Jazz this week: Take 6, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bonerama, Xmas jazz around town, and more

It's going to be a busy few days for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and though a couple of high-profile shows are sold out (or nearly so), there's still going to be plenty of music - holiday and other - available on local stages. Let's go to the highlights.

Wednesday, December 13
Acappella vocal group Take 6 returns for the first of four nights at Jazz at the Bistro. The run of shows was described by Jazz St. Louis on Tuesday as "nearly sold out," so if you want to hear the multiple Grammy winners in the intimate confines of the Bistro, you'll definitely need to call ahead for advance reservations, and perhaps a bit of luck as well.

As an alternative, you can see a live video stream of Wednesday's shows in the first floor lounge on the west side of Jazz St. Louis HQ, available with no cover charge in conjunction with the free, weekly "Grand Center Jazz Crawl".

This week's crawl also features the Jazz Troubadours at The Stage at KDHX, plus the jam session led by bassist Bob DeBoo at the Kranzberg Arts Center and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor's band at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, the musical show "An Unforgettable Nat King Cole Christmas" resumes its run,  continuing with performances through Sunday afternoon at the Playhouse at Westport Plaza.

Thursday, December 14
Singer Dianne Reeves, who had been scheduled to headline "Gospel Christmas: A Soulful Celebration" with the St. Louis Symphony at Powell Hall, announced on Thursday that she would be unable to perform due to an unspecified health issue. Simultaneously, the SLSO announced that the show would go on as scheduled, with St. Louis' own Brian Owens standing in for Reeves.

Also on Thursday, singer Erin Bode will be in Edwardsville for a holiday concert at the Wildey Theatre; guitarist Dave Black will play at The Pat Connolly Tavern; and trumpeter Keith Moyer and his quintet return to The Dark Room

Friday, December 15
Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (pictured, top left) will be back for what has become an annual convening here of his Gong Orchestra, in which he teams up with and trains a group of local musicians in specific techniques for each performance.  This year's edition, presented at the William A Kerr Foundation on the riverfront, will feature a solo percussion set by Nakatani, followed by the Gong Orchestra set with him and 14 collaborators from St. Louis.

Also on Friday, the Funky Butt Brass Band kicks off their annual "Holiday Brasstravaganza" weekend at Off Broadway. As of this writing, a few tickets may remain for Friday, but the Saturday night show and a newly added, family friendly Saturday matinee are already sold out.

Elsewhere around town, the Original Knights of Swing play for dancers at the Casa Loma Ballroom; singer Feyza Eren performs at the house concert venue KindaBlue Club; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes will play vintage swing, jump blues and more at the Venice Cafe

Saturday, 
December 16
New Orleans' trombone-centric band Bonerama (pictured, bottom left) returns to perform at The Bootleg at Atomic Cowboy.

Currently touring in support of their new album Hot Like Fire - their first release as part of a new deal with New Orleans' Basin Street Records - Bonerama have been regular visitors to St. Louis for most of this decade, playing at venues including the Old Rock House, Broadway Oyster Bar and The Sheldon. If you've missed out on their brass/funk/rock sound up until now, you can find our more and see some video samples of recent performances in this post from last Saturday. 

Also on Saturday, Wack-A-Doo returns to Evangeline's; saxophonist Dave Stone's trio will play at Thurman's in Shaw; and Miss Jubilee performs at the Casa Loma Ballroom .

Sunday, December 17
There's more holiday jazz in the offing, as the Oikos Ensemble presents "Jazz Noel: A Child is Born" at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, while the Dave Dickey Big Band celebrates a "Big Band Christmas" with singer Anita Jackson and guest intermission performers, the North County HS Jazz Ensemble, at .ZACK in Grand Center.

Monday, December 18
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays his weekly Monday night gig at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, December 19
Still more holiday jazz on tap, as the Jazz St. Louis Big Band will play Duke Ellington's "Nutcracker" Suite (plus additional Ellingtonia) for the first of three nights at Jazz at the Bistro, and The 442s present their "Holiday Spectacular" at 560 Music Center

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: Bonerama puts low brass on top

This week, StLJN's video spotlight shines on Bonerama, who will be back in St. Louis to perform on Saturday, December 16 at The Bootleg at Atomic Cowboy.

