1. Lois Deloatch Gomes know how to put on a show: She's now working four days a week, leaving room for cultivating her cultural creativity. It showed Saturday night at Sharp Nine, promising jazz, soul, & Americana--& delivering. Highlight: her original blues tune with lyrics from rural grandmothers' advice to female children & grandchildren. That tune needs recording!
2. Fred Hersch's "Leaves of Grass" production is an extravore jazz gem (with one locavore performer: Having idolized the original CD, I awaited the Jazz At Lincoln Center live online performance Friday night with great expectation. Hersch composed the music & directed a septet while Kurt Elling (primarily) & "our" Kate McGarry sang the lyrics from Whitman's verse. Kurt Elling is made for singing poetry, & he makes Whitman come alive in a way I haven't experienced before. So, go search for the CD, or check YouTube in the next few weeks for the performance.
This Week: It would be hard to match the above two weeks in a row, but there's still plenty to choose among this week.
Sunday: Gregg Gelb continues his frantic working pace, going from the Triangle Trad Jazz Society gig at Raleigh's Glenwood Club 3p to the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra at Chapel Hill's Southern Village 6p. Scott Sawyer is less mobile, playing at the Triangle Guitar Society gig at Carrboro's Century Center 7p. And, if you need more jazz guitar (I may), Brad Maiani plays simultaneously at Chapel Hill's West End Wine Bar.
Friday: While Keith Ganz leads a quartet at Sharp Nine 8p, the Sidecar Social Club enlivens C Grace 9p.
Saturday: Lots going on--UNC-Charlotte saxophonist Will Campbell leads a quintet including Dave Finucane (two tenors!) & guitarist Keith Ganz; Irregardless hosts Zen Poets 6:30 & Al Strong's Quintet 9p (lots of good music there); & the Empress Room advertises "Mark Ariel Pocock", a typo worth a stop to see if it's Ariel Pocock or Mark Wells (or both?). And, for extraores, guitarist John Pizzarelli & singer Catherine Russell are guaranteed to be lively at NCSU.