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Thursday, Nov. 18 In the neo-traditionalist jazz boom of the ’80s, there was one dominant drummer: Jeff “Tain” Watts. He had (and has) all the virtuosity of your Marsalises, Millers, and Roneys—-and anyone who claims there were no real innovators during that period would do well to listen to him play. The man can smear beats together or break them down into seven parts; either way, you won’t be able to count, though you couldn’t miss the whip-snap swing feel if you were trying. And that’s not counting the Latin pieces and ballads, on which he’s equally adept, and equally swinging. Thus it’s redundant to say he’s one of the best drummers alive. His quartet this week, not coincidentally, has among the best living pianists (David Kikoski), saxophonists (Steve Wilson), and bassists (Yunior Terry Cabrera). They perform 8 and 10 p.m. sets at Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. $27.
Friday, Nov. 19
If the Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian art include Asian-American art, then violinist Jason Kao Hwang fits the bill. The Chinese-American plays the music of his own ancestry, but is a lover of cross-cultural explorations that led him to fuse the Chinese traditions with jazz—-so he also throws in generous helpings of Korean and Japanese music, plus huge sides of classical and the avant-garde. All of these lineages once again intersect in Burning Bridge: a concert piece that Chamber Music America commissioned from Hwang in 2009. Premiered in September at the Chicago World Music Festival, Hwang is now touring with a performance of the work by his own quartet Edge (cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, bassist Ken Filiano, drummer Andrew Drury), plus trombonist Steve Swell, tubaist Joseph Daley, erhuist Wang Guowei, and pipaist Sun Li. They perform Burning Bridge 7:30 p.m. at the Freer and Sackler Galleries (Smithsonian Museums of Asian Art), 1050 Independence Avenue SW. Free.
Saturday, Nov. 20