Christian Scott >> Hawaiian folk artist Gary Haleamau brings his slack key guitar prowess and his unmistakably Hawaiian falsetto style of singing to the Millennium Stage tonight. 6 p.m. Free >> Many consider alto saxophonist Shenole Latimer a jazz star on the rise. You can catch this up-and-comer tomorrow night at Twins Jazz. Call 202-432-0072 for set time and cover information. >> Three Stars alums and DCist faves The Young Lions perform on Friday......

SMV, (l-r) Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, and Marcus Miller Assembling a supergroup always seems like a good idea -- in theory. Practice proves otherwise, often leading to disappointment in the form of terrible music. The trepidation associated with SMV, a group co-led by groundbreaking bassists Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten, and their new release, Thunder, came in several forms. Would this album be a chops-fest for these master technicians? How do you......

Dr. Lonnie Smith >> If you've never seen Chicago blues king Buddy Guy in concert, then you best make your way down to Wolf Trap tonight because at 72 years old, he's still one of the best performers around. Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show are $22-$40. >> Dr. Lonnie Smith, the turban sporting master of the Hammond B-3 organ, begins a four night stand at Blues Alley on Thursday. Tickets to the daily......

Herbie Hancock performing Monday night at Wolf Trap. Photo by Andrew Propp, courtesy of Wolf Trap Superlatives run free when describing Herbie Hancock's nearly 50 years on the music scene. A consummate artist, he has been a pioneer throughout his career, breaking ground in genres ranging from straight-ahead jazz to electronic music. Despite his status as a jazz legend, it was still somewhat of a shock to all when his latest album, River: The......

Danielle Eva >> Now's a good time to remind everyone of all the great jazz jam sessions that happen around town every week. HR-57 hosts sessions on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Columbia Station on 18th Street hosts afternoon jams on weekends, and Twins Jazz has a session on Sunday nights. All of the jam sessions are reasonably priced and a great opportunity for aspiring musicians to cut their teeth, as well as a chance......

Mojai >> Local saxophonist Stan Killian will be performing at Twins Jazz tonight and tomorrow. His group features Harry Appleman, one of the finest pianists in the area, and the Thursday night show will double as a fundraiser for Barack Obama's presidential bid. Call 202-234-0072 or visit the campaign web site for more information. >> Latin jazz vibist Alfredo Naranjo visits the Millennium Stage on Thursday. The jazz continues at the venue on Friday......

Stanley Jordan. Photo by chascar, used under a creative commons license. Guitarist Stanley Jordan has achieved a goal that all musicians strive for yet only a select few attain, and that is total command over his instrument. But unlike many players with strong chops, Jordan does not use technique for technique's sake. Rather, his prodigious talent allows him to produce a gamut of sounds which represent every range emotion from the sensitive and delicate,......

Stanley Jordan >> Tonight, check out local MC Christylez Bacon at Strathmore's outdoor summer concert series. The first hip-hop artist to be featured as a Strathmore Artist-in-Residence, Christylez's backing band includes some of the area's top young jazz and classical musicians. 7 p.m. Free >> Local jazz/soul singer Kenny Wesley will be performing Thursday night at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information. >> Smooth jazz fans should head down to......

Esther Williams and Davey Yarborough>> Leslie Casey and Company comes back to D.C. tonight and tomorrow, bringing back their brand of jazz/neo-soul to Twins Jazz. The New York based band has been giving great and solid performances since forming last May. Call 202-234-0072 for set times and cover information. >> Fiery trumpeter and Latin jazz legend Arturo Sandoval begins a four night stint at Blues Alley on Thursday. Few instrumentalists can claim his level......

Rob Levit >> Tonight, legendary bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards pays a visit to Blues Alley to perform 8 and 10 p.m. sets. His latest album, Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas! won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording. Tickets are $25 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. Advance purchase required. >> The recently profiled Rob Coltun, guitarist and co-owner of the Bossa Bistro & Lounge, leads one of his groups, Improviso, on......

Joel Holmes>> Tonight, 22-year old pianist and recent Juilliard grad Jonathan Batiste will be performing at the Strathmore's Gudelsky Concert Gazebo as part of its summer concert series. 7 p.m. Free >> Stickman, a local jazz-fusion outfit that made a name for itself through the 1990s reunites tonight at Blues Alley for 8 and 10 p.m. sets. The band features Peter Fraize, head of GW's jazz program, on saxophone, drummer and Ellington School faculty......

"I wanted to do a tribute to Shirley Scott, my mentor and a good friend who was very generous with me in my younger years." That is how powerhouse saxophonist Tim Warfield describes his latest recording, One for Shirley, a warm and loving tribute to the organist who passed away in 2002 due to heart failure brought about by her use of the diet medication, Fen-Phen. Warfield, who is based out of the Philadelphia area,......

Omega Bugembe Okello >> Local mainstays The Redd Brothers, led by vibist Chuck Redd and pianist Robert Redd, celebrate the release of their latest album tonight at Blues Alley. Tickets to the 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $18 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> On Thursday, head down to the Bossa Bistro & Lounge to check out recent Three Stars alum John Lee, as he plays with Improviso, a group that blends the improvisation of......

Those of you who caught Motel's performance at Unbuckled 7 will no doubt remember the scorching axe work of John Lee. The self-described "Chinese-Irishman" is a fixture on the local music scene, playing with a multitude of bands around town. The 28-year old guitarist's journey began at the age of ten, when MTV hair bands like Warrant, Poison, and Motley Crüe inspired the young Lee. In high school, he became a fan of improvisational music......

New York's The Flail is a rarity in today's world in that they are an actual jazz band. While most ensembles are collections of musicians under the direction of a leader, or a group given a name solely for marketing purposes, the five members of this group have been a tight unit since their days as students at the Big Apple's New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. This leads to another rarity in today's......

