Jazz this week: Fuller, Jones & Wolf; "Swing Xing" with Bucky Pizzarelli; Jazz in Pink; and more

This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis features two different all-star groups of visiting musicians, a return visit from one of the more prominent all-female ensembles in jazz, and a number of noteworthy shows from local bands and players. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, saxophonist Tia Fuller (pictured), who's in town for a Jazz St. Louis educational residency and weekend gig at Jazz at the Bistro, will present a free workshop and performance at Saxquest; and the Gaslight Cabaret Festival resumes with singer/actress Sheri Sanders and her show "Rock It" at the Gaslight Theater.

Also tonight, Good 4 The Soul returns for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; and guitarists Tom Byrne and William Lenihan will play as a duo at Remy's Kitchen & Wine Bar.

Tomorrow night, Fuller, trumpeter Sean Jones and vibraphonist Warren Wolf will play for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro, supported by a St. Louis rhythm section of Peter Martin (piano), Jahmal Nichols (bass), and Montez Coleman (drums).

Jones and Wolf, like Fuller, are here this week doing educational residencies for Jazz St. Louis, and so since this is an ad hoc assembly rather than a regular working band, it's hard to say precisely what their repertoire will be. It seems likely that they'll draw on recent albums by the visitors - all three have recorded for the Mack Avenue label, with Wolf and Jones both releasing new CDs this year - but given the talent level, they should sound just fine no matter what they're playing.

Also on Friday, the Gaslight Cabaret Festival presents singer Carole J. Bufford in the first of two nights of her show "Body & Soul" at the Gaslight Theater. Bufford, who will be making her St. Louis debut with this show, was called “most likely to succeed” among the younger generation of New York cabaret performers by the New York Times' Stephen Holden.

Elsewhere around town, singer Erin Bode will perform at Nathalie's; singer Feyza Eren will be at the The Wine Press; and trumpeter Jim Manley returns to One 19 North Tapas & Wine Bar.

On Saturday, guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo will present their touring production "Swing Xing! Three Generations of Swing Guitar" at the Sheldon Concert Hall. For a preview of that performance and video footage of all three guitarists in action, check out this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play swing, jump blues and more at Nathalie's; and guitarist Tom Byrne's trio will perform at Thurman Grill.

On Sunday, Jazz St. Louis will begin their new weekly Sunday jazz brunch at the Bistro, with musical accompaniment from guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing.

Then that afternoon, the St. Louis Jazz Club will present the Funky Butt Brass Band at the DoubleTree  Hilton at Westport, where perhaps concertgoers will get a live preview of some of the material from the FBBB's forthcoming album Sugar Sugar Whomp Whomp.

Right around the time that show wraps up, Jazz in Pink will be getting underway at the Sheldon Concert Hall, as the all-female band returns to St. Louis to play another benefit performance for Community Women Against Hardship.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the Webster University Jazz Collective, featuring members of Webster's jazz faculty, will perform at Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus; and guitarist Dave Black and singer Joe Mancuso will return to BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

Then on Tuesday, the SIUE Concert Jazz Band, directed by guitarist Rick Haydon, and the recently formed SIUE Alumni Jazz Band will share the stage for a performance at Jazz at the Bistro, playing "your favorite charts from Basie, Ellington, and beyond."

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: A trip to "Swing Xing" with Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo

If you enjoy jazz guitar played in a traditional style, today's post might be right up your alley, as we feature not one, not two, but three guitarists - Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo - who will be performing together in a show called "Swing Xing: Three Generations of Jazz Guitar" next Saturday, November 15 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Pizzarelli, who will turn 89 in January, is of course one of the elder statesmen on his instrument, with credits including untold numbers of recordings, television and radio appearances, and live gigs stretching back nearly seven decades. He's also the father of singer-guitarist John Pizzarelli, and it was with his son that he performed most recently in St. Louis last December at Jazz at the Bistro.

Vignola also has headlined at the Bistro with his own band and with Raniolo, performing most recently at the club in May 2012. The three have worked together informally on various occasions and joined forces officially to tour with the "Swing Xing" show last year.

Unfortunately, there seem to be only a few videos online of all three guitarists playing together in the format they'll be using at the Sheldon, and we've already shared one of the best ones here as part of StLJN's fall 2014 jazz preview. So instead, here's a selection of clips featuring them in other combinations.

The first four videos, starting up above and continuing after the jump, all were recorded at Pizzarelli's 88th birthday celebration in January of this year at the Cutting Room in NYC, and feature him jamming on a series of standards with Vignola and fellow guitarists Ed Laub and Gene Bertoncini.

Below that, there are a couple of clips of Vignola and Raniolo performing as a duo. The first is a medley of "Summertime," "I Found A New Baby" and "Gypsymania" recorded last year in Wuppertal, while the second is described as "a classical medley with a twist," and was recorded last year in Ireland during Cloughtoberfest, an annual festival of gypsy jazz and swing.

