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.

Friday, Dec. 9
Tim Warfield is one of the best Christmas gifts D.C. gives its jazz fans every year. He does an annual performance at Bohemian Caverns of the Christmas songs he loves, imbuing them with his tenor saxophone's sharp edges and dark undertones without sacrificing the straight-ahead bop sound he loves. It's a hell of a concert, and tends to feature special guests. This year, he's joined by vocalist Joanna Pascale, and by a true star in whiz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, in addition to his favorite frontline partner, trumpeter Terell Stafford (recently the subject of an excellent JazzTimes story by my local colleague, Giovanni Russonello). 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $25.

Saturday, Dec. 10
There are a lot of great drummers in Washington, but rare is the one with the imagination and virtuosity of Nasar Abadey. The Buffalo, N.Y., native is a musician of profound spirituality—John Coltrane changed his life—and profound skill. But he's not a weekly gig type of player: Abadey and his band, Supernova (which comes in various configurations), don't want to overexpose themselves on the scene. It's an interesting side effect, though, that the infrequency give his gigs both a mystique and the feel of an event, which amplifies the glory of his spiritual postbop jazz. So does the presence of saxophonist Azar Lawrence, another of the great jazz mystics, who joins Abadey, pianist Allyn Johnson and bassist James King in the Saturday night show. They hit at 9 and 11 p.m. at Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW. $15.

Sunday, Dec. 11
Then there's the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the District's one and only resident big band that holds down Monday nights at the titular U Street Northwest club. In its almost two years, the BCJO has built and maintained a sizable audience with its book of classic arrangements by jazz's most important big-band writers (and some of the BCJO's own members) and has become a major gathering point for some of the city's best players—especially younger ones who are trying to make their names known in D.C. Make no mistake, though; these are top-flight musicians, all of them, and they know their material forward and backward. Hence it's pretty special when they put on a holiday show like this one. The centerpiece is Ellington’s famous arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite (a Christmas favorite around these parts); however, there’ll also be lots of seasonal delights. And, when they’re finished the later set, follow the saxophone section—Brad Linde, Sarah Hughes, Charles Phaneuf, Elijah Balbed, and Brent Birckhead—down to the December edition of the CapitalBop Jazz Loft, where they'll put on a special display of their own. The BCJO plays at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns. $15.

Wednesday, Dec. 14
Controversy continues to rage over Stan Kenton, the jazz big-band leader who would have been 100 years old this week. The uproar stems not only from his daughter’s allegations that Kenton, who died of alcoholism-related causes in 1979, sexually assaulted her as a child. The pianist and composer remains artistically controversial, too. Was his “neophonic” concept that of a visionary artist, or an eccentric kitschmeister? There was consensus on at least one point: Kenton was unique. He had an ambitious ear for brass orchestrations, a flair for the “exotic” (especially Latin rhythms), and a weakness for compositions and arrangements that flouted convention. For jazz educators, these have become irresistible, challenging puzzles for students, and that’s part of why Kenton’s cult includes generations of formally trained musicians. It also explains how the Atlas jazz series ended up with a 19-piece orchestra, paying tribute to him one day before his actual centennial. Controversial or not, neophonics lives on. The Stan Kenton centennial celebration begins at 8 p.m. at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. $20.

Ethan Iverson is the de facto front man for The Bad Plus. The piano trio doesn't really have a leader, but Iverson is the pianist, the one who talks between songs at their concerts, and the one who communicates most prolifically with the jazz audience via his blog Do The Math. Where The Bad Plus has separated itself a bit from the conventional jazz spectrum, Iverson the blogger embraces it, providing a depth of discussion and critique on everyone from Oscar Peterson to the AACM. Ahead of his performance Sunday night at the Atlas Theater—where he's playing standards as part of a mini-tour of D.C. and Philadelphia withD.C. natives Corcoran Holt on bass and Steve Williams on drums—Iverson spoke to Arts Desk about the playing music as himself versus with The Bad Plus, being a jazz blogger, and his connections with D.C.'s jazz lineage.

