Thursday, Feb. 9
The resurgence of the New Orleans brass band in the late 2000s was just about the unlikeliest musical development of its time. In some ways, it was a product of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, a living proof of the steadfastness of the people of the Crescent City who endured such horror, natural and manmade. It's also a powerful reminder—a welcome one—that that city has been and remains the crucible of American music. The sound's most prominent exponent these days is the aptly named Rebirth Brass Band. These denizens of New Orleans' famed Treme neighborhood are celebrating their 30th year of fusing second-line brass music—proto-jazz—with funk, soul, rhythm & blues, and hip-hop, revitalizing a music that was always about celebration and dancing with modern and cutting-edge sounds. They perform with local favorites Funk Ark at 7 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $25.

Saturday, Feb. 11
When NBC's The Sing-Off was forced by popular demand to bring back fourth-place finishers Afro-Blue for last fall's season finale, it was clear that a star had been born. And the name at the crest of that star was Christie Dashiell, the telegenic young vocalist who was frequently the smooth, sparkling lead on the Howard University ensemble's performances. By that time, of course, Dashiell had already been an established presence in our fair city; the North Carolina native was a popular participant in last year's inaugural Washington Women in Jazz Festival, did splendid work with the Jolley Brothers, and performed regularly on her own and with the various configurations of Afro-Blue. In short, America, Dashiell was ours first. And this weekend she's back, showcasing her extraordinary talents with two of her brothers, bassist Christian and drummer C.V.; stellar D.C. pianist Allyn Johnson; and a fellow Afro-Bluer, singer Integriti Reeves. Dashiell performs at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $20.

Sunday, Feb. 12
Sunday, kids, is blowing up. From Andrea Parkins and IRIS at the Caverns, to D.C. fusioneer Mychael Pollard at Twins, to Al Jarreau and the Airmen of Note at DAR Constitution Hall. Something for everyone. This writer, however, has two other recommendations that day; both start at the same time, but one will still be running strong when the other ends.

First is the Overtone Quartet, an all-star ensemble that started five years ago as the Monterey Quartet (in celebration of the Monterey Jazz Festival's 50th anniversary), then re-formed two years later in the wake of a live recording from the Festival. By that time pianist Jason Moran had joined, replacing original player Gonzalo Rubalcaba and joining bassist Dave Holland, tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, and drummer Eric Harland. Each member is a prominent, cutting-edge member of the national jazz landscape; each is also a prominent composer in his own right, and represented within the band's repertoire. The key to their ar, however, is the kinetic sense of interplay the musicians share. They shift on a dime, complement each others' improvisations, and make time and harmony a thing of wax to be molded at will. They perform at 7 p.m. at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Route 193 and Stadium Drive in College Park. $9-$45.

Second, on your way home, stop in Columbia Heights, where CapitalBop is presenting its first D.C. Jazz Loft in its new locale: The Dunes. Helping them inaugurate the venue are three of the city's most innovative, edgy acts. Paul Carr, the saxophonist and educator who curates next week's Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, leads his band; drummer Lenny Robinson's exploratory trio Mad Curious, featuring saxophonist Brian Settles and bassist Tarus Mateen, adds fuel to the fire; and the Donvonte McCoy Quintet, named by Arts Desk as 2011's Best Small Jazz Group, caps things off...except, of course, for the open jam session at the end of the night. The Dunes is at 1402 Meridian Place NW. $10 suggested donation (and this time no BYOB!).

Issues with DCRA were already threatening the Enterprise before it had really started, problems that Lewis blamed on property owner Michael Ressom and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham. At the time, Lewis promised to continue with her plans for the venue, whether the legal entanglements are resolved or not.

Well, not all of them are resolved just yet, but enough have been that The Enterprise is rebooting itself. Grand opening 2.0 will consist of "3 days of music, theater and art" — and it starts tonight. Doors open at 4 p.m. tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday with a rotating stage lineup that includes Frankie Addison & Friends, Whop Craig & Friends, Total Recall Band, GGT Band, comedian Eddie Bryant, DJ Jammer, and DJ Ron B.

