Saturday, Sep. 24
The best jazz album of last year was Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, a rock-influenced, socially conscious yet surprisingly muted album by New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott. Scott is the latest in the long line of Crescent City jazz trumpeters stretching back to Buddy Bolden, and has soaked up not only the heritage of his instrument but the New Orleans tradition of stylistic synthesis. Funk, hip-hop, rock, and post-bop stew together in his vision of a viable jazz for a new generation—what his uncle, the great alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, calls "Nouveau Swing." Recently, that movement has become a specialty of Bohemian Caverns, which showcases the full spectrum of jazz but has been especially sensitive to the progressive sounds that can attract a young audience. Well, here they are, and backed by the quintet of a splendid Baltimore/Washington drummer, John R. Lamkin. Scott and the Lamkin Quintet perform at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th St. NW. $22.

Sunday, Sept. 25
It was 20 years ago this month that Joshua Redman won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, beating out the likes of Eric Alexander and Chris Potter. In the intervening two decades Redman has evolved into one of the most widely imitated jazz saxophonists in the world. Part of it is his tone, full-bodied and both sinewy and sinuous; more to the point, though, is his commitment to always trying something new. He's delved into electro-funk with his Elastic Band; tough, outside-the-lines improvisation with his piano-less trio, and sensitive, lyrical duets with emotive pianist Brad Mehldau. Redman's newest adventure, a quartet called James Farm, is conceived as a band of equals (though Redman is the most prominent person in the ensemble) with pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland; the immediate frame of reference for them isn't post-bop, though, but post-rock—the music is moody, illuminated by Parks' electric piano and pump organ, and at times lighter-than-air, guided by Redman on soprano saxophone. It's a determined effort to maintain contact between the jazz tradition and the contemporary musical universe—and it's a brilliant success. James Farm performs at 7 p.m. at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, at the University of Maryland campus in College Park. $45.

Photo: Carlyle Smith.

Saturday, April 9
"Africa! Africa!" intones the narrator at the beginning of Randy Weston's 1960 masterpiece Uhuru Afrika. That pretty much says it all. Though he's in many senses a disciple of Thelonious Monk, Africa—all of it, in all its glory and all its blight—is Weston's first, last, and most essential influence. He studied it (and its diaspora) since childhood; incorporated musicians from many of its countries and traditions into his music; lived for several years in Tangier, Morocco, where he owned his own jazz club; and named his long-running band African Rhythms. Weston turned 85 years old yesterday, and in that twilight year he is nonetheless pushing forward with two ambitious projects. African Rhythms: The Autobiography of Randy Weston, written with D.C. jazz journalist Willard Jenkins, was published last fall; simultaneously, his new sextet record The Storyteller hit the shelf. Both projects will surely be in focus when he performs with a scaled-down version of African Rhythms (a trio, with bassist Alex Blake and percussionist Neil Clarke, plus special guest drummer Lewis Nash) at 7:30 p.m. at the Kennedy Center's KC Jazz Club, 2700 F St. NW. $30.

Sunday, April 10
When I was researching the story for our Best Of DC issue about great local bassists, one of the titanic names mentioned by nearly every person I talked to was James King, a native of Houston who's been playing, recording, teaching, and mentoring in the District for almost 35 years. Alas, I was unable to reach King for an interview in time for the piece, but he's readily available and magnanimous as a musician. His is a sound that's similar to that charging D.C. bass style, aggressive but with a slightly more complicated flow of syncopation than Washington's unrelenting pound on the 2-and-4. Or that could be just King's virtuosity, not content to show itself off on only half the 4/4 measure. Will we ever know for sure? Well, one great way to find out is to catch King's solo performance as the opening act of Joe Herrera and Rodney Richardson's still-alive-and-kicking Sunday Jazz Lounge, this week scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and located at Bloombars, Columbia Heights' DIY space that serves up art instead of booze. Bloombars is at 3222 11th St. NW. $10.

Monday, April 11
Although jazz is redefined by whomever plays it—no matter where they may be—it's not a stretch to call pianist Martial Solal the personificaton of French jazz. Frankly there's a good argument to be made for his personifying all of European jazz: More than anyone else's in history, his music is equal parts European classical tradition (Bartok, Stravinsky, Messiaen) and American jazz (Tatum, Powell, Evans). If you know those names, you know the vast swath of technique and concepts that they encompass, and can imagine the thick brew it would take to blend them. Solal does it with ease and aplomb, sweeping America and much of Europe into one grandiloquent and inescapably modern sound. Solal is not for the timid, but it's worth it. He performs at 8 p.m. at the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium, First Street and Independence Avenue SE. Free.

