We’ve talked before about the 25th anniversary of Ars Nova Workshop, and maybe you’ve already partaken of a show or two. This edition of Moment’s Notice brings a staggering overabundance of them: you’ll find one almost every night this week. And that’s not the only thing cooking, as you’ll see. Catch you out there.
Spotlight: Pedrito Martínez — Wednesday, City Winery
The pulse of Afro-Cuban clave can feel like a surging electrical current in the hands of Pedrito Martínez. A master percussionist who plays the congas as well as the hourglass-shaped batá drum, a staple of the Yoruban tradition, he’s also a brilliant rumbero who has made himself indispensable on the New York scene and beyond. There’s a reason Martínez is a sought-after collaborator for everyone from Paul Simon to Paquito D’Rivera to Wynton Marsalis, who goes so far as to call him “a genius.”
That impression won’t be dispelled by the irrepressible album — Ilusión Óptica, on the GroundUP Music label — that Martínez released just last week. It’s a showcase for a well-honed band, stocked with improvisers like trumpeter Jesús Ricardo, trombonist José “Xito” Lovell and bassist Sebastián Natal. And it’s a flexible framework for high-octane guest appearances by the likes of pianist Osmany Paredes, rising multi-instrumental star Wampi, and even non-Cuban actor Bill Murray, who opens the album with a welcome in the guise of a warning: “I am here as your safety monitor, to make sure that you are all prepared.” That dry deadpan masks a genuine truth: Martínez and his band know how to bring the fire.
June 11 at 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 990 Filbert Street, $35-$45; tickets and information.
James Brandon Lewis Quartet — Monday, Solar Myth
Tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has lately been a regular in these parts, but typically with The Messthetics or in Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons. His supercharged working quartet, with Aruán Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass and Chad Taylor on drums, has a potent new album, Abstraction is Deliverance, that should provide the material for this show.
June 9 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $30 advance, $35 day of show; purchase tickets.
Dan Weiss Quartet — Wednesday, Solar Myth
Unclassified Affections is the latest head-spinning musical statement from Dan Weiss, a drummer-composer who balances microscopic detail with sweeping gestural effect. As on the album, he’ll work here with three of the most advanced improvisers on the current landscape: trumpeter Peter Evans, guitarist Miles Okazaki, and vibraphonist Patricia Brennan.
June 11 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $25 advance, $30 day of show; purchase tickets.
Brew Trio — Thursday, Solar Myth
Originally formed in the late 1990s, Brew Trio is a collective that approaches texture, as well as time and tonality, with the aim of transformation. All three of its members are pillars of the avant-garde, none more so than bassist Reggie Workman, who will turn 88 later this month. His partners are koto master Miya Masaoka and percussionist extraordinaire Gerry Hemingway. A fine 2019 album, Between Reflections, probably only begins to capture what they’ll create here.
June 12 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $35 advance, $40 day of show; purchase tickets.
Sun Ra Arkestra — Thursday, World Cafe Live
This intergalactic ensemble still thrives as an Afrofuturist institution with its own literature, language and lore: this show falls the same week that a new feature-length documentary, Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, premieres at the TriBeCa Film Festival. It also falls shortly after the 101st birthday of bandleader, alto saxophonist and electronics artist Marshall Allen, who still travels the spaceways in style.
June 12 at 8 p.m., World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut Street, $35-$48; purchase tickets.
Stephan Crump’s Passerine — Friday, Solar Myth
A passerine is a perching bird, an order that includes more than half of all bird species. Bassist and composer Stephan Crump drew inspiration from their nesting habits, among other things, when creating a body of music for his new group. It’s a quartet with Kenny Warren on trumpet, David Leon on flute and saxophone and Ches Smith on percussion; they’ll go into the recording studio just after this show, so consider it early access to coming attractions.
June 13 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $30 advance, $35 day of show; purchase tickets.
Wayne Smith, Jr. Quintet - Friday, Chris’ Jazz Cafe
Perhaps you recognize Wayne Smith, Jr. as the alert young drummer in the Sun Ra Arkestra. Or maybe you know him as one of the Three Blind Mice, alongside saxophonist Victor North and organist Lucas Brown. Whatever the case, it’s worth paying attention to his burgeoning career as a bandleader — notably with this quintet, featuring trombonist Brent White, saxophonist Matthew Clayton, guitarist Ian Macaulay and bassist Madison Rast.
June 13 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom Street, $25, $95 and $115, with dinner packages; purchase tickets.
Thomas Strønen, Eivind Opsvik, Anna Webber — Saturday, Solar Myth
Drummer Thomas Strønen and bassist Eivind Opsvik both hail from Norway, and they share a fondness for songful lyricism as well as rangy exploration. Saxophonist and flutist Anna Webber is originally from Vancouver, but like Opsvik, she’s based in New York, and part of a vibrant Brooklyn scene. This collective performance seems likely to split the difference between alluring atmospherics and sharp, surprising detail.
June 14 at 8 p.m., Solar Myth, 1131 South Broad Street, $30 advance, $35 day of show; purchase tickets.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — June 15, Marian Anderson Hall
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s flagship orchestra, led since its inception by trumpeter and artistic director Wynton Marsalis, has devoted itself not only to repertory by the likes of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus but also new works by its members. So this concert will feature a mix of old and new — as well as a homecoming of sorts for one of the band’s newest members, saxophonist Chris Lewis, who earned his degree at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple. Arrive a little early for an All City Orchestra and Jazz Fellowship Showcase, featuring young musicians from The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts Philly’s 2024-25 fellowship class.
Pre-concert performance: June 15 at 3:45 p.m., Commonwealth Plaza, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, free; more information.
Main performance: June 15 at 5 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $59-$117.88; tickets and information.
