Jazz this week: Gateway Jazz Festival, Ptah Williams, Emily Wallace, and more

Due to some temporary time constraints and computer-related difficulties here at StLJN HQ, this week's survey of upcoming live jazz and creative music performances in St. Louis may be a day later than usual, but there still are shows worth noting, so let's go straight to the highlights...

Thursday, July 27
This week's performance wrapping up the Jazz at Holmes "Jazz in July" series of free concerts at Washington University will feature a trio with pianist Ptah Williams, drummer Stephen Haake, and bassist Jacob Zengerling.

Also on Thursday, percussionist Joe Pastor breaks out his vibes to lead a trio at The Dark Room; guitarist and singer Tommy Halloran's Guerrilla Swing will play at Joe's Cafe & Gallery; and this month's edition of the Bruxism experimental music series, with GristleMcThornbody, ChelseaGray and AVPlug, will be presented at Schlafly Brewery & Tap Room

Friday, July 28
Singer Emily Wallace, accompanied by the Funky Butt Horns, will perform for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro.

Wallace (pictured, bottom left), who is making her debut as a headliner at the Bistro, is best known as part of the folk/Americana duo The Sleepy Rubies, in which she sings with her sister Ali Ruby, and has made guest appearances on various Funky Butt Brass Band gigs.

Also on Friday, singer Erin Bode will perform outside the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park before the museum's film series screens Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. Both the concert and the film are free and open to the public. 

Saturday, July 29
The Gateway Jazz Festival at Chesterfield Amphitheater will present a day-long bill of acts including Pieces of a Dream (pictured, top left); singer Maysa; saxophonist Najee; the "Gateway Jazz All-Stars" with saxophonist Steve Cole, guitarist Nick Colionne, and keyboardist Brian Simpson; guitarists Chieli Minucci, Steve Oliver and Chris Standring; bassist Julian Vaughn; and saxophonist Tim Cunningham. You can see video samples of the performers in this post from last Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Latin jazz/salsa band El Caribe Tropical will be staging a reunion gig at Club Viva.

Sunday, July 30
The Usual Suspects Trio will perform for brunch at The Dark Room while Miss Jubilee plays at Evangeline's. Later that afternoon, the Folk School of KDHX will present their monthly traditional jazz jam session.

Monday, July 31
Trumpeter Jim Manley plays for diners at Momo's Greek Restaurant.

Tuesday, August 1
Rhythms of the Caribbean plays a free outdoor concert at Lucier Park in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood.

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: Previewing the Gateway Jazz Festival

When commercial radio abandoned smooth jazz as a format a few years back, the audience for the music played on those stations didn't just disappear, and neither did the musicians who played it.

And while St. Louis never had what you'd call a surfeit of live smooth jazz shows, even when the format was at its peak, the limited number of such bookings that previously existed - at the Pageant, at local casinos, and occasionally at other venues like long-departed Finale - has dwindled off in recent years to almost nothing. That would seem to represent a potential business opportunity for someone able to reunite an under-served audience with the musicians they enjoy.

Enter Summerset Jazz LLC, an Alabama-based production company that is presenting the Gateway Jazz Festival* next Saturday, July 29 at the Chesterfield Amphitheater.

Apparently modeling their St. Louis event on the Music City Jazz Festival, which they've presented for the past two years in Nashville, the company has put together a day-long bill of acts, headed by saxophonist Najee and singer Maysa, and featuring a number of other names familiar to smooth jazz fans.

To help give you an idea of what to expect, today StLJN has compiled videos of all the featured performers. They're presented here in alphabetical order, starting up above with a set from saxophonist Steve Cole and guitarist Nick Colionne, recorded when they teamed up for a gig in May of this year at Pizza Express in London.

After the jump, you can see Maysa performing "Inside My Dream" in May 2016 at the KSBR Birthday Bash Jazz Festival in Mission Viejo, CA.

Next it's guitarist Chieli Minucci with his band Special EFX in 2016 at Long Beach Jazz Fest, delivering a surprisingly faithful version of the Allman Brothers Band's "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed."

That's followed by a full set of Najee, recorded in July 2016 in Riviera Beach, FL; and then a clip of guitarist Steve Oliver doing "Soul Deep" in a performance recorded at the Carvin guitar factory in San Diego.

The veteran duo Pieces of a Dream is next, seen here performing "Fo-Fi-Fo" in October 2016 at the Catalina JazzTrax Festival in California.

Then it's keyboardist Brian Simpson, performing his song "WWonderland" at the 2017 Mallorca Smooth Jazz Festival in Spain; guitarist Chris Standring, playing "Oliver's Twist" in February 2017 at Pizza Express; and last, but not least, bassist and Kansas City native Julian Vaughn doing his showcase "Ju Ju's Groove" at a show in May in Houston, TX.

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

*Not to be confused with the identically named event presented in recent years over the Labor Day weekend by the St. Louis Jazz Club.