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The 2004 RFT Music Awards

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If you haven't yet done so, take a date to dinner at Mangia Italiano on a Friday night at 8:30 or so (and be careful when ordering red wine). It's still a restaurant at this point in the evening, so chat with your companion about sophisticated things while you can. By 9:30, pierced, tattooed denizens of the south side will begin to take the chairs on the patio and guzzle buck-fifty Falstaffs, the house beer for quantity-over-quality imbibing. Many of the other diners have left; they can smell one of those mythical south-side Friday nights brewing (literally). Ignore their timid logic and stay put. By the time your server brings the tiramisu and espresso to your table, you'll start to see a few swankier folk mixing in with the gritty and, hey, it's not getting rowdy after all. In fact, it's starting to feel kinda sexy in there, maybe almost as sophisticated as your conversation over appetizers. Sheesh, some of the freaks are actually drinking wine! When ten o' clock rolls around, three musicians approach the instruments crowded into the nook at the rear of the restaurant and, before you know it, they're three bars into a Coltrane number. Saxophone, drum and bass pour honeyed improvisations into the air and every ear in the house leans to suck them in. Now it's perfectly clear why you were supposed to stay put: This is the Dave Stone Trio, and they're playing the best jazz in St. Louis.

From 2000 to 2002, Dave Stone thrice took the gold in this category, an unprecedented turkey of a streak for a jazz saxophonist of his age in a town with so many jazz legends and luminaries. After last year's upset by the venerable Willie Akins, Stone is back on the throne. It's not just the consistency of Stone's swing, the fluidity of his comping and the esteemed company he keeps onstage (would he have earned this award four times without longtime partner-in-crime, bassist Eric Markowitz?). Variety also characterizes Stone's pioneering work in jazz. When he's not working the standards or post-bop tip at Mangia, you can hear him blowing corn through his horn in various free-jazz and experimental projects from time to time. Dave Stone will someday have a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and someone will write a biography of the quiet man with more melodies than words. For now, though, you can still catch him bringing the swing to Mangia every Friday. -- John Goddard

Best Pop

Javier Mendoza

Javier Mendoza is a winner. He's won an award four out of the last five times he's been nominated in our horse race. The guy's so diverse he's been nominated in three different categories during that time and taken two of them (Best World Music in 2000 and 2001, Best Pop Band in 2003 and 2004). Next year, we're just going to concede that he's going to win something and have a Best Javier Mendoza Band category to give some of his competition a chance.

So why is our little one-man Latin explosion (and his band) so popular? Well, for one, he's dead sexy, at least according to his rabid, screaming fan base of mostly women, who regularly pack the house at all of his gigs. Seriously, one could imagine that whole neighborhoods in west county are missing all their ladies because they are at a club somewhere watching Mendoza shake his bon-bon. He doesn't just get by on his good looks, though; he's got music to back it up. His music is tuneful, vaguely familiar yet incorporating enough various elements of Spanish and world music to make it feel a cut above most other bands of that ilk and, while no one would ever confuse Mendoza for Motörhead, he rocks just enough to tie it all together. To top it all off, he's a hell of nice guy, the kind you really hope gets to do whatever he wants.

With the latest CD, Matter of Time, Mendoza and his band are once again laying themselves on the line. Recorded in bassist David Karns' studio, the band didn't have to worry about paying for studio time, so they were able to make sure that everything sounded just right, just the way they wanted it. This is what they think is their best record yet, and their audience agrees. Mendoza has a relentless touring schedule to promote the album, sometimes playing with the full band, sometimes doing solo acoustic shows, always out there trying to reach his fans and make new ones. Whether or not this record and tour make him the superstar his fans think he's destined to be is anyone's guess, but one thing is certain: It's just a matter of time before he wins another one of these awards. -- Erik Alan Carlson

Best Punk

The Dead Celebrities

The first thing one might think about these perennial Best Punk winners as they take the stage could be that they sure don't look like a punk band. Made up of four average Joes who wouldn't seem out of place on a beer-league softball field, the Dead Celebrities have taken the crown for the third year in a row, edging out those in the category who might look a little more the part. What's important is sounding the part, though, and the Dead Celebrities do, to a T.

Made up of the infamous Sid Sinatra on vocals, guitarist Elvis Kennedy, bassist Kurt Capone and drummer John Paul Nixon, the Celebrities can be caught around town as frequently as any other local band, bringing their overgrown adolescent pop-punk sound to the masses as they headline shows and open for premier touring acts such as the Gaza Strippers and Tsunami Bomb. As soon as the music starts, the four guys transform, with Sinatra pogoing at the front of the stage like a giddy little kid as he rants out lyrics about girls and, what else, dead celebrities. Kennedy is one of the best showmen on guitar around these parts, bounding and jump-kicking without missing a single Ramones-like chord. The songs are quick, catchy singalongs equally appropriate for driving around, skateboarding, instigating a bar fight or just jumping up and down while listening in the comforts of one's home.

Since their last win, the Celebrities have followed up the success of their 2002 album Cleanup on Aisle 3 by releasing a live split CD with the Trip Daddys that combines three of the best things about St. Louis' local music scene: the best punk band, the best rockabilly band and the best place to see either one, the sweaty confines of the Way Out Club. If you haven't seen the Dead Celebrities, put this one in the player, chase a Jäger shot with a cheap beer, and you'll get the idea. -- Travis Petersen

Best R&B

Fontella Bass

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