Tuesday, April 12
If Martial Solal is a heavy bramble of European and American piano, Dutch player Michiel Borstlap is a light, welcoming embrace of the very same piano lineages. Borstlap has all the rich melody and tonal clarity of a Mozart piano sonata on his 2010 album Solo; he answers Solal's Messian and Tatum with Glenn Gould and Keith Jarrett, complex turns, and runs that nonetheless sound airy and pleasing to the ear. If he lobs some bigger musical ideas past you in the process, so much the better. Of course, this is only one facet of Borstlap's far broader artistic canvas; he's got a trio, a fusion quartet, and, on 2008's Eldorado, a funk and hip-hop/jazz ensemble. He's an experimenter, in short, and that's what he'll be doing on the grand piano. It just happens that he does it with a painterly beauty and palette. Michiel Borstlap performs solo piano at 8 and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $25.

Photo: Eddy Westveer.

Reid's professional career began at 16 as the house drummer of Harlem's Apollo Theater, with his first recording a year later behind Motown's Martha and the Vandellas. (Reid would eventually play on a number of Motown sessions, including the Vandellas' monster 1964 hit "Dancing in the Street.") From there, however, his work took a sharp left turn; after graduating from Adelphi University in 1965, Reid spent three years studying rhythm and percussion in Africa, working with—among others—Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti.

Upon returning to the U.S. he began working with similarly radical (in both music and politics) artists, including James Brown, Randy Weston, Ornette Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Sun Ra, and Miles Davis. After a brief career interruption in 1969, when he was arrested for draft refusal, Reid became an active participant in New York's 1970s loft-jazz scene; he played on the recently rereleased 1977 opus Odyssey of the Oblong Square.

In recent years, Reid gained an appreciative following among post-rock audiences via his collaborations with electronic musician Kieran Hebden—better known as Four Tet. Hebden and Reid were responsible for the two-volume The Exchange Session CDs, as well as two other discs.

Reid's legacy, while not well-known, is tremendous. He will be missed.

Oct. 30
The Brooklyn-born pianist Randy Weston was reared in blues and gospel, grew up with some of bebop’s revolutionaries, and as an adult began exploring musical traditions from all across the African continent—from Somalia to Nigeria to Morocco. His vision manages to assimilate all of those sources into an insoluble whole, equally able to interact with a Harlem big band or the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Weston’s music encompasses many musical traditions and also many human experiences: His sound can be dark or joyful, gnarled or straightforward, folksy or erudite—sometimes all at once. The only two things you’re sure to encounter at a Weston concert are the fierce but complex rhythm he generates with his percussive piano style and the profound emotional impact that explodes out of every performance, no matter what he plays. Weston's African Rhythms Trio performs at 8 P.M. and 10 p.m. at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $30.

Oct. 31
It’s tempting to call Nasar Abadey a “drummer, composer, and mystic”—but the distinction would be false. Certainly Abadey doesn’t recognize it. The District’s dominant jazz drummer, who came of age on the Buffalo jazz scene, calls his music “Multi-D”—meaning that it moves "in multiple directions, and also in and out of multiple dimensions at the same time.” It's also some of D.C.'s most consistently interesting and proficient jazz, and profoundly spiritual—not bad on the eve of All Souls' Day. His band, Supernova (a name that extends to formats from trio to big band) makes a rare appearance this weekend at 9 and 11 p.m. Bohemian Caverns, 2001 11th Street NW. $15 advance, $18 door.

Nov. 3
The foremost qualities of jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato’s artistry are her breathy gentleness and sensuality—she doesn’t sing so much as insinuate. Throughout her latest, In a Dream, she exhibits a supple, nuanced airiness that puts the disc leagues ahead of the year’s other vocal jazz recordings. Om fact, Parlato, a past winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, is poised to become a major star – she's made the first-round voting in three 2009 Grammy categories, including Best New Artist and Album of the Year for In A Dream.  See why on Tuesday evening at Blues Alley, with sets at 8 and 10 p.m.

Nov. 4
Bossa, in Adams Morgan, has established itself as perhaps the most adventurous music venue in Washington. It's predisposed towards the various forms of Latin music, but in fact the bar and Italian bistro serves up music of all varieties and all nations: ska, indie rock, avant-garde, house, even exotica. On Wednesday, Bossa hosts an evening of experimental jazz. On the bill are Peeping Tom, a Swedish/French trio who play bebop standards by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie...without the boundaries; New Loft, a trio from Richmond who proudly include among their instrumentation "PVC tubing" and "things"; and our town's own DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC), whose completely improvised music incorporates rock and classical in addition to jazz. All this for $7!