Washington City Paper: Why the "mini-tour," first of all?

Ethan Iverson: For a while I've been playing at [Manhattan jazz club] Small's with some great rhythm sections, just to play tunes. It's a real privilege and honor to be out with The Bad Plus; for the past 10 or 11 years we've been doing about 150 gigs a year, or even more, of our original music, and there's part of me that likes to scratch the itch of playing tunes once in a while. In addition, there's lots of older musicians that I like to take a lesson with on the bandstand. So, for example, Tootie Heath has played with me; I've gotten Ben Riley and Buster Williams to play with me; as well as some peers. Corcoran is about my age, maybe a little bit younger, and I really enjoy playing with him and asked him to recommend somebody. He recommended Steve Williams.

It's gonna be an informal gig, in the sense that I'm not really preparing any music and we're not gonna rehearse. There's just a certain magic that comes from just getting up there and seeing what happens. That's what this mini-tour is about.

WCP: When you play these gigs in Small's, are those standards too? Or are you playing your own music?

EI: Standards, absolutely. I get what I need in terms of creative new music with The Bad Plus. And Billy Hart's group, which I also play in, is original music. But I grew up playing the canon, and even though we might play something like "On Green Dolphin Street," I'd be interested in trying to play it my own way from the first second. And with musicians like Corcoran and Steve, and anyone else who's experienced and interested in creative music, you can actually find a really new space within seconds of playing a tune that you all know.

WCP: It's interesting when you talk about playing standards your own way, because The Bad Plus is already so different from your typical standard jazz settings. Are you, for example, as removed from traditional jazz harmony in these trios as The Bad Plus might be?

EI: Well, a good cue for something like this is someone like Thelonious Monk, who's probably my biggest influence when I play standards. You know, compared to the normal jazz language, Monk is coming from a different space, and it's a space I try to inhabit too. I try to have an opinion on everything, and not ever use stock harmony. I have a track record of recording like this: My first recording with Reid [Anderson, The Bad PLys' bassist] was a disc of standards with Jorge Rossy on drums, and we called it "standards deconstructed." That's a pretty good word to think of—of course it would also be a pretty good word to describe a lot of the pop covers we did with The Bad Plus.

I leave lots of space—for this kind of repertoire I'm not interested in that Oscar Peterson, piano-dominant tradition. I'm interested in the Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley tradition where you're always hearing a lot of the band and there's a lot of room for them to play. In fact on this mini-tour I've been trying just to list the names of Ethan, Corcoran, and Steve. Everyone in jazz prefers to call us the Ethan Iverson Trio, but I'm more comfortable just listing the names. And I'm sort of thinking of it as Do the Math Live!

That's the other thing, of course, that this ties into: my interest in jazz history. I know that some people who are interested in The Bad Plus and maybe have heard the music, will sometimes read the blog and say "I really don't see how this connects at all!" So maybe with this trio they'll see a little bit better how it connects.

WCP: It is interesting to see on the blog that you're so fascinated with the canon, when it's not what you are getting up and doing every night with The Bad Plus.

EI: Oh, for sure. Well, I always wanted to get up and play music that had never been heard before, in any form. And when Reid and Dave and I first played—I still remember that first rehearsal, where I was like, "Oh, my God. I never heard this sound before." So that was my dream come true. But also, I'm interested in checking stuff out in history, and it can even be non-musical things. If I like an author, I read every single book and sometimes write about every single book, as I did with the late Donald Westlake. The blog has been wonderful about scratching that itch.

WCP: How does the blog affect your relationship with the jazz scene? Do your colleagues notice the same disparity we've talked about?

EI: I don't think so. Musicians are generally very supportive of Do The Math. Certain musicians I really love have said some really nice things about the blog, and that's meant something to me. I was at the Vanguard last night, seeing some great music: The Bill McHenry Quartet, with Orrin Evans and Eric Revis and Andrew Cyrille. It was so great, and I stayed for both sets. I had a few conversations with musicians I respected, and they talked about the blog and some details of some stuff they'd read, and that was really cool.

