Thursday, Nov. 1
Singer Roberta Gambarini is a frequent presence around these parts, a regular part of the D.C. Jazz Festival's lineup and an annual performer at Blues Alley, where she returns this weekend. She is always welcome. A native of Torino, Italy, the lovely Gambarini speaks with an Italian accent, but when she sings there's [...]

Friday, Oct. 26
When the late Dr. Billy Taylor was the Kennedy Center's Artistic Adviser for Jazz, you'd see him cross the institution's stages occasionally—primarily as a guest in other artists' sets, and increasingly less as he got older. The new artistic adviser, Jason Moran, is considerably younger and more energetic (his fresh perspective helped him land [...]

I didn't bring my notebook when I saw Tarbaby at The Fridge Saturday night. I wasn't planning to write a review—just wanted to check out the scene of CapitalBop's Jazz Loft at the Capitol Hill arts space.* But the experiments wrought by the young power trio (pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis, drummer Nasheet Waits) were [...]

The goods at this year's DC Jazz Festival are fairly evenly distributed, so you won't have to fret the usual backload. (Well, there's still MegaFest, but we'll get to that later.) There's nothing slow about opening weekend, which offers a wealth of great music.
FRIDAY
It's a new take on an old idea: The two-week incarnations of [...]