Friday, June 18
The Carter-Barron Amphitheatre in Rock Creek Park seems to be gaining traction as a jazz venue. This weekend, it's booked for some of the area's finest musicians. At the top of the bill is Frederic Yonnet, the extraordinary French harmonica player who blends funk, soul groove, and jazz on his instrument—alongside Toots Thielemans, the first truly original jazz harmonicist. Also playing, however, is Supernova, the band led by drummer, composer, and educator Nasar Abadey. Abadey is the godfather of percussionists in DC, in terms of his tenure here and his ability; he works with a post-Coltrane spiritual jazz sound. He's also a mystic and a thinker who calls his music "Multi-D" to signify that it is both multidimensional and multidirectional. You'll understand when you hear it. Yonnet and Abadey perform at 7:30 pm at the Carter-Barron Amphitheatre, 16th Street and Colorado Avenue NW. Free, with tickets (distributed at the Carter-Barron box office on the day of performance).

Sunday, June 20
Has any jazz musician coined a phrase that's been as quoted, co-opted, distorted, paraphrased, and/or parodied as much as Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised?" Well, yes, actually: The Louis Armstrong phrasebook is hand-in-glove with the American vernacular. But Scott-Heron's 1971 song title has become the foundation for a certain kind of conversation: the merger of politics and media in the last half-century. That innovation has become so big that it obscures the others that Scott-Heron has achieved: He was a proto-hip-hopper, and one of the most active artists in bringing militant politics into the "new thing" jazz of the '60s and '70s, as well as demonstrating the rhythmic possibilities of spoken-word poetry in a jazz context. After some trouble in the early 2000s related to drug possession, Scott-Heron is still working, as conscientious and sharp as ever, and has just released I'm New Here, his first album in 16 years. He's also still making headlines, having recently announced in spectacular fashion (from the stage) that he was canceling a concert in Tel Aviv and won't play in Israel again "until everyone is welcome there." Agree or not, his chutzpah is undeniable, and it will be on full display at 8 and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $35.

By its broadest definition, Nordic Jazz Week encompasses five nights, including a show tonight at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. But Wednesday night at the House of Sweden, in which the big draw was Nils Petter Molvær and Arve Henriksen (pictured above), was treated as a closing night of sorts. The omnipresent threat of rain forced the concert indoors instead of its customary spot on the House of Sweden's picturesque rooftop, but that didn't stop a substantial crowd from gathering.

Photos and writeup after the jump. Full gallery here.

Iceland's Sunna Gunnlaugs Quartet opened the evening with a set of straightforward, at times somewhat tentative jazz, pleasant but hardly revelatory. Henriksen took the stage next, joined by electronics wizard Jan Bang, and the two played as a duo with Bang manipulating the sounds coming from Henriksen's trumpet and providing additional layers as well. There was a distinct Jon Hassell influence at work here, but Henriksen's vocals provided a pleasant surprise: he sung wordlessly with amazing range and power, something I wasn't expecting at all. After some time, Henriksen and Bang were replaced, without a break in the music, by Molvær and his two collaborators, Eivind Aarset on guitar and Audun Kleive on drums. The music changed, becoming somewhat more beat-driven and intense, but the overall feel remained consistent: the House of Sweden seemed to be hosting a psychedelic space-music fest as much as it was an evening of jazz.

The Jonas Kulhammar Quartet brought things back to a more conventional level. Before their set, A Love Supreme played over the PA, which was a fitting prelude to this quartet's music, which reminded strongly of early 60s Coltrane. Like the Sunna Gunnlaugs Quartet, it was nothing particularly new and exciting, but very much enjoyable and spiced up by Kulhammar's humorous banter. This quartet will also be playing tonight at the Kennedy Center.

Nordic Jazz Fest has become a reliable annual event at which one can expect to see a good mix of straightforward jazz and slightly more off the wall material. The most "out" the festival has ever gotten was probably the 2006 appearance of Kjetil Møster, but recent years have seen some performances (such as Henriksen/Molvær this year or Kristian Blak last year) gently pushing the boundaries of jazz in diverse directions. I'm already looking forward to what's in store for 2010.

Nils Petter Molvær:

Jonas Kulhammar Quartet:

Sunna Gunnlaugs:

Full gallery here.