WCP: Between this gig with Corcoran and Steve, and your regular New York gig with drummer Billy Hart—who's also a D.C. native—I should ask if you have some particular connection to D.C. musicians or the D.C. jazz tradition?

EI: Oh, I'm sure, because Billy, among all these older cats, he's my guru. I've learned so much from him, and we play together a lot, and we have a record coming out as a group on ECM next year, which I actually think is a really good record—with Mark Turner and Ben Street.

I've heard a lot from Billy about D.C.; he really does come from one of the classic communities, which I talk about a lot on Do The Math because I grew up in Wisconsin and the way I learned about this music was in a very abstract, non-community way. Whereas someone like Billy Hart, he'll tell you that he got in on the drums, and when the cats on the scene decided he was good enough they'd say, "All right, the gig's on Saturday." And that when he was 18 he played for something like a year with a trio, six nights a week, with Butch Warren on bass and a great piano player who's either passed or is a bit incapacitated. But I'm blanking on his name. Reuben?

[Note: Though neither of us could remember at the time, Ethan is referring to D.C. favorite Reuben Brown, who has been out of jazz since suffering a severe stroke about 10 years ago.]

But man, you play with Butch Warren for a year, no wonder you learned how to swing! Growing up in Wisconsin, that shit was just never on the table for us. And that's something we should always be aware of: Where we're coming from, and where they're coming from. Because one thing I don't like is some sort of watered-down that feels like people don't care about it that much. The music really was forged in a crucible; if you grew up in D.C. as a black man in the 1940s, that's a heavy gig!

Andrew White, he's a dude who's on my very long list of people I'd love to sit down and talk to. Whatever they drink in that water back there, in communities like D.C.'s jazz community, that's some special shit. You don't get it any other way than by being there and paying the dues.

Washington City Paper: Let’s talk about your explorations of Puerto Rican music. Is this a long-term project?

Miguel Zenón: Yeah, it’s long in the sense that I do it out of personal interest, and it evolved into the traditions of my country and the history and all that. But I have to say that the fact that I did a couple records on that subject wasn’t really planned that way. It’s kinda just been happening as I get more into it and find more things that I want to go deeper into. They kind of turn into projects themselves, just because I spend a lot of time listening to the music, and researching and reading and talking to people about it. But yeah, I mean, it’s sorta what I am now, though I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be on this road. I don’t think it will be forever but it’s definitely the road I’m on now.

WCP: You’ve done two different folk aspects and now the popular songbook. Are there many other aspects you want to explore?

MZ: Well, there are a lot of other aspects of Puerto Rican music and Puerto Rican history and Puerto Rico in general to explore. Yeah, of course. There are things that I know a little bit of; there are a lot of things that I know nothing of. So there are a lot of possibilities, although I’m not gonna say I’m going to explore everything there is. But there’s definitely a lot of things that interest me.

WCP: You weren’t really a jazz musician before you went to Berklee in Boston. Before that, were you planning to become a musician in more traditional Puerto Rican styles?

MZ: Well, yeah. I got my initial training in Puerto Rico at an arts high school, and it was mostly classical to start out on. I started playing my first gigs when I was 14 or 15, and it was all basically dance gigs or folk music. I never really played any jazz in Puerto Rico until after I graduated from high school, and then I played a little bit with friends because I was interested in it. Even now, there’s very little accessibility to recordings and shows there. So I didn’t really get an experience with jazz until I moved to Boston, even though I was very interested in it from the time I was in high school.

WCP: Was it that interest that led you to apply to Berklee, which is primarily known for its jazz program?

MZ: Exactly. That’s exactly the reason that I applied to that school. My decision to become a musician came kind of late in my teenage years; for a while I wasn’t really sure. But I was pretty sure that if I was going to try to get on that road, that I definitely wanted to play jazz. That was the music that called me. And I felt at the time, from talking to people and reading whatever I could get my hands on, that Berklee was a good place. It was the place I wanted to be.

