Here at WRTI, we’re enjoying the late-summer weather and settling into a new fall semester. We’re also compiling the best shows of the months ahead for a Fall Preview, which will go up at the end of next week, in place of your regularly scheduled Moment’s Notice. In the meantime, there’s plenty to keep you busy this week. Have a look!
Spotlight: A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers — Thursday, Temple Performing Arts Center
The legacy of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers runs no risk of slipping into obscurity: it’s a structural feature of hard-bop, a churning constant now as ever. More to the point, it’s part of the core curriculum for modern jazz — in settings as low-key as a neighborhood jam session and as organized as the Jazz Studies program at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, which presents this free repertory tribute as part of the Rite of Swing Jazz Café.
Bassist Sam Harris, a Boyer alumnus, organized the concert, which features a septet about as stacked as anyone could expect. In the band’s front line are trumpeter Terell Stafford, Director of Jazz Studies at Boyer; trombonist Robert Edwards, who earned his masters from Juilliard; and saxophonist Josh Lee, whom you may also know as host of Jazz Through the Night on WRTI. Along with Harris on bass, the rhythm section features Silas Irvine on piano; Jake Kelberman on guitar; and a worthy Blakey surrogate, Justin Faulkner, at the drums.
Sept. 12 at 4:30 p.m., Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 North Broad Street, free; more information.
Secret Chiefs 3: UR — Wednesday, Solar Myth
Trey Spruance, a guitarist and keyboardist best known for co-founding the underground rock band Mr. Bungle, also maintains the stylistically unstable avant-garde project Secret Chiefs 3, in various incarnations. The one that he calls UR, which incorporates elements of vintage surf-rock, appears here in a new lineup with Matt Hollenberg and Adam Minkoff on guitars, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and synthesizers, and Ches Smith on drums and percussion.
Sept. 11 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $30; tickets and information.
Veronica Swift — Thursday, Music Hall at World Cafe Live
Veronica Swift has been a promising arrival on the jazz-vocal circuit over the last decade, and for much of that time she’s specialized in a smoky cabaret style. But on her self-titled third album for Mack Avenue, Swift cranks up the volume and distortion, in hot pursuit of what she likes to call a “transgenre” approach; for a taste, hear what she does with “Closer,” the biggest crossover hit by Nine Inch Nails. Better yet, catch her in person this week.
Sept. 12 at 8 p.m., Music Hall at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street, $25-$45; purchase tickets.
Kevin Hays’ 7th Sense — Friday, Chris’ Jazz Cafe
Pianist-composer Kevin Hays released 7th Sense 30 years ago, and even then it was clear he had put together a special crew for the task. The album, his first on Blue Note, features Seamus Blake on tenor saxophone, Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Doug Weiss on bass and Brian Blade on drums. This week, Hays has reconvened that personnel — with a close compatriot, Bill Stewart, standing in for Blade — for engagements in New York and here in Philly, where it will be part of the 35th anniversary fête for Chris’ Jazz Cafe.
Sept. 13 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom Street, $30, $100 and $120, with dinner packages; purchase tickets.
Jonathan Michel Quartet — Saturday, Chris’ Jazz Cafe
Bassist Jonathan Michel grew up in New England, and he’s now based in New York City — but he spent enough formative time in Philly to be considered one of our own. That’s doubly true on a gig like this, another aspect of Chris’ 35th anniversary party: Michel will lead a quartet with Orrin Evans on piano, Mekhi Boone on drums, and as a special guest, Sarah Hanahan — an artist profiled this week on Jazz Night in America — on alto saxophone.
Sept. 14 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom Street, $35, $105, and $125, with dinner packages; purchase tickets.