After that, says Lewis, the venue switches to a weekly schedule beginning on Wednesday, February 8. It looks something like this:

Wednesday:
Spoken Word performances – 6 – 8 p.m.
Karaoke – 8 p.m. – midnight

Thursday – Saturday:
Live jazz nightly starting at 8:30 p.m.
Live stage plays on selected nights – 7 p.m.

Saturday:
Medical Missionary Program – 9 a.m.

Sunday:
Jazz / Gospel Session – 12 – 5:30 p.m.
Black Film Review & Discussion – 6 p.m.
Talk Sundays, Live Radio Broadcast – 8 p.m.

Monday: (closed)

Tuesday:
"The Stage is Yours Tuesdays" – Open mic night starting at 5 p.m.
JazzNSoul Café Radio Live Broadcast – 8 p.m.

And yet, the music goes on, as it must. If there's one life lesson 'Bug taught with every day of his life, it was to live, love, and embrace the music fully. So, kids, let's do it.

Thursday, February 2
Cricket Fusion was born about four years ago from a taste for music with two things: spontaneous group improvisation and groove. It was for that artistic ideal that trumpeter Joe Brotherton organized what was then a trio, as conversant in funk, fusion, and hip-hop as in jazz. One that could, with equal ease, play standards, write originals, or take off on in-the-moment, free-form runs. Before long, the Cricket Fusion Trio had grown into the Cricket Fusion Quartet, and today is simply Cricket Fusion. Even their written music is essentially a launchpad into free-form directions, with an incredibly tight rhythmic core and unceasingly original ideas coming out from all sides. Need one word? Try "fiery." Cricket Fusion's current incarnation includes Brotherton, tenor saxophonist Elijah Balbed, alto saxophonist Herbert Scott, bassist Blake Meister, and drummer Terence Arnett. They perform at 8 and 10 p.m. at Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW. $10.

Photo: Carlyle V. Smith

Friday, February 3
Here's a question you don't hear often. What do you get when you cross Banghra (the dance-pop music of Punjabi culture), brass-band music, and jazz? There's really only one answer to this one: You get Red Baraat. The brainchild of drummer/percussionist Sunny Jain, Red Baraat calls itself "dhol 'n' brass" — the dhol being the two-headed Indian drum that Jain plays, while six of his bandmates—Mike Bomwell, Alex Hamlin, Sonny Singh, MiWi La Lupa, Ernest Stuart, and John Altieri—brandish some sort of brass instrument or another. (There are two other members, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and percussionist Rohin Khemani.) If nothing else, the sound is fiercely original. You'll likely hear some cousin of D.C.'s own go-go rhythm (and occasionally the sound of go-go outright) in their lively, hard-hitting party music; you certainly will hear dance rhythms that won't let you escape. Red Baraat performs at 7 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $15.

Saturday, February 4
Was a time, long about 1950 or so, when Charlie Parker was the king of the alto saxophone. But he had a pretty strong rival for that title, and that was Lee Konitz. Konitz, just like everybody else of his generation, studied Parker carefully, soaking up his concepts and innovations; what Konitz did, though, that very few people of the time could, was use those elements to fashion a sound that was his and his alone—among the first to follow Mingus' constant exortation, "Stop copying Bird." Among Konitz's greatest admirers? Charlie Parker, who loved hearing something original on the horn he'd revolutionized. Sixty years later, Konitz is still one of the most distinctive of the alto's practitioners, and, unquestionably, the greatest living one. And as it turns out, one of his proteges is one of our fair city's most visible jazz musician: saxophonist Brad Linde. The two will perform together, along with another frequent collaborator, up-and-coming pianist Dan Tepfer, and one of the great one-two punches of D.C. rhythm, bassist Tom Baldwin and drummer Tony Martucci. It goes down at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $25.

Jimmy Jackson, the D.C.-based jazz drummer who was best known by his nickname "Junebug," died of congestive heart failure at about 1 a.m. today at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. Ten days earlier, he had turned 55.

Jackson had struggled recently with his health. "We played with him last two thursdays ago [at HR-57's weekly jam session], and he wasnt feeling well," says bassist Mark Saltman. He was admitted to the hospital this past week, and unsuccessfully underwent surgery Friday.