WCP: Who were your mentors there?

MZ: I had a lot of mentors there. Bob Moses, for example. And Danilo Perez was probably my biggest influence. But to tell you the truth, the things I got the most out of the experience came from my peers. People my age who were interested in the same things that I was, and for the most part were way ahead of me, more advanced. But mostly I learned a lot from just interacting with people who were in the same boat as I was.

WCP: You said your original training was classical, which is interesting because you show glimpses of that on your albums Awake and Alma Adentro. Is that another avenue you’ll pursue?

MZ: I would love to. I was trained classically, and I’ve always loved classical music, including contemporary classical. It’s something that really interests me, but if I’m going to get into it, I’d like to get into it having a bit more knowledge about it than I do now. And I have been taking composition lessons, and orchestration lessons. Like everything, it’s got to be done with patience, but yes, it’s something that’s very interesting to me, very inspiring.

WCP: I’d like to ask you about working with Guillermo Klein [the Argentinian pianist/composer who orchestrated Alma Adentro]. How did he come to be associated with your new album?

MZ: I’ve been working with Guillermo for a very long time—I’ve played in his bands for more than ten years—and he’s one of my best friends. I guess part of it was an interest on my part to try to incorporate him in some way. He’s one of the greatest musical figures out there right now. He’s an incredible voice, and I’m inspired by everything he does. So I was interested in trying to bring him into one of our projects, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. He’s worked with large ensembles before, and this is a woodwind ensemble, and it seemed like something that wouldn’t give him any trouble.

But also, I feel that Guillermo is not just a great composer, but a great songwriter—he’s deeply connected to the aspects of song, of what a song is. He’s one of those guys who thinks of song first, and then he builds from the ground up. And I thought this project would call to him in a very natural way. So that was kind of the idea; what he did was orchestrate the arrangements that we already had for quartet. He expanded those into the woodwind ensemble, and incorporated his own language into everything.

WCP: It’s a very distinctive language; at times it even sounds like Klein’s own project!

MZ: Well, the idea was to give him an opportunity to liberate and express himself. He wasn’t a pen-for-hire; I wanted him to be free, and he basically built everything he wrote around what we did as a quartet, so we still have room to do everything we chose.

WCP: Talk about life and work since becoming a MacArthur Fellow.

MZ: It’s a very positive thing. In many ways I feel that the biggest impact it’s had in my life is that it’s given me a really incredible sense of freedom with what I want to do with my own time. With having this support I can choose what I want to do, who I want to play with, if I want to go on the road or stay home and practice or write music. It’s given me a lot of freedom and a lot of power in terms of what I want to do with my time. I’m working not to pay my bills, but for the sake of getting better and growing, and doing what I want to do.

WCP: Are you taking less gigs, or freelancing less, as a result?

MZ: I wouldn’t say I’m taking fewer gigs; I love to play with other people. That’s why I got into this—I love to play! But I would say that I’m balancing it out. The amount of time I spend on the road, for example, and the amount of time I stay at home. I’m trying to take more time to stay at home working on things, and being with my family of course.

WCP: So is there a next project in the pipeline for you?

MZ: Actually, yeah, there’s another project coming up in February, that also has to do with Puerto Rico although not to do with Puerto Rican music per se. It’s a project that explores the concept of national identity, specifically Puerto Ricans who were either born or raised in New York. Some people call them “Nuyorican.” And I’ve conducted interviews, talking to people who fit this mold, and I’m using the audio and the video from those interviews to build compositions that explore what it means to be Puerto Rican in different ways.

This is a commission that I got from Montclair University, and we’re going to perform it there in early February. It’s a group of compositions for quartet plus big band, and there’s some multimedia elements—we’ll use some video in the compositions, and some of the audio from the interviews. And also, there’s a video artist who’s going to create an installment around the music as well.

