Jazz this week: Shawn Maxwell's New Tomorrow, The People's Key, and more

This week's calendar of live jazz and creative music in St. Louis features a couple of multi-artist performances of experimental music, an up-and-coming new contemporary jazz quintet from Chicago, plus some local favorites. Let's go to the highlights...

Wednesday, August 2
This week's "Grand Center Jazz Crawl" has trumpeter T.J M�ller at KDHX's Magnolia Cafe; the jam session with bassist Bob Deboo and friends at Kranzberg Arts Center; and trumpeter Kasimu Taylor at The Dark Room.

Also on Wednesday, The Luminary has a quadruple bill of experimental music, with the sampler/turntable duo Colin Andrew Sheffield & James Eck Rippie; Alex Keller & Sean O�Neill, who combine modified field recordings with vintage electronics; and St. Louis' own electronic musicians Raglani and NNN Cook.

Thursday, August 3
Drummer Marty Morrison leads a trio at The Dark Room, and there's another interesting experimental music bill, this time at the combination live music venue/recording studio Gaslight, featuring the Andrew Weathers Ensemble, Tree branch Twig, Eric Hall, and NNN Cook.

Friday, August 4
The "sleeper" show of the week involves Chicago-based saxophonist, flutist and composer Shawn Maxwell's quintet New Tomorrow (pictured, top left), who will be in town Friday to perform at the Webster Groves Concert Hall.

In a review last year, the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich praised Maxwell's "intricately detailed scores bristling with surprises" and called him "a composer not content to settle into predictable musical patterns," and based on a sampling of the group's performances on YouTube, they're definitely worth checking out.

Elsewhere around town, The People's Key (pictured, bottom left) will bring their contemporary spin on the jazz organ combo sound to Jazz at the Bistro for the first of two nights; and the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra pays tribute to the big band era with a program called "Swing, Swing, Swing" at Queeny Park.

Saturday, August 5
If you're looking for some live jazz during the day on Saturday, the Liberation Organ Trio is playing for brunch at Evangeline's.

Then on Saturday evening, keyboardist Marvin Cockrell is promoting a new music video release called St. Louis Bounce with a show at the Grandel Theatre; singer Danita Mumphard will interpret songs associated with the late Whitney Houston at the Jacoby Arts Center; and singer Joe Mancuso and guitarist Dave Black will head to West County to perform at Benedetto's On Main.

Sunday, August 6
Jazz brunch opportunities proliferate on Sunday, as the Jazz Troubadours play at The Dark Room, Miss Jubilee performs at Evangeline's, and trumpeter Jim Manley and pianist Dave Venn return to Scarlett's Wine Bar.

Later that afternoon, the Friends of Scott Joplin will present their monthly "Ragtime Rendezvous" at the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site's Rosebud Cafe.

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.)

So What: Local News, Notes & Links

Here's StLJN's latest wrap-up of assorted links and short news items of local interest:

* Drummer Montez Coleman (pictured) was interviewed by St. Louis magazine's Erin Williams in advance of his performances tonight and Saturday night at Jazz at the Bistro.

* Saxophonist Karl Denson talked with the Post-Dispatch's Kevin Johnson for a brief feature story. Denson and his band Tiny Universe perform tonight at the Atomic Cowboy Pavilion.

* Drummer and St. Louis native Emanuel Harrold, who's been part of singer Gregory Porter's band for the past few years, is set to release his first recording as a leader this fall, and is getting advance promotion from TheUrbanMusicScene.com and Afropunk.com for his song "Luv Hurt" and from SoulTracks.com for "Special Time."

* The website Sound of StL has a review with photos of The People's Key's recent performance at The Stage at KDHX.

* Euclid Records is looking to hire a "tech savvy music fan" who is "familiar with the workings of Excel, web design, E-Commerce as well as eBay, Amazon and Discogs." They're accepting resumes dropped off at the store or by email at store@euclidrecords.com.

* Pianist Peter Martin has a new post up at Medium.com, advising aspiring keyboard players on "The One Scale You Should Be Practicing Every Day."

* Trumpeter and Webster Groves native Ally Hany, who recently completed a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music, announced in a post on Facebook that she's joining the Air Force Band of the Golden West. After completing basic training, Hany will be stationed at Travis Air Force Base in the San Francisco Bay area.

* The musical instrument and accessories manufacturer D'Addario has announced a free support program for instrumental music teachers called the D�Addario Education Collective, offering discounts on products, access to educational resources, and more. You can get details and sign up here.