Welcome to Moment’s Notice, WRTI’s weekly digest of jazz listings in the Philadelphia area. It will launch as an email newsletter in September, so be sure to sign up now!
Spotlight: Miles Okazaki’s Trickster - Wednesday, Solar Myth
The slipstream intricacies of Miles Okazaki’s Trickster — a longstanding quartet with Okazaki on guitar, Matt Mitchell on piano, Anthony Tidd on electric bass, and Sean Rickman on drums — have never been captured better than they are on a new album, Trickster: Live in Brooklyn. Recorded last summer during a three-week residency at SEEDS, it’s a staggering testament to the high degree of intellectual rigor and intuitive play among these musicians, who share a deep understanding of form. (Among the other things they share is a working history with the composer-bandleader Steve Coleman, whose conceptual stamp can be heard clearly on a mashup of “Mischief” and “Caduceus Steps.”) This Ars Nova Workshop one-nighter, on the eve of a hometown album-release engagement at the new Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, should deliver a knife’s-edge balance of mutable logic and spontaneous ignition.
Aug. 16 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 S. Broad Street, $25; purchase tickets.
Cory Henry - Tuesday, City Winery
If the recent arc of Cory Henry’s career has suggested a skyrocket, then his new album, Live at the Piano, might seem at first like an earthbound return. But that would be selling Henry short. He grew up defying gravity at the keys, and still has command of a vast set of resources when he’s alone at a piano. WRTI presents this stop on his tour, where the spirit is sure to move.
Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 990 Filbert Street, $35 to $50; purchase tickets.
Walter Beasley - Thursday and Friday, South Jazz Kitchen
A soprano and alto saxophonist and singer with an expansive track record in smooth jazz, Walter Beasley comes to South Jazz Kitchen as part of its Unscripted Jazz Series. He’ll draw partly from his latest full-length release, Meet Me at My Place. (You can probably expect that he’ll also play a single that dropped in June, “Nice and Easy (Walter’s Version) [feat. Najee].”
Aug. 17 at 7 and 9 p.m., Aug. 18 at 7 and 9:30 p.m., South Jazz Kitchen, 600 N. Broad Street, $55 to $75; purchase tickets.
Amina Figarova Sextet - Thursday, Kennedy Plaza Stage, Atlantic City
The Azerbaijani pianist and composer Amina Figarova has a glowing track record with her sextet, which typically features her husband, Bart Platteau, on flute alongside saxophonist Wayne Escoffery and trumpeter Alex Pope Norris. Drawing from an engaging new album, Joy, Figarova’s group appears on the Chicken Bone Beach Jazz series in Atlantic City; also on the bill is a Tribute to Charles Fambrough led by pianist Aaron Graves, with veteran saxophonist Joe Ford.
Aug. 17 at 7 p.m., Kennedy Plaza Stage, Atlantic City, NJ, free.
Danielle Dougherty and Friends - Friday, Notsolatin Jazz Series
Danielle Dougherty, currently in the masters program at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, is the vocalist for the Temple University Jazz Band, under Terell Stafford. As you know if you’ve seen her video on NPR Live Sessions, she has a soulful and airy style; she’ll draw from a talented peer group when she plays the Notsolatin Jazz Series in South Philly.
Aug. 18 at 7:30 p.m., Notsolatin Jazz Series, 1440 W. Ritner Street, $10 suggested donation.
