Faculty & Guest Performances, Free

Jazz at Holmes: Kara Baldus-Mehrmann Trio

Co-sponsored by KWUR 90.3 FM

Throughout the semester, enjoy free live performances by noted local and regional jazz artists at Holmes Lounge in Ridgley Hall on the Danforth campus.  Parking can be accessed at the Danforth University Center (DUC) parking garage.

Kara Baldus-Mehrmann, piano
Bob DeBoo, bass
Jerry Mazzuca, drums

Kara Baldus-Mehrmann is a pianist and vocalist who has been performing professionally around the United States and internationally since the age of 18. She is a full-time instructor of jazz piano at Washington University in St. Louis. As a member of the IAJE/BET Sisters in Jazz All-Stars, she performed internationally at jazz festivals and stateside at the Kennedy Center. Highlights include playing at jazz festivals in Italy, France, Holland, and Canada, and has also performed in front of jazz piano legend, Oscar Peterson. In 2013, her pop group, Dropkick the Robot, won the electronic Grand Prize for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest with their song, "Missed Out."

Bob DeBoo is a versatile and in-demand performer on both the double and electric bass. Some of the projects he’s been involved with the last couple years include playing and touring with David Sanborn’s Acoustic Quartet, Peter Martin, Geoffrey Keezer, Alarm Will Sound, Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In Your Bones Opera, James Carter, Matt Wilson, Ron Miles, the 442s, the Adam Maness trio, the St. Louis Symphony, leading his own quartet, and much more. Bob has also been a part of numerous Open Studio live concert events and courses. He is also highly active in education, having worked with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People program, and JazzSTL’s JazzU program. 

Jerry Mazzuca was born and raised in the St. Louis area in a musical family. His father was a successful drummer in the area in the 70s, and Jerry knew by the time he was in early high school that he was destined for a career in music. 
 
Mazzuca completed both his undergraduate (2007) and graduate (2013) degrees in Jazz Performance at SIUE, and currently plays in a wide range of bands in the area, ranging in styles from jazz with the Kara Baldus-Merhrmann Quartet, to funk with Naked Rock Fight, to metal with The Gorge, to pop with The LustreLights. He also occasionally teaches private percussion lessons, and his non-music-related hobbies include cooking at home and watching Cardinals baseball. He lives with his wife Lauren, son Benjamin, and dog Satchmo in St. Charles.