NYC 2010 Winter Jazzfest: Part 3 of 3

Jazz music has nothing in common with the grey spruce lying unwanted on the Bleecker Street sidewalk, its shreds of tinsel swaying upwards with cold winter gusts. The NYC Winter Jazzfest's Saturday venues are, in fact, hot houses for a verdant field of talent. Rumors of jazz's demise are greatly exaggerated with so many genre-bending improvisers sprouting up these days. For a little green ($25 for one night, $30 for two), a crush of 2,500 cultivated souls reaped the benefits of one of the year's best fests.

Guitarist Rez Abbassi's new quartet, RAAQ, is blessed by the presence of jazz impresario supreme George Wein (founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and Storyville Records). The sound is mellow and the vibe is cabaret cool, people not knowing vibraphonist Bill Ware has on the same friggin' shirtless vest he wore last night in Bobby Previte's set right here at Kenny's Castaways. He's leaning towards Milt Jackson tonight, and Abbasi's chromatic comping is a subtly driving force. After a power nap at home, Rez was back for a reportedly inspired fusion set with Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition. Mahanthappa, Abbasi's wife, vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, and Vijay Iyer are featured on the promising new release, Things To Come.

French music attach Emmanuel Morlet put his stamp on the Zinc Bar tonight, and the back bar murmurs like a cafe in St. Germain. Lebanese-Parisian trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf layers gossamer notes on his micro-tonal trumpet (invented by his father, trumpeter Nassim Malouf). Digitally looping melodies and whispered percussion, he improvises an enchanted landscape against a velvety backdrop. Drummer Matt Kilmer, playing the doumbek and dof, then joins for another improvised number. Their rapport is playful and elliptical, Malouf scattering lines that make you long for a car chase. The trumpet's melodies are percussive, the drumming is energetic and melodic. A voice from the audience cries “Masha'Allah!" - respect for an excellent duet.

Vocalist Somi is an orange confection of cocoa butter and soul-sister sweetness. Her voice, equal parts Astrud Gilberto and Cassandra Wilson glides over the beautiful “Wallflower Blues" as the drums percolate with hope. The Illinois native pays homage to her Rwandan and Ugandan roots singing “Ingele." Keyboardist Toro Dodu's sparkling notes lift Somi's tale of haunted love into a dream state. Her songs are like a Sade fix without the clich-riddled guilt.

A brisk shuttle past chess shops and West Village barkers ("We got drink spec-ials! Ru-u-u-u-m and Cokes!") and (Le) Poisson Rouge is filled to capacity. Although you can't be five places at once, the end of Jenny Scheinman and Jason Moran's set makes me hopeful someone's working on that. Their blend of folk and classical music is gritty, intelligent, and compellingly hip.

Lionel Loueke's trio is immediately in control of the next set, exhaling the guitarist's blend of Afropop and jazz with humor and style. It's understandable Loueke would gravitate to an Africanized George Benson, but he really shines when updating sounds from his native Benin. His arsenal is impressive, whether plucking notes like a thumb piano or drumming his fingers on one of the prettiest darn guitars I've seen. Massimo Biolcati (Italy-Sweden) and Ferenc Nemeth (Hungary) follow him fearlessly into complex African melodies. Loueke, previously backing Herbie Hancock, Angelique Kidjo, Terence Blanchard and Zinc Bar's Somi, has a new release, Karibu, on Blue Note.

2009 was a monster year for Vijay Iyer. By the end of the year, his release Historicity raked in #1 jazz album rankings from the New York Times, NPR, the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice and Popmatters.com (also a measly #2 ranking from the JazzTimes poll). The reason is abundantly clear - his trio, featuring bassist Stefan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore, are at the top of their game. Iyer's composition's have an intangible quality that's hard to pin down and uniquely his own. An admirer in the crowd giddily pontificates about the time signature on their cover of Stevie Wonder's “Big Brother." The band cranks on the first ever live performance of M.I.A.'s “Galang", though the “Yah yah hey!!" part apparently gives Iyer carpal tunnel. Crump's bowing breaks the crowd's hearts, and Gilmore's drum solo tears the place down. Iyer is top dog right now. You'd never guess from talking to him, though--he's a straight nice guy that proves nerdy's the new cool.

Though NYC Winter Jazzfest left one attendee slumped in an (L)PR throne while an EMT filled out paperwork, I was swaying in the cab before spinning a set in Greenpoint. The jazz Tamil's rework of the hipster Tamil's swagger even turned fickle heads at Blackout Bar - “Shotgun, get down, get down, get down!"