We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.

Unsubscribe any time.

23

FRIDAY

As evidenced by 2002’s Spacetime, their latest album with Keith Tippett’s Mujician quartet, Paul Dunmall and Paul Rogers don’t believe that “free improvisation” has to be synonymous with “noise-fest.” In fact, like much British jazz, the music these two make is downright urbane. Dunmall—who plays saxophone, clarinet, and (yes) bagpipes—largely avoids the shrill declarations popular among free-form types, instead blowing melodic, stream-of-consciousness phrases, to which bassist Rogers responds with dark drops of pizzicato. The 20-years-running pas de deux—which was a big hit at Transparent Productions’ 2002 Spring Festival—is joined on this tour by drummer, vibraphonist, and academician Kevin Norton, who’s worked with avant-garde superstar Anthony Braxton for the past seven years. And like Dunmall and Rogers, Norton plays as if he were minding the nursery. It should make for an inspired match at 8 p.m. at Sangha Fair Trade Marketplace, 2140 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $10. (202) 345-8709. (Brent Burton)