When the biggest names in jazz come to D.C., they generally play Blues Alley or the Kennedy Center, choosing the sterility of Georgetown or the concert hall setting and thereby only increasing the separation between jazz and the community from which it originated. But back in jazz's heyday, if you wanted to hear the best jazz in the District, you had to go to U Street. Unfortunately, with the death of Dr. King and......

Orchestra Baobab >> Tenor saxophonist and local native Elijah Balbed leads a group tonight at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information. >> We already told you how much we loved their latest album, Made in Dakar, so now is your chance to catch Orchestra Baobab live. They will be performing in the dance hall at the Birchmere tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. $37.50 + Ticketmaster fees. >> Saxophonist and local favorite......

The Mancuso-Suzda Project >> One of the freshest jazz drummers to emerge in the past decade, Ari Hoenig leads a burnin' trio through 8 and 10 p.m. sets on Wednesday at Blues Alley. Tickets are $20 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Three Stars alums The Mancuso-Suzda Project will host a CD release party + performance on Wednesday at the Mansion at Strathmore. The show will include special guest MC Christylez Bacon and vibist Chuck Redd.......

>> Local saxophonist Stan Killian returns to Twins Jazz tonight along with pianist Harry Appleman, bassist Eric Wheeler, and drummer Eric Kennedy. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information. >> Trumpeter Terence Blanchard must consider D.C. a second home. Last year we saw him play here twice, and this Thursday he returns to Blues Alley to start a four night run of daily 8 and 10 p.m. sets. Tickets are $27.50 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge.......

Eastern Blok>> Vocalist Kathleen Grace is touted as the perfect blend of jazz vocalist and singer/songwriter. Her formidable talents will be on display tonight at Blues Alley. Tickets to the 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $18 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Drummer Brian Choper leads the Choper Jazz Project tonight at Twins Jazz. Call 202-234-0072 for set times and cover information. >> Tomorrow night, Serbian guitar virtuoso Goran Ivanovic leads Eastern Blok (pictured) at......

>> Tonight's pick takes place at Bohemian Caverns, as Three Stars alum Will Rast leads his smokin' 11-piece band, Funk Ark, through two sets. Tickets are $10, 8 and 10 p.m. sets. >> The words "smooth," "jazz," and "violin," rarely ever appear in the same sentence, but well traveled bowman Michael Ward connects the dots tonight at Blues Alley. Tickets to the 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $25 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Drummer Brian......

While the Kennedy Center's annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival should be applauded for honoring the women of this great American art form, it is a shame that it is even necessary. While artists such as the festival's namesake and a host of others have made major contributions to jazz, the fact of the matter is that this music is still heavily male dominated. When asked how she viewed the festival, drummer par......

>> Tonight, Chicago's freewheeling fusion quartet Hudson pays a visit to Busboys & Poets. 9 p.m. $10 >> The big event of the week is the 13th Annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center, which begins on Thursday and runs through Saturday. In addition to a series of free shows on the Millennium Stage, the event features a lineup of world class artists at its ticketed events. Highlights include performances......

Trumpeter Nicholas Payton emerged in the early 1990s as part of a new wave of young lions who picked up the trail left by the likes of Wynton Marsalis in the 1980s. The Crescent City native, who will be performing tonight and tomorrow at Blues Alley, is the son of respected bassist Walter Payton. Growing up, he studied and performed with some of the finest jazzers New Orleans had to offer. This upbringing has had......

>> Tonight, the Washington Performing Arts Society presents the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of the one and only Wynton Marsalis. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show at the Kennedy Center's concert hall are sold out, but you can try contacting the box office for last minute availability. $40-$85 >> Guitar legend Alan Holdsworth, who was at the fore of the jazz-rock fusion scene of the 1970s, plays at the Birchmere tonight at......

From the first sparkling notes of his intro to Luiz Bonfá's "Manha De Carnaval", originally recorded for the soundtrack to the classic film, Orfeu Negro ("Black Orpheus"), it was clear that Kenny Barron is a master pianist who plays with soul, grace, wit, and technique. His first set on Saturday at the Kennedy Center's Family Theater saw him play 90 minutes of polished jazz that was pleasing to the ear, but there was something missing.......

>> Saxophonist Charlie Young, a lecturer at Howard, tours and performs regularly with both the Duke Ellington Jazz Orchestra and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Tonight, he leads his own group at Blues Alley. Tickets to the 8 and 10 p.m. sets are $18 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Piano sensation Brad Mehldau performs tonight at the Barns at Wolf Trap. His rhythm section includes drumming phenom Jeff Ballard and renowned bassist Larry Grenadier. Tickets to......

Dr. Leonard Brown (pictured) is far from a typical academic. An ethnomusicology and music professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Brown holds joint appointments with the school's Music and African American Studies Departments, specializing in the study of African music as it has developed in the western hemisphere. He has also branched out to study the role and function of music in human life. But it is his role outside of the university that brings......

'Tis a happy day here at DCist HQ, jazz lovers! This Week in Jazz made its debut on D.C.'s best web site one year ago this week. We hope you've enjoyed the weekly listing and that it has inspired you to check out some of the fine improvisational music we have in our nation's capital. So without further ado, let's get to this week's agenda. >> Tonight is the 5th Annual Congressional Blues Festival, held......

It's about that time, folks. Unbuckled 7, taking place this Thursday at DC9, is almost upon us, and we have an incredible bill featuring Muhsinah and Motel, two up-and-coming acts from the District who blur the lines between R&B, jazz, and hip-hop, as well as DJ v:shal kanwar, who is making waves in the city's electronica scene. Matt Grason, a bandleader, bassist, and composer, is the brains behind Motel, a jazz/hip-hop collective that pairs D.C.'s......