WCP: Will there be a CD, or DVD, or both?

MZ: That’s probably somewhere for the future. Right now I’m working on getting the music down first. I’d love to do a CD or DVD of the project, of course, but everything kind of has to come together while taking our time and seeing where it goes.

The Miguel Zenón Quartet performs at 8 p.m. at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE. $40.

Photo by Keith Sirchio

While the Atlas Performing Arts Center is an anchor of the entertainment corridor along H Street NE, its artistic mission "to foster the artistic growth of professional and aspiring performing artists throughout the region" has only sporadically included jazz. That's about to change.

In September begins the new "Jazz at the Atlas" program, a twice-monthly concert series that will mix established artists with a national reputation with up-and-comers from the local jazz scene. The series is curated by D.C. saxophonist and bandleader Brad Linde.

"We were looking at another aspect of Atlas's mission—establishing a new model of collaborative arts in the community," says Renee Littleton, Atlas' Director of Public Relations. "So we asked ourselves "What kind of programming, number one, makes sense, and number two, has a void that needs to be filled within the community?" (HR-57, the jazz club that now resides down H Street from the Atlas, also helped fill that void, but is focused on a specific and very small rotation of acts, plus its weekly jam sessions.)

Linde has been a friend of Atlas; if until now their jazz showcases have been occasional, he was a part of nearly all of them. That relationship, and the confidence that his ideas for the program inspired, led to his choice as curator.

Linde has completed the program for Jazz at the Atlas' fall season. Booking for the spring season is in progress. Though there were other, aesthetic considerations, his goal has been to book musicians that are "creating, developing, and promoting new projects. [That] can include new repertoire, CD releases, or collaborative projects with other musicians," he says. "These are also performances that are better suited for a venue like the Atlas, as opposed to a nightclub setting."

Here's the lineup for the fall:

Sep. 14: Will Vinson Quartet (New York)
Sep. 28: Tony Martucci Quintet (D.C.)
Oct. 5: Teddy Charles Tentet (Charles is New York-based; his ensemble will likely be filled out by local musicians)
Oct. 19: Greg Boyer Peloton (D.C.)
Nov. 9: Miguel Zenon Quartet (Puerto Rico/New York)
Nov. 16: Brian Settles and Central Union (mix of D.C. and New York players)
Dec. 7: Grachan Moncur III (New York) with the Brad Linde Ensemble (D.C.)
Dec. 21: Matt Wilson Christmas Tree-O (New York)

It makes sense: Most movies set in the District seem to involve politics, espionage, or both—and it’s easy to impersonate federal Washington using government buildings in Baltimore and Philadelphia, which are both cheaper places to film. But D.C. has other charms, our film office would have Hollywood know, and so every 30 days since March, it’s highlighted a new “One City Location of the Month.” So what kind of movie would require a shoot at the National Museum of Women in the Arts; Arena Stage; the Atlas Performing Arts Center; Hillcrest, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rock Creek Parish; or Ben’s Chili Bowl? Better yet: What kind of movie would require a shoot at all of them?

SCENE 1: A theater company in residence at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (June One City Location of the Month!) is having trouble making ends meet. Its latest show, a postapocalyptic staging of David Mamet’s Boston Marriage, was a flop. Rent is due soon, and the artistic director’s cat needs an operation. The only options are mounting a crowd-pleasing but critically embarrassing jukebox musical—or doing something even more drastic.

SCENE 2: The next day, two members of the company are waiting at an audition at Arena Stage (April One City Location of the Month!) and discussing how to save the company. They can’t get rid of the idiot artistic director—he’s got the board wrapped around his little finger. As it happens, every member of the company is an accomplished stunt performer. They’re the perfect group to pull off some kind of robbery!

SCENE 3: The company’s actors decide to knock over a museum. The Smithsonian, the Corcoran, and the Phillips are way too obvious. Nobody knows where the Kreeger is. What about the National Museum of Women in the Arts? (July One City Location of the Month!) It’s small and forgettable but has some valuable stuff.

