Welcome to Moment’s Notice, WRTI’s regular guide to the Philadelphia jazz scene. We’re here to tip you off to the best shows during the week ahead. Sign up now to receive this service in your inbox every week. And if you want to let us know about a show on the horizon, or share any other feedback, drop us a line!
Spotlight: Amirtha Kidambi & Elder Ones — Friday, Solar Myth
New Monuments, just out on the We Jazz label, is the bracing third release by Elder Ones, a fiercely free-thinking ensemble led by vocalist and composer Amirtha Kidambi. This is an album forged in the spirit of global protest, with songs that address the women’s rights movement in Iran, protests over agricultural reforms in India, and the longstanding issue of Palestinian liberation. Kidambi draws from the Carnatic musical language of her heritage as well as the expressive potential in experimental jazz and punk, and her partners in Elder Ones achieve a potent cohesion. Along with saxophonist Matt Nelson, a charter member of the band, those partners include Lester St. Louis on cello, Eva Lawitts on bass and Jason Nazary on drums.
This show at Solar Myth kicks off a tour in support of the album, whose title Kidambi connects in her liner notes to “the tearing down of old colonial and racist monuments and vestiges of power.” She adds: “I don’t mean that we should reproduce the same structures of capitalism and colonialism that came before us, but that we should dismantle and reassemble an entirely new future, a new path forward.”
March 29 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $30; more information.
Tigran Hamasyan — Thursday, Ardmore Music Hall
The Armenian pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan has refined a personal vocabulary for small-group jazz that melds the folkloric and the hypermodern. He was most recently here in the fall, with the group from his album StandArt, which redraws jazz standards in intricate cursive. This week he returns with the trio heard on his more fusion-esque release The Call Within, including the Swiss-born drummer Arthur Hnatek and the American electric bassist Evan Marien, who recently took to YouTube to declare Hamasyan’s tunes “the HARDEST music I’ve ever learned.”
March 28 at 8 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, $26 standing, $49 seated; purchase tickets.
Tony Kadleck Quintet — Thursday, Temple Performing Arts Center
Ask any trumpeter and they’ll tell you: Tony Kadleck stands at the very top of the field. A first-call session ace and a longtime member of the Maria Schneider Orchestra, he’s also currently in the Broadway pit for MJ: The Musical. For this free concert at the Rite of Swing Cafe, he’ll bring a quintet with Ben Kono on saxophone, Henry Hey on piano, Mary Ann McSweeney on bass and Jared Schonig on drums.
March 28 at 4:30 p.m., Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 North Broad Street, free.
George Colligan Quartet — Friday, Chris’ Jazz Cafe
Pianist-composer George Colligan was once a regular around these parts, contributing fire and finesse to the east coast scene; “New York in the 90s,” a hard-driving track from his forthcoming album You’ll Hear It, carries the authority of lived experience. Now a productive member of the creative community in Portland, OR, Colligan returns this weekend with a quartet featuring one of his old running buddies, the irreproachable saxophonist Steve Wilson.
March 29 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom Street, $25, $80 and $100, with dinner packages; purchase tickets.
The Messthetics with James Brandon Lewis — Saturday, Solar Myth
Formed in 2016, The Messthetics are a rugged jazz-rock trio that includes bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty — two-thirds of the pioneering punk band Fugazi — along with the versatile guitarist and effects maestro Anthony Pirog. For the last couple of years, they’ve had a productive collaboration with tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, which led to the realization of a new album simply titled The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, which they’ll draw from here.
March 30 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $25; more information.
