Jazz this week: All Angles Orchestra, River City Mess Around, Good 4 The Soul, and more

The calendar of upcoming live jazz and creative music events over the next several days in St. Louis includes a weekend-long gathering of swing dancers from around the country; a jazz tribute to Prince; the local debut of a genre-spanning big band touring in support of their first album; and more. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, July 5
The big band in question would be the All Angles Orchestra (pictured, top left), a Colorado-based group whose tour in support of their recently released debut album includes a stop here at the Grandel Theatre.

Led by arranger, composer and trombonist Michael Conrad, the 15-member group includes orchestral woodwinds, a string quartet, a mix of brass instruments, and a jazz rhythm section, performing Conrad's original music that "forces the classical and jazz worlds to collide."

The concert is free and open to the public as a part of the weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl," which also includes live music with no admission charge at four other venues in the district.

Elsewhere around town, singer Feyza Eren will lead a trio at Evangeline's and trumpeter Jim Manley will be doing his weekly gig at Sasha's Wine Bar.

Thursday, July 6
The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University begins their "Jazz in July" concerts with a performance by keyboard player and singer Curt Landes; and trumpeter Keith Moyer will bring his quintet to The Dark Room.

Friday, July 7
Jazz/funk quartet Good 4 The Soul (pictured, center left) will play the music of Prince for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro; and the Funky Butt Brass Band will perform for the free Friday evening "Jungle Boogie" concert series at the St. Louis Zoo

Also on Friday, swing dancers from around the country will be in St. Louis for the start of the "River City Mess Around," an annual summer event presented by the St. Louis Jitterbugs. (For a look at the St. Louis 'vintage jazz' scene, including some of the local bands performing for the Mess Around, see this post from last Saturday.)

The festivities officially get underway on Friday with a performance by Tommy Halloran�s Guerrilla Swing at the City Museum, and continue throughout the weekend. (In addition to the events mentioned here on StLJN, there are "unofficial" pre- and after-parties, and more. See the link above for full details.)

Saturday. July 8
The "River City Mess Around" continues with a daytime dance featuring music from The Gaslight Squares at the Lemp Mansion pavilion, and an evening event with sounds from Miss Jubilee at the Webster Groves Masonic Lodge

Sunday, July 9
The "River City Mess Around" officially concludes with another daytime dance featuring the Nashville-based Moonshine Rhythm Club (pictured, bottom left) at 2720 Cherokee; and the Coleman Hughes Project will perform for the "Soulful Sundays" series at the National Blues Museum downtown.

Monday, July 10
Dizzy Atmosphere plays for diners at The Shaved Duck, and Miss Jubilee will be the featured performer with the Compton Heights Concert Band in a free concert at Tower Grove Park.

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.)

All Angles Orchestra to perform Wednesday, July 5 at Grandel Theatre

The All Angles Orchestra is coming to St. Louis to perform at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 5 at the Grandel Theatre.

Based in Colorado, the 15-piece ensemble is led by trombonist, composer, and arranger Mike Conrad, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music who in recent years has won four ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards and five Downbeat Student Music Awards for composition and arranging.

Eschewing the traditional instrumentation of a jazz big band, the All Angles Orchestra (pictured) instead "forces the classical and jazz worlds to collide" with a "combination of orchestral woodwinds, a string quartet, a mix of brass instruments, and a jazz rhythm section." 

They're touring a half-dozen Midwestern cities in July in support of their debut album New Angle, which is set for release at the end of this month. The recording features all original music and arrangements by Conrad and other members of the group, including trumpeter and St. Louis native Greg Weis and pianist Thomas Amend. It also includes guest performances from NYC trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, who's worked with Dave Holland, Mingus Dynasty, Michael Brecker and others, but is not part of the tour.

The All Angles Orchestra's concert at the Grandel Theatre is free and open to the public. You can hear some samples of their music on their Bandcamp page, and see some brief performance excerpts and interview segments in the promotional video clip below.