Terell Stafford Quintet

Doors at 6pm, special start time of 7:15pm

In order to provide the best possible experience each time you visit The Ferring Jazz Bistro, we ask that all ticketed guests reserve a specific arrival time for their performance night. When selecting your time, please choose the same number of tickets for the arrival time as you did for your performance. Reservations are available at:

6:00pm

6:15pm

6:30pm

6:45pm

7:00pm

Sponsored by Jon & Barbara Topp and Tim & Debbie Callihan

It’s often said that history repeats itself but in the instance of making music, a reunion of two performers will not necessarily bring about the sounds of their collective past. Grammy-winning saxophonist/composer Joe Lovano and the equally lauded guitarist/composer John Scofield are preparing another turn together in the public eye. One of the most popular groups of the early 1990’s, Scofield and Lovano have both built their own followings since departing their shared bandstand.  Since then, the opportunity to hear them together has been few and far between.  Listeners will rejoice at this rare opportunity to hear two modern masters reunite on stage.

style: modern jazz 

Vocalist Erin Bode has a beautiful, crystal clear voice that is too exquisite to miss. She consistently wins over audiences with her sweet personality and sincere performances. For this special two-night show, Bode will revisit the music that first endeared her to St. Louis audiences: tunes from the Great American Songbook.

style: straight-ahead vocal jazz

Peter Martin is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator. His touring career has taken him to six continents numerous times. In January 2011 Peter performed with a select group of jazz artists at the White House for a State Dinner hosted by President Obama, and he returned to perform for the Governor’s Dinner in February 2012 for the first family and other guests.

Hosted by Dr. Gerald Early, Merle King Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University, this monthly club is free and open to anyone interested in exploring jazz through literature.

The Jazz St. Louis Book Club will meet the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm in Nancy’s Jazz Lounge at the Harold and Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz.

The book club is free and open to anyone willing to read the month’s book, show up, participate, and have a good time! Light refreshments will be provided at the conclusion of each book club meeting.

March 13: Traps: The Drum Wonder, The Life of Buddy Rich

Since the arrival of the 21st century, jazz has evolved into a truly cross-generational, multicultural musical art form that is assimilating an unprecedented array of musical styles and techniques. At the same time, the male-dominated paradigm that has defined the historical narrative of jazz is no more. Women are shaking up the music industry while the general public is becoming much more aware of the contributions female musicians have made to jazz. "Freedom ofExpression: Interviews With Women in Jazz," a collection of interviews with 37 female musicians, musicians of all ages, nationalities, and races, and representing nearly every style of jazz one can imagine, provides evidence of this profound evolution. The interviewees, including Terri Lyne Carrington, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eliane Elias, Carmen Lundy, Anat Cohen, Diane Schuur, and Sherrie Maricle, speak about their earliest experiences playing music, the years of practice required to become a professional musician, and what jazz means in the new millennium. These interviews will inform and inspire both casual and seasoned fans of this music, as well as young musicians taking their first steps in the journey to master their craft. “At long last, an in-depth recognition of the female contributions to jazz. As Dr. Billy Taylor said about the lack of awareness of female musicians: ‘If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.’ Now everyone will know that it did happen and continues to happen. What a great gift to the history of women and music.” — Judy Chaikin, director of "The Girls in the Band." The interviewees: Mindi Abair -Saxophones Cheryl Bentyne - Voice Jane Ira Bloom - Soprano Saxophone Samantha Boshnack - Trumpet Dee Dee Bridgewater - Voice Terri Lyne Carrington - Drums Sharel Cassity - Saxophones Anat Cohen - Clarinet, Saxophones Jean Cook -Violin Connie Crothers - Piano Eliane Elias - Piano, Voice Ayelet Rose Gottlieb- Voice Lenae Harris- Cello Val Jeanty - Electronics, Percussion Jan Leder -Flute Jennifer Leitham - Double Bass Carmen Lundy - Voice Sherrie Maricle -Drums Jane Monheit - Voice Jacqui Naylor - Voice Aurora Nealand - Saxophones, Clarinet Iris Ornig - Double Bass Alisha Pattillo - Tenor Saxophone Roberta Piket - Piano Cheryl Pyle - Flute Nicole Rampersaud - Trumpet Sofia Rei - Voice Patrizia Scascitelli - Piano Diane Schuur - Voice Ellen Seeling - Trumpet Helen Sung - Piano Jacqui Sutton - Voice Mazz Swift - Violin, Voice Nioka Workman -Cello Pamela York - Piano Brandee Younger - Harp Malika Zarra – Voice

May 8: Whisper Not: Thy Autobiography of Benny Golson 
             by Benny Golson

Born during the de facto inaugural era of jazz, saxophonist Benny Golson learned his instrument and the vocabulary of jazz alongside John Coltrane while Golson was still in high school in Philadelphia. Quickly establishing himself as an iconic fixture on the jazz landscape, Golson performed with dozens of jazz greats, from Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmy Heath to Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. An acclaimed composer, Golson also wrote music for Hollywood films and television and composed such memorable jazz standards as “Stablemates,” “Killer Joe,” and “Whisper Not.”

An eloquent account of Golson’s exceptional life—presented episodically rather than chronologically—Whisper Not includes a dazzling collection of anecdotes, memories, experiences, and photographs that recount the successes, the inevitable failures, and the rewards of a life eternally dedicated to jazz.

June 12: Duke Ellington's America by Harvey G. Cohn

Few American artists in any medium have enjoyed the international and lasting cultural impact of Duke Ellington. From jazz standards such as “Mood Indigo” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” to his longer, more orchestral suites, to his leadership of the stellar big band he toured and performed with for decades after most big bands folded, Ellington represented a singular, path-breaking force in music over the course of a half-century. At the same time, as one of the most prominent black public figures in history, Ellington demonstrated leadership on questions of civil rights, equality, and America’s role in the world.

With Duke Ellington’s America, Harvey G. Cohen paints a vivid picture of Ellington’s life and times, taking him from his youth in the black middle class enclave of Washington, D.C., to the heights of worldwide acclaim. Mining extensive archives, many never before available, plus new interviews with Ellington’s friends, family, band members, and business associates, Cohen illuminates his constantly evolving approach to composition, performance, and the music business—as well as issues of race, equality and religion. Ellington’s own voice, meanwhile, animates the book throughout, giving Duke Ellington’s America an intimacy and immediacy unmatched by any previous account.

By far the most thorough and nuanced portrait yet of this towering figure, Duke Ellington’s America highlights Ellington’s importance as a figure in American history as well as in American music.

Jazz St. Louis is proud to partner again with Left Bank Books for our book club. Most of the books discussed in the Jazz St. Louis Book Club are offered at a 20% discount through LBB, although not every book will beeligible for a discount. All books can be purchased at their Central West End Location or on the LBB website, http://www.left-bank.com/jazz-st-louis.

To RSVP, please contact the Jazz St. Louis Box Office at (314) 571-6000. You may also RSVP through jazzstl.org.

For more details, or if you have any questions, please contact Director of Education and Community Outreach, Phil Dunlap, at phil@jazzstl.org.

Exclusively Sponsored by Ken & Nancy Kranzberg

“As Elvis is to rock and James Brown is to soul, Poncho Sanchez is to salsa…particularly the congas.” –Los Angeles Times

If music were about pictures, percussionist Poncho Sanchez’s music would best be described as a kaleidoscopic swirl of some of the hottest colors and brightest lights to emerge from either side of the border. At any given show, fragments of Latin jazz, swing, bebop, salsa, and other infectious grooves collide and churn in a fiery swirl, with results that are no less than dazzling. Sanchez grew up in a suburb of LA, where he was raised on an unusual cross section of sounds that included straight-ahead jazz, Latin jazz, and American soul. Whatever the genre, the mesmerizing array of sounds and colors from Sanchez’s youth have telegraphed across the decades and continue to inform his creative sensibilities to this day. His over 20-year relationship with Concord Records has yielded two dozen recordings, a Grammy Award, and several Grammy nominations.

style: Latin jazz

Tickets - $5.00

JazzU is a fun, hands-on learning experience that brings together talented middle and high school musicians for small jazz combo instruction on a weekly basis. The competitive program selected 53 emerging musicians from a pool of 130 who auditioned for the 2016-17 season. This weekend’s shows feature the top two performing ensembles in the JazzU program, which includes the premier group, the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars. Special guest artist, saxophonist Antonio Hart, will be leading clinics with the two groups prior to performing with them during these concerts.

JazzU is made possible by a lead contribution from Monsanto Fund with support from the Arthur & Helen Baer Foundation, Ameren Missouri, and the Staenberg Family Foundation.

style: straight-ahead jazz