The New Orleans-based band puts the low brass on top, thanks to a three-trombone front line plus a sousaphone standing in for electric bass. Formed in 1998 by trombonists Mark Mullins and Craig Klein, both veterans of Harry Connick Jr.'s big band, they've forged a distinctive sound that incorporates their hometown musical traditions into funky yet hard-rocking covers of songs by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, using trombones to deliver the heavy riffs originally played by fuzzed-out guitars.

Bonerama tours frequently outside their hometown, and have been coming to St. Louis at least once a year since the late 2000s, playing several different venues including the Broadway Oyster Bar and the Old Rock House. Most recently, since their last visit here in early 2016, they signed with the New Orleans-based Basin Street Records and in October released Hot Like Fire, their first album for the label.

If you haven't been able to catch one of their previous shows here, you can sample their sound and get an idea of what to expect from their live show via today's collection of videos, starting up above with "Swamped In," recorded in May 2016 at Generations Hall in New Orleans for the local TV program New Orleans Live.

After the jump, you can see a video of "Mr. Okra," Bonerama's tribute to a beloved local New Orleans character/vegetable vendor, that was recorded for the same program.

That's followed by two clips shot in April 2016 at the CrawDebauchery Food & Music Festival in Pompano Beach, FL, namely Bonerama's storied "Led Zeppelin Medley: In My Time Of Dying~Black Dog~Good Times Bad Times" and a cover of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android."

Lastly, if you're ready for more after that, you can see videos of two complete Bonerama shows, recorded in February of this year at Ardmore Music Hall in Ardmore, PA (near Philadelphia) and in September at the Blues, Views and BBQ Festival in Westport, CT.

For more about Bonerama and Hot Like Fire, check out the two short interview features about them published in October by Offbeat magazine and CEGPresents.com.

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

Jazz this week: Rebirth Brass Band, Shotgun Jazz Band with Charlie Halloran, and more

With the start of the fall presenting season still a couple of weeks away, the schedule of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis is a bit light this weekend, but it does feature two bands bringing a bit of New Orleans to our town, plus some other noteworthy shows.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 30
Pianist Carolbeth True and Two Times True with saxophonist Larry Johnson will perform at Evangeline's, and this week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" features Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe, a jam session with bassist Bob Deboo and friends at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Thursday, August 31
Up for the weekend from New Orleans, the Shotgun Jazz Band - with St. Louis native Charlie Halloran on trombone - will play the first show of their visit at Joe's Cafe & Gallery.

Also on Thursday, Animal Children will perform at The Dark Room, and pianist and singer Jesse Gannon plays solo at The Monocle.

Friday, September 1
Also visiting this weekend from New Orleans, the Rebirth Brass Band (pictured, top left) returns to headline an outdoor show at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion,  with support from fellow New Orleans denizens Dumpstaphunk. You can get a taste of Rebirth's contemporary spin on the traditional brass band sound via video in this post from a couple of weeks ago.

Elsewhere around town, singer-guitarist Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing will play a free show at Eckert's Country Store & Farms in Belleville; singer Meghan Kirk performs her cabaret show "Out of My Head" at The Stage at KDHX; and Cafe Danza, featuring guitarist Farshid Etniko and multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman. will promote their new recording with a concert at Focal Point.

And although it's not a jazz event per se, StLJN readers also may be interested in the Big Muddy Blues Festival, which gets underway on Friday and will feature performances from dozens of local acts throughout the weekend.

Saturday, September 2
Shotgun Jazz Band plays their second show of the weekend, this time at Focal Point; and keyboardist Mo Egeston and friends will keep up the late night grooves at The Dark Room.