A self-taught instrumentalist, Jackson first picked up the drumsticks at 11, picking out the lick to James Brown's "Cold Sweat" at his grandmother's house in Kalamazoo, Mich. He learned to play as a funk drummer, but moved into jazz upon encountering organist Jimmy Smith. Jackson ended up in Smith's touring band for the last 21 years of the organist's life. He spent time living in Atlanta and in Los Angeles before settling in Washington and becoming the house drummer at the HR-57 jazz club.

Jackson was a beloved figure in local and jazz and beyond. He was known for his omnipresent sense of humor and easy way with a one-liner; on the bandstand, Jackson had a "STFU" sign he would hold up for noisy audiences. Asked about his status as HR-57's house drummer in 2010, Jackson corrected this writer: "I'm house clown if I'm anything," he said.

"He had a fearless spirit, and he would always bring his own individuality no matter who was around him," says pianist William Knowles. "He was never intimidated by anyone, because he would always bring himself and that was worth something."

Jackson also had an unshakeable sense of swing behind the kit. "Jimmy Smith used to say, Can you make the music dance? and thats what Bug did, and why he played with him for 21 years," says Knowles.

"He just had that groove thing, and knew how to come up with exactly what the music needed," says Saltman. "He was swingin' to the end."

He also made the music sing; Jackson was an occasional vocalist with a warm, surprisingly smooth voice that brought a sense of merriment.

A tribute to Jackson at HR-57 is being planned.

He is survived by two sons and his wife, Chandra.

Saturday, Jan. 28

It's a favorite critical pasttime to debate who is the most influential jazz player of recent years, on any given instrument. Saxophone gets a lot of play (Mark Turner? Joshua Redman? Chris Potter?), as does trumpet (Wynton? Dave Douglas? Roy Hargrove?) When it comes to piano, however, there is simply no debate. Every year university jazz departments and clubs all over the country are flooded with pianists who want—who demand—to learn how to sound just like Brad Mehldau. It's not hard to hear why. Mehldau is a stately, melodious player whose sound has a natural gravity and splendid atmosphere in which his love of the romantic-era classical composers is apparent, as is his debt to jazz stylists like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. His performances are wondrous, and this one promises to be no different—promising enough that Setlist recommends this show despite its being sold out. Go to the Will-Call line anyway. Mehldau performs at 8 p.m. at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Sixth and I Streets (duh) NW. $30.

Wednesday, Feb. 1
Ever heard of The DIVA Jazz Orchestra? It's an underrated, New York-based big band featuring all women players. And it's got a stellar track record of spinning off excellent musicians like Anat Cohen, Allison Miller, and Ingrid Jensen. It's a hell of a pedigree to have, and it's one that is currently held by two extraordinary D.C. musicians. I speak, of course, of saxophonist Leigh Pilzer and trombonist Jen Krupa, wonderful players who co-lead the quintet JLQ. (You can figure out what the initials stand for, I'm sure.) They weave a rich straightahead sound, spinning golden renditions of the great jazz standards as well as their own work. The best part of their performance, however, comes at the magical moments when Krupa and Pilzer go into fiery duels on their horns, one-upping each other and egging each other to ever more magnificent heights. That alone is a reason to buy a ticket. The JLQ performs at 8 p.m. at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. $25.

This Saturday marks the final musical sendoff for Gold Leaf Studios on I Street NW. But while the art space and DIY venue will soon be vacated, making way for fancy-looking apartments, DC Jazz Loft will live on.

Beginning next month, say organizers (and CapitalBop editors)  Giovanni Russonello and Luke Stewart, the shows will continue in their new location at The Dunes at 14th and Monroe streets NW in Columbia Heights.

The new space is ideal for Jazz Loft, say Russonello and Stewart. It's a large L-shaped room with a wall of windows overlooking 14th Street NW ("very Manhattan," Russonello says) and the bandstand in the L's corner. But the really big change, says Stewart, is that the new incarnations of the Jazz Loft can discard their BYOB rule. "There's a bar," he says. "Low-key, and small, but a bar. And not even a cash bar: You can swipe your plastic there."