For more of Bucky Pizzarelli, check out this Saturday video showcase that ran before his last appearance here, and for more of Vignola and Raniolo, see this one.

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

Sheldon Concert Hall announces 2014-15 season schedule

The Sheldon Concert Hall today announced the schedules for their various 2014-15 subscription series and special concerts, and as usual, there's some programming that will be of interest to StLJN readers.

With regard to the Sheldon's main jazz series, as tipped here on StLJN back in December 2013, it will get underway this fall with concerts featuring pianist Chick Corea (Saturday, October 11) and guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo (Saturday, November 15).

Also on tap for the jazz series is the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience (Saturday, March 21, 2015), which is led by the late, legendary trumpeter's former bassist John Lee. The current iteration of the group also includes Mario "Machito Jr." Grillo, son of the famed percussionist, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, who's played in the Gillespie memorial big band and worked with former St. Louisan Oliver Lake, among others; plus saxophonist Sharel Cassity, guitarist Yotam Silberstein, and drummer Robby Ameen.

Perhaps the most intriguing jazz series offering is the final one, as the much-talked-about singer Cécile McLorin Salvant (pictured) will make her St. Louis debut at the Sheldon on Saturday, May 2, 2015.

Winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Vocals Competition, the 24-year-old Salvant was raised in Miami but went to Paris to study music. After winning the Monk competition, her career gained momentum in the States thanks to her work with pianist Jacky Terrasson and with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and took off in earnest with the release last year of her American debut album WomanChild.

As for the rest of the Sheldon's 2014-15 schedule, pianist Peter Martin will continue his eponymous series with concerts on Friday, November 21 and Friday, February 27, with the specifics of both programs TBA.

Also returning will be the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound*, whose first performance of their third St. Louis season will be as part of "250 Years of St. Louis Music: American Music at its Best!" a special event on Friday, October 17 that also will include jazz, blues, ragtime and more from Denise Thimes, Peter Martin, Kim Massie, Billy Peek, and other St. Louis favorites.

On their own, AWS will perform in concert on Saturday, December 11 - tentatively scheduled to be the North American premiere of Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's extended work The Hunger - and on Friday, January 23 and Thursday, May 28, 2015.

The Coffee Concerts series will include performances from Cornet Chop Suey (Tuesday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 8) and Swing Set (Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22, 2015), and the St. Louis Stompers will play a non-subscription Coffee Concert on Tuesday, February 10, 2015. Miss Jubilee also will put in an appearance, playing an 11 a.m. Saturday matinee on March 7, 2015.

Lastly, a couple of the "special concerts" may be of interest as well. South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela will perform with singer Vusi Mahlasela in a program called "20 Years of Freedom" on Saturday, October 4, and though the evening ostensibly will focus on "South Africa’s Freedom Songs," I'll bet you a nickel that Masekela finds a way to work in a bit of "Grazin' In The Grass" before the night is over.

Also, fans of big band, Latin jazz and/or Brazilian music may want to check out SpokFrevo Orquestra on Sunday, November 2. Led by Brazilian saxophonist Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, aka Spok, the 18-piece big band mixes jazz with frevo, a carnival rhythm and musical genre popular in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

Subscription tickets for the jazz series are $150 orchestra, $135 balcony. Subscriptions also are available for the Coffee Concerts and Peter Martin series. New subscriptions will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Monday, May 12 and continue through the first concert in each series.

Single tickets for the jazz series range from $35 to $50, and will go on sale at 10:00 a.m. Saturday,August 9 via MetroTix. You can find all the details on subscriptions, single ticket prices, and all the various series at the Sheldon on their website. 

* As mentioned here several times before, yr. humble StLJN editor is employed by a local public relations firm to, among other things, assist Alarm Will Sound with publicity in St. Louis and Columbia, MO. However, given the scope of StLJN's coverage, I'd be mentioning them even if I wasn't working for them. Now that you know this information, I trust that you, the reader, are capable of making your own judgments about any AWS-related hype and/or potential conflicts of interest.

Pollstar: Sheldon's 2014-15 season to include Chick Corea, guitarists Pizzarelli, Vignola & Raniolo

While it's not quite a glimpse into Christmas Future, there's a bit of news for St. Louis jazz fans this holiday week, as the online touring information service Pollstar has added listings for two jazz performances next fall at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Pollstar says pianist Chick Corea will perform at the Sheldon on Saturday, October 11, while "Swing Xing: Three Generations of Swing Guitar," with Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola, and Vinny Raniolo, will be the featured attraction on Saturday, November 15.

Corea (pictured) appeared in St. Louis most recently in March of this year, playing a duo concert with Bela Fleck at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. Pizzarelli was here just last week, performing duets with his son John Pizzarelli at Jazz at the Bistro, while Vignola and Raniolo did a duo show here in May of last year at the Bistro.

