Sunday, November 30: Smooth jazz guitarist Peter White's Christmas show, featuring trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Mindi Abair, at The Pageant.
Thursday, December 4: Guitarist Steve Schenkel and singer Ashley Mason perform music from their new Christmas CD A Midnight Clear with pianist Carolbeth True and bassist Ric Vice in a free concert for the Jazz at Holmes series at Washington University.
Sunday, December 7: Singer/pianist Harry Connick, Jr and his big band perform a holiday-themed concert at the Fox Theatre.
Sunday, December 14: “A Soulful Christmas" with saxophonist Gerald Albright (pictured) and singers Lalah Hathaway and Will Downing at The Pageant.
Monday, December 15: Steve Schenkel and Ashley Mason with guitarist Dan Rubright and bassist Ric Vice at Webster University's Winifred Moore Auditorium.
Friday, December 19: The singing group Manhattan Transfer brings their annual holiday show to the Touhill Performing Arts Center.
As for local Christmas CD releases, in addition to Schenkel and Mason's A Midnight Clear, singer Erin Bode has a new Christmas-themed CD titled A Cold December Night that's now available for purchase on her Web site.
Other St. Louis musicians with Christmas CDs still in print include singer Anita Rosamond, whose release This Is Christmas came out in 2006, and saxophonist Rod Tate, who put out an album called Jazzy Melodies of Christmas last year. You can see Tate performing his version of “The Little Drummer Boy," taken from a show last December at the Vaughn Cultural Center, in the embedded video window below.
Do you know of any local jazz shows or CDs with a holiday theme that we've missed? Do you have a favorite holiday jazz CD (or CDs) of all time? Please use the comments to share your thoughts.