The suggested donation of $10 for admission will remain intact, with all of that money going to the artists.

Jazz Loft premiered in December 2010 in Gold Leaf's "Red Door" space, and almost immediately became a staple of the D.C. jazz scene, bringing a regular crowd into Gold Leaf and a surprisingly successful new arm to the D.C. Jazz Festival. The monthly presentation for local jazz musicians pays homage to the New York Loft Jazz scene that peaked in the mid-'70s.

At The Dunes, Russonello and Stewart will step up their efforts to film and record every performance; they want to create a complete CapitalBop archive, something which The Dunes is all too happy to facilitate. The space's proprietor, Ora Nwabueze, has filmed local indie-rock bands for a Web video series called Sofar Sounds, and he'll supervise CapitalBop's recordings.

Stewart and Russonello haven't started planning the lineups for their Dunes shows yet. At the moment, they say they're focused onSaturday's "Close Down the Red Door" concert on I Street. It features six acts, culminating in the trademark jam session at the end of the night—which Russonello emphasizes could come very late. "We want it to go all night this time," he says. "Six acts, an hour set for each, with some time in between to hang out and then hopefully a jam session that'll go on for a good long time. There's enough going on that if you don't show up precisely at 7 [the Loft's start time], you don't have to feel like you're missing out too much." And for the last time, BYOB.

Thursday, Jan. 19
Observers of the D.C.  jazz scene have been known to refer to the Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra as "now-defunct" or "former." And that's not true. While the large ensemble doesn't appear with any regularity—or for that matter, with a consistent lineup—the trumpeter has continued his work as a big bandleader after the group's Bohemian Caverns residency collapsed in late 2009. "I'll always be doing something with big bands," Wilson said at the time, and while he's been increasingly busy as a faculty member at George Washington University, he has indeed kept the promise. Tonight, therefore, he takes a victory lap of sorts as the band celebrates its 15th anniversary in Washington. With him are veterans of the TWJO from its early (Allyn Johnson, Antonio Parker) and late years (Reginald Cyntje, Brian Settles), as well as fairly new-to-the-fold players like Blake Meister and Corey Wallace. And the best part? They're performing all original music. It goes down at 8 and 10 p.m. at HR-57, 816 H Str. NE. $15.

Saturday, Jan. 21
Alas—so far 2012 seems to be about goodbyes more than anything else. We have given fare-thee-wells to the city's most beloved record store, and to a charter member of the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. This week it's to the Gold Leaf Studios venue, and correspondingly to its Red Door Loft, where the gang at CapitalBop has for a year been producing monthly showcases of local jazz talent. The "DC Jazz Lofts," as they're known, have been a popular and creative success from the outset, mixing freeform and experimental music with hard-driving swing and capping itself with a big ol' jam session each time: It quickly became a core element of D.C. jazz. All signs point to the lofts continuing at a new location, but in the meantime the scene is celebrating with one last big blowout at the Red Door. The roster includes Jazz Loft regulars Brian Settles, Elijah Balbed, and Tri-O, plus bassist Kris Funn, Brooklyn saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson, and melodic post-bop saxman Jonathan Parker. Kill the Red Door Loft in style, starting at 7 p.m. at 443 I Street NW. $10 donation requested (all money goes to the artists).

Sunday, January 22
Most players of the pipa—a Chinese string instrument similar to the lute—would not consider theirs the ideal instrument for the music of Thelonious Monk or Miles Davis. But Min Xiao-Fen is not most pipa players. Likely the world’s foremost practitioner of the instrument, Min is schooled enough in the tradition to have been the primary soloist in the Nanjing National Music Orchestra before moving to the U.S. in 1992. She’s spent the intervening years finding new contexts for the pipa, such as contemporary classical with the likes of John Zorn and Derek Bailey, and with jazz pathfinders like pianist Randy Weston and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith—spiritual heirs to Monk and Miles, respectively. For the forward-thinking Min, then, interpreting those giants isn’t so unusual; if anything, it’s fundamental. Min Xiao-Fen performs at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $20.

