Jazz St. Louis polling fans on next year's Bistro bookings

Once again this year, Jazz St. Louis is polling local jazz fans to find out who they'd like to see perform at Jazz at the Bistro.

The poll on the front page of the JSL site asks respondents to choose from a menu of musicians including Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Kevin Eubanks, Tia Fuller, Hilary Kole, Joe Lovano, Dafnis Prieto, Arturo Sandoval, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Tierney Sutton.

While there's no provision for write-in votes, JSL also has encouraged fans of the organization's Facebook page to comment and weigh in with their picks, which allows for more of an open-ended response, and presumably, they'll also factor in email, letters, phone calls and so on.

At this writing, Smith, Eubanks and Sandoval are the leading vote-getters, but the overall numbers are still relatively small, so more responses could easily move the vote in another direction. For what it's worth, yr. humble StLJN editor's picks would include Byron, Lovano, and Smith, with Prieto and Fuller not far behind.

Jazz St. Louis polling fans on who they'd like to see and hear

If you'd like to have some input into next season's lineup at Jazz at the Bistro, head on over to Jazz St. Louis' Web site and vote in their online poll that lists a number of artists who are apparently under consideration for future bookings.

You can cast a vote for Monty Alexander, Patricia Barber, Andy Bey, Richard Bona, Caribbean Jazz Project, Bill Charlap, Chiara Civello, Eliane Elias, Robert Glasper, Charlie Hunter, Stacey Kent, Jacky Terrasson, Trio da Paz, Sachal Vasandani, Steve Wilson or Miguel Zenon.

Of this group, I think I'd be most interested in hearing Charlap, Elias, Hunter and/or Wilson, but, as always, your mileage may vary. You can express your opinion in JSL's poll, and, if you feel so inclined, in the comments here as well.

(Edited 2/15/08 to add Miguel Zenon, whose name was inadvertently omitted.)