Sunday, September 3
The Friends of Scott Joplin present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" matinee at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe; Wright's Project play jazz-fusion and funk at Patois Eatery & Social Lounge (in the space formerly occupied by the Rustic Goat at 2617 Washington Ave downtown), and the Genesis Jazz Project with guest vocalist Joe Mancuso will play straight-ahead and modern jazz at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups

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 Rebirth Brass Band

This week, let's take a look at some videos of New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band, who will be coming back to St. Louis to perform on Friday, September 1 at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

Formed in 1983 by brothers Keith and Phillip Frazier, Rebirth Brass Band is, along with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one of the longest running of the contemporary groups re-inventing the New Orleans brass band tradition. Their most recent recording is 2014�s Move Your Body on the Basin Street Records label, which was the follow-up to their 2012 Grammy Award-winning album Rebirth of New Orleans, and they were here in St. Louis last in September 2016 for a show at the same venue.

Today, you can see a half-dozen videos featuring some fan favorites from RBB's repertoire, starting up above with a version of one of their signature songs, "Do Whatcha Wanna," recorded in 2014 in New Orleans for the web series Jam in the Van.

After the jump, there's a video of "Move Your Body" recorded at the same session, followed by a full set of music recorded in 2012 at the Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans.

The fourth video shows the RBB doing their version of the New Orleans standard "Big Chief," recorded in 2011 at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans.

Next is a medley of two more of their best-known tunes,  "Rebirth Groove" and "Feel Like Funkin It Up," recorded in February 2014 at The Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton, FL.

The final clip is a riff on another New Orleans classic, "I Like It Like That," recorded in 2011 for the radio program "Soundcheck" on WNYC in New York City.

For more about the Rebirth Brass Band, check out Keith Frazier's 2015 interview with HollywoodSoapbox.com and this 2012 feature from Gambit.

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

Jazz this week: Samora Pinderhughes, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the local debut of a much-talked-about young pianist and composer, the return of one of the jam-band circuit's funk-jazz favorites, and more.

Let's go to the highlights....

Wednesday, July 19
Drummer Kevin Bowers will reconvene the large cast of his Brazilian-influenced, imaginary-movie-soundtrack project NOVA in a free concert for the Missouri Botanical Garden's Whitaker Music Festival. 

Elsewhere around town, though the Curtain Call Lounge has withdrawn from the "Grand Center Jazz Crawl," - apparently permanently, according to StLJN's source - the event goes on as usual, with live jazz and no cover charge at three locations in the district. 

This week, you can hear guitarist Tom Byrne and keyboardist Nathan Jatcko this week at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe; the jam session with bassist Bob DeBoo and friends at Kranzberg Arts Center; and two separate shows at The Dark Room at the Grandel Theatre, with saxophonist Lew Winer playing from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor from 9:00 p.m. to midnight.

Thursday July 20
Pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes (pictured, top left) with special guest trumpeter Christian Scott will perform at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

NPR devoted an episode of "Jazz Night in America" earlier this year to Pinderhughes' debut recording The Transformations Suite, and this will be his first St. Louis gig as a bandleader, playing music "inspired by" the soundtrack he wrote for the documentary film Whose Streets?. For more about Pinderhughes, and his socially-conscious brand of jazz, plus the complete Transformations Suite and some other performances on video, see this post from last Saturday. 

Also in the Grand Center district, Cabaret Project St. Louis presents their monthly "Broadway Open Mic," temporarily relocated to The Stage at KDHX; and saxophonist Ben Reece�s Unity Quartet will perform at The Dark Room.

Elsewhere around town, the Funky Butt Brass Band will play a free show outside the St. Louis Public Library downtown, and drummer Maurice Carnes leads a group featuring Dallas pianist Myles Tate in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.

Friday, July 21
Saxophonist Karl Denson's Tiny Universe returns for an early-evening outdoor show at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion. Though the heat is expected to be stifling, expect a big audience of young fans ready to party with Denson's crowd-friendly grooves.

For a look at what Denson and Tiny Universe (pictured, bottom left) have been up to since they were in St. Louis a year ago, check out this post from a couple of Saturdays ago.