Saturday, January 14
Jazz is often a family affair. We've got Heath Brothers, Jones Brothers, and Roney Brothers; three Cohens; the Marsalis family; D.C.'s own drumming dynasty, the Abadeys; and, at least partially in D.C., the Browns. Omrao Brown is the man at the helm of Bohemian Caverns, the city's best jazz venue. His father, Leonard Brown, is a saxophonist and professor of music at Northeastern University in Boston. The elder Brown is a frequent visitor to his son's club, luckily for us (particularly on Martin Luther King Weekend, when he plays an annual tribute); he's an impassioned, energetic player in the Coltrane tradition, but with his own slightly gruff sound, particularly when he gets to wailing on his soprano sax. (He also plays tenor.) Better yet, his quartet Joyful Noise features some of D.C.'s finest—pianist Bob Butta Johnson, bassist James King, and the head of the aformentioned Abadey dynasty, Nasar, on drums. They perform at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $18 in advance, $22 at the door.

Monday, January 16
It's a new year, which combines celebration with a fresh start, and you haven't gone out to see the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra yet? Shame on you. Shame! Actually, there's a good chance you have seen the BCJO in 2012, if you're a fan; they tend to pack the house every Monday night of their ongoing residency at the titular club. But whether you've been to see them or not, you must go this week. It's vital. Why? Because it's the final appearance with the big band of one of its original tenor saxophonists. Charles Phaneuf, the gentleman you see in the photograph here, has been on the front line since the orchestra's first gig; now, however, he's headed back to his native Raleigh, North Carolina. The BCJO will continue on, naturally; the guys in charge, Brad Linde and Joe Herrera, will surely find someone to succeed him (if they haven't already). Nobody, however, can replace him. They perform at 8 and 10 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns. $7.

Wednesday, January 18
One of Blues Alley's valuable contributions to jazz in this town is its collaborations with the Embassies to bring jazz from all over the world into our fair city. One of the best examples of this is the Indian Jazz Series, a regular occurrence that starts next week at the fabled Georgetown nightclub. As always, the lineup is an excellent one; for this writer, though, who just saw him perform last weekend in New York, the standout has got to be guitarist Rez Abbasi. Of Pakistani descent, Abbasi is a composer and improviser who pursues a fusion of Indian traditions with jazz ones. This is actually part of a larger trend in the music these days: Abbasi is a member of a collective called the Indo-Pak Coalition that exists for the same purpose. But he's able to articulate it with a unique voice of his own, a musical style that uses jazz harmony at its core, but also the rhythmic cycles of eastern music—not to mention an idiosyncratic texture that draws from both of those traditions, as well as an edge of rock rawness. He's an extraordinary musician, and praise Blues Alley for bringing them here. Of course, rather than praising them, you could also thank them by buying a ticket to the gig. Abbasi performs at 8 and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $20.

It's easy to proclaim the inaugural season of jazz concerts at Atlas Performing Arts Center, which closed in December, a rousing creative success. Its commercial success seemed to be a little more mixed, but not unexpectedly so; Jazz at the Atlas is a new program in a still-developing area of the city, and by nature some events were better attended than others.

Still, the programming was formidable enough that the Atlas, in conjunction with artistic director Brad Linde, is moving full speed ahead with a second season, with a roster of 11 performances through the end of May by national artists, local musicians, and a combination of the two.

The season begins this evening with the Chris Byars Octet. A tenor saxophonist native to and based in New York, Byars is also a highly acclaimed composer who has won awards for his work from Chamber Music America and ASCAP. His octet's current project, however, is an homage to another saxophonist/composer, the late, great, and rather unsung Lucky Thompson. At the Atlas, the group features another great unsung in octogenarian bebop pianist Freddie Redd. It's an evening of classic jazz played by some of the music's most seasoned craftsmen, and filtered through Byars' skillful hand as arranger.

