Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel is coming to Charlottesville a little later this month for a performance with the Free Bridge Quintet. Mark your calendar, because this one will be well worth the trip.

Rosenwinkel is a modern jazz guitar virtuoso and is among the ranks of some of today’s most influential guitar players. His last album, Reflections by his Standards Trio, focuses mainly on the ballad, but never lulls. This concert will be his last in the states before touring Asia in March. The Free Bridge Quintet is an ensemble formed in 1997 that’s made up of the University of Virginia’s amazing jazz faculty: Jeff Decker on saxophone, John D’earth on trumpet, Bob Hallahan on piano, Pete Spaar on bass, and Robert Jospe on drums.

Saturday, February 27th, 2010, at Old Cabell Hall, UVA, 8:00pm. Tickets are $15 general admission, $8 students. Purchase tickets.

Ken Hohman, host of WDCE’s Freedom Jazz Dance on Sunday evenings, was nice enough to bring me into the studio last week to talk about the upcoming RVAJazzfest. We chatted about the history of RVAJazz, last year’s RVAJazzfest, and this year’s RVAJazzfest performers including the originally planned featured performer Tim Berne (before we heard he would not be coming). I also brought some tunes to play, including Berne and Science Friction’s “Jalepeno Diplomacy” and Ombak’s “September 18″ and “Lacuna.”

Ken’s a fun guy and a dynamic conversationalist and I appreciate him having me on the air! You can listen to the show at his blog. We spoke between 1:07 and 1:37 (thirty whole minutes. I know!).

You can listen to Freedom Jazz Dance on WDCE 90.1 FM in Richmond on Sundays from 5-7pm, or stream on the web at wdcefm.org.

Ombak plays at Balliceaux on Wednesday night. UPDATE: It hasn’t been confirmed that this will become a bi-weekly gig, like their residency at Cous Cous was, and like Fight the Big Bull’s is now at Balliceaux. For now, this is a one-off show.

The room sounds great for music, so I’m sure Ombak’s sound is going to fit right in. And there’s no doubt that they fill Balliceaux booker Chris Bopst’s requirements of having “some ass, some bite, some chomps, something that moves me physically.”

After Wednesday, Ombak’s next performance will be at RVAJazzfest with Tim Berne. This may be a good opportunity to check out what the band has been working on.

Thirteen days until RVAJazzfest! I know, this countdown has been based on odd intervals of time, but today does mark an important date nonetheless: the launch of the RVAJazzfest guide.

Each day in the guide, we’ll be posting special stuff about Jazzfest that you can only find here. All you have to do is click on that little link up there at the top. Then do that thirteen times between now and February 6.

And don’t forget that tickets go on sale TODAY! Go snatch up one or two or ten before they’re gone. See you at RVAJazzfest.

Performing at The Camel on Tuesday will be the quux collective, J Smith Trio, and Trio of Justice. quux collective is described as a “new music ensemble” that “will be performing an eclectic mix of music featuring saxophones, electronics, didgeridoo, theremin, bass, drums, clarinet and spoken word. The evening will include experimental, electroacoustic, and purely acoustic works by Roland Karnatz, Jacob ter Veldhuis, and Terry Riley among others.”

You may remember Roland as the theremin-playing, speech-altering performer from Musicircus. Trio of Justice should ring a bell as a band that’s participating in this year’s RVAJazzfest.

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