Has the dreadful winter of 2014 finally released its icy grip on the St. Louis area? We can only hope so, because there's a lot of interesting jazz and creative music to hear around town over the next few days. Let's go to the highlights...
Tonight, bassist
Christian McBride begins a four-night stand at
Jazz at the Bistro, this time with the latest iteration of his trio, featuring drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. and the up-and-coming pianist Christian Sands.
Their first album together,
Out Here, was released last August as McBride's fifth recording for Mack Avenue Records. With a sound firmly "in the tradition," it's gotten generally positive reviews, as has their live show, which the
New York Times' Ben Ratliff
called "constant sleek fun, organized and coordinated."
Elsewhere around town tonight, the
Route 66 Jazz Orchestra returns to
Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, and
Cabaret Project St. Louis will present their monthly open mic night at the
Tavern of Fine Arts.
Tomorrow night, actor/singer
Ken Page, a St. Louis native who starred in the original companies of
Ain't Misbehavin',
Cats, and other Broadway hits, opens the
Gaslight Cabaret Festival with the first of two performances of his show "Old, New, Borrowed & Blue" at the
Gaslight Theater. The festival continues through April 26, and you can hear more about that and Page's show during
this interview he did last week with KWMU's "Cityscape" program.
Also on Thursday night, the Rainbow Band, a quartet with guitarists
William Lenihan and
Vincent Varvel, bassist Eric Stiller, and drummer Steve Davis, will play a free concert for
Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.
On Friday, vibraphonist
Peter Schlamb leads a trio at
Robbie's House of Jazz; keyboardist
Matt Villinger brings his group to
The Engine Room; Second Generation Swing plays for dancers at
Casa Loma Ballroom;
Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will perform at
CJ Muggs in Webster Groves; and pianist
Peter Schankman will present a trio concert at the Kranzberg Arts Center.
On Saturday,
New Music Circle will present multi-instrumentalist
Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society at Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave. in the Central West End. As a bassist, Abrams is a mainstay of Chicago's improvised music scene, but the Natural Information Society is something a bit different, as it's built around his work on the guimbri, a three-string acoustic bass from west Africa.
The band's lineup for this concert will include drummers Frank Rosaly and Mikel Avery, Emmett Kelly on electric guitar, Ben Boye on autoharp and Lisa Alvarado on harmonium. For more about Abrams and some video footage of the band in action, check out
this post from last Saturday. Abrams also was
interviewed for a preview story by
St. Louis magazine's Stef Russell, and the show even is the subject of
a full-page cartoon in this month's issue of Eleven magazine.
Also on Saturday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival continues with St. Louis' own
Tim Schall performing his show "1961" at the Gaslight Theater; singer
Feyza Eren and pianist Scott Sheperd will duet at
The Wine Press; saxophonist
Mike Fitzgerald returns to
Jazz On Broadway; and the
Funky Butt Brass Band headlines an evening of funk at
The Gramophone
On Sunday, the Coleman-Hughes Project will play smooth jazz, R&B, and more at
Nathalie's; and the
Dave Dickey Big Band will be back for their monthly gig at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company.
Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday faculty members from Webster University will join together as the Webster Jazz Collective for a concert at Winifred Moore Auditorium on the main campus in Webster Groves; and saxophonist
"Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will return to
BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups.
Then on Tuesday, guitarist
Dave Black will be featured in a "Notes From Home" show at the
Sheldon Concert Hall, aided and abetted by violinist Asako Kuboki, saxophonist Paul DeMarinis, singer Joe Mancuso, bassist Willem von Hombracht, and drummer Steve Davis.
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.)