Here's the full schedule for the season:

Jan. 18: Dan Roberts Trio (D.C.)
Feb. 1: Jen Krupa-Leigh Pilzer Quintet (D.C.)
Feb. 15:- Ben Allison Quartet (New York)
March 14:- Andrew Cyrille's 21st Century Big Band Unlimited (New York)
March 21:- Amy K Bormet's Washington Women in Jazz Festival featuring Allison Miller (D.C.)
April 4: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (New York)
April 11: Steve Lehman Trio (New York)
April 13: Endangered Blood (New York)/Noveller (New York)/DC Improvisors Collective (D.C.)
May 2: Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet (New York)
May 16: Out of the Cool: Gil Evans at 100 (DC musicians)
May 30: Dan Tepfer Trio (New York)

There are also special performances lined up for June, including two for the DC Jazz Festival. One of these (June 3) remains unannounced; the other, on June 13, is a performance by drummer Joe Chambers' Moving Pictures Orchestra—featuring D.C. stalwarts Brian Settles, Jessica Boykin-Settles, Donvonte McCoy, and Tom Baldwin.

Other performances are still in the works, including one by drummer and D.C. native Billy Hart's quartet, and a complete third season.

As for the concerts:

Thursday, Jan. 5
Age is one of 82-year-old Mose Allison’s lyrical preoccupations...and one of his distinctions. The singer/pianist was born in Mississippi at a time when jazz and blues were more or less interchangeable—and in his music, they still are, along with R&B and even postwar pop crooning. Though Allison says his genre-blurring has made it difficult to maintain a steady audience, those who’ve remained loyal include Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russell, The Who, and The Pixies. It's a long string of generations that's been listening to Mose—but that says everything about his consistency and nothing about his energy. Allison’s got a furiously rhythmic, blindingly piano technique, and his voice, wise but youthful, has the knowing wink of a southern man who still knows how to get down. He makes the advancing years seem all but irrelevant. Allison performs with his trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $25.

Saturday, Jan. 7
Setlist hearts Elijah Balbed. Did you notice? We get excited about his work as a leader, as a sideman, and as the vanguard of the youngest generation of DC jazz saxophonists, and we're not shy about saying so. We are thrilled to hear the new album he's promised for 2012 (more on that story as it develops), and just as thrilled about his new band, a quintet. It's a—relatively straightahead assemblage that features Samir Moulay on guitar, Andrew Adair on piano, Gavin Fallow on bass, and Lee Pearson II on drums. That "relatively" is an important qualifier, though: Balbed often leads the group through a set of standards, but they don't let it restrain them from taking the music in strange and adventurous new directions. The Elijah Balbed Quintet performs at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $15.

Sunday, January 8
It may seem strange to recommend Eric Johnson, a guitarist who flaunts his debt to Jimi Hendrix and his blues-guitar-pioneer predecessors loudly and proudly, in this column. In fact, it's not too far-fetched at all. Johnson's breakthrough came when he was the guitarist for Austin area fusion band The Electromagnets—and in fact, his artistic development stems less from Hendrix than from John McLaughlin, the man who adapted Hendrix's innovations for the Fusion Era. You can hear it in his clear, tasteful, deceptively complex lines, even when he's singing blues-rock songs: This man is a craftsman, a technician, a guitarist's guitarist made for the delicacy and details of jazz, and it shows. Eric Johnson performs at 7:30 p.m. at The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Avenue in Alexandria. $35.

Wednesday, January 11

Rodney Richardson is one of the area's premiere jazz guitarists. He has regular gigs in the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra with the Funk Ark, last year co-conducted a sharp experiment with trumpeter Joe Herrera via the "Sunday Jazz Lounge," and is a favorite sideman around the city. But his own major project, the Rodney Richardson Organ Trio, has been on the sidelines recently. That changes in 2012, with the organ trio roaring back into Twins Jazz to take its rightful place as the cream of D.C.'s soul-jazz crop. Richardson is accompanied by Will Rast, easily the organ king of Washington, and Larry Ferguson, the hard-driving drummer who proves that you can lay out soul on the trap kit. And admit it, you've been longing for that gritty, churchy, irresistably groovy sound of the organ trio to hit your ears again. The Rodney Richardson Trio performs at 8 and 10 p.m. at Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW. $10.

Photo: Allie Carroll.