SCENE 4: The nimble actors make it out of the museum with two lithographs by Elizabeth Catlett, a Kahlo, and an O’Keeffe, but they set off every alarm. They haul ass back to Hillcrest (May One City Location of the Month!), where they’re going to stash the loot at the home of the company’s chief benefactor, who happens to live next door to the mayor.

SCENE 5: But one of the actors-cum-robbers is a rat! A struggle ensues, a gun goes off, and the traitor takes a bullet through the throat. For some reason, the troupe decides to bury him way across town, in the cemetery of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rock Creek Parish (August One City Location of the Month!).

SCENE 6: The actors find a black-market buyer for the stolen art, who wants to do the hand off at Ben’s Chili Bowl (March One City Location of the Month!). The buyer is already there, but because it’s a weekend at the height of intern season, the line stretches out the door and down the alley. Just as some rising sophomores from American are blathering on about how they want chili fries with cheese on the side, the cops yank the actors out of line and bust them. Ben’s is declared a crime scene and evacuated. No one gets their chili fries.

Today is the start of the Intersections Festival at H Street’s Atlas Performing Arts Center, a multi-medium event that’s going to continue for the next three weekends. I have to say, it looks pretty damn impressive. According to the publicity materials, the festival includes 600 D.C. artists in 100 performances spread out over nine days. The underlying theme is crossing and connecting, and all the performances reflect that in some way, either by combining genres or mixing people of different races/ages/classes.

The list of performances fairly boggles the mind. Tonight, for example, prior to the official kickoff party at 9 p.m., there are free concerts at 6:30 and 8, a performance by the storytelling organization SpeakeasyDC at 7; and a play by New Galaxy Theatre Group at 8:30.

Spoken word and music seem to be the best-represented genres, but I’m happy to report that there’s also a decent amount of dance in the mix. Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. is the Dinner Party, a mixed-medium performance event that’s usually pretty heavy on the movement. The Dinner Party is normally a place for Washington artists to show uncurated, in-progress work, but tomorrow night is an exception; it’s called the Gourmet Menu, and will include a selection of the series’ best performers.

On Sunday, local poet-performer Holly Bass, together with Margot Greenlee and Matt Mahaney, who’ve both danced with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, will show “First Gen,” a “docu-dance” created together with Sidwell Friends' dance ensemble.

There are several other interesting dance performances over the next few weekends, including an intriguing collaboration next weekend between the In Series, which puts on small operas, and the Washington Ballet’s Studio Company. They’ll be performing two Mozart operas, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte.

What strikes me as cool about this festival is the organizers’ decision to overlap performances and schedule free concerts and other events in the lobby—all of which encourages hanging out at the Atlas, making it more of a scene, rather than simply a performance venue. I’ve been struck over the past few years by how little seems to occur there, despite the fact that it’s a beautiful space with a few different stages and a lot of versatility. The center might be a hub for H Street denizens, but its events don’t often seem to draw folks from outside that area.

In part, maybe that’s a distance thing: getting to H Street is a bit of a haul if you’re coming from Northwest. That doesn’t seem to factor in when people want to go out drinking and barhopping—and the distance certainly didn’t stop people from coming en masse to the H Street Festival last September, which was packed with thousands of bodies. Maybe that’s because H Street itself is a bit of a scene, a place to hang out with a lot of options. So taking the “scene” route and making the festival something of an all-day, all-evening event strikes me as a good call.

The Atlas just formally promoted its interim director, Sam Sweet, to the executive director position last week; Sweet has extensive experience working with the Shakespeare and Signature theaters, and specializes in organizations in transition. So I’m hoping that, with Sweet at the helm, the Intersections Festival will mark the start of a new, dynamic period for the Atlas.

