5 Jazz Concerts To Mark the Beginning of Fall

Happy beginning of fall and Happy Hispanic Heritage month. While I do not have the space here, the celebrated Georgetown jazz club Blues Alley is throwing significant resources into celebrating Latin jazz this month, including weekend-long residencies by two of the style’s greatest practitioners: pianist Eddie Palmieri 10.6 – 9 and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval 10.27 – 30  This is your last chance to catch some outdoor shows for the year, so get that sunlight dopamine while you can.

10.8

Hillfest

The Capitol Hill Jazz Foundation formed in 2018 in order to create more opportunities for jazz musicians to play around D.C. – especially the Capitol Hill neighborhood – and advocate for the music and musicians’ issues on the Hill. The foundation’s annual live jazz extravaganza, Hillfest, returns October 8 to Garfield Park with a day packed-full of live jazz from some of the city’s best – like trombone player and bandleader Bobby Felder or drummer Dante Pope – to rising voices – like vocalist and flautist Alex Hamburger – as well as a strong headliner: saxophonist Billy Harper, a disciple of the legendary John Coltrane. Free. All Day. Garfield Park: 1-299 South Carolina Ave SE., DC; hillfest.org // @hillfestdc

10.8

The Blackbyrds

Back in 1973, Donald Byrd – a legendary jazz trumpeter at that point already – then a professor at Howard University, wanted to explore the new, electronic sound in jazz (called fusion). He brought together a band of his students and recorded an infectiously groovy, mellifluously melodic album called Black Byrd. The students, with Byrd’s guidance, spun out into their own group named after the album and continued to produce some of the funkiest jazz and jazziest R&B of the 70s and 80s. The group’s original drummer, Keith Killgo, keeps up the tradition. $39+. 8 p.m. Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club: 7719 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD; bbjlive.com // @bethesdabluesjazz

10.20

The Comet Is Coming

Picture a house DJ playing some energized electronic beats, maybe they add in some grimy dubstep texture and some Daft Punk-worthy space-age sounds; then add a wailing saxophone on top of it. That is an idea of the kind of wildly exciting and specialize music made by The Comet Is Coming, an electro-jazz trio straight out of London’s underground electronic and jazz scenes. Led by the forceful saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, a leader in UK jazz and the music around the world, the group’s jazz rave concerts are not to be missed. $25+. 8 p.m. Union Stage: 740 Water St SW., DC; unionstage.com // @unionstage

10.21

Terence Blanchard Featuring the E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet: Absence

Here’s a quick introduction to Terence Blanchard – beyond the one you might have had hearing him play the trumpet parts for the grooving gator Louis in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.” Born in New Orleans, that crucible of jazz, Blanchard came up through two of the best “schools” in the jazz world: the big band of vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and the storied Jazz Messengers, led by Art Blakey. He’s got the classic, sharp-suit, gleaming trumpet side of jazz down, but can get supremely funky and exploratory too. He’s also the first African-American composer to have an opera – “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” – staged by the New York Metropolitan Opera. It’s quite the resume. He’s playing the Kennedy Center with his versatile E-Collective as well as the Turtle Island String Quartet to present a project he calls Absence, which is a tribute to the (widely-agreed upon) greatest composer living in jazz: Wayne Shorter.  $30+. 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Terrace Theater: 2700 F St NW., DC; kennedy-center.org // @kennedycenter

10.27

Two Pianos: Mark G. Meadows and James Fernando

By this time, Mark G. Meadows is a well-established figurehead in the D.C. jazz scene. He can hold down the ivories any way you want, from the rambunctious melodies of stride pianist Fats Waller to the soul-stirring style of a bop titan like McCoy Tyner; or he can lay down a groove in the vein of Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye. James Fernando is a rising voice on the scene, often playing with other young guns trying to get on whatever bandstand they can and stand out in musical battlegrounds of the bars, restaurants and clubs of D.C. But he brings a seasoned, lyrical touch to the keys. The two play a special duo set. $18+. 8 p.m. AMP by Strathmore: 11810 Grand Park Ave, North Bethesda, MD; strathmore.org // @strathmorearts

Jackson Sinnenberg