Also on Friday, drummer Montez Coleman celebrates his birthday with the first of two nights of shows at Jazz at the Bistro. He'll be joined by a band including Adaron Pops Jackson (organ), Adam Maness (piano), Eric Slaughter (guitar), Jason Swagler (alto sax), and Ben Wheeler (bass), with Anita Jackson singing on Friday night and Brian Owens on Saturday.

Elsewhere around town, guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran will play a free show at Ritz Park on South Grand; singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black return to The Wolf in Ballwin; and Wack-A-Doo will play swing, vintage jazz and Americana at Evangeline's.

Saturday, July 22
Dizzy Atmosphere returns to Missouri Botanical Garden for another "Garden of Glass" event; The WirePilots will have multi-instrumentalist Sandy Weltman as their special guest for a performance at the Webster Groves Concert Hall; and Sarah Jane and the Blue Notes return to the Venice Cafe.

Sunday, July 23
The St. Louis Jazz Club presents the St. Louis Stompers in a matinee performance at the Moolah Shrine Center, and Community Women Against Hardship's summer benefit at Ferring Jazz Bistro will feature Detroit-based saxophonist Yancyy with an ensemble including singer Anita Jackson, pianist Tony Suggs, bassist Jeff Anderson, and drummer Montez Coleman.

Monday, July 24
Trumpeter Jim Manley will play for diners and drinkers at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, July 25
Pianist Pat Joyce returns to Evangeline's, and saxophonist "Blind" Willie Dineen and the Broadway Collective will be back for their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups.

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: Karl Denson's Tiny Universe revisited

This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring saxophonist and singer Karl Denson and his band Tiny Universe, who are coming back to St. Louis for a gig on Friday, June 21 at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

After an absence of nearly six years, KDTU were here most recently in December of last year for a show at the Old Rock House, and Denson's back story was recapped in a Saturday video post preceding that gig.

Given that previous coverage, today's post will skip straight to a selection of recent performances recorded since then featuring the current Tiny Universe lineup, which in addition to Denson on tenor sax, flute, and vocals includes Alan Evans of Soulive on drums, plus Chris Littlefield (trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals), Chris Stillwell (bass), David Veith (keyboards), and Seth Freeman (guitar).

Given all the time Denson has spent playing the jam band circuit, it shouldn't be surprising that a Grateful Dead song or two has found its way into the Tiny Universe repertoire, as you can see in the first video up above, a version of the Dead's "West LA Fadeaway" recorded in May of this year at the 930 Club in Washington, DC.

After the jump, Denson reaches back for a truly deep cut with a cover of "Funky On My Back," first recorded by the San Francisco band Cold Blood in 1970, and seen here in a video made at a show in January at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Next up are a couple of full sets, the first recorded in June of this year at Ardmore Music Hall in Philadelphia, and the second from last December in Asheville, NC, for which Denson and company are augmented by guitarists DJ Williams and Jimmy Herring.

Herring and Williams also are both on board for the last two clips, versions of the Brecker Brothers' "Some Skunk Funk" and Steely Dan's "Showbiz Kids" that were recorded in December of last year at Terminal West in Atlanta.

For more about what Karl Denson and Tiny Universe have been up to recently, check out this review of Denson's 60th birthday show in San Francisco from PopMatters.com, and this brief interview with Riff magazine.

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

Rebirth Brass Band to perform Friday, September 1 at Atomic Cowboy Pavilion

New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band will return to St. Louis to perform (with special guests TBA) on Friday, September 1 at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

Formed in 1983 by brothers Keith and Phillip Frazier, Rebirth Brass Band (pictured) has grown over the years from a local act playing bar gigs into a touring attraction recognized internationally for their contemporary re-imagining of the classic New Orleans brass band sound.

Their most recent recording is 2014�s Move Your Body on the Basin Street Records label, which was the follow-up to their 2012 Grammy Award-winning album Rebirth of New Orleans. RBB's last St. Louis performance was in September 2016, also at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

Tickets for Rebirth Brass Band will go on sale next Thursday, July 13 via Ticketmaster, prices TBA.