As always, listings on Pollstar should be considered unconfirmed until officially announced by the presenter or venue. The Sheldon usually announces the schedule for their various season series in April.

Jazz this week: Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo, Madeleine Peyroux, Eastern Blok, Marcus Lewis, Miles Davis Jazz Festival, and more

The week's schedule of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers a wide variety of sounds and sights, including Balkan-tinged guitar, funk trombone, fusion harp, saxophone-playing twins, a festival featuring St. Louis musicians paying tribute to our area's most famous jazz icon, and much more. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, guitarist Goran Ivanovic and his band Eastern Blok are coming down from Chicago to play a show at Pop's Blue Moon celebrating the release of their new CD Underwater.

Also tonight, trombonist Marcus Lewis is in town to perform at Robbie's House of Jazz. The Georgia native, who's toured with the Ohio Players and singer Janelle Monae, has a new album of his own called Facing East.

On Friday, the guitar duo of Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo plays the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Vignola's played the Bistro before, in 2008 and 2009, but this is the first time he's performed there in the duo format. For more about him and a taste of what he and Raniolo are up to, check out the videos in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Friday, jazz harpist Jan Aldridge Clark, who's from Indianpolis, will perform at Robbie's; the Funky Butt Brass Band plays the Broadway Oyster Bar; and singer Zena Bott-Goins is at the Cigar Inn, backed by bassist Ryan Chamberlain, pianist Nathan Jatcko and drummer Marty Morrison.

On Saturday afternoon, Vignola will conduct a guitar workshop at City Music and Education Center.

A little later that afternoon, the Alton Museum of History and Art will present the seventh annual Miles Davis Jazz Festival at Trimpe Hall, Lewis & Clark Community College, 5800 Godfrey Rd in Godfrey, IL. The featured performers this year are saxophonist Fred Walker, trumpeter Jim Manley, the Soulard Blues Band, and singer Danita Mumphard with Trio Trés Bien. Tickets are $25 at the door.

Also on Saturday, guitarist Eric Slaughter leads a quartet at Robbie's; and the Bosman Twins will play their annual "Jazz and Blues Reunion" show at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups. The multi-woodwind-playing siblings will be joined by drummer Mike Scavatto, keyboardist Don Carson (who's in from Atlanta) and bassist J. Michael Kearsey (from Portland).

On Sunday, singer/guitarist Madeleine Peyroux (pictured) makes her St. Louis debut at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Peyroux, who's noted for a vocal style resembling Billie Holiday, began her career busking in Paris, and first came to wide public attention thanks to her 2005 album Careless Love. The Sheldon and Metrotix have a "buy one, get one free" offer on tickets for her concert; for details on that, go here.

Also on Sunday, the Saint Louis Jazz Club presents a matinee concert by the St. Louis Ragtimers at the DoubleTree Hotel at Westport.

Looking beyond the weekend, on Monday the group Banjos & Brass will perform a concert at the Staenberg Arts & Education Building of the Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Dr.; and pianist Dave Becherer's group is at BB's.

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.)

(Edited 5/18/12 to add the Saint Louis Jazz Club concert.)

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo

Today, let's sample a half-dozen video clips featuring the guitar duo of Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo, who will be in St. Louis next week to perform Friday, May 18 and Saturday, May 19 at Jazz at the Bistro. Vignola also will be presenting a guitar workshop on Saturday afternoon at City Music and Education Center.

Both have played here before, most recently with Vignola's quintet in 2009 at the Bistro. Vignola also recorded a live DVD at the Bistro in 2008, and has yet another St. Louis connection, in that he's written 15 instructional books on various aspects of guitar playing for our town's Mel Bay Publications.

The basic idea of the sort of guitar duo that Vignola and Raniolo are doing has been around in jazz since the 1930s, but they've developed their own take on the format, adding their own harmonic, melodic and arranging touches, and also incorporating interpretations of material from outside - sometimes well outside - the traditional repertoire.

You can start to get the idea while watching the first clip up above, taken from a performance at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show earlier this year. It's a medley that starts and ends traditionally enough, with "Tico Tico" and "Gypsy Mania," but somewhere in the middle there, the guitarists interpolate both the theme from the film The Godfather and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

There's another combination of traditional and contemporary in the first video down below, as Vignola and Raniolo pair the standard "Stardust" with "Killing Me Softly," made famous by Roberta Flack. This clip was recorded in February 2011 at the Midwest Mid-Winter Gypsy Swing Festival in Madison WI, as was the following clip, which includes a version of the Ventures' "Walk Don't Run," the 1950s hit "Perfidia" and more.

More evidence of the pair's eclectic nature can be found in the fourth clip, taken from a live performance on radio station WMWV in New Hampshire, and titled "A Little Zappa, A Little Mozart." We close out with two more clips showing Vignola and Raniolo applying their chops to rock songs, specifically Kansas' "Dust In The Wind" and the Police's "Walking On The Moon."

.