Michael Kramer and Deidra LaWan Starnes

Although Jennifer L. Nelson’s 24, 7, 365 is a world-premiere work by a D.C.-based African-American woman dramatist, its woodsy locale, philosophical musings, and farcical plot turns evoke Shakespearean comedy at least as much as they do contemporary, satirical dissections of class or race-based conflict. That’s no bad thing.

Johnnie (a brittle Deidra LaWan Starnes) is a social worker so devoted to helping battered women that her husband Jan (a likably mellow Michael Kramer) has to beg her not to bring her phone to bed. He’s a geologist but it's their union that’s on the rocks, and Jan hopes a weekend camping trip to celebrate his 47th birthday will help them reconnect. Predictably, Johnnie has a tough time decompressing, despite having invited additional diversion in the person of her less altruistic but equally hard-charging brother (sturdy Craig Wallace). He in turn brings his dumb, shrill, panicky, and generally insufferable intern-turned-girlfriend, Shovondra, a woman whose attraction he explains as “young, pretty, not too ghetto, plays well with white people and sexy as hell.” She’s written to be a nuisance, and actor Fatima Quander honors the playwright’s intention and then some when she isn’t the blunt instrument of some of Nelson’s sharper jokes, railing at one point against “you stuck-up, boozy Negroes—no offense, Jan.” Why is that funny? Because Jan is the only white character present, and he’s so white he’s actually Danish.

The first act is strong, cannily drawing us in until we’re rooting for Johnnie and Jan’s reconciliation to succeed. Act Two is less convincing, turning on an action by Johnnie so inconsistent with the character Nelson and Starnes have created that splinters stick out of our suspension of disbelief by the time the playwright is done bending it. Nelson’s insistence on making all of her creations virtuous types whose flaws need only to be gently chipped away like ice off a windshield reflects a view of humanity more admirable for its optimism than for its plausibility. Still and all, she and director Juanita Rockwell keep things moving at an agreeable clip, and actor/rapper Baye StraightForward Harrell is a calming, magnetic presence on stage whether you believe the circumstances of his character’s appearance or not. Daniel Ettinger’s efficient scenic design conjures several other locales around the focal point of the campsite dominated by a large tree in which a drunken Jan spends much of the second act. The upper branches of that big, mysterious oak start to look awfully appealing for a minute when Harrell’s character starts freestyling off of the phrase “You need food for the soul as much as you need food for your gut.” But by then the likable ensemble has accumulated enough goodwill to keep your feet on the ground.

24, 7, 365 runs at the Atlas Performing Arts Center to Feb. 27.

The sad part: this was another woefully underattended concert. The Atlas is a good venue, comparatively intimate for an auditorium setting, but Saturday night went beyond intimate. "Small crowd, huh?" Harper laughed. "Let's hope y'all know how to clap loud and fast."

Still, the sub-50-percent capacity did little to dampen the spirits of the group. Harper is luminous in a trio—his accompaniment hard and tight, his brushwork impressionistic and masterful—but thoroughly unleashed once the full sextet is onstage. With fireworks on the tom-toms, he punctuates his players' solos in all the right places, challenging them to match him flourish for flourish, and in his hands, a standard like Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'" becomes something else entirely—as he barrels through the four-beat swing, his hands blurring before your eyes, you can't help but feel that the song will never be the same.

On tenor sax, Dayna Stevens has the hoarse smokiness of a low-range Paul Desmond, and his interchange with Bruce Harris (trumpet) is funky, sensitive, and graceful. The other players—Jon Notar on piano, D.C. native Ameen Saleem on bass, and Jean-Marie Collatin on assorted percussion—form a tight unit with a slick, easy response to the histrionic virtuosity of their leader. Also nice: the full dynamic range, even when down-tempo (cf. "I've Never Been in Love Before").

They wound down the set with "All Praise Is to God" (a Harper original), "Tamisha" (a Saleem original), a piano-led "Amazing Grace," Ruben Brown's "Float Like a Butterfly" (not a bad tagline for this combo, come to think of it), and a few others that escape the memory.  There wasn't a doubter in the house. But the house, after all, was small.