Jazz this week: Yellowjackets, Pangea, Greater St. Louis Hispanic Festival, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features the return of a jazz-fusion favorite; a weekend of Latin jazz and salsa at a free outdoor festival, and more.

Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, September 20
Jazz-fusion band Yellowjackets (pictured, top left) opens a four-night engagement continuing through Saturday at Jazz at the Bistro.

Although Jazz St. Louis at this writing is describing the shows as "almost sold out," a few tickets remain; call the box office for availability.  For those that can't make it in person, video of the set at 7:30 p.m. Friday will be streamed live on the Jazz St. Louis website and Facebook page and on UStream.

Thursday, September 21
Saxophonist Freddie Washington leads a quartet in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University, and saxophonist Harvey Lockhart will perform at The Dark Room.

Friday, September 22
Percussionist Herman Semidey and Orquestra Son Montuno will play salsa, Latin jazz, and more at the Greater St Louis Hispanic Festival, a free event running through Sunday at Soulard Park; and the Funky Butt Brass Band returns to the Broadway Oyster Bar

Saturday, September 23
Pangea,"a contemporary world music band" featuring composer/multi-instrumentalists Hong Wang and Albert Chang, plays at the Touhill Performing Arts Center; singer Erin Bode will perform at Missouri Baptist University's Pillsbury Chapel Fine Arts Center; and Chicago Latin Groove (pictured, bottom left) provides the soundtrack for the evening at the Hispanic Festival.

Sunday, September 24
Jazz brunch possibilities for the day include Miss Jubilee at Evangeline's and drummer Montez Coleman and friends at The Dark Room; and later that afternoon, the Folk School of KDHX will present their monthly "Traditional Jazz Jam Session." 

Monday, September 25
Bassist Ben Wheeler leads a quartet in a concert at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.

Tuesday, September 26
Farshid Etniko will present their brand of multi-ethnic fusion in a free outdoor concert for the Missouri History Museum's "Twilight Tuesdays" series

 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.)

Jazz at Holmes announces Fall 2017 schedule

The Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University has announced their schedule of free concerts for the Fall 2017 semester.

The series will begin on Thursday, September 14 with British bassist Tony Grey (pictured), who's probably best known as a member of pianist Hiromi's working band.

Grey will be accompanied by Jay Oliver on keyboards; Wash U faculty member and Jazz at Holmes series director William Lenihan on guitar; and Roger Guth on drums.

In addition to Grey and various shows featuring a selection of St. Louis performers, the Fall 2017 series also will include themed programs exploring Italian film music; the intersection of experimental jazz and contemporary classical; and folk and protest songs of the 1960s.

Here's the entire schedule in chronological order:

Thursday, September 14; Tony Grey
Thursday, September 21: Freddie Washington Quartet
Thursday, September 28: Montez Coleman/Eric Slaughter Quartet

Thursday, October 5: Kim Fuller
Thursday, October 19: "From Torino - Music of Italian Film Composers: Morricone, Gaslini, Rota, Umiliani, Giordano" with Filippo Cosentino, William Lenihan, and the Sogni D'Alba String Trio.
Thursday, October 26: "Streams of Extremity II" with Ptah Williams, William Lenihan, Steve Davis, Amy Greenhalgh, and Marcia Mann

Thursday, November 2: "Voices of Freedom, Songs of Social Justice" with R. Scott Bryan, Rick Schuler, and band.
Thursday, November 9: Joe Mancuso Organ Trio
Thursday, November 16: Arc of Light Ensemble with Paul DeMarinis, Randy Holmes, Wayne Coniglio, William Lenihan, and band
Thursday, November 30 - Vincent Varvel Quartet

Thursday, December 7: Holiday concert featuring Wash U singers & musicians TBA.

All concerts are free and open to the public. Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m. and are presented in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, which is located on Washington University�s campus at the west end of the Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives.