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By David Alan Lucas (Blackowl)Published: September 20, 2009
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EmailBy: David Alan Lucas www.davidalanlucas.com
St. Louis, the river city that has defined jazz and blues since its conception , is the home of a summer of jazz and blues festivals. Webster Groves, one of the historic suburb towns in St. Louis County held its 9th annual Old Webster Jazz Festival. On two stages, bands soothed and swayed the crowds from noon until 11PM. The festival started with a jazz chemical concoction of improve and instrumentals of Two Times True who was joined by Christi John Bye whose voice brought out the scat and smooth jazz on the Gore Avenue Stage. Mix this beautiful smooth drink for the ears into the shaker and add from the second stage, Allen Avenue, The SteamRollers, a blues-rock and jazz band that is as close to Fleetwood Mac, in its infancy when they were still a blues band, as you can.
The SteamRollers were followed by the old time style of jazz swing of a most unusual band called Eastern, Central, Pacific—Standard Time. A band of musicians from each time zone with a female singer who sang with the siren smooth style that transports you back into time to when Ella Fitzgerald ruled the stage as queen of jazz. How a band whose members live in three different time zones can practice or come together and play with harmony may boggle the mind, but Standard Time somehow bends the expectations and pulls it off. Standard Time is expecting an album out soon on Victoria Records. On the other stage, following Two Times True was a Soul-Jazz band by the name of the Dogtown Allstars. They swung with a mixture of funk, jazz, soul that came from the bottom of the soul to mix with the sounds of St. Louis and Memphis Jazz. The feisty band throws its wow-wow energy behind the music and makes you want to take to the dance floor.
On the Gore stage, following the Dogtown Allstar was the master St. Louis blues band, the Soulard Blues Band. Their music brought out the soul of the crowd. As the rain for the night began to come down and the trains ran behind the stage, the people filled the street s and danced before the stage. The Soulard Blues Band, named after the old French quarter of St. Louis has been bringing the best of St. Louis Blues to the Gateway City for over 30 years.
On the Allen Stage, the Mathew Von Doran Trio played their instrumental haunting funk filled swing. Listening to this trio was like taking a step back in time to the old jazz lounges where you could expect the Rat Pack to come sliding in and drink a few martinis. While the music had the taste of the old and true jazz that Sami, Sinatra, and the rest of the Rat Pack would have snapped their fingers too, it had the modern funk interwoven through the cords with the mastery that one would expect from Von Doran.
After these bands, the Webster High School and Webster University Facility Jazz Bands took to the stage and kept the people swaying as the rain came down harder. While the rain continued, as some of the greatest talent in St. Louis took to the Allen Stage. The St. Louis Jazz & Blues Revue, made up of band leaders from other bands who have come together to blend their talents together, brought out the latter classical styles of Tina Turner and St. Louis’s own Chuck Berry with musical surprises spread spicing up the music and the crowd. Meanwhile on the Wild, Cool & Swingin’ Orchestra recreated the Vegas set on the Gore stage, entertaining the crowd who took the rain in stride. The fast paced music brought a fiery crescendo to the night of jazz.
To read more of David’s work, be sure to check out http://www.davidalanlucas.com
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