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Pop, Rock and Jazz in NYC This Week

JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT at Beacon Theater (June 22-24, 8 p.m.). The Alabama musician Jason Isbell spent several years as a central member of the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers before going solo in 2007. His album “Something More Than Free” was highly praised by critics in 2015 for its detailed stories of Southern life; next week Mr. Isbell and his backing band, the 400 Unit, will celebrate his latest release, “The Nashville Sound.”
212-465-6225, beacontheatre.com

LAURA MVULA at Central Park SummerStage (June 17, 6 p.m.). Born in Birmingham, England, and classically trained, the singer-songwriter Laura Mvula is a virtuosic talent: Her widely acclaimed album “The Dreaming Room,” released last year, traverses jazz, soul, orchestral pop, funk and dance music in just over half an hour. Driving it all is Ms. Mvula’s voice, which has drawn deserved comparisons to Nina Simone’s, and is sure to shine at this free show.
cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage

SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON

Photo

From left, the cellist Naseem AlAtrash, the trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and the saxophonists Ole Mathisen and Fabrizio Cassol of Mr. ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound ensemble.

Credit
White Cube Studios

Jazz

GEORGE COLEMAN QUARTET at Smoke (June 16-18, 7 and 9 p.m.). A leading elder statesman in jazz, Mr. Coleman is known for his subtly adventurous solos, full of extended arpeggios; his keen but coolheaded tone; and a brief affiliation with the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960s that jump-started his career. He didn’t record as a leader until the mid-1970s, but has released a steady stream of satisfying work ever since. Last year’s “A Master Speaks” was recorded at Smoke, and Mr. Coleman — a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master — returns to the club this weekend for a three-night run. He’s joined by the pianist Jeb Patton, the bassist John Webber and the drummer Joe Farnsworth.
212-864-6662, smokejazz.com

AMIR ELSAFFAR AND RIVERS OF SOUND at 28 Liberty Plaza (June 16, 6 p.m.). In Rivers of Sound, Mr. ElSaffar’s 17-piece ensemble, rhythm is a load-bearing vehicle, steadily carrying his compositions across land and sea. The pulse changes hands often, Mr. ElSaffar’s trumpet working in an exchange with the tabla and the guitar and the buzuq, a stringed instrument from the eastern Mediterranean. Rivers of Sound brings together virtuosos from Middle Eastern, South Asian and Western jazz traditions, and its music has a liquid quality: It’s full of momentum, but not in the way of a single moving thing. Instead, it seems to flow and spill across bounds. The group’s release of “Not Two,” its arresting debut album, on Friday occasions this free concert, part of the serendipitously named River to River Festival.
212-219-9401, lmcc.net

MARÍA GRAND at the Jazz Gallery (June 16-17, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). On “TetraWind,” an EP released this year, Ms. Grand, 25, unfurls a teetering logic. She conjoins the spiky rhythms of Rashaan Carter’s bass with tilting sheets of harmony, built by her tenor saxophone, David Bryant’s keyboard and Roman Filiu’s alto saxophone. As an improviser, the Swiss-Argentine Ms. Grand is both measured and frank, often venturing into gentle provocation. She appears here with an eight-piece ensemble featuring Mr. Carter, Mr. Bryant and Mr. Filiu, as well as the percussionist Mauricio Herrera, the drummer Jeremy Dutton, the dancer Lucía Rodríguez and the rapper Amani Fela. On Saturday she will be joined by Rajna Swaminathan on the mridangam, a double-headed drum.
646-494-3625, jazzgallery.nyc

THEO HILL TRIO at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (June 20, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Theo Hill, a vital young pianist at play in New York’s straight-ahead tradition, has a new album out. It’s called “Promethean,” and it tells you what you need to know about him: Harmonically, he’s got a bright and tangy palette; rhythmically, he shifts gears easily and often, weaving in traffic and keeping you engaged. His compositions sometimes betray a subtle Caribbean influence, as well as the standard markers of postbop. He appears here with the trio from the album: Yasushi Nakamura on bass and Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums.
212-258-9595, jazz.org/dizzys

JAZZTOPAD FESTIVAL (June 21-25). For over a decade, Poland’s Jazztopad Festival has been bringing some of the United States’ pre-eminent jazz talent to Wroclaw. And since 2015 it’s also done the inverse: shipping some of Poland’s top jazz musicians to various North American cities for a multipartite showcase. This year’s New York concerts include a double bill featuring the rough and dark Wojcinski/Szmanda Quartet, and the piano trio Stryjo, at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a collaboration on June 25 between the Lutoslawski Quartet, a chamber ensemble, and the violinist Mark Feldman and the pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, two experimentalists based in New York.
polishculture-nyc.org

CHRIS POTTER QUARTET at the Village Vanguard (June 20-25, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.). Mr. Potter is a hyper-articulate tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist, subject to all the attendant triumphs and pitfalls. His most recent album, “The Dreamer Is the Dream,” came out this year on ECM Records, and it has the markers of an ECM release: clarity to match the stoutness of its sound; an unfixed sense of time and motion; a broad harmonic palette that guides the improvisations. The sound suits him. There’s a sense of pacing and depth to everything on the album, and it hardly ever sags. He’s joined by the quartet from “The Dreamer”: David Virelles on piano, Joe Martin on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums.
212-255-4037, villagevanguard.com

GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

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