for his hit song "Always There" and has been performing recently in the group 3BT with fellow tenor men Wilton Felder (formerly of the Crusaders) and Gary Davis. He's touring solo this summer in support of his new CD Voices in the Water.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the STL-BMBAA's scholarship fund, which provides scholarships to high school, undergraduate and MBA students. VIP tickets, which are $125 and include a meet-and-greet with the artists, "deluxe hors' d'oeuvres" and a souvenir gift, can be purchased online at www.stlbmbaa.org or by calling 636-230-2404. Regular tickets are $65 and $50, and can be purchased through Metrotix.

* The husband-and-wife team The Cunninghams (pictured below) will be returning to St. Louis to perform on Sunday, July 12. Don Cunningham, a percussionist, saxophonist and singer, is a St. Louis native who started his music career here during the Gaslight Square era before going on the road with singer Johnny Mathis and subsequently relocating to the West Coast.

Nearly 40 years after its original release, Cunningham's locally produced album Something For Everyone, recorded live at the Playboy Club in St. Louis, became a favorite of acid-jazz DJs and crate-diggers around the world, eventually leading to its re-release on CD by Ubiquity Records. More recently, working as a duo with his wife Alicia, a classically trained singer and pianist, Cunningham has toured extensively throughout North America and Asia, headlining shows and appearing as special guests with the Count Basie Orchestra.

I had a chance to interview Don and Alicia Cunningham a couple of years ago before a previous show at The Sheldon, and they were most generous with their time and full of interesting stories about their travels, famous folks they've known, and, in Don's case, the Gaslight Square scene here in St. Louis. At that time, they said they planned to curtail their touring schedule somewhat, wanting to spend more time at their home in Las Vegas after a couple of decades of constant travel. It's good to see them making an exception to return to St. Louis. Tickets for The Cunninghams' "Coming Home One Mo' Time" show are $25 for general admission and are available via Metrotix.

(Edited 5/6/09 to fix a typo.)

Jazz this week: The Cunninghams, BAG II, Red Holloway, Erin Bode, and more

There's lots of good music on tap this weekend in the Gateway City, so let's go right to the highlights:

Tonight, The Cunninghams perform at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The jazz vocal duo - St. Louis native Don Cunningham and his wife Alicia - will be joined by a number of guest stars including the Carolbeth True Trio, pianist Marion Miller, and saxophonist Chuck Tillman, and you can read more about them here and here.

Also tonight, singer Erin Bode gives a free concert at St. Louis Place Park, with Bob Bennett's Swing 'n Soul as opening act.

On Friday, BAG II presents a free concert paying tribute to the late St. Louis saxophonist Maurice Malik King at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site. See this post for more details.

On Friday and Saturday, tenor saxophonist Red Holloway (pictured) performs at Jazz at the Bistro. Holloway's specialty is old-school bop & blues, and he's also got a nice touch with ballads, a satisfyingly greasy tone and a real sense of showmanship.

Other noteworthy shows this weekend: On Friday, Dizzy Atmosphere plays a free outdoor concert as part of the Webster Groves Gazebo Series, and bassist Tom Kennedy brings his trio to Brandt's. And on Saturday, singer Anita Rosamond returns to Finale Music and Dining, while Jeff Anderson and Positive Energy appear at Cookie's Jazz and More.

For a more extensive list of local jazz-related events, please see 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.)

Don & Alicia Cunningham to play at the Sheldon on Thursday, July 12

Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Don Cunningham, a former St. Louisan who now lives in Las Vegas and performs with his wife Alicia as The Cunninghams, is returning to his old home town to play the Sheldon Concert Hall on Thursday, July 12.

Working as a duo, the Cunninghams have performed with the Count Basie Orchestra, appeared with many other jazz luminaries in Las Vegas and on the West Coast, and toured as headliners in the U.S. and Japan. Their 1988 album Strings and Swing: I Remember Bird was nominated for a Grammy Award.

However, a whole different group of music fans, DJs, collectors and crate diggers also know Don Cunningham as the man who recorded Something For Everyone, a self-issued LP made in St. Louis way back in 1965 while Cunningham was performing at the Playboy Club. (The photo accompanying this post was taken during the session at the old Technisonic Studios. That's Cunningham playing percussion, with the late John Mixon on bass and Manny Quintero on drums.)

The album contained a track called "Tabu" that was reissued on a compilation, Hip City, released in 1995 by the West Coast label Luv "N Haight. It caught on with acid jazz DJs in Europe and Japan, leading to the 2003 reissue on CD of the entire album, which had an original vinyl pressing of just 500 copies.

The Cunninghams' current duo act showcases the vocal talents of both husband and wife, as well as Don's skills on percussion and saxophone. They interpret a variety of jazz favorites with their own arrangements of music from Basie, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Horace Silver, Charlie Parker and others. (You can read a review of a 2002 concert of theirs here.)

For their St. Louis performance, they'll be joined by Quintero on drums; pianist Marion Miller, who also played on Something for Everyone, and saxophonist Chuck Tillman.

Mae Wheeler, an old friend of Don Cunningham's, is producing the show as part of the Sheldon's Notes From Home series, and a portion of the proceeds will go to her scholarship fund for St. Louis students. Tickets are $25 and $30 in advance, and are on sale now via Metrotix.

(Edited after posting.)